The NekroGoddess

Ula Mintz, a former (but still immortal) goddess once trapped on a small archipelago for 2,000 years, is forced to learn the five different mortal magics. If she doesn't master them, well, she is stuck in the body of a teenage mortal- forever. Maybe; Ula doesn't quite know yet..

Lucky for Ula, she meets a Necromancer pretty early on in her journey; a student at a prestigious academy named Achlyss. Now, the problem is, Achlyss will only help Ula if she helps her form a coven, or friend group as one might say. Ula is hesitant to accept but knows this is her only chance to learn Necromancy.

But Ula quickly gets thrown into a mystery across the pantheon, involving missing deities and a singular force much stronger than Ula and her newly found coven of witches and minor gods.

## **~~O~~ne**

The Moon was high in the night sky, revealing silver moonlight.

The penthouse Ula had received the address to was all around her. Most of the walls were a glass so clean and clear, Ula thought they weren’t there at all. The door to it was unlocked, so Ula barged in when the elevator stopped in its tracks. She sighed in relief when she learned the decoration of the luxurious apartment was moon-themed. That meant Aibek, God of the Moon, owned it. Not Caelus.

A tall man (or maybe Ula got shorter) with skin the color of the Moon’s surface walked down the steps of the penthouse. The man with him had two black and white hellhounds and eyes that reminded Ula of the ocean waves, and pale blue hair that went to his shoulders.

“Caelus was too busy with a woman to update you on the godly affairs,” Aibek, the man, said. “So he told me to deal with you for the time being.” Aibek held a beautiful deck of Tarot cards. The artwork ranged from the semi-divine Angels and the beautiful Nymphs, to the glorious Gods.

However, the card that caught Ula’s attention was The Fool. A young, confused (but optimistic) woman accompany by a shapeshifting animal, one that Ula couldn’t discern from a cat or dog. Ula vaguely remembered when Aibek and his sister, Aelia, first introduced the magic that was Tarot cards to the mortals. When the mortals first made their own versions of the cards, The Fool was always a jester or clown. In this deck, a brand new one (Ula could tell by The Fool holding a Familiar, or phone, as if ready to take a picture), The Fool was just a woman waiting for a journey.

All this thinking about Tarot cards made Ula wonder about a certain God.

“How’s Aelia?”

“You know how she is. Optimistic, for all the wrong reasons.” The Moon God gestured up at one of the rooms of the penthouse you could see from the terrace. A brightly lit room with its curtains drawn back.

“Wrong reasons?” Ula said, trying to recount all the flaws Aelia, the Goddess of the Sun had.

*A bad case of overconfidence,* Ula heard at the back of her mind. The internal voice didn’t sound like hers, though.

Aibek made a moonlit illusion resembling an eye. Ula nodded, understanding immediately what Aibek meant.

*Right, no eyes,* Ula thought. Personally, Ula wouldn’t have counted a literal disability as a flaw.

Ula couldn’t remember a time when Aelia had them in the first place. However, a long time ago, also before Ula’s punishment, she remembered a conversation at a party. One of the Gods in it was Kelly, Goddess of War. Kelly had laughed at Aelia’s lack of eyes, but she had proceed to say that “it was an improvement”. Ula supposed that meant had eyes at some point.

The question was; what happened to them?

“Aelia is a bit erratic, in an oddly optimistic way. Has been since her The Lovers card got ripped in half by my precious babies,” The moment Aibek said that, both of his hellhounds came up to him, wanting attention. Ula now noticed that, in the moonlight, the hounds had Angelic wings that vaguely resembled a colorful nebula.

*Note to future me when I get rich - get a hellhound.*

“I mean, would you like to visit her?” Aibek asked, and Ula noticed that he was using his Telekinetic magic to shuffle his Tarot card deck. When the deck was completely rearranged, the card that emerged from it was The Sun.

This version of The Sun card was…the most brutal versios Ula had ever seen. Instead of a white stallion racing away from the sun…it was a disheveled woman with no eyes. Instead of eyes, there were waterfalls of gold and red ichor. The woman - Aelia, Ula realized - was holding a blindfold or veil. Ready to cover her disastrous appearance.

