Even Galia sensed the tension, and with what I assumed was a subconscious gesture on Cosmo’s part, the bar patrons all went silent—all staring at Aerion. It’d be kinda creepy if it wasn’t for the looks of shock and surprise on their faces. Rather than creepy, though, it ended up somewhat comical.

  I didn’t dare laugh, though. Aerion was giving Cosmo a death glare I’d rarely ever seen outside of her Reave state.

  “Aerion,” I whispered. “I don’t know if this is the time…”

  Cosmo’s ever-present smile slipped, his expression turning somber. That was a look I almost never saw from the normally childish god, and honestly? It freaked the shit out of me. More than Passion. More than Dominion.

  It was just one look...

  “Look, Aerion, I know it’s of little comfort, but I do regret what happened,” Cosmo said, his voice unusually soft. “Your family was a good one, for the most part.”

  “For the most part?” Aerion snapped. “What on Axius is that supposed to mean? And if you really felt that way, you would’ve done something about it! Do you think Dominion would’ve stood for something like this? Do you think Wisdom would have? They’d have come down and wiped people like that off the face of Axius!”

  Cosmo’s lips tightened. “And what would you know about the shackles that bind us, my young friend?” he said in the coldest tone I’d ever heard from the flippant god’s lips.

  For the first time, I felt like I was getting a glimpse into the person Cosmo used to be. The person he claimed to be distancing himself from.

  The true god of Order.

  And he was terrifying.

  I immediately went into damage control mode, ready to store Aerion if she said another word.

  As it turned out, however, I didn't have to.

  Aerion's mouth opened, but her words seemed to catch in her throat.

  Two firsts, then. Because in her eyes, mixed in with the hatred, was something else entirely. Something new.

  Fear.

  “Just kidding!” Cosmo said, shattering any hope I had for a sincere moment. “Got you, didn’t I? Didn’t I, Greg?” he said, laughing his ass off with a stupid grin plastered on his face.

  I frowned, not relaxing in the least. This was a new side of Cosmo. A completely different side. Maybe he'd been playing up a joke, sure, but as always with him, there was a morsel of truth behind his tone.

  And suddenly, just like that, I knew that this god had a method to his madness. I'd always guessed. Suspected. But now? Now I knew.

  Summoning me to Axius. Not telling me some things while divulging others... He had a plan. A goal. Something he wanted from me, but couldn't say.

  Now, it was my job to find out what the hell that could be.

  I glanced sideways at Aerion, who'd closed her mouth, staring down at her drink with a pensive frown.

  “Hey,” I said, scooting over and rubbing her back. “If it’s any consolation, he does that all the time to me. It’s pretty much impossible to get anything out of this guy.”

  Well, almost impossible—so long as I came up with the idea myself, Cosmo was happy to play along. And now, after this revelation, I had to wonder if he wasn't subtly guiding our conversations. The gestures, the perfectly timed expressions, the offhand comments… even his tone just now. Were they all designed to nudge me to certain conclusions?

  A moment ago, I would've shaken off the thought. Every time I thought Cosmo had some deeper plan, it turned out he was just being a goofball. But now? Now... I wasn't nearly so sure.

  “So, uh, Cosmo,” I said, desperate to shift the topic. “Let’s talk about Galia, shall we?”

  The little phoenix perked up at the sound of her name, staring at me with her big eyes. I had to force myself to keep my eyes on the god and not the unbearably cute creature nestled in Cosmo’s arms.

  “Her growth is something we’re both worried about,” I continued. “I don’t know if I can safely feed her any random Soul Crystal. She’ll happily munch on just about any type of crystal, of course, but babies will eat poison without a care in the world, so that doesn’t mean much.”

  “A good point,” Cosmo said, frowning as he stroked Galia’s back like a cat. “What are your thoughts?”

  “Well, either it doesn’t make any difference at all and only rarity matters, or it does, and we’re influencing her growth direction every time we feed her a crystal,” I said, happy to move onto lighter topics, my heart still pounding from earlier. “She seems especially satisfied gorging on high-rank crystals, but I’ve been holding those off for special treats.”

  “And you won’t know until she manifests a power,” Cosmo said.

  “Exactly.”

  “I see your dilemma,” Cosmo replied. “Why don’t you just give her an assortment and see what she likes the most?”

  “The problem is she likes everything. Kinda wish she was more choosy.” Galia swivelled her head in that way only birds can do and cooed at me, as if to say she were innocent.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  “Maybe we could run a test, though. Give her several Soul Crystals from different beasts of the same grade at the same time, and see which one she goes to first.”

  “A sound idea,” Cosmo said. Even Aerion, in the middle of her sulking, nodded.

  “Okay, we’ll give that a shot,” I said. “But what’s with her status? It’s like the System got confused and thinks she’s part of me.”

  “Oh! That!” Cosmo said. “I did wonder if something like that might happen. Sorry about that. Let me just fix it for you real quick.”

  Both Aerion and I opened our mouths in surprise.

  “This isn’t another of your jokes, is it?” she asked. “You can just fix it? Just like that?”

  “Just like that! Bada bing, badda boom!” he said. “Should be good to go now!”

  With copious amounts of skepticism, I pulled up my status screen, only to find that Cosmo was, in fact, not joking.

  “Uh, Aerion? You seeing this?”

  Aerion pulled up Galia’s screen, and just like mine, her jaw dropped.

