“An awful tempest mashed the air,

  The clouds were gaunt and few;

  A black, as of a spectre’s cloak,

  Hid heaven and earth from view.”

  Emily Dickinson, American Poet

  “We’ll meet at the Waypoint Pillar on the Academy’s rooftop when it’s over,” Milly instructed, her gown wafting in the morning breeze as they stood at the base of Cizen’s statue. She had her veil in place, shielding her features from spying eyes. “Take care of them for me, okay?”

  “I will,” Oracle promised, her hand resting on Coco’s head. Jinora rode on Coco’s back, her forelegs wrapped in Coco’s fur for support.

  Coco gave Milly a worried bark, and Milly knelt at her side.

  “I’ll be fine Coco. It’s you three I’m worried about,” Milly said, giving the capybara a hug. “Stay safe and keep this old lady out of trouble. In a few hours, you’ll be running around Milly’s Meadow with a little fairy girl on your back, teasing Manifold Toads, chasing boars, and swimming in the bay.”

  Coco chirped and gave an excited little hop, and Milly gave Jinora a tiny high-five.

  Milly handed the Spectacles of Hidden Design to Oracle. “I’ll gather the storm. Wait until you hear Hephaestus sound the emergency bells before you drop the barrier. We need the monsters to strike Core Research Station while everyone is still at the Academy, so don’t wait too long. How many did Hephaestus manage to recruit for the defense?”

  “A dozen, including a foreman who owed him a favor. They spent the night moving makeshift weapons into the Academy under the guise of repairs. I don’t think any of them believe monsters will attack the station, but they trust him.”

  “They’ll believe soon enough,” Milly said, staring out across the ocean as the sun cresting over the morning horizon. She took a deep, calming breath.

  “Are you ready for this?” Oracle asked, the barest flicker of uncertainty behind her supportive eyes.

  “No, but when has that ever mattered?” Milly replied.

  “Milly, you are ready for this. You’re stronger than any player I’ve seen at this stage of the contest. Believe in yourself, as I know your family believes in you.”

  “I do,” Milly answered confidently. After a lifetime of timid uncertainty and hopelessness, the feeling of confidence in herself was the strangest part of all of this.

  Milly clenched her fist, and a spiral staircase of stone curled out of the earth and ascended to the black orb.

  “Remember, conserve your magic if you are able,” Oracle reminded the witch as she stepped onto the first stair. “There is a more important fight ahead of this one.”

  “Yah, I know,” Milly answered as she wrapped herself in magic and kicked off the ground, soaring over the city towards the sea.

  Xavier. He’s the great unknown. What do we do with him? He’s Cizen’s doorway into the God Contest. Do we let the god of death come through and fight him here, or do we bar his entry by killing Xavier before he can step through? Without his door – without a way to be reunited with Syune – Cizen might simply kill the Nexus and all of us along with it? Would he be that spiteful? Would he rob his love of a new life if he cannot be part of it?

  Milly flew over the docks and out across the water, her mind whirling.

  Worry about that later, Milly. We find Xavier, and we isolate him so he can’t grow stronger or achieve any more of Cizen’s accomplishments. I’ll throw him in a hole and trap him inside until I find a better option if I have to.

  A tiny piece of her heart ached – the piece that still, despite everything that had happened between them, missed her former friend.

  The unwelcome emotion wasn’t one she wanted to acknowledge right now. With a flash in her violet eyes, she activated Salem’s Fury and fed the emotion into its flames. She added her doubts and anxieties, savoring the numbness that was left as they burned.

  Accelerating, she dipped low across the water until Core Research Station was barely visible in the distance.

  I’m far enough away. No one will see me out here.

  Milly switched to a vertical climb, rising until her fingers touched the sole wispy cloud in an otherwise empty sky. Beneath her, a flock of pelicans rode the gentle waves. Gulls soared on the currents and dove beneath the waters for their breakfast. The warmth of the sun felt warm on Milly’s back. For just a moment, she allowed herself to bask in the peaceful moment.

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  Inevitably, her thoughts drifted to her family. She pictured Passi playing on a white sandy beach as she lay in Cally’s arms, enjoying a picnic lunch and the pleasant ocean breeze. She’d lean back and gaze into her lover’s eyes, and Cally would give her a teasing kiss. Passi would be grossed out, and she and Cally would laugh, and she’d feel like the luckiest woman in the world.

  When I get home, I’m going to spend every second of every day with them. Fuck the God Contest. Fuck the nightmare that lay at its end. Let someone else carry that burden. I just want to be happy.

  She knew it was an impossible dream. The God Contest would always be there, and, after today, it would be more dangerous than ever. The Witch of the Castle of Glass would always be drawn towards the fight and away from her family, because that was how she would keep them safe.

  Milly fed the dream into Salem’s Fury, and a tiny sob escaped her lips before it also disappeared in its flames.

