When the end-of-dungeon teleport finished, Faelyn was shocked to find that he wasn’t back at the wyvern’s den, but instead in Hearth’s home, sitting across from the goddess herself.
“Faelyn, it’s a pleasure to meet you in person.” Hearth said, looking Faelyn up and down. “Before we begin, however, let me make something clear; we are currently in a bubble of sped-up time, and I have disconnected you from your stream. When you return from here, no one will know that I have called this meeting with you other than, perhaps, High Priest Luden. What we discuss here we discuss in confidence, and if you don’t believe you can keep this secret, then tell me now and I’ll wipe your memory of this conversation. So, can I trust you with this?”
Faelyn paused, then nodded. “Yes, Your Worship.” He said.
“Good.” Hearth said approvingly. “If High Priest Luden asks, you can tell him that you met with me, but nothing more. I have an offer I wish to make you, but I feel it will not make sense if you do not truly understand my motives for this, and perhaps even know a bit more about the swarm than most are given the opportunity to know. So, I will offer you the opportunity to have your questions answered by me. Don’t hold back for fear of offending me, either; I’m far past the point where I’m concerned about my image, and your understanding is more important than my ego. Now…ask away.”
Faelyn’s mind raced. It was incredibly rare to speak with the gods, and even rarer to be given the opportunity to ask them questions. It took him a moment to rally his thoughts, but once he had one question rose above the rest. “Why…all of this?” Faelyn asked. “World Saviors, that is. This seems an incredibly roundabout way of dealing with the problem.”
“It is.” Hearth replied. “And the gods who oppose the swarm have chosen it because they believe it offers the best chance of stopping the swarm entirely. By making bodies that are almost entirely disconnected from the soul and can be recycled at will, the gods believe they can circumvent conversion in a way. They’re fools.”
Faelyn stared at her in shock. There had never been a recorded instance of the gods being so openly hostile to each other, and that made this situation seem so much more…weighty.
“I know one of the questions you have is about the true nature of conversion.” Hearth said. “And the answer is, unfortunately, that it is both far stronger than you expect and far narrower. It is as follows: first, the converted entity is made both a woman and a lesbian. Second, they are brought under the new system that Amelia, the swarm’s architect, designed.”
A chill ran down Faelyn’s back. Systems were divine in origin, and for Amelia to have made one…
“I see you understand the gravity of that.” Hearth said, a note of approval in her tone. “Yes. Amelia made a system. She used the structure of the system she was familiar with, then improved it. In fact, improved it in such a way that it is currently better-constructed than any of the rest of ours. The system World Saviors uses is, in actuality, the one she designed, minus all the overt ties to the swarm.
“You once asked why there is a ‘Race’ field in your status, and that’s why; swarm members have near-limitless growth potential, and that manifests in the form of evolving their race. Amelia is, with the sole exception of the gods, the single strongest being in any of our planes. The only reason she has yet to fully conquer her plane is that the gods keep her bound.
“Back to conversion, the last effect is that it makes someone loyal to the swarm and makes them unable to see conversion as wrong, then makes that their default state of mind. Furthermore, this loyalty includes the eradication of discrimination based on someone’s race, skin color, social status, everything. When Rose mentioned the eradication of war, she wasn’t kidding; many societal problems are solved outright by conversion, which is a large reason why so many gods are okay with it. The act itself is abhorrent, but…sometimes we have to make abhorrent decisions when deciding what is best for the people.
“And that’s all conversion does, but it does it in an extremely powerful way. It hasn’t been tested because we refuse to test on sapient life, but I believe that, if a player is converted enough times, and that might even mean just once, the mental changes will start to stick anyway.”
Faelyn thought on that for a moment. “Why haven’t the gods who are in favor of the swarm spoken up about it, then?”
“They haven’t because they believe World Saviors will, in the end, benefit the swarm.” Hearth said simply. “They wish to train the swarm, temper it in preparation for any future conflicts they might face. They believe that World Saviors will, in the long run, save more lives of swarm members and of non-swarm members than it will kill. I’m no expert on the matter, but the God of War believes that to be the case, and he would know.”
Faelyn nodded slowly. “Things are starting to make sense, but…why the information restrictions? What does that gain anyone?”
“If the gods opposing the swarm could lift those, they would in a heartbeat.” Hearth said. “I will be blunt. At this point, over half of the gods favor the swarm, and, as such, concessions had to be made to allow this project to be launched. One of those is that, when a player is converted, they will be given the opportunity to defect to the swarm. If they accept, they will, from then on, work for the swarm whenever they log in. They will be under the swarm’s conditioning while logged in, and supposedly they’ll be freed from it once they log out, but, again, I don’t think that will work how some of the other gods hope it will.
