I spent a few hours with Kacy that day. We talked softly, made love once more, stopping only when we could neither stand the discomfort from our swollen clits. She made love easily, enthusiastic, genuinely eager to participate. It was like a very heavy weight lifted from me, finding that Kacy had not only consented but fell in love with what we did. I worried that love might encompass more than just sharing our bodies, but in that moment, it was one of the less-pressing concerns I had.

She fell asleep and I tested her spark. Now that I understood what it did, I could find ways to study it without triggering its mechanism. I felt more confident than ever that she couldn't touch it herself. There was no handle on that side of the door, so to speak. I did my best to learn how to recreate what it did, but, for once, it was so complicated and difficult that I didn't fully succeed that day. A trap like that could come in very handy, if nothing else it would buy us time at some point.

I projected enough to check in on the others in my hideout. Tristan, Theresa, and Abby were sleeping. Dad was talking with Molly. I could feel most of the others in various stages of drowsiness or sleep. I had, since awakening each spark-holder, been checking in regularly with them to ensure their natural panic responses were not becoming significant. It was only natural for any of them to be frightened, and they all were, or disoriented and distraught. The situation was both surreal and claustrophobic. I'd taken them all, one at a time or in small groups, to the sanctuary so that they could feel the ease that place brought and to try to avoid any of them becoming too confined to stay sane and relatively docile. I admit that I was also, in a sense, doping them to dull the sorts of reactions which would lead to trapped-animal emotions. Between the exhaustion from testing controls of their sparks and my opiate-like mental projections, none of them had shown any significant signs of struggling against their current situation.

It made me feel a little icky, to be honest, like I was no better than The Paladin or any other power-wielder who controlled those without the means to resist. I knew I was doing only the bare minimum to maintain order, but I also knew it was not much of justification to say that only I knew best what should be done with them, or what shade of reality the spark-holders should have unadulterated access to in any given moment.

Tera? Dad sent the impression I knew referred to me.

Hmm?

Come?

I blinked to him and saw that he and Molly were sitting idly together on a couch. It was only a bit of a surprise to see that they were holding hands, though Molly jumped when I appeared and withdrew herself to a respectable separation from my father.

"We were wondering," Dad told me, "if you might wish to bring us to the sanctuary for a bit? Molly and I... we could both use a little break."

"Of course," I replied, feeling a little weary myself, having recently making love with Kacy, leaving the girl to slumber, fresh from giving me her virginity.

"We've been comparing notes," Molly said evenly, "and we might have figured out something important..."

"Oh?" My mind sped up. "Let's first discuss that here, then... too much opportunity for listeners out there," I said, waving my arm slowly to indicate the sanctuary.

"Okay..." Molly nodded. She looked at my dad and he indicated that she should continue.

"My spark... it seems to be able to take some instructions, right?"

I agreed. "From what I've been able to examine, yes. Blueprints, templates, routines. That sort of thing. Nothing to do without those in place."

"Null position by default," Molly replied, repeating a phrase I'd used a time or two to describe the odd connection to reality I'd discovered connected to her spark. "But with instructions... that null position becomes something non-null, right?"

"Think so, yeah, though we've yet to try that."

"We think we might have found the first blueprint... Quinn's powers..."

"What?" I replied, squatting down with one hand on my dad's knee and my face turned up at Molly. "Tell me everything."

"See...," she began, "I kinda can feel his power, or something, like... I dunno. You know how, on Earth... you can sort of look at a spot with a missing puzzle piece, then look at all the remaining unplaced pieces and pick out the ones most likely to fit? That's something like what I can do... The other sparks... they aren't going to fit. They don't give my spark the right feel to fit. But Quinn's power does. Like... I could reach out and pull in the blueprint and then... then..."

Dad finished her thought, "You might be able to do something like what I did in the loop..."

Molly shrugged but didn't say more.

I let the idea turn over in my mind a moment. "All plausible," I replied. "But it feels... redundant... like... why would the essence create a spark which could just duplicate what it had already created in another person?"

Dad put his hand over mine on his knee. "Maybe that's the wrong way to think about it."

"How so?"

He shrugged, "Whatever I have now... it's not the same as the sparks. You all keep calling it a trace or a remnant or... residue... something left over, not a fully-intentioned seed like the others. Almost like the essence either didn't notice... or... it was trying to do something a little different... I have the controls now, though I have no idea how to do anything with them." Dad saw me start to tense, ready to warn him again not to attempt anything without me, and cut me off by saying, "I haven't tried anything, Tera, just that... I know the controls are there and I've been studying them... as best I can. I don't have your ability to see things within in detail, but... it's like... the controls aren't really something like a wheel or a joystick or whatever analogies you've used with everyone else. Mine are more about... access. Conditional responses. Logic gates. Sort of like... a blueprint with permissions to see it."

I remained silent a while, not agreeing at all with Dad's description, then replied, "Give me a moment."