Were Aelia’s eyes fucking ripped out of their sockets? Did they never…grow, or, y’know, go back into place? Who could physically harm a God like that? Or was it just metaphorical?

In the blink of an eye, though, Ula found herself in the brightly-lit room that Aelia inhabited. Aibek or either of his hellhounds were by her side.

The only thing that accompanied Ula was Aelia herself. Aelia was on the floor, various Tarot cards surrounding her. Aelia was half-naked, with a black blindfold covering her non-existent eyes, but Ula tried ignoring that detail.

“Which card is this?”

## **Tw~~o~~**

Aelia was a tall woman. She had dark skin, contrasting with her twin brother’s pale gray. Aelia’s hair was short and blonde with red and blue highlights, reminding Ula of wires.

“Death,” Ula said when she saw the card Aelia held out to her. Shimmery, welcoming card with Death himself standing before a dead king and his court. The court pleaded for mercy, but Death came for everyone.

“Thank you. Do you know what this card means?” Ula nodded, even if Aelia was an eyeless woman and couldn’t see.

“Uhm, moving on, right?”

“Correct, young Goddess. However, the usual meaning isn’t useful in this sense. It's who you have to find that you must know.” Aelia’s voice was cold and cast a spell with the Death card. From what Ula knew, Aelia couldn’t cast spells or do magic without them or the help of another God.

Instead of Death, the God, on the card, there was a young woman. She had blonde hair, and dark brown (but not nearly black) eyes. She wore a light blue crop top with a simplified silhouette of a magenta card and sword. And instead of a royal court, there was a group of students wearing uniforms.

“So I have to find a student that doesn’t follow the dress code?” Ula asked, trying to remember if there were any noteworthy academies in the city of Esper.

Eleghast Academy, Ula’s mind raced to. Arts and magic stuff. Modern technology. It's one of the key points of the city. From what Ula knew, Eleghast Academy wasn’t even that old; it was made in the 50s.

Ula tried remembering the names of other famous magic academies, but couldn’t be drawn to any in particular. To be honest, to the mortals, not much is known about the world other than the ‘mainland’ (Ameman), the Rouge Isles, the Amemanian Sea, Jele, Moonin, and Banaei. Proper, trained magic is a gift for the elite. Entire magic academies are rare, and most are located in Ameman.

“One way or another, Ula.” Aelia shuffled her deck of Tarot cards quietly, the shimmer and colors drawing Ula’s dark brown eyes to the cardstock…or whatever Tarot cards were made out of. “What do you know about them?” Aelia asked, before settling on a spread that reminded Ula of the Zodiac if it weren’t for the fact it was made of eleven cards.

“Uhm, the Major Acana, the Minor Acana is the elements, how the Court cards represent a family, and which God, Angel, or hero is typically represented on each card.” Ula answered honestly, and Aelia flipped over the first of the annoyingly eleven cards in the spread.

“Strength.” Ula said, knowing she had to say it for Aelia.

“Ah, Strength. Represented by Kelly, my second least-favorite Deity. Strength represents confidence.” Aelia’s tone of voice was drowned with judgement and hatred. Ula could guess Aelia and Kelly had history. Maybe a bad break-up…too bad Aelia burned the Strength card into ashes approximately zero seconds after saying ‘confidence’.

Aelia flipped over the second card. The Knight of Swords, which had an image of Chloe, the rebellious Goddess of Youth. Now, Chloe was a peculiar Goddess; she was the oldest child of Caelus, King of the Gods, but was the matron of children and teenagers. Well, that wouldn’t sound so bad if it weren’t for the fact she was physically and mentally a teenager but regularly drank Ambrosia, which is just alcohol but for Gods (AKA, a million times worse) and subscribed to…adult entertainers online.

“The Knight of Swords.” Ula choked out, remembering Chloe from parties when she was little. Aelia’s head perked up, and Ula shivered at the thought of the Sun Goddess watching her even if she didn’t have eyes and was wearing a blindfold.

“Chloe.” Aelia growled, scrunching up the card aggressively in her hands. “My fourth least-favorite deity.” Aelia continued with abusing the Knight of Swords card by ripping it up and setting it ablaze before throwing it on her empress-sized bed. The bed erupted into flames, and Ula grew concerned when no fire alarm went off.

