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Phoenix blinked, her eyes heavy with exhaustion and her body very much disagreeing with the idea of waking up. She grumbled and tried curling into a tighter ball and pushing herself further into the comfortable seat only for the extra warm chair she was in to rumble slightly and laughter tickled her ears as Uriel’s deep voice said, “I don’t think you can burrow deeper into my shirt without ripping it off.”

The Wayfarer blinked again in confusion before glancing up at the man smirking down at her in amusement, her face turning the same crimson as her curls in embarrassment at his words as she finally realized where she was. On the roof of the Wayland building, somewhere in the garden maze, curled up on Uriel’s lap like a child who couldn’t stay awake after collapsing from the exhaustion of gaining another mark of divine Favor from the goddess, Champion.

The Mage had apparently found an actual armchair for them to rest in among the towering rows of flowering hedges and had let her use him as a warm pillow. She shook her head and groaned as more memories came back to her, “How long was I out this time?”

“Not long,” he assured, “Maybe a few hours. Nobody has come looking for us yet and it seemed like you needed the rest.”

“I did,” she agreed, then looked at the sky that seemed to be getting darker, “Should we go back now? What even happened after I died?”

“Orebela carried Lord Wayland back. Elder Pualani has been taking care of things here,” Uriel explained and Phoenix recalled the old Emerald Caster that usually took care of the rooftop garden, “Daze is with Everin. He mentally whispered to me earlier saying the new Avatar is awake and is okay with us knowing that he’s going to be the Avatar of both Scholar and Rebel. I told him where we were but not what happened with Champion. I’ll leave that for you to share.”

“What? Why?” she asked, a bit surprised that he didn’t share everything with his partner.

“Not my story to tell,” he answered with half a shrug from the arm not pinned behind her body, “If you want to keep what you learned and what you traded a secret, then you can. I wouldn’t take that choice from you.”

Phoenix nodded and fell silent, leaning her cheek back against the warmth radiating from the cinderen’s chest. She was grateful for his silence, despite planning to tell the others anyway.

“Do you… do you think I made the wrong choice? Both with the Champion and Paul?”

Uriel looked down contemplatively at her, carefully considering before saying, “No. I think you did what you thought would be best to keep hope alive for everyone.” A warm smile spread across his face that she wasn’t sure she had ever seen before as he added with a slight tease in his tone, “Just like a hero would.”

She scrunched her nose, “You shouldn’t call me that. Paul was the hero out there.”

The Mage chuckled as he asked, “So what do you call the person who saves the hero?”

“A plot device,” she mumbled grumpily, eliciting a laugh from the larger man.

Phoenix smiled in return, enjoying the rare sound, then cautiously asked, “So what do we do next?”

“I find it less stressful to trust him to answer that for me,” Uriel answered, gesturing past her with a nod, and she followed his gaze to find Dazien watching them with a calculating look before it transformed into that charming grin he usually wore.

Dazien had been relieved when Uriel told him that Phoenix had finished reviving and that they were currently resting in the garden. He knew the Wayfarer was stronger than she believed but he also saw how much Paul meant to her. Even if she wouldn't be mourning his death, he knew she would be devastated by losing the future they had planned for.

He felt much the same.

His brief dream of becoming a future member of the Wayland family had shattered to pieces like the runes of that bittersweet ritual. The party leader couldn't allow himself the time to wallow in self-pity, however, since duty still called and the fighting still raged on. They needed to return to the others and help end this assault on the city in whatever capacity they could manage.

Dazien started feeling nervous about the divine magic his aura was able to sense lingering in the area while following the directional sense his bracelet granted. However, when he turned a corner of the garden maze, he felt momentarily stunned by the sight of his partner snuggling with his once-future sister. 

His brain stuttered for a few moments as he watched them talking and not focused on hearing any of it. Honestly, on one hand, it was adorable; the large cinderen, who kept everyone normally at arm's length, carefully holding the wild redhead like a glowing kitten that might bolt at a sudden move.

On the other hand, it made his mind race with possible futures that he had never even thought to consider and how they might end in spectacular explosions. He also felt horrible that he would have to be the one to interrupt their obvious bonding with orders that none of them really wanted to follow.

