Danna, Gi, and Noctua followed behind the First One. The diminutive woman appeared to walk slowly through the enormous mutant palm trees, but she burned the distance at an insane rate. Somehow, her very presence was warping space and it provided a little river of this truncated space so that they could keep up.

It was such a casual display of power that she wasn't sure the First One even noticed it, but it was still far beyond something that either she or Noctua could do. Their powers, as impressive as they were, fell closer to Gi and Siht than to this lofty god.

She turned to see if Noctua had also noticed the display, but his gaze was focused behind them on the one they'd left behind. Even though he'd tired of existence, his love for his followers had never wavered and the former Queen had been a favored of his.

That reminded her that both of them had lost followers in their attack on The Father. Their souls were inviolable and would reincarnate, but there were consequences to returning to life too soon. Queen Siht's soul, in particular, had been turbulent with her displeasure of Noctua.

She looped an arm over Noctua's shoulders, trying to give him comfort just as he'd once done for her. He looked over to her in surprise, but then wrapped an arm around her also. At some point in time, her mentor had become her friend and there was no other god she'd rather have at her side. The two of them remained arm in arm until they reached the camp.

"Camp" was a gross understatement.

The mutant palm trees abruptly stopped and were replaced by towering marble columns. Even the ground had been replaced with marble bricks that had been carved intricately in what on Earth would have been a huge display of wealth.

Hundreds, maybe thousands, of buildings spread out from where they'd entered. Each of them looked like an ornate Greek temple, except for a few features that clashed wildly with that style. One, for example, was covered by an enormous banner that had a strange lined mosaic reminding her of waves or perhaps graves. Another had been constructed, or perhaps transformed, with black marble instead.

Their group continued further into the camp and the flavor of the space manipulation seemed to change. Before, it had been apparent that the First One was making a casual effort to allow them to move quickly, but the space within the camp seemed almost permanently folded in a way that made it so you could reach any building in the entire camp after a few streets.

Trying to understand its construction even with the river of Truth was more than she could manage.

With the space manipulation, it didn't take them long to reach the center of the camp. It was a large marble column except it had been cut off at its base. Around it, hundreds of chairs were laid out.

The First One gestured for them to sit before standing in front of the broken marble column to face them. "What do you know about the war?"

Gi looked perplexed, but Danna had at least heard of it from Noctua. "Not much," she answered honestly.

"Then let me start from the top." It was strange to see the scariest god that Danna knew in the form of a woman that could have been an eccentric professor at any university. If it hadn't been for the display of power against the giant and that monstrous dog head that she fought with, Danna would have assumed this was some other god.

"As gods, our divinity is both our power and who we are. That power is born from Truth. Some view it as faith energy since it comes from our followers, but that is only marginally accurate. Our power isn't due to their belief in us so much as their belief that we are True."

"Right," Danna said. She sort of knew that already. It was a slightly different perspective on what she felt, but it made sense. Noctua stared off at one of the columns, barely paying attention. She squeezed his shoulder.

"Great. Now that you know that faith is more accurately described as Truth. It is yet more accurate to describe Truth as Order."

The First One gestured back towards the broken marble pillar and imaged appeared. On one side, a circle with three equidistant lines inside of it appeared. On the other side, a strange multisided spike was there. It looked like a multidimensional caltrop that's form seemed to shift even as she looked at it.

"There are only two major forces in existence and everything else is made up of those two. Order and Chaos. As gods, we are almost entirely constructed of Order with the small exception of those who've ascended from mortality. Mortals are a mix of both Order and Chaos. We loosely call this mix Reality."

"Am I part Chaos?" Danna asked.

The First One smiled. "Good question and yes. You didn't truly ascend so much as have your soul snatched out of the air and transformed into a godlike entity, but some aspects of your mortality still remain and thus some aspects of Chaos still remain."

"You said that the mortals are this mix of Order and Chaos," Gi cut in. "What then is something like Aether? How does the power of mortals work?"

"Off topic," The First One said. Her voice had an edge to it that almost made her jump to protect Gi, but the goddess didn't act on it. "I suppose I'll answer though. Aether is simply Reality or a mix of Chaos and Order. You see, it matters how Order and Chaos mix to form something. Aether is chaotic in the sense that it defies the natural order, but it is ordered in the sense that it has its own rules and structure that applies. It's a mortal tool yet an effective one."

Before any of them could ask further questions on the nature of existence. She tapped the marble column again. Danna could feel that the images being displayed weren't anything to do with the column itself and was more representative of the First One's power.

The symbol of Order and Chaos remained, but they'd turned into two suns that beamed their influence down onto a planet. "Because reality is a mix of Order and Chaos, it can have an almost infinite variation on how that's expressed, but if there's ever too much of one..."

