“I will admit, child, I do not have much that I am able to teach you.” A blinding, angelic valkyrie hovered in the air in an expanse of light, staring down at a camo-colored giant covered in dark veins. “Your body has been thoroughly integrated with dark mana. Along with your choice of class, pursuing any light-based arts will prove next to impossible.”

Hartha took the declaration in stride. It was already a significant win that the two goddesses had agreed to her and Cal’s request to switch. She’d be happy just to get something out of this all. Something that didn’t involve mind control or enveloping armies in darkness or whatever it was that Hex had wanted to teach her.

“I will humbly accept anything you have to offer.” It was a bummer that she was barred from learning light magic -- light was a necessary element for plants and forests, and she would have greatly enjoyed it. Still, there was hardly any reason to fret over something that couldn’t be changed.

“Mmm.” Aarris unnaturally curled one of her miniature wings, making its tip rub at her temple. “I have dabbled in water coloring for some time. And I did take a good bassoon class with Hex at one point. I am proficient in the instrument. Ah! And if neither of those appeal to you, I am known to be fairly skilled in soul magic. A useful skill to possess.”

The bassoon, Hartha decided to pass on. Wasn’t a bad offer, but she’d already turned Hex down for it, and it would seem rude to accept from Aarris but not Hex. Water coloring might be a nice hobby. With all the madness of being a Heart of the Forest, though, it felt like she rarely had free time to sink into such things.

“Soul magic?” It didn’t sound particularly evil.

“Indeed. The ability to perceive and affect both your own soul, and the soul of others. Useful in protecting yourself from soul attacks, in sensing the qualities and intentions of others, and in certain forms of pseudo-resurrection spells.”

Resurrection? Everyone had their own time, and Hartha was by no means set on trying to live forever. On top of that, she doubted the need to use such a spell would arise that often. Still, it sounded handy. A little better than water coloring, at least.

“How would we start such a thing?” Soul magic was one of those things that she knew existed, but anything past that was fairly unclear.

“A moment!” Aarris boomed. Then, without further explanation, she winked away, leaving Hartha by herself. Thankfully, the goddess hadn’t exaggerated, reappearing momentarily but with a new addition in hand.

“A bird?” A fuzzy, hawk-like bird now hung from Aarris’s fist, alive but entirely docile.

“Indeed. Observe: I will layer an illusion on it to help you visualize its soul.” An iridescent yellow orb the size of a pea appeared in the center of the hawk, somehow shining through its flesh without issue. “Place your hand on the bird and we’ll begin, child.”

With no reason not to do so, Hartha complied. The bird’s feathers were pleasantly soft.

“Good. Now I will channel some energy into the bird’s soul, strengthening it. Attempt to focus as I do so, and we will discover if you can detect the energy. It will be faint, but should resonate with your own soul if you succeed.”

The description was perhaps a bit lacking, she felt. What did it mean to channel energy into a soul? Would the bird gain a larger soul? What would that even mean? Still, those could all be questions for later. With the help of the illusion, Hartha was able to watch as some sort of… energy started entering the bird.

And then, after a single second, the soul exploded.

Blinding light cascaded off from it, joining… well, the rest of the blinding light everywhere. The bird, which had previously been still, but visibly living, slumped, now hanging entirely limp in the goddess’s hand.

Hartha blinked. “Was that supposed to-”

“No,” Aarris admitted. “It is… perhaps possible that I lack something of a ‘fine touch.’ A problem inherent to godhood, I suppose. It may be unwise to use such weak souls for demonstrations.”

Poor bird. Hartha was hardly any stranger to death or hunting, but only when such a thing served a purpose. In this case, she hadn’t even managed to feel whatever “soul sense” Aarris had been mentioning.

“At least we discovered this now, before you attempted to use it on a regular person,” Hartha noted. The unexpected death of the bird, she could get over. Who knew what would have happened if Aarris had tried using that on her first.

“Ha! Yes. Indeed. That would be… unfortunate. Glad I definitely did not use my soul magic on a person recently.” The goddess of light stared off into the distance, seeming to forget Hartha was there for a second before snapping back to reality. “But if I did, hopefully it would have turned out entirely okay. In fact, I am confident it would have. Without any problems at all.” She nodded, more to herself than to Hartha.

Huh. Okay? Hartha wasn’t quite sure what to make of that one, but as long as the goddess was happy with herself, that’s what counted.