“Why is it that you treated the Chloe card far worse than Kelly’s card? Don’t you hate Kelly more than you hate Chloe?” Ula argued, watching as Aibek appeared out of the moonlight from the window with a fire extinguisher. But instead of putting the fire out, he set it aside of Aelia. As if he expected her to take it out herself.

“Chloe went missing recently, and took my good Tarot card deck with her.” Aelia growled, before grabbing the fire extinguisher. The extinguisher imploded in Aelia’s grasp. “Get out, Ula.”

“But we aren’t done with the readi-”

“GET OUT.”

Ula obeyed, because she didn’t want to be anything like that fire extinguisher.

## **Three**

"You could've said Chloe went missing, Aibek," Ula said, slamming her fist on the kitchen counter which caused Aibek to jump. The kitchen was high-tech, and everything seemed clean and had a screen on it.

      And everything was white, too.

      "Oh, my niece? I'll tell you everything we know about her disappearance if you get my groceries," Aibek handed a Familiar, which had a purple galaxy-themed case with an emblem of an adorable, pink astronaut bunny girl. On the screen of the Familiar was a long list of groceries; typical things, excluding the numerous YA romantasy novels "(for Aelia)".

*I think we both know who those novels are really for, Aibek,* Ula thought. "Are you trying to send me on a quest? To get you groceries?"

      Aibek opened the door of the refrigerator, which had literally nothing in it besides maggots and a half-empty bottle of oddly liquid ketchup. He looked deeply into it, before closing it randomly.

      "Pretty much."

       "You're, like, the God of Online Shopping. Do it yourself." The thought of Aibek in the uniform of a delivery person entered her mind, and she held in the sensation to laugh.

"My shift starts in approximately fifteen minutes, and Kanris refuses to do anything until she gets a pay raise. And you know why Aelia can't do it.”

Ula blinked and suddenly Aibek was in a delivery person uniform.

"Good luck!" Aibek called out to her as he faded out of existence. "I'm heading out a few minutes early! Remember; master the mortal magics by the end of the school ye-”

Ula was left flabbergasted, and she looked down on her brand-new Familiar. The case was branded Maeve, the Goddess of Stars.

*Of course, it was.*

*And of course, there's a deadline. There always is with the Higher Gods.*

*Thankfully, the school year starts in just two days.*

The journey to the nearest convenience store was oddly long, probably because she was in a rich person neighborhood. The skyscrapers were colorful, with electronic billboards, and eye-catching company logos.

And the people. Despite it being too early in the morning, the sun wasn't even up yet, there were so many people. All wore expensive dresses and suits.

There. A corner shop called The Inconvenience Store.

And in front of it was a division of the retinue of Esme, Goddess of Love and Beauty.

They all wore white, pink, and gold with accents of red. Some of them, especially tall ones, had white, feathered wings. Angels; the Erotes.

The tallest of the retinue was Nutella, the Angel of Requited Love. And the leader when Esme wasn't around. Nutella had short, curly, vibrant brown hair with swirls of peanut butter-colored highlights. Nutella's backpack was filled with sandwich supplies; white bread, cheese, peanut butter, lunch meats, jelly, and hazelnut spread. Even Nutella's Angel wings were town and peanut butter in color, and her fingernails were long and sharp. They were painted crimson.

Nutella was, of course, the first to speak. "I thought your punishment wasn't set to end for another thousand years?" Nutella's voice was silky and soft, with hints of annoyance. She flipped her curly hair so it wouldn't be covered both of her eyes.

"And I thought you couldn't do math in the slightest. You strike me as the kind to only which positions and contraceptives are the best."

Laughs from the retinue. Nutella's face grew an angry expression before she manically laughed.

"I think you forgot your place," Nutella growled, baring her perfectly white fangs. Nutella probably didn't even use toothpaste; she definitely used bleached instead. Nutella leaned to Ula's height, which was short, mind you, and ripped off the red bear beanie covering part of Ula's blonde and black braids. Nutella threw the beanie to another one in Esme's retinue - a Fire Nymph with blue and white hair, which clashed with his retinue uniform.

