"I have no interest in your war," Aperio said, eyeing the presumed Gods and Goddesses in the room. I would end it if I knew how. "If part of it required you to experiment on souls, I could not care less that you lost that ability."

"That's not really the issue." Ferio sighed, gesturing to the two beings made of light and dark respectively. "The Directive you implemented puts the [Court of Heaven] in charge of handling every transgression.

"Yes, I know that is what you made it for," her daughter continued, informing Aperio that it was indeed something she had made without telling the others present that she forgot. "But neither of the Judges will be able to enforce a ruling against the people who are actually in violation."

Perhaps I should just make a new Pantheon, Aperio thought to herself as she looked at every person in the room through her aura. Most did not notice the inspection, but a few of the more powerful deities stiffened a little at her scrutiny.

The fact that they did sparked a little joy in Aperio's mind that she tried to shove as deep down as she could. She did not want to enjoy lording her strength over others, but she still very much did.

Aperio fixed her gaze on the two figures in question. She had not even meant to create a Directive, and now she had to deal with this. That she was also annoyed — though more sad and angry — at the fact that Ferio had ignored her until there was a problem she could not fix did not help.

"And how am I supposed to fix it?" Aperio asked, a touch of her magic ensuring only Caethya and Ferio heard her. "I do not know who these people are, what they do nor why they do it." The All-Mother took a breath, leaning a little into Caethya's embrace. "I am also not really inclined to help after being called here to fix your problem after being met with silence for weeks." Or months… How much time passed?

"Really, Mother?" Ferio asked, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "I told you I was busy. You rejected me again and again when I was trying to help you, so you can't claim to not know why I remained quiet." Ferio's eyes wandered to Caethya before she looked at her mother again. "Especially when you instead chose to trust someone mortal you barely know."

Aperio squinted at her daughter. "I know Caethya better than you by now," she said. "I know you are my daughter, but aside from that I know nothing about you. I don't know who you are; what you like."

Ferio held her gaze for a moment before she sighed and directed her eyes to the floor. "Perhaps… But I had hoped that you would remember me, at least. Had thought that you did." She rubbed the bridge of her nose again. "I merely wanted you to care about me like I care about you. But," she sighed, "I guess that will need even more time.

"For now," she continued. "we will have to deal with this. The Court cannot do what you directed it to do without your help. How exactly this should be solved is not something I know yet, but I know that you can fix it."

"How?" Aperio asked, trying her best to hide the annoyance in her voice. "I do not even know what this Court you speak of is. Or where the limits to what I can do are." If there even are any.

The only real thing she knew she could not do was travel back in time. There were a great many other things she knew she could do, but not how. But then, maybe I just don't know how to manipulate time yet… The mere potential that she could mess with time was already enough for Aperio to bury the thought deep in her mind, right next to the twisted joy she got from being stronger than others.

"You know how to bless someone and strip a blessing," Ferio said. "Technically, Godhood is quite similar. It is not exactly the same, of course, but I had hoped you could do something to either strengthen the Judges in the Court or make other deities weaker."

"Make a level playing field?" Caethya asked, shifting slightly under Aperio's wing. "I am surprised that's not how it works already."

"Mother made the Court to deal with the Gods and Goddesses that ascended on their own," Ferio huffed in reply. "Not with the ones she chose herself. Even that, however, only goes so far. The self-ascended deities are slowly becoming too powerful for the courts as well."

"And who says this Court will be just in their judgements?" Aperio asked, drawing her wings closer to herself and pulling Caethya gently along with them. "What if they act like me? Cast down a God because they wronged them?" What gives me the right to do that?

"For what it's worth, I have never seen them act in their own interest over the millennia I have known them," Ferio replied. "I'm almost convinced they can't do that."

Aperio carefully removed her wing from Caethya and stepped up the table, a thought bringing the two glowing figures into the small, audibly secluded space she had made.

They looked surprised for a moment before they both bowed. "Welcome back, Creator," the Light one said.

"Your presence at the Courts has been missed," the Dark one added.

Their voices shifted from high to low as they spoke, echoing through the small space almost like her own. Just way weaker. Even her normal speaking voice filled any room with her power; her mana. Whenever she got even a tiny bit angry, it only got worse. At least it doesn't seem to be tied to the mana in my body anymore.

That problem had seemingly solved itself. Even after she had drawn in the pure mana from deeper in her well, her aura and voice had shown little change while the amount of mana in her body had increased greatly.

"Hello," she replied, offering them each a curt nod as she suppressed the urge to wrap her wing around Caethya again. "It has been brought to my attention that you would not be able to enforce the new Directive."

"Yes," the Light one replied, its voice briefly settling on a deep baritone. "The System has already scheduled a date for the hearing of Epemirial and we are most certainly not equipped to handle her, even with your daughter's help."

"She is stronger than you?" Aperio asked, looking at Ferio.

"In a potential fight in which I have to protect a room full of people and she does not? Yes," her daughter replied.

The All-Mother tapped her chin lightly and tried to will into existence a System view that would show her the Directives. It did not quite work as she had hoped, but a small blue window filled with various Directives and their functions did appear in her view. A slight narrowing of her eyes and a small flex of her mental muscles caused the System to only show her the one she had just put into effect.

At first it only seemed to repeat what it had said when she had accidentally willed the Directive into place, but it seemed to expand a little to provide some options. There was one helpfully labelled 'Enforcement', and a part of her mind immediately started diving through the System itself in hopes of finding something that could tell her how the options she was currently interacting with actually worked.

