The Centaur-shaped Celestial turned to face Capricorn, arms crossed and a sour look on his face.
"You didn't come to the Aestori's origin glade to speak to me about my wars with Aries. So speak," he unfurled one hand and waved it out towards her before tucking in back into place across his chest, "I can't wait to hear what peculiar thing on the mortal realm entranced the Goddessof Magick so much that she would walk around my city in such a restrained state. Enlighten me as to why you consort with your sister's creations with such abandon."
Capricorn rose up on her coiled body so that she loomed over Sagittarius and pointed a finger down at him.
"Firstly, it'd be best to keep in mind that your elves have no issues consorting with them and sought them out—Bah, it does not matter. Your quarrelsome personality is why I did not offer you assistance the first time you fought that war-crazed fool of a God. I don't particularly care about you or your star obsessed elves. The little one down there piqued my interest because she's one of Virgo's Altaerians and has shown great promise in furthering certain goals. Your elves swore themselves to her family, and she is bound to me. That's the only reason I was even around your precious elves."
The hostility on the centaur deity's face faded.
"Fine. I'll accept that answer. For now."
The winds quieted and the forest stilled.
Capricorn relaxed her body, and sank back down to the ground in a huff.
Sagittarius unfurled his arms and lowered his body into a sitting position. He didn't take his eyes off of Capricorn and spoke again after some time, his tone seemed less angry as before.
"So what do my Aestori have to do with these goals of yours?"
"I don't have a particular care for them, if I'm to be honest. I'm only interested in the Altaerian."
Sagittarius turned his firm attention to me, "Then I'll ask the mortal one. What are my children getting themselves into in such a manner that it involves not one but two Celestials meddling in matters of Terae."
"Just tell him the truth. It probably doesn't matter what nonsense your planning on the mortal plane, he's just being nosy."
Capricorn's assurance did little to make this all seem less stressful, but I answered the God nonetheless.
"The Aestori were allies to my people for many years. We've become estranged due to certain circumstances, but I journeyed to their city to ask for their help in taking back a city that we lost to another faction, the Renaultians."
"Ah yes. I'm vaguely aware of all that. However, you think They will just let you take that city back? All Their scheming, all that time—just going to waste?"
"None of us expect the Renaultians to just hand back the city. That's why we're preparing for war."
"Haah?" Sagittarius exclaimed incredulously, "The Renaultians? Who cares about some pitiful humans led astray by void magick. I'm talking about the Void itself. The master of which tempted my children with dark magick. I'm talking about Gemini, you fool of a girl."
Gemini and the 'Void'? I must be missing something.
I looked to Capricorn for some assistance.
Sagittarius also turned to look at Capricorn, "Surely you know what you and your sister's minion are getting into, right?"
"I haven't the foggiest idea what you're going on about. What does that double-headed bastard have to do with any of this?"
"You're both so incredibly dense that it's hard to fathom, you and your bird-brained sister—"
A shiny disc of chaotic magick whirled past Sagittarius' head. A loud explosion echoed through the grove, and massive trees were uprooted in an instant.
"It's rude to insult your guests so much. Watch your tongue or I'll take it as a trophy." Capricorn hissed.
Sagittarius scowled at Capricorn but continued on, "You've locked yourself away in the pursuit of magick, ignoring the state of things in the Aetherial Plane, for too long. The one you worked so hard to banish eons ago still has minions hidden in the furthest reaches of Tartarus doing his bidding."
Capricorn twitched at the mention of this 'banished' one. She glanced back at me with murderous rage in her eyes and snapped her fingers.
In a flash I was encased in a glowing barrier.
I tried to move forward but was unable to step more than a few feet ahead. The barrier was largely transparent and I could still make out both Celestials before me, but I couldn't hear anything.
Capricorn raised herself high off the ground and looked to be screaming into the sky, but everything remained completely silent within the barrier.
She lowered herself back down to Sagittarius and thrust her arm out at him stiffly and started yelling at him. The Goddess was in a full on fit of rage, while Sagittarius remained stone-faced.
After a few minutes of this, she turned away and a large tear in the air appeared beside her. Bright orange light erupted outwards and a portal came to life in a violent display of power.
My footing became unstable and I fell flat on my bottom. The barrier I'd been trapped in shifted, and the next thing I knew I was being hurled through said portal.
I turned back and caught a glimpse of Sagittarius looking down on me with a bitter expression.
-✵-
The barrier skidded across the ground until it slammed into something solid. I tumbled over myself and cursed the Goddess for her rough treatment.
As I collected myself and looked around my new surroundings, I got a deep sense of déjà vu. Verdant green spread out in every direction, broken only sparse dashes of red in the distance.
I'm back, Coil of Ascendance. It's been a while.
A thunderous blast of glass breaking split my ears and everything seemed to be a little brighter.
"That wretched traitor! Is he beholden to that fraud for all eternity!?" Capricorn's screams intensified as she stepped through her portal. A burst of chaotic energy dispersed wildly and the portal dissipated.
Strong pressure pushed down on me.
A gust of wind whipped through the open clearing we apparated to—or so I thought, until a brilliant white flash of light right next to us caught my eye. The pressure subsided and large white feathers fluttered to the ground.
I followed the trail of feathers to their source, and found a winged figure in full golden plate armor hovering overhead.
"Mother… Sister. Welcome back."
