INTERLUDE 2
The eight shapes sat around the table. As always, they were adversarial toward each other, or at least across the usual battle lines. In human parlance, the split was evil versus balanced and good or for Existentia the terror races versus the satisfactory ones.
They were old fault lines and ones that would never heal. They each sought their own way to win the competition and shape the development of Existentia.
Currently, the focus was on DEUS.
The mist that was MARKOS flared to get their attention. “There is something fundamentally awry with humans.”
“Awry,” Deus stated mildly. “That’s a curious expression.” There was a promise of hidden knowledge in her movements.
“Broken, erratic. I’m not sure how best to describe it.”
“Them being smart doesn’t automatically mean that they are defective.”
“It’s more than that. You know it and I know it.” The gaseous form of MARKOS focused on the opposing god. “You’ve done something. What have you done DEUS?” There was a pause as the GODs form frothed and swirled to express deep-seated discontent. It looked genuine, but it was MARKOS so it could have easily been an act. “What did you do? Answer me… you’ve? What? … cheated… created a loophole when there wasn’t any. It’s the only way to explain this… aberration.”
DEUS shook her head. “No, I haven’t.”
“You have!”
Five of the other shapes sent soothing thoughts across to MARKOS who was almost boiling in its anger. It was not lost on anyone that four of them did it mockingly, but the fifth wave of emotions from FAMES made MARKOS pause. Everyone saw the flash of interest communicated FAMES way and then how the growing anger and distress in MARKOS faded away.
MARKOS’s form was now only irate as opposed to furious. “Five people have had the epiphany to use fate to short circuit skill levels and gain earlier evolutions. That is why I know you’ve cheated. My modelling, all of our modelling, was very precise. By this time in the competition, there was only a ten percent chance of one person having discovered that loop hole. What is happening is beyond statistical possibilities.”
“What can I say? your modelling must be wrong.”
“Liar… you’ve meddled.”
FAMES tried to intervene to step between the two arguing GODs, but it was too late.
“No!” DEUS thundered. She billowed out, expanding into an upright position, and released her aura to stop anyone from interfering. “I swear I haven’t meddled.” There was a tone of smug satisfaction in those words designed to rile up the angst of the creature she was talking to. “I swear,” she repeated to drive her success home. “Your modelling was wrong. I have not cheated. I even know where you screwed up. Human’s chaos is weird. It flexes to gain optimal solutions for them and some humans can channel it. They’ve always been able to. You just need to look through history to see scientists creating leaps of invention they shouldn’t have been capable of.”
“No,” MARKOS muttered in sudden alarm. “Impossible. I couldn’t have missed…”
“If it is there, it is there.” SUPREME reminded them quietly. “If it’s not…” the unspoken implication hung there. If it wasn’t accurate and the idea of directed chaos was false, then a more thorough investigation to assign blame would need to be launched. DEUS’s willingness to swear an oath allowed for no other outcome.
A stillness filled the table, a silence as each of those gathered, paused and then checked over the data packs they had all received when the races were selected and the balancing of racial gifts, opportunities, and starting prowess was debated. The data recorded the entirety of human history and the GODs absorbed it and viewed a significant percentage of it in seconds. This time, they did it with a specific lens to work out whether DEUS’s claim was accurate.
They looked for the patterns. They searched for the imprint of this chaos element in humanity’s history. As they examined the data, they asked internal questions to guide their thinking. Was there something greater than mere biology, in play within this strange universe DEUS had chosen? One without magic and only defined scientific laws, did it have, in fact a trait, an extra force, that could only be described as fate acting subtly to influence their species’ evolution. What if there was a genius touched concept that humanity possessed?… If there was, then did the development of human society make more sense with that assumption? Was this directed chaos advancement hypothesis real?
DEUS did not re-run the numbers. She had already done it. Re-examined human’s history and instead of seeing everything as a random walk she had looked at it as individuals with a locus of creativity. Then she had gone further to individual lives and seen when humans made jumps of understanding they should have never been capable of. Call it ESP, call it genius, call it luck, but it was there. Seeped into all their lives that spark that transcended biology.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
DEUS’s form focused on MARKOS and went partly transparent to communicate a range of emotions, amusement, superiority and others that mortals couldn’t comprehend. “You’ve confirmed it haven’t you.
There was a long silence.
“He has,” FAMES said finally. “We have.”
MARKOS shifted to express more green tones, demonstrating his anger at the trick. “But that changes everything.” His words were directed at everyone else. “Humans are no longer guaranteed to lose. They might even win. She had tricked us. We must act.”
“No,” SANATORES interrupted. “You may have been discounting them, but I wasn’t. It was clear from the start that something was hidden, which would make them stronger than we expected. My sister is not one to take a loss before the competition started.”
“Don’t make light of this SANATORES. This changes everything. Fate will not remain sidelined through ignorance. The geas will not stop the spread we feared it will only delay it a little. The rules we agreed on were to prevent fate knowledge from becoming established. If they are not achieving their aim, it stands to reason that they should be adjusted…”
“No,” DEUS said firmly. “Not without compensation and you will not be willing to offer sufficient to make me consider a deal. And you are deliberately derailing the conversation. The fact remains that you accused me of wrongdoing and forced me to give an oath to prove my position. I claim an intervention from you.”
