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Everyone immediately adopted a combative stance—which in Sherwin’s case, meant fleeing around the corner of the building. The rest of them readied spells, weapons, and shields, both succubi vanishing from sight.
“Oh, please.”
The goddess’s voice was derision itself; she made a single, languid flicking motion with one forefinger. Natchua and Xyraadi’s conjured infernal spells were instantly snuffed out, Jonathan and Hesthri’s arcane weapons and shield charms simply vanished from existence, and Melaxyna and Kheshiri both popped right back into view, looking stunned as if they’d each just been punched between the eyes.
“My armistice is with the Pantheon, governing my relations to them and their followers,” Elilial lectured. “It is worth keeping in mind that you assholes don’t work for any god or cult. I can do whatever I like with you, and no one will be able to call me oathbreaker.”
Natchua drew power for a catastrophic burst of pure destruction which surely would have caved in half the house, had Elilial not effortlessly neutralized it before it could form properly.
“By the same token,” she went on, “I should think it clear by now that you’d all be well and truly suffering if I’d come here for revenge. When I said I wanted a word with you, Natchua, that wasn’t a coy euphemism. It is time—past time—for you and I to have a polite conversation. In private.”
“You’re not taking her anywhere,” Jonathan grated, stepping in front of her.
“You’re sweet, Arquin,” Elilial said condescendingly. “Don’t worry, I’ll bring her right back.”
Before he or Natchua could say anything else, their whole surroundings changed.
Natchua spun in a circle, conjuring a nascent shadowbolt, but just held it for the moment; this time, the goddess didn’t interfere. She was now alone with Elilial, which was of course her most immediate concern.
“What have you done with—”
“Absolutely nothing,” the horned goddess said with a vague little smile of amusement. “They’re standing right where they were, freaking out about you. It’s we who’ve moved. Welcome to the grand entrance hall of Leduc Manor!”
It was definitely the entryway of a wealthy house in an Imperial style; Natchua had only ever seen it with the ceiling, floor, and most of the walls collapsed, but with the resemblance pointed out she could see the familiar shapes of its boundaries, windows, and the grand staircase sweeping up to a second-floor landing. This place was fabulously rich, draped with heavy velvet curtains, exquisite paintings, ornately embroidered carpets strategically placed upon the polished hardwood floor and marble busts of various members of the House. Being used to Leduc Manor in its current state, it was easy to forget that House Leduc had once had a great deal of money. Actually, still did; it was just that Sherwin didn’t care enough about anything to maintain his home.
“As it was, of course,” Elilial mused, her hooves clopping on the floorboards as she paced slowly across the hall, inspecting the furnishings. “Don’t worry, we have not traveled in time. The last thing I need after this day’s work is Vemnesthis climbing up my ass. He just might be the worst of the lot, but at least he’s never interfered with me personally, and that’s how I prefer it. No, this is…a little space all our own, where we won’t be interrupted.”
From which there would be no escape, she did not have to add. Natchua slowly straightened from her battle-ready crouch and let the shadowbolt fizzle.
“Well, fine then, here we are. Spit it out.”
Elilial was studying a painting of a supercilious-looking human of Stalweiss stock, her back to her guest. “I’m not sure how much Arachne understands about the nature of gods, but I know there are important things she’s not told you. You know, when we killed off the Elder Bastards, we weren’t even trying to become gods? Well, most of us, anyway; I have my suspicions about Vidius. The thing was done by changing the rules of godhood itself. Adding new limits and boundaries which the Elders were already well outside, and rendering them suddenly unable to exist. I told you and the rest of those anachronisms about the importance of aspects today.”
She finally turned around, favoring Natchua with a bland little smile. Natchua just stared icily back.
“It is also true, and this is the part they’ve really worked to keep quiet, that gods are influenced by the consciousness of anyone who draws on them for power. A single worshiper channeling divine magic won’t make any impression on a deity during their lifetime, but a whole society? That’s another matter. We tend to…drift. Change, evolve, subject to the beliefs of those who believe in us.”
Natchua frowned slightly in thought, beginning to be interested in spite of herself.
“Of course,” Elilial continued, “there’s an important counter to this effect which is necessary for us to retain some hold on who we are: paladins. Individuals imbued with a potent spark of a god’s essence have a much more significant impact on us. By choosing paladins with care, we avoid the subtle influence of the masses.”
“Most gods don’t even have paladins,” Natchua objected. “Themynra doesn’t. Vidius only just started… Salyrene hasn’t in a century.”
