Nice. More stacking up on critical dodges and kill shots.

She tried to find the dice guys to give them their coins back, but when she finally cornered one — who was rather embarrassed and uncomfortable with the matter — he suddenly got stiff-backed at the prospect of being given back the coin. He utterly refused! Apparently that was complete sacrilege among Caneboroans. Maybe men in general for all she knew.

She had to relent, much as it pained her to, with the guy even refusing to take the dice. The money would just go into the organization… but she also told Jeeves to contrive a way to believably gift them double what they lost in the near future, without traceability to her specifically. That felt like her duty.

I’m the Goddess of Fate, and what goes around, comes around! I got what I wanted, and it felt really good to win like that. A little too good.

The day was soundly dead by then, even the daily reset having come and gone while she was in the midst of her diabolical dice fever. It was just as well, though, as she typically preferred to do her realm check an hour or so after, to clock the typically large chunk of First Prayers. She recharged her PFE and took a gander…

Wow, over half the realm in the first hour, that has to be a record post-Geirkos. And that’s with the people here probably mostly skimping or already passed out. They went pretty hard on drinking… totally fine in this scenario. It’s not as if they get to party like this all the time and it’s hardly public.

She just accepted the one singular person who did not pray toward [Pneuma]. There was always That One Guy, and usually more. 286 FE toward the next domain already. A good start.

Day 25. It wouldn’t be long and she would be shedding a tear for the loss of her sweet, sweet Promotional Bonus. Perhaps she could replace it with something similar from the Hall of Reflections at some point, though. Or glitch it into 999 days like [Spells of Deja Vu]. She would especially prefer the latter, but it wasn’t clear whether or not it was something dangerous to manipulate or not.

I guess I could seek it out with intent? But maybe that’s asking for trouble, being greedy. Hmm… naaaah! There’s no way any incarnation of me would expect anything less from us!

Despite the prayer diversion and her expenditures, she was once again at the highest FE she’d ever been at and the first time over 5k. Because the Pantheon stuff was ‘extra work,’ it didn’t really drain her after the initial expenditure.

The Pantheon’s start showed 437 FE contributed to the pool from all sources. The rate would no doubt improve over time as plans and systems were put into place. In any case, the 1,111 FE needed pretty much looked to be a piece of cake.

Hopefully, Redberry can handle the bulk of that 7,777 shared pool as she claimed. It can’t be easy getting that old, rusty engine of a religion up and running smoothly again. She’s gonna be super busy for a while.

Sammy ultimately had every reason to keep spending her normal FE. The first thing she did was dematerialize and switch over to her Core Avatar in Geirkos, to give it those sweet upgrades. Mental Resistance 3 and Quick 3. Boom! 1000 FE down in a blink.

Gawd, I love spending! It makes me want to shop… ooh, I so should… it’s not like a few outfits are enough… well, I’m an illusionist, but it’s just not the same… and hard light clothes don’t work out…

The Cat Sith Saruman suddenly popped into her head, the deep voice of an old, dark wizard resounding, “Your Majesty… I am behooved to inform you that the highest ascensions of a syzygy tide nears upon this planet, by the dance of our three bodies into the alignment of the non-eclipse syzygy. You have… 30 minutes.”

Sammy had absolutely no clue what he was talking about and quickly grew alarmed. “What the hell are you saying?! Siz-a-wha-who? Sar Sar, give it to me in layman’s terms quickly so I can respond to this!”

There was the most absolutely long-suffering sigh that ever existed from the feline entity. “A syzygy… alignment of the moon, sun, and this planet… which enhances the tides… which is an opportunity for you to permanently increase your mana maximum through Draw Mana… Are you following, now?”

After a stunned few moments of absorption, Sammy finally got his point. “Ohhhh! Right-right-right-right! Yes. Okay… so… I just need to go submerge in the ocean and use it?”

“You don’t need a Seeing Stone to discern the answer to that question.” With that, Saruman disconnected.