Uriel caught his eyes and grinned before nodding towards him, causing Phoenix to look his way, and he pushed aside his ponderings of the far future with the more immediate one as he put on his carefree mask and grinned at his closest friends.

“I’m sorry to interrupt but we need to go back now,” he said as he closed the distance between them, “Lady Saiya and Rayna are awaiting our return.”

“I wish we could go back to before everything,” Phoenix replied bitterly.

His smile became tinged with sadness as he replied, “I know, Princess, but not even the Time Mages are able to do that.”

“Let me guess,” she said with a heavy sigh as she climbed off Uriel’s lap, “This is one of those lame magical universes where the past can’t be changed.”

“Not like that,” he confirmed, “Some might argue the bit of future sight some people claim to have effectively changes a past but I think we’ve gone beyond that point if we’re still talking about wanting to go back.”

Dazien nodded towards one of the roses in the hedge behind the pair and expounded, “Even if I know exactly what would happen by picking that flower, once I’ve broken its stem and handed it to you, there is no unpicking it.”

“So we can’t go back,” the Wayfarer reiterated forlornly as the cinderen stood up behind her.

Uriel looked at the flower he had nodded towards and gingerly plucked it, the Mundane thorns unable to easily pierce the enhanced skin, then handed it over to Phoenix and said, “Not to the past. Trust me when I say I know how desperately you might want to.” 

Ember eyes glanced back toward him as the Mage added, “But I’m often reminded that we can only move forward despite the burdens we carry.”

The Astromancer frowned at the rose before making it vanish in a shimmer of silver to stay in her collection’s stasis to be preserved for longer, much the way her mentor now was.

Dazien wrapped an arm around her shoulders in a gentle half hug before saying, “Let’s go update Everin and then portal back towards the battle while you explain the divine energy my aura still feels lingering around here.”

Phoenix gave a loud groan as he began leading them back out of the garden, “You would not believe the audacity these gods have.”

“They're gods. Of course, they’re audacious,” he chuckled and then guessed, “Your mark changed again?”

“Probably,” she answered with a shrug, swapping out her dress in another shower of starlight for a slightly more revealing one that exposed the Soul Mark.

The large winged five-pointed star sitting in the center and wrapped around an open book was always a striking image, with one page showing an eight-pointed compass star and the other a sprouting seedling.

The dagger that had adorned it earlier from Warrior’s Favor, which seemed similar to her conjured [Night Blade], was no longer pointing downwards towards the book’s crease but was now tilted at an angle and crossed with a longer sword that he didn’t recognize. The overall effect hadn’t changed though: whenever anyone laid eyes on it they immediately knew she had gained the addition of the Champion’s Favor.

“I think it also does something for the gods but I'm not sure what exactly,” the Wayfarer said.

He frowned in concern, “What makes you say–”

“It finally clicked; what you said earlier,” she preemptively explained, “‘Everything has a price’. Champion even agreed that I wasn’t wrong.”

Dazien glanced up to meet Uriel’s gaze, the cinderen’s confirming nod making his mind race with a tidal wave of new worries as he asked, “Do you plan to let Avatar Starlark know?”

She nodded, “He sacrificed to save Paul too. I don’t want to hide things from him.”

“Then you can tell both of us the story at the same time,” he said, continuing to lead them to the former Cleric and wondering what divine surprises might interfere with them next.

“I want to officially join your party,” Everin said from his plush chair in his borrowed room as Phoenix finished explaining everything that had occurred on the roof while he had been chatting with his own deity.

“Absolutely not,” the young gemite exclaimed, stabbing him with those amethyst eyes, “You are far too powerful to be held back by our status as a Crystal Caste party.”

He returned that gaze with his own newly changed one. After being infused with the goddess Scholar’s power, he had been informed by Dazien that his eyes had become glowing swirls of rainbow light that matched his altered hair and reflected the Radiant energy that had threatened to overwhelm him. 

Now, however, his eyes lacked any color at all instead of returning to their original pale blue. One iris had gone completely white and the other pitch black, a contrast which gave him an even odder appearance than he already had with his clash of colors.

