Stories hadn’t followed her to Life’s place. (“I’m a free spirit, m’am! You can’t keep me down!”) She did try grabbing him by his ankle, but decades of training with Truth had honed his senses and skills enough to keep just out of her reach even as she hopped and flailed at his floating body. No matter, the specifics she required were already written down. More efficient that she do it herself, distilling the information down into the main points, rather than have the annoying gnat embellish and ramble about unrelated tangents.

So with a hurried “thank you for your time”, she had extracted herself from the meeting and was currently sprinting towards the Cube. (Stories was drifting amusedly behind her, even despite his initial protests. He wasn’t about to enter with her, of course. That would be silly. He’d just float outside and watch the spectacle from a front row seat. Namely, by sticking his head in from the side.)

She banged on the gate frantically, a loud clanging issuing from the assault. “…ok, ok I’m coming,” A faint voice came from inside, and Death’s gaunt figure soon emerged. “Order? Why have you returned? Do you need another top-up from Life?”

“My greetings, God of Death and Taxes. I may not have scheduled an appointment at this hour, but I believe I have come across vital data that would propel the research that the God of Life and Creation is currently engaged in. Please, may I enter and convey this to him?” The words tumbled out of her mouth as quickly as she could form them.

Death probably hadn’t seen her so frantic before, so the look on his face was one of mild surprise. But this didn’t stop him from undoing the latch on the gate and letting her pass. “Same place as this morning.” He offered, closing the gate behind her.

She expressed her gratitude with a curt nod, then briskly stepped towards the workshop at the far end of the room. She was about to pound at the door like she had done earlier, before she caught herself. Decorum. Order inhaled deeply to calm herself, then let the breath out all at once. After confirming that her breathing was less of a ragged pant, she proceeded to knock thrice on the dull metal surface.

After a beat, the door swung open. “What is it, Death? Do you need me for someth- oh! What a pleasant surprise, Order! Have you returned to spend some time with me?” Life smiled merrily at his daughter. She must have changed her mind, he mused. Perhaps what she had said previously wasn’t an excuse after all.

“Apologies, God of Life and Creation. But this isn’t a social call. During my discussion with the God of Stories and Creativity, I chanced upon what I believe to be the key to what you’ve been working on for all this time. The solution to the extension of mortal lifespans.”

The elder God paused, smile fading into a solemn expression. “Elaborate please, dear.”

Order entered the room, tearing a blank page from her notebook and placing it on a side-table that was flush against the wall. “As you know,” she began to draw as Life watched on. “All lesser Gods that you’ve created thus far, including the other Original Existences like me and you, emit a low level of godly power at all times.” She started to add squiggly lines around the crude stick figure she had drawn. “This would be what prolongs the lives of mortals, a life-bringing aura that confers onto them increased strength, resistance to adverse conditions and vitality in general.”

“From what I’ve learnt from my interaction with the God of Stories and Creativity, through direct injection of his divine energy through the medium of his ability,” Order added more squiggles to the arms of the stick figure. “he has succeeded in accelerating the intelligence of eighteen entire mortal species in the span of two decades! The infusion of intelligence was passed on from the initial target lifeform to those that it came into contact with, spreading like wildfire in a forest - until the entire generation was similarly improved! It may not be exactly what you envisioned, but should this avenue of evolution not be explored?”

The grim visage Life was displaying softened after Order finished her animated presentation, and his usual weary, apologetic smile returned. “No, that wouldn’t work, Order. But thank you for trying to help. I very much appreciate the gesture.”

Order didn’t understand. “Are you not going to at least try? Would this not be a different route to your end-goal to create longer-lived mortals?” Life gently took the pen from Order, and began to write next to her illustration.