“Avei, Omnu, and Salyrene call their mortal anchors ‘paladins’ and send them out to be front-and-center in world events, yes. I promise you, though, every god who still exists and hasn’t gone utterly mad or been twisted beyond recognition has done so by having someone in whom they’ve entrusted a fraction of their identity. The ones who keep the details secret are probably smarter. Smarter than I was, anyway.” She turned back toward the side of the chamber, now staring sightlessly at the window. “Mine… Mine were my daughters.”
Natchua drew a deep breath slowly, connecting those dots.
“So perhaps you better understand the state I was in,” Elilial said after a pause. “My anchors slain, except for one whose memories were wiped away, attached to a blundering quasi-pacifist and developing a severe resentment toward me. My core believers, first whittled down to a fraction of their former strength during a years-long process that put them under constant tension and terror, and then finally cast into a place where I could feel no connection to them at all. You have never known me as…myself. Just a shamefully fumbling thing, deprived of most of what made me who I am, not yet aware how defeated I already was, awkwardly careening toward an inevitable catastrophe.
“Very little of what I have done in the last few years can even be counted as cunning, honestly. That whole scheme with you and Chase… Well, I suppose it wasn’t a terrible idea, strategically speaking, but it’s not at all how I have preferred to operate all these years. Reckless, unnecessarily cruel. And right at the end, there, marching demons into Ninkabi under cover of the invasion. I could’ve ended that in Hell, you know, it would have been much simpler to turn my forces on the invaders gathering around those hellgates before they opened. But no, in my desperation, I used such a last-minute brute-force measure that even my own high priest argued with me. Poor Embras… A better servant than I have deserved, of late. Arachne tried to warn me, a couple of years ago in Sarasio, but I was already too far gone to listen. I’m afraid I got a lot worse before I got better.”
“Oh, yes, of course. I see it all now,” Natchua sneered. “None of this has been your fault! You were just crazy from magical bullshit. I’m sure if you go explain it all politely to the Pantheon they’ll understand.”
“Mmmmmm,” Elilial hummed, pursing her lips. “It’s tricky, you know? A god is a vast intelligence, but also a limited one, and one of the few things we cannot clearly see is just how much agency we have. How much of what I do is truly mine? For my part, at least, I prefer to err on the side of taking responsibility.”
“How noble and self-effacing you are.”
“Oh, my reasons are cynical.” She shifted slightly to give Natchua a wry smile sidelong. “When agency and control is at a premium, you have to seize whatever you can. Blaming others for your mistakes can make you feel better, but it keeps you in the role of a victim. It’s better by far to assume responsibility, even for things that aren’t strictly your fault. A failure is an opportunity to improve yourself, if you own it.”
“Thanks for the advice. We done here?”
“I’m offering you explanations, not excuses. I just thought you deserved to understand why some of the things that I’ve done to you happened. It isn’t meant to justify anything.” She turned to face Natchua fully, and to the drow’s surprise, bowed. “With all that said, here’s the truth: I really fucked you over, and you didn’t deserve it. What I did to you was an entirely hypocritical abrogation of my own principles, and I’m ashamed to have used you and your buddy to cause such wanton destruction, especially while I’m always spouting off about the evils of the Pantheon. It probably helps nothing, but here it is: I’m sorry, Natchua.”
“I don’t need an apology from you,” Natchua spat. “As far as I’m concerned, I got mine when I demolished your cult and made you publicly bend your neck to Vesk. That was more satisfying than anything you could possibly say.”
The goddess regarded her in silence, her face expressionless.
Natchua folded her arms. “So you can go ahead and smite me now. Like I told you in Ninkabi, nothing you do to me is gonna un-kick your ass.”
“I have absolutely no intention of harming you, Natchua,” Elilial said mildly. “Ever. I brought you here to explain a few things, including that. Have you ever given any thought to the nature of cunning?”
Natchua threw up her hands, turned, and flounced over to a low velvet-upholstered settee with gilded accents, then flopped herself down onto it and stared mulishly at the goddess.
“People generally have the wrong idea about cunning, and I won’t lie: I’ve gotten great mileage out of that fact.” Elilial began to pace slowly up and down in front of the stairs, the sound of her hooves on the floor alternating as she walked off and on the strip of carpet running toward the door. “Talk about cunning and most people envision some mastermind pulling strings from the shadows, always staying ten steps ahead of everyone else and controlling every factor. That’s a complete fantasy, of course. Absolute control is a laughably preposterous idea. If a plan has more than three steps, they cease to be steps and become items on a wish list. Even if you reduce those notions to a believable level of possibility, that’s describing strategy, not cunning. That’s not what keeps the fox ahead of the hunters.
