Over a day later, they finally left the closet they’d camped in. Cass’s health was only up to 16, and she felt it. There was a hollowness to her. Like something integral had been scooped out of her. Like she was a ghost among the living.

  According to Salos, this was quite a fast recovery, given she still had open wounds and they were in the depths of a dungeon. Cass attributed it to Demonic Vitality doubling her Health regeneration and Beacon of Hearth and Home increasing it further. But it would be a while before she got back to 100% again.

  At least she had full Stamina and Focus again, so she didn’t feel like she would fall over immediately. As long as she didn’t have to fight anything.

  Cass followed Alyx back down to the ninth floor. She had no intention of attempting to bind with a dragon, but the other bonuses from Alacrity’s Blessing were supposed to be pretty good.

  “We just need to cross this?” Cass asked, standing at the chasm’s edge.

  “Yeah,” Alyx said. “Be careful, though. It’ll start shooting lightning at you once we start crossing.”

  “We?” Cass asked.

  “I need to go too,” Pellen said meekly. An above-average number of her eyes were fixed on the chasm.

  “I’m not going to make you go alone,” Alyx added.

  Cass shrugged. It would be trivial for her to cross on her own, but if Pellen needed to cross too, it made more sense to cross together. “Well, let’s go then.”

  She jumped onto the first beam. It was wide enough to stand on easily without turning her body, but not wider. Pellen followed, her jump a fair bit less graceful than Cass’s. But she landed without too much flailing and—more importantly—without falling, which was important.

  Cass led the way, walking at a comfortable pace for Pellen.

  Slow enough that she had plenty of time to notice the warning of Trap Detection.

  “Wait,” Cass said. Pellen stumbled to a stop behind her. Alyx and Marco stopped with more grace.

  “What?” Pellen asked.

  Cass scanned the beam before her, forcing herself to really look. The ground shimmered. “There.” She tapped it with the end of her staff.

  Across the room, from behind the altar, a bolt of lightning burst into existence, racing down the room for her. Cass redirected it easily with Elemental Manipulation around them.

  “Oh,” Cass said, “That’s how that works.”

  “The lightning is triggered by traps?” Alyx asked. “It wasn’t just random?”

  “Looks like it,” Cass said as she continued walking. Now that she was looking, she could see more trapped points along the nearby beams. The lightning wasn’t a worry for Cass, even if she triggered them, but, “How did you get through this?”

  “I ran. They shoot straight, so…” Alyx shrugged.

  Simple enough, Cass supposed.

  “Please warn me before you set that off,” Pellen squeaked from behind Cass.

  “Oh, sorry,” Cass said.

  It was good practice for Trap Detection, but the rest of the crossing was uneventful. Cass warned Pellen each time she purposefully set off the lightning and minimized the number of times they had to change beams.

  Trap Detection has increased to level 4.

  She and the others ended up before the strange crystalline tree and Alacrity’s altar.

  “So I just touch the glowing gold orb?” Cass asked, staring at the object in question. It looked a lot like the orb she’d found in the Shadow Hall of the Deep—the one where not-Salos had given her Mana Blade.

  Alyx nodded.

  “And just me and Pellen?” Cass asked.

  Marco shrugged. “I did it back with Lady Alyx’s mother. One can only get it once.”

  I’m not touching that, Salos said.

  Why? Cass asked. Should I not touch it?

  He shifted on her shoulder, his eyes not leaving the orb. Call it intuition. I get a strong feeling it would be best if I did not. It is probably safe enough for you, though.

  What does that mean? Cass asked.

  “Did you want to go first?” Pellen asked.

  “Ah, I mean,” no. No, she did not.

  If you plan on taking Alacrity’s Blessing, you should go first, Salos said.

  But you implied I shouldn’t? Cass shot back.

  Well. Maybe.

  Salos!

  “Come on, Cass,” Alyx said, slapping Cass on her good shoulder. “No need to hesitate. You are the reason I got down here. You go first.”

  “R-right,” Cass said, stepping toward the divine orb.

  Just accept it, he said. Get it over with.

  What is going to happen when I touch this?

  Probably nothing special. You’ll get the Blessing.

  But what might happen?

  That depends entirely on how closely that bitch is watching her trial.

  That did not make Cass any more comfortable. But the bonuses Alyx had gotten were significant. They weren’t something she should turn down just because Salos was acting cryptically, and her guts were rolling.