I had many times explored Dad's trace, whatever the essence had left behind in him, and though I was fairly confident in my analysis that it was the time loop power, or something much like it, I probed deeply again while trying to remove my assumptions and prior conclusions from mind.

At first, I saw nothing to make me believe I was wrong. The connections from it surely were time related, there was an obvious ability to do, basically, what Dad and the essence had done to create and continue the time loop. I even thought I might be able to turn it on and utilize it right then to prove my point, though I dared not do so without serious consideration.

Keeping my mind partially inside Dad's trace, I added a second probe into Molly, using the dual exploration to see if there were patterns or obvious places where the two powers might do something together which wasn't obvious when observed separately.

I almost gave up after finding nothing of interest for some time and growing more weary. I wasn't sure why Dad and Molly were so sure of what they'd found. But, I pushed a little more, using my innate powers rather than the essence to twist and reconfigure things a bit, and there was a connection I'd missed completely. It soon led me to a second, a third, more and more. Not only were there connections, it was clearly a designed causality. Dad's trace was both a stand-alone power, like I'd already determined, and a blueprint, used by the spark in Molly.

"This is really important!" I exclaimed when I realized the truth. "The connection between you two... it makes it possible to limit the effect on time... like... like..." The truth I understood expanded. "The essence split it up!"

"What?" Dad puzzled. "Split what up?"

I looked up at him, my eyes clearing from the concentrated blur from long moments before. "The last Time Tester..."

I drew Tristan and Theresa to me after rapidly waking them. Quickly, I explained what I'd discovered. "Caracus told me that the last Time Tester, at least the last one known, disappeared very close to the time when the fallen one split from his essence. I don't know if that is coincidence... but... it seems that the essence came to possess it, through a host, of course. The power of the Time Tester, from what I've learned, is something like Dad's time loop but more refined, more precise. Dad affected all mundane realms with similar rules for the movement of time, but the Tester could very carefully change smaller regions. Possibly," I said, continuing to simulate what would happen when using Molly's spark with Dad's blueprint, "it could affect time at the very smallest points in reality. Only those points."

Tristan, still bedraggled from being moments from slumber, stared at me without expression, silent. Theresa was shaking her head. The woman said, "That makes no sense to me... how could you affect only parts of the mundane spacetime? That violates everything we know about the nature of time!"

Tristan replied for me. "It makes perfect sense. Time is just another dimension. It feels more meaningful because we only ever experience it in one direction, and then we do so along with everything else in the mundane. But, just like the other dimensions we experience, it can be a mirror image, reversed, and in a defined, isolated way... Can you do it, Tera? Can you use this to deal with Unity? To find Fenya?"

I saw Theresa's eyes widen, "To save my father?"

I swallowed, dry suddenly. Slowly, I nodded, answering each question, "Yes, I think so, and... Maybe, Theresa... that one... might be very tricky..."

"How is it any different than reversing Unity's knowledge or finding Fenya?" Theresa's voice had risen and become insistent, straining. "How is it any different?!"

I stayed calm and rose up, taking Theresa's hand in mine, "Because... Unity and Fenya... they are still alive, the latter in theory, at least. Unity... I see how to do that and will immediately. Fenya... I'm not planning to use this new power to reverse time for her... the consequences of that..." I looked at Tristan and he nodded in agreement at my unfinished thought. "I'll use time manipulation only to trace what The Paladin has done, tiny changes which will have minimal impact on reality, and only enough to be able to find her current location, not to reverse time to stop her from being sent away."

I gripped Theresa's hand tightly. "Trying to use this to go back to the death of your father... I don't see how that doesn't spiral quickly out of control. When I say it can undo only parts of reality's time line... I mean to say that smaller changes, smaller targets, those will have only minor impacts on things. But... trying to define what parts of reality we must target to go back to the death of your dad? I... I wouldn't even know where to start! And if I did... I fear that reversing time to achieve this for you..." I shook my head.

Tristan stepped up to try to calm the woman whose eyes were red and glassy, her body shaking lightly from the mix of hope and confusion and frustration and, as was becoming obvious, a bit of anger at my stance. Letting his smoky goggles turn transparent, Tristan told her, "She's not giving up, Theresa, but we can't risk undoing reality for this. You know this. There may be other ways. Tera's control of the essence, her manifest powers, those may be all we need to bring him back. Please... see reason and have patience..." His softness shouldn't have surprised me given how many times I'd seen it displayed, but Tristan's words were a small balm for Theresa's agitation and sadness.

She sighed and lowered her head in acceptance. "I know. I know this and yet... I cannot help wishing to be with him again. I miss him so..."

Tristan wrapped an arm around her, pulling the woman down to his shoulder, then looked at me and nodded, "What do you need from us?"

I shook my head. "Nothing right this moment. I'm going to Unity immediately. I've been building out my test to try on him, I think I know just how to do what needs done."

"Dangerous..." Dad said quietly. "Sure you know enough to not kill him... or worse?"

