In an ancient library, countless golden strings wove through the air, their radiant light seemingly quashed by the surrounding air, leaving the room dark. It was a place that had rarely been seen in eons, with only a few people qualified to enter. Every book from every universe was stored on its shelves.

Every story that had been told, and even those that had yet to be told, were all housed in this library. Every possible thought, and every incoherent combination of characters were all here too. The books housed unfathomable secrets, but so too did the strings.

For each of these strings was connected to somebody’s life. A reflection of their string in the real world. In this library, every single living thing’s life could be found and experienced. From the moment their soul was created, to the moment it stopped existing.

This was a place outside of time and space. Hidden beyond the universes in a place only the gods could reach. This library sat hidden at the very heart of the pool of fate.

And in this library sat a towering figure made entirely of threads. Urdhuri sat there, patiently observing everything that was happening, had happened, and could possibly happen. A constant influx of information flowed through him as he interpreted countless futures.

“Hmmm. Looks like he could use some help.”

He plucked at a few different strings of fate. Twisted them, and watched as they moved and changed to something he found reasonable.

This wasn’t something he would do all too often, as he preferred to be a silent observer, but he wanted to give Ed some help. And also it would mess with Buddie at the same time, and that would be quite enjoyable to see.

~

The sound of static rang out throughout the universe, as Buddie was thrown out of the conversation. He was even blocked out of the universe in its entirety for a couple of days, leaving this branch of the company in chaos.

With Buddie gone, many of those in the office could not complete the work. All of the technology was malfunctioning and reduced to their most basic capabilities without Buddie’s assistance. Messages couldn’t be sent. Files couldn’t be uploaded. The entire system was down.

Thankfully, the doors worked independently from Buddie’s control, otherwise people wouldn’t even be able to leave the room they were in. Unable to do any work, and with no word from Buddie, everyone decided to take a day off and relax.

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

Just after the conversation had ended, Superbia was standing there with a slight smile on his face. “That should teach him. He can stay out for a while and think about what he’s done.” An unknown amount of time passed before he began to shrink and pull the golden glow back in

“To think I had to deal with something like this when I was in the middle of a conversation with my daughter. The nerve of some people.” He shook his head and put a wide smile back on his face as he prepared to jump back to Hell and restart time again.

Upon his command, the universe started moving again. Everything began again and the company immediately felt the first signs of Buddie’s absence and was thrown into chaos.

“Now how am I going to explain what happened to Ed? Eh, I’ll think of something.” Just as he was about to go back to his throne room, he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. He was a bit confused. There shouldn’t have been anything there. This was an independent area, with nothing in it, that he used for private matters like this.

He moved closer to the thing, curious to figure out what had snuck in without him noticing. “A thread?”

It was a black and dark red piece of thread. It would have almost entirely blended in with the surrounding nothingness if it wasn’t for the bits of dark red. It was strange, and was constantly moving around like it had a life of its own.

He realised it was at the same place that he had thrown Ed to, and was now especially curious that something had managed to survive in his presence. “Is this what Ira was talking about? Maybe I’ll bring it back for him to study.”

The thread itself was incredibly small, thinner than a hair, but it was vigorous and full of life. It wished to grow and expand. It wanted to explode in size, but it couldn’t do that with Superbia here.

“Fascinating.” Superbia picked up the thread and started playing with it. “I should get Ira to make something out of this for Elaine.”

As he played with it, he found it to be increasingly familiar. Like he had seen something similar to it a long time ago. As he fiddled around with it in his hands, a thought struck him from out of the blue. He froze for a moment, then jumped back a little.

“What does Ed have to do with that old man?” he asked himself in shock. The more he looked at it, the more familiar it became. And the more he realised his thought was correct.

He knew why it was so familiar now. It was like a weaker, lesser version of someone he had met before. One of the oldest and most mysterious gods. But also someone who he had chatted with on more than one occasion.

He allowed the thread to grow as it wished, and watched on in fascination as it grew into a figure resembling that god. “It really is related to Urdhuri.”

An ancient, primordial laughter rang out. “He’s one of mine.”

Hearing this, Superbia also chuckled. “You old bastard, what’s the meaning of this? Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked jokingly.

“You’ve been very busy recently. I didn’t want to disturb you,” Urdhuri said light-heartedly.

“If I had known, I wouldn’t have done any of this. Are you working with them now?”