Amdirlain's PoV - Outlands.

Amdirlain relaxed, tuning out the Formithian constructs. She focused on the rustle from the wind playing with the leaves, the way the scent of flowers mingled with the freshness of the forest air, and squeezed Sarah's hand. Their surroundings provided an anchor against the background hum of prayers and blessings as they interacted with her Domain. Though most seemed to have understood the messages in the songs, some still sat at the periphery of her focus. Among those, a subset had ideas about transforming lives that seemed more akin to manipulation than Amdirlain felt comfortable with, and the irony of that rankled.

Aren't I looking to manipulate an entire species into splitting into factions?

She shared a mental image of a slope on the edge of her Domain with Sarah, with a questioning pulse.

"It doesn't feel right to experiment on the constructs while inside your Domain?" Sarah asked.

"Since I might be inviting some people to help who don't entirely share my worldview, I didn't want to have to invite them in."

"How about we shift this to Foundry? You might as well get some use out of that Demi-Plane."

Amdirlain wrinkled her nose. "Foundry became more my vault than a workplace, and it still has some of my stockpiles of Ki in crystals there."

"One of the old trials? That way, we wouldn't have someone stumbling on us in a random spot in the Outlands."

"That works. There are chains of them I've not repurposed."

Amdirlain shifted them and the constructs to a Demi-Plane. They arrived atop a barren mesa that loomed over a jungle thick with the calls of birds and the shrieks of animals. Behind them was the entry plinth that connected to the boss site of the previous Demi-Plane in the trial's sequence. The crystal beacon glimmered in the sunlight that had no definable source behind the grey clouds that thickened the sky. Hundreds of identical mesas stood scattered throughout the jungle. With no way to determine direction, those entering the jungle would have to fly or climb one at random to find one of the few exits if they became lost.

She created a gazebo to host the discussion and sent out invitations with details of the purpose and location. Sarah shrugged and released her house so it could perch nearby. It scratched at the stone and then moved to the edge. Weaponry bloomed from it and aimed down towards the foliage.

"Your house is paranoid. Have you been working to turn it into a regular Baba Yaga's hut?"

"It's simply ready for anything."

While Amdirlain was waiting for responses to the messages, she traced the chemicals that the glands drew from the bloodstream.

"Lots of alchemical resources here if Kadaklan will join us," Sarah noted before claiming a spot in the gazebo. Leaning back in her seat, she braced her knees against the table's edge.

"I'm not sure he will, but I asked." Amdirlain created more senseless constructs in the base biological model. "I know he is interested primarily in alchemy, but he is still a healer."

"I've already told him about the formithians and described them as the realm's worst yeast infection."

Amdirlain shot Sarah a look of disbelief.

"I thought it was suitable and still semi-polite."

"Alright, given that limitation, I'll concede your point," Amdirlain sighed. "Should I talk to the Eldest about this?"

"I'm not sure you want to get them involved. There are going to be a lot of deaths over this, and the Eldest has stubbornly not accepted being freed from their state." Sarah tapped a memory crystal against the table. A din of animal screams echoed up from the jungle, momentarily enveloping them.

A nearby theme warned Amdirlain of the first arrivals. Gail and Rainith appeared together near the plinth, the melody having used it as a landmark for Planar Shift. Gail currently wore an Anar male form, with an arm looped through Rainith's, and their entwined themes confirmed it was more than their arrival that was in sync. Both possessed platinum-blond locks, bronze skin, and golden eyes; they wore matching loose blue and silver robes. While Gail had maintained the lively demeanour they'd always possessed, Rainith carried herself with a serious air.

The memory of sitting on the steps of the training hall, listening to Rainith's tale of loneliness and isolation from her Lómë siblings seemed far in the past for her.

Though Gail had only included two True Song classes into her first Tier 7 Prestige Class, the second and third, she'd focused solely on True Song. Rainith had the benefit of past lives, providing her with access to classes even without her memories, and she'd taken a diverse collection of evolutions from the Glinnel Class.

