The demon woman was the first to respond to the Oracle’s ominous resolution. She nervously chuckled and nodded toward the angel, “Okay. Maybe all wings on the dragon for this one…”

“Most assuredly. I shall go inform my Master immediately,” he replied. His anger was gone. The dissension between the rest of the members had vanished as a collective fear held to them like leeches to skin. They whispered in hushed voices, as if any louder would draw my attention. And yet, despite their best efforts, now I was there, among them, watching and listening. It felt good. Almost too good.

Ideas of how to tease or scare them popped into my mind; not from cruelty, mind, but just because I wanted to see how they would react. I could summon something. Maybe write a message on the table in burning embers…

I grinned. I was going to write a message on the table in burning embers!

Focusing on my desires, I imagined the symbols in the clouds above forming in the wood, glowing with blacks and whites. It took some focus, my mind spinning from the effort, but sure enough the symbols began to burn onto an open spot on the table. The poor man nearest to it noticed and let out a squealing yell, and an embarrassing one at that, as his shaky hand pointed at the forming etches. All eyes turned to see it as well. Gasps of surprise. Of fear. Of horror. Even the calm Oracle jerked a little from the unnerving sign.

Everyone fell to silence.

I loved it. This was the best prank I had ever pulled, and I wanted to really make it memorable. So, once I finished inscribing the runes that spelled “Thailkteyeer,” I drew an iris in the center to suggest that I was watching them that very instant. I then added a few more inside that one. It turned out pretty good, I thought. The ominous runes created a nice eye shape and with several spiraling irises in the center, it really nailed the creepy factor nicely.

One man screamed about “the end is upon us” and ran toward a nearby dragon-like creature. The others either huddled together or stood resolute, watching, but undoubtedly feeling unnerved. The Oracle stepped forward and placed her hand on my little insignia.

“Oracle!” several shouted, but she rose a hand to shush them. I watched curiously as she kept her hands on the runes, wondering what she was doing.

Then, I felt it.

A presence began gnawing at the back of my mind. Coming. Trying to grab hold of me from some distant memory.

I immediately canceled all my spells and let go of the staff. “Gah!” sparks zapped my skin as it left my hand. But, when the staff landed on the dirt with a thud, the odd presence vanished, as did my Scrying spell. Opening my eyes I found myself back where the two hunters were still sleeping soundly. The staff sizzled on the ground. My hands sizzled as well, tiny wisps of smoke coming from my skin. Glowing on each of them were small, but obvious burns exactly like what I had placed on the table.

“What the heck?!” I scratched at them, hissing from a sudden burst of pain. However, they were burned there.

“Well well, my stupid Sun-Dried Biscuit, seems you just screwed yourself big time…” Chaos’ voice sounded from behind me. I sighed. Her presence was not a good omen.

Carefully I leaned down and tapped the staff, “She just marked me for hunting, didn’t she?” The staff seemed fine. I picked it up.

A round of applause sounded from behind me, “Give the man a bag of acorn donuts! Whooo! Let’s go Chay-On Let’s Go!”

“…what are you going on about?” I asked, not even bothering to check if she was even behind me. I was too busy cursing myself for being an idiot. My little prank had just possibly doomed me. How would I hide these?! Maybe I could heal them? I tried focusing on healing them, pouring energy in, but nothing happened.

She let out a girlish giggle, “You’re stuck with them, bucko. No point in wasting your mana.”

“Great…” Looking forward, I spied a pair of bandages that the hunters had. Those would work for now, at least. Picking them up, I covered my palms with the fabric strips. Anger bubbled up inside me and threatened to burst. My own childish playfulness had just spelled my doom; even when I had such potential too.

“Thatsa right, you really screwed yourself over something fierce, boya,” she sang it happily.

“Is there something you want?!” I snapped, jerking my head around to look at the voice. To my surprise, someone was there!

Silence grabbed my tongue and my eyes focused on taking the oddity in. It was a she, as the voice had suggested. And, with an appearance I couldn’t have imagined. For starters, her hair was split down the center by colors, with one side shining like a moonlit night, the other a voided black belonging to the deepest of shadows. It waved wildly, unkempt, partly in pigtails and partly all free and scattered; faint colors seemingly appeared and vanished on a breath’s whim, never allowing me to actually focus on it.