*Really clashed*, Ula thought, cringing at the shades of blue forced to be with reds, golds, and pinks.

"Haven't grown up, have you? Bears are for babies.” The Fire Nymph said. Ula didn't know his name, but he had an aggressively judgemental voice. Ula didn't say anything in response. She liked bears; they were cute.

"Aw, cat got your tongue finally?" Nutella asked, placing her hand on Ula's cheek before squeezing it.

*...Ow. You have claws, y'know?* Ula thought as she saw the golden ichor fall to the ground from her cheek.

Something caught Ula's eye. A Mystic girl had just walked out of The Inconvenience Store.

She had blonde hair, brown eyes, and a blue crop top.

Ula went running, causing a scar from Nutella's literal claws. "Hey, wait! Come back!" Ula yelled, waving her arms around as she went after the teenage girl. But the girl turned to face Ula for a brief second and went running as well.

"Ugh, you broke a nail!" Nutella screamed, but Ula didn't turn to face the Angel. She wasn't one to start a cycle.

Esme's retinue turned to face Ula and the teenage girl, though, and they started chasing Ula in turn. But the problem was; that half of Esme's retinue had Angel wings. Nutella and a few of the other Erotes ascended into the sky and flew after Ula and the teenage girl.

*Run.*

The teenage girl took a turn into a dilapidated alleyway with high lines of laundry, and Ula followed. She looked up briefly, and her nonexistent heart (No, Ula could feel emotions, she just literally didn't have a heart) and stomach dropped when she saw Nutella drop down from the sky.

Ula sped up because she didn't want to be like a fish in an eagle's claws. The teenage girl screamed at the sight of Nutella, her face twisted in horror.

"Are in you gang activity or something?!" The teenager yelled, trying to avoid the flying Nutella, who was yelling curses at Ula for breaking her nail.

"No! I'm actually quite new to the city; I've only been here a few hours!"

All this running and screaming made Ula forget that it was still nighttime, and she almost ran into an oddly placed dumpster. Finally, Ula and the teenager ran into another, actual street.

Right in front of Eleghast Academy, with all of its electronic, magical, teenage horro- I mean beauty.

## **Three, the Sec~~o~~nd Part**

**Before Achlyss left The Inconvenience Store and got chased by Ula… and Esme’s retinue.**

The ringing that accompanied the door to The Inconvenience Store was loud in Achlyss’s ear, and she scowled. The corner store was small, but it had things that any boarding school student would need. Snacks? Got you covered. Toiletries? Check. Random decorations? Of course.

Rumor has it, that The Inconvenience Store originally started as a dorm-room operation. The students running it would steal from places like Seer Topic and Dreamland, which were stores commonly found in shopping and strip malls. They converted their dorm rooms into entire small stores because dorm rooms shifted their shape and style by intention.

They would sell their stolen crap for half the price and twice in quantity. Now that is a deal.

“Welcome back, Achlyss,” An adult stuck mentally in her teenage years said, and Achlyss turned her head to face the source of the voice. Hollyberry Palisman, the former student who started up the original Inconvenience Store back at Eleghast Academy. Hollyberry was behind the countertop, and Achlyss could see the boredom in her eyes.

Hollyberry had dark brown skin and dark cherry braids. She wore a ripped-up plaid crop top, and Achlyss couldn’t see what else. Achlyss nodded a common response to that sort of thing. Hollyberry nodded back.

The aisles of The Inconvenience Store were filled with things like drawing supplies (Eleghast Academy was an art school, after all), probably banned candy, small fidget toys, and chips. Flaming hot chips, especially.

But the most important thing to Achlyss Christine was Alessia Christine, her half-sister who tended to leech off of Achlyss.

Alessia was the kind of twelve-year-old to sneak into college parties and nightclubs. That, and a self-proclaimed priestess of Chloe, the Goddess of Youth and Childhood. Chloe was an obscure Goddess; not many big myths. Although, you could scramble together some that got a clear picture of her.

“Big sis! Hey, do me a favor and get me a bag of Flaming Hot…Sour Patch Teens? They sound sick.” Alessia said, flipping her strawberry blonde hair to the other side of her face. She was pointing to a bag at the top of the aisle (The aisles at The Inconvenience Store are oddly tall, mind you) that had purple and green packaging with sour gummies layered in whatever dust they pour over those chips.

