Tradegate, Months After Hephaestus's Arrival
Artemis crouched in the shadow of a shifting building, her bow drawn, arrow nocked. The Invisible stag she'd been tracking for the last few days moved through the marketplace below, its silver coat gleaming with starlight even in Tradegate's perpetual twilight only visible to Artemis. A creature of the Beastlands, escaped through a careless portal, and now her prey.
Her hunters waited in position around the plaza's perimeter mounted on massive wolves whose eyes glowed with menace. Six of them were handpicked from among her most loyal followers, each one capable of bringing down targets that would challenge minor gods.
The stag paused near a fruit vendor's stall, its head lifting and its ears swirling around as if sensing danger.
Artemis drew back her bowstring, preparing for the shot.
And then she caught a scent, faint but unmistakable, carried on the wind that shouldn't exist in an enclosed city. An Olympians divine essence.
She froze, arrow still nocked, her attention shifting from the stag to the source of that familiar power.
Hephaestus?
That made no sense. Her brother never left his forges, never traveled beyond Arborea or the mortal world. He certainly wouldn't come to the Outlands, where divine power was suppressed the closer you got to the Spire. Even here at the outer edge, she could feel the dampening effect, her connection to Olympus stretched thin and tenuous. Her avatar form required constant effort to maintain, supported only by the hunters and their wolves who carried extra fragments of her divine essence.
Yet the scent was definitely his. Fire and metal and the distinctive signature of a volcano. Mixed with something else. Something that didn't belong to any Olympian she'd ever encountered.
The stag bolted, sensing its opportunity. Her hunters looked to her for the signal to pursue.
Artemis lowered her bow. "Let it go," she said firmly. "We have a different hunt now."
She dropped from her perch, landing silently despite the twelve-foot fall. Her hunters converged on her position, the wolves padding softly across the cobblestones.
"My lady?" one asked, confusion evident in his voice. "The prey was right there."
"There's bigger prey in this city," Artemis said, following the scent trail. "Much bigger."
The trail led her through the marketplace, past vendors selling things, past travelers. The scent grew stronger as she approached the merchant quarter, concentrated around a particular building.
A spice shop, of all things. With lodgings above.
Artemis gestured for her hunters to spread out, surround the building. They moved with silence, taking positions that would prevent escape. The wolves settled into shadows, becoming nearly invisible despite their massive size.
She approached the entrance, extending her divine senses fully despite the Spire's dampening effect.
The scent was definitely Hephaestus. Fire, metal, divine craftsmanship. But woven through it was something else, something that read as otherness.
What had her brother done? she was pretty sure he was still on the mountain.
The proprietor, a middle-aged human woman, looked up as Artemis entered. Her eyes widened slightly, recognizing divinity as Artemis was particularly blaring it.
"Can I help you, my Lady?" she asked fearfully.
"I'm looking for someone. A craftsman, possibly staying in your lodgings. or has stayed here?"
The woman's expression turned guarded. "I'm sorry my Lady, I don't discuss my guests lodging."
Artemis produced a small silver coin from her belt pouch, stamped with the image of a running deer. "Here's a favor coin, for your discretion, and your information."
The woman took the coin, examined it, and pocketed it smoothly. "He rented a room weeks ago. He paid in advance, he was very quiet and kept to himself mostly. He went out during the day, returning in the evening. Sometimes bringing back materials, metals and such. I assumed he was an artificer of some kind."
"Is he here now?"
"He left a while back my Lady."
Artemis nodded, committing that information to memory. "Thank you. If anyone asks..."
The woman smiled knowingly. "I never saw you, my lady."
Artemis left the shop and rejoined her hunters in the street. They looked to her for direction, hands on weapons, ready for whatever she commanded.
"We wait and follow," she said. "We do this quietly. I want to see what my brother has been doing in the Outlands, and why he's hiding from the family."
They settled into position, now invisible to mortal sight, patient as only immortals could be. The marketplace continued its chaotic business around them, nobody noticing the goddess and her hunters watching.
Artemis found herself wondering. Hephaestus had always been the quiet one the one who stayed in his forge all week and avoided family gatherings whenever possible and she had never been particularly close to him, their domains too different, their personalities incompatible.
She needed to know what he was up to now, curiosity now firmly stirred. She now needed to understand. And then she needed to decide whether to report back to Zeus or keep this discovery to herself. If it was even Hephaestus.
The sun or whatever passed for a sun in Tradegate continued its slow arc across the sky. The marketplace shifted and rebuilt itself according to patterns only it understood.
And Artemis waited, hunters positioned, curious about what secrets her brother had been keeping.
The hunt had just become far more interesting than any mere silver stag could provide.
The Witch and The Crossroads Between Worlds
Hecate stood in a place that wasn't quite a place, at the intersection of various minor realities that most shouldn't have been able to touch. Torches burned with black flame at each corner, illuminating nothing mortals could see, while somehow making the darkness more visible.
She'd been searching for months. Following traces that grew fainter with each passing day. The kind that only existed in the spaces between worlds. Hephaestus had used it, somehow, to leave their cosmology entirely.
But the trail ended here, in this non-space between realities, and went no further. It felt like she was blocked off by something she couldn't understand or sense.
She couldn't track him beyond this point. The magic he'd used was normal but the way he left was older than the Olympians, older perhaps than the Titans. Primordial.
Impressive. Frustrating. And deeply concerning, to have come so far yet be just out of reach for her..
Hecate touched the boundary where the trail ended, feeling the residual energy. Hephaestus had stood here, or somewhere similar, and made a choice. Three paths had been available to him, three songs calling from different realities.
He'd chosen one. Which one, she couldn't determine. The paths had closed behind him, sealing themselves against pursuit.
She could force her way through, perhaps. Tear open the boundaries, follow the fading traces into whatever reality he'd chosen. But that would risk destabilizing the threshold itself, potentially trapping her forever in a place older then her current reality that she could sense would utterly erase her.
Unacceptable.
Hecate withdrew her hand, the black flames of her torches flickering in response to her frustration. She'd report to Zeus, eventually. Tell him that Hephaestus had indeed left their cosmology, and that tracking him further would be inadvisable.
Whether Zeus accepted that answer was his problem.
For now, though, she lingered in this non-space, studying the residual energy patterns. The magic Hephaestus had used was fascinating. Divine power channeled through mortal understanding somehow. She wondered what a mortal could know that gods didn't already.
There was some otherness' mixed in with his signature. That would explain how he'd resisted the forces that would tear her apart but how!
It was deeply troubling in its implications, what could Hephaestus have discovered and as her domain was a goddess of hidden knowledge why didn't her domain tell her what was going on?
Hecate filed those questions away for later contemplation. She had other responsibilities, other thresholds to guard, other crossroads to watch and more magic to study.
But she would continue searching. Continue investigating. This mystery was too interesting to abandon completely.
And perhaps, eventually, she'd find where Hephaestus had gone and what he'd become.
The Goddess of Magic and Crossroad was indeed patient.