Soulforge Legacy Series

Sister? She was his sister? I mean, I knew that there were some stories of the gods being a bit…fucked up when it came to their family trees. But I didn’t realize that the fuckery extended from one pantheon to the next.

Then there was the whole name thing. Sure, some part of me recognized who this woman was, but it didn’t really hit me until I had heard someone call her by that name. This was the Inari, the goddess of all the Kitsune. The one that all of the original stories talked about.

They were gods. Overpowered beings that traveled to Earth throughout history. That shaped parts of it. Fuck, Hephaestus shaped chunks of civilization itself. And I was standing between the two.

Between two people that could wipe me out of existence without even trying.

As that fact finally broke through my thick skull, I debated making a run for it. Sure, I wouldn’t get all that far, but it was better than standing here, waiting for them to make a decision on what to do with me.

Instead of full out running, I took it slow. Attempting to be both subtle and quiet. To not draw any attention to me as I made for the nearest pillar. From there, I would have to figure out a way to get to the opening to the mountain, but first to get out of sight.

My feet lifted just high enough off the ground that I could slide them across without making a sound.

My movement was just in time as the two came together in a hell of a hug. While Hephaestus had no outward sign of his emotions, Inari’s tails were waving back and forth. Not quite as fast as a dog, but still more than before.

As the two finally broke apart, her smile dropped as it was replaced with a pout. “It’s not my fault that Fenrir has it out for me.”

“You dyed his fur bright pink! Of course he has it out for you.” His words nearly caused me to choke as I tried to hold back a laugh at the image of a large wolf with bright pink fur. “While I can help calm his rage, I doubt that is why you called me.”

“Well, no.” She waved off his offer. “I will deal with the little pup later.” Little pup? Fenrir? Oh god, to be on the wall when those two went at it. “What I wanted to know is how in the worlds you pulled off such a feat.”

Oh, come on. Surely she could have wasted a bit more time chatting with the guy before getting to the main topic. I wasn’t even halfway to the pillar.

“There have been so many things recently.” He sounded like he was boasting yet I had a feeling that it wasn’t just bluster. “Which one are you talking about?”

Her hand lifted in my direction. Not where I had been standing but a few minutes ago, but where I was standing now.

Yeah, who was I kidding? There was no way I was going to be able to get away from one god, let alone two.

With a resigned sigh, I stopped trying. Just in time for the god to follow her gesture to where I stood. His eyes roamed over my body, but not in a way that felt lecherous. More like he was sizing me up. It was the kind of look that someone gave to a piece of machinery as they tried to puzzle out what someone was talking about. What problem they might have seen that he was missing.

Then, as if by magic, his eyes lit up and his laughter filled the room “About time she showed up in front of you.” Inari looked like she was about to smack him. Before she could, however, he held his hands up in surrender. “You were the one agreed to her transformation and change in status.” What did he mean by that?

“You mean that little system error of yours?” She didn’t look or sound all that impressed at something. “Speaking of errors, I have noticed that there have been more of those lately. Just how much of the system did you break with this little experiment of yours?”

He brushed off her command with the wave of his hand. “Nothing I can’t fix.”

“And if the whole system crashes? How many lives will we lose? How much power will be lost? Will the disruption affect the barrier?”

Something about what she said caused him to snap. “You think I of all people don’t know how close we are from the edge? I built most of the fucking systems keeping everything running. Where do you think I have been? What do you think I have been doing? Fuck, even now most of my duplicates and instanced minds are busy churning through the multitude of issues even now. Sure, most of what they are doing is applying temporary patches, but that is just so that the rest can have the time necessary to make and implement something a bit more permanent.”

That outburst had so much information packed into it. Just the part about how he was in multiple places at once doing completely different tasks told me just how weak I was.

Hephaestus took a second to breathe before continuing. “Is the system perfect? No. But you can as Hades and the rest of those who monitor the souls entering and exiting the Tree. They will tell you about just how well this newest integration has gone. How many lives were saved compared to times past.”

“Fine,” while it sounded like she was dropping the subject, something about how she said it told me she would probably do as he said and ask around. “But that still doesn’t explain how you managed to do this.” If they kept waving in my direction, I might run on principle.

“Oh, that’s easy.” His expression melted from something a bit tense to one filled with pride. “I found that if you mix a soul-bound oath, a touch of transfiguration magic, and a relatively fresh mana pool, you can do quite a bit. It also helps that quite a few of us have visited the planet at some time and dropped off some genes here and there.”

Inari sighed as though she was recalling something nice. “It was a nice planet to go to for vacation.”

Hephaestus let out a scoffed laugh. “Probably helps that no one knew just how much of a trickster you were in the beginning.”

“That only lasted a few generations.” She scoffed. “Just long enough for stories to be written and for those them to watch for such tricks.” The fact that she used generations to mark time reminded me just how old these gods truly were.

“Loki says the same thing every time we get to talking about Earth. Anyway,” He shook his head, almost as though he needed for force himself back onto the topic at hand. “Quite a few of us left one or two children behind. Sometimes even one a visit. And while the subsequent generations may have lost access to mana, and consequently their magic, the genes continued to persist. She had…” his hand flicked through the air as his eyes scanned something before he let out a short, sharp laugh. “One percent Fox Shifter DNA. DNA that just happened to be Matrilineal. Surprisingly enough, that was also her only genetics from the various gods.”

