"I don't think I want it, Ray," Faye said softly.

"Why not?"

"Those people out there… they're worse than Mortimer's bandaged men. At least those poor souls were dead, that… thing can do the same without killing."

"You can send them home."

"Will it change me? You've got a Source in your chest that's killing you."

"I told you I think I've got that sorted." I wasn't entirely as confident as I'd let on, but I could stop the swirl of alien power for a solid five minutes now, and it barely hurt for the first two.

"You cannot fool me, Ray." She laid a hand on my cheek, then rose to her feet to move to the fire and add a log to the embers. "Why can't you use it?"

"It won't react to me. I don't know why, I think Aphrodite wants you to have it, so it will only work for you."

"And she will join your war against the other gods in exchange?" I reflexively checked that my aura was still blanketing the inside of our tent.

"Yes. Her, Aresk, Winter, possibly a few others. Life, Death and Sun are… occupied." I grinned. "Posedion might have Time on her side. I should reach out to Velkit, see if he wants in on it as well."

"You are just recruiting gods? Remember when Hakudan pelted you with shit after you'd been strung up on the back of a cart for three days?"

"Heh. Yes."

"And when you fought the vile-cats? You were forced to reveal your magic to us that day."

"I remember, Faye."

"Remember the first time I used this knife?" she asked, fingering the hilt of the blade I'd given her on our wedding day. She had sliced the binding of her dress with it that night. "I see you remember that well enough," she smiled as she sat down next to me on the bed.

"I remember diving inside that amalgam just south of… god, what was it called? The trader town. The first one abomination that met. Maiming Gallagher every few minutes as his limbs regrew. Crushing Mortimer's skull in my fist. It hasn't all been… fun."

"But now you talk about paying the god of Smiths a visit as though it isn't insane, and the Goddess of Love wants you to give me her trinket. What did she do when you spoke to her?"

"They pretended to be you and tried to seduce me," I answered bluntly. "I saw through it, and then we talked. They insisted I had to give you the Source."

"Why?"

"They couldn't seduce me because I love you. Their… power, their authority, isn't really love per se. It's consummation."

"Sex? And I knew you were soft in the head, Ray. You don't need to remind me." She chuckled.

"The satisfaction of desire. The moment of achieving your goal, whatever it might be. Climax."

"A god worth following, then," Faye said with a grin. "You have no reservations about me taking this 'gift'?"

"No. Jeremy was mad. He was obsessed with being adored by everyone. His sickness warped the authority. With you in control… You love me, and the boy, and our people. You are even a little sympathetic to the shit-sitters sometimes."

"Take that back!" She slapped me on the arm. Her Body stat was only in the S rank, but a gentle slap from her would floor an unenhanced man. I rubbed at my arm.

"I apologise, wife! You are a terror to the farmers. They deserve it after all, living in the same place for all their lives."

"That's better." She leaned in and lay her head on my shoulder. Her hand slowly reached out, and she put a finger on the hairpin. It glowed briefly, causing her to snatch her hand away. "I felt… something."

I put an arm around her shoulder and pulled her back against my side. "What?"

"Desires. All around me. Yours. Others. You want to survive and to keep this world intact. There's a darker element, your desire for revenge against Poseidon. The rest… Lust, hunger, glory, control, kindness, love… So many wants."

"You could feel them around you? Could you… nudge them?"

She scowled at me, then reached out a finger and touched the hairpin. It didn't glow this time. I reached for her, pushing her back on the bed and pushing forward to kiss her. Then the urge passed, and I leaned back, rubbing a hand through my hair.

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"That's a yes."

She reached out and took the hairpin, sliding it into her hair. "At least now I'll know if you ever want to stray."

"Faye–"

"I was joking, you fool. The hunger… It's from the living dead. I'm going to push it away, the fixation on the Shikrakyn that's forcing them to just follow us. It won't be pretty. I can make them want to go home."

"That Source is more powerful than the others," I muttered.

"Than Aresk's that produces the golem cores? Or Poseidon's that won the loyalty of the Huskar? I don't think so, love. It's just different, and I'm sure there are limits." She clipped the pin into her hair, the twin pearls gleaming in the firelight. "You need to go."

"Not yet."

She tapped the hairpin and smiled at me. "Yes, you do."

"This is going to make our marriage extremely complicated," I grumbled.

When I found him, Prender was sitting surrounded by water tumbling through the air around him. Five barrels were spaced evenly in a circle, and their contents were leaping and jumping from one to the next in complex patterns.

"You're getting better."

"Practice. Next time I go to sea, Poseidon will have to fear me."

"Would you like that?" I sat down outside his training area so I didn't interfere or get soaked.

