***The Crystal City***

***Ascathon***

Heading down the central plaza I notice something strange when I pass in front of the Crystal's City's administration complex. Namely that people are giving the guards in front of the large building a wide berth. It’s normal to hold a respectful distance, but today it seems like something is up. Trying my best to ignore the vibrant market all around me and the strangeness of the scene, I continue onwards.

Though today doesn’t seem as oppressively busy as on other days, there is still an annoying amount of people on the streets, enough that I can tell right away that something is wrong in Crystal City and that it probably has something to do with the Council, judging by the way the people act towards those who are supposed to hold up the law.

But who am I kidding? It’s always the Council if something is going on.

When I took a pathway to the Crystal City I expected to appear right inside a crowd, but there was none.

The place is still active, but what is normally a tightly packed crowd, slowly flowing like a river from one destination to another, is now a trickle. Where it was earlier impossible to move without bumping into other people, it's now easy to navigate with only slight course corrections. I am only occasionally forced to violate the private sphere of somebody.

It's certainly not as if I would complain about this development, but I can't help it. It feels like something is off. It’s infuriating. I originally planned to provoke a fight in order to let off some steam. Things aren’t going well at home and the incident with Eris has had me worried for days.

Seria and the two idiot brothers also haven’t shown themselves and are hiding instead. One would think that they would have the manners to present themselves and explain what they were doing in that facility. After all, I leaned pretty far out of the window to cover for them. Tjenemit isn’t happy with me as it is, and playing the idiot in a situation like that is a pretty sure sign that I am not entirely on his side.

It was like waving a shield around with the words ‘I do what I have to, but the first chance I get I am out.’

Add to that the fact that things aren't going well with my religion. There are just too many idiots who are focused on this supposed *evil* they think I should represent. I am having a hard time to drill it into their heads that I am not keen on blood rituals and sacrificing maidens. Somehow the mortals seem to think that I am an evil deity who helps evil people when I am the complete opposite!

The only chance to change that is to show that I am an evil deity who punishes evil, but so far that didn’t work out so well.

“Hm...” I grumble as a thought strikes me. Maybe I should leave more witnesses alive to spread the word. Up until now, I may have been a little too thorough with punishing everyone in sight.

I purse my lips as I try to think of other solutions to my problem.

Well... maybe I could allow them to sacrifice a few fair maidens to me. Of course, only if they are beautiful and in one piece. I would take them on a nice date in some fancy restaurant on another world, have them show me their affection, and then they can go back wherever they came from. That would be better than having to stomp through their intestines.

And those cultists seem to be like a disease. In the last few days, I was summoned to several different attempts at using me for their purposes. One might think that they got the message after the first three attempts ended in massacres.

My silent musings are interrupted when I reach Alexandria's library and am barred by a large crowd of people who decided to block the entrance. “Just my luck,” I grumble with my expression darkening.

But then my mood lightens a little when I realize that this is a chance. Unwilling to wait, I shove one of the cocksuckers aside. “Don't just stand around and block the path, waste of space!”

The man stumbles as I try to push past him, but he doesn't fall. It’s a huge guy, at least a head taller than me. Dark skinned and with ridges on his cheeks, he manages to look menacing without the slightest bit of effort. Playing along with my ploy, he turns around and immediately tries to defend his previous position. “Hey!”

Instead of dealing with the oversized shit in a more honourable manner, I knee him in the groin and place my palm on top of his head as he bends forward. Pushing down, I accelerate his rapid descend as he collapses like a folding chair. His head cracks nicely onto the pavement, bouncing thrice with a satisfying, wet 'smack'.

He is out like a light.

The sound of his head on the pavement immediately lightens my bad mood and I hum in appreciation as the crowd hurries to split in front of me like a sea, acknowledging my superiority as at least some of them recognize who I am.

Stepping over my unconscious 'mood-toy', I approach the entrance to Alexandria's library. I would have gone straight inside, if it weren't for the sign on the door which reads 'CLOSED' in big, red letters.

Huffing, I turn around, glaring at the closest man, a beastkin with grey ears. “Do you know what's that about? Alexandria never closes her library.” It’s preposterous. Lexi didn’t take a vacation in centuries. To be more accurate, I don’t remember her ever taking a vacation. She lives inside and for her library.

Clearly intimidated, the beastkin shrugs and replies with a lisping voice, “We don't know and are as clueless as you. The library is closed since five days ago and nobody saw Alexandria in that entire time. The Council officially locked the place down. According to them, it's for further investigation. They didn’t even inform those who had dealings with the librarian when we can expect her back.”