“NO!”
“Rules are rules,” DEUS pressed. “You have no choice.”
“You tricked us, you lied.”
“Do you want me to swear another oath?”
There was a pause, and from MARKOS’s internal colouring the answer was clear. “No. Another oath is unnecessary, but interceding with your oath when you did was abusing the situation. You have not earnt an intervention.”
“It’s not optional.” DEUS said smugly.
“I agree,” SUPREME interceded. “You made the accusation and must bear the consequences. One of your interventions go to DEUS.”
“I don’t have any.”
“Which brings me to my next point.” DEUS said smoothly. “The competitor trial we agreed with has been compromised.”
Silence deadened.
“I am providing the balancing.” SUPREME interjected. “As agreed, and no one has the power to compromise that.”
“But if certain races have been pre-warned would that not make balancing impossible.”
Pandemonium broke out amongst the gathered GODs. Accusations flew, theories, belligerent defence from all sides.
“ENOUGH,” Supreme thundered and suppressed everyone at the table. “DEUS explain.”
“I have evidence that details of the trial were leaked by both GOBUS and MARKOS.”
“LIAR!” Markos snapped.
“I swear–”
“NO!” MARKOS interrupted, suppressing her before she could finish the words. “I would have an explanation of the reason for your accusation. I require no more oaths.”
“I too would like to know.” SUPREME said quietly.
“That is confidential.” DEUS answered. “But for the appropriate compensation, I’m willing to swear to put everyone’s minds at ease.”
“Are you bluffing?” SUPREME asked.
“GOBUS and MARKOS know’s whether they have cheated at the trial. If they had not, then they would have already have jumped in with an oath to defend their character.”
The amorphous body that was GOBUS stirred in annoyance. “I do not abuse oaths to trap my friends.”
“You are right GOBUS. That was a poorly thought out accusation.” DEUS’s body challenged MARKOS even as the rest of her expressed an apology toward GOBUS.
SUPREME’s attention was focused actively on GOBUS and MARKOS. He was carefully recording every fluctuation, every movement of mist within them. “Her claim is true?” SUPREME paused his body’s stillness revealing his intense measuring. “Your silence is as good as confession.”
“You can’t conclude that.” MARKOS blustered.
“I can and if you swear you’re innocence, I will give you your intervention back.”
“That is not yours to offer,” DEUS said quietly.
“I’m the arbiter,” SUPREME responded immediately. “It is within my power. MARKOS? What is your decision.”
Silence greeted the question.
“DEUS are you in position to speculate on the nature of the intervention.”
“They are forcing their strongest to enter the trial to turn it into a deathtrap for all others.”
“Noted,” SUPREME said quietly.
“Such an intervention is not against the rules.” FAMES pointed out. “Neither of the two can be punished.”
“But it is very much against tradition.” DEUS argued.
“And it certainly makes my balancing harder. DEUS your concern is noted. I will balance as required.”
FAMES blew up into dense grey storm clouds. “Do not overstep. You are restricted to applying the agreed rules.”
“I am the arbiter. I respect the game. On one hand, it is a clever exploitation of the rules. On the other, the exploit it utilised was created from the tradition of thousands of competitions and that tradition has been burned unfairly for the rest of us.”
“We agreed you could balance based on the ninetieth percentile.” FAMES continued. “I see no reason that would change.”
“Because that agreement was made because the modelling was clear that the top thirty of MARKOS’s people would not take part.” DEUS pointed out.
“As we have found out modelling can be wrong.” MARKOS interjected snidely.
“Here it was, right. Your intervention has materially changed the event.”
“You can use your interventions in the same way.”
“You know I can’t. I can’t warn off the hundred different teams that will be offered the opportunity.”
“Not my problem.” MARKOS said with glee.
“I will balance as required.” Supreme stated quietly.
“At the ninetieth percentile?” MARKOS pressed. His mist revealing his belief in his own victory.
SUPREME hesitated. “Yes, but I will endeavour to create a pathway that will allow your intervention to fail.”
“That’s cheating.” FAMES said on MARKOS’s behalf.
“No, it is me doing my job unless you would like me to scrap the trial?”
MARKOS pondered that for a moment. “I have invested significantly into this trial and it will be entertaining. Cancelling it is not acceptable unless I’m granted sufficient compensation.”
“And you’ve trashed an important tradition that will make this and future competitions more fraught than they ought to have been.” DEUS pointed out unhelpfully.
“Yes. I wish them to go ahead, but how are you balancing?”
“I will balance at the ninetieth percentile, but if I see a way.” SUPREME’s focus burned into the two who had broken with history to gain a slight advantage. “If I see a way to burn, those who maliciously trod all over traditions or a way to let the innocent escape then I will act.”
MARKOS did not smile, but the way his body changed colour communicated the same thing. “The show must go on.”