Round 3.3

They didn’t break up the camp when they woke up. Not that a shoddy campfire and some rocks were much to break up. Instead, they pretended to fish, mostly by wading around in circles in the shallows.  

Or rather, Resonance waded around, Koba floated and Renata was staying on the bank thank you very much. She was not the type to play around in rivers, and she needed a break from the mortal anyway.

Ugh, that mortal. At least in the water he couldn’t lean over her and hold flames up to her, gripping her arm when she’d flinch away. Or suggest something was wrong with her for being bothered by it – “normal people don’t mind this, really I’m helping you deal with your issue, just hold still, see?”, rather than him for continuing to do it. Or ask creepy questions about everything. Worst of all, he was getting to her. Him, a mortal!

She’d only started to realize how much when she got a break from him. Of course he might have been right that she looked haggard from travelling, , and she’d swelled up from the thing growing in her, and sure, many found pregnant women less attractive, maybe that was true since he kept saying it despite being affected by her glamour, but surely it couldn’t be as bad as he’d made it out to be. And really, when there weren’t someone insisting it was constantly, her fear of fire seemed pretty reasonable, considering how she’d died.

But part of her wouldn’t admit she didn’t have the mortal under her full control. That he could have undermined the way she looked at herself, even with witchcraft and unsubtle threats. Why, there was a very good reason she stayed around him, instead of sneaking up on Anubis with a rock. Who even knew if that would work on a god? No, the mortal was a smarter bet.

No, she was just looking a little less than her usual standard, he was just looking out for her in a stupid clumsy mortal way and maybe the fire thing was a little silly, and she fully well had the mortal wrapped around her finger. She’d just need to force him to brew his potion, and then she could leave. Good as new.

In fact, she’d take some action to make it happen. She’d gotten descriptions of most of the herbs they needed, and she was going to go look for some, right now.




Anubis was beginning to suspect they were all pulling his leg. He’d never met an imp before, but he was fairly sure they didn’t catch fish with their bare hands like Koba had claimed, because if they did, Koba would have been really bad at it. Actually the imp had done nothing but cackle and splash the water.

It didn’t even have the decency to be sorry that he still smelled like wet dog when they got back to the remains of the campfire from the previous night. In fact it only seemed to make the imp laugh harder, and suggest he go dry off in the bushes.

The succubus was missing. Just as well. Anubis had a very good hearing, and the way Resonance had been treating her had been awful. If this was the way he acted under a glamour to make him like her, the file Thoth had given him on the sorcerer was just the tip of the iceberg.

Damn, this smell was just not godlike, and he’d have to keep making a proper god!



Seeing Anubis walk off, Koba took the opportunity to pull Resonance aside. It had regret making the deal with the succubus many times now, but hadn’t been able to get her alone again and undo it, with Resonance clinging to her. Maybe now she wasn’t around Koba could talk some sense into the sorcerer. Or Anubis might intervene, if he overheard what Resonance’s hare brained plan was.

“Resonance, buddy, I’m not trying to ruin anything for you, but I think this thing with Jezebel is going too far, and I don’t think we should break into Hades’ Palace.”
“I can handle it.” Reonance answered, confidently.

“Look, you’re a good sorcerer, I respect that, but …”

“I have it under full control, she doesn’t have any effect on me, succubus or not.” He said defensively, “besides, we need her info on Osiris.”

Koba sighed, “Yes, agreed, let’s give her the abortion so she’ll give us the info.”

“I don’t even think the ingredients for that potion exist in Hades. I’m just stringing her along until she tells us, see? Full control of the situation.” The sorcerer waved a hand dismissively. As if he’d ever had a plan to give up the hold that fetus gave him on Jezebel.

Koba was vaguely disappointed Anubis hadn’t intervened when he heard about the burglary, but what the imp didn’t know was that Anubis had another thing he needed to turn right first. He knew what kind of person Resonance was, and he knew that there was only so much he’d let the sorcerer get away with. Thoth could tell him about non-interference as many times as he’d like, but Anubis took after his father. And before Osiris had gone mad, he was a pretty good guy, as far as Anubis had heard.

Besides, one of the perks of being a god was meddling.




Hours later, Anubis returned, marching straight up to Resonance.

“You’ll find that Jezebel is now aware that you’ve been lying to her,”

“…Is that so?” The sorcerer asked tersely.

“Yes. As you are under my watch, I’ve had to take responsibility for your behavior and regulate it.”

The camp was silent for a long moment.  Koba discretely floated backwards, away from Resonance, in case Anubis was not as nice as previously assumed, but was in fact the kind of god that smited people. evidently, Koba thought, he wasn’t keen on lying and they’d been lying to him an awful lot.

“That’s what Thoth has been telling you you’re here for?” Resonance said mildly, “or is it because you’re mad I told you he’d lie to you, and ruined your illusions?”