I pursed my lips, "Not sure what else to do..."

"Well... you could test it first."

"On who?" I worried that Dad was suggesting I use him as a guinea pig, an idea I would absolutely refuse to entertain.

"The assassin... what was his name? Arbuckle or something?"

Tristan breathed, "Agranquost. That's not a terrible idea, Quinn." The short man stroked Theresa's shoulder a moment before looking back at me. "Think you can safely test it on him, you know, without letting him go into your past to kill you first?"

I pushed out my awareness and dove into the ang-trap where I'd captured the assassin before he had arrived in my youth with his knife. I could feel his presence, his existence. His anguish and misery and anger. Still locked away, it was someone I would certainly feel less remorseful about should I fail at using this new power. "I can try."

I reached out and brought Molly's spark and Dad's trace together, feeding the blueprint into the power and watching as it snapped into place. Holding it, ready to use it on Agranquost, I pushed deeply into the trapped killer and probed into his mind. I had to shield myself from the onslaught of energy and memories and expectations. Argranquost was no human, no mortal, non-mundane, and much like I had experienced with The Paladin, trying to interact with his mind was overwhelming. I blocked out all but one set of threads: those which led Argranquost to seek my death. I targeted that selfishly, I suppose, but it was the one memory set I felt I could affect.

And so, with only a bare idea of how this might work, I used the combined spark and trace to begin the process of reversing time along that pathway. At first, I stepped through it slowly, watching what other aspects of reality, whether within the assassin's mind or elsewhere, were being affected. I reversed the order of things, popping off each definable aspect as I was sure it was safe to do so and discarding it so there would be no reconstruction.

It was tricky and exhausting. I found I could back out of the reversal so long as I didn't let go of the defined aspect I was working with. A few times, a change I made seemed to cause a chain reaction out into reality, affecting other beings, other realms, and I quickly returned the pathway and sought a different one.

All the time, Agranquost held no awareness of my manipulation. His exile within the ang-trap was flooding him and even if it hadn't, I believed he couldn't be aware of what I'd done. That was the nature of reversing things. I started at the most recent moments, those which had been experienced in the seconds before I trapped the assassin, and worked backwards. Soon, the killer's mind contained little connection back to me.

I couldn't exactly read each part of the memory. It was much more fuzzy and complicated. I knew that, if I concentrated and took my time, I could have done so, but that was beyond the scope of my current situation, so I worked delicately but with purposeful urgency.

I found the point at which Agranquost had been associated with me, whether though a meeting or mental connection or some other fashion, and I removed that entire thread from his mind.

To Agranquost, I knew, it was like he'd never attempted to travel into the past to murder me. His memories of those events, of the tremendous time spent traveling to me, the knowledge he'd needed of me to do so, those were all removed by my careful manipulation of time.

To call it surgery might be an understatement. I was a little messy, I knew, and I really didn't want to think what sorts of mental holes I'd scrapped into the assassin's head. But it had succeeded, that much I knew. I studied Agranquost for a long time, checking my work, and, though I saw a few ways to improve what I'd done, I finally nodded to those watching me and said, "I did it."

- - -

Unity was a much simpler matter, to my surprise. Though he housed a tremendous, nearly uncountable number of threads related to me, they were very recent and all connected to a single thread which ran throughout. I had no trouble using the combination of Dad's and Molly's powers to unwind the set of events, or at least Unity's experience of them, which led him to clone what was in my head. By the time I finished, the man had forgotten everything connected to me. I suspected, due to my inexperience, that I'd probably lopped off a few other items, but I hoped those were not vital to his future life.

"And who are you?" he asked me once I'd finished my work.

I smiled but didn't reply. I set about returning Unity to his original place in the sanctuary, removing the last memories of me in my realm hidden within, but not before putting in place a series of protections against Unity using his powers to affect me or anyone associated with me. I wasn't opposed to him doing what he does, as he put it, but I didn't need to worry about encountering him again and having to repeat the process. Unity happily returned to the sanctuary with no concern for where he'd been the last few days.

- - -

Fenya was my next concern, not really knowing what else to do. It wasn't that I felt any strong obligation to Caracus to prioritize his former partner, but I recognized the strength in allies and I hoped that the two, together, could provide me additional strength in the coming fight, whatever and whenever that might be.

To find and potentially recover Fenya, I had to figure out what The Paladin had actually done. I'd previously thought I might be able to do something like what the essence did to let me watch visions of Dad's experiences, but I soon found a dead end in that regard. Only because the essence retained memories of those moments had I been able to see it so directly and effortlessly. It wasn't clairvoyance. The essence hadn't observed Fenya's banishment, and I couldn't simply call up those moment and watch them for clues.