  She stretched her hand out and touched the orb. It was cold to the touch.

  “Should something—” Lightning burst up her arm as she spoke, and the world shifted.

  Abyss, Salos cursed, his claws sinking into her shoulder.

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  The lightning curled through her, and she could feel herself falling. Salos fell from her shoulder, though she could still hear him cursing over their connection.

  When Cass’s vision cleared, and the lightning through her arm had subsided, she stood before a woman.

  She was a head taller than Cass, crowned in a twisting tiara of horns. She wore storm grey robes with long sweeping sleeves that hid her hands. Her eyes glimmered electric blue and her hair fell in a cloud of curling red.

  At Cass’s side stood a man. He was about her height with dark blue-purple skin, the color of the creeping dusk sky. His face was all sharp angles, a face not accustomed to smiling. And they were dressed in the same clothes, Ephemeral Robes over leather armor.

  She had never seen him before, and yet there was something undeniably familiar about him. Him and his gold eyes.

  “Congratulations, Trial Taker,” the woman said. Her voice was soft, like a falling rain. Yet thunder lurked in the distance, waiting to be unleashed. “You have done well to reach this place. I assume you wish for my blessing?”

  Her blessing. Cass’s hands clenched at her sides. Then, this was a god. Alacrity herself? The patron of Vaisom. The protector of dragons.

  Her voice had the same weight as Perception. Her eyes glimmered with the same power.

  Cass nodded.

  The goddess placed a hand on Cass’s shoulder, and lightning jolted through Cass’s body. It burned. It laced its way through the wounds on her shoulder and raced up and down her body. There was only heat and pain.

  At her side, the man yelled. Cass couldn’t hear him. She couldn’t hear anything over the pain.

  Alacrity was speaking, her hand unmoved from Cass’s shoulder.

  The man was yelling back.

  There was pain.

  So much pain.

  Splitting pain. Cracking, creaking pain. Like someone had shoved a crowbar into her soul and was twisting it open.

  She fumbled for Soul Guard. It slipped through her fingers.

  She just wanted it to stop. For everything to stop.

  Cass crumpled to the floor. The woman’s hand didn’t follow her. The pain did, though it had shifted from that of a twisted blade to that of an aching gash.

  “You need to stop!” The man yelled, his voice reaching her brain for the first time. It was a voice she recognized.

  Where had she heard it?

  God, everything hurt.

  “I’ve stopped,” the woman said. There was something amused about her tone. “I must say, I didn’t expect you to care so much. I even gave her a little extra because it’s you.”

  A Window floated before Cass’s face.

  Blessing of Alacrity granted

  [You have proven yourself worthy of She of Stunning Brilliance and Striking Inspiration’s attention. She has granted you the right to bind with her chosen people: the dragons. Additionally, she has granted you the following boons:

  + 18% Ala

  + 6% Dex

  + 6% Wll

  + 6% Per]

  “This is cruel,” the man said. “Do you do this to all your followers?”

  “This is what we do. What do you think we get in return for our blessings? Your goodwill?”

  “That used to be enough.”

  What were they talking about?

  Cass couldn’t move. The pain was too great. Her body felt far away. Like it was a puppet with cut strings while her consciousness was its master, gasping for air behind the stage with a dagger in her heart, uselessly shaking the puppet’s controls.

  The woman laughed. “Hardly. This isn’t new. This was always how this worked. I’ve just found ways to do it more efficiently. You should thank me. I’ve just made your master that much more powerful. You think my predecessor would have granted even close to this much?”

  “You are intentionally damaging souls!” he shouted. Why did his voice seem so familiar? Her head was spinning. “That’s everything we stood against! Or have you forgotten that?”

  “Are you still hung up on that? Even now? I would have thought your self-preservation would have papered over those beliefs by now. Or your hatred for me. Are you just drowning in self-loathing instead?” She laughed. It was a laugh like lightning, sharp and striking. “Oh, no, ######, you used to be far more practical than that. Since when have you been so principled?”

  She said his name. For a moment, it sparked familiarity. For a moment, Cass was sure she’d heard it before. And yet, immediately, it was gone. Denied. Taken. By the goddess? By the System?

  He was talking again. “There are lines even I would not cross. Lines I once thought we agreed on.”

  God, why did it hurt so much? She reached for Soul Guard again. It wrapped around her this time. A comfortable pressure holding her soul in place.

