It’s as if it’s without end, Livia lamented, gazing out into the ceaseless, deathly gold that lay before them. She walked beside Danu, who once again bore the body of the incapacitated stranger. She had her hand resting on him, constantly monitoring the steadiness of his perch. Eventually, after a long stretch of marching in silence, she felt his hand clasp hers with a sliver of strength, and she felt a sharp jolt through her body at the suddenness. She looked up, and he was straining to peer down at her. “Well well,” she said with a musical cadence, “look who’s up.”

Bel just about managed a smirk. “Thank you, human,” he said with more clarity than he was expecting. “And your friends. I was just about ready to be one with the earth when you found me.”

The others came back to see what the commotion was about, and took their turns greeting the now-lucid moralim who called himself Bel.

The outlander-in-black doesn’t seem to mind your accursed visage, the voice commented, but the knight and the hierophant are wary of you.

Yes, Bel agreed, but the hierophant hides it better.

“Nice!” Pippy piped. “Our certified helkin raisin has been re-juiced into a proper grape!”

And this one… the voice trailed off.

Yes, Bel concurred dismissively.

“Aww,” she sulked, “now I want grapes!”

Bel’s face scrunched up, and he put his hand to his forehead. “What… did you call me?”

“Don’t worry about that,” Krey stepped in to answer, “she’s quite a well-travelled outlander, and has many foreign names for just about everything.”

“I see.” Bel was content to let the matter go. He didn’t particularly care what this well-meaning girl called him, for far less friendly individuals had called him far worse.

As a fellow keeper of secrets, Krey knew how to recognise when someone wasn’t telling their whole story, and this Bel was a kindred spirit. However, because of this, he also knew that pressing him was pointless, so he kept his inquisitiveness plain and simple. “What brought you so deep into the expanse, Bel?”

“The same as you, I suspect,” he mused. “There aren’t many things that could drag a person here of all places, but god slaying is certainly one of them.”

“And what makes you suspect us as god slayers?” Emilie had to ask.

“I may have been dying and less than responsive,” Bel said, “but my ears still worked all the while, and you weren’t exactly making an effort to talk secretively. You never said it explicitly, but I can put pieces together and infer well enough. Besides… I highly doubt a hierophant such as yourself is going to sit idly by and let someone murder your gods— even if it’s one of said gods who’s doing the murdering.”

Emilie thought before replying. “Most of my order are occupied with keeping the world from tearing itself apart at the moment; I have only been enabled to join this quest by the loss of my own parish.”

“Then for that I’m sorry,” Bel sighed. “But of one thing, I am glad: we have common cause in the hunt for Fyren. If it hadn’t been for the intervention of Brightbrand and Ponima, the executioner would’ve certainly made a plaything of me to my final breath.”

“You fought him?” Livia breathed, eyes widening.

“‘Fought’ is a generous way of putting it,” Bel snickered. “But yes, I took a shot at him, for all it was worth. I don’t think the other two even realised their interruption saved a life; I must’ve been less than an insect to them. To him.”

“It begs the question,” Pippy hummed. “Why are you after him?”

Bel sat up now, with his legs both dangling off one side of Danu’s back. “I’ll be frank: I want his soul.”

The party came to a screeching halt.

“What?” Emilie heaved with uncharacteristic vitriol.

“I knew I’d see the hatred for my kind surface on you eventually, hierophant,” Bel said with a thick spread of smarm. “But don’t pretend you still have love for the amicicidal maniac. You’re after his soul now too, in your own way. I just plan on putting it to use once it’s liberated from his divine flesh.”

“I have made peace with vanquishing him because it is the in the best interests of the gods and this world,” Emilie retorted. “That does not mean the essence of divine being is to be trifled with by mortals. What is it you seek to accomplish, moralim? Is it immortality? Immense power? Are you in league with demons? Answer me, or I will put you back in the sand.” She drew Trick of The Light and pointed it at him. Livia, Krey, and Pippy were petrified, gawking on in a mix of awe and horror.

I’m not too keen on him either, My Lady, Krey thought to himself, but this is a bit beyond.

“I gave up trying to hide who and what I am a long time ago. Can I trust that explaining myself will put you at ease?” Bel offered.

“I make no promises,” Emilie uttered through clenched teeth.

“I’ll spare you the heart-wrenching details. Suffice it to say, Fyren and the gullible humans who followed him were not kind to me or my family when I was a child. Now I seek revenge, and to make his death a restless, unending torment. I need his soul to do that. More to the point, you need me to capture his soul. If I don’t, killing him won’t matter.”

“What does that mean?” Livia wondered.

Bel was happy to elaborate further. “Why do you think Fyren enacted the severance? Why do you think Fyren suddenly took on the title of executioner to kill his friends? I know the fundamentals of outer divinity are a mystery to you fools who live in the blinding, deafening embrace of the Decakon, but for those of us who are born spurned by the oh-so-loving gods of this world, such ‘secrets’ are common knowledge. When gods die, their souls return to wherever it is gods come from, and they resurge into new life. There are very, very few ways to stop a god from rising again, even gods as weak as the Decakon, but… I may know a way.”

“And if you don’t,” Pippy continued, “he’ll just come back.”

Bel pointed at her and smiled. “You’ve got it, girl.”

“How do we know anything you’re saying holds even an ounce of truth?” Emilie scorned. “You could very well just be weaving an intricate web of nonsense.”

“If you believe me incapable of capturing Fyren’s soul for myself,” Bel riposted, “then there’s no harm in letting me help you bring him down. And to reiterate, hierophant… I’m not entirely certain my method will work.”

“There’s another way,” Livia muttered.

Krey just about caught it. “What’s that, Livia?”

“His sword. Remember when he gave Florentina that special blade to permanently kill Rajata with? It was imbued with a one-time burst of his executioner power or whatever, they called it Godslayer and everything. I bet his own sword has an even stronger version of that power instilled in it.”

“Kill him with his own sword?” Bel threw his head back and let out a hearty ha! “Now that I would love to see! It might even be worth not getting his soul. Do you think you’re up to such a feat? He’s the greatest swordsman this world has ever known.”

“We’ll see,” Livia shrugged. “This world hasn’t known me for very long.”

Fucking ballsy of you to say, Livia, Krey nearly said out loud. The moralim is right, there’s no chance of that happening.

“Uh, guys?” Pippy hollered at them from farther ahead. “How weird do the mirages usually get in this part of the world?”

“Mirages?” Krey raised his voice. “I think you need some more water, Pippy; you’re hallucinating.”

“This is a pretty solid hallucination,” she called back. “I just bumped into it… and it’s also showing my reflection.”