# 12
**Chapter 12: Goddess of the Night**
Six patient rooms, and only the first door could be opened.
Was it set to be "openable," or—just like the gate he had knocked on for five years—was it that his current strength could only open the first door?
Lin Qiye had knocked on that gate for five years; only after opening his eyes and having his mental perception strengthened was he able to push it open and enter the Asylum.
Then, for the second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth rooms, would he also have to wait until his strength increased?
Lin Qiye wasn’t sure, and right now he had no time to dwell on it.
Because in front of him, the door to the room once covered in seals was slowly opening.
The space inside was small and dimly lit. In the center sat a chair, and on it a woman in a star-speckled black dress, staring blankly ahead.
Nothing else—just the woman, the chair, and the gloom.
Lin Qiye crept to the doorway, thought for a moment, and put on his most official smile, waving to the woman inside.
“Hello, I’m Lin Qiye.”
No matter who—or what—she was, courtesy first. A smiling face rarely gets slapped, and even a god ought to appreciate manners.
But while his smile stiffened outside, the woman in black remained motionless, a statue.
Lin Qiye gritted his teeth and stepped inside.
The instant he crossed the threshold, lines of text appeared on the wall behind her.
---
**Ward No. 1**
**Patient:** Nyx
**Task:** Help Nyx treat her mental illness. When progress reaches set values (1%, 50%, 100%), randomly draw a portion of Nyx’s abilities.
**Current progress:** 0%
---
“Nyx?” Lin Qiye sucked in a breath.
He wasn’t a mythologist, but even he had heard of Nyx—one of the five primordial gods of ancient Greek myth.
A being at the absolute pinnacle of any pantheon.
So this dazed woman was the famous Goddess of the Night?
Cold, regal, perfect features, black hair cascading like a waterfall, a dress of star-studded night that made her snow-white skin seem carved from alpine jade.
Even vacant-eyed, the aura she exhaled was nothing mortal could match; no empress in history could stand beside her.
Nyx—goddess and empress—sovereign of the night.
Lin Qiye rubbed his chin, studying her up close. He had seen a god before—the blazing seraph on the moon—and something felt missing from Nyx.
Divinity? Power? Authority?
All of the above?
He couldn’t tell, but he bet her condition had everything to do with whatever was wrong with her.
Yet this was a goddess—one at the apex of myth.
How could she be sick?
And if she was, was it natural… or engineered?
Natural? He doubted it. Engineered? He couldn’t imagine what being could afflict the Goddess of the Night—with a mental illness, no less.
According to the wall, he was supposed to treat her. But what illness?
Having once been a “mental patient” himself, he knew the broad categories: depression, OCD, schizophrenia, delusions…
First, he had to diagnose her.
He crouched in front of Nyx and waved a hand before her eyes.
“Can you hear me?” he whispered beside her ear.
Suddenly she shuddered, sending him leaping back in fright!
Her head swiveled stiffly toward him; vacant eyes locked on his.
He swallowed, frozen.
One second, two, three…
Just as her stare threatened to drill holes in his scalp, her gaze shifted:
Blank → puzzled → stunned → brimming with tears.
She trembled, lips parting with difficulty. A hoarse, choked voice cracked out:
“At last… I’ve found you, my child!!”
A bolt of lightning seemed to shoot from his soles to his brain, blanking it out.
She—me—child—???
Lin Qiye had no memory of his parents; they’d handed him to his aunt and vanished. Still, his mother was presumably human—not the Goddess of the Night.
Wait, why is a foreign night goddess speaking fluent Chinese?
Right, this is my dream; telepathic subtitles aren’t weird…
While his thoughts cartwheeled, Nyx stood, arms wide, and tottered toward him—faster and faster, more and more frantic.
His mind mush, Lin Qiye instinctively opened his arms to catch the divine embrace.
Instead, she rushed past him and hugged… the little flower vase on the windowsill.
“My child! You’re alive! I’ve found you!” Tears streamed.
Lin Qiye: …???
Next, she spotted the chair she’d occupied for who-knew-how-long.
After a beat, she hugged it and the vase together, wailing:
“Hypnos! My child, you’re here too!!”
Lin Qiye stood petrified while Nyx tearfully claimed the vase, chair, wall, and air as her offspring.
Lin Qiye: I think I’ve found her diagnosis…
And it’s not mild.
…
Morning. Lin Qiye woke from the dream, stared at the bare ceiling, and sighed.
After a night with Nyx, he felt half-broken himself.
About to get up, he paused.
In his mind, the mist-shrouded Asylum of the Gods floated, now linked to him.
No need to sleep; he could project his awareness inside at will.
A perk of opening the gate?
He tried—and instantly perceived everything in the asylum, though the other five sealed rooms remained shut.
In the yard, Nyx was hugging vase and chair, chattering to empty air.
Sitting on his bed, he kneaded his temples.
“Treat her… I’m no doctor. How?”
Suddenly his eyes lit up, narrowing as a grin crept across his face.