- "Of course they can't resist it."
- —Ananke
Issue 38 of The Wicked + The Divine was released on 15 August 2018. It is the fifth part of Mothering Invention
Solicitation[]
We'll probably call this episode “In-Between Days,” just to make Jamie happy. Jamie deserves to be happy. Meanwhile, Kieron has to reread The White Goddess, as he deserves to suffer.
Plot[]
In Galmpton, Devonshire, 1944, a young Ananke meets with Robert Graves. She calls herself "Anna White" to him and he asks if it's a meaningful name, to what she answers "Only as much as we choose" and begins to tell him her story while drinking.
She tells him the first of the gods was her sister's - Maiden, Mother and Crone, and explains how she gives the gods the "divine poetry to recite" and how they couldn't resist it. She goes to bed, but asks for a light on, as she dislikes the dark.
In New York, 9 February 1957, Robert Graves gives a lecture on his book, The White Goddess, written based on his conversation with Ananke. She watches it from the audience, greatly bothered by how he distorted her words. When another woman asks her what she found of his speech, she tells her he just heard what he wanted and made up the rest, but he is not the only one doing so.
In Great Britain, 31 July 2013, Minerva is reborn. She searches for a telephone to talk to Ananke, stating her intention to have the couple in the house to pose as her parents. In Valhalla, during the events of Rising Action, they talk about their plans, and Ananke states they will move suspicion from her by having her carved up in an impressive but meaningless altar. Minerva states they must not have anything too exposed, since the photos in the next century can be used to draw a link between the two. When Ananke says that with luck it won't have, Minerva answers "There's no luck. There's only us".
Ambition Makes You Pretty. Also, Ugly, 9 March 2015[]
Beth, Toni and Robin finish an edited video on Woden's orders to frame Cassandra. Woden welcomes the three in their team, and goes with Minerva to talk to the Norns. Woden has her divine where the other three heads are, and Woden goes after them, and finds the heads with mouths shut and their faces marked by random symbols, placed there by Minerva to deceive Woden into not getting information from them. It works.
In Highbury & Islington, Persephone and Baphomet watch over the Morrigan's corpse. Baphomet wants to be adressed as Nergal from now on, embracing his true identity. Persephone forces Nergal to act and they walk back into the Underground, with him bringing her corpse. Persephone thinks about his current state and reflects on the Morrigan's words. They finally enter in a temple the two were building, where the Morrigan's corpse divides itself in her three personas, now separate in dead as Nergal tells Persephone she must go.
Before leaving, Persephone tells him she is pregnant, and he gives her an advice as she asks him what to do. He talks about his poor choices, and tells her "whatever I do, don't" which makes Persephone realise something.
In Valhalla, Baal pours off the fire with the rain he summoned. Minerva questions him why he began the fire, and asks if he did something bad. He tells her he did, and that he had to, telling her he should have killed Persephone, but couldn't, as she was pregnant. Minerva gets horrified on receiving this notice.
In the darkness, Persephone has an inner monologue as she notices her Eleusinia phone broken. She realises they were all foolish for desiring godhood, and after receiving it, they had no other option but to go ahead with it. She returns back to her place, destroyed after the fight, with Sakhmet's body under a blank sheet, and picks up her old phone as she decides to give up on everything, since she has no reason to keep holding to it. She sends a message, and then run, deciding the prize is not really worth it and finally knowing what she is not.
Woden, who got Cassandra's phone, reads the message from Persephone aloud, directed to both him and Cass, who has no idea where she might have gone. Minerva appears, erratic, needing to know where Persephone is. Cass refuses to divine her location, and Woden threatens to kill a Norn if she doesn't. The Norns divine her, but find nothing. Woden reasons she is Underground, since they can't find her, but Cassandra states that it's different: Persephone doesn't exist.
The issue ends in a title card reading "The Book I Have Opened, 9 March 2015".
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