“At least until this new champion or whatever shows up then,” the Avatar argued, “I don’t want any of you to be without the appearance of some kind of protection. With Paul… sleeping, people might see this as an opportunity to cut down a potential threat. Gaining yet another god’s Favor after first revealing the Soul Mark of six will make a lot of people nervous.”

“Why’s that?” Phoenix asked him, sounding more curious than worried, and he silently cursed her immortality skewing her perception once more.

“Aside from those who serve the less pleasant gods –like the Torturer, Maniac, or Destroyer– and were already wary of you, those who enjoy a position of power within a more neutral or good-aligned clergy might see you as a threat to that. 

“Even others outside of the clergy altogether might see a person who is gaining far too much outside power relative to your station. The Rule of Caste is not easily thrown aside and when people are threatened by a disruption of their worldview, they’ll lash out,” he explained.

“But I already had a bunch of gods showing more interest in me than they really should have,” the Wayfarer countered, “Why would one more make a difference?”

“Because it shows you have the potential to keep gaining more,” the voxen pointed out, “You didn’t reveal your mark before another got added so most people didn’t know there was a timeline associated with it. Aside from the clergy becoming aware of a new Chosen for their deity, nobody knew you were gaining them.”

“Wait, what do you mean by ‘becoming aware’?” Dazien interjected from his spot on a couch next to the quiet cinderen, “Whispers still cost the gods a bit of divine power, so I didn’t think they would bother informing everyone about Phoenix.”

Everin grimaced at his slip and the whisper from the Scholar in his mind, “Careful, Avatar. Don’t reveal too much or you might have a hysterical teenager on your hands.”

He gestured towards the bracelet on the young warrior’s wrist currently resting on the arm of the sofa and divulged, “Any member of the clergy for one of the gods that marked Phoenix can sense which direction she’s in, to a certain extent; much like the bracelets you all wear. We would have all felt your presence the moment you became in range of the city.”

“Wait, so you knew whenever she went missing?” the gemite accused.

He rolled his eyes in response, “Of course not. Not all of us are some kind of crazy stalker watching her every move and she portals around quite often. Unless we’re told she's not where she’s supposed to be, how are we to know something is wrong simply based on what direction she’s in?”

His gaze landed on the smaller woman, sitting in a matching chair across from him, who was gripping the arms of the furniture rather tightly, and seemed paler than usual as her wide eyes stared at him. “I told you she would panic,” the Scholar whispered again in a tone that was half reprimanding and half smug.

“So it doesn’t matter if I stand behind Daze, or cover my mark, or change my hair… they’ll always be watching me?” she asked in a horrified whisper that filled the room.

Everin frowned but nodded, “You are a beacon to us, Phoenix; one of awe, inspiration, and hope.”

“I–I don’t… I can’t–”

The Wayfarer seemed to have gone into a state of mental overload that impaired speech and the quiet Mage beside her leaned forward to place a large hand over hers as the Defender seemed to speak for both of them, “Nothing has changed. If it’s been that way for months, then nothing is different now. You already decided to walk this path when you accepted being a Wayland, remember?”

She clamped her mouth shut and nodded, squeezing her eyes and pinching the bridge of her nose before taking a few deep breaths and saying, “You’re right. It’s just a lot to wrap my head around.”

Then her gaze snapped once more to his as she pointedly asked, “Wait, what else do you know about the Soul Mark? Do you know why all the gods seem to want to give me one?”

“Don’t you dare, Avatar,” Scholar’s voice rang the warning in his mind, “She’s not ready for that. She’ll make assumptions based on the little fragments you know.”

He grimaced once more, falling silent at the command but the young woman’s pleading gaze as she begged him cut much deeper than the goddess’ rebuke, “Please, Everin. I deserve to know why they keep branding my soul. Please.”

“I know you have a weak spot for kits, but don’t let her-”

“I think you forgot, Scholar,” Everin silently interjected, “I have a bad habit of not listening to orders and instead doing what I believe is right… I am –and will always be– a rebel.”

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