12 Chapter 11

Not all patients came without expense. It was a sentiment Caster knew all too well, but often, it wasn't the patient that brought the expense.

Caster was more than willing to contribute a patient's treatment cost for the opportunity to study new diseases and injuries, but his blunt attitude and words do little to alleviate the anxiety of a patient's loved ones. And it was the irrationality of those loved ones that always came at Caster's expense as the doctor.

Hopes, despair, and anxieties, Caster had seen it all, preventing any form of surprise or hasty action to get a rise from him. Instead, he'd grown used to assessing his assailants for intent. Anything less than murder or violence would not phase him. His wards would have dealt with that before an assailant could have entered his medical space.

Staring at Ryuu, all Caster could see was a clumsy attempt at gaining the high-ground. Her gaze was distracted, and her hands weren't as firm as she thought. For someone threatening to kill him, Caster could tell that the strength in her grip wasn't up to par to pierce deep enough into his neck even if he leaned forward.

-It was nothing more than a paper tiger.

Could she afford to kill him? Obviously not. The answer regarding who held all the cards was simple for any third party to tell.

Caster had all the power.

Ryuu had no idea how Caster had raised the dead, or what limitations it had, but Caster was different. He knew everything. How could she bring herself to kill Caster if she didn't even know if doing so would destroy any chance she had in reuniting with her deceased Familia members?

She couldn't. And that was why, beyond the confidence in his own self-defence ability, Caster quickly surmised that no threat existed to him and moved at his leisure.

Others were not as sound of mind and could only infer the gravity of the situation by observation.

Hestia, Shirou, and Iris burst into the medical ward, quickly noticing Caster with a knife to his neck, Ryuu holding the knife, and Bell flustered and trying to mediate.

"What's going on?!" Hestia blurted, expression quickly turning into anger at the scene.

Caster chuckled with a wry, almost dark, sense of humour.

"I wonder, aunt Hestia." Caster said in monotone, glancing down at the knife still by his neck, and then back to Hestia who was connecting all the dots. "Why don't you tell me?"

Hestia balled her hands into fists. She was the Goddess of the Hearth, Family, and Home. The church was effectively a place she designated as her temple, a family space of warmth and kindness.

Few if anything could provoke Hestia, but the sanctity of family and the home was one of them.

Home was where the heart lies, and violence within it was a sacrilege against everything Hestia stood for.

For a second, divinity flickered over Hestia's eyes.

"Ms. Ryuu, lets all calm down and put the dagger away!" Bell hurriedly intervened, sensing the shift in his Goddess's demeanor.

"Bell…even I have certain things I can't stand for." Hestia was stewing.

Meanwhile, Iris winced, hindsight giving her full realization as to the cause of events and spurring her into action.

Iris quickly patted Hestia down the shoulders to prevent her from doing anything hasty, and then called out to Ryuu.

"T-That's enough Ryuu. There's been a small misunderstanding."

Vigilant from the start, Ryuu began to have doubts when even Iris began persuading her.

Ryuu swallowed, staring hard at Caster then back at everyone else before tentatively withdrawing her weapon. "Misunderstanding?"

Iris noticed Hestia was calming down and stepped forward to better explain in a way Ryuu would understand; a revelation that the both had just recently come to terms with.

"Revival skills may come at certain costs, but the cost shouldn't be so great in the case of a Demi-God." Iris said.

Ryuu's eyes widened before she stared back at Caster, and then recalled his affiliation to the sun, and what she'd witnessed before hand. It was only now that she realized how Caster of all people could possess the means to revive the dead. Like Achillies, Caster was also part God, and his Godly parent was unmistakable.

"T-That fop Apollo?" Ryuu murmured before taking a step back, Caster taking the opportunity to smooth the wrinkles over his attire.

"He is no father of mine," Caster grimaced, his expression shifting away from neutral before regarding Iris and nodding. "Though you'd be right in that there's a corresponding price for my services. If you haven't noticed, none of my current patients have gotten up from their beds, nor will they be able to on their own."

Iris blinked, processing the words, but someone else other than anyone presently in room, reacted.

"What is it? I new it was strange that Peleus wasn't waking up!" Thetis came bounding in, having missed the time to enter without being awkward, but she passed the point of caring. "What do you need!"

The commotion had drawn Thetis into the fold, Rider silently following behind her with his arms crossed and expression sheepish.

