It was just after three in the morning and I was lying awake, feeling fully rested after we had called it a night around eleven o’clock the night before. Currently, I was snuggled between Rei and Salem, with Daenyss’s arm draped over both the tiny Liyun’shael and me. Willow had floated over to curl up on my pillow just above my head at some point while I was sleeping, and I reached out to gently stroke my Wisp’s fur, while in the embrace of those that I loved.

I expected that both of the other Fae sharing the bed would wake up soon as well and right now, I was just trying to enjoy the moment. It was so peaceful and, given how crazy my life had been since becoming Taelya, I didn’t really expect it to last. Something was bound to come up, right? It almost felt as if just having a quiet and peaceful moment like this with the people that I loved should be enough to tempt Murphy. Maybe I would get lucky and just have to get up to go to the bathroom or something.

As if on cue, I felt one of my notification spells trigger. Someone was messing with the Mercedes down in the garage. With a sigh, I clothed myself in a glamour and attempted to extract myself from Salem’s and Rei’s embrace. Salem’s breathing changed slightly as I tried to slip out of her arms and her eyes fluttered open. “What’s up, Tae?” she asked in concern.

“Someone is messing with our ride,” I grumbled, “my security spells kicked in.”

“Well, you’re not going down there to check it out alone. I’m coming with you, and we’ll have to wake…” she started to protest. We both knew very well that I probably didn’t need the protection, but I had promised my Mahair, Pájar, and the other Queens of the Courts that I wouldn’t go anywhere without guards when outside Varüus’kiel. Like all Fae, I took keeping my word very seriously.

I placed a finger to the Moss Maiden’s lips to shush her. “We’re not waking the others. Nishalle is on guard right now, I can sense her out there, and the others all need a proper night’s sleep. None of them have been getting enough lately. We’ll take some of Lilith’s girls with us to check it out.”

We both climbed out of bed and slipped quietly out of the bedroom so as not to disturb Rei or Daenyss. I focused my mind on the Succubae that I could sense keeping guard on the roof of the hotel and sent out the quick mental signal that Lilith had taught me to use to get their attention until I could learn to sense and enter their individual minds as Lilith could. I figured that leaning that would probably take a while since the brood was so large and this telepathy thing with them was hard to get used to. The response to my mental pulse was immediate.

~Is everything alright? How may we be of service, my Goddess?~ the mental voice inquired with a touch of concern. Thankfully, she was one of the few minds that I was actually familiar with; it was Lilith’s eldest daughter, Chalise.

~Someone triggered the security spells I placed on our vehicle, Chalise. I don’t want to wake your mother or the others, they need sleep. Could you and some of the other girls come to me so we can check it out together?~ I sent back to the Succubus.

~Of course, my Goddess. We will join you momentarily.~ Chalise was as good as her word, and she and five other Succubae appeared in the darkened living room of the suite with us, all bowing slightly as they reverently but quietly said, “My Goddess.”

I motioned for them to quietly follow me so that we wouldn’t wake Megan, who was fast asleep on the sofa, and we slipped out into the hallway beyond. I could have just teleported us all right to the parking garage, but I wanted to let my sister in on what was happening. Nishalle’s crimson gaze was on us as soon as we stepped out the door, with Chalise taking the lead, just in case.

“What’s going on, Sis?” my Tokh’dhraí sister asked with a raised eyebrow once we had quietly closed the door behind us.

I quickly got my sister up to date and she was surprisingly on board with me taking along the Succubae instead of waking Pete, Lilith, and my two Guardians. “You’re right, Sis, they could all use a proper rest. I just took over for Lilith a little while ago and, since I got plenty of sleep for a Fae, I was considering just staying on guard and not waking Pete or Lissany for their turns. If you’re going down there you’re bringing me though, provided one of your Succubae doesn’t mind taking over for me for a little bit here.”

Chalise considered it for a moment and nodded. “Shava, please take over for Nishalle while we’re gone.”

Shava nodded her agreement and with that decided, I focused on my sister, Salem, and the five remaining Succubae and drew and spoke the sigils for my mass teleportation spell. “Kaida liantuir tala siashe yasrin!”

After the customary brief lurch of time and space, we were in the parking garage beneath the hotel and several paces from the Mercedes SUV. Lying there, half underneath the vehicle with only their twitching legs visible was a person. Other than that, the garage was as quiet as one would expect this early in the morning. “Huh, maybe we should pull him out from under there, before he’s well done,” Nishalle suggested playfully, “not that it isn’t very entertaining watching him twitch like that.”

