It was the second day after the riots had sent Evelyn's life into chaos. Walking home from the museum, attacked by mutants and then taken to the safety of the Mansion, she should have felt grateful for the safety. But she just felt caged.

The first night, she spent her free time littering the mansion with sketches and drawings, and generally trying not to sleep. The second night, she ran into Gawain trying to sneak out and obediently returned to the safety of the guest room. But after half a nights sleep filled with memories, she couldn't take it any longer. Evading the mansions security took every echo she had, but she finally found herself moving towards the city. It took some bribery to get a cab driver to pick her up and take her to the edge of Manhattan, but from there she was on her own.

Her legs burned a little from the exercise, but Evelyn was no stranger to walking. Like many New Yorkers, she preferred taking public transportation to get to work and back home when Jensen would allow it. Without him there to stop her, she felt the momentary freedom of being on her own.

Until distant crashes and sirens reminded her she was moving into much more dangerous territory than she had left.

Stay calm, focus on the goal. She told herself, and stuck close to nearby buildings as she moved. There were several detours and she had to hide to avoid getting spotted a few times by passing mutants, but before long, she was on the doorstep of her apartment.

Home sweet--

Something was wrong.

The echoes scrambled to take note of the damaged door frame and signs of forced entry, and the door swung open at the lightest touch. Hurrying inside, she scrambled from room to room in disbelief. Furniture was shredded, broken, damaged; mirrors were shattered, and her artwork, her paintings, were left in ribbons. Upstairs, the studio was no better. The wall of sketches she had so carefully hung was nothing but confetti. She shut the door as quickly as she could on the site, but it was already burnt into memory.

She had made a very big mistake.

Downstairs, the door creaked and she froze, the quiet murmur of voices traveling up the stairs. Familiar voices, voices she'd evaded once before. Going back into the studio, she yanked open the window, and took the only route out she knew: the flimsy fire escape. She was already at the bottom before a figure came around the corner and yelled at her, and by then she was already running. The footsteps weren't far behind.

Safe...somewhere safe... She wouldn't make it back to the mansion, and she scanned her mind for any memory of a place she could hide here in the city. A news broadcast flickered to the top of her head, with a rather exotic looking woman claiming her house was open to the gifted to escape prosecution.

Well, that wasn't entirely true. She had said her temple was open. There was no time to consider what she was running into, she just knew what she had to escape.

Running the address through her mind, she navigated the streets and finally arrived exhausted at the front gates. There was heavy security, but Evelyn quickly looked for someone to plead her case to before her pursuers caught up.

Running a sanctuary for persecuted mutants - as the Americans tended to call those blessed by the gods with special gifts (Mahadevi hated the sound of the word) - proved to be increasingly boring.

The Goddess sat back on her pillows. There were refugees in the building, but they mostly kept to the rooms reserved for them. None of them were really devoted, and only a precious few ventured to visit Mahadevi in the inner sanctum to personally thank her for her help. One could say they were ungrateful. But the Mother of All does not do charity for grateful words.

Also, the Mother of All was bored.

One of her many hands lifted a glass to her red lips, and she sipped some of her cocktail. She was aware that the city outside the temple walls was in turmoil. She had a tv. But it felt unreal and far away, and she still could not quite wrap her head around why or how it started.

Finally she stood with a sigh and stepped down from her pillows with grace. Walking towards the temple's main entrance she heard the murmur of the city outside. As she got closer she also heard voices, and then one of the security guards came hurrying in.

"There is a young lady outside, Mahadevi" he reported "She appears to be pursued."

"Did she ask for sanctuary?"

"She did not say much, your grace."

"Bring her in."

The guard returned to the gates and waved to Evelyn to come in, while the others were busy staring down the pursuers. Mahadevi wondered for a moment how long poses of threat would hold up the peace in her temple.

Then again, who in their right mind would attack a goddess?...

While the guards waited to let her in, Evelyn's echoes were working hard to track the distance the pursuers were behind her. It made it hard to do much else, so she mostly just breathed and tried to stop her trembling legs. A few quiet pleas of 'help' lacked explanation, but thankfully it was enough and she was inside the gates. Only then did she really stop to consider what she had done.

She was...back in a cage.

Shoulders sinking slightly, she wandered forward, and pushed the hair from her face. She glanced at one of the guards, trying not to just collapse into a little pile on the ground then and there. "Do you have a kitchen? Water? I..." She felt like she was going to pass out, but managed to stay on her feet. If she was any more pale, she would have matched the white pigment of her hair.

>>"Do you have a kitchen? Water? I..."

"Bring her to me" Mahadevi ordered from the door of the inner sanctum, then, not even waiting to see if they followed her orders (they always did) she turned and walked back to her pillows.

The inner sanctum was just what it sounded like: a place of worship with paintings on the walls, and elevated place for the Goddess herself, and the heavy scent of incense hanging in the air. Mahadevi gracefully sat down on the pillows and two of her arms extended to fill a glass with water from the bedside (throneside?) table.

