As Jack wept, he felt a hand on his back and he looked back and saw Kelsey. "Jack, come over here and lie down." Following her, he laid down on a chair-couch she made. For several minutes he just laid there exhausted. "Do you want to talk about what happened?" The Sheepkin god asked sitting on a chair with her hands folded together.

"Not really. Why did you not pull me out of that dream earlier?"

"I didn't pull you out. You came out of it yourself."

"I don't understand, usually you pull me out when I start to witness something bizarre."

"You didn't emit power this time. I only do it if you pose a threat to the world below. Tell me have you heard of the KPU triangle?"

Jack shook his head and said "Can't say that I have."

"First comes Knowledge, then comes Power, then comes Understanding and repeat. You most likely were not emitting power because you did not possess the knowledge required."

"Shouldn't Understanding come before power?"

"Should it? Let me ask you this, say I gave you a box and told you it was full of disease and you should not open it. You would know what I said. But how would you really understand unless you open it? The power comes from unlocking the box. That is the most pivotal issue with power. You do not get to grasp the consequences of using power until you have already used it."

"How can that be? If I know what a power does, how would I not see the consequences before using it? Considering your example, I know there are diseases in the box, thus if I open I risk infecting myself or others."

"You are basing your understanding on what I told you. That is not true understanding; it's not really a test of your knowledge. Allow me give you another example, take two people. One of them lives alone and lives modestly. He has never encountered another person. The second man lives has met many people and lives in oppulance."

"Okay?"

"A god comes along and tells the both of them to live modestly. They both do so. Which of them truly understands what the god meant."

"I would guess the second one. There is a flaw in that argument however, let's say the god tells them not to murder, and the both of them do not murder. Thus by your logic how can the both of them truly understand what the god meant?"

"Who can live with a hand innocent of blood? Even plants are a life taken. Who has lived a life without losing a person to death? You do not need to Understand murder of a person, for you already Understand death."

"What of those who do not Understand death?"

"Then they are not alive nor dead. They can only be an abomination."

"Are you saying abominations cannot be killed?"

Kelsey pulled out a notebook and began to make some notations. "They can be eliminated from the universe. Even then it may not stop them from coming back. Corruption is scary like that."

Jack was silent for a bit and said "I think I saw someone I loved very much in my past die. My heart aches like it was ripped out of my chest."

"Love can do that. So this is the first time you saw her in your dreams? Can you tell me about her?"

"I wish I knew her name, it feels like I should, but it feels like it slips away when I try recalling. She is one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen." Jack felt tears start to fall down his cheeks again, and Kelsey passed him a tissue.

"Good, I think we are making progress. Tell me Jack do you have any questions for me before our session ends?"

"Yeah, it's about my Avatar. I was almost killed again, I was caught by that Queen of Spiders. I attempted exiting my Avatar body, only to be denied."

Kelsey nodded and asked "Were you scared at that moment?"

"I was certain I was about to die, so yes."

"In order to leave an Avatar you must let go of it. When one is afraid, it is harder to let go. Jack, you have a very deep connection to your Avatar, thus you hold on to it with a firmer grip then most. This means if you are afraid or in distress you may have a hard if not impossible task of leaving your Avatar."

"Yet another flaw of Avatar's I am finding out."

Kelsey shrugged and said "To be honest not many know it. What would frighten a god? Not much. Though the Queen of Spiders is something that frightens me."

"You know her?"

"I have seen her dreams. She is filled with malice beyond what you could even imagine. Should her shackles ever loosen she will set upon the world and the devastation would be great."

"Could the gods not kill her?"

"I'm certain they would try. But her power rivals those of gods, so it will be a tough fight."

"Will?"

"Those shackles keeping her down are ancient, and her power grows every day. She will escape eventually. The fact she was even able to attack you, would have been impossible years ago."

"If that is the case, why doesn't the gods go down and strengthen the seal?"

"Which god is as strong as The Great One? What they could add is insignificant against the bonds already made."

"How long do we have?"

"Not for a long while. If I had to guess, probably a thousand or so years."

Jack thought for a moment and said "My users should be able to get to a level of strength by then they could at least survive against her assault."

"Maybe. I will take a raincheck on my foot massage, as I know you are still dealing with issues. But when you solve them, I expect a full body massage."

"Understood. Goodbye Kelsey, thank you for talking with me."

"No problem Jack. Time for you to wake." Kelsey waved her hand, and Jack dropped down into his body.

Opening his eyes he found that the pillow that he was using was soaked. In fact the entire cot was soaked. A puddle of tears was all over the tent. Getting up he quickly put away the cot into his inventory and cleaned up his mess. Looking over he saw that both Megan and Alexia were asleep.

Stepping outside he saw it was nearing dawn, to his surprise he saw Lady Niadas out and about looking troubled. Going over to her he asked "Lady Niadas, it is surprising to see you up this early. I am sorry for what happened with your servants yesterday."