“Kaida siashe!” I quickly cast my kinesis spell and yanked the body from underneath the vehicle, revealing a clean-shaven twenty-something Caucasian man with short brown hair. He was dressed in jeans, sneakers, and a dark grey hoodie, and he had something clutched in his hand. “It will take a few moments for the shock spell to wear off,” I warned the others. “It isn’t lethal, but perhaps it will teach him to keep his hands off other people’s belongings.”

I pried open the man’s hand to find a small electronic device within. Nishalle instantly frowned and leaned in to whisper, “That’s the same type of tracking device those DCA assholes placed on my bike.”

“Tracking device, huh? I guess they got bored following us the old-fashioned way all day. I was expecting a bomb or something,” I replied with a shrug.

“Don’t worry, Tae, I’m sure they still want to kill you very much,” Salem offered bitterly. “I’ll bet that they just want to find out where we go when we leave Toronto, so they can send in teams when our guard is down and take down any of our allies too.”

“Shall we search and disarm him, my Goddess?” Chalise inquired.

“Please do,” I replied, prompting two of the Succubae to do so immediately. He didn’t seem to be armed, and he didn’t have anything that overtly suggested that he might be from the DCA. Just a set of keys, a phone that had been fried by the spell, and the usual wallet with cash, cards, and ID. I didn’t think he was your average car thief though, he was too clean cut for one thing, despite his casual clothing. There was also the lanyard tucked underneath his hoodie and a security smart card in his wallet, both identifying him as Jason Connelly, an employee of Can-tech Innovations Ltd.

I knew from when we had hacked the CSIS database that Can-tech was basically a front for them under the guise of a small tech start-up. It had also been where one of Lilith’s girls had stealthily followed our attackers to following the assassination attempt. I recognized the type of smart card from my time as a system administrator too, both the card and a password were normally needed to log into a company’s computers, though knowing the paranoia of the CSIS and DCA it was probably also integrated into fingerprint and retinal scanners as well.

It seemed that they had improved their security measures since we broke into their black sites. I focused on the smart card for a few minutes, quickly enchanting it with a few spells that I was sure the DCA would find far less amusing than I did. Then I had the girls quickly replace his belongings where they had found them. Meanwhile, I summoned my armor and weapons through my mark and Salem quickly followed suit.

Once he finally stopped twitching, I asked Chalise, “Could you please heal him and then wake him up?”

“Of course, my Goddess,” she said with a nod and got straight to work with a healing prayer. It was strange getting used to the sensation when any of my Priestesses used their magick or prayers. I could feel the worship stronger than I had felt from anyone else, even the Fae, and it made me feel deeply connected to them.

It took only a moment for Chalise to heal the damage from the shock spell, almost as soon as she had finished uttering the prayer. The addition of five thousand plus fanatically devoted Priestesses had given me a noticeable increase in power and as I benefitted from their belief, they benefitted from my increased power with an increase in their own. They had been Inanna’s only worshippers, while I had everyone in Varüus’kiel and the following that I was starting to build in the outside world. They had been a force to be reckoned with when we first met, but through their belief in me, they were becoming scary strong.

As soon as she had finished healing him, Lilith’s eldest daughter delivered a smack to the side of the face that resounded through the empty parking garage and left his cheek bright red. That was going to bruise, but I didn’t particularly care and it would leave him with a reminder of this meeting for a while. His eyes snapped open as his hand rose to his burning cheek, and I quickly opened a hole in my aura so we could try to have an intelligent conversation. “Ow! What the…” That was about when he noticed us standing over him, and that we were all fully armed and armored.

“Good morning, it seems that you’ve been having trouble with my vehicle,” I taunted playfully before brandishing the tracking device. “Now, I’m sure you know who I am with how much I’ve been in the news lately, so I won’t bother introducing myself. I do want to know who you are though, as well as just what this device is and what you were doing with my vehicle.”

“Fuck you! I don’t have to tell you shit!”

I dropped the tracking device to the ground and Nishalle happily crushed it under her foot. “Okay, if you want to play it that way. We have ways of making you talk. Isn’t that right, girls?”

Nishalle started cracking her knuckles with a wicked grin on her face. “And the best part is, even if I kill him, that’ll just give me more time to question him in the underworld. An eternity if needed.”

There was a brief moment when the man’s eyes widened and he glanced in Nishalle in terror. I guess the story of what happened during their botched assassination attempt must have already made the rounds among the local branch of the DCA. I could have just used my truth spell on him, but I didn’t since I planned to send him back to his boss and I didn’t want his superiors to know about that yet. So it looked like we were going to play a bit of Good Demigoddess, Bad Demigoddess.

