Ei’van’an smiled as he stood atop a massive cliff. He looked down at the island below him, then to the space all around him within the Rift. The area was nearly desolate of islands, with but one island a few miles out from the one he stood upon. He could already see it-- a massive spire reaching miles up where he stood, a matching fortress below him reaching up along the cliff, a city surrounding the citadel and a bridge crossing the gap between islands. It could be wonderful. Even if the summit did not work out and they continued their warring, Ei’van’an had a feeling that he could use the location he found as a wonderful base. Even if he had to fill it with converts, it would be worth it. Then again, he did not want to attract the ire of the Swarming Hunt without having enough defenses in place… He had to think about that.
Whatever the case, Ei’van’an knew that he could not let this project be one of his enigmatic yet boring towers. No, he needed rare materials, complex rune work, and an army of workers. The latter could have been easy, as he could raise them from the mud itself, but he only did that when he wanted something done fast. Not when he wanted something done right.
Of his angels, only five were beings that would have loved to work with their hands on such a project without putting their own marks onto it. Sure, it was narcissistic of Ei’van’an to want total and complete creative control of the project, but this was special.
No, he needed a large, professional workforce. That was a tall order. He knew it. But he was not one to shy away from tall orders.
After a moment of thought, he shoved his stony, left hand into the dragonscale pants he wore and pulled a heavily modified phone from it. He dialed a number and put it up to his ear. A moment later, the call connected, “Sir,” a deep, feminine voice said, “It isn’t often you call me. What can I do for you?”
“Yes, I know Yule. It’s because I don’t call you every time I need help that you know how serious this one is. Do you remember the project I came back to the Castle to plan?” he asked.
“The one you were bouncing on the walls about? Yeah, I remember. Did you finally find a good spot?” she asked. Ei’van’an wanted to refute her assertion, but he could not. He had been bouncing around like a child after a dozen cups of coffee.
“I did. The problem, however, is the workforce for the project I want to begin. Even the spire aspect is a massive undertaking. Even for me. So, can you source a large, professional workforce for me? Hell, I don’t mind borrowing from a world-bound god if need be,” he said, “I just won’t be able to complete this without better help than the mud golems.”
There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone, “Alright, professional workforce with enough of a size to rival your mud golems. Got it. I can put out fliers across worlds to recruit architects. Or I can do a hostile takeover…” she trailed off, a hopeful tone in her voice, “I haven’t been worshiped in a while…”
“I don’t understand why you feel the need to,” Ei’van’an replied, “You don’t receive power from it like you used to.”
“Even if I’m your angel, I was once a goddess. I can distinctly feel the prayers of my followers, even if I’m not as… powerful as you are,” she said. Ei’van’an almost winced. The poor girl was a goddess of a world in the midst of a collapse and she had been pulled into the Rift just as Ei’van’an arrived. She had to suffer the fate of feeling the majority of her followers die to the Swarming Hunt. Before she herself was devoured, however, Ei was able to fight them off and save her. She became his angel for that, which gave her a massive boost in power, despite her previous divine nature.
After a moment, Ei’van’an sighed, “I won’t stop you if you want to cultivate a following, you know. I never have. I just need you to do this for me,” he said, “You can do it however you want.”
Yule was silent again, “That’s the reason why I don’t do it. You are a far better god than I ever was… It would be disingenuous to act like a god when I serve a greater one. It would not be fair to the mortals who prayed, or might pray, to me…” She paused again, “I’ll take care of your labor problem. You have my word,” she said, cutting the connection.
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Ei’van’an looked at the phone for a long moment, stroking his metal chin with his metal right arm, then sighed. He pocketed the phone and sat on the cliff’s edge, looking down at the massive drop. He wished, for a brief moment, that he could go back to the Castle and make sure that Yule was alright.
He discarded those notions immediately. The last time he did something like that, she nearly attacked him. She disliked being fawned over, even if that ‘fawning’ was simply concern for her wellbeing. Instead of doing that, he focused on the plans floating through his head.
*=====*
Yule floated beside a lifeclock, parsing through the abilities of the local populus within the world beyond it. The results were not great. There were a few thousand architects, a few hundred sculptors, and a thousand or so engineers. The problem was that violence was en vogue and art was out.
She sighed, slouching her massive body beside the clock. She stared at her scales for a moment and lost herself in memory. She was once a goddess, the divine dragon that guarded the world against the hubris of every other species. And yet, when the rapture came and she was cast into the infinite blue abyss that was the Rift, her children were slaughtered and she herself was nearly killed.
She shook her head at that. She did not want to relive memories better left forgotten. At the very least, she was able to give scales to her new god. As much as it obviously made him uncomfortable. Actually, that was worth it in and of itself. It was nice to be able to fluster the usually-stoic Ei’van’an.
And him wearing pants made of her own scales brought forth odd thoughts, but she dutifully ignored them. She was a servant, not an equal. No matter how much Ei and, according to his words, the gods themselves acted like it was otherwise.
After scanning the world fully, she sighed and unraveled her snake-like body, flying out of the massive cavern a moment later. She flew to the next island, found no signs of a lifeclock, then flew to the next island. She repeated her previous work when she found that island’s lifeclock. Her mind probed the world, and she soon smiled. She had found her workforce.
*=====*
Ei’van’an was scrawling on a blueprint when his phone began to ring. He pulled the device out as he looked at the paper in his hands, “Ei’van’an here. How can I help?”
There was a deep, feminine chuckle on the other end, “That was good,” Yule chuckled, “I found your workforce. A species of insect-like quadrupeds that highly value doing work. Architects build their own buildings, mages craft their own mana, stuff like that. They also pursue group-centric projects with nearly religious zeal. I think they’ll be a good workforce.”
Ei’van’an blinked his stone eyes in surprise, pulling the phone away for a second to look at the time, “Yule, it’s been three hours. How are you already done? Actually, I’ll just call it a lucky break. So, how many do you have that want to work? I think I can house about ten thousand for now, unless you want to run supplies for me.”
Yule hissed a bit, “See, that’s the main problem. There are only about five thousand on this world-- multispecies sapients and whatnot-- and they all wanted in on the project. So…”
“Let me guess, they want to swear fealty to me or something?” Ei’van’an chuckled.
“If you can prove yourself to be a god, yes,” Yule replied, “Also, I don’t mind running supplies for this. You sounded excited about it for once.”
Ei’van’an nodded to himself. Doing something like that would be easily possible. He expanded his senses to encompass the entire island and measured the entire thing in an instant. It was quite large for an island in the Rift, being a rough circle a hundred and thirty miles in diameter and generally sparse, the only exception being the massive mountain Ei’van’an sat atop. He already planned to make a city there, so finding residents for it was not a bad thing. “Alright, in that case, can you bring them over here? I have enough food to feed ten thousand people for a year in my rings and some materials to start with, so that won’t be an issue, but we haven’t done a joint project in far too long. You should help me come up with a design more solid than ‘big spire.’ And these doodles.”
Yule giggled-- which was quite rare for her-- and sighed, “In that case, I’ll bring them along. See you in a few hours!” she cheerfully said, shutting her phone off. Ei’van’an smiled and raised his hands. He needed some temporary housing for his workers. He raised the dirt around him into three thousand huts. They were small enough to be space-efficient but big enough to let even the largest quadrupeds enough room to move about. He then turned to his side and made an offhand gesture to where he planned to put the spire.
A massive ring of hardened dirt rose about a foot and Ei’van’an smiled. He had an outline, but he could work with Yule to finish the rest of the design. Besides, he learned long ago that people who could keep up with his artistic mind were few and far between, and Yule was one of those who were so few and oh so far between.