For three months after I returned to Atlantis, {Messenger Birds} came to me from Fulgen nonstop. They were showing support for me and shunning what the Queens did. I spent my time playing with my little sister and managing our growing mermaid settlement. With more than a thousand newborn mermaids, there was huge pressure on food production and housing.

Mermaids grew a bit faster than humans. No, not that. They had a head start. It was as if they'd born skipping their first several months of development. Twins and triplets were all but unheard of since the mermaid babies were born bigger than human ones. The tails were misleading since they were naturally longer than human legs, but mermaid babies were born with between five and seven kilograms.

Since I had my healing powers, I assisted with the most complicated births. The mermaids that conceived later were the most malnourished ones. I learned all about mermaid midwifery that was to learn.

But the elves kept pestering me with their birds.

From what I gathered, my closing statement before dropping the mic and leaving through a freaking rip in reality caused a deluge of complaints and a rift among the elves. The Season Queens pressured Sariandi and she caved in, just as she did when the late Council wanted to make me a glorified puppet-baby factory. They denied me the sapling to prove they were superior to me. I was hurt because I counted many of the elves there as my friends but their payback would be swift even if it would happen only in the centuries to come. We were immortal, both them and I. We shall see who has the last laugh. Spoiler alert, they could die only once.

The elves weren't my problem, not until I got close to Fulgen again. I had to prepare my permanent base of operations. For that, I searched fairy communities everywhere. I couldn't find a dryad willing to bond with a newborn sapling but got some leads that pointed me to a loner dryad in the northern part of Pekothas, a place I knew very well.

I visited Silverstreak's homeland in all her potato nose and silver hair glory. Seeing the glade ruled by the Fire Queen Brenna sent a wave of nostalgia. After traveling the world and visiting several fairy communities, I finally found one willing to do it. Her name was Briar Rainbowshimmer.

Daphne also came along for some weird reason. Briar was ecstatic to see her Elder. We were negotiating the terms of her employment.

"So, Briar, I need you to nurture a tree for me, for about a thousand years. Once your term is done, you can either stay with the tree or go elsewhere. I'll plant other trees from the same batch of seeds in a secluded place, so you might want to move there later on."

Daphne's eyes shone green. "What kind of tree are we talking about?"

I placed one acorn on the spool table. It was too big and I had to hold it.

"Is this an acorn from the Fulgen Heart-Trees?" The elder dryad asked.

"Sure is. Not stolen, so you don't get the wrong idea. Given to me by the tree herself."

Daphne was salivating. "How many acorns do you have?"

Briar's eyes went back and forth as she followed our conversation.

I rolled my eyes and stored the acorn, "None for you if that's what you ask. I promised to plant all of them."

The dryad's chest was rising and falling as she breathed like she'd ran a marathon, "Where? I might have some dryads that want to bond with them."

"A secluded valley near Windemere. There's no sentient and only a weak monster presence there."

"You are going to make your home out of a Heart-Tree! You are crazy," she said. "I heard the elven Queens didn't let you take a sapling."

I winked, "And I didn't. Do you see any sapling?"

"Touché!" She said in her best French.

Wait, could the elder dryad know French? I raised an eyebrow and she winked at me. The bastard fairy had a way to get Earth knowledge. Maybe even travel.

"Can you--"

"No. Nobody can escape this world except the Gods. And Gods can't live on your former world. The way is closed."

I did a double-take. "Wait. Why Can't Gods live on Earth?"

"Earth is a magic-dead planet. There's no way to gather faith, and whatever faith your avatar body carries is quickly sucked by the planet. If you ever want to go back to Earth, don't become a God."

My jaw slacked. "Fairies?"

"Even worse. At least Gods can provision some divinity to keep the avatar alive for a quick incursion. All of our kind," she said putting emphasis on 'our' to denote it would affect me too, "that stayed over there died."

"Just to slake my curiosity, Daphne, where did you hear the word, 'touché'?"

"Oh. From Yznera. The Gods of the pantheon were all human once. From the same Earth as you."

I had my suspicion, I mean, the Armani suit was a dead giveaway. It was good to know, though.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"Back to business," she pressed on. "Your agreement with the Heart-Tree was to plant a forest with its acorns while setting one aside for your 'special place', as you called it. Can you show me this place of yours? Briar, you come along too."

Another change of continents. I took them to the fairy circle in Northern Windemere, where a familiar house stood untouched by time.

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A glade in the road connecting Windemere, the Dwarf Outpost, and the Eleon city Rosebush. A humble house that originally stood at a cul-de-sac in Perenneth, where a certain enchanter's workshop once sold items for cosmopolitan ladies of exquisite tastes. A small fairy, dressed in a silk dress with an apron, sporting light brown skin, and a potato nose was sweeping the porch.

I rushed forward and hugged her. "Vesper! How are you!"

"Oh. Lady Silverstreak," she shrieked, surprised. "... and guests. Welcome home, I guess?"

"Vesper, it is a pleasure to meet you," Daphne said. "I'm Daphne, and this is my apprentice, Briar."

"Elder, pleased to meet you too," Vester bowed deeply. "Would you like to enter and get a cup of tea? I have fresh dew the pixies collected for me."

We entered and enjoyed Vesper's hospitality. Or mine, since the house was mine and Vesper kinda worked for me. She'd turned the spacious - for fairies - house into an inn for fairies.