  The ocean waves beneath her churned, and the flock of pelicans launched into the air to escape their anger. Dark clouds formed around the witch, blocking out the rising sun and robbing her of its comforting heat. The air currents shifted into a cyclone with the witch as its epicenter. The wind howled in Milly’s ears as the darkness stretched across the horizon. The Orianes must fear the storm, and Milly intended to shape a storm they would never forget.

  Her magic plummeted as the storm grew, but within a few minutes the storm was driven as much by its own fury as her magic. Giving up direct control of the storm was a risk she had to take to preserve her magic for the battles to come.

  When it was ready, not a single ray of the rising sun could penetrate the storm’s darkness. Flocks of sea birds fled its path, soaring over Core Research Station in a noisy panic as they sought to escape its fury. Schools of fish dove deep to avoid the churning waters, which gave birth to sixty-foot-high waves that crashed against nearby spits of land. The howl of the wind dominated all, and Milly had to form tiny plugs of air in her ear to block the sound.

  Here we go…

  Milly nudged the storm towards Core Research Station and hoped Oracle and Hephaestus had done their parts.

  * * *

  Oracle watched the storm form from atop Cizen’s statue, the barrier subroutine open before her.

  Coco gave a warning bark from far below.

  “Milly will be fine, my friend,” Oracle called down to the capybara, her eyes never leaving the subroutine. “She’s the most capable player I’ve seen in quite some time.”

  “Whose Milly?” came a familiar voice from below. “And, more importantly, how did you create this staircase, Oracle? Solid stone… that’s not possible…”

  Startled, Oracle nearly lost her balance. Grasped hold of the edge tightly to prevent herself from falling, she glanced down at the curious Oriane stared back up at her.

  The five-foot-tall woman had bright pink hair that ran down to the small of her back, tied in a tight ponytail. Her thick, bottlecap glasses caused her bright orange pupils to appear three times larger than they actually were. She wore a flowing white dress embroidered with the image of the sun rising over a vast ocean. By all measures she was a beautiful woman. Combined with her sharp intellect, she’d intimidated the numerous suitors that frequented her doorstep.

  Until, that is, she met a man with an intelligence and curiosity to match her own.

  She was a woman who, in another life, under the fires of the God Contest, had been her best friend.

  A woman who, in this life, was the last person Oracle wanted to see right now.

  “Syune, you always did have the worst possible timing,” Oracle said, as the emergency bells began to sound out across Core Research Station.

  Oracle focused her attention on the subroutine screen and disabled the barrier. A slight shimmer appeared in the sky above, lasting only for a moment.

  “Oracle, did you see that?” Syune asked, staring at the sky. “What was… ah… Ah!”

  Syune collapsed to her knees and screamed as the fairy conversation took effect.

  It was a scream echoed by the five thousand residents of Core Research Station.

  * * *

  Cizen stood over Omoikane as he lay on his library floor and took his final breath. Eyes wide open and full of fear, the Right Hand of the High Lord spent his final moments staring up at the death god’s face without recognition.

  After his twitching ended and the god lay eternally still, Cizen knelt and closed the god’s eyes. It wasn’t a sign of respect. He just didn’t like the accusatory way Omoikane was staring up at him.

  Omoikane would be the final victim of Dr. Taydon Cizen’s manufactured madness. The last remaining god – the High Lord himself – would meet a much more mundane, but far more satisfying, end. Cizen would wait for the right time, when the High Lord was at his most vulnerable, and…

  His ring began to pulse – an emergency message from Tutoria Prime. With a curse for poor timing, he abandoned Omoikane’s corpse and hurried to his secret alcove, where he plugged his mind into the God Contest interface.

  “What do you want, Tutoria?” Cizen snarled at the interruption of his vengeance. “This had better be…”

  “The barrier around Core Research Station has been deactivated,” Tutoria Prime interrupted, irritated with her master’s abrasiveness. “I thought you’d like to know, given your love might be torn apart by monsters during the next few hours.”

  “How did… Oracle!” Cizen shouted, his plans crashing down around him. “Impossible. Her memory was supposed to be wiped before the Nexus deposited her at the Station. Hephaestus, your sentimentality is going to cost us everything. I never should have agreed to your terms all those years ago. Of all the cycle-barren… Tutoria, reset the barrier, and lock Oracle out of the interface! Do it now!”

  “I can’t,” warned Tutoria. “We still can’t bypass Luna’s safeguards. We need her codes.”

  “Then rip the codes from the AI Director’s mind. Tear her program apart piece by piece if you must. The barrier must be restored. I’m not ready yet. The Seed is not strong enough.”

  “#0907! #0304! #0788! Bring Luna to the extraction chambers. We’ll get the codes and… where is #0788? Shit, where is Luna? Find her, damn it! Find her or… fuck! She’s over there, with #0788! Grab her! Grab the Director! We can’t let her…”

  Cizen’s connection with Tutoria Prime was abruptly severed, and all that was left was static.

  Seconds later, Dr. Taydon Cizen was running through the halls of God Home, Nexus dagger in hand and headed for the High Lord’s chamber.

  The Non-Canonical Aftermath: