Erika Kramer paced nervously, as she often did when she was idle. Among her many worries, one of the many rocky asteroids that made up the planetary ring (which the locals call the Arch) had blocked sunlight from the solar panels for the third time in as many weeks. She had options, but they were dwindling; she wasn't keen on the idea of kickstarting the reactor, as the locals always seemed to notice, in spite of the many defenses her long-dead husband had installed to block magical senses in this part of space.

Keeping secrets was difficult. Even when all she had to do was sit here quietly, decade by decade, and monitor things, there were too many ways she could be detected. It mattered only a little now, but sooner or later, a mage would get wise and understand what it took to get to orbit and survive. Right now, her existence was only known by a very few, and most of those were gods.

Gods she knew what to do with. If a god died, people were too scared to investigate; therefore, you could threaten a god into silence and expect them to obey. But when a mortal dies or is magically bound to silence, someone always thinks they will figure out how to do better, and more people will devote themselves to the search for answers.

In any event, the low power problem was temporary but damning. If worst came to worst, Rythva would help her out again, in exchange for getting to use the observatory for a while. But more importantly, the Dark Lord was starting to act out again, a sign that he was, once again, becoming restless. He had never been pleased with this stalemate, and if he knew how she was weakening, he would likely start another war.

Politics. Erika bared her canine fangs into the darkness but didn't make a sound, and her tail twitched. Of all the burdens Robert had left her with, this was the worst of them. He should have just killed the man instead of imprisoning him. He should have known he would come out the same as he went in. The Dark Lord was too powerful to be caged. He might have been the least of the Arch Sorcerers, but he was always eager to use the power he had, moreso than any of the others.

Far more than Erika was. She had inherited a long-standing tradition of timidness and cowardace. It wasn't how she was originally, but Erika's bloodline was flawed. She ought to have changed it long ago--she had that power--but the idea of changing her own mind was terrifying, especially when she had so much to lose.

So much to do.

To keep her mind off it, she went through one of her daily checks. She had many of them, but she spaced them out over the month in order to constantly have something to do. Today she would be checking on the Rakshasa populations, both in the Underworld and in the many spatial nodes that connected to it.

As expected, there was a surge of activity somewhere under the continent of Contel. It had been a long time coming; the people there had exterminated the creatures a long time ago, but the underworld was too hot for them to explore too far from home. In time, like roaches, the creatures had snuck back in, reproduced in the darkness, and plotted revenge.

It didn't matter much. Marion was already aware of them, and the only Djinn in the area was aggressive in her efforts to avoid contact with what remained of her people. The invasion would be bloody, but it was only ever going to end badly for the Rakshasa.

Still, she reviewed the scanner readings and considered. There were a few spatial nodes that linked the underworld to the surface, but those were more useful for humans than Rakshasa; only the more evolved specimens could use enough magic to pass through. Generally, the goblins themselves would crawl out of the cracks that vented heat from the Underworld to the surface, because they would freeze to death in the moderate temperatures that humans needed to live.

They could strike out for revenge, but the surface was forever lost to them. The Arch Sorcerers had seen to that. At most, they would collect human bodies for food, because the Underworld was not rich in the nutrients they needed. She did often wonder just how they raised their armies, because it required a lot more food than they should have had.

As usual, she didn't actually want the answer to that question, so she didn't look.

She switched off the monitors again to save power and went back to pacing. Before long, she found herself on the shadow side of the station, where she could look out at the stars. It was comforting, to her. This place had the same night sky as Earth, with a few alterations, but most would never notice. ERIKA had known these skies, and so the memory of them was a deep and relaxing part of her soul. Most of the people in her bloodline had found the stars calming. The stars were always among the memories passed down from one Erika to the next, along with fond memories of Robert and the other Arch Sorcerers.

She studied the stars for a long time, then turned around. She would have a cup of tea, or perhaps two, and then see if the debris was still blocking the solars. If so, she might have to ask Rythva to help move them, or at least to recharge the batteries for her. It might be nice to have someone to talk to for a while, too.