"Divine blood," Caster answered bluntly. "The effectiveness increases with the corresponding God and their Familia. It's not the blood itself that's required, but the type of divinity within it that reacts with a patient's Falna or magic energy."

"How do you know that?" Iris inquired, intrigued in the specifics, but not quite sure if she'd understand.

She hoped Caster was willing to delve into details, but that seemed like too much to ask when his expression looked cranky.

"Research," Caster spat a one-word answer.

"I donated blood!" Hestia offered, chipping in. Unlike Iris, she didn't care about whether she understood the process or not, and just wanted to be helpful.

Caster nodded, having a softer spot for Hestia than any other Olympian and chose to elaborate a little.

"It wasn't as effective as predicted. Patient zero garners the ability to rouse from sleep, but mobility is heavily restricted," he said.

"Who do you mean by patient zero?" Shirou raised a brow and asked. He had a feeling Caster wouldn't have bothered replying if it wasn't him.

"Her." Caster pointed, drawing everyone attention onto a woman who was silently staring back at everyone.

The woman's features were soft yet sharp, and she possessed the same hue of hair as Caster. Her eyes were heterochromatic, one side green, the other grey. She was wearing a dark goth-dress with black and dark silver highlights that reached to her ankles. A necklace and green jewel was worn just over her collar. A bead of sweat was forming on her brow, and her eyes kept darting away from Thetis and Iris as if mortified.

Her name was Alfia.

Thetis and Iris let out a small gasp while Ryuu's pupils constricted. Everyone else revealed minor reactions, most with only the level of attention devoted towards meeting a stranger.

"Iris look, it's Alfy!" Thetis said, pleasantly surprised, totally ignoring the way Alfia's pupils shuddered uncontrollably at the endearing name. "We haven't seen her in ages ever since we were driven out of Orario. Zeus never told us what happened to her or her sister after the coalition split up."

"Indeed," Iris put her glasses back on, inspected the other patients in the room, and then with a certain degree of misunderstanding, glanced sharply back at Shirou. "It seems you've already gathered an ideal line up."

More and more, Iris was beginning to realize that the odds of successfully reinitiating the Grand Quest were high.

Alfia herself was a level 7 powerhouse and former executive of the Hera Familia. Then there were the others in this medical ward. If they were all resuscitated and brought back to full health, Iris could already feel the anticipation rising.

Of course, not everyone felt the same way.

Ryuu's features were cold, murderous intent causing her to open and close her hands before she realized Caster was suddenly right in front of her with a scrutinizing eye.

"What are you doing?" He demanded in a low tone.

Ryuu gasped, breaking out of her trail of thought and growing apprehensive. She pursed her lips, body language screaming tension.

"What? I haven't done anything." She protested, avoiding direct eye-contact.

"Do you think I can't tell?" Caster pressured her with a face that never batted an eye in its accusation.

Ryuu felt her mouth dry, trying to formulate the words that eventually simmered down to a weak air of caution.

"She's evil."

Thetis and Hestia appeared confused at Ryuu's hostility, but that was in large part do to an organization known as Evilus whose relation with Alfia was left obscured for those not in the know.

Ryuu knew everything. She was there when it all happened, but no one else could see that. All Caster saw was a patient in need of treatment. All other factors didn't fall into his considerations.

"Who lives and who dies is not your choice to make in my medical ward," Caster warned, Ryuu backing away first, startled by the doctor's momentum.

"You don't understand." Ryuu once again tried to find the words, staring primarily at her feet. "She's-"

"Medicine does not discriminate." Caster interrupted, forcing Ryuu to stop her words short. "Whoever this woman is, or whatever she's done, doesn't mean that I'll let a patient under my purview come to harm."

"But-"

"If you're done making a show of yourself, be useful and contact your Goddess to donate blood for the cause. That's why you're here, isn't it?"

Ryuu was left speechless, but grudgingly let the matter drop when she finally found her Familia members resting in beds on the other side of the room.

She left towards them without another word, causing the spectators to wonder if things would turn out well?

Thetis was the only one with other thoughts as she bounded towards Caster and tentatively took his hands in hers.

"If you need my blood, then take it." Thetis urged, swallowing nervously. "However much you need, I'll give it!"

Rider did not like the way Caster's eyes were suddenly twinkling.

