A Summoning, Part XLII

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Part XLII
~Hierophant~

After 'guest starring' in their stream the night before, Graham showed up around mid-afternoon on Friday to hang out yet again. Damon was starting to learn the particular sound of the catgirl's truck pulling into the driveway, and when she heard that this time, she jumped up and bolted down the stairs toward the front door before really thinking about what she was doing!

"Uhm..." While catching her breath from that sprint, the werewolf took a moment to try and brush her hair with her hands and make it at least somewhat neater. Maybe she was feeling a little overexcited because she'd needed to really control her reactions around 'Smores' last night—since, at least for now, she'd much rather people watching their stream see 'new friends' and not..anything else. Either way, she waited awkwardly a polite few feet away from the front door until she heard some soft steps coming up to it, and further kept herself from moving until she heard the usual, polite knock. Then she ran up to open it.

"Uh, hi! Welcome. It's, good to see you again," she said, moving out of the way.

Graham returned the most adorable, sweetest smile as she came inside. "Likewise."
"S-so um, anything specific you wanna try today?" the werewolf asked, starting to lead the way toward the stairs.
"Not really, just—maybe not anything as dark and spooky as last night's fare."

"Oh, uh, sure.."

"First, though—you think we could talk sorta seriously for a minute?"
Damon felt like her heart had briefly stopped. "Um..yeah, s-sure." At least her feet did. She turned around. "What about?"

"Oh—nothing that awful, I promise," the Neko said, returning a concerned expression. Damon's fears must have shown in her face—or maybe just her ears. Graham gestured toward the couch, which they'd managed to stop just next to, and went to sit down, so the wolf-girl did the same, sitting on the opposite end.

"S-so, uhm.." the werewolf stammered after an awkward silence that felt a few minutes long, but which had probably only lasted a few seconds.

"Oh, excuse my nerves there," Graham said, nodding. "It's just: So that I don't get the wrong impression, I'd like to ask you directly. Do you...like me?" she asked, tilting her head slightly. "You know how I mean?"
"Oh! Um..uh.." Damon's face went all hot, and she felt like the 'cat had her tongue' for a moment. Graham patiently waited for her to calm down enough to respond. "Yes! I-I do. I hope that's not, I mean like.."
"No, that's no sort of problem," the catgirl said, her face reddening a little bit too—and gaining a heart-melting smile. "I'd go so far as to say I feel the same way. And, considering I was married for decades..I feel like I might be somewhat of an authority on what it ought to feel like. But.."

"'But'?" Did she have reservations about..the person she'd been married to before, or something like that? It was hard for Damon to reconcile the small, young-looking girl in front of her with the idea of someone like her parents or grandparents, old enough to have been married to someone for 'decades'. But it had to be even weirder, after all that time together with someone, to feel this way about someone else!
"It just, seems like you're awful shy about physical contact, is all. I'm not one to disrespect your boundaries, but..if you're worried about me, well, there's no reason to be shy at this point."
"Oh. Um.." That was an entirely different problem! Damon put her hands into each other and fidgeted with them, trying for a good long moment to find the right words. Graham was once again patient with her, until she finally started trying to explain: "W-well, it's not..that's not it, really. I-I'm just worried I might...

"I-I told you before about how, when I first got turned into a werewolf, and Zotha helped me...but. Even after that, I-I've still never completely felt like...myself. I, still don't have all of my memory back from before that happened, and...my instincts, this 'wolf side' I gained...I'm still not totally, 'at peace' with it, I guess. I still, find myself like, doing or thinking, o-or saying weird things sometimes..scary things. A-and I can't actually even talk in 'full-wolf' form. S-so I'm worried, if I did get too close...that I'd, hurt you."

Graham paused a moment to take all of this in, then nodded slowly. "I see...
"I suppose, since turning into a Neko, I've had a few bits of 'feline instinct' hit me. Like wanting to hop up onto high places, or chase small critters that go running into the bushes, or hide for no real reason. Or chase laser pointers around."
"R-really?"
"Nawh, I'm just kidding about that last one. But I can't say it's been anything worrisome like that. So—I only know a little of what you're going through. I'm glad to have things out in the open regardless, and, if you're keeping some distance out of concern for me, that only makes me feel better. But...have those instincts of yours ever given you the idea that they want to hurt me?"
"Um..n-no, I guess not." Now that she was thinking about it...maybe, kind of the opposite? Had it been her 'human side' or the canine one that made her run to the door earlier? And, the strong desire to pet the catgirl's ears...or feel her hands on her own ears, definitely wasn't something that 'human side' would've ever thought up.

"Hmm..."

Graham's face reddened slightly, and she leaned a little bit toward Damon—still seeming to consciously stay just out of her personal space. "Would you mind..if I gave your ears a little touch, just to try? You can maybe...let me know if your 'wolf side' isn't too fond of that."
Damon's blushing and heart-racing from before came back full force. "Um!"
The catgirl backed off just slightly. "Oh, not if you don't want that at all, of course. I've got no interest in pushing at your boundaries."

"N-no no, that's not..I just um..heheh...I-I was just thinking, about something like that...is all," she admitted. "I-I guess it's okay to try..."

"Well, all right then."

The white-haired Neko scooted herself closer, into easier reach. Then she gently leaned over in Damon's direction again, and ever-so-slowly put one out her left hand to touch Damon's right ear, not far from the tip. "A~ah...r-rfh.." Damon leaned into the slight touch, feeling a couple of small, high sounds come out of her mouth. Seeming to take this as a good sign, Graham carefully moved her fingers a little closer to the base of that ear, then brushed along it—at the same time bringing up her other hand to do much the same to the other ear. "M-mrrfh...!"

It felt..really nice! Damon didn't have the feeling that her wolf side was angry, or upset, or afraid. It was a lot more like how she felt around Onida and Sam—her own 'pack'—yet also markedly different from that. That difference probably had something to do with her mounting urge to...to...!

Before she'd really thought about it, the werewolf's instincts took over a little more, and had her actually pounce on top of the catgirl, knocking her over onto her back across the seat of the couch. But this..wasn't an 'attacking' kind of pounce, like for self-defense or hunting. Regardless, she was suddenly on top of Graham with her tail wagging up in the air, and very much aware of the catgirl's breasts being squished underneath her own!

"H-heheh!" Graham giggled at this. "Whoa, easy there, girl!"

"Uh, um.." Blushing furiously, Damon tried to get a hold of herself, using one hand to push herself up off of the other girl a little bit and trying to make her tail settle down some. "S-sorry about, that.."
"No trouble at all. We did rile up your 'wolf side' doing that, I suppose," the catgirl said, still smiling. "Anyway, I don't mind this position so much." It was at this point that Damon noticed a pair of slim arms had gently wrapped themselves around her waist..! "Especially if you wouldn't mind, returning the favor a bit?" she asked further, her ears lowering slightly.

"R-returning..? Oh, um..r-rrfh..." It took Damon's mind a moment to understand the meaning, but something unconscious, perhaps in her instincts, understood more from the Neko's expression than her words what was being asked. She fell back onto the catgirl, and her hands wound up running through the soft, warm fur of Graham's ears, quickly causing an adorable, deep purring to start rumbling through her throat, and then—all of a sudden she leaned up and pressed her nose into Damon's cheek, nuzzling it affectionately!

"Aa~ah...rrfh..!" Well, that was it. Damon couldn't resist returning the nuzzling, especially as the catgirl's hands slid back up to her ears to pet them back a little more, too. Her conscious mind didn't really function for a while, subsumed into a pleasant haze alongside her instincts as the majority of her concentration was seized by pure physical sensations: The catgirl's body under hers, their faces rubbing against each other in affectionate nuzzling, and of course the petting on both ends. Besides that, there was..her entire body feeling fairly warm, her heart racing, and a nice, not-entirely-unfamiliar fuzzy feeling down between her legs.