"It was a joke, Mond." At least he was past all the titles and whatnot.

"But if it wasn't?"

"She has no reason to worry about me." All the water froze, locking itself into a web of arches. He stood up and sighed. "Or does she?"

"Come with me."

I opened a portal to my domain and gestured for him to step through.

"Other people can use those? I thought it was just you."

"They can if I want. I want to talk to you about my plans, but even with my aura around us, I don't trust this place."

He stepped through into my illusory yurt, and I followed behind him, closing the portal after me.

Fresh meat… no, this one is for another purpose.

"Leave it, Tezca."

The ghost of a jaguar slunk away into the shadows and vanished.

"Tezca?"

"My predecessor. This is my domain, my own little world."

"It's very… familiar."

"Heh. I like the tribes. This tent is my home, it's where I want to be, and the real version usually contains the person I want to be with. All of us have a place like this. Aresk's is a marble mountaintop with armour and weapons on display around a giant statue of himself."

"What about the Mother?"

"I haven't really visited her properly. Poseidon's is a world of darkness and pressure."

"Like in the dreams I had?"

"Probably. Pressure, irresistible movement, weight. And swirling depths. On my world, we had this idea called Davy Jones Locker. Sailors lost at sea, or ships that sank, all ended up in the deep dark beneath the waves."

"We have something similar. Different names depending on the people."

"Let me show it to you."

I waved a hand, and a pale blue portal appeared, copied from the one I saw Aresk create. I knew where to open it, I'd been there myself a long time ago when I took fish-tits' Source. From the outside, it just looked like darkness. Occasional murky shapes drifted in the distance, but it might just have been a trick of the light.

"It hurts to be there, or it did for me," I added.

Prender moved towards it, his face a mask of curiosity. He held up a hand and stopped, lowering it and backing away slightly.

"I can feel it. The thing, the power you pulled out of me to fix my dreams."

"She had invested some of her authority in you. It had probably been there since you took to the sea. You said that you were lucky when it came to sailing. It was likely her influence guarding you."

"Why did it torture me?"

"She did that. She is angry, among other things."

"All I did was help you. You could have just killed anyone who didn't bow to you, but you didn't. Hell, if I had the power I've got now, I could have slaughtered the entire crew without breaking a sweat."

"We can't just fight everyone. We have to find ways to get what we want without abusing our power."

"You could fight anyone. I've seen what your aura does."

"And then there'd be no one left. What's the point in that? Killing, my kind of killing, serves a purpose."

Tezca growled from the shadows, and I scowled in his direction.

"Why did she punish for helping a good man?"

"Because it was me. I'm sorry, Prender. Would you like to know how I met her?"

He nodded, turning back to face me.

"I was a killer for hire on my old world. I had a sort of friend, he was crafty and well-connected, but also blind, in a fashion. He saw wealth and power. I needed someone to act as an intermediary with clients. She approached him and arranged a meeting with me. We talked. She was odd. Too perfect, her eyes were this green colour that I can't really describe." I sighed. "Anyway, she tricked me into taking a contract, using it to get me to a meeting with the other exiles, and then she killed us to send us here."

"You died?"

"I don't know for sure. I think so. That dagger slipped into my heart, and the others bled out as they died. It might have been an illusion, but I think it was real."

"I've never met a dead man before."

"I have. They tend to smell. I woke up in the middle of nowhere. There was a cave, and in it was a vile-bear. Fucking system. Nearly killed me. I was stranded, alone in a new world. The one thing that kept me going, other than sheer bloody-mindedness, was the thought of revenge on Poseidon. I'm going to kill her, Prender."

"How do you kill a god?"

"Ha! You can't. Not really. But you replace them, for a while. Tezca over there is going to try and take over my mind when I ascend. Some part of him is probably going to succeed. I want you to be the next god of the sea." I looked him straight in the eyes as I spoke.

He thought for a moment, no doubt wondering if I'd snapped, and if I had, how the hell he was going to get out of my domain.

"The water affinity, and Winter's Source."

"That's why I gave you power and the Source. I arranged for this winter to be particularly fierce. I attacked the Mother with the Sunking's dagger. Their hatred was enough."

"You attacked…"

"Yeah, that's not important, though. The harsh winter is what matters."

"Why?"

"Poseidon has no power over ice. But flowing water? That's hers. I've weakened her. There is less sunlight to warm her waters, and the heavy freeze will also sap some of her strength."

"How much?"

"Not enough, and I can't kill her anyway. I can fight her; battles between gods are frankly weird, but actually killing her? It has to be someone else."

"Me." It wasn't a question.

"Yes. And the first step along that path is for you to take some of her power and make it your own. I can help, but it will come down to you. Are you willing, and are you strong enough?"

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