Izanami felt like she blinked and she was back in bed.

Eris and the others tucked her in much more fiercely than before after wiping her body down with a towel.

Izanami was too tired to be nervous and too ashamed to be excited by Eris'' touch.

Her body had aged ten years when she''d woken up, and now she was painfully aware of every imperfection.

This wasn''t how she wanted to be seen by Eris. Not the real one, or the dream.

"Do you think you can eat? Should I bring you some food?"

Izanami mustered up a small smile.

She tried to sit up, but immediately became disoriented.

Eris wisely helped her lay back down.

"I think this means that you shouldn''t refuse my hospitality." Eris chided. She stood up with Odessa in her arms and backed away without giving her a chance to refuse.

"Keep her company." She asked Nyx and Ssi. "I''ll be back shortly."

Once she was gone, Nyx wandered over and sat on the edge of her bed. She tried to place a hand on Izanami''s head, but she jerked away-surprising her.

"I''m amazed you have such fight in you after my mother took you over. But you don''t need to move away from me when I only wished to help." Nyx prodded.

"I don''t want you to touch me." She responded curtly.

"You just let Eris touch you less than a minute ago."

"Because she is not you."

Nyx seemed surprised to hear Izanami speak up for herself so firmly. She wasn''t exactly a doormat, but she was far more assertive than usual.

Nyx wondered if it was just a side effect.

"What exactly happened to you, dear?"

Izanami was still missing a lot of necessary context for that question, but she answered as best she could.

"...I was dreaming a good dream. And when I woke up and saw that my dream was not real, I tried to end my own life." Izanami said, clearly dejected.@@@@

Nyx looked like she was horrified. Sei was just the same.

"What were you thinking..? How could you do something like that??" Nyx asked.

For some reason, Izanami felt like she was being looked down on, she bit back.

"I was thinking about having one child who did not despise me. Having a wife and husband who worshipped the very ground I walked on..!" Izanami clenched her fist. She tried to build up her anger, but she still had less than no energy.

So all that she could do was weep silently.

"Instead all that I have is... this." She gestured to the empty room.

Her black eyes stared into Nyx''s and she saw a truly broken woman within. "Why would I want to continue living without those things..?"

"Because you would hurt everyone here. Because we need our family."

"Then do my needs not matter..? Do I have to stay here even when I am not happy ..?"

She had to hold on to the edge of the bed to keep her world from spinning off it''s axis.

What was she supposed to do with any of this information? How was she supposed to cope with the knowledge that an entity she could barely conceive was against her family and there was nothing she could do about it?

Did she tell the rest of her lovers? Make them worry too??

No, they were in the middle of an important mission right now. She couldn''t bog down their minds like that.

But if there was real danger... then it may be irresponsible not to let them know?

Eris was close to pulling her own hair out from frustration.

She hated this. She hadn''t had to play the role of strategist in billions of years. Her instincts for it had atrophied like a muscle.

"Eris, sweetie. Don''t panic."

Eris saw her mother-in-law kneel in front of her and take her hands.

"We can beat this. It''ll just require a bit more effort on our part."

Eris wanted to laugh. "You sound so certain."

"I am. Power doesn''t go unchecked. As many restrictions as you and your husband have, I''m sure chaos must have even more. We just need to learn them, and then exploit them."

Eris nodded thoughtfully.

Perhaps this time, the goal was not to kill their enemy. But to get it to leave them alone instead.

Eris turned her head toward Nyx for confirmation.

In response, the night goddess scratched the knot on her head thoughtfully.

"I.. I don''t know about restraints, but like I told you, she has certain compulsions that are apart of her personality.

She can''t ignore them, and she has to do very specific things in very specific ways. And she has to avoid Yesh''s notice too."

Eris nodded thoughtfully. It was unfortunate that the old man was asleep or Eris would just call him right away.

However, she could still pop over to see Asherah and get her two cents on all of this madness.

"Will you come with me?"

Sei didn''t even bother asking her daughter-in-law ''where'' or ''to do what''.

She just nodded and showed her a warm smile as they stood up together.

"Nyx, will you watch our sleeping beauty here?"

"Do I have a choice?"

"No." Sei showed a smile that was not a smile.

The night goddess grumbled something about being bossed around by secondary characters.

Eris gave Izanami one last parting look, and gently squeezed her hand as she slept. She could sense the immense turmoil broiling around in her heart.

''Worry not, my sweet friend. You will be avenged in one way or another.''

Eris leaned over and planted a kiss on the crown of Izanami''s head.

This small, ceremonial gesture had near immediate consequences as over 1,000 years of memories were force-fed into her brain.