It was Graham who evidently had the self-control to cease the petting, returning her arms to the gentle embrace from earlier. And, when she also stopped nuzzling, Damon slowly came out of the haze, taking in a sharp gasp of air and letting out soft "M-mnn~ngh" before she started some actual canine-like panting. Their noses were still on each other's cheeks, so this breath was pushing right across the side of the Neko's face, and there were frequent bursts of hot air coming across Damon's face too.

"Hff...phew~..awfully nice to finally get that out of my system," the catgirl said. "Seems like you enjoyed yourself too, hmn?"
"Y-yip!" This question had been accompanied by the touch of something soft and warm somewhere near the base of Damon's tail, which she realized shortly afterward had been one of the tips of the other girl's tail. "U-um..y-yeah. Still, uh..." She carefully pushed herself off of the catgirl again, so they could look each other in the face...or, at least, the eyes. Their noses were still quite close to touching like this. "I-I uh..'m a little worried about..."
"Hmn? Taking it too far or such?"
"Y-yeah. That could—hff!—could get um. Violent. I feel like," she admitted.
"Well, sure. Besides that this is our first time making this kind of physical contact in the first place," Graham agreed, one arm freeing itself from the werewolf's waist so that hand could gently brush Damon's cheek a bit. "No need to rush things."
"Uh. Y-yeah! Um." Even though that touch made her want to lean back down and forcibly start the petting up again, Damon clamped down—promising that kind of thing would come later...maybe much later...and made herself slowly, carefully, get up off of her 'victim' until she was upright on her knees.

Graham managed to scoot herself the rest of the way out from under Damon and sit up too. "I'll say..now that we've cleared the air, so to speak. I've more or less met your family, but you all should really get properly introduced to mine."
"Um..y-yeah? You mean like, your granddaughter?"
"Just the same," she said, nodding. "Maybe the two of us could come over for dinner some night soon? We could arrange things over the phone later."
"Yeah! Sure, th-that seems fine," she nodded. Onida...would probably like to have a guest to feed. She liked showing off with her cooking, especially lately. Perhaps the extra enthusiasm was because she was 'younger' and more energetic now, or perhaps it had something to do with trying to impress Sam—but her general desire to be a good host felt like a pretty firm bit of memory.

They went upstairs after that to play some games. Only now, Graham wasn't the least bit shy about sitting right up next to Damon, and after asking permission, resting her split-ended tail across the wolf-girl's own. The Neko seemed to especially like pressing the spot right where her tail split up against the base of Damon's fluffier tail, and having the two parts that forked out from there curl along the rest of it. The one odd thing the werewolf noticed about this habit was that, every once in a while, that split spot seemed to slip off somehow, and when it was readjusted to press into her tail again, the two bits coming off from there seemed to reach a little farther up the rest of her tail...

---

Zotha probably should've predicted she'd wake up with catlike ears, a slim tail, and some tall slits for irises. She did correctly predict that Jess wasn't very happy to not be invited to last night's conversation.

"Well, she didn't want you present, and we'll just have to respect that. At the end, said she was 'very disappointed' in you. But honestly, it feels more like she was concerned about how angry being close to you would make her feel, and how strongly that would tempt her to actually hurt you."

"I...guess I deserve that," Jess admitted. "Just because I'm trying to do better now, doesn't mean the wrong I did didn't happen."

"I think she might forgive you, given some time. I don't know of any 'mother' that wouldn't."

"Um..maybe. Anyway, what was she like?"

Zotha gave Jess a quick mental transmission of most of the experience of the meeting, commenting aloud at the same time: "I'd say, if anything, Bastet seems like the most 'normal', down-to-earth deity we've met so far. And I just realized: There was no 'power pressure' at all from being in her presence like there was around the other gods. Despite the fact that she must be pretty powerful."

Jess nodded slowly. "Maybe...if all dreams are her realm, then you might just be 'acclimated' to what being in her realm is like already? Or, since she has full control over a person's experiences in a dream, she could just 'edit' that part out."

"Could be. I'm a fan of thinking she suppresses that power deliberately to make it feel more welcoming, myself."

"..It's strange, though, Master."
"What is?"
"If she's so straightforward, why did all the other gods give conflicting information about her? Or, just seem to fail to understand what she really wants or why?"

"Hmm...she might've gone out of her way to be direct with me, but that doesn't seem right. She wouldn't want the headache of other people misunderstanding her—that's much more Fox's attitude."

After a brief pause, Zotha snapped her fingers. "Oh, wait! I think I know."
"What?"
"Mystery. It can mean a lot of things, but different people's perspectives muddling what would otherwise be a simple description seems to fit the bill pretty well. It might even be inherently difficult to accurately describe her to someone who hasn't met her."

"...Maybe. But it could also just be coincidence. La Lune can't talk about the debt; Sol genuinely doesn't listen to her all that closely; Fox was never gonna tell us much in the first place."

"That's true, but I'd say..'coincidences' can also be influenced by a god's domain. Just like...'miracles'. It's increasingly obvious to me that we're not just 'really powerful magic-using immortals' or such—we have some kind of direct tie to the nature of reality itself, especially when it comes to our own 'aspects'. We can't intentionally alter it on a large scale—I think—but the tie goes both ways, too."

"Meaning.."
"Our own aspects 'influence' us and our reality to some extent, more or less involuntarily. May I remind you how many of your followers just so happened to want some kind of change, and even specifically physical change?"
"You...might be onto something there. But, in that case, that effect would have to reach into the past too..or, somehow 'anticipate' a god coming into existence in the future...?"

"La Lune did say 'the world wanted me', and that my ascension was somehow 'natural'..."

---

After school Monday, Anika was trying to get her homework done. Steph, meanwhile, was very distractingly pacing around the room. She kept trying to focus, but even shifting her ears into a human form to make her headphones fit wasn't good enough after a while. She took them off and put them on the desk a little loudly, letting the huge fox ears pop back out at the same time. "What are you doing!? Besides driving me crazy!"

"Huh? Oh. Sorry. I was trying to think of another big prank. Hopefully to get done this week, or at least before summer vacation."
"Another one? We just did the whole rain thing."

"Yes, another one! We need to keep going until you earn your next tail, at least! I mean, I'd like to wear a wedding dress this century, if you don't mind!" she said.
"Oh. Uh.." Anika's face flushed at this declaration, and Steph actually looked away a little bit bashfully, blushing at having blurted that out too.
"Y-yeah. So. I'm pretty invested. Just both of us 'pretending to be male' is not gonna cut it for a fifth tail, okay?"
"I'll, assume you know what you're talking about with that. But—I still kinda need to get this homework done," she said, gesturing at the computer, "tonight."
"Then help me brainstorm! The last one was mostly my idea anyway."

"Uh, I dunno..we cooouuld, go visit some other university and try to get them to change their mascot too?"

Steph frowned, putting her fists on her hips. "That is so unoriginal."
"Yeah...it, didn't sound any better in my head."

After staring at each other for a minute or so, Anika said, "I don't think we're getting anywhere. Maybe we should ask someone else for ideas."
"Like who?"
"I dunno...Stella, maybe? Since she seems pretty cool with how Kitsune are and stuff..."
"Hmm, yeah, she is pretty close to newly created, right? Meaning—she might have the kind of 'stupid ideas' that are actually super original since most people don't even think of them."