I stop breathing for a moment. Alexandria not in her library? She is always in her library. That's like a constant of the multiverse. Like gravity or the speed of light. Alexandria not taking care of her books is like the sky opening up and swallowing existence as a whole.

“Is it another case of disappearance?” I ask nobody specific, but the crowd in general.

Their silence is everything I need as an answer. Nobody who lives in the Crystal City would be stupid enough to accuse the Council of anything, even if only by hinting at it by declaring that the Council is involved in the missing cases. It’s an unspoken rule.

Turning around, I start walking and make sure to step onto the unconscious mood-toy who was unlucky enough to get in my way. If this is a normal disappearance scenario then it's useless to search for clues inside the library. Given that the Council shut the place down, they surely also professionally cleaned it out.

The thought strikes me that it may be time to pay Seria a visit and ask her what the stunt in the Council's facility was about. Having made my decision, I head directly back to the administration complex in the centre of the Crystal City.

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Not paying the guards much attention, I head straight for the building with the offices and Studio 7, hoping to find at least one of the three hoodlums there. Up until now, I didn’t actively search for them, but that is at an end.

Upon entering the room which is shaped like an auditorium I immediately notice that the ones I am searching for aren’t present. No matter.

Focusing on Zenial, a pale woman with white hair, I walk closer until she and her four female friends notice me. She is called a goddess of the moon. That alone doesn’t have much meaning, but as with myself, most gods represent several different aspects of power. Sometimes it’s just easier to go with an ancient symbol instead of giving a complicated and lengthy explanation of their character traits every time you meet someone.

As such, the moon embodies femininity and the rhythm of time as it cycles through its different phases. The phases of the moon symbolize immortality and eternity, enlightenment or the dark side of nature itself. It might also reflect inner knowledge or balance, as it is the middle ground between the light of the sun and the darkness of night. In some cases, it represents the realm between the unconscious and conscious.

I am sure that Zenial doesn’t have full command of all of these aspects, but she would surely never willingly give me a full spec-sheet of her skill-set. Using a pseudonym like the moon is a middle-ground between politely allowing others some insight into your own nature, while at the same time being vague enough to give nothing of value away.

She turns to me when it becomes clear that I want something, while the entourage of the four women around her quiets down. “Can I help you?”

“Yes. I have seen you associate with Nazareth. Have you seen him lately? Or Marigold or Seria, any of those three. I need to talk to them.”

Zenial studies me with a doubtful expression, then she looks at her associates as if to confirm that they have her back should things go south.

Impatient, I press on and smile. “Look. I promise not to hurt your friends, but I have dealings with them. No idea why all of you are so afraid of me. Most of the time I am a very reasonable and friendly guy.”

“Most of the time...” Zenial purses her lips while her entourage starts whispering.

“What of the time when he tore the soul out of a minor deity who offended him? In public!”

“Yes, the guards had to force him to give it back!”

“Or when he blew up Seria’s island resort when she hosted that party...”

“I still remember that. I was forced to reincarnate!”

“I heard that he just earlier beat someone up for no reason at all. Maybe we should just tell him?”

I raise both hands to stop them. “Okay. You are right that I made a name for myself over the centuries, but in every case, the other party gave me a good reason for my actions. Why don’t we hurry this along and you just tell me.”

Zenial tilts her head sideways, considering the potential ramifications of her possibilities. “I don’t know for sure where they are. I have seen Nazareth just yesterday, but he was only here for a few minutes, saying that he would bury himself in work for the foreseeable future and that we shouldn’t worry about him or his brother. Apparently, Marigold is currently doing something similar. As for Seria, I haven’t seen her, but when she wants to be alone she often takes a pathway to the plane of Kurth, where she allows herself to drift among the currents.”

“Hm.” I massage my chin, considering whether I should believe such a vague description. “Where exactly is this plane of Kurth? I’ve never been there.”

She blinks, then searches the floor with her eyes. I do the same, concentrating on my ability to see pathways. Finally, she gently touches one of the pathways with her energy but doesn’t actually take it.

“That one. It should bring you pretty close if you take the forty-second, then the fifth and then the nine-hundred eleventh node. If she is there, you should be able to sense her.”

I thank her and take the indicated pathway, instinctively following the instructions she gave me. Giving something like coordinates within the multiverse is a pretty useless endeavour, so we gods prefer to orientate ourselves according to the pathways and their intersecting network of connections which we call nodes.

It’s far easier than to tell someone that he has to get to a certain plane of existence, then somehow reach galaxy X and search for star system Y, then find a special landmark on planet Z. The pathways already provide a system that’s akin to an underground railway which allows you to ignore the actual distance between places.