“Cunning is the quality of not only thinking more deviously than one’s rivals, but doing so quickly, while always in motion ahead of them. It is strategy and duplicitousness coupled with reaction time, the ability to execute a plan by reflex without having to actually form it first. A person is cunning when their instinctive response to a threat outmaneuvers everyone else’s carefully-laid schemes.”
She paused in the middle of the carpet, then turned and came back a few steps to lean against the endcap of the banister, regarding Natchua with a knowing little smile.
“I would say that right now, in the world, there are two people who most exemplify the concept of cunning, apart from myself, and I regret to acknowledge that neither is even in my cult. Archpope Justinian is the perfect exemplar of the more cautious brand. That man has meticulously arranged an entire continent as a game board to suit his ends, positioning himself to defeat every opponent who arises before they realize they’re playing.”
“Sounds like that deep-thinking strategy you were just saying doesn’t count as cunning,” Natchua replied, affecting a bored tone.
“On the contrary, that is exactly why Justinian has outfoxed all the countless people attempting to do the same thing,” the goddess said with a wink. “While they labor to set everything up just so, he patiently and quietly watches the whole, constantly reacting to every development as it happens and gently nudging things where he wants them to go. Not overreaching, careful not to betray his hand, but always watching, always acting. While they scheme and try to plan too many steps ahead, he remains eternally in motion. Some of them are players, many only pieces; he has established himself as the board itself.”
“Why don’cha marry the guy if you love him so much?”
“Oh, you know how it is,” Elilial replied, shrugging airily. “So often one finds oneself at cross-purposes with fascinating people and thus sadly deprived of the opportunity to befriend them. Plus, there is also the nagging little detail that he murdered my daughters.”
For the space of three words, she made her full presence felt, a psychic pressure of darkness and hellfire that conveyed unfathomable depths of rage without putting it on full display. Natchua warily sat upright, gathering her focus to form another spell if necessary.
Immediately, though, the moment passed, and Elilial straightened up and resumed her languid pacing.
“Then there’s the other kind,” the goddess went on, “the cunning of the fox. The aggressive kind that runs and pounces and eternally confounds both its pursuers and prey. I confess a personal fondness for that manifestation of my aspect; it’s a lot more reminiscent of how I used to be, back in the day when we were fighting the Elders. The fun kind of cunning that mostly looks like insanity or stupidity until you happen to notice in hindsight that this one particular maniacal idiot always seems to come out on top somehow. Every daffy thing they do inexplicably creates exploitable opportunities for themselves, and unmanageable chaos for everyone else.”
She paused in strolling away, glancing back over her shoulder with a smirk.
“I would say the person who most exemplifies that quality is you, Natchua.”
For one beat of silence, Natchua gaped at her.
Then she burst out laughing so hard she slumped over on the settee. Elilial turned around fully, watching patiently while Natchua rolled about, clutching her ribs, and finally tumbled off onto the floor.
“Yes, yes, everyone’s been telling you how reckless and capricious you are,” the goddess said with wry fondness, watching her. “It’s not even that they’re wrong, but let’s be real: here you are, having outmaneuvered the very goddess of cunning herself. You’re not the first to have pulled that off in eight thousand years, or even in the last five, but it places you in very rarefied company.”
“You are so full of it,” Natchua wheezed.
“I’ve quite enjoyed backtracking to check up on your progress,” Elilial said, grinning now. “Part of me regrets that I neglected to be watching you at the time, but it all worked out; obviously if I’d known what you were up to I’d have put a stop to it, and then we would both be thoroughly screwed. But you just keep doing these absurd things and then, somehow, winning! Recruiting Hesthri and Jonathan Arquin was a move nobody with an ounce of classical strategic sense would have made, and look how well that paid off. Releasing Melaxyna, likewise; everybody knows not to mess about with succubi, and you should know it better than most. But you trusted your instincts, and here you are. You brought Kheshiri to heel, Natchua. My own Wreath failed to do that; the last time she reared up on this plane I had to deal with her myself after she caused my cult nearly as much damage as you just did. And how did you subdue the most infamously wily succubus in existence?”
Natchua snorted and sat upright, leaning back against the settee. “That? I beat the shit out of her. You call that cunning?”
“You beat the shit out of her,” Elilial repeated, enunciating slowly, “which is something nobody would think to try on a succubus. Everyone knows it doesn’t work at best, and is counterproductive at worst. But you found a way to make such an overblown, dramatic production of whooping her ass that she as close to fell head-over-heels in love with you as that creature is capable of feeling about anyone. True, we’ve yet to see how long you can maintain your grip on her leash, but that promises to be just as much of a hoot.”
