“You should have the other dogs start to accompany the people at Apple Gate Farm. Getting them used to humans is the smart thing. I’ve got little doubt that humans, or at least culture-making races, will regain their superiority in time. Hitching your fate to them from the start will likely benefit dogs as a whole,” I quietly advised Silva, as the three of us were setting out from our lair.

The sun had recently set and we had set out to check the undead in town, to see their levels and how they moved, all those somewhat interesting things. If it proved worthwhile, we’d kill a couple of them, but that was something we had to see. Silva, after listening to my advice, gave a little huff and stared at me, as if trying to tell me something.

“Eh, I don’t think that joining with me will prove useful in the long run. I’ve got plans to reign supreme, but my plans only call for a somewhat limited territory I totally control. A realm of Ice, snow and darkness, all for myself, but I doubt that the dogs would enjoy living in such a territory. Lia might thrive there, we’ll have to see how Vampires develop, if she can even spread her gift to others, I just don’t know,” I admitted, looking over to my other companion, wondering just how vampiric the race I had made was. Could she make more like her, if yes, what did she need? Maybe it would become obvious once she overcame the first, or maybe second, divide, maybe it relied completely on instinct or on me. Hopefully not on me, I doubted there’d ever be enough vampires to make their original creation worthwhile if I had to make them, one at a time. That would be an incredibly tedious process, especially given that I had no actual control over them. Creating an army was well and good but creating and army I couldn’t control? That didn’t sound like a good time.

“Maybe we should experiment some more with creating more like me. It might just work out now, you’ve grown stronger than when making me, haven’t you? And I have grown stronger, too, so I might be able to spread the gift by myself,” Lia mused, looking quite interested in the idea, “I mean, most groups hunt with five people, we are the only group moving with three, if we count Silva,” at that, Silva let out an audible growl, making her disdain at the idea that she shouldn’t count as a full member of our group clearly known.

“Yes, I know, you are stronger than any human around, you’re probably still stronger than me, even if I managed to catch up a great deal. But no matter how strong you are, you’ll never be able to wield weapons or most equipment, so there’ll always be something you can’t do, simply because you lack the thumbs,” Lia added, managing to straddle the fine line between insulting, mocking and consoling.

“But she has the support of a Goddess, something the two of us only have indirectly,” I reminded Lia, “Where we only have Her blessing, Lia is allowed to directly wield her power, an advantage I wouldn’t discard. I might not worship the deities but even I’m not foolish enough to disregard their power, at least not needlessly. And especially not the power of the being that blessed me, and you, if only by proxy. I have no idea what the Blessing of the Moon actually does, but I’m not one to say no to power gifted to me. Even if there might be a price tag at some point,” I rambled, realising once again that I didn’t actually know what my blessing did. Or whether it would cost me something, at some point. There was the saying that nothing in life was ever free, so maybe Hecate would ask for repayment at some point. But hopefully, that was something I wouldn’t have to worry about, at least not immediately. For now, I had my blessing, had it shared with Lia and that was good enough.

“Think we should,” Lia paused, looking up into the cloudy sky, “What would you do for a deity anyway? Blessing of the Moon, or Blessing of the Night, whatever, what would we do if we wanted to show our, what, gratitude?” she questioned, obviously as uncertain how to properly pay our respects as I was.

“Generally, worship of the deities works by having a congregation gather and through the ceremony led by a priest, Astral Power is gathered and transferred to their deity. That deity can then, in turn, channel Divine Power back to the priest who can use it for fun stuff, at least that’s how it was explained to me,” I told Lia, trying to remember the various conversations I had with Olivia on that topic. Hopefully, what was considered true on Mundus would be true here, too. I actually wasn’t confident that the whole world would work under the same rules, so far, I had noticed that a few things hadn’t quite worked the same.

For example, it felt far too easy to gain the other magical abilities here. I had tried a few times on Mundus, mostly with Water Magic while I had been turning the Water Mirror spell into the basis I later used to scry through shadows, but I had never succeeded. But here, with much lower attributes and little more than disregard for possible failure, I had managed it. To say nothing about my success with the other types of elemental magic, even acquiring Fire Magic, something I would have considered impossible on Mundus.

“The sending of Astral Power can, as far as I know, be made even more efficient with the right rituals and sacrifices, which in turn gives more power back to the priest who can, in turn, create bigger ‘miracles’. Mostly on the important festivals of a specific deity, to further their worship,” I shrugged, “I’d basically consider it a protection racket, or at least partially mercenary. Gods get power and in turn, give some power back, but only to be doled out by their representatives. And those representatives don’t even get to do with it what they will, they only get to spend it to create specific effects, defined and designed by their deity. So instead of, for example, using a spell and knowing exactly what it does, they ask their boss, ‘Can you send down healing number fifty-five’, hoping that number fifty-five works in their specific instance,” I realised that I was rambling, once again complaining about divine magic and how much of a cop-out it actually was. No investment on the side of the caster, just plain subservience to their patron.

We continued moving across the fields, while I kept on talking to Silva and Lia about divine magic, its advantages and drawbacks. It was a conversation I had held in the past, only that I had been the one asking, while Olivia had given me the answers, at least the answers from her perspective. A part of me was curious about what a deity would have to say about my interpretation of the interplay between mortal and divine, but I somehow doubted I’d ever get the answers I was interested in. Or maybe I would, but only from a deity as interested in knowledge, magic and exploration as I was. So, from what I understood, I’d either have to ask Loki or Hecate, while every other deity would be liable to send down lightning or whatever the smiting tool of their choice was.

By the end of my ranting and raving, Lia actually asked a rather insightful and interesting question. Namely, whether or not I’d be able to, basically, empower Silva by sending my own, rather potent, magic through Silva and her ceremonies, whatever that meant in a canine, thus allowing Silva to receive more divine power from Hecate.

At that point, I had to admit ignorance. I had never considered selling my Astral Power in that manner, even if, amusingly, I didn’t really mind using it to feed Lia. That comparison got a few rather amusing barks from Silva and delighted laughter from Lia, and even I had to chuckle at the idea that deities were simply vampires who had taken out blood as the transfer medium.

But it made me wonder, was that possible? And if yes, would Silva actually want to go down that route? She used her magic as little as possible, literally only when there was no other choice. To defend others, or when the only way to survive was calling on Hecate. Otherwise, she was quite happy to keep it to her natural weapons and abilities.

“What do you think, Silva? And how do you pray anyway? Howl to the moon? Bark as you chase after the postman? Could I even join you, what with the language barrier? I certainly won’t be able to repeat some prayer after you,” I mused, somewhat amused at the idea.

Maybe it even had merit, I’d have to look into it at some point. But for now, there was a city filled with undead ahead, and I was curious about what differences the previous night had wrought.