Now I see Sarah's cunning plan.

"Did you perhaps opt for the summary updates to avoid spoiling the relationship surprises?"

Sarah huffed in amusement. "Would I do that?"

"Yes."

"Roher's and Laleither's daughter turned out well. I feel you taking the time to perform the Anar side of True Song for her made a tremendous difference." Sarah projected. "And of course, helping her block the old memories."

As Amdirlain rose to greet the first arrivals, Roher and Laleither turned up at the plinth, and she momentarily froze in shock. Outwardly, there was little difference; they still wore traditional half robes and pants in an emerald hue that matched Roher's eyes. Their silvery hair matched the metallic hue of Laleither's, and Roher's had grown long enough that it was restrained in a long braid. These things were expected. What wasn't was that Laleither no longer carried the whip-cord muscularity she'd once possessed, because both of them had stripped away their previous classes.

"Are you mixing work with a small family reunion, Auntie?" Gail asked playfully.

"I'm allowed to fulfil multiple goals at once," Amdirlain managed casually.

"Given what you're looking to do, maybe you should ask Mother along. She could help us magic something up to punish the formithians for their choices."

"If it's something created by Divine Will, then it will allow the formithians to trace its source. We need degrees of separation." Amdirlain offered as she hugged Gail. "While an arcane delivery mechanism might be useful, I think Sarah has that covered."

"I'm so glad you're back," Gail gushed.

Her enthusiasm warmed Amdirlain, and a smile brightened her face. "It is good to be back with family."

With a wink, she released Gail and moved to hug Rainith next. "It's good to see you, Rainith."

Rainith stepped into Amdirlain's arms and enfolded her in return.

"You've been together how long?" Amdirlain probed playfully after she released Rainith.

"Auntie!" Gail protested, their form blurring into a female, and Rainith shoulder-bumped her. "I know that opening gambit."

"Sarah warned me you might bring up the topic of children, but we're too young for them yet," Rainith added drily.

Amdirlain adopted an innocent gaze. "What did I say? I didn't mention children."

"Now I know where Gail gets that look. It's only been a couple of centuries," Rainith shrugged.

"I'm glad to see you're doing well. I am sorry I didn't sing for you more."

Rainith blushed. "You're the Songbird, and yet you took time out to speak to a child. During reverie, I've frequently meditated on the songs you performed for me that day. For that and helping me avoid my past life memories, I can't thank you enough."

"Children are important, and you felt cut off and needed to be heard. Also, your second request was courageous, to put social customs and expectations aside to chart your own way."

"The other Anar and Lómë stopped using the adult rites," Rainith smiled.

"I told the councils that Gideon had protested our having access to old memories." Laleither offered. "Given how things turned out, after a few decades of discussion, we set aside the songs. Like our new forest homes, it was deemed right to establish new ways to celebrate the recognition of adulthood."

Amdirlain stepped close and clasped Roher's and Laleither's hands. "It's good to see you both, but what did you do to yourselves?"

"You advised Rainith she'd need to focus on True Song classes to repair the pathways to access the old True Song," Roher replied, and glanced at Laleither. "It wasn't just our choice."

"We and some others rededicated ourselves to the Titan's work properly. Sarah helped us remove our classes, then Noltar and Rachel helped us progress." Laleither tapped her chest. "I still possess all the weapons skills I learned, but it's not my focus. We hope one day to earn the use of the songs we once could sing when the realm was young."

"Of course, the councils removed us from our positions, but that gave us more time to spend with the children growing up," Roher added. "How are you handling all the changes?"

"Sarah's brought me up to date on many things, but she's saved some surprises."

Roher nodded understandingly. "In your own unique way, you've experienced what caused many Anar and Lómë to isolate themselves from outside societies."

"They'd get caught up in a project, and a few millennia vanish?"