"Come closer, child" she said in the smooth voice of divinity "You are safe here. What brought you to my temple?"

The voice that instructed the guards was familiar, and Evelyn pieced it to the memory of the woman from the television broadcast. If she wanted sanctuary here, she would certainly be the person to talk to, so she didn't resist being escorted into the next...room.

If one could call anything here a 'room'. While the exterior hadn't raised any flags, the interior had been remodeled around the style choices of a hindu temple. After spending enough time at the Metropolitan, she had seen her share of Hindu art and this place seemed to be decorated with every attention to detail. Her echoes scanned the paintings and decorations, trying to peg a time era on them and whether they were authentic or reproductions, but she directed them back to the figure seated in front of her.

She had several extra arms. 6 extra, to be precise, and two were preparing a glass of water. While Evelyn was hard to surprise, the appearance of this female and her behavior did slow her stride a little. It was one thing for someone to have a visible mutation, but quite another for their life to revolve around it. The unique thing about this female was while her appearance screamed money and her behavior wealth, her personality said something else. It was smug, collected, and...not quite royal. More...

>> What brought you to my temple?

"Mostly running..." The response slipped off her tongue before she could stop it, then she considered it for a moment and reworded it. "Bumped into a few people who didn't seem to have my best interest in mind. I heard you were offering a form of sanctuary here and I figured I'd take my chances over the alternative..." Kidnapped, mugged, mauled... all seemed to be undesirable in the long run.

She took a step closer to the self proclaimed Goddess, and tried to keep her expression neutral. She wasn't sure if she was expected to curtsey or something. She'd probably fall over right now and bash her head on that lovely little table the woman had retrieved the water from. Her mouth felt dry and she tried not to stare at it.

"My name is Evelyn." She added, trying to bring her manners back into play.

>>"Mostly running... Bumped into a few people who didn't seem to have my best interest in mind. I heard you were offering a form of sanctuary here and I figured I'd take my chances over the alternative... My name is Evelyn."

She looked exhausted and confused. Poor girl. Mahadevi motioned with one of her free hands for her to come closer, and offered a cushion one step below hers to sit on.

"Welcome to the temple, Evelyn" she said, handing her the glass of water "I am happy you made your way here. it is no place out there for many, especially young women. What I have seen so far is... barbaric."

Most of this country was, but she had never expected such outright violence, not in one of the world's most cosmopolitan cities.

"So tell me Evelyn, do you have a gift?"

After being bidden closer, Evelyn obliged and took a seat on the step. The scent of incense was thick, and it made her echoes stumble slightly as her mind struggled with the overpowering aroma. With a bit of concentration, she refocused them, accepting the cup of water and greedily drinking. Sitting, her posture was still straight and her high class upbringing allowed her to maintain a form of dignity even after the long day she had been having. Her normally well groomed hair was disheveled, her clothing wrinkled and a light sunburn had formed on her fair skin from her time outdoor. That would be hard to cover up when she got back...

Someone was going to scold her heavily for leaving.

"I don't know how much you've seen of the situation so far, but barbaric wouldn't be far from describing it..." She responded quietly, and memories flickered to the surface. The question brought her attention back. "I have a gift, but frankly I don't think it's lack of visibility has put me in a rough spot with the humans and the mutants... I am..." She considered the word for a moment then finally responded. "Intelligent. Which is hard to demonstrate on cue, so running is typically more advisable." Her eyes focused once more on the woman, and something nagged at the back of her mind.

She felt the question form unbidden, and she voiced it aloud before she could reconsider. "What is your opinion on mutants?" She said slowly. While the individual was obviously a visible mutant, something about her attitude seemed off.

>>"I have a gift, but frankly I don't think it's lack of visibility has put me in a rough spot with the humans and the mutants... I am... Intelligent. Which is hard to demonstrate on cue, so running is typically more advisable."

Mahadevi tilted her head slightly as she listened. The girl was off balance somehow, probably still shaken from being chased, but she held herself with dignity, and her answer proved her claim: she seemed intelligent. Another great gift of the gods, and another person persecuted for it.

>>"What is your opinion on mutants?"

The goddess smiled.

"They are people with great gifts, blessed by the gods. But I notice that many people in this country don't appreciate them for what they are. Being chosen by the divine should be celebrated, not frowned upon."

She sipped from her own drink, contemplating.

"Your intelligence, for example. As the embodiment of Sarasvatí, Goddess of Knowledge, I see it as a special gift. But many people have never been taught by divinities like me to see it like that. They lake the respect, and the devotion."

Blessed by the gods. Ok, so the woman was religious. That could explain the temple. But it didn't completely make sense. The way she spoke of mutants as they clarified that for her, and Evelyn's eyes narrowed slightly enough over her cup. She finished a sip of water and let the glass drop as the woman finished speaking. She was eloquent enough with her words. It was certainly the first time anyone had praised her for her mutation.

