I’d never watched Providence take over a host in person, but it wasn’t supposed to go like this. We shouldn’t have seen it at all. The change should have been boring, internal only, swapped with the previous occupants while they were shunted off into whatever forsaken hole claimed responsibility for producing company infrastructure.

This wasn’t that. On one hand, it didn’t appear the white flames had invoked any lasting structural damage, fading after only a handful of seconds. On the other, that was a total guess, because the building had been replaced. If you could call it a building.

This could only be Providence from the outside. The one it wasn’t supposed to have. The new structure vaguely resembled a skyscraper in that it had approximately the same foundational dimensions, if you discounted the places where it sheared through an unfortunate neighbour. But it was far taller, the top extending far above its competition and disappearing into grey clouds. Some distance below, a persistent white band crackled around the obelisk in two dimensions, spreading out horizontally before raining a shower of short-lived sparks onto the city. No two guesses as to where it hit Themis’ barrier. The two divine forces seemed to have brokered a reluctant yet stable balance, but who knew how long it would last.

Not only did Providence have an exterior, it appeared a fair amount of thought had gone into it. The whole thing was vaguely shaped like a teardrop, with an angular base resembling a truncated inverted pyramid. There was then a gap itself the height of a small skyscraper, followed by the rest of the building suspended above it as it slowly tapered to a theoretical point.

I had trouble reconciling it in my head with the office dimensions I was familiar with, which seemed somehow appropriate. To top it off, every surface glittered with glass under which starry nuclei drifted in large white particles, clearly visible even in the daylight.

There went the element of surprise in Singapore.

I seized the moment to interrogate Regina. “Do you have the earring?”

She raised a gloved hand – the opposite of the rune hand – where a lump bulged tellingly around one finger. Of course. If I wasn’t vigilant, an artifact would end up stealing my shapeshifting cred, and that was just shameful.

I nodded. “Nearest containment field. How close are we?”

“We’re standing in one right now. I practiced, as you suggested, and I’ve been keeping them at bay, across the city for a while now. We were walking through it this whole time. Siphon expanded the range again. But it’s only a matter of time before I have to sleep.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Then why were you and Neetu jumping at cars?”

“Curfew.”

My lips quirked. “That’s some Armageddon-level business right there, and you’re still scared of the law.”

Regina glanced cautiously across at Neetu. “Armageddon? I thought you said algiz was meant to protect.”

“Everything can be made into an apocalypse with enough excess and creative thinking,” I said. “What if you decided to protect the world from people?”

“That’s called war,” Regina said, and paled. “Are you telling me I can do that?”

“You tell me. On a less abstract scale, think what an impenetrable forcefield could do if you surrounded a region and slowly constricted it.” I mimicked holding a beachball with my hands and squeezed them until my fingers were laced together. “Through people. Or buildings. Or the planet.”

“Can you cause the apocalypse?”

“Of course.” I smiled sweetly back at her. “But not with forcefields.”

“Demon isn’t a strong enough word,” Regina said.

“That’s what I told myself, and that was before I knew who she was,” Neetu chimed in. “More importantly, what are we going to do about that?” She pointed at Providence.

The question was answered for her a moment later.

“One of you must be Regina,” a soft voice stated. The man accompanying it wore bright colours and flowing garment which would have drawn attention on anyone else. On Vishnu, they were likely only the third point of interest, after the blue skin and four arms. As far as I was concerned, however, the critical piece hung around his neck. The obsidian amulet’s eye slid between my two companions in smooth appraisal.

I found myself glowering at Amulet Tez. He had to have known I’d be here, the troll. His insistence I face off against Legba instead of the far better match that was Hera made far more sense with the involvement of a place of power. What I couldn’t understand was why he hadn’t told me. Knowing seers, there would generally be a reason for an obvious omission.

What would have gone differently?

This was the same reflection who’d squashed a couple of million souls without batting an eyelid, and not just because he didn’t have one. I couldn’t tell how he was faring compared to Primary Tez, which bothered me. If it was anything like his progenitor, I wasn’t sure if that would be better or worse.

In Rome, the popemobile thrummed to life and began its slow rumble through the mob of bodies, angels in Swiss Guard attire on foot ahead to part an opening. People reached out to touch the car. Some succeeded. The clean windows were already accumulating their first smeared fingerprints.

Neetu gulped, obviously rattled. Her fingers clenched into fists by her sides. Regina made a sharp intake of breath, but otherwise held her ground.

“You know he’s your contact,” I advised her, prowling to the side to inspect the Preserver for unforeseen surprises. “But not his specific identity.”

“I’m not looking for any trouble.” Regina spoke carefully. She took a half-step forward, inching to put herself ahead of Neetu. The officer looked momentarily irritated at the protective movement. Her fists unclenched, and she stepped forward to match her companion.