Her face was equally curious. Cute, rather sexy as well, but with a devious beauty that bordered downright nefarious; thin eyebrows, high cheekbones, thinner eyes. A little smirk lay plastered on her face and her multicolored, shifting eyes sparkled with amusement. She looked early twenties in age. Her scent carried an odd vanilla and chocolate flair, sweet, strong, pleasant, yet overbearing. Aside from her wild hair ornaments and a black and white swirling cloak, her attire was out of my sight.

I was flabbergasted. Slightly awestruck. Even a bit fearful of the pure benevolence and malevolence that she seemed to carry. Chaos personified, indeed.

She grinned, showing off her pearly whites and her devilishly sharp fangs. “Smitten?”

“No… surprised, maybe?” I said quickly, shaking my head. I wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction of knowing I thought she was quite… hot. Hot was the word. It also felt weird since I was older than her. But then, I was younger now…

“Remember how they said I’ve been quiet for a millenia? Wouldn’t that mean that I’m…”

“Older than a thousand years?”

“Righto!” With another clap of her hands she walked over to a nearby tree and sat down, a branch growing from it to immediately support her. She playfully swung her legs back and forth while crossing her arms, looking smug. “I know I’m hot, so no reason to hide it.” Her pompous attitude annoyed me, but since she was finally there and seemed like talking, I would put up with it. I needed information. And now, help.

“So… these marks are to help them find me?”

Her head bobbed in a nod, “Yeeep! Now they’ll be looking around for someone with two marks of the Thalwesse on their hands. Lucky for you, Boooper Depreciated, you dropped the staff before she placed a tracking spell. But… unlucky for you, anyone who sees your hands can tell who you are. I mean, there’s literally ‘Thalwesse’ written on both your hands now,” she said, barely containing a fit of giggles. I frowned. Unhappy with myself. Unhappy with her. Things were not turning out well.

What she said next certainly didn’t improve my mood, “And by the way, that staff is only a loaner, ya know?”

“A… loaner?” my jaw dropped.

“That’s what I said, Deaf Daddy. A loaner. In a bit I’ll be taking it back.”

“B-b-but… why?!” I asked, hope draining away.

She shrugged, still smirking. “Because just giving you so much power is boring. Plus, you’ve already proven you need to learn the magic before using it. That way you avoid doing stupid stuff like getting Marked.”

“And whose fault is that?!” I nearly shouted. “You didn’t answer any of my questions and just tossed me down here, expecting me to what… just suddenly know what I needed to know?”

She raised a finger, “I answered one question, though.” My face burned with a rising anger and she waved it down. “Chill. Chill. I’m here now to help out a little. I mean, while I love seeing you squirm, it did take a heap ton of magic to get you here. Having you rot away in a seal for the rest of existence would really be a bad buy for me.”

“As such!” she placed a hand over her heart, “I have come to offer wisdom and instruction to the noob.”

I wanted to smack her. Smacking a girl wasn’t chivalrous, but since she was a sadistic Goddess, I wondered if that would save it. But then again, she would probably just take the staff away and leave me to rot if I annoyed her too much. Taking deep breaths, I slowly calmed myself to the point I could think again. I needed… information. First, about the world. Second, about magic. Third, about those who were now hunting me with everything they had.

“Okay… okay, so what is this place? Mortalis?” I asked, sitting down on a nearby rock.

“Mmmmm… well, imagine that a realm is a planet,” she began. “Not that it is, but just for example. Mortalis is like a biiiiiiig planet with dozens and dozens of moons varying from very big to very tiny, which are their own unique realms. Each is connected to the planet. In fact, without Mortalis, all those realms would break away and venture off into the Veil, vanishing. You can think of the Veil like ‘space’ surrounding those realms.”

That made sense, I supposed. “Mortalis is a core realm that serves as the binding joint for all the others.”

She nodded, clapping happily, “That’s my Oceanic Flurry Machine! Good job, boya.” She winked and gave me a thumb’s up before continuing. “Long story short, you have three primary Realms that Mortalis is famous for. Mortalis itself, the Binder. The Heavenly Realm, or the Heavens. And the Underworld or sometimes called Tartarus.”

“Heaven, Earth, and Hell?”