Then again, it was also the first time anyone spoke of themselves as a divinity before.

Evelyn blinked ever so slowly, and set her cup down a bit. Behave yourself. Behave yourself. She ran through her head. But the echoes were way ahead of that. [Individual believes she is a goddess] they chimed, and she opened her mouth to thank the woman for her hospitality.

Or rather, she wished she had thanked her. She said something else instead.

"You do realize you're a mutant too, don't you? Not a goddess... Your uh, extra arms, as culturally relevant as they may seem, are just genetic."

She wouldn't have been surprised to get backhanded for her insolence.

>>"You do realize you're a mutant too, don't you? Not a goddess... Your uh, extra arms, as culturally relevant as they may seem, are just genetic."

Mahadevi looked at the girl quietly for a very long time.

On the one hand, she knew for a fact that she was a goddess. Born, raised, worshipped. There was absolutely no question about it. Even suggesting anything less was insolence resulting from ignorance.
And she thought this girl was intelligent.

On the other hand... there was the dream. The dream that was definitely not real. The dream in which she was the goddess of the arena, Kali incarnate... yet she could not stop the world from falling apart.
Divinity should be able to do that.

On the other hand (the Goddess had a lot of hands)... she did not like that tone of voice.

"It is understandable that you are confused" she said finally with a gracious smile she usually reserved for foreign diplomats "This land does not exactly abound in gods. It is not your fault that you cannot see the line between divine and merely superhuman. My... gifts must look very similar to those of the mutants, in your eyes."

Watching the woman's facial expressions was enough, and Evelyn was bold enough to turn her full expression to the 'goddess'. The was something mildly like annoyance on her face, a flicker of confusion, and fear. She organized the information, then spoke calmly, spinning the cup of water in her hand thoughtfully as she did.

"While I'm sure you believe good and well you are a goddess, there is something else my ability lets me do. I'm not just 'intelligent'. I'm also perceptive. The slight crinkle of your brow, the curl of your mouth, the tilt of your head: I read those. And your expression tells me that you have a level of doubt about your status; something made you feel a bit too mortal, perhaps?"

She waited, watching, waiting. Her eyes were slowly taking on a grey tint as she processed the information.

>>"While I'm sure you believe good and well you are a goddess, there is something else my ability lets me do. I'm not just 'intelligent'. I'm also perceptive. The slight crinkle of your brow, the curl of your mouth, the tilt of your head: I read those. And your expression tells me that you have a level of doubt about your status; something made you feel a bit too mortal, perhaps?"

Mahadevi's eyes grew darker under the heavy eyeliner, and she pressed her lips together. The girl was not only ungrateful for the blessing of being in the presence of a goddess, she was also impertinent.

"No god or goddess is exempt from the rules of the universe." she said finally, sipping from her drink "I do not claim to be all-knowing and all-present like the god most people here believe in. I embody the essence of the Shakti, the Goddess, and it manifests through me as it sees fit. In times of peace I am Sarasvati and Parvati, and in times of... war..."

Or in a post-apocalyptic New York fitted with an arena of life and death

"... I am Kali the destroyer."

Evelyn listened thoughtfully, reading the pauses in speech and carefully treading the fragile ground she was on. The wrong statement could get her tossed back onto the street on her butt, but just shutting her mouth would be worse, at least in her eyes. The way she spoke of war brought a flicker of memories through her mind.

In the dream that everyone saw, about the future....

Everyone saw... Perhaps even someone who claimed to be embodied by the essence of the Shakti?

"Doesn't seem like much to be a goddess if you're still effected by dreams..." Evelyn ventured casually. She looked down at her nails, examining them for a moment before gazing back up at the goddess with a slight smile. "I don't even dream, so if that bothers you, being a mutant must be more beneficial."

Evelyn rarely admitted to her mutation, but something about this particular brand of denial was a sort of challenge to her. It was a dangerous game, but in her mind, that was half the fun.

>>"Doesn't seem like much to be a goddess if you're still effected by dreams...I don't even dream, so if that bothers you, being a mutant must be more beneficial."

The conversation took such a logical turn that the goddess did not even notice it at first. It took her a few seconds to rewind the point the girl had just made... and the hand that was holding the glass started to shake ever so slightly.

"I did not mention any dream."

The trembling hand on the glass was not missed by Evelyn, and a small overly sweet smile spread across her face. She drank the last of the water in her cup, and shrugged her shoulders. She felt calm now, and confident in the direction she had gone. Too confident to worry further about repercussions.

"But I'm right, aren't I? Just because I wasn't in the dream doesn't mean I haven't heard of it. And there was obviously something in it that made you question who you are."

She felt much better now than she had only moments before. Having a puzzle for her thoughts to chew on kept more negative memories under the surface. What had this woman seen? Why was she so unnerved? For once, she wished she had been in that 'future' everyone seemed to experience. She wondered who she would have been there.

Maybe she would have just been dead... that would be disappointing.