Coughing, Rider separated Thetis's grip from Caster's hands and awkwardly put himself in front of Thetis. "Mine is probably better, isn't it, Caster?"

Rider was the son of Peleus and Thetis. He had both his mother's divine properties, and half the genome of his father. The effectiveness would prove far more compatible than just Thetis's blood.

"Haaaa," Caster sighed and grudgingly agreed, but it didn't stop him from wanting to stock up on divine blood for more tests. It's just that he couldn't with the way Thetis looked so desperate.

In hindsight, Caster was being too obvious, and Rider saw right through his motives. Rider refrained from pointing it out due to guilt from the prior matter.

Rider cut his left palm, and then squeezed his hand into a fist. The blood began to drip into a container Rider grabbed.

Caster called him a barbarian, sighing as he put down the needle and syringe he had intended on using on Rider before Rider had done the deed himself. Thetis had grown squeamish at seeing her son harming his own impervious body, and hastily excused herself to bring Peleus over.

"How unsanitary." Caster mumbled, but didn't refuse the offered blood.

Gathering the blood, Caster used his magic to decant the solution through a permissible membrane and into the Thetis Familia Falna on Peleus.

As the blood dripped over Peleus's body, it seeped through his skin and shone with a divine luster that congregated towards his Falna on the back. Soon, Peleus's eyelids gradually began to twitch, Thetis leaning towards him and clasping her hands.

"It's done." Caster moved away from Peleus, and turned to face Thetis and Rider with his doctor's diagnosis. "Let him rest, and he should wake in a couple hours- oh dear gods no…"

The teary-eyed look of gratitude Thetis was sending Caster was giving him flashbacks before reality returned and Thetis was already moving to embrace him.

"Thank you!" Thetis suddenly lunged forward.

"Don't hug-!" Caster showed panic for the first time and tried to dodge.

He was too late. A pair of warm arms wrapped around him and Caster could feel Thetis's tears wiping over his medical scrubs. Oh, the cross contamination.

"Really, thank you!"

The hug continued to tighten, lifting Caster to the tips of his feet and suffocating him with a mother's warm affection that Caster had never experienced.

"-Release me."

"Really, really, thank you!"

Caster was sure of it now. His philosophy: Never trust the Gods!

"…R-Rider."

"Mother, please." Rider was blushing.

It was an expression that only a son could make when their mother was embarrassing them in front of an audience. Worse, in front of friends.

Apologizing again and again, Rider took Thetis by the hand, and escorted her out with Peleus in tow. Shirou, Iris, and Hestia followed quickly afterwards.

Shirou sensed that Caster was just about reaching the limits of his patience for the sudden breach into his medical ward.

Panting for breath, Caster still reeled from the first ever crisis of his new life. That alien feeling of warmth and gratitude directed at him and not on others was too foreign for comfort.

"...Never again." He eventually composed himself as his lips twitched. From the corner of his gaze, he could keenly make out Alfia's eyes staring at him with sympathy.

Caster didn't like that look all that much, but he had no time to address how or why Alfia would empathize with him because Ryuu was back.

Blinking, Caster pinched the bridge of his nose. "Did you need anything else?"

Ryuu hesitated, not knowing that Caster was being rhetorical and was strongly hinting Ryuu to leave.

She either didn't notice, or was thick skinned and ignored it as determination welled up in her demeanor. She took in a deep breath and locked her gaze with Caster's.

"I'd like to take my Familia members somewhere more secure." Ryuu raised her request, her prior hesitation waning in the face of recent revelations. She'd feel infinitely more comfortable if she could place her friends in the Hostess of Fertility while she sought out her Goddess Astraea.

Caster considered not answering, but as a doctor, he was obligated to answer when it concerned his patients. "I wouldn't recommend that."

"Why?" Ryuu shivered.

"Can you feed a person that does not chew? Can you make swallow a person whose throat is paralyzed? Do not mistake their condition as life, only breath has returned." Caster stated facts, uncaring for feelings. "My domain here preserves them. Take them out, and they'll eventually die from lack of sustenance."

Ryuu wasn't stupid. In the time it took for her emotions to calm down, she understood that Caster was someone she had to be thankful for. Recalling what she'd done, her cheeks tinged red in embarrassment. She knew she was asking for too much, but still, she let go of whatever pride she had and lowered her head to plead.

She swallowed, hoping for the best.

"Then…I'd like to stay awhile?"

