There was an unspoken war raging across the Western Continent. Once the goddesses—technically “demigoddesses”, but that felt disrespectful to specify—were discovered to be an easy solution to the planet’s energy crisis, it didn’t take long for someone to capitalize on that.
The standard Trebite was ignorant to what was happening behind the scenes—squealers didn't tend to survive long. But once you were in on the secret, you were in for life. For better or worse. There was no “quitting”. Lone agents didn’t wander around, unattached to either side.
Except for me.
Unhappy with both sides and desperate to redeem myself, I tried being a solution in my own way. It looked like a lot of travel and research. Finding one field at a time in the middle of fucking nowhere. Mapping them. Describing them. When I was home, I spent my time reading about geography and folklore. But not today.
From now until my return to Cyciciah, I would research lumbering, gardening, carpentry, and plumbing. When spring bloomed, I’d tote as many tools as I could carry up that mountain. If I was prepared enough, I could build a comfortablecabin for this goddess by the end of the summer. Informed and sheltered, she could take it from there. I had a new plan. It felt good to have a plan.
I’d never found a field with a living, free goddess before. It was important I step up. Do something good to undo so much of the bad. The same cause as before, but no longer hurting people. Positive.
“Theo!” a familiar, husky voice called out. Mykie, my former coworker—now bar patron and dear friend—jogged towards me with a sharp, toothy smile. “Welcome back.”
The magenta-scaled Arielna only came to my shoulder in her heeled boots, but her personality was massive. Her pointed ears twitched back and forth before settling back against her head for warmth.
“Shouldn’t you be asleep?” I teased.
Hitmen usually took advantage of their midday break to sleep before the night shift. Afterall, their bodies are machines and need to be maintained. Mykie, on the other hand, had a habit of replacing her engine oil with booze and recharging her battery by making buddies—or enemies—with everyone in town. No rest for the wicked.
“I’m working overtime these days.” Her eyes narrowed, the unspoken implication hanging between us.
She was protecting Faeryn. Graysen’s mate.A goddess. Not that Faeryn knew any of that about herself.
Graysen was my employee and one of my closest friends, although our friendship was limited recently by our mutual preference for caution. When we first met, he was an open book. He’d aimlessly rolled into Virylan over a decade ago, and we’d hit it off. I offered him a job when he needed one. He crashedat my place until he had enough money to get his own. We used to stay late after closing, talking for hours. Drinking. Bonding. Laughing.
That all changed when I left six years ago for one of my longer trips—two whole seasons—and came back to a different male. He was broken. Wouldn’t tell me what was wrong. I only learned what happened through a missing person’s report filed with the police that went nowhere.
On his own travels while I was away, he’d met Faeryn—a goddess. They fell in love. She returned to the mainland with him to marry and start a life together. Their own fairytale romance. But Graysen was a civilian with no knowledge of the threats posed to goddesses in our society.
Naively unwary, it wasn't long before she was abducted from their home.
Finding her after all those years wasn’t the reunion they deserved. Her memories had already been wiped. She didn’t recognize him.
He was a changed man. Paranoid, afraid of fucking up again, and most of alldesperate. All that trauma had convinced Graysen he should avoid discussing their past. I loved the guy, butfuckdid I have a hard time justifying him keeping her own secrets from her. She deserved to know she was a goddess, married... had a past.
It was especially frustrating watching how careless he and Mykie were. They were utterly failing to keep her hidden from the world. Faeryn shouldn’t be outside. I was confident if she knew the situation, she’d want to be back in her field. Off the radar and hidden. Shedefinitelywouldn’t want to be out on the town throwing back drinks. What female in their right mindwould risk being captured if they knew the stakes? Imprisoned, drugged and hooked up to a machine.
At least Graysen had the common sense to dye her hair from the natural goddess-gold they called “blonde”. Plus, they had expert-hitman Mykie in their corner, who was undoubtedly killing every perceived threat that entered the Virylan’s borders before it could lay eyes on Faeryn.
Several times a day I debated telling Faeryn about her forgotten past. But if it went badly, I’d have her life on my hands. It wasn’t unheard of for an escaped goddess to “off” themselves when they had drug-induced amnesia. This wasn’t my choice to make. Hell, Graysen didn’t even tell me about the situation, and I never told him about my past career in the murder business. I guess we were both too ashamed, or paranoid, or controlling to bring others in.
“I really hope the Cyciciah goddess doesn’t have amnesia,”I thought to myself. That would make things much harder, since Ihaddecided to involve myself in her problems.
“Why the limp, buddy?” Mykie asked, her heels clacking against the pavement as she trotted after me. My legs were much longer. “What forbidden land bested the invincible Theo?”
“Cyciciah. I fell in a tree well.”
She cocked her head. “Well, why the fuck did you go there in the winter? That was stupid.”
“It was next on my list.” I admitted with a shrug. Itwasstupid. Had I not “found” that goddess, it would’ve been a wasted trip.
She made a show of humming loudly, faking a deep thought. “You know, mostretireesdon’t continue risking theirlives for the job. You might as well get paid for what you’re doing.”
“I don’t want to work for G.P.O. anymore.” And I couldn’t just stop caring, knowing what I knew. I had to dosomething.
The Goddess Protection Organization and I had the same mission, but we’d come to an impasse on theexecution. Literally. Instead of education, prevention, protection, resource assistance, rescue missions, and advocacy… they created a blood bath. And for what? The factories were still standing, their numbers growing. The goddesses were still being captured and turned into “batteries” to power the planet’s wasting energy reserves.
I killeda lotof people because G.P.O. told me to. And not a single thing had changed.