Achlyss was the lucky one out of the sisters to get a scholarship to Eleghast Academy. Well, it wasn’t really a scholarship; it was actually a drawing that pulled Achlyss’s name years ago…but not Alessia’s. So Alessia was stuck with a public school, while Achlyss was hanging out in a boarding school. Thankfully though, Achlyss visited the apartment that housed Alessia and their grandmother quite often. Eleghast Academy wasn’t very strict in the time after classes, and they didn’t enforce the “be in your dorms by midnight” rule. Like, at all.

“Yeah, sure,” Achlyss sighed and reached for the giant bag of gummies. She tossed it over to Alessia, smiling. She’d noticed that Alessia was spending more time around the academy lately and that always made Achlyss narrow her eyes in a sense of sorrow for the younger girl.

“Thanks,” Alessia muttered, shoving the bag of candy into the pocket of her short-sleeved hoodie. “Are you shopping for the school year? If so, let me help!” Alessia proposed, and Achlyss nodded. Alessia was always trying to ‘get the burden’ out of her. After their shared mother’s death, they were in the care of their grandmother, who was slightly more keen on staying in front of the television or at the dinner table on her Familiar.

Not to say that their grandmother was mean, she wasn’t. She was actually kind and did shopping whenever she had a burst of energy. She was just older, and the people in Esper were always so keen on letting their children raise themselves and each other.

The small shopping spree in The Inconvenience Store mainly comprised of listening to the Angelic Mystici and Nymphs, the only other customers at the time, squabbling over sandwich supplies. The basket Achlyss and Alessia were using was filling up quickly, and Hollyberry was giving them weird looks, but shrugged it off.

The Inconvenience Store was a lot bigger on the inside. It actually had a lot of secondary rooms; one comprised of posters, another with Tarot cards, jewels, and other things for small spells (Achlyss really needed to get a pack; she postponed it for too long.), and another that was a small, but very decorated, shrine to Kelly, the Goddess of War. The Shrine Room, which was its official name, actually had a lot of offerings. The offerings were an entire pack of soda (a popular brand at that), a painting of the Strength card (most definitely from a student at Eleghast), a jar of oddly red liquid with Rubies, an old, vintage band t-shirt with a Hell Hound on it, and a literal fucking gun.

No more comments on the gun offering.

Having paid, Achlyss left, but Alessia did not follow.

## **F~~o~~ur**

Eleghast really was beautiful. It had columns, and decorations strewn across across the yard and gardens of the front yard of the academy. There were birdhouses, star-shaped faerie lights, small statues, and even huge murals on some buildings. There were a lot of buildings. They were probably dorm houses, classrooms, and lounges.

But what caught Ula really off-guard was when a grown man tried going near the academy, he got flung into a nearby building across the street.

“Oh my god,” Ula said, her mouth wide open. In the alleyway, Esme’s retinue watched with bitter faces. The retinue, lead by Nutella and the blue-haired Nymph, finally walked away. Ula swore they were having a conversation about a sandwiches. People who aren’t students, families, or faculty must not be able to enter the school grounds, Ula realized.

But that only caused more problems. Why was Ula allowed on the school grounds?

“Weird, you must be another student. Never seen you before.” The teenager, the one that was on Aelia’s Death Tarot card, said. The one Ula chased after. The teenager must’ve been a Necromancer, Ula could tell by the school uniform she wore that had a Death’s-head hawkmoth. The teen’s uniform was gray, black, and red with a hood and shorts.

“Uh, yeah. I’m new. I moved in from…the Rouge Isles last month.” Ula said. It was half true; she moved in from the Rouge Isles…mere hours ago. “What’s your name? I’m Ula. Ula Nereid Mintz.” Ula asked. The “Nereid Mintz” part of her name was completely fake, as Gods and Immortals didn’t have last or middle names, after all.

“Achlyss Christine.” The teenager said. “I’m in the Chaos Dorm, animals are cute.” Achlyss flipped her blonde hair, and Ula finally noticed that the sides of it in front of her small, pointed-ears was painted a bright, reddish-pink color.

