I reached out a hand, then paused, my fingers a few inches from the glittering, translucent wall, stretched out to either side and vanishing upwards into the sky. Snowflakes drifted through it without even noticing the thing. It was completely permeable, but I could see the power within it.

The army was camped three miles or so behind me, spread out in defensive formations in case any of Patricia's Scholars decided to make an appearance. The mood had been tense for the last few days. We knew we only had one more enemy to break apart, and the end seemed to be in sight. Fortunately, they weren't aware of the phase after the issues of the game were settled, and the battle among the gods that was going to ensue.

Glimpse flapped down to land on my shoulder and pecked gently at my cheek. I brought a hand up absentmindedly and the feathers around the back of his neck.

Let me go first.

"I'm still trying to figure out how it works, and if I can steal it," I muttered.

Why? The eye is there waiting for you. Just peck.

"Not everything can be reduced to eating eyeballs." I chuckled. "This is Thoth's power. Knowledge, and that is always useful."

It is a curtain. All it does is divide, and crossing it announces your presence.

I craned my head back and cocked my head to look at the beady eyes of my crow. He launched a fake lunge at my left eye with his beak open before flapping his wings to hop up onto my head and turn back to the glittering… curtain.

The bird was right, in essence. I couldn't sense any ability to harm in the barrier, but it was like a trigger. Crossing it would alert both Patricia and the Ibis-headed god. Could I find another divine ally here?

My fingers brushed against the wall of light, and I held them there, feeling the alien energy.

Thoth's domain was cold and clinical. It reminded me of Velkit's in some ways. Mechanical, but blended with the organic and the… esoteric. Abstract and mundane blended together to make something almost impossible to describe.

"With the bird on your head, we could be brothers," said a deep voice from behind me.

I turned slowly, feeling Glimpse's claws dig into my scalp as he spread his wings to keep his balance. "Knowledge."

The portal through which the god had emerged vanished. He wore a dapper suit, almost like a Victorian gentleman, with a golden watch chain ending in his waistcoat pocket. He cocked his head to one side and blinked large green eyes at me. "You wanted to speak to me."

"I'm sure you know the reason."

"Hah! I like you, Raymond Cobbler. I can infer some things. The coming war, the one that matters, unlike these drab carryings on down here. You want me to help you kill one of our siblings."

"I can spare your Chosen."

"You want me to act in both fields? You are still so mortal. Optimism doesn't last past your first millennium, Raymond. I do not dislike you. Velkit is not the only one who approved of your introduction of more modern technology, although you failed in the method, in my opinion."

Waterwheels, gears and simple power transmission. New types of wagon wheels, saddles and stirrups. I'd given them the outlines as far as I remembered and let them run with it. My motivations hadn't solely been to uplift a primitive society. Increasing military production and capabilities had been more on my mind during that desperate time.

"I gave them too much?"

"You didn't force them to figure it out on their own."

"It was a world away, bloody literally, from what they knew! And I barely knew how to make that shit, bloke. I just pointed them in the right direction and let them run with it."

"Your sole redeeming decision. Patricia has done things a little differently. Her Academy was created as a space for discussion and debate. She rewarded the wisest with power, and they have done what powerful people always do: it is a nascent university, in the old sense of the word," Thoth said in a warm voice.

"Never really bothered much with conversation beyond stuff I needed."

"Necessity is the mother of invention, Raymond, and you were an exemplary student within your limited field."

"Killing people."

"Indeed. But it encompassed teamwork and coordination during your time in the army, then all sorts of tactics and stratagems as you moved into your personal serial murders."

I kept my face still. He was right, from one perspective. I'd killed enough people to justify the term, but it came down to motive, in my mind at least. My motivation had been money, not some perverse need to hurt or thirst for illusory power. It was all I was good at, and it gave my life meaning.

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"If you join us, I can spare the Academy," I offered.

With his beak, he couldn't smile, but the humour came through in his voice. "A generous offer. But when you've seen it, you would let it be anyway."

"Been chatting with Chronos?"

"No, old Father Time and I do not get along. He steals so much from us all, everything in the end. Ideas cannot die, but they can be forgotten and lost."

"I want this world to continue. Speak to Patricia. She knows I'm here now. There doesn't need to be more fighting."

"You would draw a line down the map?"

"On Earth as it will be in Heaven."

He let out a crowing laugh, raising his beak to the sky as his shoulders shook. "You don't have that power."

"Yet." I reached my hand back into the Veil and pulled on Thoth's domain that was threaded through the phenomena. It wasn't destructive energy, unlike the more primal powers of Winter and Life. My flesh wasn't corrupted by it, but I could feel my cells shifting and multiplying at a higher rate than the surrounding tissue.