"Plus, we might be able to lean on her to get Toma to help!"

"I dunno..she seems like kind of a stick-in-the-mud to me," Steph said, crossing her arms.

Anika squinted slightly, tilting her head. "Are you.."
"What?"
"Waaas that an intentional pun, or...?"
"Pun? What pun?"
Anika made a vague, unhelpful gesture with her hands. "Because she's like uh...an earth dragon, or something?"
"Ooooh. No. Not intended at all."

"Okay, sorry. Anyway—

"I happen to know, from some of our 'high council' meetings, that Toma's pretty familiar with Zotha. Definitely aware she's a goddess and all."
"Like I couldn't guess that. Not very many other sources of overwhelming power to hatch a human into a dragon around here."
"Yes, but. That also means she'd get it if we explained..you know, why we're trying to do it? The fact that I'm cursed and need to earn a tail to get uncursed, I mean."

"Oooh, yeah. I can maybe see that. And—no need to mention what the curse is, just that it's super inconvenient for both of us. You're hiding the symptoms with illusions, but we promise it's very annoying."
"Yeah, exactly!"
"Okay. Now we're getting somewhere. At least...on a meta level. Plans for how to get plans for another big prank! We could probably pull in that other girl at some point, if it seems like there's a use for her...she'll definitely appreciate another opportunity to earn a tail, after all..." Steph was literally rubbing her hands together at this point.

"Aaaanyway..I need to get back to my homework, now that that's settled. You not have any?"
"Uh..right. I kinda do. Thanks for the reminder."

---

In some ways, the Ruler of Foxes was still a mortal. For example, any being of sufficient power—such as a true god—could indeed kill her. Unlike the theoretical killing of a deity, this would have no effect on the stability of the world so long as at least one "worthy" successor still existed. Just once, a very long time ago, a nine-tailed fox greedy for the position had managed to assassinate the then-current Ruler, and immediately suffered an excruciatingly painful death as a result of a "stinger clause" hidden in their race's agreement. Since then, the Ruler's true location was much more closely guarded; after all, the gods had no reason to bother with violence when there were far easier ways for them to dethrone a ruler they didn't like.

She also, sometimes, needed to sleep. And her sleep was "ordinary", featuring no awareness of the real world while unconscious, but instead the experience of a normal dream. Such times were the best opportunity for Bastet to speak with her in private. Not that there was usually a need for such privacy, but the convenience of the Ruler entering her realm, rather than needing to physically go to where the old fox was, made this the best way to meet her for anything that didn't require anyone else's presence.

Bastet stepped into the dream, and found herself on a path between some rice fields. The sun was low in the sky, producing a golden light shimmering across the water, and straight ahead, a short distance down the path, was a fairly humble house. The people who had lived in this place, at this time, would have no concept of what it had become in modern day: A bustling metropolis packed to the brim with people, skyscrapers blocking the view of the sun, hard concrete replacing the soft dirt-and-grass paths. And, perhaps, the people who lived in that city now had little idea of the beauty this place had once sported, a millennium and more into the past.

Walking down the path to the little house, a dark haze became visible pouring out from within. Bastet's catlike ears twitched, picking up muffled voices speaking. She paused at the door, allowing the dream to proceed as usual for a little longer...and then pushed it open, imposing herself into it and making it lucid. The wispy shapes of the house's inhabitants vanished, all except one: A woman lying on her back, turned slightly to one side, on a couch, a long pipe in her mouth which was evidently the source of the dark smoke permeating the house's interior. She was silhouetted by the haze, her eyes appearing to—or perhaps actually—glowing. Her ears were as foxlike as her waking form, but only two tails were waving about from behind her back.

"...Ah. Hello there." The old fox had been shaken a little bit by suddenly remembering all of reality, everything that had happened since the memory this dream represented—but her composure was back in only a couple of seconds. "It's been...quite some time, hasn't it?"

"I guess so."
"Well, you know you're always welcome. Take a seat?" One of the fox-woman's tails pointed at a seat opposite the couch, previously occupied by the memory of a husband.
"Hmm." Bastet went over and sat cross-legged. "Feeling nostalgic?"
"I suppose my subconscious must be." The fox-woman took a long drag from her pipe and exhaled it out, making the smoke around her briefly grow thicker. "I haven't really thought about this time in years. So...to what do I owe the pleasure?" Somehow her mischievous grin was visible, even in silhouette.

"I have a question for you. You will answer with no tricks, guile or jokes. Consider it a test," Bastet said bluntly.
"All right then. I'll do my very best for you~."

"What do you do when one of your people grows bored of this life? Of this world. Of living altogether? If they come to you, begging your help to relinquish the immortality all foxes have."

"Hmm...well, I'm sure you know, no two foxes are alike. There are many answers, depending on who's asking.

"But you won't be surprised to hear: My first go-to is to trick them. 'Very well', I'll say, 'you wish to die? I will make sure it happens by...hmmn, this time next week. It will be a surprise, so make sure to have your affairs in order.'"
"You don't follow through."
"I would never. Could you imagine the uproar, if the Ruler of Foxes started killing her own people—no matter how despondent they are? But often the week isn't even half over before they come back to me begging to call the whole thing off. It's impressive, really, just how valuable one's life becomes when it seems so close to ending. But of course that doesn't always work. If you can work out that I won't kill them, then certainly some of my fellow tricksters will realize when I'm trying to pull one over. If I'm really keen, I can spot the ones that'll see through the lie early, and skip that step to move on to the next thing."

"Which is?"
"It varies, as I said. Sometimes I will offer a 'reset' of sorts..a bout of temporary amnesia combined with sealed powers—or even temporarily 'becoming' an ordinary human or something else for a while. I don't always give away the full details when I do that, but I do always get permission to try it, of course. Or—you know, these days, the option of actual therapy exists. That is genuinely what some foxes need, even if I have to trick them into starting in on it. Or..if it seems the poor kit's just lonely, I can occasionally manage to play matchmaker, arrange things so they meet someone who seems compatible. Ah, and if Eros owes me one, or seems to be in a good mood, then I'll ask him to do that part instead—he's far better at it than I am. None of these options are mutually exclusive, either; for instance, you'd be surprised how often a fresh amnesiac falls for someone he or she would never have considered talking to before."

"Sealing one's power is still dangerous. Weak foxes die far more often than old, powerful ones," Bastet pointed out.

"Oh, of course. I make that part of the risks quite clear when I offer that up as an option. If one is serious about wishing to die, then it can appear to be only a slightly longer route than the obvious one. Some do die before getting their memories back, but it's not always an unhappy death."

She pressed in another direction: "You can't really expect someone bored of life to become happy just because they have found a mate."

"I would just say that the evidence suggests otherwise. At least—if it's the right person. I won't claim to have perfect success with fostering relationships; in fact I have had to step in when a fox was being taken advantage of by the very person I thought would help them. And not even Eros can be perfect...or, at least, his capriciousness may have him mismatch people on purpose from time to time."

"...You have very many immortal psychiatrists on hand? I don't imagine that a human under the veil can really relate to 'I've been young and powerful for far too long'."

"If I'm recommending that sort of help, then that really isn't the main issue in the first place. But you'd be surprised at people's adaptability. Besides, some foxes do like the idea of 'tricking' people into a healthier state of mind; it's especially fun if both parties are pretending to be human for each other. And, if you've been feeling stressed lately, I do know a few people—"

She stopped short, seeing Bastet's expression—or perhaps sensing her mood. The cat goddess had to take a long, deep breath to keep the house, the farm..the entire reality they were presently in from collapsing.

