---
Auri smiled at Bat Bat.
Mira looked down at herself, then back at Sekhmet.
"And can I return to the other form at will?"
"Yes."
That answer pleased her.
He saw it in the smallest shift at the corner of her mouth.
It was not joy. But something sharper.
It was a possibility. Possibility of taking revenge on the Gorgon race.
Then voices came from farther inside the Void Land.
It was Sofia and Natasha.
The sealed half-god women were not close enough to interfere, but they were close enough to feel everything. The summoned bats assigned to watch them hung from the surrounding dark shapes rocks branches like dozens of tiny red-eyed judges. They were silent and obedient.
Sofia's voice came first, it was lowered but very clear in the stillness.
"Did you feel that?"
Natasha answered at once. "All of it… I felt all of it."
Bat Bat looked over in startled curiosity. Mira's eyes shifted too, but Sekhmet did not move toward them yet. They could hear everything.
