On the morning of the battle in Shanghai, Sonya had felt refreshed, strong, ready, and raring to go. That odd feeling of sharpness and clarity that she’d experienced in Australia had come back to her. She had thought, then, that this was what it must feel like to be someone past the threshold. It was incomparable to her human experience, with all the traits of her multifaceted abilities working in tandem as her body became more than human. That had to be it, right?

She was so happy she had been wrong.

On a chilly morning after the fight in Shanghai, after a few days of celebrating the success of her latest villainous plot, Sonya’s impressions finally stabilized. There was no fanfare, no sudden burst of raw power or sense of ‘godliness’ or anything like that. She just felt right. Inspiration came in waves as that odd clarity widened into a broader sense of perspective. Instead of merely reveling in it, she understood it for what it was and what it really meant. After First Wind had declared mid-battle, she had no illusions that others would find their way past the threshold as well. They would experience the same state of mind and being when their impressions stabilized.

That deep rumination lasted all of ten minutes before she switched gears and decided she’d rather be playing. She was too excited to not see what practical use she could get out of it. There were so many ideas, and what better place than to-

Sonya ducked beneath Loki’s knife with a laugh, sweeping up and driving her shoulder into their arm; they pulled away and brought their knee up into her chest. She let the wind drive out of her lungs and let the blow carry her up into the air above them, planting a hand on their head and pushing into a handstand. Her own weapon, Verdict, a glimmering khopesh-like blade, twirled into a reverse grip in her hand before she swung down at their throat.

Loki whipped their head back with a grin and grabbed her wrist, swinging her down towards the ground at their left. She let out a shriek of laughter and allowed it, landing on her feet with a pivot and throwing her arm back dramatically as if they had been dancing the entire time. “My, my, Loki, such a good dancer! I hope I don’t make Pandora jealous,” she teased with an impish grin. Loki’s eyes widened for half a moment before they grinned back, snapping their hand down at the blade heading for their kidney. She snickered and bounded around him, dipping low and going into a full headspin.

As her heel moved towards Loki, Loki snapped out with a slash of their dagger. She twisted her foot and caught it with her stiletto. They blinked, and she pushed herself up and into a corkscrew before they could react. Loki hit the ground and lay there for a moment as Sonya landed on her feet, panting. “Hah! I got you!” she laughed before throwing her fists up into the air. “Hey, sis! You see that? I got Loki!”

A good distance away, across the rolling green grass and tepid breezes of Sonya’s peaceful inner world, her sister and Set sat comfortably beneath a tree. They looked like they were in the middle of casual conversation when Erina looked up, waving at her. Set raised his hands to his lips and cupped them. “Sonya! Loki did not submit yet!”

Sonya laughed and tilted her head to the right as the knife snapped past her ear. “I know!” she shouted and shimmied left to avoid the follow-up knife hand to her waist. “Working on it!” she said and hopped over the driving knee, planting her hands on it and throwing herself up into the air. She met Loki’s gaze as she flipped over them and spun her body, hooking her leg around Loki’s neck and, with a bit of applied force, drove them to the ground again. This time she put them in a headlock as she sat on their back. “Saaaaay uncle!”

Loki coughed and sputtered before squinting at her incredulously.

She shrugged. “It’s an expression.”

Loki rolled their eyes and was about to speak when Sonya felt another body moving in her direction. She leaned back, tilting her head all the way back to see Pandora charging towards her from afar. This pose had the added benefit of putting just a little more pressure on poor Loki, who started slapping the ground. She grinned. “Here she comes.”

–

Erina rolled her eyes as Sonya went straight for the hijinks. Pandora was on top of her in a heartbeat, and Sonya was forced to release Loki, who got to their feet and joined in the attack. She sipped at the cool glass of water in her hand and took a moment to enjoy the balmy air. Sonya could keep her exotic locales and salty sea air. Erina preferred more stable, smoother climates. She glanced over at her conversation companion. Old Man Set was leaning forward and watching the fight with growing interest.

“You see something?” she asked.

“Yes, I can’t quite put my finger on it…” he said thoughtfully. “Fascinating, though, that she’s already begun to apply duality to her martial art.”

Erina raised her eyebrow and looked back at Sonya and frowned. She’d somehow managed to sweep Pandora into a dipping hold while her rear foot collided with Loki’s knife. “Looks like she’s just goofing off again.”