Since Nishalle was so good at being the bad Demigoddess, that left me playing the good one. “Come now, Nishalle, I know you’re a Demigoddess of Death and Darkness, but does everything have to come down to death and torture in the underworld? Perhaps if we offer the right incentive, he’ll cooperate. How about it? If you’re good and cooperate and answer my questions honestly, then I won’t let her do her whole Queen of the Underworld thing with you. In fact, I give you my word that if you answer all of my questions honestly, then we will release you, unharmed.”

The man looked from Nishalle to me and decided to try the one who wasn’t grinning evilly. Nishalle looked like she was enjoying herself a little too much as Chalise hefted him off the ground one-handed and the man squirmed in her grip. Jason Connelly sang like a canary.

As I had thought, he was with the Department of Changed Affairs, transferred from the CSIS. He wasn’t an agent, just one of their techies, but he had been instructed to come here and secure the tracking device to the underside of the black Mercedes with the strange license plates once the agent watching my hotel room was certain we were all well asleep. I guess the DCA didn’t realize that Fae only need roughly half the sleep that humans do. It even made sense since part of the torture going on in the black sites was sleep deprivation to soften the captives up.

If anyone caught him messing with the car, he was supposed to make a run for it and call the agent in charge, who would make sure the police wouldn’t get involved. He hadn’t been given any instructions in case we specifically caught him though, possibly because after my last warning they had decided to send someone expendable in case I did find out and flipped my lid. Though if I did flip my lid and killed their sacrificial lamb, or made him disappear, then they would take it as proof that they were right and I, and all of my people, were dangerous. There is just no pleasing some people.

Nishalle appeared to have come to the same conclusion as she rolled her eyes and gave Jason a sympathetic look. Jason himself seemed oblivious, or at the very least didn’t want to admit to himself that they had sent him because he was expendable. Poor guy, I almost felt bad for what was going to happen when I sent him back there with my message. Not that bad though since he had willingly taken the assignment and tried messing with my ride.

“Thank you, Jason,” I told him with a smile. “Now I have a little message that I want you to give your bosses. I have gone out of my way to avoid killing your agents, despite their many attempts to kill both me, and those I care about. Every time they have encountered us, your agency has shot first and hasn’t seemed to care about asking questions, and have endangered the public in doing so. We, on the other hand, have been trying to save lives and protect people from monsters, even when those people want us dead as much as the monsters we hunt. It is time for you people to start thinking for yourselves and ask yourselves who the real bad guys are here.”

Jason seemed ready to collapse from the stress but looked hopeful as he asked, “You’re going to release me now, right? You promised to release me, unharmed.”

“That I did,” I agreed, still smiling. “However, I did not specify when or where you would be released and there is still the small matter of you attempting to bug my vehicle. A lesson must be taught, Jason, such is the way of my people when we are wronged. Debts must be repaid.”

“B-but… you damn near killed me!”

“The shock you received was a mere deterrent, Jason. You have been healed from that, such was the debt for your injury. Since I am feeling generous, and you are carrying a message for me, I will let you off lightly though,” I offered. Then I turned to the Succubus that Chalise had called Aisha while searching Jason. “Aisha, could you please deliver Jason here to the rock that the DCA is hiding under for me? He needs to report to his superiors. There’s no rush though, take the scenic route, and make sure he can get a good view of the city below you.”

“It would be my pleasure, my Goddess,” Aisha replied with a grin before grabbing a terrified-looking Jason and disappearing from sight.

The scare wouldn’t do him any harm, he might even enjoy himself, and I couldn’t allow the DCA to think that their attacks would go unpunished. I may not kill the people they sent, but they needed to know that there would be a price each time, one that would suit the severity of the crime. That was part of the message as well.

I was hoping, even though it was unlikely, that dropping him off at their doorstep would teach them something else as well. We know exactly where they are and have yet to retaliate in any meaningful way for their attempts on my life. We weren’t above messing with them, or playing pranks like I was with Jason, but we were not trying to murder them all as they seemed to believe. Hopefully, that would help pound the message into some of their thick heads that they might just be on the wrong side.

I was still grinning at the thought of my little pranks on our adversaries as Nishalle finished checking the undercarriage of the Mercedes. She wanted to be sure, just in case something was damaged. I had only felt the trigger spell go off once though, so he likely hadn’t had time to do anything else before getting the shock treatment. “There’s no damage that I can see, and it looks like he only had the one bug,” my sister confirmed. Then she got a look at my face. “What are you smiling about, Sis? Picturing that tool being flown high above the city by a Succubus can’t be that entertaining.”

“Oh, I’m just thinking about what’s going to happen whenever he gets back to work and tries to use that smart card to access his computer,” I responded gleefully.