"Please excuse my terrible impertinence with that; my dream just now must have put me in a rather foolish mood. I am still asleep, after all. No, I don't imagine you'd trust someone I recommended. But I do wonder whether it'd do you some good to get to know someone without any stake in..all of this," she said, vaguely waving her pipe around in the air. "Godly politics, world management, the chaos brought on by brand new, powerful beings...it can get to be a bit much from time to time."

"...You really intended to express concern."

"Oh, well, you know. My actions are self-motivated, or at best all for 'my people'. But if you were, hypothetically, in an awful mental state, I can hardly understate the amount of chaos that would have the potential to cause...and none of it the fun kind."

"You suggest I should simply...appear before some mortal, just to talk."

"You hardly have to let them know who you are, do you? For that matter, you've access to many people's dreams. They need not even remember the conversation afterward, if you so desired."

Bastet turned her head away, to one side. At this point she just wanted to extricate herself from the entire conversation. She could just disappear, or force the Ruler to wake, but the possible result would be some teasing later, or worse, an effort to bring the subject up again. But, in trying to think of a solution, she remembered how this conversation had started.

"...Your answer is satisfactory," she said. "And, I'll accept your apology, too."

"Oh? That's quite a relief," the old fox said.

"I'll take my leave now. Do you want this to continue from where it left off?"
"Hmmn, there's no need for that. I'll be happy enough with whatever my brain cooks up for me next."

"Very well." The cat goddess stood up, went back to the door, and left, walking down the path until it led her back out of the dream.

A Summoning, Part XLI

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---

Part XLI
~Hermit~

Zotha woke up—except that she didn't.

It was a very strange sensation, to be fully aware of her body still lying down in the bed, arms wrapped around Jess, but for her to also be standing up inside of what seemed to be...some kind of hallway, standing in front of a door. It occurred to her as she looked around in that hallway, getting her bearings, that ever since her ascension...she couldn't remember having a single dream. Not before..this, which was apparently how she was going to be experiencing dreams from now on. She had always maintained a certain level of awareness even while asleep since then, so in hindsight, it shouldn't have been a huge surprise. But it was still..quite a new and strange experience.

There was something indistinct about the hallway itself, the farther she looked along it from her own position. It was like the lights everywhere except directly above her were dim, but that dimness also made those areas seem...blurry and sketchy, difficult to visually concentrate on. Trying too hard to look that way made her mind spit out that whatever was in those directions was unimportant, and so deserved no further investigation. What was important, and much more distinct and clear, was the door she'd appeared directly in front of. It had a square window of frosted glass, with a metal placard placed right under the window; the placard had nothing written on it, but the entire arrangement felt distinctly like this was the door to..someone's office.

Placing a finger just under her lips and thinking about it a little harder, Zotha realized what specific office this door most reminded her of: the principal's office back at her high school. It wasn't exactly the same, even if the placard had had his name on it, but it still had the distinct sense that that was the kind of place this door should lead to. Well, there was no use keeping the person on the other end waiting any longer—so she walked up and gently pushed the door open, making her way inside.

It didn't feel at all surprising to find an office on the other end. Well—Sol's chamber in his space-base domain could be technically called an "office" too, but this fit practically an entirely different meaning of the word. It was a small room, maybe the size of her own dorm room, with a messily-stocked bookshelf across one wall and a few filing cabinets and a little card table jerry-rigged into place to hold a drip coffee machine and a few mugs lining the other. Directly across from the door was a rectangular desk, its surface currently cleared of contents, with the owner sitting behind it in a budget computer chair; a couple of folding chairs were on Zotha's side of the desk.

The owner was Bastet, obviously. She looked..strangely ordinary: A very average-build, average-height woman with dark hair, semi-casual clothes, no imposing aura or presence whatsoever, nothing 'supernatural' about her appearance aside from some glowing yellow eyes and the dark, catlike ears and tail she had. Her expression seemed...tired, and mildly annoyed. Everything about this felt like...walking into a parent-teacher conference at a low-budget high school, except that there wasn't any parent actually accompanying the visitor.

"Hello there?" Zotha tried, coming a little farther inside and letting the door swing itself shut behind her. Bastet replied with a small sigh.
"I wonder whether you had any idea what you were asking." Her voice was dark, fairly mature, and carried the weight of that same tiredness her eyes showed. "Can't imagine La Lune would've bothered to warn you, either."

"How do you mean?"
"You wanted to me to visit your dream?"
"Yes," she nodded.
"Where do you think my realm is," she said, the end of the sentence falling too flat to be an actual question.

"...Ah. Somehow that didn't occur to me," Zotha said, coming up next to the chairs. "May I...take a seat?"
"Go ahead."

Once she was seated, Zotha said, "I guess I should be glad you're in a good enough mood to not squash me here on the spot, huh?"
"I wouldn't dare risk making her angry," Bastet said. "But it doesn't matter. No one may hurt another through dreams, and I don't do double standards."

"So, you are not allowed to hurt me here?"

"I don't allow myself. Dreams are mine, remember? Thanks to magic, the possibility has existed for a long time for anyone with the right skills or equipment to visit another's dream. In principle, there's nothing preventing that 'visitor' from harming or killing their 'host' while doing so; in practice, there's me. Can you imagine the chaos that would result if people could be assassinated in their sleep, right past every conceivable attempt at self-defense?"

"That...definitely doesn't sound pretty," Zotha agreed, and Bastet nodded.

"And so, as far as most people know, harming others through dreams is 'impossible'.

"...Are you offended that your 'pet' isn't here?"
"Huh? Oh, you mean Jess. Not particularly; I mean I didn't ask for you to visit both of us in the first place. She might not like it, I guess, but it's clearly your prerogative who you want to meet with."

"Good. I really don't want to put my self-control to the test right now."

"Meaning...?"

Bastet's ears twitched a few times. "This entire situation. That we're dealing with, right now? Practically entirely her fault. I would not be feeling particularly civil in her presence, to put it lightly.

"So. What is it that you want?"

"Well...I sincerely wanted to meet you, first of all," said the goddess of change. "The other gods I've met all said different things about you, and none of it seems like it can be entirely true—or at least not the whole story. I thought I'd get a better picture of things from your own mouth. Besides which, hearing your opinion of them is only fair. But I won't pretend it's not self-motivated, either."
"You want to convince me to keep you around."
Zotha shrugged. "Eventually, I guess, but I don't expect that from this meeting. I'd just like to know, from you, what it is I'd have to do for you to..tolerate my continued existence? And, you know, you're apparently also the only person who could get me an audience with Ouroboros—who I'd like to meet for pretty similar reasons."

"Fine, let's do the easy part first," Bastet said. "What have you heard so far?"
"Hmm...in summary, you're the goddess of cats, mystery, dreams, and fertility. You..uh, 'make' children, who are 'cat spirits', pretty much accidentally. You owe La Lune some kind of debt, but she didn't seem to feel comfortable explaining what was going on with that. La Lune goes out of her way to argue with you, and Sol thinks you act angrier than you really are and just want the world to be peaceful so you can go back to sleep."
Bastet actually snorted at this last part. "He would. Listen, Zotha. You're a functional adult. I'm sure you know very well what the natural result of 'fertility' is among, at least, mammals."
"I guess you mean..children?"
"Parenthood. Neither of those 'celestial' gods really understand the concept very well, and the fox probably doesn't care enough to mention it—she has her own 'children' to look after."

"So, you mean to say that's another of your domains."
"Right." Bastet leaned back a little in her chair. "What a mother wants for her children isn't the same thing as 'happiness' or 'survival', or even 'thriving'...nothing on such a grand scale. I worry after the fate of each and every person alive, and somewhat especially my own 'descendants'. If you really think about that, I'm sure you can work out why I get so angry with them all the time."

