“What do you mean?” King Darius said with a frown.

“You think those shimmer casters I gave you are useless because The Mother will die anyway at the end of the year. That doesn’t have to happen. I would like to work together with you to ensure that The Mother isn’t destroyed along with half the city. She predicted her own death when the plan to destroy Shimmer Mountain was set into motion. I believe we can save the mountain and The Mother,” Hugo said.

Darius frowned and said nothing. Shirin shook her head and said, “Hugo, I appreciate your gifts. And I admit that your predictions about the challenge all came true. But it is The Mother herself that arranged for The Daughter. If our goddess tells us to let her die, who are we to disagree?”

“You are entirely correct. You should never disagree with your goddess. My presence here has changed things. I believe that The Mother would agree. You saw that I appeared out of nowhere on the ritual circle. Until that moment, my impacts on the future couldn’t be predicted. Now that I am here, let’s talk to The Mother,” Hugo said and pointed towards Ettel. “I believe she will tell us to free her. You would be stronger with her guidance instead of The Daughter, wouldn’t you?”

“Perhaps our blessings would be stronger with The Mother, but how would we free her? These casters would help with the dozen guards on duty. They might even be enough to incapacitate the reserves. But if even one of them hits the release rune, The Mother will die.”

“The release rune?” Hugo said.

“The release rune for the poison lake around The Mother. They hit it and the whole lake of poison gets poured onto her roots. She is a goddess, but even they have limits. How do you plan on dealing with that?” Shirin said.

Hugo hadn’t known about that particular bit of engineering. “We can figure out an effective counter for the release runes, no worries.”

“Figure out? You don’t already know how to circumvent the release runes?” Darius said, “Forget it. This whole plan of yours is terrible. We can’t risk it.”

“Yes you can!” Hugo said passionately, “You can absolutely risk it. Now is the only time that you can. If you are successful, you are free of the nox and their tribute. If you fail, you are also free and you are led by The Daughter. We just have to make sure Shimmer Mountain doesn’t explode and everyone’s lives are saved. This is a win/win situation.”

Everyone was quiet for a moment. Eventually, Darius said, “Alright, we will go talk to The Mother.”

Hugo smiled as the king picked up the shimmer caster. He felt particularly proud of that particular gift. The shimmer casters would allow them to free The Mother. They would also want to defend the shimmer veins from attack so they would have a constant supply of ammunition. Now they had multiple reasons to do the right thing. Which was good because the king was in charge of two cities on the wheel. A lot rode on the next few hours.

Once a royal escort was arranged, they walked into the city. Hugo felt like he was in a parade. Their group was in the middle of the road, and people were bowing and waving to the king and queen as they walked by. The princess was particularly popular. Their procession made it to the city center, where an enormous grove tree loomed over a small lake. Hugo had always known the lake was poisonous, but he had assumed it was a deterrent for riese. He hadn’t realized it was actually a threat to The Mother.

It took a few trips, but eventually the royal family, two guards, and Hugo were ferried across the lake. They walked over to stand in front of The Mother. The royals knelt and gave obeisance to their goddess while Hugo struggled to contain his revulsion. The Mother was a powerful magical creature, but it was also a bulbous parasite that pulsed and glowed on occasion.

“Can she hear me if I talk to her?” Hugo said, “I obviously don’t have your connection to her.”

“She could if she wanted to. The Mother rarely deigns to listen to the lesser beings though. It would be better if I did all the talking,” Darius said.

He got down on one knee and said, “Oh great Mother, progenitor of us all, thank you for granting us this audience today. This lowly human here claims that the winds of fate have shifted. He says that where you were once fated to die, now that might not be the case. Normally we would ignore the ramblings of the inferior, but our love for you knows no bounds. We come here with the hope that you can be saved. We offer this sacrifice to power your magics answer our heartfelt question.”

Hugo frowned slightly. He hadn’t known that The Mother would need a sacrifice to be able to see the future. Hopefully that didn’t mean what he thought it meant. He glanced over to the guards to make sure they weren’t coming his way.

Luckily for him, neither guard was looking his way. They were both staring at each other. The older and larger guard had a hand on his sword and was pointing towards The Mother. The younger guard was unarmed and just now realizing his place in this affair. His eyes were wide and he quickly looked back and forth between the guard and The Mother.

The younger guard seemed to be calculating his chances. He came to a conclusion and looked like he might cry. Instead, he turned and quickly strode over to The Mother. Hugo hadn’t expected him to just give himself up like that. He put his hand up, but before he could say anything, brown tendrils shot out of The Mother and wrapped themselves around the younger guard. It quickly pulled the man into itself. In less than a second, nothing remained.

As the parasite pulsed and glowed, Hugo put his arm down. An uncontrollable shiver ran through his body. He wasn’t sure if he was on the right side, trying to save a goddess that murders her own children for power.

They knelt there for half an hour, The Mother pulsing and throbbing. Hugo didn’t dare move. Eventually, the riese turned their head to their goddess and seemed to be listening.

King Dairus stood up and said, “As you say, so it shall be done.”

They swiftly walked away from the parasite, none of them looking back. Hugo had to jog to catch up. He said, “Can you fill in the human? I can’t hear your goddess, remember?”

