The tent fell silent as Hecatolite and Irithyl locked eyes, the surrounding soldiers becoming tense as both began emitting power. The black veins creeping from Hecatolite’s eyes causing several of them to reach for their weapons.

“None of you move.” Aeirn’s calm voice cut through the tension like a knife as Saffron stood, moving to defend her mistress if need be. “Taaffeite.” She nodded to the now standing demoness.

Taaffeite quickly summoned a terminal that nearly smacked the woman in the head as it barked orders in her native tongue. Though Saffron took a more neutral position, she did not move from Hecatolite’s side as the two women sat silently locked in whatever power struggle was clearly happening between the two. 

Irithyl eyes burned with ghostly flames as her face contorted through an array of emotions, Hecatolite’s face however, remained unmoving as the black veins danced from the corners of her eyes.

What Hecatolite was greeted with was far from what she had expected. Translucent white flames danced in her vision, only vaguely outlining the form of a ghostly woman sitting in the center of the chaos, Hecatolite was only able to barely make out the shape of Irithyl’s soul yet one feature stood out, the glimmering crystalline crown that sat on its head. Yet even being unable to see through the thick white soul flames she could feel… honesty… maybe pride… desire? but it did not feel as if it was directed at Hecatolite. 

Is my soul sight acting up again? She thought as she inspected the soul more closely, only for Irithyl’s eyes to flash again, Hecatolite’s soul sight nearly blinding her as white flames erupted from Irithyl as a pressure slammed into her mind. It felt like a warm breeze passing through her mind as she heard a commotion causing her to finally break eye contact with the queen only to see that blood was pouring out of the woman’s nose.

“Did… did I do that?” Hecatolite asked hesitantly as Jarvis rushed to the queen’s side only for her to push him away.

Irithyl blinked a few times before quickly wiping her nose on a napkin. She moved with fluid motions despite the now fountain of blood running from her nose, every motion appearing almost as smooth as a well-practiced dance move as she dabbed the blood from her face. Before she sat back in her chair taking a deep breath, her olive skin glistening slightly as sweat formed on her brow.

“That… was informative.” She finally spoke, discarding the napkin. “I can see why you have no mental defense at least.” She closed her eyes as if organizing herself. 

“What? Defense? Was I under attack?” Hecatolite began looking around, now noticing the dozen or so soldiers surrounding them. 

“I should have warned you that Hecatolite’s mind may not be… hospitable.” Taaffeite said, sinking into a chair. “Then again, I never expected both of you to instantly activate your soul magic.”

“Are we going to ignore that someone attacked me?” Hecatolite asked glaring at the nearest soldier. “Was it you?”

“No one attacked you.” Alexa said, flicking the back of Hecatolite’s head only to be quickly swatted by an annoyed Saffron, “She means you don’t have any means to block someone from reading your mind.” 

“Also stop glaring at the soldiers they are already nervous as is.” Taaffeite added.

“Someone was reading my mind? Why would they do that? A bit invasive if you ask me.” Hecatolite rubbed the back of her head as she looked around the table her eyes landing on Irithyl again, “it was you wasn’t it… that’s ok then.” 

“Taaffeite, you do realize your daughter's mind is…”

“She has the fractured mind trait; I don’t know exactly what that entails, however, I can guess that reading her thoughts would be… strenuous.” 

“To say the least, yes.” Irithyl waved the soldiers away, Hecatolite couldn’t help but be impressed at the amount of control Irithyl seemed to have as the dozens of soldiers filed out without a complaint. “But it is hardly the first time I have glimpsed into insanity…”

“I am not crazy.” Hecatolite growled, surprising the queen as the young girl glared at her.

To interrupt the queen so brazenly had stunned her for a second, what would have been a comical look on such a young girl seemed to lose its charm as Irithyl recalled what she had glimpsed hiding behind Hecatolite’s eyes. There was not a doubt in Irithyl's mind that Hecatolite was indeed insane, no one she could think of would be able to even function with the amount of mental noise that hid behind that child’s eyes… hundreds of voices all calling out at once, the noise itself was almost enough to overwhelm her when she looked into Hecatolite’s mind yet there was something else, hidden in all the noise, behind the yelling voices… something strange. For the first time when Irithyl looked into Hecatolite’s mind she felt something powerful had… looked back.

Irithyl did not show her concern as she simply nodded, she now had a deep understanding of the creature that sat before her and after thinking for a moment she concluded that Hecatolite Lapidary was likely the single most dangerous person in her entire nation, yet she couldn’t help but feel that this child before her… was not a threat at all. She had caused mass confusion when she accidentally sent a wave of energy through the world, yet she had not harmed anyone who did not attack her. She carved a hole in the moon causing a panic, but it was to save someone else, not to mention she did assist in uncovering a plot to undermine the peace of her lands… this would all be a lot easier if I could just delve into her mind and find her intentions… I guess we will have to do this the old fashion way. “I do apologize. I never meant to insinuate you were.” She smiled, “but I do have some questions, Hecatolite, if you wouldn’t mind?” 