Zotha nodded. "Just hearing them talk about you made us feel kind of sympathetic...sorry, me and Jess I mean. But from that perspective, it does seem even a little bit worse. But...you support the veil?"

"Of course I do."

"Hm. Okay, at the risk of making you angry myself—what kind of mother wants to outlive her children?"

Bastet sat up a little bit. "Explain."
"You really need me to? All kinds of potential medical advancements are locked behind just knowing magic exists! You can literally magic people younger and healthier. I know because I've done it, and my 'people' have too. It can't just be a 'me' thing, right?"
"Hmmh." Bastet leaned forward slightly, an even more intense weariness showing in her expression. "You're still quite young, even by human standards—let alone those of an immortal or a god. I don't really expect you to understand what I mean when I say: To live forever is to suffer forever. Ultimately...I did not want that for you, either. But at this point, I guess neither of us may have a choice in the matter."

"Sol and La Lune seem pretty happy with their eternal life."
The cat goddess glared, folding her ears back; it felt like she was going to hiss or roar. Instead she said, "They are not like us! There is a difference between a force of nature 'putting on' personhood, and a mortal creature being ascended into permanence. The sun and moon were going to be around for billions of years either way; neither of us was made to last more than a hundred."
"So, you like senescence? You think people are better off dying of old age?"

Bastet took a deep breath, visibly forcing herself to calm down, and then sat up slightly. "...Even 'immortal' races don't really live forever. Certain rare accidents, or intentional attacks, can take a life in a way which no magic can curtail, and across a long enough life, even the exceptionally unlikely becomes the inevitable. But I have seen celestials throw themselves into battle hoping to finally die; ancient, once-noble demons grow nihilistic and mad; and even nine-tailed foxes grow bored of living and beg their Ruler for a swift end to their lives. And then there's..."

She slumped again, looked over at the bookshelf for a moment, and then returned to facing Zotha. "You wanted to know about my debt to La Lune? The best way I know how to tell it, is through a story."
"Okay." Zotha nodded for her to go ahead.

"...When the world was young, humanity was small, and the beasts upon the land were many, great and powerful. The humans made one of their number into a god, to give themselves power and influence—and it worked. This god held in his hands something which was essential to all life, and so his power grew quickly. With his help, the humans slew the beasts who had once threatened them, and soon became dominant over all. With their numbers, their intelligence, and their newfound power, they threatened to wipe out the beasts entirely.

"Seeking their own source of help and protection, the beasts elected one of their own to godhood as well—a cat. But she was young, as gods go, and lacked the power to help her people truly fight back against the humans and their god. Her best efforts—giving the humans nightmares, forcing them to experience the brutal deaths they were causing from the beasts' own eyes—only seemed to infuriate and embolden their efforts to hunt every down last wild thing and destroy them for good.

"In desperation, the cat cried out to the moon—ancient, wise, and powerful—for help, night after night. And, in time, the moon heard her pleas. The truth is, not every human hunted the beasts down; some respected them, wishing to live in harmony with nature, and those same humans revered the moon above all else, always dancing in her light and begging her help to grow even closer to the wild. And so, the moon gave those humans a blessing, and a task. They were given the power of moonlight and the strength of wolves, and asked in return to use those gifts to protect their fellow beasts. However, the moon was only able to grant a mixed blessing, something which could also spread as a curse among those humans less attuned to nature. Nonetheless, those who earned her blessing saw to their task diligently, fighting to protect the beasts in the name of the moon.

"The god of men saw that the beasts had the moon's favor, and—as his people were diurnal—he complained to the sun. 'Why should they have the protection of the sky, and not us?' For he remembered, as though it were still happening, the time when the beasts had hunted the humans down instead. After watching the conflict from the sky, day after day, the sun eventually replied to the god of men. He said: 'I will protect all of humanity. I will seek a pact with my sister for you. I will make protectors, swords and armor, to keep you safe from all other harm.'

"And so it was, the humans and the beasts were forced to make a truce, their own gods coerced by the very ones they had begged for help into ceasing hostilities and forgiving the harm their people had done to each other. Humans and nature have remained largely at odds ever since then, even as most beasts became more human, and more humans became as beasts—but never has there been an unending war like there was at the first. None of the gods would allow it. Even the cat and the man wished never to relive the trauma of their beginnings.

"...Do you understand?"

Zotha nodded. "It seems pretty clear-cut to me. So—you were originally the goddess of beastfolk too, but La Lune took that job from you?"
"I asked her to take it. And every day, every moment she helps those who are now her people in that role—that is the debt I owe. It isn't really something that can be repaid, but in conversation with her I feel compelled to speak as though it were. She can't explain it because it is a part of her nature, woven in before she was 'her'—when she was more a force than a person."

"And Sol's whole 'protect humanity and make it thrive' thing. Was similarly in his nature before he was really a 'person'?"
"More or less."

"So, where's Fox come into this story—I mean, the Ruler of Foxes? Or Ouroboros, for that matter?"
"Later. Nearly the entirety of a species of foxlike demons, lovers of jokes and tricks, but whose pranks nearly always proved fatal to the victim due to their own dark nature, sought to expunge that harmful part of themselves. They received the blessing of the gods in their task—for the simple reason that they would do far less harm if their efforts succeeded—and after many rituals, were finally able to seal a mutual agreement into their very being. Now their demonic nature is purged so long as a 'Ruler' presides over them, enforcing their agreed-upon 'law'—aside from the descendants of those who did not agree to that Deal in the first place, who are now few and far between.

"And: A prideful dragon wished to truly live forever, and used his immense power and influence to make himself a god. He did not take very long to regret that act, upon seeing his own instincts wreaking havoc upon the world. Only with the help of those gods he once ignored was he able to restructure those instincts, coming to consider the world itself his 'hoard', and harm to it 'stealing'."

"That all makes sense to me. You're a pretty good storyteller, you know?"
"Comes with the territory." Bastet looked away just ever so slightly; was she actually being bashful about the compliment?

"...You know, it sounds to me like you're a lot older than Egypt. But, they gave you your name?"
Bastet looked a little annoyed again—but probably not at Zotha. "My present name, at least. Their..disgusting breeding program altered my nature, and that of my 'children', for good. The thing you call a 'domestic cat' didn't exist before then."

"So before that, your 'children' were...what, just various kinds of wildcats?"
"More or less. My own physical form is, likewise, irrevocably that of a wild beast."

"And yet, you prefer to present yourself that way here, where—I'm guessing you can pretty much make yourself look like whatever?"

"This is how I would prefer to be seen: An ordinary person, just trying to get through another day of being alive. It's how I really feel about myself.

"...Let's move on. You want to meet with Ouroboros? That's only fair. He deserves an introduction not colored by my opinions. Give me some time to convince him, and then we'll arrange it. Definitely better than him waking up angry."

"That's..surprisingly nice of you?" Zotha said.

"I'm only being practical. Anyway..."

The cat goddess sighed, putting an elbow on the desk so she could lean the right half of her chin on that hand. Her expression was serious and deeply sad, but something about the glowing, catlike eyes made Zotha feel like she was being watched (hunted?) by a large, wild animal all the same. "Knowing what my priorities are, I'm hoping you realize by now: I don't dislike you as a person. Who you are..is just fine with me. I could even go so far as to say I'm proud of you, Zotha. But that isn't the problem.