“The information restrictions are there to prevent either side from leaking plans to the other side. And, for a few of the gods, they also hope that it will keep details of the swarm’s living conditions from leaking. They fear that, if people know what life is like, then they’ll choose to defect.”
That gave Faelyn pause. “If that’s the case, then why don’t they support the swarm?” Faelyn asked. “It sounds like they’re acknowledging that life seems better for swarm members.”
“They believe that the result isn’t worth conversion. They don’t want people to do something they can’t take back when there’s still hope for the swarm to be stopped.”
There was silence for a moment, then Faelyn nodded. “No more questions.” He said.
“Are you sure?” Hearth asked. “I won’t give you this opportunity again.”
“I think so.” Faelyn replied. “Unless there’s something important you think I’m missing. All of the things I was wondering about have been pretty neatly answered, and your video told me all I needed to know about your motivations.”
“Very well, then.” Hearth said. “Now, for the offer I mentioned earlier; when the swarm finishes with their current plane and begins to expand into the one World Saviors takes place on, I want you to join them. You will be under their conditioning while logged in, but I will personally monitor your soul and make sure that there are no permanent effects on you when you log out. In return, I will grant you the ability to stream completely publicly while you are, for lack of a better term, at rest.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“In essence, any time you are out doing something like raiding a dungeon or participating in battles, you will be limited to streaming to those who have chosen to ally with the swarm, like everyone else. But, when visiting towns or exploring Ratha, you’ll be the only one capable of showing that to everyone.
“I’ll even set it up so you can stream to every plane involved in World Saviors; I’ll connect you to their most popular streaming sites and let you set up your account, and I’ll make sure the revenue from them makes its way to your bank account. I’ll have my churches market you, too; some other gods may want to silence what life is like under the swarm, but as the one in charge of community and family, I get the final say, and I say I want it to be known. If you don’t accept this, then I’ll find another streamer who will. One way or the other, people will know.”
Hearth paused, giving Faelyn an appraising look. “I would ask you if you need time to make a decision, but it looks like you won’t be needing it.”
“You’re right.” Faelyn said. “I’ll do it.”
Hearth smiled. “I appreciate your decisiveness.” She said, standing up and walking over to him. She stuck out her hand to shake, and Faelyn accepted. “I’ll be in touch. When the time comes, I’ll make sure you have a way of getting to the swarm quickly and safely. But, before I send you back, I have one question for you.”
“I’ll answer to the best of my abilities, Your Worship.” Faelyn replied.
“Why have you chosen to accept my offer? Many are going to see it as a betrayal.”
Faelyn shrugged. “True.” He said. “But, at the end of the day, my entire lifestyle is about exploring, having new life experiences, and sharing those experiences with people who can’t have them themselves. This is just about the biggest thing I could possibly do for that, and, betrayal or not, this will allow people to actually make an informed decision. That service alone makes up for any ‘betrayal’ I’ll be committing.”
Hearth smiled. “I like that.” She said. “I think it’ll be a pleasure working with you, Faelyn. I might have a couple more quests to give you later on, and if I do, I’ll send them through High Priest Luden. They’ll be completely optional, of course, but I think you’re someone I can trust.”
“I’m honored, Your Worship.” Faelyn said.
“Thank you, Faelyn, and farewell for now.” And, with those words, Faelyn found himself back at the wyvern’s nest.
----------------------------------------
“So, uh, big news, I guess.” Connie said.
“Oh?” Lia prompted. They were all sitting around the table, eating breakfast together, something they had made a point of doing as their time together had gotten shorter and shorter.
“Well, Heather, uh, Hearth, she’s kiiinda gone ballistic?” Connie said. “Some of the other gods made her mad and she has very publicly chosen to endorse the swarm. She even posted bits of that conversation you and Rose had with her, the parts where you convinced her to back off. It’s an almost unthinkable move for her image, but, well, she was very upset. Even went as far as to throw Seth, um, Space, under the bus a bit, since he was one of the people making her mad.”
“Threw him under the bus?” Lia asked. That was a phrase she hadn’t heard before, but she could guess it didn’t mean anything good.
“Ah, right, no buses here.” Connie said. “Basically, it means she put blame on him.”
“What could have made her this mad?” Rose asked. “She seemed…well, I suppose she did seem emotional when we talked with her, but I had chalked it up to her wrestling with her emotions at the time.”