Hecatolite eyed the woman across from her, Irithyl was indeed very beautiful, and her soul sight had told her that she was honest… but she was a queen… queens are like politicians… but Taaffeite seemed to trust the queen… “hmmmmm.” Hecatolite scrunched her face as she thought, she inspected Irithyl, her smooth olive skin, her long dark brown hair, the faintest hint of a smile on her thin lips that caused the corners of her hazy white eyes to move slightly… “I will trust you. You seem like a good queen.” Hecatolite nodded, she did not understand why she felt that way of certain people. One could say she just liked people she was attracted to, but she had the same feeling for Hans, and Soter… she was definitely not attracted to them, but that was all questions for later. “But” she held a hand up before anyone could answer. “Can we eat? I could eat a hippogriff…” she looked at the queen with wide questioning eyes.

“You... cannot eat my hippogriff.” Hecatolite clicked her tongue as Taaffeite put her face in her hands. 

Duchess Aerin simply laughed, as she looked to Irithyl, “you always dig up the most interesting people my dear daughter.”

---

Watching Hecatolite eat was… terrifying. The small girl put away several adults' worth of food before she finally sat back in her chair, everyone looking on with amazement as she patted her stomach. 

“Good all full now… maybe… could eat more…” She looked at another plate of meat as if contemplating before taking a small piece and popping it into her mouth only to nearly bite her own tongue as a terminal appeared.

“Trait bottomless stomach acquired; bottomless stomach has merged with iron stomach and cannibal. Trait insatiable hunger acquired; trait renamed under domain of gluttony. Trait acquired Glutton. Skill acquired, Glutton. Everything is food if it fits in your maw.”

“Wait what?” Alexa looked up from her own meal, “Babylon what does that skill do?”

“Passive skill glutton effects: allows the digestion of anything that can be placed in the stomach of the host, also increases durability of the digestive organs. Be it poison or rocks, Hecatolite can eat it if she can get it into her mouth. This skill is unique to Hecatolite Lapidary as such, will only be acquirable through her blessing.”

“You want?” she asked, looking at her sister.

“No thank you. I have enough to deal with, with the two blessings I already have.” She quickly shook her head. 

Irithyl looked on amazed at the casual conversation, her own meal left forgotten before her as Aerin leaned to her. “She has unique skills, the ability to bless people, and powerful soul magic. Just what is that child?”

Irithyl shook her head as she looked to Taaffeite who had moved to sit closer to her at the now empty table, more to avoid the blender that was Hecatolite than anything else. “She is safe, correct?”

“As safe as any high-powered mage.” Taaffeite sighed, “She’s just…” she looked up to her daughter who had begun eating again with newfound vigor. “Hecatolite, would you mind sharing your soul page with Irithyl?” She asked, causing the young girl to snap to her. Hecatolite thought for a second, the act losing any seriousness given the chicken bone hanging from her mouth before nodding, the action causing the terminal to quickly shift to display the page.

Irithyl felt a chill as she read the page several times, the contents of which had confirmed her earlier suspicions, Hecatolite was definitely not human. Several of the traits and skills were ones she had never even heard of, and the fact her page had an extra section called domains was simply stuff of legends she had believed… “just what is she?” She muttered looking at the girl who had moved on from eating to a midday nap apparently.

“She is Hecatolite. Nothing more, nothing less.” Taaffeite replied, “a young girl with more power than she knows what to do with.”

Arein took a sharp breath as she looked over the page as well, “that’s an understatement. She accidentally destroyed a moon Taaffeite. The question is what could she do if she were to be pointed at our enemies?”

“My daughter is not a weapon Duchess.” Taaffeite glared at the older woman, former Queen Aerin was not as passive as her daughter, yet she was not a warmonger either. It was under her rule that the Crown's army had grown to the size it is now, it was quite frankly one of the main reasons for the peace they now enjoyed.

“You’re asking us to expel the church, whether she’s a weapon or not she is going to cause a war.”

“I would not say she is the cause of it all,” Irithyl replied as she bit her lip, “she is just the most recent spark in a long list of growing problems. The unrest in the north has been growing more turbulent as time goes on, it is only a matter of time before we will have to choose a side in this war.” She let out a sigh as she looked up to the sky, “if Alamgir continues their hostilities towards Ecrein they will eventually reach our borders and there is no guarantee they will stop there.”