When giving locations, we just have to tell the other side at which station, or in our case which node, we should hop off the train. It’s also convenient that for some reason everyone who ascends to godhood has an instinctive grasp on how to navigate the pathways. Before I ascended I would have never imagined that it would be that easy to travel between dimensions and worlds, sometimes following a network of pathways that would look like an impossible labyrinth of neurons to my previous self. Now I simply know where to go.

I emerge weightless in an endless sky.

Pressing my lips together, I focus on overcoming the disorientation of weightlessness. Scanning my surroundings, I realize that this must be a plane of existence where for one reason or the other, the amount of heavy elements was never sufficient to form stars and planets. It’s an entire dimension of endless air and clouds.

Though, there must be some form of thermal exchange at work in this place. Otherwise, the water would freeze as everything cools down. Or planetary bodies of water would have to form. And maybe they do? The sky is blue, so that means that there is some form of background radiation. Maybe there are stars formed from water and I just can’t see them because of the distance?

At last, I finally stop myself from speculating about the exact nature of this strange dimension. If I still want to know later on, I can come back with some equipment and take some measurements instead of taking wild guesses.

Stretching out my senses, I search for the signs of another powerful being, finding it almost immediately, so I take a pathway and appear right next to my target.

“Aieeee!” Squealing, she throws an orange juice in a takeaway bottle at me. It splatters on my chest, since I am too concerned with taking a peek at her – almost – naked body.

She quickly covers herself with a large towel which displays a tropical scene. “What the fuck are you doing in MY dimension?”

“I haven’t seen any signs which announce this place as your dimension. By the way, nice sexy underwear.” I smirk and gesture at the goods which are now covered by the towel. Then I look around, noticing several things floating all around us. It's a cloud of sun-cream tubes, discarded fast-food, and other goods of convenience floating everywhere. There is even something like an ultra-widescreen setup which is playing some sort of action movie in the distance. Suddenly I feel reminded of the room of a rebellious teenager… if the teenager in question was very wealthy and had a whole dimension for herself. “Shouldn’t you at least clean up the litter?”

“Who cares? If it gets too dirty, I’ll just move to the next spot. There is enough space here to last me an eternity and there are no green activists who can tell me what to do. It’s my dimension because I am the only one who is coming here! What do you want?” She crosses her arms in front of her chest and narrows her eyes. “And who told you about my relaxation solarium?”

A solarium? I look around. If there is enough ultraviolet radiation, and judging by the light all around us that might indeed be the case, then this place should be perfect to get an ideal tan.

One might think that she would have problems with her trash. I wonder at which point she decides that it’s time to move? When the vicinity starts looking like a waste disposal site? But I can’t refute her logic. If this is indeed a dead dimension which never developed life, then nobody should have any reason to come here. Except if the person in question has the wish to be alone.

“Two things.” I return my full attention to her. “I want you to tell me what that scene in the Council’s facility was all about. I’ve been waiting for days for you guys to show yourselves, but it’s like everyone crawled under a rock. I know that the two of us aren’t the greatest of friends, but I would expect at least a ‘thank you’ for saving your hide. It was centuries ago, but if it’s still about blowing up that party of yours then-”

“It’s not about the party.” She sighs, running a hand through her hair which slowly fans out to her left, apparently influenced by an imperceptible airflow.

“Then what?” I ask. “The other thing I want to know about is if you heard anything about Alexandria. I was at her library earlier and the people there told me that she vanished and that the place was closed down by the Council.”

Seria blinks but shows no other reaction. “I am sorry. I only know that the Council put her on the wanted list. It seems like she looked into some restricted knowledge concerning world enchantments and someone told the authorities. She is still on that list, so I think that they haven’t caught her yet.”

“Aren’t you the one who does the catching?” I look her up and down, searching for some sign that she knows more than she is willing to admit.

“Yes, and that’s why I know about it.” She waves her hand in a circle as if it was only natural for her to be involved in such things. “But they didn’t put me on the case. It’s not like I am their only hunter.”

I narrow my eyes. “What knowledge is there that Lexi doesn’t already have in her library?”

Seria shrugs. “Something must have happened that caused her to tap into other sources.”

“And what about your presence in that facility?” I ask.

Finally, Seria shows some sign of guilt. “Espionage...”

Crossing my arms, I pull in my legs cross-legged to make myself more comfortable while floating in a distance of about two metres in front of her. “I have a feeling that this will be a long discussion. And I won’t go away until I have all the answers.”