POV: Elvira
Father and I sat in His little relaxation room, with the plush chairs and fireplace constantly crackling with warm fires. Books lay scattered across the room, various tomes and scrolls laying on the few tables or stacked in a corner. Every once in a while Father would clear all the reading material away, but I got the feeling that He liked to be surrounded by this mess. Father Himself was reclining in a chair across from my own, blowing on a cup of tea and smiling gently, His green eyes twinkling.
The room was filled with a comfortable silence, one that allowed me to relax for the first time in far too long. Right now there was no impending doom. No Realm to manage, no pressure, and, most importantly, no one to bug me. Gilles was off doing Father-knows-what, allowing me a moment of respite. So I had come to visit Father, whom I realized I had not simply spoken to in far, far too long. I would always visit Him when I had questions or needed help with something, but never just...spent time with Him. I felt guilty because of it.
I tasted the tea Father had set out before me, sighing in appreciation, before speaking up. "How are you doing?" I inquired. Father laughed lightly, His teeth flashing in the firelight.
"I'm doing fine, just fine. Still a little tired and awfully distracted, but hey, it could be worse." He said with an airy wave of his hand. "The Will of the Four Realms recently started molding another soul," He added after a moment's thought.
"Oh?" I let out, leaning forward in interest. The little dryad Tian had taken an interest in was the last soul the Will of the Four Realms had molded, and she was still growing, but I had always suspected there were more on the way. My gut instinct told me that there would be a total of four.
"Mm, it's not quite finished yet, but it won't be a fit for any other race in the Four Realms at the moment. In other words; it's making a new race. It's also carving out a spot for something else, but I haven't quite figured out what yet." Father continued, nodding his head.
"That's only because you haven't given it your full attention," I said with a snort.
"Yes, well, can you blame me? It's exciting! The Will of the Four Realms is making something new...I can't wait to see what it is!" Father gushed, his eyes lighting up in excitement.
"Well, you always have been a sucker for surprises," I said with a grin. Father laughed again, nodding in agreement.
"That I am!" He laughed. I smiled and sipped at my tea again, wondering just what the Four Realms was making. Sequoia Pama, the little dryad with a heart far too big for her soul, was going to shake the Four Realms with her mere existence. What will the other three be? What will they accomplish? I smiled at the thought. It was a joy to watch souls grow and become bigger than themselves...and as I turned my gaze to Father I realized that I really didn't know much about Him. Yes, He was my Father, he was the creator of the Four Realms and I have watched Him grow just as much as I have grown myself, but...was there a time...before all of this? Before the Four Realms for Him?
"Did you used to be?" I asked before I could stop myself. Father blinked at me, confused.
"Huh?" He voiced His confusion.
"I mean, before all this, before the Four Realms." I elaborated, indicating literally everything with a wave of my hand. Father stared at me for a moment and smiled a bit, leaning back in His chair.
"I was once a mortal myself, you know," Father said, the statement hitting me like a bolt from the blue sky.
"What." I deadpanned. Father laughed, a loud, booming sound that infected me with His own amusement.
"It's true! Before I became an Origin Deity I started off as a mortal...lived about twelve lives before I became my home universe's equivalent of an angel." Father continued. "And even then I was only a mid-tier angel. Nothing really outstanding, no desire to rise higher...but I could tell a good story. And I loved music. Was the creative type." Father said, nodding His head and listing off a few of His traits. I stayed silent through His story, absorbing all of the information.
Not once did He mention how He rose in power, neither to become an angel nor to become an Origin Deity, instead opting to tell me of stories and things that had left a deep impression on Him. Like, for example, in one of His first lives He had climbed a mountain. And upon climbing that mountain, He saw a forest covered in snow, glistening in the dying lights of the setting sun, the sky a brilliant shade of orange and red. To Him, that mountain was His Holy Mountain; it was the mountain where He had first comprehended the idea of a God, of there being beings higher than Him, and that the world was far too vast.
Then there was the time in which Father was a monk in a country called China, a poet as well, that sat beneath a great willow tree for hours on end, attempting to contemplate the universe and failing miserably. Father wasn't that deep of a thinker in that life, He said. It was there, beneath that tree, that He met His wife for that life, and there, beneath that same tree, where He laid her for her last slumber.