“It certainly does, doesn’t it?” he chortled. “I daresay that’s the point, though.”

Erina crossed her arms and watched a bit more carefully than she had been. Sonya was as graceful as always, perhaps even more so. She’d hoped Sonya would cut out some of the extraneous movements she liked to throw into her actions. Instead, though, it seemed like Sonya had thrown even more in. There was no need to mess up Loki’s hair or do the full posture for a ballerina twirl when she avoided Pandora’s palm strike. That’s why she was watching hours of ballerina videos the other day. I should have known she wasn’t just ‘scouting’ for our Paris visit. As the thought crossed her mind, Sonya struck at Pandora, her latest graceful maneuver ending with a quick slash towards the chin that missed.

“I still don’t see it,” Erina said finally. “Enlighten me, Lord of Battle.”

Set snorted at the title but didn’t discourage it. “Grace, whimsy, use of her own mischief, and looks to beguile and bewilder. It is intentionally confusing, frustrating, and irritating. That knife blow wasn’t aimed for the chin, though,” Set said gravely. “Sonya’s fighting style before this consisted mostly of disabling shots. Quick, light headblows and strikes to the thighs and arms - non-lethal unless she is angry.”

Erina narrowed her eyes and watched, only for her eyes to widen as Sonya made a snap kick at the front of Loki’s knee. Loki barely got out of the way in time to avoid a brutal hit. “Oh.”

“Hah! You see it,” he said with a nod. “Throat strikes, kidney shots, targeting the spine, leg breakers, arm breakers - all brutal direct shots, every blow an attempt on the target’s life. She’s fighting to kill and hiding that ruthlessness behind candy. Her impressions have most certainly stabilized. She’s inspired.”

She nodded appreciatively and sipped her drink again, watching her sister with renewed interest and respect for the zany movements. “I wish she would come here more often,” she said. “There is so much she could learn from your wisdom, Set.”

The old man shrugged. “Perhaps, but she seems to be doing quite fine. Besides,” he turned and looked at her. “She has you. A Legacy Spirit born of her own mind, a very intimate connection. You can share memories, yes? Why not spend more time here, and I will teach you what I intend to teach her? We’ve had many good talks, but some practical study may not be a bad idea.”

Erina frowned. “I suppose I should learn to fight more like her, just in case.”

He laughed. “That’s the spirit! Several of my students over the centuries chose to learn a variety of styles to better themselves. Why, I remember-” He paused and let out a small chuckle. “Ah, that’s what it was. This old mind of mine; sometimes it takes a bit to remember…” He trailed off and leaned forward to watch Sonya with a more fatherly expression than simply studious.

Erina raised an eyebrow. “Pardon?”

He didn’t take his eyes off of Sonya. “I have been trying to remember who she reminded me of, and it just hit me,” he said. “She reminds me of a young Zeus. The more I think about it, the more uncanny it is. It’s like looking at his female clone. Mannerisms are very similar, a penchant for applied mischief and mayhem, and the way they think is the same - the kinds of behind-the-scenes strategies she employs while still managing to maintain the center of attention. Using herself as the distraction for her own plots. Yes, if I wasn’t positive that there was no possibility of it, I would say she was his reincarnation.”

Erina turned back to watch her sister and took his words at face value, allowing herself to imagine, for a moment, that she was watching the young man who would one day be king of Olympus.

He snorted next to her. “No wonder I want to whack her on the head sometimes. That boy gave me a headache, and his relationship with his father,” Set groaned. “Ah, Cronos. Could never see the intellect behind the whimsical grin. Very conservative man, Cronos. He eventually ground a lot of that sparkle out of Zeus before they came to blows.”

“Most of our myths paint the man as a bitter lech,” Erina said.

Set frowned. “Your myth,” he said with distaste, “seems more and more to me like an effort to turn our lives into parables and paint the good ones as monsters.”

“So he didn’t sleep around?” Erina asked.

“Oh, he definitely did!” Set laughed. “I mentioned before that he had numerous children to continue producing legends for him so he could maintain his impressions while he focused on other things. The boy was obsessed with mastering his father’s techniques and acquiring his power.” He cleared his throat. “Hera was…” He made a face. “...very much like that Qilin girl you mentioned.”