  Hell. What had that goddess done to her?

  “Oh, please,” the goddess snapped. “We’ve always done what needed to be done. That’s how this world works.”

  “The Custodia—“

  “Had pretty ideals, but only our dear Captain cared about them. The rest of us were just there to keep one another in check while looking for a way to break off on our own. Don’t tell me you, of all people, bought the public line?”

  Cass forced herself to sit. Her head spun with the movement.

  “More than one thing can be true,” the man growled. “It could exist to protect souls and keep the true powerhouses from leveling continents because they could.”

  “Cute. It’s cute you think that so passionately.” She chuckled. It rumbled like distant thunder. “Which version of him are you? You seem so young. You couldn’t be the first splinter, could you?”

  “Which splinter?” The man recoiled, his question a breathy gasp.

  She grinned. “Oh. You are. Interesting. That explains these views, then. So young. Still, I don’t think I took you for an idealist even then.”

  “Young? You—Are you suggesting you broke me multiple times? That I let you do this to me multiple times?”

  She laughed. “Oh. That is very cute. ‘Let’? Dear, dear, ######, when has what you wanted ever mattered? Have you forgotten what you are? Or should I say what you were? Who I was to you?”

  He stiffened.

  She shook her head. “Nothing has changed. Not really. Oh, you have a different master now, but you are once again nothing but a small animal in the palm of their hand.”

  The goddess turned, her smile falling on Cass.

  Cass’s heart stopped. Lightning didn’t scare her the way it was supposed to, and yet she felt like a lightning rod before an incoming storm.

  “How do you like my blessing, Traveler?” the goddess asked.

  Cass found her mouth dry. Her lips didn’t want to move. Still, she forced the words out. “Thank you.”

  The goddess snorted. “You did well. Your tolerance for soul pain is high. Perhaps that shouldn’t be a surprise given what it’s already been through.” Her eyes snapped back to the man. “See, repeated damage, allowed to heal, is a powerful tool. Just look at your new mistress.”

  “Soul damage?” Cass repeated.

  “Sure. I can see the fractures running up and down your soul, this way and that. Not a pretty set of scars, but what scars are? I wish I had been watching since the beginning. To have seen what gave you all that?”

  “I don’t have scars,” Cass said.

  “No?” The goddess asked. “What do you call all that?”

  The goddess snapped, and the world shifted. Cass stood alone on a pedestal, naked save for a thick blue cape. A spotlight shone down on her from above. Blackness stretched out in every direction beyond her.

  “Ah, let’s remove that for a moment. Really see what lies beneath, hm?” the goddess’s voice rang out. There was another snap. The cape disappeared, and Soul Guard ground to a halt. The pain it had been blocking rolled back over her.

  “No hiding it now,” the goddess said.

  She could feel herself leaking. Like what she was getting thinner by the second.

  She was lightheaded. She looked down.

  It wasn’t her body she saw. Not exactly.

  It was the plastic thing she’d conjured when she’d first fought Salos. The thing that looked more like a doll’s body than a living, breathing person’s. But then, she wasn’t a breathing person at all.

  Long rends were drawn across the plastic skin. Blue sparks leaked from the gashes, her Focus spilling out.

  Between the bleeding sparks, there were duller lines, ever so slightly raised. Rippling in places, razor straight in others. Scars. Hundreds of scars.

  “What is this?” Cass asked.

  “A manifestation of the damage you’ve done to your soul,” the goddess said.

  “When?”

  There was a snap, and Cass was again standing (clothed) before the goddess, the man at her side.

  The goddess gave a casual shrug. “I won’t pretend to have been watching you the entire time. Surely, my shadows gave you a good number of those.”

  Her shadows? As in, “The ones in the Shadow Hall?”

  “Ah, I do miss the days when we built that place, don’t you, ######? Things were simpler then.”

  He flinched under her attention.

  “In any case, this has been fun. I seem to have missed you. Or this version of you. If I had any good sense, I would kill you both here. But as a favor to Perception, I suppose I’ll let you go. Run along now. Dance for us. Remember, you won’t live long once Perception is bored with you.”

  The world twisted, and Cass again stood before Alacrity’s altar, Salos on her shoulder.

  “Well?” Alyx asked. “How did it go?”

  Cass pulled her hand back, trying to ignore the shaking. Terror was rising in her chest. Terror that was not wholly her own. She plastered a smile over her face all the same. “I think that went well.”