I considered whether I could use the newfound combination of Molly's spark and Dad's time powers in some way, but I was fairly sure that was going to fail early on. I did a few tests to try to probe around those I knew, seeking to do what I would need to do around The Paladin, and it was obvious that I wouldn't get far without alerting him. When I tested on Abby and Uni and Dad, they all detected that I was doing something even as I tried to shield my actions. The Paladin would discover me before I'd even tied the first metaphysical knot.

Regardless, The Paladin was the key to Fenya, and I returned to the earlier idea of trying to figure out how he banished people, and in this, I got incredibly lucky.

When he'd discovered Maggie, he'd tortured her, drawing out what little information she had about me and what I'd done to her and how I'd found the woman, and then he'd discarded her for a short time. I'd kept an eye, of sorts, on the short woman and knew she had been exiled, but it wasn't banishment in the sense that Fenya was removed from detection. It was just a rather uncomfortable locale where Maggie found herself, cut off from her own abilities and without company, recreation, or much of anything.

I suppose I felt bad that it was The Paladin's cruelty which led to the break I needed. I'd been watching him, as well, through the narrow thread I'd tied to him and I though I couldn't tell every detail of his movements or activities, I knew he'd grown increasingly frustrated. I got the sense that his pursuit of Daedalus had not gone well. He may have even figured out that I had bested my enemy, not the other way around, and The Paladin's frustration only increased again.

So when The Paladin returned to Maggie, it was with a hot head and a hair trigger that he took out his anger on the woman. The banishment, which I watched carefully, was not what I expected.

It wasn't so much sending Maggie away as it was twisting the realm they were in to void her. To warp around her. Not just that realm, for I knew there were many which shared physical and energy space in that place, but all realms. She still existed, I was certain, but as soon as he banished her, she was no longer within my detection, at least not at first.

Watching what he did, mapping how he twisted reality, I realized how to discover the woman immediately. Reality now contained a bubble, of sorts, easily missed if you weren't looking for it, and not easily discovered even if you were. Points in space and time connected as if no void existed in the seams, but it was there all the same. My connection to Maggie stayed in place, and that was the real key to figuring out what The Paladin had done. Using that trace along with studying the nature of things which warped around her allowed me to find another bubble nearby. Not really physically nearby, but in a multidimensional sense. The Paladin was not terribly creative or forethinking when it came to banishing those he hated. He used shortcuts, it seemed, and as a result, I quickly found another, and another, and many more.

I wasn't exactly sure for a while how to figure out who was in each bubble. Because they left no specific imprint on reality, it was a bit like cracking open an egg to see if it held a single or double yolk. I knew there were beings in there, but I couldn't tell who was who from the outside.

Tristan warned me against simply trying to return the banished beings to reality. I felt sure I could do so after several long days of study which left me utterly drained. But he was right that many of those banished by The Paladin would wish me no kindnesses despite our common enemy. I didn't need to add antagonists to the set I was already working against.

Several of us sat together in a lovely garden I'd brought into being in my hideaway. Dad, Theresa, Tristan, Abby, May, Uni, Molly, Juliet, Kacy, Kylie, and Mira were finishing up a meal and sipping a variety of teas, coffees, and liquors. I was completely exhausted from the intense concentration needed to study the banishment bubbles from afar.

Dozing, I drifted until I thought I had come back to consciousness, but I wasn't in the garden and my eyes felt heavy and saw only blurry representations of the small space I was now in. I leaned up, wondering if this was a vision or if I'd been drawn somewhere by yet another powerful being wanting to toy with me.

I tried to stand but found my legs heavy and weak. Using my innate power, I had begun returning strength to myself when I felt the essence pulse and counter my attempts. Pausing, I tried to probe the essence for answers. Over the weeks, I'd learned how to have conversations, of a sort, with it. Not so much questions and responses or even words, more impressions and senses of meaning. The tighter the essence drew into me, the more it and I became one, the less I needed to ask it anything at all, but this time I didn't understand why it fought my attempts to fix myself.

Something was not quite right with the way I was sensing reality. I immediately shut off my natural expectations and studied my surroundings with less bias. I wasn't in the sanctuary, that much was clear, and it was not a mundane realm of any kind, either. I'd been on my side, on what I might have thought of as a floor, though that word wasn't quite right. The essence pulsed again and I brought up a set of protections. Usually, when leaving my hideaway, I did that instinctively, never knowing when an attack might come. But this had been a surprise repositioning, and I'd been slow to gain my senses. I still felt foggy by the time I was able to rise to my feet, still weak and heavy with the essence blocking my attempts to ease my condition.

I closed my eyes. They were pointless at that time. I projected my awareness and felt the presence of powerful beings close by. Too numerous to count. They were worried about something. It was such a clear impression of concern that it made me grow tense. I tried to define the beings in some way. They weren't wholly physical, not in the Newtonian sense, at least. Their nature was both energy and the aether, defined across many aspects of reality. But each was distinct and I could detect subtle differences which made each identifiable.