The mirth had slid from Natchua’s face now, replaced by an increasingly uncertain frown. It was Elilial’s turn to fold her arms, again grinning down at her and slouching against the banister.
“Duchess Malivette Dufresne is as good a schemer as they come, and she had a deft web woven around you before you even saw her fingers moving. And it all fell apart in one moment because it just never occurred to her that a stateless practitioner of forbidden magic on the run would even consider making herself a public figure. One little speech, and you pulled her fangs harder than anybody has since her University days.
“You’re the real deal, Natchua. Your issue is not that you’re stupid; I wouldn’t even go so far as to say that you’re not crazy. What you are is crazy like a fox. You’ve spent the last month proving it at the expense of people who are by any objective measure a lot smarter than you. That is what I like to see.”
Slowly, Natchua dragged herself upright, a knot forming in the pit of her stomach. “Now, hold on a second. When you said you needed a… A paladin, or anchor, to stabilize your personality…”
Elilial’s grin widened.
“You seem a lot more stable now than you did in the…”
The goddess raised one eyebrow.
Natchua brandished an accusing finger at her.
“No. Fuck you! Don’t even fucking think about it, you sick old sack of lies!”
“Well, it seems I owe you another apology,” Elilial said with a sigh that failed to sound repentant. “I came here to notify you, not ask your permission. I had my little moment of clarity back there in the cathedral when I realized exactly how thoroughly I’d just been thwarted by a pesky drow I had dismissed as an overreaching idiot doomed to destroy herself. I finally realized exactly what had happened to me, and what I needed to do to repair myself. So I did it, right then and there.”
“No! Absolutely not!”
“Well, the least I can say is, it’s working,” the goddess said, her expression finally sobering. “At the time, it didn’t even occur to me that you might deserve to know. But you’ve made me remember what it’s like to live under the heel of oppressive deities, to need to fight back. I would probably have been better off leaving you in ignorance, strategically speaking. It’s just that… A point comes when no amount of strategy substitutes for ethics.”
“You can just fucking undo it right now, then!” Natchua raged.
Slowly, Elilial shook her horned head. “I’m sorry, but no. I was unraveling, Natchua. I was most of the way into my transformation into an unheeding monster, and worse, an idiot. I can’t go back to that. This time I will admit it up front: I am doing this to you without your consent, because I need to. And whatever I have to do to make it up, I will. But I don’t have a choice.”
“I fucking hate you.”
“Fair,” the goddess acknowledged. “Look at it this way: I am handing you the literal key to my fate. You can definitely find a way to use this in your revenge against me. If you decide that’s what you still want to do.”
“So what, you think I’m going to lead your new Black Wreath? Fuck you, I’m not helping you.”
Elilial tilted her head to one side, considering. “I think…I would rather you didn’t. If that’s what you decide you want, I guess we can revisit it, but you’re really not the type I look for in a cultist, my dear. Anyway, no; I don’t need anything else from you, Natchua. Your life is your own, now. Live it in the way that seems best for you. That is all I need you to do, and I’ll accept whatever repercussions that has for me. You could do a lot of good in the world, or a lot of harm. Or if you just wanna help Sherwin rebuild his mansion and settle in with your little harem, you can do that, too. The world is your oyster. And speaking of that, I guess I’d better send you back to the gang before they panic too hard and do something unfortunate.”
“Don’t you dare—”
“If you ever find yourself in need of help, Natchua, call on me. I certainly owe you.”
“Wait!”
Unsurprisingly, she didn’t wait. As before, there was no discernible effect of transition; she was just suddenly back where she had been, in the dark outside the ruins of Leduc Manor, surrounded by her agitated loved ones and Kheshiri. This time, with no demon goddess in sight.
“Natchua!” Hesthri bawled, immediately throwing her arms around the elf’s neck and clinging to her. Jonathan was a split second behind, wrapping them both up in a hug, and despite her own agitation Natchua deliberately sank herself into their grasp. She desperately needed it right at that moment. Somewhere off to the side, Xyraadi was babbling excitedly in Glassian.
“Okay, that’s enough,” Kheshiri exclaimed after a span of seconds that was not nearly enough. “What happened? Mistress, what did she do to you? Are we going after the old bitch for Round 2?”
“Veth’na alaue,” Natchua mumbled into Hesthri’s cheek, finally raising her head to stare at the sky between the nearby pines. “Shit. Fuck a fucking… Okay, okay, don’t panic. I can use this. It’s like she said, there has to be a way I can use this against…”
“Natch, are you okay?” Jonathan asked insistently.
