Pantheon

Ai

"NOT HERE," Moa shrieks before Thess has a chance to open their eyes.

They squint and blink at bright bright desert and big hot sun and Aur's yelling "NOT HERE NOT HERE" and they're gone again.

They open their eyes again in cool darkness, in a close, steel-walled room with no windows or lights. They can barely see the walls, hung with brooms and buckets and other supplies. A storage closet.

"Where are we?" they ask, but they know that already, they're on Ai. They're in the farthest, poorest, most underground reaches of this mining town on the edge of the habitable strip. All-In, comes a name unbidden to their brain.

"All-In, on Ai," Aur supplies. "Underground mining town. Right on the edge of Fair territory."

So that's what that was. Thess feels a flicker of fear. "That was them?"

"Yeah. I don't really think you were all there yet." Moa looks actually shaken. "It was definitely..."

"It was definitely something," Igan finishes.

"Wait," says Thess. "You mean...What was that?"

"Absolutely no idea!" crows Aur.

She doesn't know?

Somehow this is the most confusing thing that's happened to them today. "What."

Aur laughs at their tone. "What kind of goddess of chaos and mystery would I be if I knew all the answers, huh?"

"We know of the Fair," Igan offers, now down to a more reasonable and humanlike form. "We do not know much about them."

"They're completely alien," Moa explains. "Human brains literally aren't built to be able to process them. And our brains are based in human thought processes. We're first and foremost goddesses of humanity, after all."

Only that's not the confusing part. Although the more they think about it, the less it feels like confusion and the more it feels like reluctance. "Sssso," they venture, hands together in a thinking pose. "There are. There are some things you don't know?"

"Lots of things," replies Igan, matter-of-fact. "We only have power within our domains, after all. Wide and influential as they are, they still have their limits."

"Goddess magic isn't human magic," adds Moa. "It's way less multipurpose."

"But – " Thess struggles. "You're goddesses. You control – everything!"

"Why, where'd you hear that?" says Aur.

"E-everywhere!"

"Yeah?" Aur continues. "From your teachers? From your books? From the priestesses? From humans?"

"We do control a lot," Moa admits. "We're far more powerful than humans can even comprehend. But sometimes they take some...creative liberties. They make assumptions. Things we don't say anything about."

"You," Igan finishes, "fall into none of our domains."

The door handle rattles, and Thess jumps. "Uh, guys?!"

But as the handle clicks and light starts to stream in, the goddesses all turn into tiny insects and leave Thess to deal with whoever's coming in. "Oh, come on!" they squeak.

A boy about Thess's age stands in the doorway. He's holding a broom and bucket, and his clothes and dusky skin are smudged and ashy.

"Who are you talking to?" he asks, voice muffled behind the papery breathmask over his nose and mouth.

"Nobody," says Thess. "Myself. Bad habit."

"What're you doing out here by yourself? Not exactly safe," he says. He doesn't seem too concerned about their answer, nonchalantly hanging his broom on a hook on the wall and emptying the bucket in a floor drain.

Thess's curiosity is piqued. "If it's not safe, what are you doing out here?"

The boy doesn't meet their eyes. "Well, you know," he grunts. "Work." He leaves the storage room, closing the door behind him.

The goddesses reform around Thess.

"That was pretty sad," Moa says. She looks sad.

Thess feels like they should be sad, but everything else right now is still too much. "So," they say, clasping their hands together intently. "Am I a goddess or not?" They get it out fast, all in one breath.

"Welllllllll..." says Aur, rocking back and forth on her heels.

"Just tell me!" Thess snaps.

"We don't know," says Igan. "You're like a goddess, but you're not one of us. And if you were, your origin would make no sense. Why would you appear to us now?"

"We don't know anything about you," says Moa. She sounds kind of awed. "You're completely new."

Completely new. Even in the eyes of the goddesses.

"So. You don't know anything?" Their tone is softer. It somehow makes it way easier knowing they're not alone in this.

"Okay we know some things," Aur interjects.

"No, I know," Thess replies.

"Yeah, they know. They were talking about –" adds Moa before Igan cuts her off. "We know we know some things."

"But nothing about this," Thess clarifies.

"No more than you, Thess," Igan replies. "In fact, I suspect you know more than all of us combined."

Igan might be trying to make a point, but that statement doesn't make logical sense. Plus, it's too overwhelming to actually comprehend. They're about to argue when Moa, sensing it coming, interjects.

"I do know that you've been unconsciously regulating your breathing, and the ventilation system for the city is almost down. They can't survive breathing the untreated atmosphere. I was gonna save it for when we were done, but you're not done yet, and it almost is," she rushes.

Thess blinks. "Really? No, wait. No, wait! I feel it!" they exclaim. "I can feel it!" It's like the beginning of a toothache, but right above their diaphragm. Instead of reaching out to the magic in a conscious effort, they reach inside themself and shift everything just a little bit to the left.

Instantly the feeling in their diaphragm recedes, and in its place comes a bubbly, pastel swell of emotion. It's pride, they realize, pride and that feeling you get when someone thanks you. It feels unearthly, and grand, and divine.

That feeling fades quickly, though, when they realize where they have to go next. Last.

Moa sees them frowning. "You okay, Thess?"

Thess braces a smile. "Yeah, of course," they say. "Little nervous."