I tried to wrap my head about that. Not the part about the genetics from the gods. Even if only a few screwed around one Earth, pun intended, the thousands of years would have allowed said genetics to spread through the population. The surprising part was the fact that I didn’t have more.

Unfortunately, I had to wonder just what he meant by Matrilineal. While I could guess it had to do with my mother, that didn’t make sense. So what else could he have meant?

“And for those that didn’t study how everything was built?” Inari asked the question I wanted to.

“It went from mother to daughter.” Of course I had guessed right. Yet another impossibility given everything. Well, that is unless it was solely on the X chromosome. “It almost never passed into a male relative. And given the family tree, every time one of them did get it, they never had a daughter so it never passed to the next generation.”

Oh my god. That explained my great-uncle. He wanted a girl to spoil but no matter what they tried they always ended up with a boy.

“That and a few other markers pushed her closer to the line.” What line was he talking about? “So much so that, from the various logs, the system tried to get her to switch multiple times.”

The mention of the system attempting to change me multiple times reminded me of the various attempts the system had tried. Not to switch my species or such. No. Every attempt had targeted my gender. And surprise surprise, it won in the end.

“Why?” My voice came out in a squeak that was just loud enough to catch their attention. Instead of answering, the two looked at me. Almost daring me to continue. As I didn’t have anything to lose at this point, I forced my voice to work. “Why couldn’t the system just leave me alone? It wasn’t like I wanted to become a woman. If anything, I was happy as I was.”

Inari’s eyes softened at my words while Hephaestus answered my question in his own way. “With all of the new people and the changes that were being done to the system, the thing didn’t, doesn’t, have the resources or ability to handle all of the issues that keep cropping up. As such, I had to re-enable some of the limits built into it when the system was first built. Ones that were designed to keep everything balanced. Gender just so happened to be one of those lines.”

That answer was both interesting and completely useless. Inari, bless the goddess, smacked the back of his head as she chided him. “You suck at providing a normal answer.” Her eyes moved to me as she continued. “What he means, or at least, what I think he was trying to say is that, if you had activated whatever it was that the system used to switch a person’s species, the system might have become confused and likely damaged you. Maybe even killed you.

“Isn’t that what I just said?”

“Not in the slightest.” The glare she shot him was akin to a mother glaring at an unruly child. “And you also said she had Fox Shifter DNA, not Kitsune.”

“Blame the demons.” He grumped.

Inari let out a low groan. “Is that why you sent that log to me a little while ago?” She looked into the air over us as if she was trying to recall what it had said. “It was the one that asked for permission to change someone’s species.”

“Yes.” The man sounded happy about something. “What else did you think I was doing?”

“Honestly?” She gave him a look that questioned his sanity. “I thought you were testing your system. A hypothetical situation. Not something that affected a person.”

Her words hit me hard. Especially given that she thought of me as little more than an accident. That she might not have chosen the same option given another choice.

I don’t know why it hurt so much. Then again, who else had similar thoughts? Who else thought of me as more of an accident? A mistake? My face must have shown just how hurt I was as she vanished from where she had been standing to holding me in her embrace.

As soon as her arms were around me, my entire body stiffened up and my breath hitched. I had to work to keep the tears from making a run for it. For all I knew, she was giving me one last chance at feeling someone embrace me before erasing me. From ending my existence for good. I doubted any one would even bother to reprimand her as it wasn’t like one mortal mattered in the grand scheme of things.

“I didn’t mean it like that.” Her voice was soft. Soothing. “I love every one of my children.” The words eased some of the pressure on my heart. “It is just that, sometimes this oaf forgets to tell people if something is merely theory or reality. Whether it is a simple test or something that affects a person’s path in life.”

“It didn’t change her path.” Hephaestus tried to chime in. “At least, not as far as I can tell.”

“Shut up.” The snap was light and I realized then that she hadn’t not wanted me. It was more of she didn’t know I had even existed in the first place. That, if she had, she might have taken the time to at least talk to me. To provide me some basic information. As though she wanted to be a parent to me.

“Just saying,” he mumbled as we stood there. After another minute of silence, he broke the silence once again. “If you don’t have anything else, I have work that I have to get back to.”

Her head lifted off of mine as she glared at him. “Not until you set up a few things for me.”

“Like what?”

“Now that I know there are other kids out there,” her voice stopped for a second. “Wait, just how many are out there anyway?”

His hesitation told me all I needed to know about the answer. Judging by the growl that vibrated through her chest, she had noticed it as well. “Seven, including her.”

“So, I have seven new children that are off having fun without me?” I wondered if it was the fact that she didn’t know about us or the fact that we were having fun without her that she was more pissed about. “I need a way to talk to each of them. Now!”

“I will set something up.” He sounded a bit tired. “Can I go now?”

“Go.” Given that he didn’t reply, I had to assume he had vanished just as silently as he had appeared. Her soft voice caused me to pull back enough to look at her. “It is almost time for you to return as well.”

“Return?” Where would I even return to? Death brought me here.

“Well,” She pulled back a bit more as her eyes once again looked me over. “More like continue on your journey. Eh, that isn’t quite right either. Not that it matters.”

Something pulled at my core. It had been doing so for the last ten minutes, but something had changed. Instead of a soft pulling force, it was more akin to someone using a motorcycle to pull me toward them.

Before either of us could say another word, the force yanked me off my feet, out of the room, and off the mountain.