That... sounded bad. But then again...

"That's a little much, don't you think? The Weave couldn't have booped me with its divine-creation tentacles and be done with it?"

Eraztis pointed a clawed finger at my chest but he shivered and collapsed, dropping his head between his knees.

"We're gods. We experience the Weave's touch on numerous occasions. But your damn mortal body doesn't even have the capacity to feel all that transpired. And yet..."

Ysanna continued to stroke Zolnja's scales. The waves had calmed, but a storm slowly brewed in the backdrop, the flashes of lightning sparking between the darkening clouds.

Cal grimaced and summoned the pitcher of lemonade and downed it in one impressive chug. After he wiped his mouth with his sleeve he tapped the glass and slid it over.

"This is not natural. The Weave does not interfere so directly. Not unless it's for the creation of a god and even then... Ugh."

This isn't the celebration I was hoping for. Oh well.

I sipped at the lemonade and wedged deeper into the pillows. "I take it this will draw the other gods' attention? Am I in trouble?"

"Yes!" Eraztis screamed.

Cal pushed him back into cushions and shook his head. "No, Cyrus. You're not in trouble. But the other gods will notice. Even if it takes a while. Besides Eraztis, no other god or goddess has experienced what the Weave accomplished. For that, we can at least ease our worries. But they will notice eventually, there's no stopping that fact."

His tone was off. The cadence, the voice, the word choice. He sounded wrong. I didn't like it.

"Does it change anything?"

"Yes, yes it does."

"So?" I said, sitting up.

Cal closed his eyes and exhaled prismatic fumes that quickly dispersed. "For now, nothing. But your next ascension won't be so simple. If the Weave spared enough of its time for your tier one, we can expect worse for your tier two."

"By the gods," Eraztis muttered. "If I hadn't taken that divine fragment, who knows what would have happened. Uggggh. It's too much. I don't..."

"Okay, seriously. It's fine. We're all alive, right?" I said.

"Fine? Fine?!" Eraztis stood up and bright stars started to appear behind his head. They twisted on themselves and became screaming faces that shot into the sky, joining the roiling storm clouds. "You have no comprehension of what this all means. Of what the Weave has done for you? For you!"

"Then tell me. All the talk of how this and that, and yet here we are. Breathing, and talking just fine. And I'll remind you that for all your worry. I was the one subjected to its scrutiny. Or did you forget the giant triquetra carving into my soul?"

He shuddered and dropped to the couch. His tentacles took a while to calm down, never fully staying still even after the mana in the room settled.

"The Grand Weave. A thing of creation beyond anything a god can comprehend. What is a star to the primitive beast beyond a twinkling light? And yet I know you know more. I've grazed your memories."

"Eraztis!" Cal growled.

"I know that your world knows of the stars, of their make. Your kind calculated the distance to reach the stars, the primitive means of travel and the logistics of it. You know what they are made of, and how they float and function. Yet you miss so much detail. Even with your vast knowledge, you know so little of what lies underneath.

He conjured a star in his hand and slowly peeled the layers until a rotating core made of dense ether stood still. But as I continued to stare, I recognized that the first assumption was wrong.

Even from the couch, I could feel the wind it generated, and the fact that it obliterated the storm clouds above. The core wasn't a still mass–rather it spun with a speed my eyes couldn't track.

And even then, I saw the flicker of lines similar to runes flash from between its light. It itched at a part of my brain that demanded attention.

Eraztis snapped his fingers and the core disappeared. It was hard to tell but he was frowning. "That's a hungry look, little demon. Don't stare at me like that, you are not ready for this knowledge."

I shut my jaw and downed more of the lemonade.

That pulled at the rune skill. I'll have to dive into that later.

"Galarion? Did you record the memory?"

"Yes! No eat?" he pouted.

"No eat. But you can make a copy."

"Okay!"

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

I winced at the noodle slurping inside my skull and waved away Cal's worry.

"Okay. I'm an ant and I can't even fathom the reality around me. Why is that important?"

"Because the thing that can alter reality across many dimensions, worlds, and time itself has just decided to spare you an iota of its attention! A god has graced the ant and granted it aid! A mortal, insignificant ant!"

Eraztis began to float but Cal dragged him down.

Ysanna chuckled, her eyes still hazy but she drew the attention of everyone in the room.

"He's not an ant. He's a Reborn. A fate-touched Reborn, with the Weave's favor."

Zolnja hissed. "A divine hatchling is no mere ant."

The gods stared but the pair said no more and Cal cleared his throat.

"It's unprecedented. And we'll be hypervigilant in the future. For now, and I'm begging you; please lay low."

I snorted. "Is that possible? Ysanna's signature is in the dungeon. And the core and its fairy is missing in the head city of a kingdom."

Cal's face creased with visible stress lines but he sighed and summoned sandwiches instead of speaking. For some time, he sat there with a distant look similar to the Storm Princess, munching away bite after bite.

Eventually, Eraztis joined in, followed by the goddesses. It left me to stew and rest my head, the weirdness of my soul still settling even after the damage had been repaired.

I reached for a sandwich myself, when Ysanna shot to her feet. Zolnja rose to her full height and Ysanna raised her hands, summing the tide beneath our feet.

"Aurelion's here!"