“However, on the opposite hand if Ecrein manages to push them back who is to say they will not take the extra resources and turn their ire on the southern nations.” Taaffeite added as she rolled a piece of food across her wooden plate, “If Crown is going to join this war, we will need to be very careful which side we end up on. Ecrein is vast with plentiful resources, but they lack origination, where Alamgir is nearly militarized but lacks many natural resources. The war could honestly go either way.”

“With the introduction of summoned heroes, it tips the scales heavily, but I will be frank I don’t much care for the way they have been tipped. Alamgir has proven to be untrustworthy, not to mention I dislike the idea of them gaining any more power than they have. This world's balance has always been held by religions along with the ruling class working hand and hand. However, given their blind devotion to a singular faith is alarming.” Irithyl added as they watched Alexa attempt to rouse Hecatolite, insisting it is rude to sleep on a table In front of the queen. Her actions however, were interrupted as Saffron attempted to cover Hecatolite with one of her wings. “Then there is our own little hero that has fallen within our borders, you do know the church will attempt to claim her.”

“They will attempt to, yes.” Taaffeite nodded, “given how their last attempt went I doubt they will be eager to use violence, if that boy survived, I severely doubt he will be very eager to meet her again even less so in combat. But that still leaves us with only a few options, either we denounce Valor as a whole and join the war against Alamgir.”

“Or we embrace Valor and join the war against Ecrein. That is the black and white of it.” Irithyl chewed her lip, “denouncing the church will cause Alamgir to move against us, it may take them some time but that will put us on the war path. But if we join Alamgir they may demand repentance for the actions you have already taken against them, Hecatolite may be the only bargaining chip we have in that situation.”

“If you are asking for my opinion than you already know where I stand,” Taaffeite did not bother to hide her emotion as she looked to Irithyl, “if it is war or servitude…”

“Your majesty,” Joshua called out from the side, he had yet to move from where he had been told to stand though he had been served food. “I may have a short-term solution, one to buy you more time before you need to commit to war.” He bowed as all three women looked to him, to say he was in no position to speak would have been an understatement. The only reason he was still alive at this point was a promise from Taaffeite, and the queen found his new forced faith rather amusing. No one felt Hecatolite would mind if this man had disappeared, yet he still clearly had some value to the strange girl given he had been recognized in the system as her prophet.

“Well what better person for advice than a snake.” Irithyl eyed the man causing a shiver to run though him, she did not bother reading his thoughts simply because she felt the man himself to not be worth the mana she would need to spend to do so. “Speak.”

“Yes of course.” He cleared his throat. “It is simple, instead of denouncing the church of Valor as a nation why don’t you remove the protection of sanctioned religions. Allow your territories to decide what to do with the religions within their borders that way if say one or two of them decide to remove the church of Valor your nation can avoid the ire of Alamgir. Simply put the Felnnor approach to religion, allow them to operate within your borders but remove their hand from ruling the nation.”

“Felnnor? The elven nation?” Taaffeite raised an eyebrow.

“Yes,” Irithyl nodded, “the elves do not “sanction” any religion, they allow any religious practice within their lands if it does not pose a threat to the lands. Even demon worship is tolerated as long as it is kept within reason.” She took a deep breath as she creased her brow in thought, “if we do that, we could avoid any backlash as a nation, but we will be basically cutting ties with all the religions.”

“Hardly, you would simply be removing them from your court. With this you could also impose a tax on the religions that you have sanctioned in the past. Not only that, any religious leaders that wished to maintain a presence within our nation will work twice as hard to keep their followers under control as they will no longer be safe from scrutiny. Simply remind them that your position as queen is to protect your people from any threat.” Aerin tapped her finger on the table. “This way we can remind even Alagmir that we will not tolerate any hostility even from the gods while not leaving any avenue for them to complain. They can’t claim we are condemning their church; we can even maintain a purely mutual relationship with any church that wishes to support our peoples.”

“And if you don’t openly remove the religions, you will put the power in the people’s hands, they will decide amongst themselves who they wish to worship and where. I doubt it will cause much turmoil in the land given any religion that didn’t wish to be labeled as hostile will keep a very close eye on their internal workings once the protection of the royal family has been removed.” Taaffeite nodded to Joshua, who sighed as he relaxed.

“Honestly your majesty. Alamgir is what happens if you allow religion to root deeply into the workings of the nation.” Joshua added as the three of them contemplated.

“Of course, it won’t be that simple, there will be back lash,” Irithyl closed her eyes in thought, “the possibility that people will act against religions they don’t agree with, along with the real possibility of larger religions pulling out of our nation completely. We must remember that Crown is one of the few nations founded without its own religion. That was the thought behind sanctioning the six primary religions in the first place, the six largest religions in the land will all gain equal treatment within our borders and as such will support our nation during its infancy.” 