I shepherded it through my body to the Source in my chest and sealed it in, forcing yet another locus of power into the ongoing war next to my heart. I released my control slowly, letting the energies merge and mingle gradually.

Assimilation of the Source of The Cycle: 89% complete

It had been creeping up on the long march alongside what would be the Brahmaputra River back home. Even in the tropical climate, snow had been falling as the counter ticked up every week or so. Soon I'd have to take the final step, and this jump of seven per cent from stealing another god's power took me closer to that moment.

Thoth glared at me with narrowed eyes. "How intriguing. Perhaps the rumours of your inevitable failure have been exaggerated."

"I'm going to ascend, Thoth. Save this world and the people in it from your lot just wiping them away when you put the toys back in the box, and take my revenge."

"You wish to punish Aresk?" He laughed at my scowl. "Seriously, though, I would take umbrage with my patron if I were in your shoes. The war god is crafty. I will not assist you, Raymond."

"Will you oppose me?"

"In your final war? Perhaps. The odds are ever changing."

"I wouldn't have seen you as a gambler."

"Gambling is all about knowledge. Counting cards, knowing your opponent's tells, understanding human nature and the previous form of the horse. Good gamblers are very knowledgeable people. I would like to strike a bargain."

Fucking gods. "What bargain?" Glimpse shifted on my head, then hopped down to my shoulder and fixed Thoth with a beady glare.

"Spare my Chosen, as you've done for Consummation."

"You want her locked in storage for all time?"

"Again, you remind me you are still a mortal. Stone wears away over time. So does metal, and wood and bone. Nothing lasts forever. Water, wind, time. There is no escaping it."

Damn it. Maybe I'd acted too hastily in hiding Jeremy's timeless tomb. Was there a secret there? The storage dimensions didn't seem to allow time to pass…

"So not storage?" Glimpse cawed next to my ear, making me wince.

"If you cannot find a point of agreement on her continued freedom, I would prefer that. Her lifespan will be considerable, assuming you don't decide to cut it short. What world would you create if you had hundreds of years of unchallenged power?"

"I don't know," I admitted reluctantly. I'd be able to channel the nomads into less warlike interests, perhaps? But Faye would die… and eventually my children. I'd expect a couple of decades of peace would let us expand our nascent family. How long would my interest and restraint last when I'd seen my grandchildren grow old and die?

"Honesty is a virtue. I doubt it would be as bad as you are imagining, but I would bet a third of my domain that it would be worse than what Patricia envisions. She isn't your enemy, Raymond."

"That's up to her to decide, Thoth. If she chooses to be an enemy, I can't stop her."

"She doesn't know what you've done to Jeremy. She watched you break the last of the Beauties, and she followed your march south closely. She hasn't brought an army to the gates of your kingdom; you have invaded hers."

"Not yet, I haven't."

"Her lands are small and have remained so. Students come and go as they please and take the Academy's wisdom out into the world. She is not expansionist. You had good relations with her Soulbound Servants while you were at sea. There is the possibility of mutual respect and exchange, if you will give it a chance."

"Which side will you be on in the real war?" My voice was flat and cold.

"My own. Threatening an innocent woman to force my hand will not work. Again, mortal thinking. What do you care for a mayfly?"

He was lying about something, I knew that much, but I couldn't figure out exactly what. His interest in sparing Patricia could be due to the power and energy he had sunk into her. The prospect of another Source falling into my hands might tip the balance when I took my war to the heavens.

"Nothing, but that isn't comparing apples with apples."

"To us, all mortals are little more than ants, boy."

"Then one more or less won't matter."

"If you intend to keep this sandpit going indefinitely, you will need the Academy. Think on it, Raymond." He cocked his head to one side. "You will be an interesting addition to the Pantheon."

A portal opened, and he stepped backwards into his own world without another word. Glimpse flapped his wings and fluffed his feathers on my shoulder.

"Do me a favour, crow? Keep an eye on this place for a while? I need to go do something."

What have you decided?

"That stone left alone won't last."

The bird took wing and circled up above me, passing back and forth across the Veil. I imagined the confusion caused by whatever kind of alarm was going off in Patricia's inner fortress and smiled as I opened a portal back to that riverside I had known so well at the beginning.

I levered the rock I'd buried the storage bead under out of the way, tossing it aside and jumping down to scrabble in the thick clay until my fingers landed on a familiar stone.

I walked out onto the ice and stamped a foot to shatter it, dropping up to my waist in the frigid waters, rinsing both my trousers and the bead off. I held up the glistening stone and grimaced. Where the hell could I hide this thing?

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