Duty as a doctor aside, Caster was also human. Even he could be swayed by emotion which was evident in Peleus's case, and that was why he stayed true to himself.

"Actually, you're banned."

Annoyance was an emotion, and Caster had had enough of it. What did Ryuu have to do with him?

"B-Banned?"

Caster mercilessly pointed at his neck, and Ryuu flinched at the reminder and panicked.

"I-I'm sorry, but I-I assure you that I was really just, ugh- no wait please!"

Caster snapped his fingers, and Ryuu was booted out of the room by a metal snake. Hissing at her, it guarded the entrance while Ryuu shakily got up and rubbed at her butt in a attempt to numb the pain. She sniffled whether out of pain or a certain relief was hard to say.

Still, the fall had hurt more than she'd thought.

She winced as she clenched her butt cheeks.

…

"Now where was I?"

Caster turned his attention back to Alfia only to see her and Bell staring silently at each other.

Caster's brow twitched violently.

It seems he'd forgotten one.

"Get out."

A second later, and Bell joined Ryuu, skidding over the ground from an even rougher exit.

/-/

Iris pinched the bridge of her nose in a bid to sort out her thoughts. Everything began when Thetis had dragged Iris back to Orario on the unfounded nature of a vision that proved truer than what either Goddess could have expected.

Visions were always finicky in that they were wholly contrived by definition. By revealing a vision, the scene no longer becomes a fixed point due to altering the course of events that led to that point. Of course, this is assuming future vision rather than past or present vision.

In Thetis's case with Achillies, Iris's speculations fell heavily on the future. The vision Thetis revealed spoke of Achillies's death. What could kill that monster of a man? The answer was none other than Apollo using his own arcanum to intervene where he shouldn't have. Then again, against a Demi-God, it might have been the only choice…

Iris frowned, realizing that she was getting ahead of herself. The reason she leaned towards a prophetic vision of the future, was that Achillies was presently alive and not dead, and Apollo was still in the lower realm despite directly intervening in the speculative future.

As such, it was certain that the events depicted had yet to happen. Hence, a future vision.

But why? Why would Apollo go to such lengths to forsake his own existence in the lower realm?

Regardless, that future had already been somewhat skewed.

In Thetis's original vision, Peleus was absent. Iris surmised that without Caster to intervene, Peleus had been meant to die in Orario, leaving Thetis widowed and Achillies fatherless. That aspect had clearly changed.

What likely hadn't, was a war that could drag the involvement of a Demi-God?

Rider's shield depicted the scene of a battlefield written in the Iliad, but didn't explicitly detail the cause of conflict through the rapidly changing images that expanded to create a world.

In the end, Iris realized that regardless of any coming events, the root lied with the unknown group of Demi-Gods gathered before her.

"Let's get back on topic, shall we?" Iris broached after matters had settled down with Caster, Ryuu, and Bell above.

Shirou sat across from Iris while Hestia was playing host on the side and tending to a flame she'd started in a make-shift hearth. The abandoned church didn't have any form of centralized heating, so Hestia was making do with what she did best, creating a warm atmosphere.

The light of Hestia's hearth lit up the circle of pews everyone was sitting on. The fire flickered as Hestia stoked the flames, letting out a small and content smile while roasting what looked like croquettes on a stick.

"Hehe, everyone gets fresh croquettes in Hestia's house," Hestia hummed to herself.

Shirou felt the corners of his lips tug at Hestia. Honestly, the buxom Goddess created a whole new impression of herself with each action she took, but Shirou was distracting himself.

Iris was still focused on him and waiting for an answer. Her legs were crossed and her hands were professionally placed on her lap. She was leaning slightly forward and her posture was straight.

She looked like she had a lot she wanted to say and get through.

Shirou scratched the back of his head and gestured at Iris. "By all means, let's continue."

Iris cleared her throat and put out a business front.

"Your prior offer," she began with a solemn air. "I will accept providing you support for your endeavors."

Whatever Iris had seen in Caster's medical ward had tipped the scales in favor.

"We'd be glad to have you," Shirou would not kick a gift horse in the mouth. Help was something that shouldn't be avoided where possible, especially in his case where culture shock could make him suspicious.

It was why Shirou chose not to contradict any misunderstanding others may have of him. A wolf can become a dog if everyone views the wolf as a dog.