She was still staring at nothing, muttering to herself. “I know, I know it’s not what any of you signed on for, it’s basically the worst case… Okay, this is not a crisis. I know there has to be something…”
“Hey.” He finally released her, pulling back enough to raise her chin with one hand and bring her eyes to his. “Natchua, whatever happened, we’re here. We’ve got your back, and we will get through this. Together.”
“Yes,” Hesthri agreed, still hugging her close and pausing just long enough to press a kiss against her cheek. “Just tell us what she did, and we will deal with it.”
“Talk to us, mon amie,” Xyraadi agreed. “We are still in this fight! What did she do to you?”
Slowly, Natchua dragged her gaze around the group, making eye contact with each of them in the darkness.
“Apparently,” she said at last, “I’m the new Hand of Elilial.”
The wind whistled through the pines; in the near distance, an owl hooted disconsolately. At least there were no wolves howling.
Then Kheshiri began to laugh. In seconds she was screeching in absolute hysteria, folding herself to the ground to pound weakly at the driveway with one fist.
Melaxyna grabbed at her own face with clawed fingers, dragging them slowly down to her chin in a gesture of exasperated despair.
“Natchua, no!”
The Gods are Bastards 
I said at one point that Natchua wasn’t going to get much screen time after this book, but there’s this pesky phenomenon where actions have consequences and it turns out she has a role to play in Book 16, too, though a smaller one.
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It’s a bugger when your characters develop lives and motivations of their own, isn’t it?
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NATCHUA YES NATCHUA YES NATCHUA YES NATCHUA YE-
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Well, my theory was that Natchua and/or Chase had been made her hands when she gave them her knowledge, but that works too.
Also, Natchua yes.
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Glad to have confirmation that Elilial used her daughters as her paladins.
Also, that’s the second god to imply that it might have been due to Vidius’ meddling that their plans to wreak ascension went awry. Though, Eserion did say it was a bit of a stretch. It just makes me wonder who the hell Vidius was before they ascended, especially considering the fact that he managed to save them when Rauzon cast them out of reality.
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**managed to save the Valkyries.
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I wonder what implications that will have for Gabriel.
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Do Elder Gods have paladins? I’m wondering how some of the elder gods managed to survive whatever the Pantheon did to change the nature of godhood.
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They didn’t need one, they ran on a different system. They had no followers anyway and their religion was a scam.
Paladins were only necessary after the renegades changed the rules and ascended themselves in an unexpected and flawed way.
That doesn’t mean they didn’t have creations infused with their spark… Naiya certainly does. But she only needed it when the era of the Elder Gods ended.
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The Dryads, (and the Valkyries and Kitsune) are Naiya’s.
Scyllith probably uses her priestesses, but we don’t know much about her.
Araneid might use Tellwryn.
There are no other elder gods still around.
Naphthene is implied to not have a paladin, (but is covered by the “hasn’t gone utterly mad or been twisted beyond recognition” qualifier.)
There are lots of theories about who the Paladin of most of the rest of them are, (probably Prin for Eserion, but it’s not confirmed. Shaath used to use his huntsmen when they were loners and not a cult, but hasn’t had any since Angthinor screwed him over. Ingvar might be his Paladin now.)
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“nAtChUa, YeS!”
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Poor Antonio. Natchua is more cunning than him, and he actually made an Offering of Cunning to Elilial once. Though he had the idea of saving the Wreath, so he’s not all bad. I so want to see Elilial talk to the Wreath after their rescue. Imagine her apologising to Embras (#BestCultLeader).
And now we have at least both Lily and Vesk against the Archpope, who is still, as always, a manipulative genius. I wonder how much Lily knows about him.
And so *that’s* what happened when Elilial suddenly changed her demeanor. Pretty interesting. Is Natchua going to get special demonic powers now that she’s a paladin? At least she’s supposedly going to be left alone, she’s just an emotional anchor. Natchua, yes!
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Elilial would probably prefer Antonio, but he already is priest for another god.
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He might be a little too hung-up on morality and resisting and/or sabotaging the corrupt systems for her. He’s also a lot saner, more methodical, and reliant on others for his ideas and plans than Natchua is.
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Elilial may well have preferred Chase before he went and got himself spider boxed. A good schemer always has a backup plan.
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Sweet is too actually smart to match Elilial’s preferred definition of ‘cunning’
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Natchua, Yes!
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“I promise you, though, every god who still exists and hasn’t gone utterly mad or been twisted beyond recognition has done so by having someone in whom they’ve entrusted a fraction of their identity.”
