I hadn’t expected Themis to jump straight to the ‘Loki has powers again’ angle, but it also hadn’t occurred to me she might take me for a victim. As long as she believed it, I still had time. If I played my hand right, it might even have been the golden ticket I’d been looking for. Let them think I was gone and live my life free, perhaps pass myself off as a lesser immortal. Maybe spend some time hunting for intelligent life elsewhere in the one remaining universe. Would they have gods? If not, I could always step in and be the first.

But no. I was still tied to the pact. It left a trail. Distance wasn’t much of a barrier for Providence. Worst case, I could find some salvageable civilisation and lead them straight to it, and then I really would be responsible for dooming a world.

Not to mention this one. Consequences or no, I’d be abandoning my family, Lucy, Durga, the pact and, in a clear miscarriage of sanity and reason, the entire mortal world. You knew things were dire when we were the best chance it had. The unpopular side of the culture war.

I couldn’t do it.

No matter which pantheon you asked, in spite of the fuzziness, the one thing most creation stories had in common was gods. First life was always us, everlasting. And from that life, we’d taken the stuff of immortality and warped it into something inferior to be our playthings. Immortal souls created and shoved into mortal bodies, discarded upon death when they were no longer useful. Even the old afterlives had been little more than storage compartments for souls nobody knew what to do with.

Not every society functioned that way. Earth wasn’t exactly known for being a beacon of progressiveness and enlightenment. The average technological literacy in Jötunheim might have been limited to drawing stick figures on rocks, but socially, we’d had it figured out. Immortality was far from being a cure for conflict and dissent, but people tended to be more reasonable on the whole when they weren’t frightened by the constant threat of inevitability, the occasional power grab aside.

And the stupid thing was that it had been the default. Mortality only existed because gods had wanted a group to feel superior to. Any anger the victims might have had was simply swallowed by the great propaganda machine. Telling them it was what they deserved. But maybe, just maybe, they could earn it back with obedience. If they were very good little boys and girls.

They almost never did, of course. For a mortal, there tended to be only one way to immortality, and it was politics.

So if I was a target it meant Eris was too, and Themis had now confirmed the existence of others. Finding out who they were might be the key I needed. But it sounded like this had been going on for a while. It was a place to start.

I tried to remember the last few times the numbers in the company org chart had gone down. I’d assumed it was down to demotions. Everyone on that list was someone with a bone to pick; the types of people more likely to push their luck one too many times than not. Eris and I fit the bill to a tee. I liked to think I’d made it this far by treading the fine line better than most. And Eris was so far gone she lashed out at anyone who came near, regardless of their agenda, which was probably neutral enough for management’s purpose.

If someone had handed me that list and asked who was responsible for their disappearances, Providence would have been the only viable answer in my mind.

But it wasn’t them. Or, not just them. Demotions were still something that happened, after all.

My mind whirred, processing the new information. This was somehow related to Canciana and her little sci-fi setup messing around with the task system. Monitoring those of us on what I was now mentally dubbing the kidnap list. To what end? Sucking our souls out of our bodies? Themis’ reaction made it clear she was familiar with finding empty shells left behind. It felt like I was still missing most of the information, but I’d go with that for now.

It seemed their targets – it was nice of Themis to confirm it was a group – were those of us on Providence’s blacklist. If the hackers were idiotic enough to be trying to ingratiate themselves with the world conspiracy, I doubted they’d be creeping around the back alleys of its task manager. Most likely they were choosing people who wouldn’t be missed.

Now that I was allowing myself time to think about it, I realised I already had some of the answers. Yun-Qi also had odd connections to myself and Eris, and Tez had already provided handy notes on his less-than-scrupulous covert affiliations through the power of foresight. If his old buddies were part of the same organisation Canciana had belonged to then that meant they were trying to become gods, and they thought they needed to steal existing gods to do it. Which wasn’t a horrible plan. Sometimes you needed a little kidnapping to get the right person to sit still long enough to provide answers. Although the ‘capturing souls’ part, if that’s what it was, suggested there was a little more to it than that.

