Len

When Grandpa had told Len not to speak out of turn, he immediately knew that something was wrong. They had entered a rather large mountain village, though this one seemed much more connected to the lowlanders. A few strode around in the streets, though the majority were tribesmen. Likewise, their clothing was distinctly lowland. It felt almost like Alquist, though not comparable in size.

The eldir had dubbed themselves the ‘chieftain’ of this village, which immediately roused Len’s suspicion. This was what lowlanders would call a village eldir, and did not catch the nuance of what an eldir was at all.

Point in case, the ‘chieftain’ of this village carried himself imperiously, and would bark orders to shirkers, emanating ill-gotten authority all the while.

An eldir wasn’t a leader in all things, and was certainly not given the authority to order people around, but this man seemed to have thrown away all that made the mountain tribes familiar.

Grandpa had spoken to the chieftain, not really hinting towards his purpose at all. The surly man was impatient and curt, as well as condescending. He showed off his superior metal sword, and suggested that they leave bone weapons in the past.

It was… a difficult stay.

We didn’t stay the night, instead setting off as soon as we could, having not spread word of our God at all.

“What was the matter with that man?” Len hissed. “Who did he think he was, speaking to us like that? Was he not the kin of our kin?”

Grandpa just sighed. “That man lived in an age where the conflict against the lowlanders was still largely present. In his time, he has weathered abuse and scorn. For so long has this happened, that he began to believe his detractors. In his bid to rid himself of all that he viewed as ‘savage’ and ‘uncivilized’, he began to hate his roots.

“He is a lowlander in everything but skin. Had we told him about our God Astra, he would no doubt report us to Neulea as soon as possible. That man has no place in the society which we aim to build.”

Len grit his teeth. “I don’t understand… savage and uncivilized? Our people were scholars and practitioners of natural arts! We were slaughtered by the savages and the uncivilized!” Len held no hatred in his heart against the lowlanders. None of them had spoken out against him in his travels with Astra, treating him like a perfect stranger. There was impatience, of course, but lowlanders were always impatient according to Grandmother. He didn’t hold it against any of them.

Besides, some were exceedingly kind towards Astra, and that absolved them all in his mind.

But the lowlanders of two-hundred years ago… that was a different story.

“Conquerors lie,” Grandpa simply said. “The conquered lose their gods, or worse yet, their gods become devils as the new way of thinking sets in deeply. All the while, history is lost. Conquest is unkind and spares very little of one’s enemies. It is either full assimilation, or death.” He smiled sadly at Len. “I have no doubt in my mind that our God Astra may have been an incarnation of a previous God of our people, one that may actually have been given form so many years ago, but with the death of so many, the God may have faltered and died as a result of a lack of belief. Just as Astra protects us, we must always protect him and keep him in our minds. This time, things will surely be different.”

They continued quietly, into a village set deeper into the mountains. They were more numerous than Nyarai’s fellowship, and were every bit as devout in the ways of the mountain tribesmen.

Grandpa Ruman believed that they had passed an unseen test before revealing his purpose. Soon enough, they were on their way, convinced beyond all belief to put in their lot with Astra.

With a warning to have them steer away from the ‘lowland’ village, they set off. Grandpa decided to co-opt their former living space, taking a tent for his own for the coming evening.

Seven days into their mission, and things were going well. The highland air was rich with magic which both him and his grandfather made good use of. Len had finally beaten him to unlocking a fifth meridian which managed to increase the efficiency of his heart even further, while boosting the strength of his arms again. They had both unlocked one on their travels, and now that Len was an entire stage ahead of his grandfather, his competitive streak was awakened.

He wouldn’t just beat the old man; he would crush him.

Upon unlocking his fifth meridian, however, the internal view of his body had grown drastically in vividness. He could see all the other meridians, now, meaning he knew the progress he had left.

Fourteen total meridians, and five unlocked. Just nine remained before the next realm was in sight.

He couldn’t wait to see what awaited. The meridians, though highly helpful, wasn’t truly magic, or at the very least, the magic that Astra could do.

Soon. Patience would see him through.

000

“We got a problem, God,” Fern said to me. The temple was empty, save for a few souls spread about, cultivating quietly, and a few families standing quietly behind Fern. “Your temple is too small.”

I looked at him aghast. “You don’t just say that to a God! Although…” I looked around. For forty-nine people, it was already getting cramped, but with the regular influx of immigrants, it was now just too small. “I see what you mean,” I hummed. “We should expand, but there are too many houses around.”

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“Yes,” Fern gestured behind him. “These are the families whose houses surround your temple. They’ve decided to let themselves be displaced so you can have more space for the temple.”

I narrowed my eyes at that. “That sounds like a lot of trouble,” I said. “We could just build my temple outside the village, where there’s more open space.”

“But the temple needs to be at the center,” Fern said. “So it’s closer to more people. And besides, we’ll have to pretend that this is the home of a Chieftain or something if an outsider appears. Those tend to be at the center, too.” I nodded at his words. Fern continued nonetheless. “It’ll just be a few more projects, no harm done.”

One of the homeowner stepped forward. “I do not feel bad about this at all!” The other homeowners nodded in assent.

They were sincere about it, but…

I got off from my altar, for the first time in a few days. I stepped outside the temple and surveyed the area.