"What you are..is dangerous. Volatile. You have a human mind, just like he does, and those things can be very fragile across a timescale of several millennia. I gained most of my consciousness through ascension, and I'm barely keeping it together these days. Ouroboros was of a race that can live for a very long time, and yet has to take thousand-year naps to keep himself sane. I'm worried for you, yes, but I'm more worried about what happens to everyone else when you start to get worse. The aspects you carry could wreak even more havoc than 'broken love' ever has.

"You are a victim of circumstances beyond your control—in both an immediate, and also something of a cosmic sense—and you have tried very hard, so far, to make the best of it. Knowing that, it would be very painful for me to destroy you right after your ascension...but still far less so than what I now think will happen in the future. So...it isn't a matter of you doing something or not, you understand?"

Zotha nodded, and then after a pause said, "...I didn't think it'd be easy for me to earn your trust in the first place."

She sat up again, dropping her arm back to her side. "That goal is pretty much impossible. My trust has been broken far too many times, and those who still have it have been around for the majority of my existence. What you said the first time, 'tolerate'...that is something I'm pretty used to doing. I already see your continued existence becoming an inevitability, as beings I can't overrule and powers I've got little influence over conspire to maintain your existence. I have accepted many other things I dislike and can't control, so this is just one more...but getting used to it will still take me a very. Long. Time."

"Well then, maybe I can at least trust you. Since you know what it looks like when one of us 'goes bad', I'm sure you'd be able to warn me?"
"I don't think it will do any good. But I certainly will try."

"I find that reassuring," Zotha said with her best smile.

"...Anyway. I guess you must not like that other ascended human very much—maybe even less than the other gods seem to?"
"I think..very much the opposite. Yes, we hated each other when we were young. But it didn't take much hindsight afterward to realize that we'd both been trying to do the same thing all along. A peace in which neither of 'our people' were killing the other in droves was vastly better than either side 'winning' could have been. Now, I understand his pain better than anyone else...but I also know from direct experience how extremely dangerous it makes him. Likewise, I was angry at Sol and La Lune at first for 'betraying' us and forcing a peace nobody wanted at the time...but as I saw the generations pass and the old blood feuds die, fading from memory to history to near-forgotten legend, I understood the wisdom of their decision."

"So, they're the ones you really trust?"
Bastet nodded. "Sol is...aggravating. It's in his nature to take charge of any urgent situation immediately, which is usually great. But when he is wrong, it's nearly impossible to convince him to stop and think about what he's doing, or even listen to anyone else's opinion. And La Lune, I know, really wants to be friendly, but her mercurial nature has her intentionally provoking me to anger just as often as being civil and reasonable."
"And while we're at it, the Fox Ruler?"
"The present fox's behavior has been largely acceptable; she would not have kept her position for so long otherwise. Regardless, I never really worry about the foxes, since the position of a nameless enforcer of their Rules is a costly and dangerous one to hold. Eventually they grow weary of making that sacrifice—or make a terrible mistake and get annihilated—and someone new steps up."
"And..Ouroboros?"

"He was a foolish, prideful dragon who ignored all of our express warnings. Yet he learned quickly the price of his actions, and acquired a certain amount of humility as a result. Now, he is a solid pillar holding up the foundation of the world. And after his ascension, we were able to make use of his nature as a dragon to ensure that no other dragon can ever ascend again, preventing someone even more foolish than he was from making the same mistake."

"Wait—but, you can't do that with humans?"
She shook her head slightly. "Humans don't have a 'uniform nature' the way dragons, or for instance celestials, demons, or Kistune do. It would be like if you tried to specify an exact, different transformation for each one of two billion people spread randomly across the globe, and make them all happen simultaneously, except even more costly and prone to unintended side effects—and that's including your own nature's tendency toward those. Don't get me wrong, we closed off every avenue we could reasonably manage, but you are proof that that wasn't perfect."

"Okay, well that's pretty much everything I can think of. Anything else you want to say?" Zotha asked.

Bastet paused as if she hadn't expected this question, seemed to think about it for a moment, then frowned and folded her ears back again. "Tell Jess that I am very disappointed in her. I don't think she'll understand the gravity of that message, but you should deliver it anyway." Then, her expression returning to neutral/tired: "I'll be in touch when I've convinced Ouroboros to hear you out."
"All right. You want to end off with a handshake or something, or just—?"

Before she could finish that sentence, Zotha woke up—really woke up, this time.

---

Another "landmark moment" of this story I've been looking forward to, with lots of little reveals woven into it. As eager as I was to get here, I feel like the story would get kind of repetitive and expositiony if we had too many "meeting a god for the first time" parts too close to each other, both in-universe and in terms of how many parts there were between. Hopefully this strikes the right balance.

A Summoning, Part XL

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---

Part XL
~Empress~

When Prama came in to work Monday, she found Boreas staring down at a table in the shop's back room which usually had next to nothing on it. Today, that table was covered in various containers of strange substances in various sizes and levels of fullness, most of which she was pretty sure she had never seen before. The werewolf didn't seem to respond to the noise of her entering, so she went a little closer. "Hellooo?"
"Oh. Mornin'." Boreas didn't take her eyes off of the table.
"What's...all this stuff?"
"First of, all don't touch it. Most of it's very dangerous."
"Okaay?"
"Second, ingredients for a potion."
"Like..just one?"
"I oughta say, 'possible' ingredients. Not sure yet which of these will actually turn out to be useful."

"You get a sudden burst of inspiration to make something new..and, I guess, dangerous?"

"All alchemy's dangerous, remember. As for the first part of the question..you could say that," she shrugged, finally looking Prama's way, and then making a brief visual tour of the room while saying, "Guess I should set you some work while I keep thinking about this...you feel ready to handle some of our standard fare on your own?"
"Oh, most definitely. I, can still ask you if I have a question, right?"

"Long as I'm not doing anything delicate. Just wait a sec if I am."

Boreas gave out a list of things for Prama to work on, and then said, "Guess you're curious what I'm making."
"I mean, I definitely won't complain if you tell me," she said while starting in on that work.

"Well..you're only recently out from under the veil, right? So, I guess the phrase 'last great pack' won't mean much to ya."
"Afraid not."

"Let's just say...there was a man by the name of Lucent Merrow. He was wealthy, influential, and incidentally, one of my closest friends."
"I see—and a werewolf, leading this 'pack' you mentioned?"
"Mm," she said: an affirmative grunt. "His grandson's lived off that wealth his whole life—married into even more wealth, too. Most folks who knew the old man don't like him much, myself included. But he sure does know just how to get people to do what he wants 'em to."

"Sounds a lot like someone I know," Prama said—picturing Jess, or more accurately, Jarod. "And, so, he got to you? Wants, some kinda difficult potion?"

"Supposedly his daughter wants it. I've never met the girl, so can't say whether it's a lie or not. Don't seem like the kind of thing he'd come up with on his own, for sure. And—I used to like coming up with new recipes, when I was—this age," she said, waving at her own face.

"I see. So, this one sounded interesting enough to try?"
"Combination of things. Hoping I can be a little more careful than back then in my old age, besides."

"Well, don't forget you've got a genius apprentice now, either! I won't dare handle the dangerous stuff myself, buuuut if you need ideas, or someone to bounce them off of...?"

"Hmm. We'll see."

---

Steph was on his way out from lunch when he nearly ran into the little white-winged girl from the previous week. "Whoa—hey."
"Hello there, Steph," she said, her tone and expression almost too cheerful and friendly. "I wanted to thank you and your friend for your helpful advice the other day."
"Uh...yeah?" Now that he was looking, he noticed that dragon he'd met before was also standing nearby.

"I would also like to introduce you to Toma, a friend of mine," Stella continued, waving in said dragon's general direction.