“Where’d the animal thing come from?” Ula asked. She remembered how animals either hated her guts or loved her. Unfortunately, it seemed to be the nicer, prey animals that loved her. Things like deer, horses, rabbits; cute stuff. Not very useless in battle, not like Ula would ever actually participate in those. But bears seemed to quite like Ula, hence why she took them as some kind of secret ‘sacred animal’.

“You’re uniform. Its the one for the Totem Dorm. The Dorm that has creature magic.” Achlyss said.

Ula looked down, and gasped at what she saw; it was a uniform somewhat to Achlyss’s, but the sigil was instead a simplified Swamp Hydra. The colors were different, too. Whereas Achlyss’s uniform was grayscale and red, Ula’s was white, pink, and brown. Ula’s uniform looked more for athleticism, which made sense for mystical animals.

Thinking about it now, I think Achlyss was wearing a different outfit before we went on school grounds. They must change when we get inside. Weird how I’m apparently a student, Ula thought.

“How does it know if you’re a student?” Ula asked, and she looked through her drawstring backpack. There wasn’t anything in there that she didn’t have.

“Students and faculty have IDs. Family members are just documented in the forcefield. Have you checked your Familiar case? I’ve seen other students put their IDs in their Familiar case.” Achlyss said, and Ula followed that instruction. She pulled the case off of her Familiar, and there it was - a colorful ID card with an old picture of her from before Ula’s punishment. Ula more or less looked exactly the same back then; she remembered her mother, Bijou, the Goddess of Wealth and Gemstones, screaming in joy when she learned that Ula was forever stuck in the form of a fourteen year old. Ula would be spared from a certain desire some (actually a lot, especially Caelus) Gods had.

“That’s an old picture,” Ula muttered and Achlyss raised her eyebrow.

Suddenly, a gust of wind caused Ula to stumble back and close her eyes. When she opened them, there was a girl on a large, star-themed (and very expensive looking) staff. The girl looked girl tall, and around Achlyss’s age. Her skin was pale, and her hair was pastel purple and silver. The girl also wore a uniform, but it was notably different from both Ula’s and Achlyss’s.

The new girl’s uniform was silver and dark blue. The sigil on the girl’s uniform was the Gaelethian Zodaic. The uniform also had a small but cute cloak with no particular pattern.

“Blackberry!” Achlyss yelled, climbing onto the other girl’s - apparently her name was Blackberry - staff. Blackberry cheered, and jumped off the staff and hugged Achlyss. The staff went flying all over the school yard (Achlyss nor Blackberry noticed it seemed; they were too busy hugging until Achlyss said she “literally couldn’t breathe”) before flyingthrough the forcefield and into the streets. It was a while until it came back to Blackberry.

“Who is this? Let me guess - your name is…Naiad?” Blackberry asked. It wasn’t judgmental at all; it seemed like Blackberry was happy to have someone to talk to. The taller girl held out her hand to Ula, as if expecting her to shake it.

“Me and my people don’t do handshakes,” Ula said, gently pushing Blackberry’s hand away. Deities didn’t do handshakes unless absolutely necessary. They were scared of agreeing to a deal they didn’t want to be in on. An old rumor around Heaven was that Bion (God of Hunting), shook Death’s hand. Apparently Bion and Death were making an agreement on Death sparing some souls for Bion. Bion just wanted some souls to live for all Ula knew. What Bion didn’t know was that for Death’s payment, Bion’s little sister (Meli, Goddess of Nature and Fertility) had to be Death’s girlfriend.

Ula didn’t want to know if that was true or not.

Blackberry looked confused, but she accepted it. “Are you a new student too? I’ve been home-schooled all my life. Its really confusing so far. How the dorm rooms work is weird, how if we want it to look like something, it’ll somewhat appear that way with some decoration but you have to decorate the rest of it,”

Achlyss laughed. “It’ll get even worse when classes starts.”

“Oh well, I should get going!” Blackberry said and she whispered with her fingers up to her mouth.

It was a few minutes until Blackberry’s staff went back up to the three of them. There was a stray kitten clinging on to dear life, and Achlyss gently grabbed it, holding it close to their chest.