With a deep (unnecessary) breath, I exerted myself to an extent of which I had never before done. After making sure that they were empty, the houses surrounding me slowly lifted off the ground, and I followed upwards. Gingerly, I placed them all on the outside of the village, next to unfinished projects. I cleared the earth, deepening it in preparation to embed the houses inside.

The process took a few minutes, but in the end, the job was done immaculately. It took a sizable chunk of my personal power as well, but nothing that couldn’t be recouped in the coming days.

The homeowners behind me were on their hands and knees, while Fern was in utter shock.

In fact, everyone who had seen what I just did were on their knees as well, taking the time out of their day to appreciate the feat of magic which I had just performed.

Although I didn’t love the drop in productivity, the worship was much appreciated.

When it was over, and everyone got back to doing what they were doing, Fern still stared at me in wide-eyed amazement. “But Astra!” He finally found his words. “If you could do that all along, then why not build all our houses?”

I shrugged. “I’m stockpiling power in case we really need it. I don’t think building houses is the best use of my power when you all could easily do that on your own, and besides, if I was taking all your jobs, then what would that leave you to do?”

“I… guess,” Fern said. “That’s fine, then. I’m just wondering… how do we rebuild the temple without demolishing the current one? I heard that it would result in a drop of your power if that came to pass.”

“It… will,” I said slowly.

“Then… if you’re going to lose all that power anyway, then why not spend it by putting us ahead of schedule?”

I raised a finger, but with nothing to rebuke his points, I slowly lowered it. “You raise good points, Fern. Wait here. Actually, tell everyone to evacuate from the houses and wait outside the village. Things are going to change around here.”

This time, I wasn’t shy about exerting my full power. From a bird’s eye view, I was treated with the full layout of the village. It was… haphazard, with no real attention paid to form or function. Things would definitely have to change.

There were the twelve original houses, and fifteen more under construction, but not much thought were given to the placements at all. The most that Fern paid attention to was spacing the houses out in order to reduce population density, which would in turn reduce the chance of waste piling up too much in one place.

First, I lifted all the houses, including the unfinished ones. Only the temple remained grounded, as I couldn’t actually manipulate it with my power. It would have to be manually rebuilt by my people. I rearranged the houses so they would form a horseshoe pattern around the temple, the narrow opening pointing towards the forest to the east. As the temple’s back was already facing the mountains to the west, I felt that this was a natural, and satisfying arrangement.

I left a large space surrounding the temple, almost impractically large, but it was the space we needed for a temple that could fit everyone. The houses under construction, I completed their frames under my own power. In fact, when I was done, I pulled more trees from the surrounding area, as well as the already treated wood, began to cut everything up, and with the surrounding clay, straw and stone, I spent some time thinking before putting it all together in that style which I encountered during my stay in Alquist.

The rows of houses were spaced amply, and in a fit of pique, I cobbled the streets, ripping off slabs of stone from the strip-mine and placing them tightly together.

The cobbles were still too loosely tied together. There was something else that bound them. Flashing back to Alquist, I remembered the stone was surrounded by… another type of stone, in a different colour, only this stone flowed around the more solid stone like a fluid which had suddenly solidified.

Taking water from a nearby stream, and a few different types of minerals, I began to mix the water and ground, powderized minerals together before coming upon one which would provide me with the results which I needed.

The nearby mountains had once been volcanoes, millions of years past. A remnant of its volcanic ash, once mixed with limestone and water in a specific ratio, would create a thick, viscous fluid which would soon set into a hard, durable type of stone. Serendipity had led me to accidentally include salt inside the mixture, but the ‘impurity’ had actually improved it.

I draped the cobbles in the fluid, using magic to extract the water while heating it gently at the same time, which let the substance set faster without compromising its integrity.

At the end of it all, there were more uninhabited houses than ones that were spoken for. We had cobbled streets, the arrangement was symmetrical and functional, and I also had very, very little of my power left.

When I descended once more, it was to see a flood of my people entering the newly refurbished village, which was now truly a village, on its way to becoming a town!

I was reduced to just enough power which I could hold on my own without a temple. I would need to have more of them built, however, so I wouldn’t be forced to spend all my power like that again.

Fern soon arrived, looking around at everything in abject amazement. “God Astra, I cannot imagine how much time you’ve saved us! The cobbling would have taken months on its own, and all the houses! Are they all fifty?”

“Fifty-two,” I said. “The village now follows a carefully laid plan and pattern. I could inscribe it to you on a stone tablet. This is a plan which I would like to use henceforth.”

“By your orders, God Astra!” Fern responded reverently.

“Also,” I said, pulling down the recipe for this… concrete from where I had kept it on the sky. “This is the substance I used to create the ground which we walk on. Use this to make the temple. This new temple needs to be large enough to contain over a thousand people. The space I’ve cleared is large for a reason. Aside from this, I would like you to create a secondary temple as well, as a contingency for if the primary temple needs to be rebuilt again. I would like it if you started on the secondary temple first; it needs only to be simple and easily built. Also, the houses I’ve built are merely a drop in the bucket. We need at least five times this current amount to accommodate all the expected newcomers.”

Fern hastily complied before meeting up with the rest of the builders, hashing out the plans. More worship flowed towards me, this time in unyielding waves, not that I could keep it for too long.

It really was a mistake not making two temples.