"Uh...yeah. We've kinda met," he said.
"True," the dragon-girl agreed with a slight nod..while still standing there kind of menacingly with her arms crossed.
"Oh! Well, if you're already acquainted, I'm sure you've already given her the proper tribute for the first meeting with a dragon, then?"
"Well uh. You only just became a dragon recently, right?"

"Also true. So, when we met before, I wouldn't have known about that particular tradition."

"I see, I see," Stella nodded; Steph could kind of tell she was only pretending that this was new information. "Then you wouldn't have had a chance to, yet. All the more reason to make up for it now, correct?"

"I guess..? What kind of 'tribute' is this, anyway?"
"Well. It doesn't look like you have any precious gemstones or gold bars on you," Toma said.
"Y-yeah, I don't really own anything like that," Steph said. Even though he could sense that he was being taken for some kind of ride, the pressure of the dragon's power, plus her kind of displeased expression, made him not want to challenge the situation outright.

"Well, I thought that sounded kinda outdated when I heard it. Surely you can afford some chocolate bars, though? Even a 'newborn' celestial like Stella could handle that."

"Uh, yeah, sure. I..don't have any on me right now though, soo..."
"Next time we meet. Sure. I've got classes to get to anyway," Toma said, heading off. The celestial gave Steph a slight curtsy, then followed the dragon out.

---

Pulling her truck up into the driveway, Graham mused that the nervous, slightly giddy feeling she was getting could, to an outside viewer, be mistakenly attributed to a cat entering the home of three dogs—or, more accurately, wolves. But her slight grin, and the way her tail flicked around excitedly behind her while she walked up and rang the doorbell, would quickly dispel that notion.

Her ears almost immediately picked up some footsteps, and then Sam answered the door. "Welcome, aaah, miss Graham. Miss?" she added a second later, uncertainly.

The Neko just shrugged. "Never been much for formality, myself. I'm not that familiar with how this works, but if you're more comfortable with 'Smores', that's all right too."

"Heheh, okay then. Come on in—Damon's upstairs," she gestured, getting out of the way.

"Thanks, 'miss' Sam," the Neko said, heading through. By the time she got to the foot of the stairs, Damon had eagerly run out to a balcony over the living room. "Um, hi!" The wolf-girl had on a shirt that must've fit her properly as a man before, judging by how loosely it hung across her slim form, the collar revealing part of her neckline and most of a shoulder while its lower hem stopped partway down her thighs. It completely obscured whether she actually had anything else on.
"Hey there. You want me to come up?"
"Y-yeah, please!"
"Alright."

Just a month or two ago, Graham would have dreaded these stairs. But now she bounded up them with very little effort, and it was hard to tell if her heartbeat picked up at all from the exertion—or if it was just from proximity to the little werewolf. "Um—!" It certainly didn't help that Damon's face was pretty red, her ears lowered a bit and her tail whipping around excitedly behind her. The motion of that tail made the hem of her shirt flutter around, enough to occasionally make out the lower edge of one of the pairs of shorts the Neko had 'helped' her buy the other day. "Y-you look really cute in that!" she said after a second. "The uh..monochrome look? Really brings out your eyes. And, I-I-I still don't think I'm brave enough to wear a skirt at all, especially one that short..."

The catgirl hadn't really even given much thought to her outfit today; it was 'casual and comfortable' as far as she was concerned: A sleeveless white top, some black stockings and a short white pleated skirt, plus one other thing. "Well," she said, "since becoming a lady I thought I oughta get the full experience, dresses and all. Besides—" she lifted the skirt's front slightly, showing off the very lowest bit of some black bike shorts. "I've got something on under it."

If Damon's face had been red before, it nearly turned into a tomato for a second at that. "Uh! Oh, I-I see..heheh, y-yeah..still though!"

"Anyway, I think what you've got on suits you well enough," she said with a slight shrug. When Graham and his wife were both young, he'd honestly appreciated her looks the most when it was time for bed, or just after waking up—when she definitely wasn't putting on a show for anyone. Damon's casually thrown-on shirt and slight bedhead gave her the same kind of sense, even if it was clearly just what she usually wore.

"Uh, th-thanks. Um..r-right this way then, heheh!" She gestured nervously, then led the way to an open door.

Peeking partway through it as they got closer, the Neko saw an office setup and...a bed? "Er, is that your bedroom?" she asked, stopping. It felt like moving a little too fast to go into a lady's bedroom on their first...date? Visit? Official meeting? 'Hangout'?
"Uh, y-yeah, but..it's, also my office. Aannnd, where my games and stuff are!" Looking a little closer, Graham could confirm there was more to the room, including a couch with a rip across its back and a big-screen TV facing it. "S-so uh. I-I mean, if you wanna, I guess Sam has a setup with some of her stuff downstairs, but..."
"Nah, I think I get it," Graham said. "Don't forget how old I really am, is all—give a gal a little warning first, eh?"
"O-oh, uh. S-sure. So um..c'mon in?"

"Certainly."

They spent the afternoon talking and playing, both of them maintaining a polite distance from the other—not squeezing to opposite sides of the couch, but trying not to get too close. Graham wouldn't have minded a little bit of physical flirtation, but Damon seemed awfully nervous about getting too close for some reason, and she wasn't one to disrespect a lady's wishes. It only ended once an alarm on the Neko's phone reminded her that it was time to go pick up her granddaughter.

---

"Um..you look a little different, Master."

Zotha took a moment to stand up and get to a mirror to examine herself. She could've just had Jess send an image mentally, but there was no need to resort to a mystical solution for such a mundane problem. "..Huh." Her hair had shortened to just reach down to her shoulders, and her body had made significant gains in muscle tone, including a faint six-pack on her belly. Her horns were small enough to be pretty much hidden behind her hair; she lacked a tail and had human-looking ears; and her wings were black-feathered, like those of an enormous crow. Furthermore, there was a faint golden glow around her entire body, but she was able to turn that off easily enough once she noticed it. "Weird to just wake up looking different."

"You..still have control over it, right?" Jess asked, concerned. Zotha turned and rubbed the top of her little priestess's head.
"Why, you don't like this look?"

She blushed adorably. "N-no, I just—!"

"Pfft, only teasing. Yeah, I can still shift to whatever I want. But, I guess this might be a result of working so closely with Sol's 'people' for a while?"

"It isn't making you more like him though, is it?"
"Mentally? Don't think so. Still don't like the idea of people having to die because of the veil, at least. I think it's just as cosmetic as the changes we made to meet La Lune. Anyway—maybe I'll keep this for a little while, out of appreciation for the power boost all those requests have been feeding me."

"So...you haven't been getting tired or anything?"
"Nope." The goddess stretched, spreading her wings out in the process. "I feel more energetic than ever, at least since sorting out how to approve most of them automatically."

---

Thursday afternoon, Boreas was midway through her twenty-sixth attempt at the potion. "Prama. Need to ask somethin' you really won't like."
"What's that?"
"Someone's walking up, and I can't look away from this for a second."
"Oh..y-you need me to go, t-to the front counter."
"Just remember, behind the counter is your territory." That probably would have helped her, if she were a fellow werewolf! But she was as eager to see this experimental potion succeed as her master was, at this point.

"I-I'll do my best..."

A dark-haired guy in skinny jeans and a tank top walked into the shop not long after she got to the counter. He had an average build, but seemed fit and overall pretty cute—in a scruffy-looking kind of way, at least. He had bright yellow eyes, wolfish ears and a medium-thick furry tail, so he was probably another werewolf. He kind of nervously looked around as he walked in, before finally noticing the girl behind the counter. "Oh, uh, hey."

