Anyway, this is a bit more about Mere than Tyya, who may at least get to wander back into things though without her wings and horns and tail..."

"What did you find, Mere?" Tyya asked as she paused and glanced back to where Mere was on her tip-toes, looking at a spread of jewelry and small figures in one of the market's many stalls.

"Mother," Mere said softly, trying to point to a figure. The man behind the stall just regarded her kindly, as if she was pointing to a figure that looked like her mother, not a figure of her actual mother.

"You have one," Tyya reminded her, as if Mere could ever forget. But despite being a hardened adventurer and already a year taking care of three young goddesses, Tyya could be swayed. Mere knew that.

She gave Tyya the longest, saddest look, or at least she tried.

It worked and coins changed hands and Mere was given the figure to add to her collection.

~*~

When she'd gotten a little older, when it wasn't always Tyya acting as her guard and when she and here sisters started actually studying from books and traveling scholars, Mere finally realized that Tyya really was different.

She'd met folks with wings, but always feathered and not leathery. And she'd seen horns on animals but never another person.

Mere wanted to ask about it, but it never seemed to be the right time.

Besides, she was seeing Tyya less and less often.

~*~

When she came into her magic, young but not impossibly so, Mere cried out for Tyya. She didn't remember this, not in the fever-haze of power and change. Star told her afterward while wiping sweat from her body and gently rocking her as the overwhelming sensation started to recede.

Their sister, Light, sent around a few inquiries, but even their mother didn't know where Tyya was.

Mere realized later that if her mother had wanted to find Tyya, Tyya could have been found. Something else must've been going on. There was always something else going on. Tyya was probably fighting for the Northland at that point, or helping some small town, or-

Well, Mere knew by then why she'd been born.

~*~

Tyya came to her wedding, on a gloomy grey day. An odd chill hung in the air until long after the celebrations started and nobody commented on it but they all seemed aware.

Fancy dress didn't fit Tyya at all, though she'd clearly tried. In the end, her wings and horns and tail made her stand out more than those from the Valley and more than the Foxes.

Mere found Wind to be a decent man and it wasn't like she had any sort of choice. There had been three gods born, and three goddesses to match. Wind was a bit older, but he barely looked it. He was kind, and Agassia needed the stability that he and Mere could provide.

By the end of the night, Tyya was gone and Mere quietly settled into a castle that was too big and a life that was too empty.

She had already unpacked a small chest of figures, all of her mother, and set them on a shelf.

Two days later, Mere saw a figure of herself in the market.

~*~

Her mother, Voleena, stayed often once her first child was born. Mere wondered if Tyya might be available, in a few years, as a guardian. But Tyya always seemed to be hard to find. Stories trickled in.

By the time her third child was born, traveling bards brought Mere grand tales of Tyya and her exploits and Mere always rewarded them well. If enough details were correct, Mere suspected them true.

And Tyya was strong and fighting bandits and protecting the Northland and saving children and not slowing down in the least.

It would probably be too much to ask her to come and spend a quiet few years in suffocating comfort and take care of children again.

How Tyya had ever managed...

~*~

Everything had been unraveling for such a long time yet Mere felt a bit like it had unspun at once. Her husband, her mother... A fate she hadn't chosen, yet-

Mere was sure Agassia was better for her doing her part. She raised her children, she cared for the castle-town and the entire nation.

One day, when her youngest was nearly grown, one of the black-clad priestesses of Death stepped from thin air to stand beside her in her chambers.

"If only you could take me," Mere said softly.

The priestess shook her head.

"That's not true at all," she said firmly, before holding out a cloth-wrapped bundle.

"This was left on an altar to Lady Daria with a note to get it to you," the priestess explained. "She was too amused to deny the request."

Mere was quiet as she unwrapped the bundle. Inside was a figure, this one with a greenish hue and small wings and horns and a tail.

'Accidentally became a local hero.'

That was when Mere started collecting figurines again.

~*~

Wind had left the kingdom to their eldest, which Mere had no problem with. They no longer needed to pretend that everything was fine between them and Mere had the castle-town and the nation and two grandchildren to walk around the market with, spoiling them however she wanted.

"Mere?"

Mere looked from a shelf of figurines to Tyya's familiar face. While age had not changed Tyya much, the years had taken a toll nonetheless.

"Tyya!"

For a moment, Mere was a child again, in the arms of her beloved guardian. She was not a goddess, not a queen, not a discarded wife, not a grandmother...

"I'm looking for work," Tyya admitted. "Heard this was a good area to spend some time in."

"If you don't mind children..." Mere said softly, gesturing to the curious prince and princess who were peering up at them.

Tyya crouched down and smiled at them.

"Do either of you two collect figures?"