I didn't know if I'd been brought to that place or if, somehow, the essence had done so without my consent. I also hadn't ruled out a dream, or something like what had happened the first time Kacy's spark had acted upon me. Despite the realm's uncertain nature, I was corporeal. My body was with me, though I could only really confirm it through senses other than touch and sight. It was there, though, and I walked, if that was the right term, in the direction of a cluster of the energy-aether beings closest to my position, defenses in place. I could feel the essence practically tingling with excitement. What was going, I had no idea, but the essence was behaving as if this was not the most dangerous moment we'd experienced lately. I wasn't so sure that was the comparison we really wanted to make right then.

Eyes still closed, I guided myself easily to where I drew the attention of the beings gathered. I got the sense of astonishment from each, starting with shock and then, in some of the beings, followed by confusion or elation.

HOST.

It was like every being in the area spoke at once. I understood what they were saying though they didn't speak and it was not a word passed to me. But the concept was utterly clear in my mind.

"I am the host, yes. Who are you?"

WE ARE . . .

I shook my head. "That wasn't very helpful."

WE ARE . . .

I realized they were actually answering my question, but the concept they tried to convey about themselves was so unusual and foreign to me that I had no context in which to place it. I decided to think of them as the Astrals, but that was but one small aspect of what they tried to make me comprehend about them. The fact that we could communicate at all was simply astonishing. "Did you bring me here?"

NO.

The essence pulsed as if to take responsibility, and then I could sense the threads of intention which had shifted me to this realm. It was odd, to say the least, to understand that the essence was me and I was it, yet we still maintained separate identities. Something like conjoined twins with two brains and one shared body. I shelved my thoughts about that state of things and returned to the Astrals. "Why do you feel joy at my appearance?"

WE HAD FEARED YOU WERE LOST. YET YOU ARE NOT. YOU MAY NOW COMPLETE THE TRIALS, AT LONG LAST.

"Trials? What trials?"

I got a strong sense of confusion again, and, though the Astrals had been speaking to me as a common voice, if that was the right term, it was clear they were now divided on what to reply. The conversation between them was much too rapid to even attempt to follow, and, even if I had been able to, I was fairly sure I had no language or framework to begin to understand them.

When they finally seemed to sort out a response, what I received was, THE TRIALS OF ETERNITY.

"And what are those?"

More confusion, more concern, more crosstalk.

YOU COME TO US IGNORANT!?

I chuckled, which drew the Astral equivalent of gasps. "I have a habit of doing that."

YOU DO NOT KNOW THE TRIALS OF ETERNITY, YET YOU ARE HOST?!

"So it seems."

It was like the room caught on fire as the Astrals broke into what I could only believe was the equivalent of a barroom scuffle. I felt anger and fear and mistrust and a deep sense that somehow I'd broken the eternal decorum of their existence simply by showing up.

They went on for some time. I grew anxious and a bit angry to be ignored while they argued and fought. I stamped my feet and laughed at myself for such a silly gesture in that place, in front of those beings. The Astrals would have no clue what that even meant. "Hey! Shut up a minute!" I yelled in frustration.

The room calmed a bit and then silenced, motion stopping. I laughed again. It felt like that moment in a Mel Brooks movie where the fight pauses long enough for some interrupter to come through, ready to resume the punches and tumbling once the moment had passed. Before they could return to their squabbles, I said, "I don't know what these trials are or why you think I should do them, but I'm in a bit of a hurry now. Not sure why I'm here, but I am the host and what I host is intent on doing something here. Can we get on to it? Will you help me out or am I wasting my time?"

I monologued a bit, mostly stalling and hoping to get some sort of answer to my current situation. The essence had shown me no reason for bringing me to visit the Astrals, and, so far, I'd only added to my questions since arriving.

THE TRIALS ARE FOR ETERNITY.

Shaking my head, I replied, "I sort of gathered that. They are called the Trials of Eternity, after all."

YOUR ETERNITY.

"My eternity..." I thought about that moment. "You mean... to make me immortal?"

YOU ARE HOST, YET YOU REMAIN MORTAL. THIS CANNOT BE.

I pursed my lips. "I don't really understand. If I go through these trials, and survive, I will be immortal? Is that what you're telling me?" The essence practically warmed my insides and I didn't need the Astrals to respond to know that I was correct.

YES.

I let out my breath. "I really don't have time for this. I'm already on, like, six quests already. Can I come back another time?"

More astonishment and confusion, but a much quicker reply. NO.

I paused to take stock of myself. I was tired, frustrated, and away from my comfort zone and the people I trusted. I was without the sparks. Without my best friend. Without Dad. And I had no clue what exactly would be expected of me. Nor did I have any idea what it meant to actually be immortal.

"What is required of me, in these trials?"

YOU WILL BE TESTED.

"You guys really know how to piss a girl off..." I muttered.

YOU WILL BE TESTED TO DISCOVER IF YOU ARE WORTHY OF BECOMING ONE OF THEM.

I narrowed my eyes. "One of them?"