"Yes. I'm confident with your perspective from multiple species that you'll do better than we managed." Roher patted her arm reassuringly. "From what you sent us, working this out might take a while. Is there work that the choirs can help with in the short term?"

"I've checked samples of Formithian worlds, but I'd like more information."

Roher smiled eagerly. "Did you use your surveyors?"

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"Yes."

"That the choirs can help you with, and it would be good practice for many."

Amdirlain projected the different compositions for the surveyors. "The more complex one is for gathering data on rifts. The oldest version would be fine to gather the details we need."

"I'll get some teams organised and put your surveyors around as many Formithian worlds as possible," Roher said.

Laleither hugged her and stepped back with a smile. "Accurate information is essential to planning."

"I didn't mean you had to go," Amdirlain protested. "You just got here."

Roher clasped her hand. "These aren't simple compositions, so we'll get this started and return. Organising some work is best done in person."

"Are you going to have trouble doing that since you're no longer council members?"

"We'll tell them it's for you." Laleither smiled. "That's if you don't mind us leveraging your name."

"Leverage away."

"The revelation that you are the Songbird after your earlier chastisement had many eager to help the Enyalië with setting up the biospheres."

Amdirlain flushed.

As she went to reply, Laleither patted her shoulder. "We know the reason, but they still don't deserve to know. In a way, it has brought about an excellent result, as you shocked them into action. Between us here, I'm still waiting for genuine change in our communities. I had such high hopes that they'd learn the lessons from the Abyss, yet for some, being humbled for half a million years wasn't enough to correct millions of years of bad habits. I see active signs of improvement that I'm encouraging, but it will take time."

"You have our word. We'll get this started and come straight back. Do you have more songs for Formithian worlds?" Roher asked.

Did I make him think I doubted them?

A memory crystal appeared floating between them. "These are those I have with the ones I've checked marked off. The same song that communicates with Gideon will get you more worlds once you've worked through these."

Roher claimed it with a nod, and the pair disappeared.

Amdirlain waved the others to the gazebo. "Please sit down. Or have I inspired you to run away as well?"

Rainith started up the stairs and stopped with her hand on the archway's upright. "Given the line of enquiry you started, maybe we should flee?"

"Sarah said I was going to ask about children, but I hadn't asked about them," Amdirlain protested, sniffing dramatically.

"Butter wouldn't melt in her mouth," Sarah drawled.

Gail dropped into the first seat. "I'll let the matter stand. Do you have the song you used to adapt that nest?"

"Could we use it on worlds where there are ongoing conflicts?" Rainith chimed in, choosing the seat beside Gail, and she interlaced their fingers. "Maybe it would break the momentum of the struggle."

"Since the harmonics relate to that specific world, we'd have to adjust it for others with uncertain effects. It would also have the Pantheon looking more closely at the situation." Amdirlain said, creating a variety of cool drinks and glasses in the centre of the table.

"The reason you adapted them was to ensure the local environment didn't sterilise them. What if we used songs to evoke environmental factors to trigger a change in the glands?" Rainith proposed.

With the two settled, Amdirlain moved around the table and sat next to Sarah. "I don't want to alert the Pantheon too early and have them start to take action."

"Mutation isn't direct damage, though they see it that way. If we can change the mechanism at a distance, anything they have to detect the use of True Song shouldn't be able to pick it up. Certain types of radiation will pass through all solid objects, so we give those a nudge to interact with the glands."

Spatial energy near the plinth interrupted her as Kadaklan arrived in his customary orange and yellow robes. "Starting without me?"

Amdirlain smiled and exchanged bows with him. Kadaklan came around the table to kiss her on the cheek. "That's from Klipyl. She'll be along in a while, but doesn't feel she has much to add. Are you already jumping to a solution? I've not heard the problem properly defined yet."

"There is a species that is taking over other worlds and pushing local species to extinction," Rainith said.

"Yet what is it you want to do?" Kadaklan asked, directing the question at Amdirlain.