Ok, so…
Confirmed:
Omni – Toby
Avei – Trissiny
Vidius – Gabe
Ellilial – Natchua
Presumed:
Khar – Aresk
Eserion – Principia
Has Shaath taken Ingvar as his hand? It would make sense, with Ingvar having stabilised Shaath to a degree.
Salyrene may have reverted to not using her Hands as public figures after the disaster of Magnan the Enchanter.
Is Arachne Vemnesthis’ Hand? Or alternatively, did part of the method by which she killed Sorash involve usurpation of the status of his Hand?
Themynra, Verniselle, Izara, Nemitoth, Ryneas?
Presumably Naiya’s are her Dryads, as Ellilial used her daughters.
Napthene, Ouvis and possibly Scylith have none, as did Shaath until Ingvar
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I missed Vesk. Whose Hand I presume to be that super-irritating young Bard Kelsey.
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Kelsey? Do you mean Ami (IIRC)? The one who talks with every other word italicized? Or am I forgetting about someone?
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Vesk has several bards as his hands. Hidden among all the other bards.
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Would Vemnethis need a hand? He has no mortal followers, right?
Maybe Themynra’s hand is the Queen Arkasia? Honestly, I have no clue who it’d be otherwise since we don’t have a clear picture of how her faith is structured.
I’d expect Ryneas, Izara, Verniselle and Nemitoth to have been using the Vesk method of not telling your paladin that they’re a paladin. Though during Trissiny’s calling Avei said that gods who hadn’t called paladins before would be doing so and we’ve only got Gabriel to show for it so I’d expect one of this group to do it.
Salyrene has been deep in mourning since Khar’s “death” so it’s possible she’s gone the Vesk method, but she’s such a show off that I feel it’s almost guaranteed we get a dramatic Salyrene chooses a new paladin scene eventually.
We do know that way back in the day all of Shaath’s huntsmen served as paladins before Angthinor did his thing. I wonder if making Ingvar his hand would have any negative mental blowback to Ingvar, seeing that Shaath doesn’t really have his shit together most of the time currently.
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I have decided in my headcanon that Hershel is one of Sal’s anchors. Devoted follower, swore in her name (which was rare if I remember) and actually followed through, impressed her in the tower (even if he has some stuff she thinks he needs to improve on), and has been helping deal with paladin stuff for a while now.
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Didn’t Shaath spread the influence across all the Huntsmen (originally a much smaller group than other cults) which was how he got trapped into being Sorash’s replacement?
Vesk uses all of the senior bards so there doesn’t seem to be a limit to the number of Hands per cult.
I’m thinking Salyrene may have stepped away from a traditional Hand after her last one screwed up so spectacularly.
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Napthene gets around needing a paladin by actively refusing any sort of worship. There is no cult with ideas on what she should or shouldn’t do that influences her.
In fact the only consistent thing that anyone thinks about Napthene is that she is independent and uncaring of mortals. You leave her an offering because you don’t want to offend her, but you don’t ask for blessings because everybody knows she does what she wants. That kind of reputation for a God is basically the only way to actually ensure they can retain their independence.
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I think that really stretches the definition of cunning to be honest. And I think it’s definitely a stretch to say Natchua is a master of cunning. But from a certain perspective, I guess it’s fine as long as Elilial believes it. Assuming Elilial was actually telling the full truth, a dubious assumption, then Natchua wasn’t the worst choice she could make. Not the best certainly, but overall not a bad idea.
That said, I’m not really interested in Natchua anymore. At least for me, her character worked specifically because she could ignore the long term consequences of her actions in favor of short term planning. Now that that is no longer the case, her fumbling her way through things will be a lot less interesting.
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The description of Lily the kid seems to match Natchua quite well. It’s the kind of cunning she WANTS to be, and if it’s idiotic, hey, it’s definiely still less so than the way she’d been acting.
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If we accept some of Elilial’s story as truth (that she was damaged by the death of her daughters/Hands) then it may well be that she is running out of options. Natchua is the best of limited choices and, with the right nudges, is now a wonderful tool to get revenge on whoever (presumably Justinian) killed her daughters. Whatever else Elilial had on her to-do list is now well below revenge.
Natchua doesn’t care about her new job in any meaningful way so I see no reason she would suddenly care about the future. The only difference is she is no longer waiting to surprise Elilial, she can work against her in the open.
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Does Ellilial grant access to the divine? I don’t think we’ve ever seen any of the Wreath call on it under her auspices (doing so under the guise of being a follower of another god doesn’t count).
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I can’t wait to see Natchua casting divine spells, and people giving her the hairy-eye over it because combining that with Scyllith magic is something the Scyllithene Priests are known for.