“I’ve already tried this before. Well, an iteration of this, anyways. Firstly,” he underlined the heading of the table he had created and proceeded to add bullet points underneath it. “this method is reliant on the nature of the God in question. See, power filtered through the abilities of a God whose nature is related so closely to intelligence, like young Stories, would have significantly different effects compared to, say, if Greed did it, for example. The power would twist and corrupt the lifeform and in turn the whole species, influencing them to have personalities similar to the donor God.” Life doodled a pile of gold coins next to the stick figure and added a smirk to its face.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

“With how some Gods are, it would be safe to assume that repeating what young Stories has achieved might not have the desired, positive effect. It might even be detrimental to their survival.”

“So why not simply create Gods with the main purpose of nourishment, then? Gods of Life? Clones of yours truly? After all, what better way to build a house than with experienced house-builders?” Life chuckled. “Ah, but I tried that, too. Which brings us to the second point.” He started another bullet point.

“Point number two: the fabric of reality itself restricts the creation of Gods of the same calling. Just doesn’t work; the stronger, more established God simply saps away the divine energy from the new-born God until they are subsumed.”

“There are exceptions to this rule, of course. Tangentially similar Gods, like your brothers, War and Violence.” Life conceded. “But those two could be considered outliers. The Original Existences were forged at a point in time where no challenge to their survival existed. In that un-replicable scenario, twins of similar callings could be born.”

“Finally,” Life added a third black dot underneath the second. “point number three. The advancement itself. As you’ve mentioned yourself, the results of Stories’ experiments were that the species grew more quickly. Leapfrogged into sentience. But given enough time, any of those species could have potentially reached that stage of civilisation: all he did was move forward the timeline. If anything, they would now be closer to their eventual expiration. You have to understand, all advanced societies end not because they were underdeveloped; but because they progressed at a pace that their environment could not support.” Life passed the paper back to Order. She read the heading. Barriers to Success. Three words that deflated all the excitement she had.

Order felt dejected. What she had thought to be a crucial missing puzzle piece was nothing more than scrap that had already been considered and thrown out. Utterly inefficient garbage that only served to waste time. Life placed a large, warm palm onto her shoulder to comfort her. “Come on, cheer up, Order. It wasn’t a bad guess. You just haven’t been doing this as long as I have. You formed a flawed thesis based on incomplete information. That’s not your fault, is it?”

Hold on, she thought. What was that? Incomplete information?

She could just about make out a wisp of the path she needed to take. It was an immaterial abstraction, barely anything at all to grasp, but she reached out anyway, and clasped the tiny thread of logic in her hands.

“If I’m understanding this right, God of Life and Creation, all that stands in the way of my theory…” She raised the piece of paper in her hands. “…are three simple barriers. If I am able to disprove, defeat, or otherwise bypass these arguments, my theory would be viable?”

Life looked on bemusedly, and spoke. “Order, I see where you’re going with this and I’ll say this first: I’m not going to stop you. In fact, I couldn’t be more grateful that you’re devoting your precious time to this long-time worry of mine at all. But, you have to understand: I’ve been doing this for hundreds of years – if you want to overcome those three issues, you’re bumping up against what, four or five centuries worth of trial and error? Who knows, it might even be impossible to solve these problems in the first place! Knowing all this, are you still willing to walk down that thorny, unforgiving road?”

Gotcha, she thought, hiding the wry smile that had crept onto her face with a bow. “God of Life and Creation, it would be my honour and great pleasure to be given the chance to review your work. With your permission, I will walk down any path that may have been abandoned prematurely and see it to its conclusion – no matter the barriers or thorns in my way.”

“Oh ho!” Life was guffawing now, thumping her on the back with an encouraging palm. “My daughter wants to prove me wrong, eh? You’ve grown up well, haven’t you?” Life transitioned from striking her back to ruffling her chestnut hair.

“Well, I wouldn’t be much of a father if I stopped you now, would I? Go right ahead! You have my full and unconditional support. With your brains, I hope I can expect you to have this small concern of mine wrapped up by the end of the decade. Don’t disappoint me, alright?”

“I will endeavour to live up to your expectations of me.” Order replied, head still bowed. It was the first time in the long period of her existence that she was unable to suppress the grin on her face. To suppress her emotions, and maintain a neutral countenance.

Finally, something juicy to sink her jaws into.