"Their nests act as a unified force, taking over worlds and eating everything in their path, like locusts. The species only has one Pantheon, and they despise change. I found that a change in pheromones caused other nests to react violently to the altered nest."

"Pushing another off their way," Kadaklan sighed. "Is the goal to destroy the species or break their unity?"

"If they weren't so unified, other species would stand a chance, and things might eventually become balanced. Consider the realm like a patient with an out-of-control condition. Either I stop them working in harmony, or trillions of others will die. Not just sapient species, as they cull back everything on a world not useful to their nests."

Kadaklan grimaced. "An ethical quandary. You're going to cause deaths among their species to save others."

"The formithians have been in a slow war with the realm's other species for a long time. I don't possess the strength to make them another realm and send them on their way. They used to be limited to a percentage of habitable worlds, but they're no longer sticking to it."

"They've become a wildly growing tumour."

"Yes," Amdirlain sighed. "One that I ignored for too long."

Kadaklan patted her hand. "That puts our goal as causing each nest to have unique pheromones, so that other species are on an even footing?"

"Yes. Whatever acts the Formithian species undertake when they view all others as different is up to them. I hope that isolated nests might learn to negotiate with their neighbours instead of treating them as beneath them." Amdirlain grimaced. "Though I'm doubtful that will occur unless their Pantheon changes."

"How many egg layers are in a nest?"

"Three queens."

Kadaklan looked towards the closest construct. "Those hair-like filaments extending from the chitin. They emit the pheromones?"

"Yes. The glands are at the base of the filaments."

"Being a deity of alchemy has some benefits. The pheromones are a distinct chemical chain, but they also carry other substances whose purpose is unclear. Can you create samples from a nest? One of each of their castes, if they are like bees or ants, would be useful."

"Yes, they produce eggs for specific roles."

"Once we have those, we can get started. We need a factor common to the three queens if we don't want to tear the nests apart."

"Do you want me to duplicate your old alchemy lab?"

Kadaklan smiled serenely. "That would be lovely."

A tickle of excitement ran through the faith links she held, providing Amdirlain with the news that a city that had sent attackers had lifted its laws against religion. She activated the mechanism to return a quarter of their plinths to them.

The others are cutting it fine.

♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫

Most of the other cities she'd taken the plinths from squeaked in changes to their laws within her time limit. Still, the damage was done; mass migrations of adventurers left their local military delving teams as the only ones pulling resources from their trials for all those cities. Amdirlain's followers took advantage of their access to the closest trials to grab achievements and prevent surges from rushing through to the entry zones.

During the months of experimentation, Sarah's mother Aitherlar, Kadaklan, along with assorted Anar and Lómë, joined Amdirlain to take part. In her Domain and on Qil Tris, change proceeded at a quickening pace. Souls began emerging from the wellspring as various species of Archon, and more than a few assisted the priests on the Material Plane. Celestials helping mortals sent new shock waves through the locals.

Four months in, despite stockpiling approaches to alter the Formithian hives' pheromones, they continued to work. Besides memory crystals with different songs, samples of various hormones, psionic gels and alchemy solutions burbled in cylinders atop the mesa, each having a different effect on the Formithian. Each fulfilled the fracturing of the species in different ways, but they all met a standard requirement: once exposed, Divine healing blessings couldn't reverse them.

Sarah eyed success number fourteen, wrinkling her nose in distaste.

Gail cleared her throat and coughed again. "The stench from that one rubs against the back of my throat. Or is it from that concoction?"

A click of crystal sounded as Kadaklan jammed the stopper into a bottle the size of his fist. "It is repugnant when concentrated to this extent. To take effect, it would need to be diluted in a waterway used by the nest for at least a year."

Sarah moved from her perch on the edge of the mesa. "How does the elixir work?"

"It reacts to the chemistry processes in the gland, and also in their chitin. While it hardens the chitin, it adds an acidic edge to the pheromones. The downside is this mechanism isn't about their actions; rather, someone would be actively adding it to their water supplies."