"Regarding logistics and supply, please leave it to Thetis and her Familia." Iris continued, laying down a structural basis of operation.

As a former personnel of the prior subjugation team of the One-Eyed Black Dragon, it was clear that Iris had a vested interest in succeeding.

"Thetis is not the most reliable on a personal basis- she's actually quite selfish when it comes to her family, uhm,ah, yes. Focus. Sorry." Iris blushed before continuing. "Anyways, Thetis's Familia specialize in trade from a network of river exports and favors from irrigating farmlands. Every year, she receives a surplus of food from grateful farm owners, so you never go hungry with her. More importantly, Thetis is friends with Demeter."

And Demeter was a Harvest Goddess, the dots clicked in Shirou's head, and he ended up nodding.

"What about yourself?" He asked Iris.

A subtle smirk made its way up Iris's face. Combat was one thing, but she had her own form of pride in her station. "Admittedly, I'm not the most physically able, but there is no middle man better than I to act as a representative or dignitary-"

"Hermes." Hestia deadpanned from the side, picking at old wounds and debates of the upper world.

"Hermes wishes." Iris hissed with a little more heat than she'd intended, but that was only the beginning. "His feet are swift and his guile tongue, made of gilded silver! But I am the rainbow that-"

"Leads to those tiny suited half-men!" Hestia clapped her hands and waved her sticks of roasting croquettes around. "Ooh, the ones with bushy beards and their funny odd accen-!"

"Hestia." Iris said icily.

"Y-Yes?" Hestia stammered off guard.

The statement wasn't wrong because there were those odd encounters, but Iris was finding it increasingly difficult to keep her expression neutral.

"Shut up." Iris ground her teeth.

Perhaps used to each other, Hestia quieted down, offered a croquette, and began patting Iris's back in consolation.

Staying mad at Hestia was too difficult. The relationship was akin to cousins.

Iris deflated, taking Hestia's offered croquette and quietly nibbling on it.

She stared at Shirou just staring at them, and sighed. "It's ruined. The impact is ruined," she lamented.

"My condolences?" Shirou offered.

Iris sighed again, looking even more resigned. It was better to just get it over with.

"Rainbows bridge the heavens to the earth, acting as early day symbols of transmission." Iris explained with puffed cheeks, blowing on her croquette before taking a large bite. "Hermes is a messenger God having to travel from point A to B. In contrast, my domain of influence connects A to B. The greater the distance, the more divinity required in the lower world, but it's useful nonetheless. Obstacles become obsolete whereas Hermes would have to get over them."

Iris could never win in a fight against Hermes. His speed was too fast.

She'd be defeated before she could react, but sending messages and traveling were different.

Hermes could run or walk for all Iris cared, she'd just enter through a mist door and be done with it.

In short, Shirou surmised that it was the difference between word-of-mouth, and telephone: Walking vs teleporting.

"I haven't offered my services in a while, but it doesn't mean my Familia and I are obsolete in Orario's newest political structure." Iris said after swallowing and smiling thinly.

There was a reason she was a primary affiliate of the Zeus Familia when it had been in power.

"Therefore, leave Caster's matter and recruitment of a new subjugation team to me. Thetis and I will do our part, and you do yours."

"Which is?" Shirou perked up.

Nostalgia bled into Iris's demeanor as she slouched into a church pew. She appeared to be looking at a distant horizon.

"Like the Zeus and the Hera Familia…show your worth and give those that follow something to believe in."

/-/

Watching numerous men and women running around wiping sweat off their heads and dousing their faces with water to clear off sticking dust, the Goddess, Loki, squinted her eyes.

The sound of breaking stones and hammering nails echoed through the air, the sun bearing down on a day with clear skies.

The cleanup of Babel and the surrounding infrastructure was underway, but efforts were slow and subdued as bodies were found. All the survivors that would have been found, had already been found. All that was left were corpses of poor bastards unable to escape in time, or body parts half-eaten by monsters that were left discarded and covered in rubble.

The dead were sorted into a pile, many residents unwilling to bury them and clinging to the hope of a miracle performed by Caster.

Sentiment for the Apollo family was falling rapidly with each day Apollo remained stubbornly silent on the matter. It was unlike him, and something was obviously different in his demeanor.

Loki hardened her expression. Last she'd heard, the Apollo Familia had barricaded themselves in their family base, but after an agitated crowd broke in, the building was found to be empty. A hidden escape tunnel at the bottom revealed that the Familia had gone into hiding.