Of course Elilial could have been lying about all of this, to torture the heck out of Natchua in the most vague and irritating way possible. Considering how infuriatingly annoying a torture that is I’m starting to wonder if maybe Elilial didn’t tap a little bit of Tellwyrn.
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Divine spells? Why would she?
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Because Elilial is a goddess and thus Natchua has access to divine magic now. The infernal comes from Scyllith and has little do with Elilial.
The divine can do a lot of things the infernal can not… and it’s an excellent contingency if someone has the means to counter a warlock. They’ll be so surprised if she suddenly reveals access to divine magic, too.
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Hmm.
She’d have to learn from someone.
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Ah hah! And so natch does become the paladin of ollial 🙂
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This… is truly beautiful. I’m glad to see she started with an apology, then continued with an apology, then ended with an apology. THAT’s the proper way to do this.
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Also: the only thing Natchua has left to do is sign up for Avei’s adventurer recruitment center, you know the one that’s led by Eserion’s paladin.
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Mel: okay, I’ve managed to temper most of Natchua self-destructive tendencies and set her up with an awesome support system of two other individuals. I think I can play the mysterious mentor role and disappear in the night with no warning.
Natchua: becomes the first public-ish Hand of Elilial.
Mel: ‘Incoherent screams of frustration’
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Public? Why?
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Thanks for the chapter, I love the resolution but you have to reveal some of the “special benefits” she will get as a result of the hand status. We have heard a lot about Trissinys ability’s and personality changes and Prin doesn’t seem to be able to fail when doing Esserions work.
Will she suddenly be able to cast infernal spells that only demons can handle safely? Does Elilial have access to some form of divine energy like Themynra that she can share and if so what can that do?
We do hear that mind magic is the providence of divine magic but we haven’t seen any except for Scyllit herself yet. Although some of the things Mary and Khadizroth do seems a lot like mind magic.
Whatever, I love your writing and will be happy with whatever we get.
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The way I see it, fae magic is more about emotions and therapy, so it’s physiological and something that requires attention / interaction through not fully magical means.
Divine magic, on the other hand, is more about direct interventions. For example, it seems pretty easy to use divine magic to directly control a demon, even if temporarily. I hesitate to list Vidian magic as well, but it could perhaps be an example as well.
At the same time, it’s been noted in universe that mastery of a school of magic usually leads to the caster not needing flashy enchantments and being able to achieve nearly any effects with their chosen school of magic. That’s probably why Natchua was able to erase Thumper’s memory, when that seems the kind of thing that falls under the purview of divine magic (perhaps Justinian uses some form of that as well? Though in his POV chapters it’s always noted how he uses mainly physical means to manipulate people). So that could explain why powerful fae casters, like Kuriwa and Kad, achieve results similar to what’s expected of divine magic.
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Natch has, yes!
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Wow can you just delete my typoed comment. I’m feeling a lot less mirth upon autocorrect hurting me there.
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…fuck you, Elilial. Even when you’re trying to apologize, you just can’t help but screw people over, can you? Pretty much the only redeeming factor here is that Elilial basically gave Natchua carte blanche to screw her over in return, if she can pull it off. That is, perhaps, the most vulnerable she’s ever willingly been. Nonetheless, fuck Elilial.
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Is she screwed over?
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At least Kheshiri is amused!
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Confirmation that Justinian was behind what the failed possession of human girls by Ellial’s archdemon daughters, the very thing Arachne was investigating in the first chapter of this whole novel. We always suspected it had to be him, but I don’t think we ever got in-story confirmation before. Quite a trick to thwart the will of a goddess. There’s still a quesion of how he pulled it off.
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A nitpick: This is confirmation that Elilial believes it was Justinian. We don’t know why she believes it yet. For all we know the dimensional firewall that just ate a few Wreath messed in the transfer without anybody consciously trying to make that happen (other than the people that made/maintained it in the first place).
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Hmm, yes. Could she be wrong? Maybe Justinian just wants her to think it was him..we know he is able to influcence gods’ perceptions.
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I think she believes that because Vesk told her? Didn’t they have a deal a few chapters ago?
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Well he has a book titled “how to manipulate the bastards for dummies.” The trick is to live in their collective blind spot and manipulate their followers into widening the blind spot.
Eventually he can push the public opinion around into a bubble around what he’s doing so he can do whatever he wants unimpeded.
Of course Elial’s whole thing is beating those kinds of schemes so he had to get rid of her first.
What he didn’t count on is Arachne having a brain and being on the Gods’ side. Her actions keep slowing him down (for example by putting a stop to the romance columnist schtick). I bet she did something to get Eserion and Vesk to notice the bubble back when they did so.
