The large snow-white cathedral where the God of Truth and Honesty resided soon came into view in front of Order. Stained glass windows dotted the front and sides of the pure white walls, each depicting the God who lived within in a different flamboyant pose. There was a gold trim encircling the edges of the walls and a well-maintained garden of red roses surrounded the perimeter, courtesy of a little help now and again from the God of Life and Creation.
A bit too gaudy and ostentatious for Order’s liking, to be perfectly honest; Order’s own abode consisted of a simple log cabin with two rooms: a bathroom connected to a bedroom. She felt that the appearance of a home didn’t take priority over practicality. You’d only be going there to rest and recuperate, after all. Why bother with frills?
Which was why the bulk of her domain was only accessible via a hidden staircase underneath the log cabin’s floorboards, leading to the sprawling 428-level repository of records she had amassed over centuries of compilation, each level home to multiple sections dedicated to a topic or skill that Order had learnt about. If you ever had a burning question about some obscure and archaic topic that you just had to know the answer to, all you’d have to do would be to pose the question to Order, and by the end of the day she’d have a full presentation for you, complete with illustrations and details, set up and ready for your perusal in the location of your choosing.
“Speaking of which, level 428 is almost full. I may need to request the assistance of Death again soon.” Order mumbled to herself. Levels 386 to 428 were about the lesser Gods that were created by the God of Life and Creation, their personalities, abilities and accomplishments in the mortal realm. And seeing as he was still making new Gods to this day, it was unlikely that Order would ever complete this section of her Library.
She stopped in front of the towering double doors of the cathedral, and rapped on the wood twice. “My greetings, God of Truth and Honesty. It is I, the God of Order and Knowledge. As per our prior arrangements, I have arrived to engage in our weekly hour of friendly banter and discussion on various topics that have struck our fancy. May I enter?” Order called out. Etiquette was paramount when meeting with acquaintances, after all. To her, at least.
While practicality was important, Order prided herself on following proper decorum in her interactions with her fellow Gods. All interactions, in fact. She knew not to impose her own high standards onto others, though, which was why she never corrected them if they didn’t return a greeting in the right manner or forewent the greeting entirely. And perhaps it was rather pointless to speak formally when the people she spoke to regularly had known her for hundreds of years… but it was something that Order would be unlikely to ever budge on. She was the literal God of Order, after all.
“Oh hey!” An airy, floaty voice could be heard echoing from behind the double doors. “Come on in, bestie! I’ve set the tables and everything for our little pow-wow!” Order pushed through the doors, taking care to close them behind her as she entered. The interior of the home of the God of Truth and Honesty was more of the same as its exterior, really: intricately carved marble statues (of Truth, of course) flanked the sides of the room, alternating between statue and water feature, and glittering chandeliers of gold hung from the ceiling, providing a warm, orange hue to the room.
In the centre of the room was a comparatively tiny circular wooden table, with tea and various small cakes and snacks laid upon it. Truth was seated at this table, clad in a fluffy, light pink dress that honestly clashed with the general vibes of her home. The lady smiled at Order as she made her way over.
The God of Truth and Honesty was, truthfully, Order’s favourite person to be around. While Truth might be a little… distracted some of the time, Order couldn’t help but like her.
After all, lies and falsehoods prevented true order from taking shape, and in the presence of the God of Truth and Honesty, no lie or untruth could ever be uttered. (Her counterpart, the God of Deception and Trickery didn’t quite fancy that, so he never really visits)
Her vocation was as close to Order’s as any God could be and as such, Order felt a sort of affinity with her. Even if she might be a little disorganized sometimes. Just a little.
“Sooooo,” Truth drawled, “What’s up with yoooouu these days? Anything fun?” “Not much, I suppose. Mostly maintenance and record-keeping. I’ve added the descriptions of another forty lesser Gods to my archives this week and by the end of today I should hope to add another 6.”
Truth started to slump forward onto the wooden table. “Gaaah… why does Lifey keep making them? Isn’t, like, a hundred enough? Like, you’re becoming a hoarder man…”
“Actually,” Order interrupted, “It’s more like five hundred and forty thousand, now.”
“HUHHH? Geez, that old man really needs to find another hobby, right? Isn’t he, like the God of Plants or something? Like, he makes grass and stuff grow, right?”
