“Greetings, Jade,” the familiar, tritonal voice of Hecate addressed me before I had that important moment to gather my bearings. Before, the Goddess had always given me that moment but now, I felt like there was something different in Her voice. An impatience, or maybe eagerness, I wasn’t quite sure, but it certainly spurred me to pull myself together in the endless expanse of Her realm.

“Greetings, Lady Hecate,” I returned the salutation, turning around to see Her three aspects standing together, but not joined as one figure, all three faces studying me intently. A part of me wanted to ask why She had brought me here but knowing that I couldn’t really demand answers from a Goddess, certainly not while in Her realm, I kept my peace. She’d tell me Her reasons, or She’d ask Her questions and I’d only have to consider how to answer them. Our different statuses demanded such, at least for now. Maybe someday, I’d get away with acting how I liked in the presence of the Divine but that time was not yet.

“Have a seat,” the Mother-aspect of Hecate invited me, a lazy wave of Her hand creating a comfortable armchair behind me, while a second wave created identical ones behind the three divine aspects. Or at least identical to my senses, I had no idea about the details, nor had I been able to sense anything about the process. It was as if She had simply changed reality as She liked, without having to use Astral Power or any process I could discern. What’s more, in the brief moment I took to study the armchair, I could not sense anything unusual about it, it was as if the chair had always been the way it was now, highly comfortable to sit in, without the slightest traces of prior usage.

The three divine aspects sat down just as I did, all three of them back to studying me intently, making me feel more than a little exposed in ways that had nothing to do with the clothes I was wearing. Not that there was anything wrong with them. While I had never seen the simple, slate-grey tunic or the soft pants before, they felt comfortable on my skin, though I would have preferred some undergarments. Or my own clothes, though I hadn’t worn anything to bed that night, and a small part of me was wondering where the clothes came from. Only for that part to be shouted down post-haste, the question, and its likely answer, discarded for its uncomfortable nature.

“Please, tell me about your excursion during the night,” the Maiden invited me, her voice highly polite but there was an underlying hunger that betrayed that She wasn’t really asking. That the request was about the most polite a Deity would be when conversing with a mortal.

The request was enough to throw me for a momentary loop if the tone in Her voice hadn’t already accomplished that. “How?” I whispered before my mind caught up to my mouth and my mouth snapped shut. But it had been enough for the deity across to understand my question and She even deigned to reply.

“Normally, We do not process the individual connections linking us to Our devout. Instead, it is simply an aspect of Our existence, just as you don’t communicate with every individual part of your body. Just like you wouldn’t think about the mechanism needed to process the specific nutrients you need, We don’t pay individual attention. But, just like you would notice the sharp tang of your favourite spice, We can notice if something extraordinary is happening,” the Crone-aspect explained, causing me to blink at the casual, if slightly strange explanation. If there was one thing I had yet to see, it was a deity that freely gave information away. Even if I lacked the context to fully understand what she was telling me, it was fascinating.

“I see,” I replied, though I wasn’t quite sure I really did. It sounded as if something I had done, or rather, something Luna had done while I had told her about my actions had been enough to get Hecate’s attention. Which was fairly interesting in and of itself, making me wonder just how close attention She was paying to my small group or if the particular ‘taste’ had been impactful enough to get Her attention nonetheless.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Curious about what a being with a literally divine amount of knowledge on the subject would say about my observations during the previous night, I happily relayed them to Her. My initial retelling took about as long as it had taken with Lia and Luna, and then the questions began. Inquisitive, careful and possessing incredible attention to detail, all those words would be perfectly suited to describe Hecate in Her current state. It took hours and never once did She repeat herself, constantly and carefully teasing out the slightest bit of information from my observations. Nothing seemed to escape Her interest and for some reason, maybe because I was in Her realm and She wanted me to be able to recall what I had seen, my recollections were especially vivid.

Details I would have missed if not for Her questions drawing attention to them, like the way the crystal I had seen in the crater wasn’t just boiling the water around it, but also somehow sublimating water from the air, turning moist before the energy it radiated boiled off that very moisture in a constant cycle, or how the crystalline substances the monsters were partially made of had some similar reflective properties to both Blood Crystals and the condensed elemental essences I had seen in the past. There were hundreds of different tiny details the Goddess asked about, sometimes explaining why they might be important, other times only giving off quiet mumbles or humming sounds.

By the time there was no more new knowledge to be gleaned from my memories, I felt like a wrung-out dishrag but at the same time, I was oddly satisfied. Just from the relentless questioning I had learned a lot, not just when it came to recollection techniques and ways to enhance my memory but also about the subject matter, meaning the central area.

“Thank you for your cooperation,” the mother told me, taking the lead once more, “As you might expect, expansions like the one that brought your world into the system are rare. Well, not quite, the expansion is a constant process but worlds like yours are rare, so the expansion only envelops one like it every so often, and there are other factors in play that mean I only get a limited amount of information from the majority of new worlds.”

“And the Charlands are something especially rare or unique?” I asked, curious about the ways Terra was special.

“Indeed,” the Crone nodded, before explaining further, “When the system enveloped your world, it changed, obviously. Not only the living things but also all physical matter, as you have noticed. The changes might be minor in some instances but in others, they are major. We are talking about changes in the material makeup of your world that would normally occur over millions, in some cases billions, of years, if they can happen naturally in the first place.” she paused for a second, letting the revelation sink in, and sinking in, it did. Before I could voice my worries, she continued to speak.

“Those major changes would normally add up, well, their results would. Earthquakes, tidal waves, immense storms and the like, those you already saw but they are minor in comparison. The alterations could release enough energy into the atmosphere to destroy everything, the entire planet and maybe even the moon orbiting it. Not that it would continue to orbit if the planet is gone, but you get my drift.” another pause and by now, I felt a little sick to my stomach.

“To prevent that kind of destruction, some of that energy is contained, restrained you might say, and can only gradually seep into the physical world. The Charland you came across is one area where that energy is contained, causing the world to stretch as the power is slowly released. In a few years, the warped space you noticed will be completely gone, as will that crystal you saw in the centre.”

It took me a few moments to go over the explanation, as I was carefully storing away each word to consider later. She had told me a lot, and I had no doubt it was all valuable intelligence, but sadly, I lacked the context to understand it all. Not for the first time during the conversation I wished I had some sort of search engine, some way to use keywords to search for their meaning and the way they were used. Maybe in time, the explanation would make sense but for now, I had more pressing matters to ask about.

“You wish me, or maybe Luna, to study the process? It sounds like it will take a long time,” I asked, not overly enthused with the idea we were supposed to stay here for that long. I wanted to continue my path and find out where the Ice Nexus was.

“No, it would be a waste. But as you likely realise, there is something I want you to do. Actually, there are two different tasks I have in mind, both should be well within the ability of you and your group. Of course, if you accomplish my tasks, you will gain appropriate rewards,” the Maiden added, after waiving away my apprehension.