The woman knelt, gloved and hooded, before the crude altar, ringed by her attendant wraiths. A fire licked sickly green over the remains of small, broken creatures, bodies twisting in the heat. Candles shivered fitfully as she shook an old, weathered bone over the flames.

"Hear me," she commanded. "God of the broken, God of the scorned, God of the lost. Answer my prayer."

She cast a handful of tiny, broken bones into the fire- the skeletons of birds and mice. She pricked her thumb, let a drop of blood bead and fall into the flames.

"I call you, with bone and blood. I call you, with flesh and fire. I call you to heed me, and listen to my prayer. Broken God! Answer my call!"

The air chilled. The wraiths glanced at each other, warily- even dead, they feared her, and her dark sorceries. She smiled, her lips twisting under her hood.

"Spurned sister," a voice hissed, dry as the scuttle of scales over old bone. "Loveless lover. Why have you woken me?"

The bones in the fire trembled, drew together, resolved themselves into a little skeleton. It was sharp-edged and otherwordly, with an uncanny anatomy. The woman shuddered, making sure she didn't look at it too closely. She didn't want to gaze too long on a God, she thought, even a small and broken God like the one her prayer had summoned.

"I have a proposition for you," the woman said, averting her eyes. "Do you recognize this place I've called you to?"

The Broken God looked about, and its restless weaving stilled for a moment.

"Oh," it sighed. "Oh, yes. The Infernal Abyss." It met her eyes, and she shuddered. "Where is he?" It demanded. "Where is my love?"

"The Forgotten God?"

It was an effort, even to say the words. She'd drilled herself on the name for weeks, had studied old, crumbling scriptures, but even here, in the heart of hell, she felt the memory slipping away as soon as the name left her lips.

"Oh." The skeleton shuddered. "Yes. She tried to make me forget him, when she found him with me. But I carved his true name into my very bones." It laughed, a high, wild sound that sent a shudder down her spine. "I must see him! It has been so, so long. I can sense his power! Bring me to him?"

The woman shuddered.

"I can't. He's trapped here, powerless," she lied. "We-he needs your help to escape this place."

"But...what can I do?" The bones clattered against each other, chattering. "I, too, am trapped, in the mortal realm. The Goddess broke me and bound me beneath the ground."

"I've been trying to summon you up for years," the woman said. "This is the first time I've succeeded. Something's changed."

Something had certainly changed in Hell. A newborn god had fallen from grace, somehow, and ended up in the Abyss. They were all having such fun in the infernal realm, coming up with new, ironic ways to torture him. And, best of all, the power the dying god brought with him had weakened the borders between the worlds. Soon, she could leave this ugly little realm, could live in the style she deserved.

"Yes," the little God mused. "Yes, it has. Mortal creatures found me, woke me. They are bringing me offerings, human woman. Far better offerings than the paltry little bones you gave me. My power is growing!"

"Enough to open the Abyss?" she asked it eagerly.

"No. Not yet. But...perhaps..." The flames in its sockets flickered as it considered, and then the jaws gaped in a hideous parody of a smile. "Yes. Soon. Very soon."

"Good." It took all her courage to smile back, but she returned the gesture, forcing herself to hide her distaste. "We can help you break the Goddess' curse. We'll gather power, you above, and us below, and then we'll raise hell together. What do you say? Will you help us help you?"

"Anything," the Broken God hissed. "Anything, to see my love again. Anything, to bring the Mother Goddess and her wretched children low. You have my word."

"And mine," the woman lied. "We'll be in touch."

She flicked a gloved hand through the bones, scattering them. The fire guttered, extinguished, and the candles flickered and went out. A wraith handed her a towel, and she wiped her hands, smirking.

"Well," she purred. "That certainly went well. Better than I'd expected, really."

"Ssss?"

A wraith hissed something, and she frowned at it.

"Oh, no, of course I don't care if that silly creature is disappointed when it finds the Master's killed the..the..."

The wraith sighed.

"Ssss!"

"Oh, yes, the Forgotten God, thank you. After it opens the Abyss for us, we'll just let the Master deal with the stupid thing." She made a face. "After, of course, we've dealt with my sister and the Masters' little...indiscretion. Oh, speaking of...I should get back before he misses me." She kissed a bony brow. "Thank you very much for coming with me, loves, you've all been just darling. And don't breathe a word of this to him just yet, or I'm afraid I'll have to kill you all over again."

She swept away from the altar, a spring in her step.

"Hello, sweetie!" She chirped. "Did you miss me?"

The Lord of Hell sat on a chair of bone and thorn, creeping tendrils coiling about his legs. He wore a great black helm and bleak, heavy armor, the rusting metal carving cruel hooks into his dark skin, black blood leaking slowly into the dry, hungry throne. He opened his eyes at the sound of her voice, raising his head.

"Velvet?" he said slowly, sounding lost. "I had the strangest dream...there was a woman. I...I knew her."

She slipped onto his lap, wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Shh," she said soothingly. "It was just a dream, love."

"But..." He was struggling, now, trying to wake. "I knew her. She told me...she told me I have a son!" His eyes widened. "Rose!-"

"Hush." She commanded, passed a hand over his brow. "Sleep."

For a moment, he fought her, but he was wounded, and still weak. His brilliant eyes closed, and the throne tightened its hold like a lover. Velvet frowned, sliding off his lap. He was getting harder to control, she thought. She'd have to move soon.

Velvet fingered the old scars beneath her hood with a grimace. She'd had all manner of misadventures, thanks to the bloody Cataclysm, and she'd been quite upset when one day she'd woken up dead. She'd decided then and there that she was through being powerless. She would use her 'Master', and the Broken God, and anything or anyone else she could get her hands on. After twenty long years in hell, she wasn't about to let anyone stop her- not Rose, not her bastard, not even the Gods themselves.

She was rather looking forward, she thought, to ruling the world.

(Author's note: I decided to chop things off with Iron and Ice here...since I'm mostly next going to be delving into my own derpy fan theories about what might happen next. I'm going to be uploading all the deleted chapters from II as a new story, "Bone and Blood", with a bit of additional fleshing out to try to make things a bit more clear. I added an epilogue to II that hopefully makes it clearer what direction I'm planning to take the next story in.

Thank you so, so, so much, everyone who's read and commented, and thank you for sticking with me. This story has been a hell of a lot of fun to write. I hope you've all enjoyed it so far.)