The king looked at him and rolled his eyes. He didn’t say anything. Eventually, Lina said, “The Mother has determined that you are right. There is a possibility to save her life. She has commanded us to work with you to free her.

“Our success is not guaranteed, but she agrees with you. With The Daughter as back up, there is no reason not to attempt it,” Shirin said.

“We will not be working with you, human,” Darius said, “You will be working for us. My guards and I will handle the nox below. The Mother has provided a way for the poison to be neutralized. Your task will be to destroy the automated defenses in the canopy above.” He gestured to the grove tree high above them.

“What defenses?” Hugo said as he looked up. He hadn’t known there was anything there and didn’t see anything now.

Darius scoffed, “That is your responsibility. You are to disable the defenses she has foreseen the night before the New Year. We will be doing the important work down below, all you have to do is make sure whatever the nox have placed above does not hinder us.”

Hugo nodded. The king hadn’t known there was anything up there either. That was probably why he was acting grumpy now. Not only was the human right and The Mother could be saved, but Hugo had been assigned an important role in the mission. The king must feel slighted.

Hugo almost sarcastically apologized for being competent. Instead he said, “I have to be elsewhere that night. I can get it done a week or two beforehand.”

“No. You will do it the night before the heartbeat, your task must be completed shortly before ours is,” King Darius said, “If you do not, we will hunt you down and kill you and your family.”

Lina saw something on Hugo’s face and interjected, “The Mother specifically said everything had to be done that night. It has the best chance of success. She mentioned you were all but guaranteed to succeed that night, it was the rest of us that had much lower chances of success.”

That made more sense. Darius was being extra rude because his goddess was practically saying Hugo was better than the king. Knowing that, Hugo calmed down a bit. He didn’t need to defend himself to someone who was just being insecure.

He glanced over to Lina and Darius and said, “I will do my best to save the Mother. In exchange, I would like to request your guards ensure the shimmer veins do not get destroyed at the end of the year. I don’t know if you have been contacted yet, but there is a ...”

“Yes, yes. The Graff Accords. I have been tasked with destroying the veins leading to Ettel and Fontein. The Mother mentioned that saving them would be the cost of your involvement. If The Mother survives, so do the veins,” King Darius said dismissively.

That was easier than Hugo was expecting. It pays to be talking to the one in charge. They discussed plans more and Hugo promised to play his part. They split up then, royalty heading back to their grove and Hugo walking through Ettel. He thought about his new problem as he walked.

He had to be in Deva and Ettel at the same time. He couldn’t be in two places at once, but he might be able to approximate it. He walked back to his house in the city. It was the house in Ettel that the king had given him in exchange for the mana core.

It was a bit of a dump. It was a small stone house, perpetually in the shade due to its proximity to grove trees. It wasn’t in the poor section of town, but it was close. The locals tended to avoid it, because apparently it was haunted. Hugo didn’t mind. It was perfect for his needs.

He got into his trunk and tethered to one of the Ravens he had stored inside. Of the four avian designs his evolution granted him, the Raven design had the best vision. He needed a better look at the grove tree The Mother was attached to. She had said there were defenses in the canopy, he needed to find them before he could disable them.

With a thought, Hugo sent the Raven speeding through the city towards the center. He kept the Raven mostly hidden in the upper leaves of the grove trees above his head. A few riese saw the Raven fly by, but that was fine. He was only trying to hide from the nox.

He stopped the Raven well before he got to the wall surrounding the lake in the middle of the city. It was weird realizing that the entire lake was poison. It took a lot to threaten a goddess.

Using the enhanced optics of the Raven, Hugo zoomed in and surveyed the upper canopy of the grove tree. It seemed entirely normal. A bit larger than the other trees around it, but that was it. He sent the Raven in a wide circle around his target, examining the grove tree from all sides. Nothing.

Hugo sat down in his house while he thought about it. The Mother had said his success was all but guaranteed. How could he stop the automated defenses in the canopy if he couldn’t even find them? He sent the Raven higher and flew it around in another loop. When he didn’t find anything, he sent it closer and whipped it around in another loop. Still nothing.

Whatever the defenses were, they must have been camouflaged. Hugo would probably have to go there in person and take a look with his mana sight. Hopefully that would be enough to track down his target. It was too bad he had to go in person though. A human visiting The Mother tree again would be noteworthy and make his future visits even more suspicious.

He stopped himself before he left the house. Maybe he didn’t have to go in person. He didn’t fully understand the tether he had to his avians. Was it possible to use his mana sight through the Raven? No reason not to try. He pointed the Raven down towards the nox below. They would have mana. It would be a good test if his mana sight worked through the Raven’s optics.

With a mental flex, he allowed the Raven’s vision to dominate his focus. Then he activated his mana sight and tried to push it through his tether. It didn’t work. He redoubled his efforts and focused as hard as he could. He felt around himself and tried to push mana through the part of his soul core that felt like the tether.

It worked!

He could see the little balls of mana sitting in the nox’s soul core, as well as wisps of mana on their runed armor. He panned the Raven’s vision back up towards the grove tree’s canopy. What he saw shocked him enough that it broke his concentration and he lost his mana sight altogether. He swore out loud. He put his head in his hands and took deep calming breaths.