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“Well, that’s an over-simplification of his godly designation, actually-“ Order started, and was summarily cut off.
“Stoppppp… I don’t really care about thaaaat…” Truth groaned, as she slowly lifted herself off the table back to an upright position. She picked up her teacup and sipped. “Y’know what’s up with me? I’ve taken up a hobby of talking to the local wildlife! Y’know, the sorta purple wriggly thingies around the leftish of that like, reddish star?”
Order consulted her mental map. The lifeforms that resembled octopi that recently gained sentience, yes. The Tako-beru were meticulously observed and archived in her Library around sixty years back, after all. Greed had also offered up his (unsolicited) opinion on them at the time. A bit chewy, but went well with copious amounts of alcohol, apparently. Fried was better, too.
“They were like, fighting and arguing and stuff, so I popped over and told them to stop! Then like, y’know, they started building statues of me and stuff! Oooh, and they started dressing in these like, cute pinkish cloaks with like, 20 sleeves! Isn’t that cute?!” Truth exclaimed, vibrating in her seat with excitement.
Order considered her words. Worship from lesser beings was one way of replenishing divine energies that Order had briefly researched before, due to her daily requirements. Even a small grain of sand, in excess, could form a huge desert, after all.
However, at the time she dropped the line of thinking, due to the costs outweighing the benefits. It required one to be able to bypass the Wall first and foremost, which would already require huge reserves of divine energy that most Gods wouldn’t be able to provide, least of all Order.
And in order to maintain the religions that would have been created around the God, he or she’d would have to periodically show their countenance to that civilisation, meaning that it would be a timesink for that God. No-go for Order. Additionally, the mortal beings from beyond the Wall had terribly short lifespans, often perishing in full in less than a mere century, usually the result of rapid technological advances causing catastrophic societal collapse in one way or another.
Then again… the Sea of Stars encompassed the space around both the divine realms and the mortal ones, both behind the Wall and within it. And within it, especially with their close proximity to the divine realms, lifespans of any such organisms that sprang to life would have great improvements compared to those of the mortal realm. And it probably wouldn’t take that much time to pop over to a planet or two once every fortnight or so… Order shelved the thought for later.
She’d peruse her repositories, look for a couple of inhabited, intelligent planets and draw up a detailed step-by-step plan to form a religion or two. If successful, she could probably limit the daily trips to the God of Life and Creation to a weekly one. Maybe even once a month.
“Anywhoo,” Truth popped a tiny cake into her mouth. “You’re going to meet Lifey after this, right? Say hi for me! Ooh, and maybe you could help me ask him about the unicorns I asked for, like, a while back? This place really needs something more-ish, y’know?”
“I’ll pass on your regards. As for the unicorns, you might have to give up on them. If they could remain corporeal on this plane, each of those horses would have more divine energy than any lesser God.” Order picked up a particularly juicy-looking fruit tart and took a bite, the tangy flavour of peach and mango filling her mouth. “The God of Life and Creation has been trying to increase the capacity and output of divine power for his creations, though. I estimate that he’ll be able to create a lesser God with the ability to interact with the heavenly realm perhaps in the next two to six centuries. Maybe then he’ll start working on your unicorns.”
The rest of the hour was spent on light gossip (mostly initiated by Truth), as she filled Order in on the happenings in the divine realms.
Like how Love was messing around with Time (“she’s suuuch a tease!”), or how the Tako-beru started a culture of ritual sacrifice around her, (“well, I didn’t ask them to do that…”) or how the lesser God of Stories and Creativity had been entertaining her with riveting tales of heroes and villains now and again. (“He didn’t come today though, wonder where that little scamp is?”) Small stuff like that.
Finishing her tea, Order stood from her chair. “I enjoyed my time today with you, God of Truth and Honesty. I look forward to the next time we meet, a week from today. I bid you farewell.”
“Bye Order! See you next weeeeek!”
The first 20 or so times they met, Truth had tried to get Order to do away with the formalities, like robotically stating her full title every time. But she learnt (eventually) that Order would never change, so she gave up and just rolled with it. The way Order currently was, tics and all, was who she was at her core, right?
And like, if someone was true to themselves, who was she to stop them?