The sky was a lighter color now, the Sun ready to rise with Aelia’s demand.

And off Blackberry went.

“By the way, just a few hours in the city is enough to get involved in gang activity.” Achlyss said, and Ula realized she’d completely forgotten about Esme’s retinue. Achlyss was gently playing the the kitten, petting his ears and tail. Why did Ula know the gender of the cat?

Achlyss was just about to walk away when Ula called out their name.

“Wait, Achlyss! Are- are you a Necromancer?” She asked, and Achlyss’s eyes narrowed. “Yeah,” was all Achlyss said.

“Can you…teach me some things?” Ula’s arms folded, and she looked at the bright green grass on the ground. In the next few weeks, it’ll fade away to a different color, probably. Ula’s eyes went to the ground around Achlyss’s feet. The color and quality was no different than the grass at Ula’s feet.

I guess Necromancers don’t affect the world around them that way, Ula thought. She jumped when she finally heard Achlyss’s voice.

“Visit me near the Northern walls of the city tomorrow at lunch. It isn’t a far walk. Don’t get nervous. Me and my friends know our way around.”

## **Five**

The Temple to Bijou in the city of Esper wasn’t as large as the Temples of Kelly or Aelia, but it was just as crowded. There was a line to get into the temple outside. Ula knew they were only there to pray for wealth. Bijou only granted wealth to those worthy or those who came at the request of another God.

The stained glass window overseeing the altar displayed Bijou, with shades of blue, red, and silky whites. The pillars holding the roof were decorated with imagery from history, from her (dubiously consensual) marriage to Ula’s father, Kai, to the party celebrating Ula’s birth. A familiar voice clouded Ula’s mind when she stared at the pillar depicting the party, but the face wasn’t anywhere on the painted cylinder rising from the ground.

“Is this your first time here?” A female voice said from behind Ula, but it was muffled by the hat and hood she was wearing. Ula turned around to see the priestess of her own mother.

The priestess wore a dark red cloak that went to her ankles, with a crown made of small gemstones. The priestess had a soft, young face. She must've been new.

“I went here a bunch when I was a kid,” Ula said because it wasn’t untrue. It was more true than the hymns they read there. Ula couldn’t blame them for preaching incorrect hymns, though; mistranslations, censorship. There were a lot of things that could alter stories over time.

“Oh! How wonderful. Who took you?” The priestess asked, smiling.

“My mom. Also, where exactly can I make an offering?” Ula said. She hated it when the priestesses and hierophants tried making small talk. I just need a favor from my mom, Ula thought and the priestess nodded briefly.

The priestess led Ula to a small room outside of the altar which had a fountain. There wasn’t anything at the bottom of the fountain. That was because the offerings at shrines and temples faded away to be in their respective God’s hoards of treasure.

Ula opened her drawstring backpack, pulling out a long note with a plastic, waterproof covering over it. The paper itself was from a cheap-lined notebook, but Ula knew Bijou wouldn’t care. The priestess raised her eyebrow.

“You do know that notes can’t be offerings, right?” The priestess said in a judgemental tone. Ula rolled her eyes and dropped the note into the water, watching it phase away. Because Ula is Bijou’s daughter, the note will appear in Bijou’s hands near immediately.

Many minutes passed, to the point where the priestess left to deal with the crowd of people waiting outside the temple. Ula gasped when her backpack felt much heavier. She opened it and gasped again when she saw the mounds of valuable (but still in use) coins and dollars. There was a note, as well.

The note was in perfectly pristine paper, and the handwriting was done in colorful, curvy ink.

“Cursive,” Ula groaned. She could barely read Cursive. Whatever.

How are you, Ula? Your father has been commanding the servants to burn your things before you come back home. Some of my retinue managed to sneak into your old quarters and take back some of your things. I’ll have your uncle, Bahari, the God of Sailors, send you your things.

I don’t suggest coming back home to Amphit. I’ll organize to meet you in Esper once a month if you so desire. I will try updating you on the news in Heaven, and sending you gifts from my travels.

It was a short letter, but it meant something to Ula. She tucked it into the pocket of her onesie and went on her way. For a few minutes, anyway. Storm clouds rolled in fast.