16: Back stories and realizations
With that matter of those godlings sorted out, the group headed outside again.
Man, things were chaotic now!
There were numerous drama clubs. Some groups dedicated to learning magic that drained people. There was even a few clubs for beings like Vampires and Succubi who drained people. They would try that on other students. Other clubs that seemed to be doing well yesterday were almost abandoned as students focused on other things.
Garion whistled. “DAMN! And this was after just two short lessons!”
Going around they heard the same shrieking voice from before as a Karen started demanding a club cater to her desires and place her in charge.
Drenak was grim. “Wait until the week is up. Trust me, the blood will flow strong at first. Some of the smart ones will take positions other than Deity, thus saving themselves from the more ambitious and simple killers. The smarter ones will try other things, as they consider those ones to be the more dangerous foes, and rivals laying in wait.
“What I’m interested in is those who seek to feed off others. They will consider some of the rest to be prey to fatten up. Get them powerful in Domains they themselves can’t use, and then drain them dry. Maybe even use them as bait.
“Many things can happen, but killings will occur.”
The group was grim as they went among the club stall. The social activist’s stalls were getting interest, but the interests had changed focus.
Heading to the library they came across another student who seemed very frustrated, and Drenak asked him “What’s wrong?”
The man growled out “EVERYTHING! I came to disprove godhood, and things don’t even begin to make sense! Many of these books about Deities contradict each other!”
Jane frowned “Didn’t Felinia say that different groups were called Gods? Wouldn’t that mean some books about the gods as a whole refer to different groups, which are different?”
Garion nodded. “Yes. You would have to define what she meant by Deity or God.”
The guy looked at them in shock. “You don’t actually believe this, do you?”
“Believe what?”
“That gods and magic are real!”
Garion frowned. “Er, I don’t know if magic or Gods were real in your home reality, but we aren’t in it any more. The rules here allow them, apparently. Trying to impose irrelevant rules will only cause problems and confusion.”
The man was in shock. “But the facts . . . . . “
Garion finished for him “Are that magic and Deities exist in this multiverse.”
“You are delusional!” the man almost shouted.
Garion raised an eyebrow. “We are in a library larger on the inside than the outside, surrounded by books that can devour us alive, in a school that teaches us to be deities and large part of the student body would not be able to exist if magic wasn’t real. You refusing to believe it is the more delusional option.”
His anger was denial was so strong, he could not even speak for think!
Garion just shook his head. “I don’t know how everything works, but I know magic exists here. Just accept it.”
Trying a different method he said “You seem to mainly be a man of logic and reason. Well, at least you believe you are, correct?”
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“Not believe! I am a man of logic and reason!”
“What did you expect Gods to be?”
“Some kind of powerful being using some energy we can’t understand.”
Garon chuckled. “But they are just like that! The energy is called magic.”
“You expect me to start worshiping stories just because I can’t explain everything?”
Garion shook his head. “Are you crazy? You can to a school to become a God. What the fuck did you think would happen?”
That stumped him.
Garion asked another question “How did you try proving magic did not exist?”
“It’s obvious!”
“Not to me, but I’m not from your world, apparently. Listen, you need to research properly. You are trying to find evidence to prove an idea, without seeing if it is even correct! Just step back, look at the facts and actually think about things.”
Jane told him one last thing before she followed the others: “You look and sound just like the people trying to prove Christianity in my world. If you have any idea of what it like, or know something similar in your world, avoid their methods.”
The guy’s mind was partly broken, and mostly in denial
Looking around the group came across someone getting angry with some animated books that kept teasing her by being just out of reach.
One kept getting to just within reach and going back as she reached for it. Harlen grabbed the book as it was focused on the woman, and handed it over.
That was the first time most of them had head a book blow someone a raspberry.
Going to a side area for study they talked with each other about class.
Garion asked them, “What can we do about class?”
Jane asked “Why isn’t she giving us projects to do?”
Drenak told them “No projects because we are meant to try coming up with some besides, what projects could she assign us so far? All we know that we can work on is our totem and how people perceive us.
“What we can do is try to plan options for us to avoid problems in the future. First, you two need to figure out Domains for you. Harlen and I are stuck as we are. I admit I do have a fallback potential Domain. Grave monuments. Not much call for them as a Domain. I could combine them into a Domain for Protecting the Dead. That is one of the duties of Gods of the Dead.”
Garion didn’t like only getting parts of stories. “Just tell us your background, and how it affects us.”
Drenak chuckled. “I have to go back to my great granddad. He was the chief god of the Dead in a Pantheon. However, we lost a fight with another pantheon. Invaders into our empire, refugees from elsewhere bringing their own faiths and getting established while we were recovering. Just the normal.
“He died, and my Grandfather took over the portfolio. However, he only had a small bit of territory for those not sent elsewhere, and Psychopomps.
“When he was eventually offed, the portfolio was split, and my uncle got the territory for sorting souls, and my dad got Psychopomps. He figured to secure his legacy and position by having many children and having them work gathering souls for different Gods. That way all of them relied on his children, over whom he had some control.
There was over 9000 of us born, that I know of. Most have never really gotten followers. I know over 200 have been killed due to fighting. Take out the people guarding a God’s faithful, and you can strike a blow to their faith when you steal the souls of the faithful.
“I hated it! I hated the fact I was only born so my father could use me as apolitical tool, to do his bidding, or potentially marry me off to someone who he wanted to bring in under his influence. That has happened. Some were same gender marriages, and not all were willing.
“I tried to avoid politics. I found a nice remote village out of the way, and learned a few trades. Turned out I am good at stoneworking. I ended up having a few apprentices in my time and made a name for myself. People ignored the fact I didn’t seem to age, with people assuming it was just one family line with the same name.
“And then one of my sisters had to blow my cover as she came to collect a soul for a Goddess of Suicides. That was before she and her Goddess were killed by a God of Murder, since Suicide is self murder. People came to me to make things that would be considered blessed. Considering my father’s Domain, mostly things relating to memorials and graves.
“My dad sent me here against my will. I don’t know why.”
Harlen had listened well and knew a bit of politics.
“I think he wants you where you can get more powerful, or avoid the politics back home. You would have been getting a small following independent of other Deities, and annoying some.”
Drenak frowned as he considered that. “It could be a reason. What is your story?”
Harlen shrugged. “My mother is a Hearth Goddess. She wants me to establish myself as one in a niche sub-domain. I want to be more active. I want to party and to help people, but she won’t allow that! Eventually she seemed to get fed up and sent me here.”
Jane said “I think she’s worried if you get Domains like you want, someone might kill you. She is considered no threat, and she wants that for you. Here you have a chance to establish yourself early with less competition and actually get the Domains you want. She probably thought it was safer for you to try for it here than back home.”
Harlen was shocked and as she thought about it, she started to cry.
They hugged her and she told them “We always used to argue about this, but she kept insisting of Hearth Goddess, saying that it would be best for me. If your right, she was just trying to protect me, and I wouldn’t listen!”
Garion told her “If she refused to explain, how were you to understand?”
Comforting her, they stayed there until dinner time, and retired early,