The third story He told me was about when He was exploring a "new world," and settled in a deep valley that, in all His subsequent lifetimes, He would return to at some point. The valley with a river running through it, a river up which He would travel time after time, fishing or simply to sail it.
As He talked, I suddenly began to get a picture. Many of His experiences as a mortal, as an angel, back in His original universe, were what shaped the Four Realms. The Mountain, the Tree, the Valley and the River...it was all interconnected. I smiled and settled deeper into my chair, simply listening to Father talk. Nostalgia often tinged His voice, and ever so slowly it began to lull me into a slumber. I don't remember when I dozed off, and wasn't that strange, I can hardly remember ever sleeping, but next thing my groggy mind knew, I was being carried somewhere by Father.
"Goodness me, the last time I carried anyone like this was back when Kei was still just a babe," Father whispered gently, laying me down in something soft and inconceivably comfortable. I mumbled a bit, which made Father chuckle softly. "I appreciate our time together more than you know, Elvira. Don't feel guilty for not coming to just talk to me, I am more than happy to answer your questions. Sleep well." He said, and kissed me on the forehead. Warmth spread out from within my core, and I fell into a peaceful, dreamless sleep.
POV CHANGE: Kei
"She's just tired," Grandpa assured Gilles when He put Elvira in bed. "Seems my storytelling put her to sleep!" He laughed, scratching the back of His head. I tilted my head to the side, continuing to watch from my perch on the roof of the Holy Palace. It was a good thing that simple walls couldn't obstruct my vision.
"I can sense that she's...manifesting her domain." Gilles said, eyes wide and still utterly lost on the whole situation. An understandable reaction. I was lost too, I had just been milling about, waiting for Elvira to get back so I could paste her hair with glitter again, when she ended up being carried back by Grandpa. And it would be wrong to prank Elvira while she was sleeping, and wouldn't be any fun because I wouldn't get to see her reaction, so now my plans were put on hold.
"The stress must've caught up to her and put her to sleep so she could assimilate the changes. Like parent like child, eh?" Grandpa joked. Gilles made a noise of agreement and I turned to leave, still feeling a bit dejected. Elvira and I have a fun relationship, even though she threatens to wipe me out of existence every other day. Every time she starts getting too wound up or works too hard for too long a period, I come along and make a mess, and she throws things at me in a fit of rage. But it takes her mind off of things.
"Mmm," I hummed to myself, stepping off of the Palace and flying through the air, not sure where to go. My domain allowed me to wander about a lot, like I always do, so I didn't really have many duties to attend. Mostly I just inspired people that needed to be inspired through my influence alone, be they cultivators or regular mortals. Cultivators could be fun to inspire, as they were unique in that they lived for a very long time but still had the threat of their own mortality hanging over them. Even the ones that became "immortals" (which was a misconception, their lifespan would still eventually come to an end...albeit after millions of years) could still be killed by other immortals. Thus, they had a different outlook than other 'immortal' beings and could create fabulous works of art.
However I didn't feel like going to inspire people. The various spirits of the Spirit Realm could handle that for the most part.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
Instead I surfed the oceans of the Karmic Realm for a while. There were a whole bunch of crazy beasties in those oceans, some of which were formed of pure karmic energy and were the cause of death for many unlucky cultivators. Though only a few cultivators actually managed to travel to the Karmic Realm. Hm. Actually, I don't know how they got there in the first place. I should ask Keilan about that.
It was kind of fun for a while, until I went diving into the oceans themselves and started discovering ancient ruins popping up. Had a new race appeared...? No, that wasn't it. These ruins were...almost like natural formations that had just been pushed up out of the ground. Shaking my head I continued on my way, resolving to find out about it later. There were a few things I wanted to talk to Keilan about, but...eh, I didn't feel like it.
Putting that off, I ended up walking about in the Mortal Realms of the newer Regions, just enjoying myself. There were always all kinds of interesting delicacies to try on all the different planets. Eventually I came to a little planet in one of the older, new Regions, even if that is a bit of an oxymoron. Specifically it was one of the rare planets that had a vast population of Draconians, and only a few tribes of Elementals, Fae, and the odd Dryad grove. And only after I had already spotted her did I realize why my feet had taken me here.
Tian's all-but-adoptive daughter lived on this planet, and I had yet to meet the little one. She was standing in the middle of her meadow, looking no older than twelve years old, and staring silently at a mound of rocks, her Skyshatter Wolf friend curling around her feet protectively.