“What did you do, Sis? What’s going to happen?” my sister pressed as the others gathered around so I could teleport us all back upstairs.

“Just a little prank. Our friends at the DCA will have other things to worry about than us for a little while,” I replied teasingly.

Salem gave a sexy pout. “Come on, Tae. Don’t be all mysterious on us, what did you do? Share the joke with the rest of us. I thought that you enchanted the card but I couldn’t tell what the enchantment was meant to do.”

I considered teasing just a little more so she would keep pouting like that, but I relented. “Well, as soon as he tries to use that card in one of their computers, it will trigger three spells. The first one is a localized EMP that will fry all of the computers, and anything else electronic, in the building. The second spell will turn the skin of anyone in the building at the time an unflattering shade of neon green for three days. It’s not a transformation spell, it just affects the way that their pigmentation reflects light for a short time. Let’s see how they like being different for a bit.”

“Umm… sis. Is that a good idea? I mean these guys could all think that they’re becoming changed and try to kill one another,” Nishalle pointed out in concern.

“That’s what the third spell is for,” I announced with a diabolical grin. “Anyone who gets the ‘its not easy being green’ treatment will get a complimentary little illusory shoulder angel that looks like me. It will play a message that tells them that it is temporary, to help them learn to walk a mile or two in Changed shoes, and that I will be watching. I won’t be watching, of course, but my little copies will be hovering over their shoulders the entire time while giving them judgmental looks.”

“Wait, so for three days they’re going to be bright green with a little you sitting on their shoulders being silent and judgy and trying to make them feel guilty the whole time? Even when they’re going to the bathroom, in the shower, or having sex?” Salem asked.

“Yup. I would have done more; like have the angels sing off-key in the shower, giggle when a male agent uses a urinal, or have them give a thumbs-up and say, ‘thanks for the worship’ while they’re having sex, but it was a spur-of-the-moment spell. Something with that much situational awareness and adaptability would have to be tailored to each victim individually,” I answered with a shrug.

“Okay, you’re not trying to kill anyone; you’re trying to drive them all insane. I like it!” Nishalle beamed at me and gave me a thumbs-up.

An hour later, I was in the bath with Daenyss pampering me when Aisha returned and mentally reported that she had dropped Jason off at the office. She had been invisible at the time and told me that the looks on the guards’ faces had been priceless when she dropped the terrified techie in front of them. I tried not to giggle as Daenyss washed my hair.

Once Daenyss and I finished our morning routine, I allowed Rei, Megan, and my usual protectors to keep sleeping while I again took Chalise and some of the other girls from Lilith’s brood to take care of some business. It wasn’t likely to be dangerous since I would just be moving goods from the warehouse to Varüus’kiel, but I felt it was better to be safe instead of sorry. While I was gone, Daenyss and Salem would be looking for places where wealthy people shopped and possible tourist attractions for us to visit later in the day. It would be good PR to take in everything that the city had to offer while we were in Toronto.

It was only a little after two in the morning on the west coast and Whisper and Grell were both waiting for me in the warehouse rather than working or sleeping in the office. “I got your message that it’s getting a bit full in here,” I said once I spotted them sitting on some lumber.

“Yeah, we had quite a few shipments show up today,” Whisper replied as she stopped petting Shadow and hopped down onto the floor. The black ferret didn’t seem bothered by the jarring of his Witch’s sudden motion and just nuzzled right back against her neck as she steadied herself and handed me a USB drive. “Jim and I also got into a bunch of places we’re not wanted online and found over a dozen black sites in Europe holding Changed.”

I took the device and gave her a grim nod in return. “Thanks, Whisper, I’ll give this to my Mahair so the Courts can start assembling rescue teams and prepare for more refugees. How are your other projects going?”

The Witch shrugged. “Your pal Loki sent me a list of Gods on Danu’s side and I’ve been working on increasing their positive online presence. I know some, like Odin, Freya, Hera, Hades, Hermes, Hephaestus, Athena, Inari, and a bunch of the Celtic Gods like Áine, Brighid, and Mórrígan. There are a lot of minor Gods that I don’t really know much about though, other than what little information on them that Loki sent.”

“Well, do what you can when you have the time, finding and rescuing Changed who are being mistreated by their home countries is our main focus right now anyway,” I replied with a nod before turning to the Atlantean in the room. “How are things going with the secure server for the government of Varüus’kiel and our various services, Grell?”

“The server is good to go; I even have a mana battery installed to power it. The big problem is that we won’t be able to use it in Varüus’kiel until I can figure out how to get signals through. I know it’s still partially inside our dimension, but the spell Danu used to make sure that nothing could get into Varüus’kiel uninvited is going to make things difficult. Cell signals, radio transmissions, nothing gets through unless you personally allow it,” Grell complained.

