In a rush, my powers returned. For the first time in more than three hundred years, I felt my awareness expanding, senses reactivating after lying dormant for centuries, and a sense of half-physical, half-mental burden melting away that had been there for so long I’d forgotten it had existed to begin with.

We’d done it. A not insignificant part of me had expected this to fail; that Shitface would turn up at the last possible moment along with a contingent of goons and everything would go wrong. Instead, we’d somehow beaten the odds, even if those odds were higher than my original estimate due to the security being – should we say – not without its flaws. Not that I was complaining.

The first thing I did was deal with the headache, numbing all the problem nerves escorting the pain. Jurisdiction-induced or no, it still followed the basic underlying principles of headaches everywhere and therefore was no match for me. I followed suit with the cold, raising my body temperature to a more comfortable level, and even made an attempt at improving my night vision - but in the absence of any light at all, it didn’t make any practical difference. I should have known that, I thought. It had been too long.

With my powers back, I could feel more than one unsettling undercurrent of power suffusing the chamber, though I couldn’t get a clear sense of them or distinguish the cause. It might have been the edicts, or an ambient side-effect of being surrounded by suppressants, or it might have been something Tez was doing.

The latter had repositioned himself in front of Mayari, repeating the mirror trick with her.

You bastard! she snarled at Tez the moment her cube’s reflection vanished, much to my surprise, hitting us both with mental echoes of rage and pain as her powers also returned. Why would you do this to me!

Because you wouldn’t have gone through with it otherwise, he returned, unperturbed. Better to ask forgiveness than permission.

I felt another rush of hot anger from Mayari’s end. I could have engineered a better solution if you weren't so impatient! I should follow Loki's suggestion and pay you back for this.

Oh, really? he retorted. Maybe I should take it all back, then. Who needs powers anyway?

Both of you, I said, joining the conversation. What the hell?

What do you think happens when you take someone who emits light in all directions and place them in an environment where light is indistinguishable from movement? Mayari snapped. I was being torn apart. Consider yourself lucky I'm not giving you a first-hand demonstration as we speak.

You agreed to it, Tez pointed out. Don't try and tell me you didn't know the risk.

I underestimated its severity. No thanks to you. You remember what it was like having your foot eaten off? Imagine that, but everywhere at once.

Rare was the god who hadn't been through some kind of horrible physical trauma. Being immortal didn't exempt you from physical injury - well, not unless you happened to be an exceptional shapeshifter like myself. There was a reason Tez was missing a foot and Mayari an eye. And there were those who seemed to take their target's immortality as some kind of justification to inflict more harm, like we deserved extra torment for no other reason than that we could take it. There was a lot of simmering resentment hiding within most of the office staff for one reason or another which made my tiff with Eris look like rainbows and sunflowers in comparison.

Yeah, whichever religions thought gods were gentle and wise clearly hadn't met many of them.

How are you feeling now? I asked.

Physically? Better. Emotionally? Betrayed.

Let's focus on the 'better' part, I suggested. Priority is getting out of here. I don't know about you, but I hate being a statue.

No one leaves yet, Tez interjected. First you need to leave a decoy. A piece of hair or something will do. These suppressants were linked to you and now they’re not. We need to create a convincing substitute to fool management.

I considered the problem for a few moments then shifted form, absorbing the spacesuit into myself. The cold immediately hit and I adjusted for it, then once more to account for the effect of the vacuum. It was harder to change shape within the bounds of the edict; I had to force changes through without movement, which my body did not want to do. Overruling that instinct demanded significant effort, but I could do it.

At my bidding, my skin sprouted short, hair-like filaments capable of generating static electricity. I tested the ones on my fingers first, shooting out tiny sparks, and was rewarded when the digits lifted a little in the direction of the light. I could repeat this as needed for basic movement, although expecting any mastery over fine motor control would be a bit optimistic.

Maneuvering my hand above the box, I loosened and dropped one of the filaments onto it – or would have, except that the edict overrode gravity again. It hung there. The more I practiced, the easier it became to figure out how the light I generated was interacting with the effects. Given enough time, it would become second nature – but I wasn’t planning on sticking around that long.

It was close enough. Tez flickered over to the cube and performed what looked like a reverse version of the mirror trick: Create reflection of cube. Merge reflection of cube and filament. He laser beamed the latter’s physical form back into my hand, where I reabsorbed it for the sake of destroying the evidence, then beamed the cube back onto its place on the shelf. I was still watching through his visual feed, and noted how careful he was to place it back into perfect alignment with the rest. Catering for the Themises of the world.