"Hi! Who are you?" She asked suddenly, turning her head to look at me curiously, even though I had been hiding my presence. By all rights, she shouldn't even have been able to detect me, let alone take the initiative to talk to me.
"Hi," I responded without missing a beat.
"You're really pretty. Can I touch your tails? They look super soft and fluffy!" She cheered suddenly, not letting me continue on my train of thought. I smiled and moved over to her, leaving my tails just out of reach of the green-haired girl.
"They are the softest and fluffiest in the whole universe," I told her in a conspiratorial whisper, stroking one of my tails. "The absolute softest..." the poor girl looked like she was about to drool imagining it and reached out to touch them, only to have me jerk them out of the way, a mischevious twinkle in my eyes.
"Awww, why not?" She pouted, looking at me with the single saddest kicked-puppy look I have ever seen in my entire life. It almost, almost made me cave. That right there was the kind of expression that would send nations to war just to protect it. Or, alternatively, end wars altogether because it is a terrifying weapon.
Coughing into my hand to regain my composure, I puffed out my chest and smirked at her. "You have to be a little older to touch them." I told her. She pouted further, weakening my resolve almost to the breaking point.
"Okay," she said in the most put-out voice, and I lost all composure. With a squeal of delight I scooped the girl up in my arms, spinning around in a circle and surprising both her and the Wolf, though the Wolf didn't growl at me or anything.
"You are just the cutest! Oh my goodness gracious, you are the most adorable thing I've ever seen!" I squealed, laughing merrily and rubbing my cheek against hers. To her credit, the adorable thing, she just stood there and took it, even going so far as to giggle and hug me back (though she was also reaching back to try and touch my tails while I held her.) After a few more rotations I set her back down on the ground, grinning merrily. She giggled and moved quicker than I thought she would, racing towards my tails in an attempt to grab them.
I laughed and spun away, yanking my tails out of her reach and leaving her frustrated. But the dear endured, and continued to chase after me, turning into a game of "catch the fox" after only ten seconds, with even the Skyshatter Wolf joining in at some point. Together we danced and played for hours, laughing and giggling the whole time, until the moon was rising high in the air and she tired out, flopping down on the ground next to the mound of rocks in exhaustion. I laid down next to her as well, careful to keep my tails out of reach, and softly singing a song to myself.
"We like our fun and we never fight, you can't dance and stay uptight.
It's a supernatural delight, everybody was dancin' in the moonlight!"
"You have a pretty voice," Sequoia said softly. I hummed in response, craning my neck to look at her. She was staring at the mound of rocks, which I saw through as the burial place of Logan, Sol's reincarnation. The ex-deity had learned all he could from this life after thousands of years alongside Sequoia, and died so he could truly start to make his way back up the ladder. It would undoubtedly be a very, very long time to get back up to a decent level of karma, because he still had a lot of karma to work off, but it was at least a start. Letting out a long sigh, I looked up at the stars and nodded to myself.
"I missed this," I said softly. Playing with Sequoia reminded me of all the times I had played with Dei and mother and Grandpa, back when I was just a girl. I missed those times...they were so carefree and pleasant, just playing with them all the time. I hardly got the chance to anymore, instead pranking and bugging Elvira and sometimes Keilan.
"Missed what?" Sequoia asked.
"Playing," I answered. Sequoia hummed.
"Logan used to play with me a lot, but then he got old and went to go swim in the River so he won't be able to play with me anymore." She said with a small trace of sadness. I craned my neck to look at her, meeting her glistening, tear-filled eyes. "Why does everyone leave me?" She asked. I blinked and hummed in thought, peeking into her past. She had grown up and watched her two parents grey and die before her eyes, and then every friend she managed to make would also disappear. Tian left as well, and hadn't managed to make it back since he had gifted her the Skyshatter Wolf (which I knew pained him more than anything else he had ever experienced), and now another of her friends, Logan, perished as well. It was a sad story, but...well, she didn't seem too torn up about it.
It was more of an innocent question, a child learning that she would never be able to see her friend again, rather than the full tear-filled sob-fest that any other person would usually want to have. I hummed again.
Sequoia sneezed as I tickled the tip of her nose with one of my tails, the fur gently brushing against her face just to tease her. The look of utter shock and surprise on her face was well worth it, making me cackle and roll over onto my stomach, flashing the little girl a cheeky smile. "That's 'cuz they're waiting for you to get off your lazy bum and go find 'em, silly." Sequoia blinked and gave me a funny look.