Another tap and the beam coming from the chaotic sun tripled in strength. The image of the planet started to warp in strange ways. Mountains were created, springs of water burst from the ground, trees warped and changed. Humans that walked the pastures shifted, subtly at first into things like elves, dwarves, or beastfolk.

As chaos overloaded the order, the changes grew more and more dramatic. The humans transformed into monsters and tentacled beasts like the giant they'd just fought. The rivers ran backwards or flew up into the air or turned into blood. Fantasies and apocalypses mixed on the planet until it grew too much and the planet itself shattered, turning into what looked like a multidimensional caltrop.

Gi was leaned forward intently watching the display. "Is that just a representation? Or would any world eventually turn into that... chaos thing?"

"No. The process may change, but this is what an actual end result would look like."

"But based on the definitions that you gave, that doesn't make any sense? Wouldn't that be a sign of order?"

"A smart mortal. The problem with your viewpoint is that you're trying to put chaos in a box by saying that it is always chaotic. That is order and chaos is not ordered. Thus, chaos must be ordered to be truly chaotic."

Danna's head was spinning. Chaos must be ordered to be chaotic? If chaos isn't ordered then it's ordered and not chaotic, but if it is ordered then it's chaotic and not ordered? Her mind couldn't quite comprehend how that worked in functionality so she just decided to accept what the First One was saying.

The First One picked back up in the confused silence. "That brings us to the war."

The image of the dead chaotic planet zoomed out. Turning into a dot that joined other dots to form a solar system. Those dots formed together to form a galaxy. That galaxy joined others and became a universe.

Soon, all the dots showed billions and billions of universes, but the light flickered and the chaotic symbol turned not into a sun but a vague form of something. It looked almost human, but not. The giant they'd encountered might have looked like if a child's carving could have been said to look like a human.

It was both incredibly detailed and yet somehow diffuse. At its presence, all of the small dots started to twist and shape until they eventually conformed into the symbol of chaos shown earlier.

"What is that?" Danna asked.

"The Old Gods. You could call them conscious, but not in the way that you and I are or even the way a mortal is. They are chaos made manifest just as gods are order made manifest. It's not a problem of existence either. It's a problem of scale."

A small section of the image was highlighted. It encompassed only a fraction of the entire multiverse displayed.

"That is the power of all the gods here by comparison."

"You can't fight something like that," Gi said instantly. Danna supposed he did have some very recent experience on fightings that were a scale beyond him.

"No. Frankly, our war is mostly dealing with the chaos-spawns that generate from the Old Gods' presence and trying to find a way to annoy them into shifting across other universes. It's not going well."

Having said her piece, the First One studied them. The nature of the war was surprising, but it seemed far beyond anything that she or even Noctua would be able to make any sort of impact on.

"Honestly, we came here because were are hiding from another god. Could you-"

The First One waved her off, interrupting her question. "Yes, I'm aware. You've already opened yourself to me. I'm sure this seems overwhelming since the two of you were bested by another nascent god, but I think your natural resilience to the Old Gods' corruption will prove useful. Stay here and I'll keep you safe from The Father."

Danna didn't want to fight, but she also didn't want to be hunted down by The Father either. "Ah, thank you."

The First One smirked. "When I felt the birth of both you and The Father, I'd have never expected that it was you that would work with me instead."

Danna wasn't aware that her birth could have been felt by other gods, but she supposed Noctua had found her somehow. The distance they'd travelled made it very surprising though. A quick dip into the river of Truth told her that the Underbridge Clan was well into spring.

"You thought you'd work with the Father?," Gi asked. "Why?"

"I suppose I should introduce you to the other gods." A ripple released from her that spread out into the nearest buildings without going much further into the camp. One by one, other gods started to emerge.

One came out of the bannered building. This good looked like a man dressed completely in a purple robe so dark that it was almost black. Black marks that looked like tears ran down his face. A woman came from the other side and her entire form was covered in veils that seemed to hint at an endless existence beneath. Another stepped out and their entire body was made up of an endless void with no noticeable features.

From their auras, all of them seemed to be some dark concept of death, ending, or graves. The only one that didn't match this was an olive skinned man with dark hair and a radiant smile wearing a simple Greek chiton.

A dozen of those that stayed in the nearest houses gathered around the broken marble pillar, taking a seat. Each of them giving some small sign of respect to the First One. As they all took their seats, the First One returned her attention to Danna and her party.

"The gods of goodness and purity and wisdom have little interest in moving beyond their ordered kingdoms. Other than a few exceptions, it's only the gods of war, death, violence, and power that have gathered here. A trend that The Father exhibits but you do not."

Rather than sitting down, the Greek looking god strolled up to the First One with his eye on Danna. "Who are our new friends, Firsty?"

"If their skills are as I believe - scouts."

Danna didn't like the sound of that.