Hidde had returned to his own domain and was reaching out with his Authority, trying to make contact with the entity Anba had submitted to.

The god was essentially flailing about with his Authority, trying to find something that he knew was there, but could not see. If he knew precisely what Authority he was searching for, it would not be difficult, but trying to find an “all-encompassing” Authority was rather vague, and Hidde could only go fishing.

He knew that this could take a very, very-

There it was.

The moment that Hidde made contact with the Authority, he understood why it had been so easy to find. Touching it consciously and examining it was enough for the god to understand that he had found the Authority of totality. This truly did encompass everything in existence under a domineering will.

However, there was a surprising lack of any hint of control or suppression from this Authority, which confused Hidde. This was an Authority that sought to stand above all and be submitted to, but that was essentially the end of everything. There was no further desire that Hidde could sense at all.

What happened after that was both very similar to what Anba had experienced, and very different. Anba had unknowingly made contact with the core’s Authority, and had subconsciously submitted, unable to even unconsciously take the stance that his own authority was anything other than lesser to what had reached out to him.

As for Hidde, while that same sense of inferiority occurred, he was consciously reaching out to the higher Authority, and was thus fully aware of his own inferiority. He simply could not find any reasonable excuse to argue that he should be independent, above, or even equal to the Authority he had touched. He was the god of battle. This being was destined to become the owner of all of reality.

There was simply no comparison to be made.

As simple as that, another god submitted to the core, ceding more Concepts to its control. At this moment, the only Concept that the core had not touched upon was the Concept of stability, and yet that also changed.

Seven Concepts had been touched, and both growth and life had been nearly mastered. Stability required completion, and with stability being the only Concept the core had not yet touched, its very nature demanded that the core have access to it as well, in order for stability to exist among the Concepts.

There was a pulse of power as the core accomplished something unprecedented for the planet and touched upon every Concept there was. Yur was completely pushed out of the Concepts of life and growth, solely retaining her tenuous grip over her miniscule grasp of the Concept of death.

Urdan had long shared the Concept of order with Hidde and Anba, but was similarly rejected by the Concept at this moment.

Both Hidde and Anba could feel their access to the Concepts they could touch strengthened to what had previously been an impossible level, as the core had suddenly seized full control of the Concepts of order, life, and growth with the pulse of power. Three of the eight Concepts were fully under the core’s control, and it could feel that it had become far, far easier to gain traction in the remaining five Concepts.

All it needed was time, and every Concept would belong to it alone, as was proper.

For the first time, a certain thought occurred to the core; after it had spread across the entire planet, how could it grow further?

***

Gabriel had become a trader in order to see the entire Savaren Empire. He had been a child when the empire had annexed its latest province, but the unrest in that place had been known to all. For that reason, he had avoided the place, despite his ever-growing desire to see it for himself, given the rumors that spread from Uttara.

There was nothing he loved more than seeing new sights, meeting new people, hearing new languages, and most important of all, trying new food.

That last one was the reason for Gabriel’s progressively expanding waistline, despite being on the road seven days out of ten.

However, Gabriel was also cautious, as he had learned the hard way that traveling as extensively as he did carried a great deal of risk, especially when one was not sufficiently prepared. He always conducted extensive research on new locations, and had occasionally gone so far as to pay people to travel ahead of him and his caravan to gather information or make preparations for his arrival.

For that reason, Gabriel spent years increasing his influence and growing his network of contacts in Uttara from afar. The latest province no longer had any of the defeated army skulking about the countryside, but Gabriel had heard that there were still pockets of unrest or rebellion.

Finally, after half a decade of preparations, Gabriel was able to start directing his caravan towards what had been the Kingdom of Farun years ago.

His caravan was filled with luxuries from provinces far from Uttara, as well as a number of goods that he believed would be appreciated by the people of what was regarded as the most backwards and uncultured of the entire empire.

He had started at the citadel of Uttara. The capital of the province had been completely rebuilt in the years following the former nation’s defeat, and rebuilding had pushed the empire to send many people from other provinces. The fact that the city was a bit of a melting pot meant that it was an easy place for a foreigner like Gabriel to get started. The city was mostly filled with immigrants from other parts of the Savaren Empire, as only a small number of the indigenous, conquered people had stayed behind. There was little to deal with in terms of any sort of language barrier, though Gabriel would still be able to pick up a bit of the basics.

Additionally, he could gather more and more accurate information after arriving, and could begin establishing a stronger network of connections as he built up his regional enterprise.

That was how Gabriel funded his travels. While he led his own caravan which he traveled with, he established trade routes to all of the places he visited, and members of his trade organization then followed in his wake, using the networks and contracts that Gabriel fostered while traveling.

It was a good life, in his opinion, though the logistics behind his trade organization did tend to be overwhelming at times.

After spending a couple of months in Uttara, Gabriel was finally ready to start moving again, and he had first directed his caravan to the east, to the region that the locals referred to as the frontier. An entire region that was being settled and explored fascinated Gabriel, and his wife had literally needed to drag him back to a meeting to finish after he had first heard of the place. The following weeks that he had been forced to wait had been completely unbearable, and his grouching had seen him chased from his wife’s chambers for two solid weeks.

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Once the caravan was less than a week away from the frontier villages, Gabriel grew too impatient to sit on the lead wagon, and instead started walking alongside it, constantly checking the new and previously unknown plants, and interrogating their guide on everything he saw.

When they rolled into the first village, Gabriel practically ran forward to speak to the people.

This was always where he excelled beyond any other. His wife might be more organized and shrewd, but no one was able to get strangers to open up like Gabriel. By the time he left the village, he would be on a first name basis with half of the population.

The villagers were slender, though not underfed, and there seemed to be no fear as they stepped out to greet the unknown caravan that had appeared.

