“Mom, come on, wake up!” normally, I would have been quietly amused at Luna’s childish exuberance. Far too often, she tried to project a mature facade, far beyond anything a child of her age should have. The facade had its uses, especially when it came to dealing with the realities of our changed, new world but at the same time, I always felt guilty knowing that I had taken Luna’s childhood from her. No matter that, realistically, it hadn’t been me that took her childhood but the change and the resulting alterations to our world. It wasn’t a logical sensation, but one that kept bubbling up, no matter what I tried.

Forcing myself to crack open an eyelid, despite the exhaustion from the previous night still lingering, I glanced over to Luna. If Luna had been in possession of a tail, she would have happily wagged it, an assumption that was only confirmed by the fact that Silva was actually standing behind Luna and her tail was slowly wagging back and forth, signalling what I could only describe as tolerant amusement.

“Good morning, Luna,” I tried to keep the grouchiness I was feeling out of my voice but I doubted I was completely successful. “Why do you need me to be awake?” I asked, briefly trying to judge the time of the day and coming up with ‘too damn early’.

“Good morning, Mom,” she rallied, returning my greeting and snuggling up against my side, something made easier by the thin sheet I was using as a blanket given the fairly warm temperatures. “Lady Hecate told me that we’d have an adventure in the Charland, she wants me to perform a small ritual in the centre,” Luna explained, making me realise that I wasn’t the only one who had been given a divine visitation during the night.

“Ah, yes, I did agree that we’d bring you to the centre. The rewards Lady Hecate offered were simply too good to pass up, though I still have some worries. The central area is dangerous and you know that I don’t want you to be hurt, right?” I placed an arm around her, trying to project the warm, caring sensation I was feeling in my chest.

Nearby, Silva let out a quiet bark of approval, giving me some additional confidence. Our canine companion was just as protective of Luna as I was, only in a different way. Hopefully, that protectiveness was strong enough to prioritise Luna’s protection, even if Lady Hecate might want my munchkin to take some extra chances. That worry might be the biggest when it came to working with the servants of the divine, that they were always influenced by the priorities of their patron, potentially even overriding such fundamental desires like one’s drive to survive.

As I was considering that idea, I realised it might have been what happened with Olivia, back on Mundus. That she might have become a willing martyr, instead of using the powers of Eleutheria to fight back and survive, because Eleutheria needed Olivia to die as a message to the people. It was a worrying thought, one that only cemented my desire to retain control over my own power-base, even if I was willing to accept some divine support like the blessing I had been given.

Things that improved my own abilities were okay in my book but only if I could use my abilities without those improvements. Luckily, my magical abilities were now varied enough to give me some confidence that I wouldn’t be crippled, even if Lady Hecate withdrew all her support, maybe even added a curse or two. Not that I could actually be confident when it came to curses, especially not divine ones, but if the Gods could cripple somebody just because they felt like it, my Mortal Ambition was doomed anyway.

Hopefully, the system was enforcing some rules protecting mortals from the divine, keeping the Gods from utterly dominating the mortal plane or something like that. Somehow, that thought was thoroughly amusing to me. Systems designed to keep ‘Gods’ from dominating ‘Mortals’, as if the terms didn’t imply a power imbalance in the first place. Though considering what I knew and suspected about the gods, the imbalance was quite different from what the words usually implied. After all, as I currently understood things, it wasn’t that mortals needed gods but that gods needed mortals to keep their pyramid scheme running.

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That particular image never failed to make me smile, even if Luna was part of one such scheme, with me partially profiting off it. Luckily, if there was one good place to be in a pyramid scheme, it was at, or near, the top of it, raking in the profits from those below you. Or, if one was talking about religion, maybe it should be that the one at the top was raking in the prophets.

A soft, snoring noise coming from Luna caught my attention, morphing my previously somewhat savage smile into a much more content one. Somehow, my munchkin had burned through the excitement at getting yet another quest from Hecate and fell asleep, looking quite adorable in her completely relaxed state.

“Silva, we’ll have to be careful when heading into the Charland,” I quietly told my original companion in this world, making her look at me with those large, thoughtful eyes. Just from that gaze, there was no way for me to see her as an animal, Silva was just as intelligent as many people, even if that intelligence expressed itself somewhat differently.

In response to my words, she let out yet another quiet huff, glowing with a smidge of divine power for just a moment, as if to remind me that ninety, maybe even ninety-nine per cent of the time, Silva was holding back a great deal of power for emergencies. Or rather, holding back a great deal of power unless it was truly needed because she felt that using divine power in anything but the direst of circumstances was a waste or something along those lines. Most of the time, Silva used nothing but fang, claw and her admittedly powerful body to see things through but it seemed that for the expedition into the centre of the Charland, she would be bringing her full power.

My mind started planning eventualities, trying to map out the various threats I had seen while travelling towards the centre and comparing what the best ways to deal with them would be. The biggest issue appeared to be numbers and that was something nobody could really help with. It would come down to my own area of effect spells, limited as they were in the environment of the Charland. Thinking back to Mundus and the ways I had come up with to enhance my powers there, I began trying to find a way to do something similar here.

At first glance, the most suitable way might be to conjure Devouring Mist out here and compress it, encasing it into orbs of Hard Ice that I could shatter to create instant clouds. They would contain a lot less power compared to normally conjured mist but I should be able to reconnect with the Astral Power I channelled into them, especially if I prepared a blood link of some sort, likely by adding blood infused with my Astral Power into the condensed mist.

Another thing I should prepare were frozen anchors, pieces of Hard Ice with a few engraved Runes that allowed me to quickly conjure up a wall at a distance. Maybe add in some spikes, have Alex create caltrops of some sort, things to keep large groups of enemies from surrounding us and crushing us with the weight of their number.

Also, I should try to find some way to keep Lia safe during the day, if the environment didn’t allow us to hole up somewhere. There were so many things to consider and eventualities to plan for, I had a feeling this would be a lot harder than just running in as I had. Granted, those difficulties had been the reason for my solo trip, but now we needed to go in together.

“It’s funny, even if you are willing to use everything, I’ll have to ask you to keep it in reserve as usual. There are many beasts in there, some far bigger threats than others, with their number acting as the biggest threat of them all. If we get surrounded, we might need your strength to buy me the time to dig us a hole to escape, even if I’m not sure trying to dig into the earth too close to the centre would be a wise idea,” I admitted, getting yet another thoughtful look from Silva, before she started gently poking me with her nose until she decided to join Luna and me and lying down on my other side.

Shaking my head at the realisation that I was pretty much trapped by the two bodies, I decided to simply accept things as they were and let myself fall asleep, drifting off to dreamland once more. Dreaming of my mountain.