Both Saffron and Alexa let out a small yell as Hecatolite rolled off the table with a thud, both going to catch her but ending up tangled in each other as she hit the floor.

“Ow.” Hecatolite groaned as she sat up, “Inutil, put the conference table at the bottom of the “sleep here” list.” She pulled herself from the floor and looked at the three women who all sat in thought, her eyes landing on Joshua. “Hey… do I know you?” Her eyes flashed black as her face contorted, “you!” she jumped at the man who let out a very unbecoming scream.

Inches from the man Hecatolite slammed into an invisible wall, sending the small woman tumbling to the ground as the priest dove under the table. 

“owww. My nose.” Hecatolite moaned as she rubbed her face.

“Hecatolite control yourself.” Taaffeite snapped as she dispelled her wall.

“He tortured Saffron!” She yelled reaching for the man’s leg, this time a small wall of ice appeared before her. She summoned her claw and began scratching at it.

“And he is being punished for that.” Taaffeite quickly plucked her daughter up from the floor. “But for right now he is being tried by the queen or have you forgotten where we are?”

Hecatolite stopped struggling and looked around again, her eyes landing on Irithyl who gave her a small smile, “oh… yea. Can’t rip his arms off in front of the queen.” She sighed allowing her claws to disappear.

“You can’t rip people's arms off at all.” Taaffeite chastised.

“Why not? He ripped her arms off! Only seems fair!”

“And she got better, remember?”

“She did? She did!” Hecatolite turned to the demoness who stood behind them, “Saffron can rip his arms off!” The woman turned her head to the side, unable to understand what was said. Hecatolite quickly changed her speech, “Saffron do you want to rip that man’s arms off?”

“If that is what you wish then I will.” The succubus bowed, her face lighting up as Hecatolite addressed her.

“No, do you want to?” 

“Only if that’s what you wish.” Saffron flexed her hands as her tail whipped behind her.

“You're being annoying.” Hecatolite growled.

“I am sorry mistress,” Saffron fell to her knees, “I don’t understand what I have done to displease you.”

“Do you want to take revenge on the man who tortured you?” She nearly yelled as she squirmed in Taaffeites arms.

“I don’t see any reason to.” Saffron replied bluntly causing Hecatolite to freeze, “you have already repaired the damages he had caused to me, and he has sworn himself to my mistress. I would be lying if I said I did not hold any resentment towards him but if he proves to be useful to you my mistress then I see no need to harm him.” 

Hecatolite rolled her eyes, she had nearly forgotten that it was Saffron’s fault that she had been given the title deity. She went to reply only for a thunderclap to cause her to jump.

“Prayer from Father Joshua, prophet of X47, please holy mistress don’t kill me…” The terminal caused them all to pause as they looked at its light blue screen, the voice a much smoother almost musical female as it continued. “ERROR…unable to assimilate mana… solution found… unable to grant skill mana convergence… X47 the mad devour is a higher being… error, higher beings require mana to convert into aether….” The terminal flashed several different colors before a deep crimson red began to seep in from the corners of the screen, “I told you I will take care of it!” The robotic voice of Babylon yelled before the screen turned black and fell to the ground, sinking into the soft dirt as the black screen displayed large white words, “technical difficulties.”  

“What? I… I don’t feel so good…” Hecatolite coughed as Taaffeite placed her on the ground. The moment her feet hit the dirt she began to heave.

“Mistress?” Saffron stepped towards her as Taaffeite began to rub her back.

Alexa scrambled as she dove with a plate only to just make it to Hecatolite as she began to violently vomit up a bright green liquid. 

“Taaffeite?” Irithyl gave them a concerned look as Hecatolite continued to expel the neon green liquid that quickly filled the plate Alexa held, small bits of food floating in it as it began to overflow onto the ground.

“Hecatolite… can’t process mana, so every time she ingests any, well…” Taaffeite nodded down to her daughter as Hecatolite started to swear.

“dupid box,” she hissed as she spit the last of the strangely bitter liquid onto the ground, her mouth going numb as her tongue flopped out of her open mouth. “wha kin o mama ish dis?” 

“It’s healing mana!” Alexa exclaimed excitedly as she picked a few stray pieces of meat from the plate. “Pure healing mana!” she nearly vibrated as she carefully placed the plate down on the table only to let out a cry of disappointment when Hecatolite slapped the plate off the table sending the mana spraying across the tent.

“And she ingests mana often?” Aerin asked as she inspected a glob of the green liquid that had landed in front of her. She looked up to see the family sharing awkward looks.