"Fuck!" Cal groaned. He waved his hand and the couches disappeared but he caught me before we fell and pulled me close. "Eraztis! Take us to your realm."

Eraztis clawed at the air. "Can't. There'll be even more gods coming my way. And it's better that I'm here. We'll say I was questioning Ysanna on the rule-breaking."

I spat Cal's suit out of my mouth and adjusted my head. "Who's Aurelion?"

"An asshole of divine proportions and head deity of Solunaria's pantheon," he growled.

"You got ten seconds! I'm pushing you into the abyss. Hide your signatures Calstrax!"

I had enough time to see a thin barrier of orange light surround us before the seas parted we sank below the waves.

The light disappeared the deeper we dropped before it vanished entirely and left us with only Cal's mana to light the way.

Cal looked down and gave a pained smile before he held a finger to his lips. The barrier disappeared and we were suddenly floating as the sea closed above us.

It felt lonely, but as I extended my arm, a spark of brilliant blue light shot through the water like lightning before it faded away.

I can breathe. Weird.

Cal grabbed my arm and pulled me closer into his chest. As he did, a new impression sprang to life.

Encompass all within the light. Spread the heat, shine the warmth and reveal the truth. The flames burned into towering infernos that reached the sun and yet they bowed beneath its majesty.

Regal and intense.

It was a welcoming heat but one that threatened to incinerate me at a moment's notice.

"You have some explaining to do Ysanna," came a masculine voice, one filled with an almost arrogant confidence.

"I will answer to the council when it is called. Right, sir Eraztis?" Ysanna answered.

Eraztis sounded calm, not at all like the stressed squid he was moments before. "Aurelion. Why are you here?"

He scoffed. "Does that really need to be said? The freshly revived goddess invades my city, my kingdom and takes the main dungeon core and its fairy. Why wouldn't I be here?"

"Watch your tone," Zolnja hissed. "Treat sir Eraztis with respect."

"We're all divinity here. As important as the Soul Keeper is, he's no world spirit. I speak as bluntly as I please. And given the circumstances..."

Flames. Even below the waves and deep in the abyss, sunlight pierced the darkness and burned away the shadows. It didn't come close to reaching us, but I could taste the hot mana on my tongue.

"Aurelion. I'll remind you that you are in my realm. Watch yourself, friend," Ysanna whispered.

Her voice was cold steel that cut through the hissing steam, and it took control, banishing the light from the abyss.

"Explain why you attacked our kingdom. For what purpose? Surely you didn't think we'd just ignore the intrusion!"

"It was not an attack."

"Then what?" he demanded. "What possible reason do you have for sabotaging Solunaria? Better explain to me now before the rest of the pantheon tears into you."

He sounds so fucking condescending. I think I hate him.

Cal squeezed my shoulder and I saw mirth in his eyes as he winked and resumed looking up.

"Well? Out with it."

Ysanna sighed. "It was a favor owed."

"You declared war for a favor?"

"I have declared nothing," she spat. "The core and the fairy will be returned. That was only temporary. I was to return them before I leave for the council."

Silence continued for some time and I could feel the byplay between the three divinities. The sun sought to slip between the waves. It was ever present, and demanding in its presence.

But Ysanna and Zolnja were the masters of this realm. Their authority far outranked his, even if the other god managed to carve his piece of authority into reality.

Strangely enough, it didn't feel malicious. More like a secondary effect, as if the god's mana did this like a person breathed.

It was perhaps why Ysanna kept her calm despite it.

"Aurelion. That is enough. You have your answer and I've done my investigation. She has not broken the rules even if they tow the line. Return to your realm for now," Eraztis declared.

Aurelion hummed. "Mysterious rebirth. Keeping your presence minimal. At first I assumed it was because your power was not yet reacquired, but that isn't true, is it? I can feel it, you're weakened but not crippled by a tier difference. And now this? A favor to steal a core... No that's not what you were after, was it?"

"Aurelion..." Ysanna growled.

"You were after someone. And if Nestralla's theory is correct, your rebirth was from another god. Which means you were after their chosen. A chosen who hid his presence from our pantheon. A rival perhaps?"

"I have done nothing to betray the pantheon. Nor would I. Just because you've forgotten, doesn't mean I have. Solunaria was just as much a part of my dominion as my island."

"Watch your words, Storm Princess," he snapped.

Zolnja's hiss shook the realm and thunder boomed to punctuate the blade in her words. "You wouldn't be the first god I've tasted. Remember that, Golden Sun. Remember that we are not afraid to die, for we have scales and scars, unlike your untouched flesh."

The pressure between the two boiled over and my skin started to flay from the chaotic churning of the water.

Cal's nails pushed into my shoulder and his tail speared the wave behind him, shattering it with one blow.

"Enough!" Eraztis boomed. "This is the final warning before I force a banishment. Return, Aurelion. And wait!"

At once the pressure eased and the sunlight faded. I couldn't see what the god was doing but his mana retreated and I could no longer picture his face.

His next words were far calmer than before. And the arrogance was gone but it still contained a bite that spoke of someone with authority.

"Very well. But I do have one last question."

"Out with it."

Aurelion chuckled. "Not you, Eraztis. For them."

"What? I grow tired by the second," Ysanna groaned.

"Simple. Just one question and then I'll leave."

"Aurelion..."

"Just answer me this--who are you hiding below the waves?"