I reached out to the dungeon’s magic and triggered the Transport command. The portal opened before us, and we returned to my first dungeon. I had the transport platform set at the waterfall.

When we appeared, I gave a brief smile. I hadn’t noticed how much better everything here smelled. The crashing of the waterfall sprayed mist that cooled the already cold air, giving everything a crisp, clean smell. I had grown accustomed to the sound of the cascade when living here, but now it was almost deafening. As we passed through the landing, a brief look around let me see that the winter cold had arrived on this side of The Tail while we traveled.

Kasidy paused, looked around the landing, and then pointed up the cliff she asked. “Is that where we met?”

I smiled and nodded. “At the top of the cliff is the tree house you knocked me out in.”

Kasidy laughed, which made me smile. It had been almost a year since I had heard that laugh, and I was glad to hear it again. I was hopeful that the Sisters could fix this problem here in their temple. That Kasidy would be healed and that we could get on with life.

I took Kasidy’s hand in mine and laid my other hand on the wooden door leading to the shrine. After seeing the temples in the city, I thought this place was just a sham of a shrine. Which it kind of was. It was a check box that I had to do for them to let me out of the hole I was in. Yet, after escaping them once, I was walking back into their lair again.

I took a deep breath and smiled at Kasidy. “Let’s go in and talk with the Sisters. With what I know of them, they can break this curse.”

With that, I pulled open the door and stepped into the room. “Great Sisters! Order and Chaos I, your shaman, beseech you!”

The room was dark and cold. The only light in the room came through the door, which we were mostly blocking. I took a deep breath in, and the once clean room smelled more like a cellar than the shrine it was.

We stepped in, and I looked around. It was clear to me that I had been the last person in here, which of course, was to be expected. However, equally as clear was that the room wasn’t up-kept at all. The wind had brought dust in under the loose-fitting door.

I sighed and picked up the broom from the corner of the room. “Kasidy, let me get this place in order. I doubt the sisters will have much of a favorable opinion of what we ask if the room looks like this.”

Kasidy smiled and nodded. Then she started to wipe things down with a rag. It wasn’t long till the dust that had built up over the past few months was handled. We sat down, and I pulled out the herbs that I had prepared. Then I started the ritual prayer.

As the hours dragged on and the herbs burned. Kasidy was constantly shifting, not knowing what to do, and not used to sitting like this for long periods. However, eventually, the voices came.

The one voice that was two of the Sisters speaking in unison. The voice or voices were synced in such a way that it was like a voice speaking in a cord. Her voice, or their voices, were airy and almost mystical. Yet now, with the countless conversations that Maximus had with them, they no longer held the same awe as before.

The Sisters combined voice came from around us. “You have at last come back to pray. Yet you brought one that isn’t ours. Is she here to follow us?”

I shook my head. “No, I have brought her here for you to heal.”

The sisters laughed in their non-synced way. One was a jingle of bells high and light, and the other was dry and cutting like I had my head on a block.

The dryer voice asked. “Oh dear Arn, why would we heal her?”

My heart pulled tight as I answered. “Because I asked. I am your Shaman, and she needs help.”

The lighter, more musical voice replied. “But what good is it for us? She is not one of ours. We would have to expend far too much to help her.”

I repeated myself. “I am your shaman, and I am asking for help. Isn’t that worth it?”

The Sisters in sync replied. “No.”

Then I yelled. “Why not? Why isn’t it worth it to you? I have done everything that you asked of me. Why can’t you help me in this one thing that I am asking for help in?”

The sweet voice said. “Because you didn’t serve willingly. Everything that you have done has been because you had to. Not because you wanted to but because you had to.”

I took a deep breath and kept myself from yelling. “I came to you now, seeking your help. I turned to you when I thought there was nothing else. You were the first one on my mind to overcome such a huge hurdle.”

The dry voice tsked. “Yes, but you didn’t come to bring us offerings. You came because you needed something. Just like you needed something, and so you worked for us. If you didn’t have a need, you never would have built us this shrine.”

I nodded slowly. “Yet, when I first called on you to save us, you came.”

The two answered as one. “Yes.”

I smiled slightly. “Then how is this different.”

With a giggle, the sweet one answered. “Easy, this girl isn’t ours, and you don’t need help.”

“I do need your help, or I wouldn’t be here! And when I first called you, I didn’t need you. I could have run away and left Lannah.”