“Oh.”

“Yes,” he said gravely. “He enlisted her help in creating these stories for his children, and she went along with it - until she got too eager and caused more harm than good.”

Erina frowned a little but held her tongue. He didn’t miss it.

“The man had many faults; we all do. We were human as much as your myths try to paint us otherwise,” Set said. “He was, ultimately, deserving of respect and admiration for all the good he put into the world. He was Enthroned for a reason. That is not a stage you can reach without the acknowledgement of others.”

“Enthroned?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

He chortled. “Look at me! An old man talking too much. You’re a dangerously good listener, Erina.”

She smiled at him. “Well, fortunately, the company is good.”

“Heeeeey! Whatcha talkin’ about!” Sonya called from afar. Both of them looked up, and Set barked out a noisy laugh, clapping his hands. Erina just sighed as Sonya dragged a dazed Loki and Pandora over by the collars of their clothing. She let them go, and Loki groaned. “Oh, don’t be a baby!” Sonya chided.

“Neither of us is focused on hand-to-hand, Sonya,” Loki complained. “Also, you tickled me!”

“It worked, didn’t it?” Sonya asked bluntly.

Loki snorted out a laugh. “Yeah, yeah, it did.”

Erina leaned back in her seat and glanced at Set. He still had that fatherly, distant expression on his face. A thought occurred to her, and she smirked, looking up at Sonya. “Excited to go to Paris? You really threw yourself into it today.”

Sonya brightened, and her grin turned a little lascivious. “I know we’re going to deal with Astaroth and Mimir, but I’m more looking forward to all the lovely sights. Gotta get my regular skirt-chasing in, you know.”

Set burst into laughter.

Sonya blinked. “What?” she asked, confused. “What’d I say?”

–

An hour or so later, after some light chatting and Set coming down from whatever had amused the hell out of him, Sonya found herself sitting with her ‘divine’ tutors and her sister. She retold the story of how things went with First Wind, and the others were shocked to hear that the fallen Herald had not only crossed the threshold mid-fight but had gone straight into Declaration. Pandora shook her head when the story concluded. “A deserved end,” she said. “What a monster, though. That kind of talent is very rare. It is a shame he was so foul. I would have recruited him.”

Sonya shrugged. “He needed to die one way or another. The improvement to Broker is going to help me a lot.”

The past incarnation of the fallen goddess raised an eyebrow. “Well, I wouldn’t say that,” she said. “It sounds to me like the pact probably created a karmic link with the previous timeline’s karma. Clearing that karma or severing it is what the goal is.”

Sonya frowned. She wasn’t sure she liked what she was hearing. “What are you saying?”

“It’s very similar to reincarnation, an uncommon practice as well. My great-grandfather studied both concepts. That’s probably where I came up with the idea. I’ve read some of his work,” she said. “You carry the karma of your previous incarnation. Freeing yourself of it would require either paying down that debt with your actions or becoming so diametrically opposed to that previous incarnation of yourself that the connection can no longer exist. If you are not that person, then how can the debt be applied to you?”

Sonya’s frown deepened, and she shook her head. “No,” she said flatly and looked away. “I won’t let them live. Not after what they did and what they could do again,” she ground out. Pandora, Loki, and Set exchanged looks as Sonya stared off into the distance. A brief flash of rage boiling up in her chest. Her sister reached over and patted her arm. Sonya just nodded and let out a breath. “Sorry, mind if we change the topic?”

Set broke into an easy old-man smile. “Certainly. You haven’t asked your question yet, after all.”

That got Sonya to brighten up immediately. She crossed her legs under herself and turned to face him with a grin. “What comes after Declaring?” she asked without missing a beat.

“Self-reflection,” he said with a chuckle. She frowned, and he held up his hands. “I am only partially joking. What comes immediately next for you is to reflect on your declaration. Make others, if you can. We each have several,” he explained.

That was quite a shock, if Sonya was being honest, but it was simultaneously unsurprising. She nodded and furrowed her brows, already trying to think about what paths she could take. He held up his hands to forestall her deep inner dive and said, “As for the actual answer to your question, the next stage can only come with time and effort.”

“What’s it called?” she asked.

He smiled. “Proving.”