In no time at all, Gabriel was sharing a local hard cider with one of the village elders, and negotiating a deal to have some of his merchants visit the village every spring before planting, and every autumn after harvest.

The food was delicious, if a bit leafy for Gabriel’s tastes, while the cider and mead were delicious. He might have overindulged a bit the first night.

And the second…

On the fourth day, the caravan rolled out. They were scheduled to visit five more villages before returning to Uttara and moving on to another region of the province.

In fact, given the unusual trade agreement that existed between the empire and Tamar, Gabriel was even starting to consider visiting that place as well after finishing in Uttara.

On and on the caravan continued, through the forests and swamps of the east, the arid lands of the south, and the mountains of the west.

Starting in the south, Gabriel started to feel something nagging at him regarding the province, but it was not until he reached the western mountains that he finally realized what it was.

The people were too different.

Gabriel had traveled enough to know that people could change from place to place. He had seen hair myriad shades of red, blonde, black, and brown, eye colors in at least as many varieties as well, as well as skin that ranged from being as dark as coal to nearly as white as snow.

However, the people of Uttara were… different. The people to the east were tall and slender, but only after spending weeks with them had Gabriel realized that their elderly had few wrinkles marring their skin, and all of the people seemed to share oddly shaped ears.

To the south, the people had wide noses, jutting jaws, and abnormally large, pointed teeth.

In neither of these places had Gabriel really taken note of the unique traits, but as soon as he got to the furthest village to the west and in the heart of the mountains, everything had snapped into place.

The people of this province were too diverse and different from each other, considering the distances between them.

In the mountains, he found short people with large hands, and facial hair growing on the faces of the men, women, and even some of the children.

In fact, they barely looked human.

Looking at the province as a whole, Gabriel could not help but wonder if the people had been segregated and isolated from each other, but after he returned to the capital and started checking into a bit of the local history, there was nothing he could find that could explain the differences he was seeing.

Even stranger was the fact that when Gabriel started asking about things, no one seemed to understand what he was talking about.

The only “unique” trait that he learned about that was regional was that the northern villages were quite independent and rather isolated, and had therefore developed a strong accent and an odd view of outsiders. Nowhere could any mention of unique physical traits be found.

What was going on?

By this time, Gabriel had spent about six months traveling about the province, and it was time for some of his traders to visit the eastern villages for their autumn visit. Gabriel decided to tag along. Maybe he could learn something by returning to that place.

“Marta, have you noticed anything… strange about this province?”

“You mean how all of the people outside of the capital have very different traits from each other or even from what is considered normal in each of the three regions we’ve visited?”

Gabriel turned to give his wife a rather pointed look. He had been fretting about this matter on his own for weeks, and for Marta to answer with exactly what he was thinking, she had clearly been enjoying watching him stew in silence. “Really? How long?”

Her innocent expression disappeared and the crows feet deepened by her eyes as Gabriel heard the most wonderful sound in the world, even if she was laughing at his expense. Again…

“It’s just so adorable to see you all contemplative and serious! I couldn’t ruin that!”

“How. Long?”

“Sigh, see? You lose all your fun when you find out I know something. Well, I think it was the third village we visited. Seeing pointy ears in three villages can’t be a family trait that spread.”

“The third village? That long ago? I only put the pieces together in the mountains!”

“I’m surprised you thought of anything there, given the strength of their ale and those little people’s ability to drink an ox under the table.”

“They are rather drunk little people, aren’t they?”

“Darling, focus.”

Gabriel grimaced, but knew that he had indeed been going off-topic, as he was wont to do.

If he was being honest, what had made him start paying attention in the mountains had not only been the people’s stature and facial hair, but the fact that they had seemed innately opposed to being out in the open or away from the mountains themselves. Their houses had hugged close to the cliffsides, and most of them had rooms carved into the mountains themselves.

A few people had dug a series of chambers into the mountains as their complete home, without allowing for any outside structure whatsoever.

In addition to that, the small folk had shown distaste for being outside. They had always tried to move about with something overhead, whether it was roofs, trees, or the mountains themselves. Gabriel had never before in his life seen an entire society so opposed to sunlight and the open sky.

“What do you think is happening? This province is too small to have given rise to such distinctly unique tribes of people. Besides, in the mountains, I made a point of asking Darin about his family history. The man’s father immigrated to the mountains from the capital. Even so, Darin himself is indistinguishable from the rest of the village, with the same physical traits present.”

“You didn’t tell me about Darin, dear. That certainly puts my theories to rest, and I really can’t say what might be happening now.”

Marta’s brow furrowed cutely and Gabriel smiled at the woman’s contemplative expression. She loved her puzzles, and would not rest until she fully unraveled whatever had taken her fancy. It was just a matter of time before she found out what was changing the people of Uttara.

Nothing further was said as the caravan rolled into the village, and Gabriel unloaded his bulk from the wagon to speak to the villagers.

“Derfel, how have you fared these last months? I missed your company so much that I decided to return myself instead of send my men!”

“Good afternoon, Gabriel. It is good to see you as well, and I’m happy you saw fit to return yourself. Your timing couldn’t have been better, as I just had a batch of mead ready to open this morning, and I need someone to give me an opinion on my latest recipe.”

Gabriel’s smile stretched larger than ever at the mention of Derfel’s mead, as it had certainly been the highlight of the first visit to the village.

Suddenly, Gabriel’s smile froze, and it took all of his many years of experience at the negotiating table to keep it from slipping from his face.

There was no mistake. Derfel’s ears were slightly longer and sharper than the last time that Gabriel had visited the village.

These people were changing, and it was happening fast enough to be seen.

Just what was happening in this place?