Vishnu’s gaze came to rest on Regina. Beside her, Neetu froze mid-step and mid-blink, her shoe brushing the tips of the grass below it.

So did everything else.

Four of my visitations, as well as my original body, sheared out of existence. Their absence felt like a gut-punch to the soul. Vitality amputated from the source. I was the amputated part, more accurately. For practical purposes, five-sixths of me had stopped existing in measurable time.

I found myself reeling, swarmed with light-headedness. My feet felt ghostly. Fragile and airy. All the benefits of the place of power, gone. My real body and exit route, cut off. Technically, I knew, the connections were still there, but I felt partly untethered, like I might drift away from myself if I wasn’t careful.

I resolved to be careful.

The existing quiet had deepened into uncanny silence. I glanced back at Providence, noting its nuclei had stopped drifting. Above the Singaporean barrier, the swollen clouds had halted their sluggish journey across the sky. A frozen Providence was a win, but less so the rest of the world. It complicated things, and we’d have to uncomplicate them. Last thing we needed was to remove Vishnu from the equation only to end up stranded in a time-locked universe with no way to restart it. When I’d fantasised about destroying the world, this wasn’t how I’d imagined it happening.

In contrast, Vishnu’s countenance resembled the very picture of serenity, far from the turmoil I expected to be brewing under the surface. “I hear you are a guide,” he announced. “I am in need of one. I shall be requisitioning your services for the moment.”

Regina hesitated. My anchor, now more than ever.

I pulled myself together, what remained of it. I still had my reasoning; I was still me, and that was what mattered. This wouldn’t be permanent. “Kneel,” I advised her, stepping out from between them to get out of the way. My legs felt odd. “Don’t play dumb, but do ask questions.”

The ex-waitress dropped somewhat awkwardly to her knees on the grass, which bought me a few more seconds to impart wisdom.

“Ask who he is and request amnesty,” I murmured in Regina’s ear. “He needs to know you have a reason to keep him around instead of throwing Siphon a new plaything.”

Regina’s shoulders didn’t lose their tension, but she bowed her head. “I’m not sure how to address someone of your… status,” she said, which was a lie. She’d had no trouble tearing into me. “Who am I talking to?”

“You may address me as Lord Vishnu,” Vishnu said, his tone patient. He gazed down at Regina, but she wisely kept her head bowed. Easier to obscure body language than fake it. “It is my job to keep the world running as it should. This state of affairs –” each palm made a small gesture towards the wider city, “– has been allowed to regress for too long. It must be corrected.”

“You’re going to lift the barrier and banish the death fields?” I asked in a vocal approximation of large puppy dog eyes.

I felt Regina aim a distinct sense of relief my way. A moment later, she raised her head and repeated my words to Vishnu, who ate them up like he expected no less. Regina’s version contained less puppy, but the important thing was the sentiment.

Vishnu had already been provoked enough. Now was the time to let him feel in control, keep his actions predictable and away from the hair’s edge. That most mortals barely registered beyond their alignment to his personal objectives also meant he’d expect a certain level of impotence. I didn’t think the Chief Operations Officer was the type to demand fear, not like Yahweh. Or even love. But the power disparity kept the blinkers on and made it easy to play to his assumptions. Like those without power had been doing since time immemorial just to survive.

“I am,” said Vishnu. “Your city will soon be returned to its proper state. I will give you the address; you must ensure we arrive safely. I offer you fair warning; I can predict any treachery before it occurs. Do as I ask, and all will be well.” His stare drifted from Regina towards the mass of buildings beyond the park, of which Providence merely sat on the edge. Threading the needle between his soul’s capture and freedom, with only a capricious seer to save him.

Amulet Tez’s eye was fixated on Regina. I wondered if they were talking.

“Amnesty,” I reminded the demon lord, before the silence had a chance to draw out too long. I accompanied it with a firm poke in the back of her shoulder blade.

“I want protection,” she said on cue, and deliberately nudged her head in the direction of the office. “That place eats people like me. We have stories.”

“We are not your enemy,” Vishnu countered, in a way that made me think he actually believed it.

Amulet Tez rolled his eye.

“You are already enrolled in our official records,” the god continued. “Your file was brought to me via our information arm only recently.”

Odin’s team, if not the man himself. No surprises there.

Regina swallowed. I was sure it wasn’t an act. “And what does that mean?”

“It means,” replied Vishnu, unperturbed, “you will be dealt with according to procedure. If you are deemed an asset to the business, you will be assigned contractor duties.”

“What duties?”

“That will depend on where you are assigned.”

“What if I’m not deemed an asset?” Regina asked warily.

“Then you will be subject to specific outcomes according to your risk assessment class and level.” Textbook corporate-speak. Sidestepping the reality of unsavoury possibilities by making it dull and official.

“What if I decided to pledge my services to one of you in particular?”