The dry voice answered. “No, you couldn’t have. You were too deep at that point to tied into the battle. We felt your faith when you called out to us. This one needs our help to break a curse sending her life to a lesser god. You, however, are fine and don’t need our help.”

My anger was boiling as I stood up. I looked around the room at the alters I built with my own two hands. This place all of it was because of me. The Sisters even being back on this planet was because I called out to them with faith, and now they were telling me no.

Spinning around, I pointed at the alters. “I built this place for you! I made your path! I have made way for others to follow you! What more can I do? What do you want me to do so that you will save Kasidy?”

Once more, the lower, cutting voice answered. “Want to be here. Lead others to us. Desire to serve. Then once your heart is right, we could help you with something like this. Perhaps you will change in time.”

I pointed at where I could tell they were. “I never wanted to be here! I didn’t want to get yanked through to this world or forced to fight your war. That wasn’t my life! I didn’t even know I was calling you when I did. I don’t know where that faith I had was from, but I know where it’s going. It’s going to the same place that Maximus’ faith in you went. Right out the door! He wanted to serve you, but you failed him just like you are me! He was right to cut you off. You’re selfish, petty people who don’t care for those who serve you! I know how you took advantage of him and turned him into your weapon! I know how you failed him over and over again, letting those he loved die! You didn’t even try to save Taphine but just let her die!”

There was a pause, and the musical voice answered. “What do you know of my Ash? What do you know of what has happened in the past? Who are you to accuse us of inaction? A mere mortal who hasn’t even touched the first step to Ascension. You don’t have the right to speak to us of these things!”

I tapped the side my head and spat out. “I know of them all! It’s all in here! His memories are my dreams! I have lived his life! I know you took him when he lost the woman he loved and turned him into your weapon against the Dark ones! He never stopped fighting them, even when you proved unfaithful to him. He believed in your mission, just not you! You demanded he fight and turn others to fight for you, and he did! Yet when he needed you, where were you? Just like with him, you failed me. I’m just glad that I didn’t have to learn how worthless you are the hard way!”

The Sisters answered as one. “Worthless? We are fighting to save the whole universe, not just one sealed world! We don’t wait on you or care for your little desires. We need the strong to fight, or we will all die.”

I yelled back. “What good is life without those you care for? You left Maximus to rot when you could have and should have saved Taphine! You could have at least saved his sister, but you let him carry that loss too! Why worship you or ask you for help if this is how you treat those who serve you?”

“We are the ones who sealed this world! That, if no other reason, is a good one. We protected you from a full invasion and gave you dungeons to train in.”

I cut back in. “All of that is for you! None of it matters here without those you love. You chose not to save Kasidy like you chose not to save Taphine! Just like you failed to seal this world too!”

There was a long silence then the cutting voice answered. “We can’t save your Kasidy. Her body is sending out its power. We can’t even track where it is going. We lack the power to save her.”

The voice of bells picked up. “We did fail my Ash that day. Taphine wasn’t there when we looked for her. We never could see her, but she was gone without a trace that day. Her body missing, and since we could never see her soul, we couldn’t even search that way.”

The room got quiet momentarily, and then the Sisters spoke as one. “Arn, we will think about what you have said. We never knew he was cutting us off as his faith, like yours, hasn’t wavered once. To save your woman, you must kill the god she is feeding or stop her body from sending her energy. We don’t know how you can do either. Gods are not easy to kill; even banishing him from this planet won’t matter.”

Tears were running down my face. I had lived much of a god’s life and talked with Dave; there wasn’t a way to kill a god. That was what made them gods.

I pulled myself together and asked. “How can I kill a god if even the gods can’t?”

The harsh voice I now knew as Order answered. “Gods can’t kill other gods on this planet, it’s true. I set the seals up that way. However, mortals can.”

The sister’s voices joined again. “Now tell us more about how you know of the life of our Shaman, our friend. Tell us what you know of Maximus, who was our ash.”

I sighed and shook my head slowly. “All I know is that I have dreamed of him since I was brought to this world. Dreams, at times, more real than the world I am living in. I know what I have seen is real because I know you are real. I know he had faith in your mission but hated you with a cold hatred. I understand his hate. He thought that you were powerful and that you wanted to help. It wasn’t till it was too late before he understood that he had to count on himself. Just like I do.”

With that, the smoky haze of the room shifted. The air started to clear through as I felt my knees buckle a little. Then I went down hard on them. The air was thick, and my nerves were wrung out.

I looked up from the ground to Kasidy, who was staring at me. She whispered, “You… you argued with goddesses?”

* * *