“Yes and no… More like Angel-kind, Mortal-kind, and Demon-kind. But, that’s a pretty diluted answer as, as you saw, they interact a lot. And there are heaps of other realms. Lots of races. They live all over the place. Mortals in heavens. Angels in the Underworld. Demons here, demons there, demons everywhere. Blah blah blah so on and so forth…” She waved her hand, growing bored and jumping ahead. “Think of them more like countries and it’s more accurate. Anyboo, Lunastaera is Goddess of the Heavens. Pompous, prideful, pure, light infatuated chick. Annoying as a drunk duck on the window seal!” She huffed, shaking her head and mumbling angrily, cheeks flaring red for a moment.

“And…?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah, and she’s annoying,” she said. “Goddess of the Underworld is Luscious. She’s pretty fun. Kind of a killjoy though…” She paused, her smirk rising before she burst out into laughter. She barely was able to wheeze, “Get- it? Kill-joy? Cause she likes to kill?! Finds joy in killing?” she giggled.

“…okay,” I said, not finding that very funny; especially since she would have a heyday killing me then.

“Haaah… I’m such a comedian. Now then… back to business! Ummm… yeah, avoid her like the plague. Heck, you’d probably die faster from a plague than from her, since she really doesn’t like me.”

“No one likes you.”

She shrugged, “Half true. Now then, boya, the last big Goddess you need to worry about is Poseidon.”

“Isn’t Poseidon supposed to be a guy?”

Letting out an exasperated sigh, she threw up her hands, “Didn’t I just say that she’s a Goddess?! Goddess! This isn’t your world, boya, so don’t think your myths and legends and junk actually pertain to Mortalis. Kay?”

“Kay,” I nodded, focusing on listening and not getting annoyed.

“Good,” she gave a nod of approval. “She rules the oceans of Mortalis and is Goddess of the Mer. Now, traditionally she’s pretty calm, so you don’t have to worry too much about her. But hurt her Mer and she’ll track you down. She can be pretty scary.”

“Noted.” Lunastaera, Luscious, Poseidon. Three goddesses were my immediate enemies… along with their legions of followers. Crap.

“Their peoples are often called the Three Moralities. If anyone ever talks about the Moralities, they’re talking about the Goddesses and their followers. Kay?” she asked, waiting for a nod to ensure I was listening. I did. She continued, “So, they make up our primary enemies.”

“Though, there are five major goddesses, which include the Moralities and myself, plus one. The last is Pandemonium. If you think I’m crazy… well, she’d be bat-oink-squinky crazy. She’s also the strongest of all the five, so… uh… if you manage to tick her off. Good luck, boya,” she said with a mournful salute as if I was going off to die.

“Thanks…” This was just getting better and better. My chances of survival were dwindling with every passing second.

“But she’s pretty introverted and weirdly boring, so you probably won’t have to deal with her for a loooong time. Probably. Maybe…” she tapped her chin thoughtfully. “Hopefully. Maybe not? Heck, I dunno. She could pop up any second. Yeah…”

“That’s not helping my mood,” I mumbled.

Chuckling, she nodded, “Sorry, sorry. Don’t worry about it. So, in review, Mortalis has lots of realms. All connected. Five primary Goddesses. Three want to either kill or capture you.”

“Because they hate you?” I asked sadly.

She grinned, excitement flashing in her eyes. “Nah… there’s a really big reason for it on top of that now. You know in those games you played so long ago? They’d have a level cap. It’s only natural. People can only get so strong, so smart, so skilled before they flat-line and can’t grow anymore. Worse yet, natural affinities deem how skilled someone is with certain tasks or skills. Like someone can be good at math but bad at writing. Or another is a great martial artist and sucks at cooking. Make sense?”

“Yeah.”

“Same for us here. We all have a ‘level capacity’ and have affinities that decide what magics or powers we’re good or bad at. I’m pretty strong, but I can never be as strong as Pandemonium because… well, I just can’t reach her level. Just like how the other three Moralities can’t actually match me in one on one, though they’re close. And even Pandemonium has a limit. A cap that she’s reached… like level ninety-nine. Right?”

“Okay, where are you leading with this?” I asked, now curious.

“The Thalwesse… have all affinities, and no capacities,” she said, giving me a thumb’s up again. "And those are just the basic perks!"