"I call it 'The Wonder Ring Inn'," Vesper explained. I was half expecting to see a skeleton [Bartender] and a red-haired [Barmaid] with blue blood. There were no such things. "It was inspired by some enchanted rings the pixies found in a drawer. I'm sorry, Silverstreak, I couldn't keep them from borrowing the rings."

By borrowing, she meant taking them outright. These must be the copper and silver rings Rosewise crafted for practice. "It is fine," I replied patting the concerned silkie's hands. "I think it good they found a good use for them."

Fairies regarded sentimental value more than material one, and by that measure they also evaluated ownership. Everyday objects, even jewelry to which one had little to no real attachment were fair game, but a stained locket that was a memento of a father lost to war was untouchable.

"Yes, some fairies were using them as girdles," she finished with a sigh.

After we talked more about several things, I explained the reason for my visit.

"You want to move the house elsewhere? Of course, I'll go with you," the house fairy said. "While it's lively, the tenants most often bother me for little to no compensation."

"You'll have Briar to keep you company," Daphne added. "Is that acceptable, Briar? I knew you wanted to be alone for a while..."

As if a thousand years was a 'while'.

"I don't mind if it's miss Vesper. I think we'll get along just fine," the younger dryad said.

"Then it is settled," I said before anyone changed their minds. "Let's kick these fairies out of the house and move on."

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I had to leave another building, this time some noble mansion I looted when Perenneth was destroyed by the demons as the new 'inn' so the fairies had somewhere to live. After reclaiming my house, I took the three fairies and used {Tree Stride} to take them to my {Tree Refuge}.

The clearing was twenty meters across and perfectly circular. A thick ring of trees marked the end of this pocket dimension as anyone crossing over would find themselves back near the tree we used to enter. I took one acorn from storage.

"It is better if we plant the tree in the center. I'll leave the house near the edge," I said as I offered the acorn to the dryads. "You know how to do this better than I."

Briar took the acorn as if it was her firstborn baby. Dryads were among the tallest fairies so the size comparison was accurate.

"I suggest we do things differently," Daphne said. "How about we change our agreement? Instead of creating a pocket dimension inside a pocket dimension, which is naturally unstable, I can enlarge this one. Let's plant the acorn near the edge and put the house on the opposite edge. I'll enchant the tree so it will stretch the pocket dimension as it grows. Eventually, when we have an adult tree, the dimension will be as wide as the tree branches and roots reach."

"Will it grow as tall as the ones in Fulgen?" I asked.

"Given enough time, yes. I'll also teach Briar how to use your special blood as fertilizer so it grows faster. I'll bet it will be at least twice as fast. Briar's thousand-year contract can be shortened to five hundred years and you'll still get a bigger tree."

"I can also offer men's seed. I have the seed of humans, and of the high elves. I have even a prince's seed too."

Dryads engaged mortals in intercourse, not for the pleasure of the act, but to collect semen to use as fertilizer. Since semen held the potential to bring forth new life, it was very potent. My bet was that to someone with a loner personality like Briar, she wasn't too interested in seducing and luring in men.

"Freshly harvested," I added.

"Maybe four hundred or less," Daphne mumbled.

We planted the acorn, placed the house back on the ground, and said our goodbyes to the two fairies.

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"There's this guy in the valley below. He calls himself Tuisto, an obscure and almost forgotten deity from Earth. He claimed he wasn't part of the ruling Pantheon," I explained to the dryad on my back as we flew over the valley.

The dwarves expanded their enclave past the open-air Dungeon and several mine entrances were dotting the mountains leading to the valley. I didn't see any signs of roads or trails leading to the valley so Windemere must still respect my wishes to leave the valley alone. It was even more important now than we were planting the grove of trees.

The monster's presence was too weak for such a lush and untouched environment. No high-level monsters and plentiful resources. A contradiction by itself unless you added the mysterious presence of the one claiming to be Tiesto, a Germanic deity.

"I know this valley, and there was never a deity in here. I also never heard any of my sisters speak of any deities before the intruders... I mean, the current pantheon arrived. But yes, I can sense something. Land on that hill over there."

The dryad jumped off before I touched the ground. I assumed Lakerta's form since that was the one I used when I first met him. A faint ping from my {Detect Divinity} told me we had company.

"Greetings, Elder Dryad. Traveler from another world."

"Tuisto. Good to see you around," I said.

"I have nowhere else to go," he said with a neutral tone.

I exchanged a glance with Daphne. She shook her head, clearly puzzled.

"Tuisto, I must ask," I cleared my throat, risking being rude. "Are you really a God? You don't look like one. We don't mean to offend, but we would like to clear our suspicion."

I remember he wanted Bundeus' core. He even told me I would regret not giving him the golden orb.

He chuckled. "What do you think I am, then? I know I am powerless against you, [God-Slayer]."

I rattled my brain. If he were a God, the fairies that tend to the elemental balance of this world would've sensed it. Even now she had a slight frown as she too inspected the entity before us. He had a faint presence in {Detect Divinity} but not in any other detection ability I had. It was as if he was... A tridimensional solid projection.

I felt my conduit, the siphon that channeled divinity to Loki shut down. The environment around us became quieter.

"I sense you've found your answer, Traveler from Earth. Speak your mind. I just blocked outside entities from eavesdropping on our conversation."

There was only one entity that could do that. Shut Loki entirely off.

"You are the System," I told him.