Were they my enemies? They obviously weren’t friendly with Providence, and I had no problem with their overall agenda at face value. If they wanted to leech my soul and bleed it dry to accomplish it, however, we were going to run into certain incompatibilities. If they hadn’t been going after me in particular, I’d have been tempted to sit back and let them do their thing to lead Providence on a merry chase. For a mortal organisation to pull something like this off right under its nose, it took an impressive level of competency, even assuming they had access to forbidden knowledge. And how in the world they were managing to evade the clutches of Themis and Shitface was something I was very, very curious about.

You’d almost think they were being helped.

It still left the other mystery faction – the whistleblowers who’d contacted me through the task system. They were in Singapore. I was overdue for a chat with them, though that was easier said than done as a power-dampened mosquito.

But I had the address memorised and I wasn’t going anywhere else until the heat was off. I might as well drop by and find out if there was any intel to be gathered. Once I was done there, I could fly back to my remodeled apartment to check up on Yun-Qi and the angry time traveller.

Dropping down from the ceiling, I squeezed myself out through the tiniest of gaps near the door hinge – the police paid attention to their door security – and emerged into the station corridor from one of six identical holding cells, careful to keep a low profile. Themis noticed details, and it was a miracle I’d lucked into a reprieve as it was. I didn’t want to be the catalyst to spark the formation of any other inconvenient notions.

Four was on the verge of losing her battle with her temper by the time I crept past. “I trust our procedures meet with your expectations?”

“Quite,” said the goddess. The inspector breathed a sigh of relief, only for it to be sucked back in with Themis’ next sentence. “But it’s not enough. It’s clear our current methods aren’t enough to keep this scourge from claiming more victims. As of now, I’m invoking a complete lockdown on this city. No one enters or leaves unless authorised by me. No exceptions.”

Four’s eyes widened. “But – they’ll never agree –”

“Are you questioning my authority?”

“Absolutely not, ma’am. It’s just – as an advisor, the economy here relies on international trade. Closing our borders would be a death knell in more ways than one.”

“A fair point,” Themis conceded. “And well-raised, retainer. I’ll apply with Finance to cover costs for the duration above the usual stipend. That will solve the problem.”

Four looked very much as though she did not agree. “Ma’am,” she tried again, “Money won’t do any good if we can’t get goods into the country. People need to eat. They’ll turn to the black market. It’ll cause chaos and lawlessness.”

“Then the government will just have to vet its suppliers properly, won’t it?” Themis returned in an unsympathetic tone. “I’ll tell them to send all petitioners my way, and see to it each submission is reviewed within a thirty day period. You should think about doing the same from your end.” Her tone softened a little. “Your concern is noted. But these offenders are as dangerous as they are elusive, and they must be dealt with. I tried it your way in the interest of fairness, but the trial period is over and the results were a failure. Sometimes, Inspector, we have to make sacrifices to achieve the best outcome. But that’s for others to worry about. All you need to do is keep order.”

There were still statues of Themis around in places, not that you’d pick the resemblance, and most of them depicted her wearing a blindfold. History explained it away with some wishy-washy nonsense about impartiality, but it was obvious the sculptor who’d started the trend had just met her. True objectivity was a myth. There wasn’t a person alive who didn’t have opinions. And in reality, if you were blind to bias you were likely to be blind to a few other important details as well, like the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes. To Themis, if a few million mortals had to suffer hardship to bring a threat in line, so be it.

Not that I had the moral high ground there. I was the one who wanted to pull the kill switch on the world, after all.

Four wasn’t wrong – if the Singaporean economy was going to be reliant on Providence's lackeys filling out approval requests, the island was going to burn. No idea how the government would try and explain that one away.

