I took a step closer, and even though Shadow growled, he couldn’t break the fortress to stop me. Inky wrapped around the front of me, as if to halt my forward progress, but neither of them needed to worry. I wasn’t going to do anything stupid; I just wanted to get a better look at what we were facing.

Hello, Mera.

I froze, my hands trembling as I pressed them to my head. It wasn’t like when Galleli or Midnight spoke in my mind. Dannie’s voice erupted as a vibration of power within my own, and with that zap of energy came the knowledge that she could destroy me with a single thought.

I see you have proven stronger than ever expected, breaking through my memory spell.

I swallowed roughly. You should have known I’d pick at every little inconsistency. I don’t settle, Dannie. I never have. My fight might be small, but it’s consistent.

She sorted through my words, mulling over them, all the while continuing her journey to the next stage of power enlightenment.

“The power is growing,” someone shouted from behind me, but I couldn’t turn away to see who. I was too busy not succumbing to the seductive lure of the goddess before me.

Stop it, I said with force. I do not belong to you, Dannie. You cannot drag my power into this.

The chuckle that followed was low and heady, and not in my head. She was speaking out loud now, and it seemed that was for everyone’s benefit. “You should not have come here today,” she said slowly, swirling and swirling on the spot until the magnificent light of her power twirled back inside of her, and then it was just Dannie there, floating and glowing in the sky above. “I’ve already set everything in motion, and none of you are strong enough to stand against me.”

The others couldn’t move, still weaving their fortress, which seemed to be of no concern to this version of Dannie. A version that was now a complete hybrid of human and phoenix. Dannie was red and gold, covered in both flesh and feathers, with huge wings extending from behind her back. She was naked, but you couldn’t see anything around the feathers that trailed down her chest and over her middle, flowing out into a long tail. Her face was hybridized, with human eyes, a beak-like nose and mouth, and a high-reaching plume that stretched across her head and down her spine, forming part of the tail.

The phoenix lady.

It wasn’t weird to see her looking this stunningly powerful; it felt natural to me, and I wondered if she could have changed into this version of herself even before swallowing the stone.