Aperio paid no heed to the atrociously slow movements of the other people in the room as she focused another part of her mind on the 'Enforcement' section of the System view. As a great many sub-options filled the window before her, she couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. Most were greyed out, and she didn't need to focus on them to know that they were broken. A fact that only seemed to highlight how intertwined she actually was with the System. I am the system, really...

"How would she hold up to me?" Aperio asked, barely a moment after Ferio had finished speaking, her investigation into the System having taken a lot less time than she had thought.

"She, uh, wouldn't," Ferio replied with a confused look on her face. "She would not have been able to before, and most certainly would not now."

"Does the Creator think of attending the hearings in person?" the Dark Judge asked, seemingly uncaring that Aperio asked if she even was stronger than the Goddess of Duty and Loss.

"Perhaps," Aperio replied, returning more of her attention back to the System windows in front of her mind's eye. She had hoped — perhaps in vain — that one of the options would allow her to let the System itself deal with it.

The All-Mother scrunched her brows as she found a section of the System that seemed to be working a little harder than it should, drawing noticeably more mana than the surrounding parts. A thought was all she needed to get a closer look at it, inspect it.

Most of the runes present did not mean anything to her, but she did spot a few she did understand. Enforcement, Aperio thought to herself with a small smile as she rotated her mental view of the section.

There was something else at work in the Subsystem; another part of her System that she had been searching for. All the tendrils of mana that worked their way through the Enforcement section connected back to another Subsystem that was unlabelled, as far as she could see, but had to be the part responsible for repairs. Or I just don't know those runes yet.

It was one of the more complex amalgamations of runes she had seen thus far, and definitely the one that drew the most on her well. Not that it is using a lot of mana… Either she had made her System very efficient or — by far the more likely option — she commanded much more mana than she had thought. Aperio had still not taken the time to see just how far her well reached; how pure her mana could become.

"I would rather find a solution that does not require my presence," Aperio said, her continued exploration of the System having barely taken a moment of real time. She glanced at the glowing figures for a moment before she continued. "Not that I am unflattered by the offer, but I have other things to take care of."

"We understand," the Light one said, its shifting voice devoid of the tiny bit of hope that the Dark one had had. It stepped a little closer to the table, almost leaning on it. "What did you have in mind?"

"I am not quite sure," Aperio admitted, a small smile playing across her lips at the lack of any feelings of disgust. "My absence has not been good for the System." Disregarding any potential sabotage…

"I suggested that she take away the powers of anyone not affiliated with the Court when they are present," Ferio said. "But Mother raised some concerns."

"I did, yes," Aperio said, tilting her head as the System seemed to work a little more slowly under her scrutiny. Almost as if it wanted to make sure she understood what was happening. Or is it because my subconsciousness fixes it and that doesn't work when I focus on it?

How exactly the System and her own mind were connected was still a mystery to Aperio, but it was clear that the former could not work without her while she had no trouble existing without the System.

"As I am sure you can gather from the recent Directive," Aperio said, trying to find something that would allow her to change the Judge’s Dominion, "I am not exactly happy with how the trust I gave has been misused. I do not want to introduce another faction to a war I plan to end."

"Is that why Diskrye did not restart their duty of distributing the New Worlds upon your return?" the Dark Judge asked. "Or are they truly inaccessible to them?"

"I do not know and I do not care," Aperio said, glaring at the Judge. She took an unneeded breath to steady herself and leaned herself slightly against Caethya's hand that had appeared on her back. "What I care about is punishing those who use souls as their playthings."

The All-Mother gestured towards the table, the maps spread upon it obvious planning for the [War in Heaven] Mayeia had told her about. "I also want to stop this war," she continued. "Why I ever let it happen in the first place is beyond me.

"If I have to, I will go and find every single member of the Repens Nabu and kill them myself," Aperio said, fixing her gaze on the two Judges. She took a step towards them, ignoring Ferio's almost panicked look. "Let me be perfectly clear," the All-Mother began. "I do not trust you, or anyone else in this room besides Ferio and Caethya. Especially not with the power to strip someone of their Godhood.

"I do not know what your relation is to the ones that went against my will," she continued, "but I know that they need an adequate punishment, and I do not trust either of you to deliver one."

Aperio let out a sigh as she sat Caethya and herself down on a sofa formed by her mana. Speaking her mind — like she imagined her old self would have — had felt decidedly too good. Even if it was true that the only grounds for punishing someone for messing with a soul was her will, putting it in words made it feel worse.

Despite looking through the System's options faster than she should be able to, Aperio was only drawing blanks as to how to make the Court able to deal with the problem and not have her there at all times. Or have me outright hunt the Repens Nabu.

Even if she truly hated the Gods and Goddesses that played with mortal lives because they felt superior, Aperio did not want to kill them. She still regretted what she had done to Vigil and Inanis, despite knowing that the quick death they received had been far too light a judgment. And I want to see them suffer, too.

The disgust she had usually felt for admitting she was less than perfect had found a new place in her mind, one she could at least somewhat agree with. Everything she knew about her old self led to death and cruelty. All things she now detested, but still derived joy from.

Aperio rubbed the bridge of her nose and sighed in exasperation at both herself and the situation at hand. Just let me live a normal life, please. "Show me your Court. I'll figure something out."

GamingWolf

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