"Huh?" She said eloquently. I suppressed a snicker and flirted my tails, adopting a superior look in my face while cradling my chin in my hands.
"You're never going to be able to touch my tails if you wait around in your meadow all the time, goofball. And your dad is waiting for you too. He's been hoping you'd get off your little planet for so long now because he can't seem to come back. So there," I said, sticking my tongue out at her. To my surprise, Sequoia's expression immediately brightened.
"Why didn't I think of that?! They're not gone, they just went to another place so I can go find them and meet more friends! Like when the Old Man took me to the town and I met this little guy," Sequoia said, stroking her Skyshatter Wolf's head, who laid beside her. I nodded in agreement, standing up and poking her on the forehead, wiping away her mental and physical exhaustion with but a thought. I was still wound up, I wanted to play more.
"Exactly. Now...catch me if you can!"
POV CHANGE: Tian
I took a long draught of sword-qi whiskey, staring at the giant ball of blue ice-flame that was the Realm Moon, or Lunar Star. Celene lay within that giant star, sleeping peacefully. It had already been far too long since I had met my old friend...
"It's been crazy I tell you, just crazy," I continued, shaking my head. Every once in a while, when I was feeling melancholy for whatever reason, I would make my way here and tell Celene or Leo about what had happened in the Four Realms, and of my adventures. This was one of those times, and I took another long drink from my bottomless flask of whiskey. Sequioa popped into my head at that moment, and I chuckled to myself. "And, would you believe it, that I have a daughter?"
Had I known what kind of a reaction that statement would cause, I would've kept my damn mouth shut.
The Lunar Star rumbled, giant jets of blue ice-flame shooting out of the star, reaching millions of miles in length and releasing a thunderous roar. The heavens themselves were torn asunder as cracks began to appear in the surface of the Moon, the Realm Moon shining with a pure blue-white light that was brighter than it ever had been before. From within the depths of the Moon a beautiful, snow-white figure could be seen, shifting sometimes from that of a giant snowy cat to a human figure. My eyes widened as Celene pushed her way out of the star, ice crystals drifting about her body and forming clothes of pure ice.
When she opened her eyes, it was as if I was looking at two miniature Lunar Stars, and when she opened her mouth..."Bullshit. I am calling bullshit. There is no way you, of all people, have a kid." She protested bluntly. I gaped at her for a few seconds before throwing my flask in a fit of rage.
"REALLY?! THIS IS WHAT WAKES YOU UP?! GOD DAMN IT!" I roared in outrage, my own aura erupting out and contesting Celene's.
"Holy shit, it's true, you do have a daughter! LEO! WAKE UP! DEI HAS A KID!" Celene shouted at the distant Realm Sun, her snow-white hair flickering in a none-existant wind. The same thing happened with that celestial body, what with the jets of flame and heavens being torn asunder and Leo's form flickering between a lion and himself.
"Really? Now this I gotta see! No, wait, before that, I want to know who let you into their bed, Dei!" Leo shouted back, his fiery robes flickering alongside his hair - which was literally made of fire.
"FUCK YOU!" I shouted back, turning my back on the both of them and stalking off. "I'M NOT GOING TO STAND HERE AND LISTEN TO THIS BULLCRAP!"
"Is it that chick you kept telling us about, the deity? Inesa, right? Was it her, huh? Is she the mother?" Celene pressed, practically bouncing up and down in excitement, her bare feet leaving circles of ice wherever she stepped.
"The kid's adoptive. Deities can't have kids yet." I snarled back. Celene put one hand over her mouth in shock and relayed the information to the distant, albeit rapidly approaching Leo. I plugged my ears with my fingers to avoid hearing his response.
"C'mon, Dei, take us to see the kid! You? Adopting a child? The poor thing's probably horribly traumatized!" Celene continued. That comment hit a little too close to home because I felt absolutely awful for not having been able to go see Sequoia in recent years.
"LALALA, I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" I shouted at Celene, who just cackled in delight, grabbing Leo's hand as soon as he got close enough, giving him a long, deep kiss, before returning to antagonize me with the aid of her husband. I wanted to murder them both in their sleep.
Three days later, I led the husband and wife duo to meet my adopted daughter.