“It was because it was right. That is what I do, and I will put a limit to your horribleness.” Anubis voice was firm and steady, he stood upright, and looked for all purposes very regal – though his ears were flattened along his head in anger. Koba backed up an extra bit.

“and that’s why you’re here! Thoth needs you around me, because he’s too spineless to tell you the truth, and you need to have some of my horribleness to rub off on you so you can bloody well survive the coup he’s got staged, to put you on your dad’s throne!” the sorcerer’s tone was still mild, almost sing song but he couldn’t conceal the undercurrent of rage any longer, “and he’s paying me plenty!”

“Thoth. Would not. Do that. Without. Telling me.” Anubis growled, “I will not tolerate you lying about something like that!”

“So ask him! I don’t have any reason to lie to you. Go ask Thoth if he’s bailing me out in exchange for babysitting you! while you’re at it, ask him about Saturday’s little army, they’re probably turning the coup into a full scale revolution!” Resonance shouted, “I’m finding Jezebel.”

And then he stalked off. Anubis, still seething, turned around, and walked off as well.
Koba breathed a deep sigh of relief, finally able to remove the nervous smile from its face.

“Should’ve stuck with the broom guy.” It muttered to itself.



Renata, for her part, had finally gotten rid of the last remains of the headache that had plagued her, since approximately an hour after meeting Koba and his mortal. When Anubis had shown up and told her the truth, it had been as if a heavy weight was taken off her shoulders. She’d even found a puddle to see herself in, and seen that she didn’t look half as bad as he’d made it out to be.

She hadn’t quite figured out what to do about Anubis now she was back to her best option was to kill him, but right now, she felt so good she’d at least let him go for another day.

“Jessie?”

Aaaand back came the headache. Just the mention of that annoying nickname was enough.
“I’ve  been looking all over for you! Anubis said he’d pulled a prank on you…”

“Save it, mortal.” She turned and walked away, “I’m in no mood for you.”

He followed her doggedly, “Jezebel, I think you’re making a mistake.” He said a little more firmly. She didn’t respond.

“Do not walk away when I’m talking to you!”  

“I do not take orders from the likes of you!” she spat back.

He’d probably missed on purpose. Never the less, the first fireball to fly straight past her face was enough to send Renata running.

He kept following, calling for her to come out. The stench of smoke was everywhere, and he just kept following. She wasn’t quite sure, in her panic, if she could only hear his footsteps, or was it a mob?

Suddenly she felt something brush over her shoulder, spreading a dull pain down her back. She just had time to register the smell of burnt bacon before the pain set in full force. Bizarrely enough, it seemed to break through her panic and allow her to think clearly long enough to run to the thicker brush towards the palace and hide.

“I’m sorry, Jessie. Please come out and we’ll talk about it.” He didn’t sound sorry at all. More worryingly, he seemed to be honing in on her, stopping to move his head vaguely, as if he was listening for something, even though she was keeping perfectly still and holding her breath.

The glamour, she realized – he was following it like a trail! Immediately she shut it down, leaving the mortal standing speechless. He didn’t move for almost a minute, and then he suddenly seemed to explode,

“You goddamn bitch! You manipulated me!” he shrieked. She had to scramble back from the bush she was hiding in as it was suddenly set on fire. “I’ll kill you!”

The mortal wasn’t even trying to direct the fire anymore, it was just pouring from him in streams as he tramped around searching for her. From his hands, his eye sockets, his mouth, blinding him and sending him fumbling and screaming incoherently in rage.

Renata was almost overwhelmed by panic again, but the sharp pain in her shoulder kept her grounded. This wasn’t a mob, this was one crazy man. She’d seen him get tired before, she’d just have to keep out of his reach, just run a little further. Then she’d be safe, she’d be free to get her life back to normal, deal with the gods for it, anything she wanted, just a little further.

She wasn’t sure how long she’d run when he collapsed.



Resonance didn’t realize what had happened until he hit the ground. He’d been tricked. Again! One of his ribs had snapped and he’d cracked in several other places. He couldn’t even sit up. Everything felt so weird and dull.

Someone stepped into his field of vision. Jezebel, alive and standing straight up, despite everything he’d thrown at her. He managed to move his jaw a bit, but couldn’t force any words out.

He shouldn’t have gotten cocky, he shouldn’t have played with creatures he didn’t understand, he shouldn’t have told Anubis about the coup, he shouldn’t have done a lot of things. Mostly, he should have listened to Koba from the start.

The succubus leaned over, coldly looking into his eye, “You aren’t worth my time, and you never have been mortal. Consider yourself lucky this time around.” And with that she left, striding elegantly away into the brush and leaving him like a heap of trash. She even managed to keep her back straight and not wince from the burn.

Resonance would have sighed. He was an idiot, he’d been completely manipulated, he’d been utterly humiliated and Thoth was going to kill him when he found out about Anubis.