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I post one more time! Just to say, like him or not, and I don’t, I gotta admit: President Donald Trump is a spectacular real-world example of the kind of loose-cannon cunning that Ellial is talking about.
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No, he’s not.
Sorry but the guy is simply a dumb, egocentric, racist, moronic manchild who thinks he can get away with all kinds of crimes because so far it always worked for him.
If he was actually cunning then he wouldn’t struggle so much all the time.
What he is … is rich. Or at least he’s perceived as rich. (I kind of doubt the guy is or ever was a billionaire.)
His money gives him allies (I hesitate to call them friends) who will fix his many mistakes for him, if he was all by himself he wouldn’t have ever gotten this far.
Trump’s successes are the results of the people using him for their own profit. He’s tolerated by them at best.
Now, if you are looking for a cunning politician, then take Boris Johnson as an example. His clumsy idiot routine is just a farce and he’s very cleverly engineered the search results about himself to show only his lovable side instead of his actual errors.
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You’ve been watching too much CNN. Stop that, it’s bad for your health.
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He’s being propped up by a guy like that. Look up Rupert Murdoch. the one (foreign, if that matters to you) person who’s been dictating everything the right says and does for half a century.
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I was so hoping that this was where it was going. Thank you, Webb.
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Having just re-read this, it strikes me that this step is *absolutely bloody obviously* what Ellilial should have done all along.
You’re a rebel goddess, fighting against your former comrades. Of *course* you need a Hand that’s dedicated to fighting you herself. How else are you going to keep yourself sharp?
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Maybe she could “keep herself sharp” by recruiting competent help. All significant achievements, and most less-significant ones, required lots of help along the way at some point. Humans are a herd species, and the non-human sapients in this setting generally don’t seem to be very different on that count.
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Having competent help is not cunning, and judging by the snippets of demon society we have seen it might run up against some laws of infernal magic/hell, too. Ellilal is not really the goddess of demons – she ursuped that role from scyllith, and there is probably a whole lot of feedback / remnants of scylliths setup affecting her. Now, taking over hell was definitively a good idea – having scyllith in charge there would be much, much worse, but it was probably not good for her sanity. Being worshipped by a whole plane of demons must be even more disorienting that having your whole cult being taken over by a lying prophet. And we see what shape shaath is in….
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There is might actually be a really inspired choice for a hand of Ellilal. Big picture wise it seems that Ellilial basically stomped off in a huff after the elder war for some reason, took over hell in a cunning coup/ desperate gamble both depowering scyllith and gaining an independent power base. If we believe her she has been dealing with the backlash of becoming the god of hell ever since, and while having your daughters as anchors might seem like a good (cunning?) idea short term i don’t think people growing up in hell will be the most reliable way to stay sane / compatible with most of society.
Now here we have Natchua:
-has positive and constructive relationships with multiple different demons
-is already working on fixing the infernal aggression problem (at least she is looking at the aspect affecting succubi, what hethlaxes do, and she sees what xraadi does)
-arch warlock, and not as scarred by this school as other people who are studying it. Usually people / organizations who know a lot about infernal magic are influenced by the laws of infernal magic / hell that scyllith set up. She isn’t
-already has a public reputation as a “good” warlock
-considering that she is a _teenage_ _drow_ _archwarlock_ who hangs out with two succubi there are an amazing number of people who are willing to trust her
-really dislikes the “bad” aspects of ellilial, hell, infernal magic
If the feedback between a god and their hand is as strong as we are starting to suspect / have seen in already (shaath, omnu) natchua might well be on her way to completely restructuring hell, and wiping the ellilial she knew out of her existence.
(though i am pretty sure i want to be far away when ellial starts to make the pantheon go “no, ellilial, no”…)
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So, in a way it could be said that Elilial has been brute forcing things because the only anchor she had left was the one of her daughters infamous for such behaviour which could only be partially offset by the dwindeling number of Black Wreath?
And now, in a way, Elilial has surrendered herself to Natchua to a much greater degree, than her public display in front of the other adventurers could possibly even begin to suggest?
*ponders*
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Friday’s chapter may be up sometime Friday rather than the usual midnight release. While the last couple weeks of relative productivity were nice, I’ve swung back down into a depressive phase and I’m having a lot of trouble writing tonight. Depending how it goes, I may need to break and finish the chapter in the morning.
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honestly, my fave bit was the last line. It’s become quite the running gag, far better than “gnomes rule” or similar examples, and the long buildup made for a hilarious payoff. GJ!
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