THE ETERNAL ONES. THE FOREVER BEINGS.

"Gods?"

A bit of crosstalk, then, YES.

Something wasn't right about all this. I'd been told about the jealousy of powerful beings, and the gods, the oldest and most powerful of all beings, were the worst. Why in the hell would they set up a process by which someone, a mortal no less, could become one of them? Plus, didn't the essence essentially do everything towards that end already? I didn't think I was immortal, not yet, but everything I knew about the essence said it was what made a god a god. Not some test or some trial. Gods were their essence and from their essence they drew their powers. They were immortal because they were powerful, right? Because their essences were the power which sustained them?

But then I realized a different angle. I had powers outside the essence. Was that something gods did, as well? Was it normal, in a sense? My essence warmed slightly, and I got the impression that it was telling me something important. Like it was signaling that I was on the right track, that the manifestation of my powers was not some run of the mill god ability. It was something very different.

I decided to stall and see if I could get any answers. "What do you get out of this? Why are you directing me to the trials? Why here? Why you?"

Crosstalk, then IT IS WHAT WE DO.

I grumbled without words. It was the second time I'd heard that excuse, and the first time, I'd let Unity clone my memories and had to scramble to undo the damage. I was a little more guarded this time. "So you just wait around here for a host to show up wanting to be immortal? I'm pretty sure that doesn't happen too often..." Never, if what I knew was accurate.

NOT IN AEONS HAS ONE COME TO US. NOT SINCE THE BEGINNING OF ALL THINGS.

"Wait," I replied, "you were here before the gods?"

YES.

"So... you sent the gods to the trials?"

WE DIRECTED THEM, AS WE DIRECT YOU, THE LAST TO ATTEMPT THE TRIALS.

"The last... Hold on..." I turned over the statement. "Are you saying that the fallen one... the god whose essence I now hold... that god never completed the trials?"

CORRECT.

"So he was never immortal?"

CORRECT.

I wondered, then, if any of the gods, the immortal ones, could actually separate themselves from their essences once they'd completed the trials. Perhaps the fallen one had been even more unique than anyone knew. I sat those thoughts aside and asked, "What must I do in the trials? Is this like, feats of strength or something?" I knew better even if I had no specifics. I was stalling for time.

YOUR ABILITIES WILL BE TESTED. YOUR WORTHINESS WILL BE DETERMINED.

"Has anyone... any god... ever failed the trials?"

MANY.

"Many... and... what happens to those who fail?"

THEY DIE.

I gulped. "And... what becomes of the essences they carry?"

THEY DIE.

In unison, my essence and I shivered at the responses.

"What happens if I don't do the trials now? You said I can't return to do them later... I'm thinking I might just be better off not risking it."

If the earlier explosion of activity had been a bar fight, what followed my statement was more like an artillery slugfest. I tried several times to calm things down with my shouts, but the Astrals were beside themselves. It continued on and on to the point where I started trying to figure out how to leave.

I couldn't seem to travel myself anywhere interesting. When I tried, I just ended up in another part of the same realm where more Astrals, different ones, were caught up in the widespread argument. I tried to project myself but anything beyond the realm was lost to my senses.

There were no doors, walkways, bridges, access points. Nothing which appeared to lead me away from the Astral's realm. For all I could tell, I was utterly stuck. I began to realize I might not have a choice in whether to take part in the trials.

I sat for a long time, breathing deeply and trying to stay calm. I massaged the essence trying to find anything resembling an option which didn't involve risking certain death. I knew there was no way I could finish the trials. Gods had failed therein. Many of them. What chance did I have? Surely my essence recognized the risk. Yet... it seemed clear to me that my essence was determined to go through with it. I studied things intently for some time to ensure my lack of travel and projection was due to the realm itself and not because my essence was hindering me for its own gain. I found no such obstruction.

Weary, worn down, and resigned, I stood and shouted, "Fine! I'll do the stupid trials."

The commotion dropped to silence, and the attention of the Astrals was once more on me.

I assumed they would direct me but when no such information was given to me, I said, "So... what do I do now?"

The realm melted around me, both physically and in the sense that its energy calmed and dissipated. What was left was me, alone, in a space without definition.

This lasted only seconds before I felt myself drawn towards a large object. Closer, closer. The object was huge, really, a planet in size, maybe even more, I had no scale for comparison. It was so huge I could feel the gravity of it long before I descended onto its surface. I drifted down, down, closer, and finally settled onto a plain of what I can only describe as marshmallow flowers, white blooms which were thick and fluffy, countless numbers of them spread out all around me and stretched as far as I could see. It was a flat plain of nothing but the white flowers. The sky above was tinted light pink, no clouds or other obstructions in sight. No animal noises. No bugs whirling past. Just marshmallow flowers, a clear pink sky, and me.

I adjusted my senses to account for the intense gravity of the place and waited. There really wasn't much else to do.