"It was an unfortunate accident. I will make sure their families receive full compensation for their sacrifice. I now just have Marden, and he is proving to be less then useful. I had underestimated the extent of his madness."

"What has he done?" Jack asked concerned.

"Nothing yet. But I must warn you he has taken an interest in your mage."

"Then he is not going to be successful. She is strictly into women only."

Lady Niadas looked at his tent and said "Not in that manner. I think he regards her as a perfect test subject for his next project. I have seen several drawings of his that he has made of Alexia. Some of them are quite disturbing, so I think it best for them not to interact as much as possible."

"Much obliged Lady Niadas for the warning. Will the Expedition have any problems with the shortage of hands?"

She shook her head. "Let's see, Lord Attomas besides the three monsterkin in the carriage, has Yukali and two other servants. Jadai didn't bring anyone, there is Marden and me. You have the most with six, though, if you count that sword seven. Then there is Princess Falean with Snort. Lord Attomas will have to rely on you for security."

Jack heard a loud snort and looked and saw Snort was watching them. The wings from yesterday were now hidden again in its body. Lady Niadas followed his gaze and said "I guess one of the horses they put in snort was a Pegasus. If that's the case, he probably put some other magical horses in Snort. I'm not even sure how that thing is still alive."

Nodding Jack said "Who knows. We need to start getting ready."

Lady Niadas nodded and said "You should freshen up Sir Jack. You look as if you have been weeping the entire night."

---

Denise clutched the rope and began to lower herself down the side of the cliff. They had been traveling the past few days to get to the temple and had rested the night before at the top of this canyon. The temple they were going to apparently was somewhere down in this canyon.

Reaching the bottom, Denise unhooked herself from the rope and shouted up that she was free. Debra was already down and was looking at some rocks on the floor of the canyon. "What are you looking at?"

"Look, I think there is gold in this rock."

"Gold?" Frankie said coming over to take a look. She scrapped at the rock and said "This isn't gold. This is fools gold."

Exerting her power Denise could feel that Frankie was right. Looking back up she saw Nicholas slowly making his way down. Frankie looked up as well and a worried look flashed across her face as Nicholas slipped a little but caught himself. Soon he reached the floor of the canyon and said "Okay, the Temple should be at the end of this canyon."

"Kinda hard to get into this canyon. How did the god's followers get in here?"

"They had a lift apparently. The notes mention that they spotted some old remains of it near the temple's entrance."

Down in the canyon, it felt cooler, as the sun could not reach the floor due to the steep cliffside. They walked down the canyon looking for the temple, when Denise spotted a old rotting wood pile. Getting close she saw it had some chains lying around and looking up she could see metal supports having been jammed into the wall.

"I think this was the lift." She said to Nicholas.

Nodding, they continued onward and spotted the temple entrance just as the sun popped over the edge of the cliff. Carved out of the cliffside was a towering pregnant woman sitting with her legs apart. Where her Vagina should be the temple door was in its place.

"Apparently going into the temple is supposed to represent going back into the mothers womb." Nicholas said and they approached the door.

Denise examined the door and found it was covered in a set of carved handprints. "So how are we supposed to open the door?"

"As luck would have it this time they have several notes on how to do it." Nicholas said and placed his hand on the centermost handprint. He began speaking in nonsense, to Denise it sounded like a baby trying to speak. With a loud thump the door began opening.

"What did you say?"

"Not sure, It's supposed to be baby speak, only the mother can understand." Nicholas shrugged and walked in with them following.

"So Nicholas have you thought about having a child?" Frankie asked.

"I have, but I'm not exactly prepared to settle down at the moment."

"Me too." Frankie said walking next to him.

Denise rolled her eyes at Debra who caught it and nodded. The tension between Nicholas and Frankie was thick enough to cut with a knife. She wished the two would just fuck and get on with it. Looking around she saw carvings along the wall of mothers giving birth and the like.

Before long they reached the main chamber of the temple. In the center of the room was the pedestal, and Nicholas pulled out an aquamarine statuette of a pregnant woman. When Nicholas placed it on the pedestal, a light blue glow came from the statuette and several lanterns flared into light.

"So how are we supposed to summon this one?" Debra asked

"The notes don't mention how to do that, given that they were just interested in taking the statuettes."

Denise began to examine the walls and just found more carvings of pregnant woman. "Do we need a pregnant woman to summon her?"

"Look over here!" Debra called the group over.

Debra was looking at an altar, as Denise got closer, she could see a set of drawings of people surrounding the altar and a person was lying on top of the altar. The Pregnant goddess appeared above them. Denise did another look around the room and did not see another statue of the goddess.

"I think one of you will have to lay on the altar. Then we have to perform the fertility ritual." Nicholas said.