Although perhaps I should go with the water coloring after all?

“Cool! Great! We’re doing a nice little switcheroo. That’s actually what Aarris and I had planned from the start, to be honest. Just wanted you two to realize it for yourselves. You know, really feel like you chose your own path. Definitely has nothing to do with us being bad teachers, so, uh, don’t go spreading that around or anything, you hear?” The speaker played with the numerous spikes coming out of her clothing, idly rubbing at one which sprouted from a choker at her neck.

Weird clothes. Are the spikes some sort of armor, or what’s up with that? And do you think she’d give me a copy of the outfit for myself? The style wasn’t familiar to Cal, but she got the distinct sense that her father would have a heart attack if he saw her in it. Which, of course, made it vital that she got her hands on it.

Without warning, a choker suddenly appeared around her neck, identical to the one Hex was wearing. The goddess winked at her.

The fact that none of her thoughts were safe probably would have freaked Cal out if she’d been planning anything dumb. But, in fact, she wasn’t dumb. Wasn’t like she was going to try stealing from a god. Yet.

Wonder who the goths are. Some sort of spiky warrior class? Meh. Not her problem right now. She’d get Tess to explain it once she got out of here.

“Right! So, never mind any of that. Welcome student! I figured I might switch things up this time, so instead of telling you what I can offer you, why don’t you tell me what you want? What are your skills? What are you hoping to get out of this?”

Well, that’s certainly more direct than having me sit in lotus position and find my “inner light.” Wait. Crap. No disparaging the mind-reading god’s girlfriend. Sorry Hex. Thankfully the goddess made no comment.

“You probably already know this, but I’m an Infiltrator. Considering the whole darkness thing you have going on, I’m figuring probably something stealth related? Or, I don’t know. Never saw myself as much of a mental mage, but I wouldn’t mind being able to erase people’s memories if they saw me. Or read their minds to know how to get past security wards. Or hells, just compel them to give me whatever I’m looking for.”

Wow, so many possibilities here. Tess would probably raise a fuss about it, but what was the problem? If she was already robbing someone, just a littttle memory tweak wasn’t such a big deal.

Then again, it probably wouldn’t be a class skill. And I feel like “thief and spy on the loose” is a lot less big of a deal than “rogue mental mage on the loose.” Don’t know if I really want that heat.

She sighed. Maybe once she became a queen and didn’t have to worry about people throwing her in jail over some light mental shenanigans. For now though, probably something stealth-related.

Wonder if there’s anything that’ll pair well with my invisibility skill? It was pretty much one of the defining features of her class.

“Great! Let’s see it!” A shout from Hex pulled Cal from her thoughts. For a second, she wasn’t sure what the goddess was talking about, until she reminded herself that, yes, the ancient god of darkness was reading her mind.

She activated her invisibility skill, feeling a familiar calm wash over her as she faded from view. The strongest and rarest of all her skills.

“Huh,” Hex supplied.

Is that really all I get? I mean, I’d say something like “I’d like to see you do better, but… In this case, think that wouldn’t go so well for me.”

“No! No. It’s nice. Great skill. It’s just…” Hex swayed her head from side to side, twin pigtails flopping back and forth. “I mean, other than sight, I have like, 84 other senses, and I can see you with pretty much all of them. And it looks like that skill breaks if you move too fast?”

Well damn. Guess I really shouldn’t rob any gods for a while. Didn’t seem like a particularly fair frame of reference -- Cal didn’t need to fool a full 85 senses most of the time. Not that she wouldn’t like to. Do gods even have “stuff”? Like, what would I even steal from a god?

“Depends on the god, really. Most gods of life have some half-baked attempt at an immortality potion locked away somewhere. Ooh, and there was this one god who had a pet gerbil that could blow magic bubbles. Bitsy. I considered stealing it, like, at least seven times. Otherwise just the standard items of unspeakable power and wealth.”

Cal let that sink in for a while. I… wouldn’t mind some half-baked immortality? It would be better than no-baked immortality, at least.

A pet sounded nice too, but she wouldn’t steal someone’s gerbil. That, in her opinion, was just rude.

“Can you help, then? Improve my stealth skills and get me a better invisibility skill?” She certainly wasn’t going to say no to being sneakier.

Hex vanished in a puff of darkness, reappearing directly in front of Cal. The goddess reached out, patting the rogue’s head gently.

“Oh, my sweet, sweet child. We can do much, much better.”