- - -

I waited so long I was soon dozing on my feet. I walked to stay awake, but every direction was the same as every other. Marshmallow flowers forming a dense, endless field. No contours, no hills, no nothing but those thick, white petals. I walked and walked, losing all sense of time. There was no sun lighting up the place, though light was abundant. There was no movement around me, not even the slightest hint of a breeze. Nothing moved the flowers or whatever was below them. When I knelt down and examined the marshmallow plants, I found only green stems which were growing from an even more densely-packed row of the same flowers. The further down I looked, the more thick they grew. There was no ground that I could find, just marshmallow flowers and their stems.

I walked and walked and walked. I stopped and waited. I listened. I began to hallucinate. The absence of the normal inputs beyond white flowers and pink sky was playing tricks on my mind. No sounds, no motion, no scents in the air. My brain apparently decided, at some point, that I was walking on a rainbow, coloring in the white flowers below me and, for a few minutes at least, I found an unusual amount of pleasure at the sight. But my rational mind won out quickly, and the hallucination withdrew, replaced by similar such things in the sky, then the flowers again. My brain added motion and sound where I knew there was none. Like a dehydrated traveler thinking she'd spotted an oasis, I moved around my endless plain as if there were such things as destinations to arrive at.

I remember stopping to sit and rest. So tired, I was, that I even let some of my protections relax. I felt the essence burn bright in me, throwing protections back into place even as I lost the will to much care. How long had I been in this place? A day? A year? I had no idea. I wasn't particularly thirsty or hungry, I had no need to relieve myself. I'd used my powers to automatically take care of those problems. But I was exhausted and in need of sleep. No matter what I tried, though, sleep never came. I wasn't sure if it was the essence doing it, or possibly me, but each time I drew close to slumber, my brain roused and tried to find patterns in the world around me beyond the white and pink dichotomy.

- - -

I was lost there, wherever there was. Lost in my body. Lost in my mind. Lost to anything and everyone. I couldn't even panic I was so withdrawn from what I knew. It could have been eons of time, if time was a thing in that place. White. Pink. Endlessness. Stillness. Silence except where I created sound. My ears rang, echoing nothingness. My eyes darted and dilated and saw rainbows of colors, at times, where there was nothing but pink and white.

I remembered a memory, distant and fuzzy at first. It was the way Dad looked at me our first night together, the night we shared intimacy. The longing, the disbelief, the love, the confusing and arousing combination of emotions I saw in his expression, it brought me back to myself. I, too, began to long for him, to feel his arms around me, to spread myself wide and take him into my body once more. To be penetrated by my father became an obsession. I grew wet despite my situation.

And then he was there. "Tera?! Tera?!"

I jerked upright, certain I was once more hallucinating but finding my father standing a few feet away. "Dad?"

I couldn't be sure he wasn't another illusion, my mind already proving itself quite capable of creating seemingly-real manifestation over my hours or days or weeks of time in that place. But I was able to project my senses and I knew the truth, that my Dad was actually there with me. "Oh, Dad!" I jumped up and leapt into his arms, hugging him tight and feeling him wrap himself around me.

"Tera... what's going on? Where have you been? What is this place?"

I ignored his questions, soaking in his warmth and strength. I came back to myself for the first time in what felt like long years. I sucked in my breath, feeling alive again, raw, needful. I kissed Dad's neck, then drew his shirt from his body physically, not by blinking it away, soon clawing at his bare chest.

I heard Dad ask more questions but I was ravenous. Pushing him down, down, down onto the marshmallow flowers, I drew down his slacks and tore them away from his naked body. I wore a short skirt and I mounted him, no panties covering my sex to hinder me taking him into my slippery cunt. Dad's cock slid into me easily, filling me, stretching me and I moaned with pleasure to feel my father inside me again. God, I felt so powerful as I began to ride Dad.

He stopped asking questions, his hands soon caressing my breasts after drawing my shirt from my body. I felt like a passionate fire was spreading out from my nipples and clit, my hips rising and falling over him. I braced myself with my arms out straight, pressing down on Dad's lightly-hairy chest, my eyes locked on his. He looked a mix of confusion and arousal, and I churned his pre-cum and my juices inside me, my vagina swollen and desirous of his penetration.

"Oh, Tera," he groaned and I knew he was close.

I sped up my movements, the burning pleasure between my legs becoming sharper, more tense, more like a dam close to bursting. I rolled and humped and ground myself down on my father, his penis swelling and stretching me as our slippery juices combined inside me. I felt him twitch and thrust and I let myself go, "Mmmmmm...Ooooohhh! Oh! Oh! Ohhhmmmmmm.... Mmmmm..." My orgasm triggered his and Dad groaned loudly as he pumped sticky globs of semen into my vagina.

I clamped down as he came, trapping his sperm deep in my cunt, wanting Dad to finish completely inside me. I felt his cock pulsing each scalding jet of jism into my body and I shuddered with pleasure from our incestuous coupling. I loved feeling my father ejaculating inside me.

