I had to rethink my approach to how I was going to gain Odin’s eye. With the Jotunn all but cowed now that their home had been discovered, they were more invested in finding a new place to cower in hiding.

Thrym would move his entire population to a new location, refusing to have his city be reduced to rubble in the never-ending cycle of war between the Jotunn and Asgardians. Things might have been salvageable if Loki had been the sole Asgardian to gain knowledge of the Jotunn’s true home, but Thor had also gleaned that information, and he would share that information.

Thor was insufferable and relentless when he felt slighted, insulted, or wronged. Kidnapping his son and placing him in a [Sleep] that could not be broken would have him assaulting the walls of the hidden Utgard city, slaying all that stood in his way until his son was cured.

I didn’t blame Thrym for his decision to move; he had no choice. What he had a choice in was deciding to betray me. Without that betrayal, I would not have acted as I had, and their fortress would have remained hidden.

I thought of slipping into Mothi’s chamber and administering an antidote, but [Elfshot] was a tricky substance. It had been created to act against Sidhe and their other-worldly healing and regenerative powers. The only known cure included a blood donation from a Sidhe royal, one [Ranked: King].

I could supply the antidote, but it would leave traces of Tuatha de Danann's magic behind. Traces that Thor might miss, but Sif would not. Dealing with Thor was problematic enough; hiding my presence simultaneously from Sif was pushing the bounds of safety.

I could not have my identity or the involvement of Sidhe discovered before I had accomplished my goals.

Tia had portaled Ag and Balfour back to Urt and then went on to deal with a task vital to the success and stability of [Cait Sith]. She needed an [Oracle], a person [Time] would empower with [Prophecy] that centered around finding and dealing with [Paradox].

I had asked each of them to make connections or deepen those connections the Sidhe had already begun to establish with the magical races on Urt. I would be doing the same thing but on a more cosmic scale.

I had decided to fall back on what made Sidhe so formidable. Truth and manipulation. Asgard and Olympus were not the only Pantheons to have gained purchase in this world. I planned to use my knowledge of possible future events to orchestrate an event that would require the attention of every God from every Pantheon.

I began by scrying for and then opening a [Fairy Ring] near a place of power of the Aztecs. The people had noticed me the moment I stepped through a portal near their Great Pyramid of Cholula. The pyramid wasn’t complete and as grand and significant as it would be in a few hundred years, but it still served as the site of worship for Quetzalcoatl.

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I’d considered approaching Shiva, but his moniker as the Destroyer worried me. He might have decided it was worth the cost to begin a war between Pantheons if he knew what Odin and Zeus were willing to do in the future.

Even more unsettling, he might decide to aid Odin. Shiva might take the opportunity to find out what method they used to siphon the power of another God and make it his own. If that happened, he might facilitate the death of the Universe at a rate of destruction that Odin and Zeus could barely fathom.

The Aztec people had been isolated and protected by the leyline barrier that bisected the ocean. That protection wouldn’t last. The barrier would come down at some point. An earthquake or volcanic eruption, the eruption of Mount Vesuvius most likely, would shift the course of leylines, and the people of Europe would eventually invade the newly discovered continent.

The Pantheon of Gods were aware of each other. Odin and Zeus knew Quetzalcoatl and his brethren, but their interactions were limited. Even Gods had to follow the rules, and as long as no mortal had breached the protections the new world enjoyed, they would ignore each other.

I had changed the status quo. My use of Portals and Sitherns had made transportation between the continents possible, and if I was willing to share that method of travel with Quetzalcoatl, the limits that kept him and Odin from meeting each other could be circumvented.

The warriors and priests protecting the pyramid offered no quarter before they began attacking. If they were using iron, their attacks might have been bothersome, but they were still using sticks. A few copper daggers were in evidence, but most of the men swarming around me were equipped with fire-hardened spears.

I didn’t plan on hurting any of them. It would be a bad start to the conversation I hoped to have with Quetzalcoatl if I killed his people. And they weren’t dangerous enough to worry about. My armor deflected those weapons that hit. I took no damage as I moved through the shoal of bodies that tried to block my advance.

The priests had begun entreating Quetzalcoatl from the moment they noticed me. Their prayers increased in volume and desperation as I began ascending the steps of Cholula. They gained more frantic as they prayed. I could feel the manifestation of Aztec Divinity- an energy steeped in their worshippers' life essence.

It had a deep connection to blood, shrouded in the willing sacrifice of these primitive people. I flared my burgeoning [Divine Mantle] to announce my presence.

My knowledge of the Divine and how one God interacted with another, not of their Pantheon, had blossomed while I was meditating on what the changes I was undergoing meant.

I knew that proclaiming my affiliation freely and honestly would afford me some protection. The Aztecan Gods would see me as a messenger of the Tuatha de Danann, a lesser God, one to meet under a covenant very similar to the humans’ white flag of truce.

They would know that Tuatha de Danann was in [Sleep], and my existence would be a mystery, but only tangency. The Tuatha de Danann had no presence in this world, but what one Avatar of a God knew, any Avatar could access.

Quetzalcoatl would know who I was and whom I represented. My presence would trigger his interest. It would be a mystery that was worth investigating. And would be the other reason I felt safe approaching an Aztecan place of power.