There hasn't been a word since.

Standing in the heat of the overhead sun, Loki lamented the series of events. Discounting everyone's thoughts on how Thetis had been able to hide such a capable member of her Familia, the interest of Orario's political powers were on restoration.

If more monsters somehow decided to break out the dungeon now, there wouldn't even be the infrastructure to block them.

Loki had to be present because her Familia's current state was abnormal. Hope can also be a type of poison, and she was seeing it first hand.

Ais was constantly lost in thought, Bete had started to mellow, Riveria was blaming herself, and Tiona had disappeared.

Loki clenched her hands into fists as she heard someone approaching behind her.

She didn't bother turning around to face her compatriot. She knew exactly who it was by the feel of the divinity behind her.

It was a woman in a luxurious if not scandalous black dress, hiding all the important parts, but leaving everything else up for interpretation.

The Goddess Freya, a fellow Norse Goddess that Loki knew all too well in the upper world.

"Where were you?" Loki sneered, finally glaring behind her.

Freya scoffed, boasting a beauty that rivaled that of Ishtar. In her left hand, a black fan was opened in front of her face, covering her mouth and only revealing the crescents of her eyes.

"If you mean to accuse me of inaction, then I must inform you that I too was on scene," Freya protested.

Loki opened and closed her mouth, able to tell that Freya wasn't lying. However, Loki didn't stop frowning, rather it only grew deeper before she rounded on her fellow Nordsman.

"Why didn't I see any of your Familia anywhere?" Loki pressed, anger simmering in her voice. "What did you have Ottar doing when people were dying?!"

"It wasn't as if I wasn't trying." Freya grimaced, feeling just as stifled by events. "I was occupied with my own difficulties and couldn't effectively reach out to provide support orders."

Excuses coming from the Familia that reigned the strongest in Orario?

Loki gnashed her teeth, and pried her gaze away.

Freya had never looked so punchable in Loki's eyes until now.

"The loss this time is too great." Loki spat, any sign of her spirited personality all but gone.

To Loki's words, Freya could only agree. She too had experienced loss in this tragedy.

"Indeed. I'm homeless."

Loki's expression twisted all at once.

"Damn it Freya, Babel's gone but you still have Folkvangr on the other side of town!" Loki had enough and ground her teeth. For too long she'd been suppressing her anger at the situation. "Two of my Familia members died, the rest are reeling, and you have the nerve to joke with me?!"

The reason Loki was even here was because she had no confidence that her Familia wouldn't join in the local madness to capture Apollo and forgo the greater picture.

Freya narrowed her eyes in displeasure. "I'd apologize if I didn't know you better. You've started looking into that Caster fellow too, haven't you?"

"..."

"Why should I apologize if you intend to make death a non-issue?"

"That's just sophism," Loki grumbled darkly.

"Is it really?" Freya drawled, seeing right through Loki and the hypocrisy of it all. "Or does that mean you've given up on your deceased Familia members?"

Loki opened her narrow eyes and stared hard at Freya.

Tension filled the air before it suddenly burst like a popped balloon.

Both abruptly gave pause, turning sharply to a fog formed by droplets of water vapor congregating in the air and taking a small arched shape.

The phenomenon did not fall in either of their domains, rather, it was a method that Freya was all too familiar with in her time cooperating with Zeus and Hera.

A tiny mist door appeared in front of them, just enough to fit a dainty hand that reached through and deposited a letter. The door quickly closed, likely to save on divinity.

A picture of a certain mirror-eyed Goddess bedridden and moaning about overwork came to Freya's mind, but her expression remained neutral.

Snorting, Loki went ahead and inspected the letter while Freya closed her fan over her palms and hummed.

"So?" Freya drawled while Loki silently read over the letter's contents.

Loki squinted her eyes, scowling at the next second. "I'm not a handmaiden. Read it for yourself."

Throwing the letter at Freya, Loki lost interest in her fellow Goddess and left without another word.

Curious, Freya focused on the message written in bold print at the top of the letter before the edges of her lips began to twist upward into a barely contained cackle.

Oh, how wonderful.

Freya tucked the letter away between the valley of her breasts and then made her way back to her temporary accommodations until Babel could be reconstructed.

Strife creates Heroes, and Heroes need their patrons.

Inevitably…they'll all fall into her lap.