What a sourpuss.

Rather than fly to the nearest, isolated beach in Geirkos, Sammy had a free and ‘closer’ Faerie Dragon fly and set up a mirror on the western coast, which was generally much nicer, away from the dye vats, industry, and so on. Her 12-kilometer range on Mirror Walk made ‘local distances’ kind of a cinch, and they had a ton of free mirrors to use with the previous closer-arranged network being obsolete.

After switching to the [Redhead Traveler] outfit, she phased through a mirror inset into some rocks looking out on a rough beach in twilight. In the far distance out on the sea, she could just make out a ship, likely one headed to Geirkos. The tide was indeed driving quite high and strong…

Sammy found a spot closer and created a hard light rock with a dip in it to set her things on/in. With that, she began stripping down for the water, retaining only the illusion disguise of a two-piece blue swimsuit. It definitely still felt like she was naked. Technically, she was.

Another creation on the itinerary: a swimsuit clothing line using some kind of magical materials or something. There’s just nothing quite like artificial fibers for this!

She made her way into the water, dealing with the strong current with ease by her body’s strength and her Super Useful [Swimming] skill. She went out a decent distance away from shore, then dove down, holding her breath. The light was sparse with no help from the New Moon and it got quite dim rather rapidly, so she activated [Light Manipulation] to see clearly.

A sandy bottom greeted her, the light startling wildlife away. One big crab was more stubborn, giving up only a little ground and flexing one big pincher at her threateningly. She wiggled her fingers hello as her toes brushed the sand.

She closed her eyes as she swayed in the cool water and more or less held her position, and then she activated [Draw Mana] while fulfilling all the requirements of the [Mark of Serateia].

Over a minute of concentration, the mana within the area sucked in and imploded toward her, continually accelerating, surging into her flesh and blood with an exhilarating rush. It should have overflowed, but by the power of the Mark, it didn’t escape, and the intensity even stretched and expanded her own raw capacity.

Sweet! In honor of you, Goddess Serateia. I thank you for this blessing that has transcended worlds and time.

She opened her eyes and- there were three merfolk in front of her!

Bubbles shot out of Sammy’s mouth as she nearly jumped out of her skin in alarm and began backing away. But all three just floated there, watching her placidly, perhaps curiously.

Two females were flanking a male, all blue-skinned with long, trailing bottom halves, reminiscent of fish and eel. Colorful fins were scattered over choice places on their flesh, most prominently as crests on their heads. They were alien but elegant, with the male and one female very well-muscled. The other was athletic but leaner, like a dancer.

They were dressed in partial bits of bronze armor, with accouterments of stone as jewelry, as well as connected belts for anchoring gear. They had smooth, bronze skirts of tiny scales at their ‘hips’. Two carried metal tridents, the other some sort of magical-looking wand or staff of iridescent material with a fairly organic look to it.

A sound like hundreds of rapid clicks in the mimic of a voice came from the male, from some organ contained in gills under the back of his jaw that flared as he jerked his head.

Her understanding had a delay due to the sheer oddity, but the words were discernible from the merman: “Hello, Ascendant and Friend of the Ocean. Forgive us; we mean no harm. We were traveling and sensed the draw. When we came, we were doubly amazed by the status of whom we observed. We had to introduce ourselves. I am Heizon Kar of the Seriotikka.” He bowed his head briefly.

The beauty with the wand bowed next and said musically, “I am the Current Changer Deis Morriam Gosi of the Shanwysi.”

The other female bowed finally. “I am Alkai Kari of the Seriotikka.”

Wide-eyed as she observed them, Sammy almost opened her mouth to respond, but remembered that would give her a big swallow of ocean and accomplish jack all. She began pointing awkwardly to her lips and made an exaggerated shrug.

The merfolk looked at each other expressionlessly, and then the male said, “Shall we go to the shore, Ascendant? We can make legs, take human guise, and speak lips.”

With relief, Sammy nodded vigorously.