"Give it to people under siege, and I bet their choice would be to fill every stream with it if it meant killing the invaders," Roher commented, gesturing to the bottle. "May I reproduce it?"

"Note that it uses the individual queen's markers as a catalyst." Kadaklan still handed over the sample freely, having seen worlds stripped bare except for moss by Formithian workers.

Which means it will fracture every nest along the queen's breeding lines.

"The worlds you created are all seeded with life now. Are you going to start this Formithian project before or after moving those orcs from high-tech slavery?" Laleither asked.

"I've expanded the medical Demi-Plane while we were working on potential solutions. I'm going to go have a chat with a couple of people, and then, depending on that talk, test a mechanism."

Amdirlain took on her natural form, azure hair just long enough to brush against the collar of the deep green Wu Shu uniform she'd donned.

Planar Shift delivered her to Utopia among the heavenly planes. The Power released her in the exact centre of a regular forest glade, yet beneath the serene peace of the place, a sense of alien oddity struck her. Within the melodies, she caught a perfect regulation of tempo and beat that were so in sync with each other that their perfection was an itch in the back of her mind. The positioning of the plants was perfectly spaced, as if a gardener with OCD had allocated strictly enforced placement. Variations were adjusted and corrected, no doubt with a stern yet gentle chiding admonishment about the crowding of others, or the theft of another's sunlight.

Rather than a sun in the sky, a series of glowing chariots proceeded between horizons at a steady pace, none of them gaining or losing ground to another.

She stayed floating above the grass to ensure she didn't bend a blade the wrong way.

The mountain range before her stretched impossibly high into a cloudless blue sky. It was a picture of perfection that was alien in its scope, the plants and animals neatly ordered and sustained by the abundant Celestial energies rather than biological processes.

"Bahamut."

"Amdirlain." His voice echoed in her thoughts as he appeared standing on the grass in a greying Human form before her. He was barefoot but wore a shirt and pants of finely woven silvery cloth. "Are you that eager to discuss the world I'd like you involved with?"

Aware that others were listening, she followed his lead with Telepathy. "That's not what I was here to talk about, as I'm sure you'll advise me when you're ready. How are you finding Qil Tris?"

"Is that a social chit-chat or do you have concerns to address?"

"I'm trying to be social and make small talk before getting down to business."

Bahamut rumbled with amusement. "They are interesting. I'm learning more about their history before approaching anyone. What favour did you need?"

"First, some background. I'm going to steal a bunch of orcs from a world where they don't worship so much as appease some dark deities. Then I'm going to have them forget the deities' names and practices so they can't spread them to the world I place them on."

"Amdirlain, are you trying to paint a target on yourself? Why do you even need these orcs worshipping you?"

"Oh, I'm not teaching them anything about me. I'm going to leave them memories about the first Orc Pantheon."

He reared back slightly in surprise. "You're choosing for them?"

"I'm choosing for them to forget their old gods. With the new, I'm only providing information and not enforcing anything. I need someone to check the security on a Demi-Plane to ensure they can't be traced while we correct some medical issues."

"What sort of medical issues?"

Amdirlain projected the state of the residents of the slums, and Bahamut hissed in sympathy. "Since you only want the place's security confirmed, I'll be reasonable about it. You could handle some things to avoid showing my involvement."

"I hope they don't need a subtle touch. Wait, are you looking to do something semi-covertly? Is that allowed, Mr Law-abiding?" Amdirlain teased.

Bahamut laughed. "It's mostly items created and messages delivered in fashion not associated with my regular people. I don't want the recipients believing they've earned special favours from me. Yet I want them to have certain items and information so they can resolve some problems. You can charge them a reasonable fee."

"I'm willing to listen, but I'd need veto right on my involvement in any situation."

"Think of it as opportunities to help provide people with better choices." Bahamut's gaze shone brighter with amusement.

"You're fishing for information about my nature," Amdirlain huffed, drawing another laugh from Bahamut.

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