And I’d be stuck here with it. My access card was still on what was left of Sørine, and I was in no state to retrieve it. Even if I could, and my powers came back, I had neither the right kind of abilities nor security clearance to override orders from the Head of Compliance.

That basically rammed home the final nail in Sørine’s coffin. By the time the borders were lifted, she’d be long gone and I’d either be written off or the jig would be up. I doubted Lucy’s memory tricks would save me from this one.

I wasn’t out of the firing line just yet. I still had to pass Themis’ screening, and I didn’t know what that would involve. But Coyote’s teeth – I was closer to freedom than I’d ever been in the last three hundred years. Whoever these mystery people were, I wanted to fly over there and crush them in a hug. Mainly because a handshake would turn them into demons.

Not that I had arms at the moment for either of those things.

And then they’d probably tear my soul out for my trouble. But still. Minor obstacles.

Funny. Loathing Providence as much as I did, I should have been over the moon to get out. And I did feel a thrill of anticipation running down my abdomen. Now that it was plausible, however, my mind began running through everything I stood to lose. There was something to be said for being on the inside of a global conspiracy rather than the outside. Even low-tier access to juicy secrets was better than none. Easy access to gods for information. There’d be no more consultations with Hel on the fly, or anyone else.

Plus I’d already done the fugitive lifestyle, and freedom wasn’t as much fun when it was a constant case of looking over your shoulder. Losing access to the task system was also going to be a pain; I’d planned on abusing it extensively. All the hippies would end up at the bottom of other people’s lists now. Regina would be vulnerable again as soon as the news went through Legal. A few days, a few weeks – I wasn’t sure how long she had before someone came knocking. Not long.

And then there was the matter of the contents of my apartment. That wouldn't go down well at the reclamation.

But I would have freedom, albeit limited to Singapore in the immediate future, and my powers. Assuming the pact didn’t keep draining them forever. Eternity as a mosquito wasn’t something I was keen on.

Four bowed her head. “Yes, ma’am,” she said in a resigned tone.

“Good,” said Themis. “Loki will be coming with me. Her days of terrorising your staff are over. You know what to do about documentation. As for the lockdown, I don’t expect it will be in place much longer than a few months. They won’t be able to hide for long in these conditions. With these arrangements in place, I’ll be leaving now.”

“I understand. May we have our officers back, please?”

“Oh. Of course.” She waved a hand, and the hallway was suddenly populated by confused sergeants. Neetu had returned mid-crouch with a shell-shocked expression and twigs in her hair, and the one who’d been on the phone earlier appeared to be slightly damp.

“Uh…” a third spoke, “that didn’t happen to only me, right?”

“Door,” Themis said to Four, who unlocked it with a swipe card. Much to my surprise, I felt myself jerked backwards as she swept into the room, legs losing purchase on the surface they’d clung to. For a few disoriented moments I tumbled in frenetic circles, antennae and wings scraping along the wall as the invisible force carried me along. It took me several moments to sort myself out, barely managing to keep myself aloft and upright with my battered wings, by which time I found myself sailing back through the cell door. Freedom torn away just as it had seemed so close.

Themis stopped next to the body and I along with her, inertia throwing me forward a little as the compulsion abated. When I tried to back out of the room, it felt like trying to push through a wall of invisible sponge; there was some give, but it got harder the further I went, until it felt like I was trying to fly through mud. I wasn’t going to get out that way.

She must have been using her power on the body, and I’d been caught up in it. She had mentioned me by name. But she’d been talking about the body. As far as I could tell, she still hadn’t realised I was actually present. That was unusual. Exploitable, perhaps, though I wasn’t sure how. Active powers almost always worked by intent rather than literal meaning. Just as well, or the universe would have been swimming in unmitigated chaos long ago. I wondered if it was a side-effect of her trademark precision. I wondered if she even knew about the effect.

Either way, it was locking me into following her around.

Themis took out her access card and opened a door in the blank plaster wall. Before she stepped through, she glanced back at the body. It was all it took for the world to change around me.