“Yeah, she’s pretty emotional.” Connie confirmed. “Basically, the other gods purposefully and publicly misrepresented her opinion on the swarm, and she decided to go all in to correct that. It’s…going to be an interesting couple of days, I can say that much.”
“Are you allowed to tell us this?” Amelia asked worriedly. “I don’t want you getting in trouble.”
“I cleared it with Jerry first.” Connie replied. “This doesn’t provide much tangible benefit other than knowing that she’s on our side for the time being, and that isn’t worth anything when she’s chosen to be so public about it.”
“Well…having more gods on our side is good, right?” Chrys asked. “What happens if all the gods come to our side?”
“Barring some truly extraordinary circumstances, that’s not going to happen.” Connie said. “But, if it did, chances are that we wouldn’t see that much of a change. The idea is to train up the swarm, and going through things the hard way will be an excellent way to do that.”
“Do you think we should talk with her, or…?” Lia asked.
“If she wants to talk, she’ll ask me to set up a meeting.” Connie said. “She’s probably going to be distracted for a while, though, this incident is going to be keeping her busy.”
“I see.” Lia said. “Rose, has there been any movement from the rest of the world after the raid?”
“The army they had coming for us has begun to retreat.” Rose informed. “We’re gearing up to intercept them before they get out of range of our strikes, the hope is we’ll be able to take out most of it in one fell swoop, though some will certainly get away.
“According to Emily and Astrea, they realize that the only way they have any shot at defeating us is if they start stalling for time in hopes that they can pull something off while we deal with the Lord of Monsters, so we shouldn’t need to worry about anything other than that one force right now. So, that’s where we are now, what about you?”
“Matthew’s taking me out to powerlevel most of the day.” Lia said. “After converting the people from the lab I’m only a few levels away from evolution, so the hope is that we’ll be done no later than three days from now.”
“Nice! I’m looking forward to seeing what you get!” Amelia said excitedly.
“Me too. It’s been so long since I evolved, and with all that’s happened between then and now…I have no idea what sort of options I’m going to have. Uh, Chrys, anything going on with you, or is it just the usual?”
“I’m setting out on an expedition today.” Chrys said. “Amphi and I have found an area that we suspect might contain a dungeon, and we’re going to be out for a couple of days while we look for it.”
“You’re bringing some soldiers with you, right?” Rose asked worriedly.
Chrys rolled her eyes. “Yes, Mom.” She said. “We have a pretty good grasp of what monsters are in that area, and we’ve taken precautions. Worst case scenario, I have one of those emergency teleport things Amelia made, so I’ll be fine.”
The device in question was one that Rose had had Amelia manufacture; when Chrys’s health got too low, or she was to receive an attack that would deal more than half of her health in one blow, she’d be teleported back to the capital, safe and sound. It was the compromise Rose had settled on for allowing Chrys to explore more freely in the Spine, and they had, fortunately, yet to have one activate.
As handy as they were, they took Amelia a small chunk of time and a lot of Mana to manufacture, so they only had a few on hand at any one time. Lia had, of course, asked for one as a way to allow her to participate on the front lines, but she had been denied.
Amelia had said that the spellwork was too easily disrupted, and that making a version that would work at the distances required was too much for Amelia as she was now, with both her Worship and stats bound. Lia had pointed out that Amelia’s definition of “too easily disrupted” was one that really meant that it would take an unbelievably talented mage or group of mages to disrupt, but the logistical issues with production remained, so Lia hadn’t asked about it any further.
They chatted more as they finished the rest of the meal, and, when they had finished, said their goodbyes and went their separate ways; Rose and Amelia to the front lines, Chrys to scout, Lia to the Dimension of Discounts to meet up with Matthew, and Connie to do the dishes. When they had first begun these breakfasts they took turns with the dishes, but over time Connie ended up preferring to do them all herself. She said being down at home was a nice break from the general chaos that came with her position as de facto head of the pro-swarm faction of the gods, and that the dishes gave her an excuse to spend a little more time at home.
When Lia stepped through the portal and into the Dimension of Discounts, Matthew was already waiting for her, a smile on his face. “I’ve got a couple of locations lined up for us to hit.” He said. “There are a couple of caveats, though; since this is expressly for the purpose of getting your level up, you’re not allowed to convert anything or cocoon anything and put it into your storage.
“It’d both slow us down and get me in trouble for giving you too much of an advantage, so we’re just going to have to pass on it for now. Other than that, I’m going to be supplying you with Mana and Stamina, so go wild and just kill everything you see. Any questions?”
Lia shook her head. “I’m ready.”
A portal opened up next to Matthew and he motioned for her to go through. “Shall we, then?”