Vishnu tilted his head a fraction. “Ah. You are referring to your prior dealings with one of our ex-employees. A legacy policy. You may subcontract to whoever you wish, but they, too, are bound by wider corporate governance. It is no different in the end.”

“I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask whether or not I’m likely to die,” Regina said, a hint of testiness creeping into her tone.

“That’s the definition of business,” I interjected for her. “One party makes an offer and the other is free to reject or accept the terms. If they aren’t free, it isn’t business. It’s something else.”

Regina repeated the words.

Vishnu blinked. He took a while to respond. Maybe we’d pushed it too far. Despite all the things that had been done to his head, he’d fought in the war in India. Deep down he had to know what Providence really was, and that it hadn’t been salvaged. The veneer of civility was just that. But it was a veneer he clung to, perhaps to distance himself from the horror.

It was made more complex by the fact his current excursion was happening off the books. Mortal or not, one word from Regina to the wrong person could spell dire consequences for him.

“Very well,” he responded eventually. “I will submit a recommendation to HR.”

“Good,” I said, poking at a leaf in mid-drop near my elbow. Naturally my finger went straight through it. “Now we –”

“And unfreeze Neetu,” Regina added, gesturing to the still-frozen officer.

“My business is not concerned with her.”

“Those are my terms,” Regina said simply. “I have no problem with you finding another guide.”

“Try to be a little less hostile,” I warned her. “He does have time to find someone else.” Though not with Amulet Tez’s personal recommendation. And Providence had only itself to blame for any gaps in skills coverage. Wanton culling had a tendency to do that.

But if he really, truly wanted to, unfroze the right people and disregarded the consequences, Vishnu was senior enough he could even resurrect the dead.

Fortunately, he seemed to deem the alternative options too much trouble. Having time didn’t necessarily translate to wanting to use it. It idly occurred to me Vishnu was likely the oldest god in the business, non-chronologically-speaking, perhaps by a significant margin. I had no way of knowing how many times he’d frozen everything to get away, or for how long, or who, if anyone, he’d taken with him. Though if Yahweh remained unaffected, perhaps he’d had to be sparing.

The tyrant was probably aware of the current freeze, come to think of it, not that he was at full efficacy with his colleagues frozen and the angels in Rome. Vishnu probably didn’t want to draw it out for long. It was a coin flip with the chief executive as to whether he’d praise his underling’s actions as proactive initiative or fly into a rage at being undermined. No way to know which until it was too late.

I didn’t want to give him much time to think about it, either.

“Very well,” Vishnu said again. “It seems the twin rewards of having your city restored and personal position guaranteed were not enough. Such hubris will not serve you well in your future dealings.”

Neetu’s foot came down. She made a double-take at the others, and Regina still kneeling on the ground. Her hand returned to her hip.

“Should have asked for more,” I said, and grinned at the psychic backlash I received for it.

Sure enough, Vishnu didn’t wait for confirmation. “This is our destination,” he said, presumably imbedding it directly into his target’s head. “The route has already been plotted; your task is to keep the hostile elements at bay.”

He wasn’t mentioning Amulet Tez, either not to muddy the waters or to avoid the kind of distraction only incitable by introducing a sentient necklace. As it was, both women stole glances at it at frequent intervals. From my limited grasp of amulet body language, I got the impression Tez was enjoying it.

“Ngai’s office?” I murmured as Regina rose to her feet, sneaking glances at the white monolith towering impossibly over the frozen horizon. A cloud of mynahs dotted the skies mid-flight around its lower half, startled into action by its explosive entrance.

No. They must have moved. This… just looks like a home. The sentence ended on a quizzical note, as if she wasn’t sure.

Pulling back, perhaps. Siphon knew their Singapore office had been compromised seriously enough for a small team to be dispatched, and their world had gotten a lot smaller. They were likely spreading out and lying low, hiding behind individual containment fields and civilian normality in the hope some would be overlooked. If they’d known what had happened to the rest of their organisation, they mightn’t have bothered. But they didn’t. The tactic might even have worked against a deity acting on their own, or even a generalised team. I wondered how many timelines Amulet Tez had run through to narrow it down, and how much of that had been conducted in a time freeze.

“I have questions.” Neetu recovered from her delayed reaction. “What’s going on, and why do I feel like I missed something?”

“Credit your companion,” Vishnu replied. His voice didn’t get any louder, but the words carried. “I would have left you out of it.”

“Sure, if you want to exclude the one capable of making sensible decisions. Plus, if we’re going somewhere, I’m the one with official clearance.” It wasn’t the best attempt at feigning ignorance. But if Vishnu had noticed, which I doubted, he didn’t care.

“The police will not be an issue,” he replied, to which Neetu looked personally affronted. He extended a hand to each of them. “Come, or wait here. We may be some time.”