"H-h-hi. Can..can I, help you with. W-w-with something?"

"Uuuh." He put a hand behind his head. "Where's, you know, the other girl who works here? I mean, you're pretty cute too, but uh.."
Now that she'd heard a little more of his voice, Prama realized: This was the guy who'd bugged Boreas before. That made her feel a little better—even if they'd never actually met, he was marginally familiar, and also known to be annoying. She leveraged that annoyance to try and project a little more confidence. "The owner is busy with very delicate right now; th-that is why I'm here. Now, can I help you with something," she said, her tone a little flat for a question. She even managed a little bit of a glare up at him.

"Well uh..." He seemed to try to lean back and forth to see the area behind the counter. After a couple of seconds of this, he jumped slightly and looked a little bit pale. "Y-yeah!" he said suddenly. Prama had a feeling Boreas had permitted him a peek at her very displeased face. "I was, uh, I was thinking of changing things up a little, you know, with my look? Maybe I'd come off as a little more intense as a redhead!"

Prama crossed her arms. "Not to advertise our competitors, but y-you do know dye exists, right?"
"Dude, on all my fur, though? It'd look really wacky after only a couple of showers. Or especially on the full moon coming up!"
She sighed. "Yes, we have hair-coloring potions, a-and since a werewolf runs this place th-they obviously change fur, too. R-right over there," she said, pointing. It was a good thing she'd memorized their stock arrangement earlier. "Arranged b-by color and duration. There are even, uh, color swatches so you can pretty much tell what the result will be."
"Oh, yeah! So uh, so you do. I'll juuuuust...take a look, then."
"You do that. L-let me know if you find one that you want."

Once he bought his potion (which would last two entire months, putting it in their upper tier of both price and duration) and left, she breathed a sigh of relief.

"Not bad," Boreas said. "That's the rudest customer we've got lately. May have to let you take over the front a bit more often."
"P-please don't. I mean, not more than necessary. I-I'm still..."

"It's a part of the business," the alchemist said. "You've got to learn to deal with customers sometime."
"I guess..." But surely it didn't always have to be face to face! Actually, thinking about that a little more deeply..started to give her some ideas.

---

When making an agreement through texts about when and where to meet up and hand over his 'tribute' for the dragon, Steph made sure he could bring Andrew as backup. A four-tailed Kitsune was probably still nowhere near a match for a dragon, but at least the two foxes combined would probably be enough for them to cast some convincing-enough illusions and escape.

They met up at a table outside the cafeteria; Stella and the dragon-girl were already waiting there when the two Kitsune arrived. "Uh, hey. This is my...friend Andrew," Steph said, getting a big bag of various chocolates, freshly bought from the grocery store, out of his backpack. "I was hoping, this'd be enough for both of us?"

Toma picked up the bag and turned it over in her hands, seemingly examining it very carefully. Stella watched this performance—and the two Kitsune's slightly-nervous faces in response to it—for a good several seconds before letting out a soft "Pfft—" that erupted into some positively helpless, uncontrollable giggling and laughter.

"Heh." The dragon-girl also, for the first time Steph had ever seen it, grinned just slightly, her cheeks also tinged with a slight blush, as she put the bag down on the table. "Got you good, huh?"

"Wha—you? You..."

"I think this whole thing was a prank, Steph," Anika said. The fact that the celestial was beating the table with a fist, still trying to stop laughing, gave plenty of evidence for this theory.

"For the record, this was her idea," Toma said. "As 'revenge' for your thing. I don't really get how Kitsune work or whatever, but...I guess we can just share these? If either of you even like chocolate, I mean. Oh, wait—is it poisonous to dog people?"

"...No, it's not," Steph said, letting out a slight sigh. "And foxes aren't dogs, anyway."

"I mean, like, canidae?"

Finally finished laughing, Stella took a deep breath and wiped a few tears out of her eyes with a handkerchief from her purse. "It would be terribly inconvenient if some people couldn't eat chocolate, Toma," she said. "So, yes, let us feast!"

This, of all things, was how Steph got to personally know a celestial for the first time...not to mention the dragon.

---

"Hey, Dai! Check this out!"
"Huh?"

Not all of Dai's friends were 'in on' the whole magic business. One of those stuck a phone in his face tuned to a stream highlight from the night before. "Oh..incu-whatever again?" This was the same guy who'd introduced him to that weird stream from the obviously-werewolf girl...and then to her friend, who was also probably a werewolf.
"Yeah, yeah, but look! They had a guest last night."
Turning up the volume a little, Sam was saying: "So, aaah, this is Smores, who's been hanging out in our chat lately. Turns out we're practically neighbors."
The white-haired catgirl waved a little awkwardly at the camera. "Hey there!"

"Isn't she really cute?" Dai's friend continued over whatever was said next.

"Eh, yeah, I guess."

"I mean, with that getup, I can't believe she's not already a pro streamer. You seen her before?"
"Nope." And, he was probably referring to the 'fake cat ears' that Dai could very well see were actually real.

"Well, whatever. You should give it a watch! They made her play Dark Souls, and some of her reactions are hilarious!"
"Yeah. I'll check it out later," he promised, nodding and handing the phone back. "Thanks."

---

Plonk.

After Prama walked into the shop on Friday, Boreas wordlessly placed a large glass bottle, globe-shaped at the bottom with a long, somewhat thinner neck going up from there, onto a table. It was a little over two-thirds full of a potion swirling with bright pink and dark blue, with a silvery shimmer occasionally visible.

"So...success?" It looked like she'd pulled an all-nighter. And the werewolf wasn't the type to say it aloud, but both of them knew that a few of Prama's suggestions had, in fact, panned out.

"I have a potion now," she stated flatly. "Can't say whether it's a success without testing it, though."

"You aren't confident it's right, even after all that work?"

"The hard part isn't something a potion's ever been made to do before, to my knowledge. I can't ship something like that out without a better guarantee."

"Hmmn, and that's a tricky thing to test, right? Because..."

Prama counted off on her fingers: One: "You need a werewolf."

Boreas nodded.

Two: "A male one."
She nodded again.
Three: "Who you know no major magic has been done to all that recently, especially anything that interferes with or relies on 'moonlight'..."

"Mm-hm."

"Well, I don't think you'll be surprised to learn that I don't know any werewolves. Zotha might, but anyone she's in contact with, well—frankly, she's probably done something to that qualifies as 'major magic', like yourself."
"Fair enough. Wasn't really counting on your help with this part in the first place," she said with a slight shrug.
"I..guess we could put out an ad or something? 'Help wanted: Potion test subject. Probably not lethal! Pay..'" Prama trailed off, aborting her joke, since Boreas didn't seem to think it was very funny.

She sighed. "Well, we both know of one werewolf you can probably use. He's bound to show up again sooner or later."

---

"Thank you so much for visiting, Basty~. I think we've had a very productive conversation, don't you?"

The cat goddess sighed. "You have been less insufferable than usual tonight, La Lune."

"That's too kind of you. Oh, there is one other thing I wanted to bring up before you go. Silly me, nearly forgot it again!"

Bastet's entire body immediately tensed up. "...Which is?"
"Well, a friend of mine wanted me to ask you—on her behalf, expressly as a friendly, polite request and not a command of any sort—for a visit. Perhaps you could just, show up in her dreams?"

"Oh." She relaxed only slightly after hearing this. "And, pray tell, do I need to guess who this 'friend' is?"
"Hmmn, no," La Lune said, seeming to briefly consider the possibility of making it a guessing game, "although I suspect you could."

---

All I can say is, I hope there's still somebody interested in reading this particular story.