  Galia: Phoenix [True Flame]

  Soul: Common / F

  Stats:

  — Vigor: 7

  — Order: 14

  — Wisdom: 29

  — Passion: 19

  — Grace: 27

  — Cunning: 13

  — Dominion: 15

  Boons:

  — Racial Trait: Boon of Phoenix Grace: +10 Grace

  — Racial Trait: Boon of Phoenix Wisdom: +10 Wisdom

  Blessing: True Flame (Foundation - 3) [Unique]

  Unique to the mythical creature, True Flame brings out and amplifies the phoenix’s inborn abilities to great effect. Unlike most other creatures, phoenixes draw on their innate divinity to power their magic and do not rely on Essence.

  Details:

  — Stat points awarded based on consumed Soul Crystal quality. Note: Stats gains are immediate and do not need to be earned.

  — [1] New ability per rank

  — Abilities can level to current class level

  Spells:

  — Rebirth: Burn to ash upon death to be reborn anew. Activates automatically upon death. Once activated, this ability cannot be reused until the phoenix is fully grown.

  — Tears of Life: A phoenix’s tears contain the magic of divinity, healing nearly any wound if enough tears are shed.

  — Incinerate (Foundation - 4): The phoenix sets itself ablaze in superheated fire, burning anything it touches.

  I took several big sips of my drink.

  “Well, shit, Cosmo,” I said. “This is indeed a cause for celebration.”

  If I was reading this right, then Galia would easily end up as potent as Aerion’s [Sylvan Reaver]. Not just for her tears, but it seemed like her Incinerate ability would only get stronger, and she’d gain an ability every rank.

  I was initially surprised to see that Rebirth and Tears of Life couldn’t level before realizing they were basically maxed out already, considering their potency.

  Not to mention that leveling Galia seemed as simple as feeding her a constant supply of Soul Crystals—something the little bird would undoubtedly be ecstatic about.

  I could hardly believe it, staring at the tiny, big-eyed creature in front of me. She seemed so tiny and powerless, but I guess that was how it went for all babies. Next thing I knew, I’d be wiping a tear from my eye, saying, ‘they grow up so fast!’

  “I guess that settles what we need to do next,” I said.

  “Buy up all the Soul Crystals we can find?” Aerion asked with a smile.

  “After we learn which type Galia likes, yep. Cost is of no concern. It’d be stupid to pinch pennies for something that’ll give us such an advantage. Not that I would, anyway,” I said, looking at the wide-eyed bird.

  Aerion nodded. “Agreed.”

  “Well, friends,” Cosmo said, “this has been quite the productive meeting. I’m glad we all could catch up after so long.”

  Had Cosmo just experienced a different meeting? Because I was pretty sure Aerion still wanted to kill him.

  The god filled my glass and raised his own. “Here’s to many more.”

  I couldn’t say no to an offer like that, so I clinked my glass with his. Aerion, notably, did not partake.

  Damn, this is good stuff.

  Cosmo would have me spoiled silly on his high-quality Earth liquor if I wasn’t careful. That was a problem considering the relatively crappy state of alcohol on Axius.

  Was that what I should ask Rogar and Philip to focus on? Building us a distillery the likes of which Axius has never seen?

  It wasn’t a terrible idea, actually. If I wasn’t mistaken, alcohol was an incredibly lucrative business.

  But wait. Is that what Cosmo wanted all along? For me to disrupt Dominion’s economy by sucking up every dime of his peoples’ disposable income with out-of-this-world whiskey?

  The crazy thing was that I couldn’t even say he wouldn’t do something like that. All for a laugh.

  I shook my head. Thoughts like that were a great way to go insane.

  “Y’know,” I said as I swished the whiskey in my glass. “It’d be nice to spend a few hours here one day, just chit-chatting. Maybe playing cards.”

  “Friend,” Cosmo said as the bar faded into darkness. “Say no more! We will make it happen.”

  The bar disappeared, and I found myself back on Sylphara, the great tree of the elves. Perfectly sober again.

  A quick check showed me Aerion had been returned to my inventory, along with Galia. Which meant Aerion was still in her Reave state, and so I didn’t dare release them here.

  Taking the log elevator down to the bottom of the tree, I headed deep into the forest, stopping when I found what I thought was a good spot devoid of any large animals.

  The rampaging elf dashed away the second she got free, dropping Galia, who squawked in terror until I managed to catch her, just moments before she hit the ground.

  The little phoenix stared at Aerion in indignant disbelief.

  Oof. That’s not gonna win her any brownie points.

  The Reaver in question scanned her surroundings until her eyes landed on me.

  “There’s no one here, Aerion. No enemies,” I said.

  Only then, after another sweep of the area, did her berserker state dissipate.

  “That’s weird,” she said with a frown. “I don’t like it.”

  I laughed, though there was a bit more nervousness there than there otherwise would've been, given the nature of our recent meeting with the god. “Everything is weird when it comes to Cosmo. But, well, I’m glad you at least got to talk. And I’m glad it didn’t end in mayhem.”

  “Yeah,” she said with a conflicted expression. “Me too, I suppose. Where are we, anyway?”

  “Somewhere in the Sylvanglades,” I said. “Didn’t want to risk letting you out on the tree, lest you target a nearby elf or something.”

  Aerion nodded. “If only I had better control over my ability.”

  “Well, we’re both close to ranking up. Once we ascend to Convergence… maybe that’ll do the trick? You did get a lot better when you ranked up to Divergence.”

  “Indeed,” Aerion said with a nod. “Then I suppose we had best train as hard as we can.”

  “No argument there,” I said, moving closer to the elf. “But seeing how we’re all alone in the woods, I think we can stay out just a bit longer, don’t you?”

  It was in her eyes. She desperately wanted to distract herself from the prior encounter, but couldn't bring herself to say anything.

  Which was exactly why I was here.

  Aerion’s conflicted frown melted away, replaced by a small smile.

  She traced a finger over my chest. “Perhaps.”