Vita, one of the Goddess Virgo's attendants and the steward of these groves, greeted us.
"Might I inquire to the purpose of your abrupt and noisy visit?"
"Vi, I've no time for games." Capricorn's rage seethed in the tone of her words. "Where is my sister?"
Vita's expression changed from stoic guardian to scolded child, "The Goddess is in the closest grove nearby, tending to the souls of her favored children. I will take you there. Please follow me, mother."
Vita stretched out her wings and pushed herself up higher in the air, soaring away.
Capricorn glanced at me, her eyes looking the slightest bit less predatory.
"Come on. This involves you as well."
The Goddess took off without waiting for a response, moving much faster than I could walk, so I had to run.
"Uhm!" I called after her, "I'm sure I don't have to express this, and you'll maybe fill me in once we're there, but what in the Aether is going on and why did you stick me in that stupid barrier?"
The sharp look in return from Capricorn had me immediately regret asking.
"Because the lesser races aren't supposed to be involved in our affairs."
My expression surely betrayed me, giving away my continued confusion, as Capricorn clicked her tongue and continued.
"All you have to understand is that we Celestials signed a pact millennia ago in the aftermath of a century long war against each other. For any conflicts between Gods within the Aetherial Plane, we are forbidden to involve any other beings. And now, if what that donkey said is true, we're tangled up in a conflict with another God. It's better for him to think you're being kept out of it."
The clearing gave way to the more dense forests I'd encountered in the Coil last time, and my travel speed became impeded.
Capricorn tore ahead of me.
Treading carefully through the underbrush and exposed roots, I finally stepped out of the tree line and into a large grove of spider lilies. In the center of a spiraling field of flowers, sat the winged Goddess, Virgo.
To her side was Vita, who was motioning frantically towards Capricorn.
I arrived after their conversation had started, but judging by the look of annoyance on Virgo's face she had yet to get a word in between Capricorn's beratement and Vita's flailing.
"Are you finished?" Virgo said coldly, once Capricorn had ceased her stream of yelling.
"Don't get cross with me. Why am I only finding out Gemini has been creeping around doing errands for Libra?"
"Because you have a one-track mind when it comes to all things magick. The two of them could've knocked on your door and you'd ignore them if you were tweaking some new type of spell."
Virgo shrugged her shoulders and wisps of smoke and aetherial feathers fluttered in the air.
"I hardly see how this is my fault. You've been entirely ignorant of Terae. You have more than a few of your own attendants. I'm sure they've kept you up to speed, you were just too busy and ignored it."
"Sagittarius says Gemini is mixed in with the group of humans who crossed my disciple." Capricorn thrust an arm at me. "Aren't those ones your creations as well? Why are they doing those bastard's biddings?"
Virgo's eyes narrowed, "Since when did my Harbinger become your disciple? You're being extra annoying today, sister. To answer your stupid question, it was beyond my control. My hands are tied when it comes to interference in the mortal plane, same as you. By the time I realized Gemini had spun his web, it was too late. They've been under his influence for millennia of years now."
"Haaah!?" Capricorn exclaimed in an almost ear-piercing wail.
"Their royal line has been practicing void and shadow magicks for over two-thousand years," Virgo continued, ignoring the outburst, "handing down their knowledge from crown to crown. And they learned it from the corrupted elves, those Ixians that Sagittarius tucked away in the forests under the shadow of Ansridge."
I stepped between the two Goddesses, interrupting whatever thoughts Capricorn was about to share. "Are you saying that the Ixians and Renaultians have been in league with each other for that long?"
"They weren't on the same side initially. It all played out like you'd expect mortal conflicts to, which is why I never suspected anything until it was too late."
Virgo huffed indignantly.
Capricorn was muttering something under her breath, pacing back and forth on her tail.
"Before you wear a rut in my grove." Virgo chastised her, "Why don't you go ask your children for the rest of the story. At least the majority of them are attentive at the very least, even if they lack the interpersonal skills to report the things they see properly."
"… but what would be the point in positioning humans and elves against themselves in the mortal plane?" Capricorn's ramblings had grown louder, and I could now hear her clearly. "Is it revenge for the banishment? No. That makes no sense. No creature on Terae could do anything to me no matter how hard it—Oh, but there are, aren't there?"
Capricorn's sharp predatory eyes locked onto me, and her whole body lunged forward.
I flinched under her sudden assault—but found myself hidden behind the glow of smoky white wings.
"Don't even think about it." A guttural growl sounded as Virgo deflected the crazed lunge, knocking Capricorn to the side.
She stared the both of us down, and the air pressure began to change. My hairs stood on end, and I worried that she was about to cast some unknowable magick at us—but nothing so dramatic happened.
Orange sparking lines of magick along with a tear in the air signaled the opening of one of her trademark portals and in a moment the deranged Goddess was gone.
"Tch."
Virgo clicked her tongue and vanished without a word in her own flash of white light.
…Hello? What about me?
I was left speechless.
A rustling noise behind me caused me to jump in surprise.
"Paaah!" A girlish voice whined.
Vita was sitting on the grass, hugging her knees tightly.
"Ah, are you—"
"I'll take you home in a minute. Just give me a moment to catch my breath. I apologize for mother's behavior, and for my master's lack of care."
"No. I… It's alright," I stammered, "It's not your fault."