We repeated the process for Mayari, who had a much easier time moving around with light manipulation than I did now that her body wasn't trying to casually explode itself, checked we weren’t leaving any traces behind, then retreated to the surface. Tez scattered moondust back over the bunker entrance and the footprints we’d left, and we briefly reconvened at Mayari’s hideout.

Out of range of the edict, the moon goddess’ mood improved dramatically. As she’d mentioned earlier, this was symbolic of a small but significant victory against the tyrant.

From here on out, the most important thing would be keeping it secret, with a limited number of exceptions. With both Mayari and I to vouch for him and his legendary reputation, Lucy easily made the cut. No one brought up any other names, so that was that.

Mayari and Tez also still both seemed keen on the idea of a revolution, while I remained undecided. There was no question that Providence needed to fall – I just thought I’d have had at least some time to just enjoy having my powers back before being drawn into someone else’s commitment. Especially one with poor chances of success. But I agreed to give it a day or two to think it over.

Tez left shortly after that to escape the cold and headaches, while I hung around for a little longer, making conversation with Mayari and shifting into other forms to make sure everything was still there. It was, but I was definitely out of practice. Actions I would have once taken on reflex instead required me to plan and think, and after three centuries of semi-mortal life, it wouldn’t have surprised me to learn I’d accumulated other skill deficiencies.

“I meant what I said earlier,” Mayari told me, perched on one of the workbenches with her legs dangling off. “You and Tez managed to restore my abilities after the better part of a millennium. Even if Tez was an asshole about it. If you need anything, just say the word.” A bittersweet look crossed her face as she stared around the bunker. “When I think of all the years of work I put into this place, I feel so proud of my accomplishments. And also furious that it had to be so unnecessarily hard.” She looked down at her hands, spreading her fingers and clenching them repeatedly. “Five decades of my life spent fighting through the same barriers all mortals have to face, to accomplish something I could probably now build in a matter of days. And even then, I had a huge advantage. It’s not right. We’re gods. If we can’t do anything to help people, who can?”

Exactly, I thought to myself. “This project of yours,” I began. “What is it?”

She gestured up towards the ceiling, where the plants dangled in a tangle of hydroponics. Since regaining her power, the room was now suffused with light emanating from the walls, rather than from the goddess herself. “A contingency,” she answered. “Humanity is killing itself, you know that, right? Sooner or later, they’re going to need to leave Earth to survive, and they aren’t ready. So I’ve been getting a place ready for them. Incredibly difficult on a mortal skillset, but I’ve achieved a minimum viable prototype.” She made a dissatisfied noise in the back of her throat. “For one person. Two at a stretch. It’s so little for so much wasted time.”

“I’ve got to admire your dedication,” I said, holding up a hand and growing an eye on the palm. I looked myself in the eyes and blinked a few times. First time I’d been able to do that in a while. “But isn’t it doomed? Everyone’s headed to the void after a few short decades. Even if you ultimately save humanity from extinction, the best case scenario is buying a select few enough time to propagate the population. And that’s a double-edged sword. If anything, it’ll end up bringing even more souls into the world to add to the collection that gets thrown away.” I grew a fourth eye on the other palm and pointed them at various interesting angles so that I was looking in multiple different directions at once. No cognitive dissonance.

She winced. “I know that. I know there are bigger issues to focus on. But none of those were things I could influence. I had to pick a battle I had a chance of winning.”

“So what now?” I prompted. “Are you going to finish the project, or start fresh?”

“Both,” she said, as I transformed into a dragonfly and zoomed around the room’s perimeter. “As long as I don’t get caught using powers, I can build something people can actually use. A whole settlement’s worth. More, perhaps. But our top priority needs to be doing something about the underlying issues. We’ve got our work cut out for us there.”

I became human again, misjudging my distances slightly and causing my knees to buckle underneath me on the landing. “This is why I’m in favour of scrapping everything and starting again,” I said, straightening up and brushing non-existent dirt off my trousers. “Things might have been salvageable back in the day, but if you ask me, trying to repair it all now is a waste of time.”

“These sound like things we’ll need to discuss in a team meeting,” Mayari said. “Off the record, I don’t necessarily disagree. The main determining factor will be whether we plan to operate under the radar or launch an offensive.”

“Or wait to see if a better opportunity arises. By the way, do you want a new eye? I can make it look like your glass one.”

“No,” she said firmly. “Well, let me rephrase. I would, but since it would cause the world to be instantly vaporized by a giant ball of fire, I’m going to have to turn down the offer.”

Impressed despite myself, I stared at her for a few seconds as though someone had just handed me the keys to a weapon of unfathomable destruction. “I feel like this is relevant to our current discussion.”

She waved me away. “I’ve got a lot to think about,” she said, gazing at her hands again. “Let’s talk again soon.”