**POV Tattletale**

While I was composing an email to Dragon, there was a clap outside my door. A look at one monitor confirmed my secretary was still alive. The monitor next to it showed me that there was a tall woman with odd eyes and extra knuckles next to my office door. I activated my power and spoke. "Come in. I've been expecting you."

The door opened, and Verra entered. "Good. I hope you understand that I have to do this."

I shook my head. "I'm not so sure about that, but from what I've pieced together from watching you and Vlad when you aren't trying to break my head, you don't want him to know, and I don't really have much choice in the matter."

Verra looked at me, and my head felt like it was going to explode, as she did something that my power severely objected to. "He can't know yet, and would reject it, leading to disaster. I think you suspected that, or you would have already spoken to him about it."

"He definitely seems to have a very strong opinion on the topic of gods." I put a bit of sharpness in my voice "Not without reason."

With a curt nod of her head, she agreed. "True. A child frequently does not appreciate being taught." The goddess smiled. "How many other people have you told, and where have you created records on the topic?"

My power went mad again, briefly, as Verra did something, then I found myself answering. "I have told Imp, Parian, Foil, and Bitch. I have placed three physical documents in storage at different safehouses, and sent four electronic, encrypted versions to dead drop email addresses."

I glared at Verra. "Some sort of reality modification? It feels like what Vlad did in his last fight with Lung."

She laughed gently. "That is a crude way of describing it, but accurate enough. I am exerting my will. If it makes you feel better, removing this knowledge from the world is really quite taxing. I am currently in eight places at the same time right now. Please provide me instructions as to how to access all records you created on the topic."

I was coerced again, and provided Verra with what she requested.

"Now, Tattletale, please invent a plausible reason for having conversations with your companions that I can substitute in their minds for the conversations you had about Vlad's nature."

With no choice in the matter, I complied.

I stared at Verra, angry at being mentally manhandled. "How bad would it really be to tell him? Vlad is not a mental weakling."

"No. Far from it. But if he learns at the wrong time how many lives he could have saved, as opposed to how many lives he is yet to save, he would likely use Lady Teldra, and help her earn her second name."

I shook my head. "Do you blame him? You have caused him a huge amount of pain that I know of, and based on how he speaks of gods, a lot that I've never heard of."

Verra shook her head. "You misunderstand. If he learns too soon, he would not use Lady Teldra on me, he would use her on himself."

I stared at her and this time, there was no pain. She was apparently allowing me to see that she believed with certainty what she said. This assumed, of course, that my power worked on a self-aware goddess when she wasn't exerting her will to change reality, which wasn't a sure thing. "Let's get this over with, Verra, I have things I need to be doing."

Leaning back in my chair, I kneaded my temples, trying to reduce the pain in my head by activating pressure points. It helped some.

I had been staring at the computer screen and considering my response to Dragon's email, in regards to Imp and her new orb, for nearly ten minutes.

Enough slacking. Time to get back to work.

I cracked my knuckles and then leaned back forward and started typing again.

Helping to arrange for Imp to be accepted as empress of this world is certainly a challenging prospect.