Collapsing over him, we kissed and moaned together for some time before I finally slid from his body, trying to keep all of his cum in my pussy, letting only a little trickle out before I could close my legs and completely trap the rest inside me. I shuddered thinking that my own father's semen was still inside my vagina.

"Tera..." my father's voice was softer and held less panicky concern than before, "what's going on?"

Quickly, I told him about the Astrals and the trials I was apparently involved in. He was skeptical, wondering if it was a trick, but I told him I felt sure this was more or less as explained by the Astrals. I didn't know why he was here or how he'd been brought to the pink and white plain, but I hugged him tight when I told him I was so happy he was then with me.

"So," he said, "what do we do now?"

I shook my head, "No idea... I was... more or less starting to lose myself here. I think, maybe, that's part of the trial. But... I dunno what I have to do now."

We looked around us and Dad spotted something before I did. "Tera," he whispered, pointing, "is that someone walking towards us?"

I gazed in the direction of his attention and saw what appeared to be one of the Astrals gliding in our direction. I told Dad what I thought it was and he said, "But... I see a woman. Quite clearly, it's a woman, Tera. She has black hair... red shirt and slacks... heels, maybe... don't you see her?"

Shaking my head, I replied, "No... it's... they're... like energy, kinda hard to explain. That's no woman, that's one of the Astrals." I closed my eyes and could still see the unique signature of this particular one, though, like before, it wasn't wholly separate either, seemingly connected to countless others who were not directly visible but obviously not separate. I wondered why Dad was seeing a woman where no such being existed. "Maybe the Astrals appear different to different people, I dunno... But that's one of them, Dad."

We waited until it drew close. Silence around us, there was no real voice when it spoke.

YOU HAVE BROKEN THE RULES.

"What?" I exclaimed. "What rules? You didn't tell me about rules!"

YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED HELP TO COMPLETE ANY TRIALS.

I looked at Dad, "Help... are you saying I somehow finished this one?"

The Astral hesitated, and I could sense an argument back to the others somewhere well away from the pink and white endlessness. It finally replied, YOU HAVE COMPLETED THE FIRST BY BREAKING THE RULES. THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE.

"Acceptable... says who?"

More disagreement and confusion.

IT IS AS IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN.

I laughed and felt the Astral experience something akin to shock. "Well, now it is different. I've completed this trial, as you said. Whatever rules you had... well... I've changed them. Deal with it. Get us to the next trial, alright? I'm getting real bored with all this." I felt a truth the Astral was not tell me. Before, in the Astral's realm and then in the pink and white one, I was wholly cut off from the rest of reality. No matter what I'd tried, I couldn't connect outside, couldn't sense anything beyond the realms' borders.

But something had changed. Not long after Dad and I had mated incestuously, my sense of the rest of reality began to warm and clear. No longer was I unable to sense other realms, other beings. I snapped off a quick thought to Tristan and Theresa, I'm okay. Dad's here. Will explain soon.

Theresa responded immediately, What's going on?

There was no obvious panic or fear beyond concern from me in her thought, so I didn't feel the need to over-explain just then. Later, I promise.

I returned my attention to the shocked being nearby. "So... you sense it too, I assume?" I asked the Astral. It was a wholly rhetorical question. Whatever had reopened my access to everywhere else had also given me insight into the Astral mind, if that was the right term. The one closest to me, which Dad still saw as a dark-haired woman, was terribly confused and alarmed, but in a way I knew meant I was on the right track. "So get this going, alright? What's the next trial?"

The Astral was too shocked to protest further. Whatever other beings had done in the trials, my success, or, more likely, the manner of it, had been completely unexpected. I wasn't really sure yet how I'd completed the first trial, but I had an inkling of a lead in my head. I didn't want to go digging for that answer just yet, though.

I felt a realm open, or something approximating a realm, and the Astral seemed to usher me on.

"Dad?"

He replied, "Sweetie?"

"With me for the next one?"

"You couldn't keep me from being right there with you, Tera."

I grinned and pulled him in for a kiss. "Figured. This might get... weird."

He groaned lightheartedly. "This whole damn thing's been weird since the first time I realized you were wearing the same pair of blue panties over and over in my loop. Only gotten weirder since. I'm up for whatever at this point. So long as I get to be with you throughout, I'm not going away."

"Wouldn't have it any other way, Dad... Love you..."

He smiled and kissed my lips. "Love you, too, Tera. Shall we?"

I nodded and felt my body and Dad's being dissolved, in a manner of speaking, into some place even more challenging than the one we were just in.

Tera, Female, 15

	- Narrator, host of the essence, daughter of Quinn

	- 5'7, pale-beige skin, 135lbs, shoulder-length bright copper-orange-red hair

Quinn, Male, 41

	- Former host, father of Tera

	- 6'0, beige skin, 190lbs, wavy blonde-brown hair a few inches long