“Yeah, I took over some satellites that were going over the area and it was like a thick mass of cloud cover over the entire area there keeping it from getting any photos. Thermal images are useless too,” Whisper contributed. “We’ve tried a few tests to see if our cell phones could call people in Varüus’kiel, but we’ve had no luck.”

While it was reassuring that nobody would be able to spy on or target us easily from space, it was also very concerning. “Any ideas, Grell?” I asked with a frown. “I don’t think that Danu would want us cut completely off from the world, not when the whole point is for us to try and redeem mankind and foster peace.”

Grell was silent for a moment, and I could see when the eureka moment hit him. “I’ve been working on something since I started work on the server. It’s a sort of signal relay booster that I was hoping would allow cell phone and wireless internet connection all across Varüus’kiel, similar to how I drastically increased the range and such on our cell phones. I was having trouble figuring out how to bypass the protection spell to allow us to transmit and receive the signals that we want outside Varüus’kiel, so I set it aside to work on the secure server. Maybe if you ‘bless’ it by using your magick to be the one to bring the booster online once it’s finished and focus on it allowing internet and cell signals to pass through, the spell would consider those signals ‘invited’ so we can send and receive.”

“It could work, and if it doesn’t, I can always ask Danu. I would like us to solve the problem without bothering her if possible though. How long would it take you to finish this device, Grell?” I asked the Artificer.

He considered it for a moment with a thoughtful expression before finally saying, “A couple of days, tops. I’ll need to use some of the cash that you left to get a few things, and if you want the coverage to extend to your other domains, I’ll need to create some relay devices that we can position by the gates as well. That’ll increase the production time a bit, but you shouldn’t have to bless those ones, and I should have them all done in three or four days.”

“Okay, Grell, do it. Make the relay devices too,” I told him. Then, with that decided and their progress reports given, I proceeded to portal all of the supplies in the warehouse to Varüus’kiel.

It took me nearly an hour using magick to move everything over and organize it, even with Chalise and the other Succubae helping out. Once we were finished, we said our goodbyes to Grell and Whisper and went to find my Mahair and the other current leaders of the Four Courts to pass on the information that Whisper had given me and receive progress reports. There was a lot to report on.

First of all, each of the Courts had found suitable locations to build their Glades in. Half of the Fae from each court would be going on ahead to start constructing their Glades, while the other half would remain here with the Queens to continue helping with constructing homes and other buildings in the capital. It would be the princesses of the Courts who would be overseeing the construction of the Glades in the Queens’ places, at least, for the Spring and Summer Courts. Narek was sending someone that he trusted to the Winter Court Glade, as was my Mahair since my half-sister Aine wouldn’t be getting out of her F.I.T until tomorrow night and she didn’t want to throw her in the deep end of the princess pool, as she did with me.

The construction in the capital was going well too, and there were a lot of hobbit hole homes ready that just needed things like windows and doors installed, and the artificed lighting and modern comforts that the Atlanteans were working on. The hospital and the clinics were in the same state, but we were also waiting on the medical supplies I had ordered for them. The Atlanteans were working hard though and it looked like they would be nearly ready by the time we got those supplies.

Then there was the Moon Palace. It was finished growing and towered high into the sky, shining in the darkness like a beacon. It was awe-inspiring. I had to give Jennifer props, from the outside at least, it looked like it belonged on the cover of a fantasy novel with its gleaming towers, majestic arches, and delicate balconies. Xixie and the other Sül’shael were eager to start making the doors and window shutters from Nythrin once they finished helping Hadrick finish the armor and other gear for the new Guardians.

Apparently, the Moon Palace wouldn’t need internal lighting, but Jennifer’s team would be installing all of the other modern conveniences once they were finished with the hospital. The other teams that were working on equipping the clinics would be moving on to the various homes. I wasn’t happy that they seemed to be prioritizing the palace, but Jennifer assured me that now that the production lines were recycling salvage from Atlantis to produce enough of the devices, they were a simple matter to install. The finished homes would all likely have them installed and ready by the time the wooden doors and windows were completed and installed.

The Moon Palace was a wonder though, and it felt a bit strange looking at it and knowing that it was being built for me. Sure, I had been doing all the work of being a leader, took my responsibilities seriously, and it was hard to forget my new position with Daenyss’s introductions every time I showed my face in public, but with all this Demigoddess shit on top, I hadn’t really stopped to try to process it yet. I allowed myself a moment to take in the sight, hoping that the comfort that the light gave would ease the sudden weight upon my shoulders, before casting a portal to take me and my escorts back to the hotel.