Mayer whipped around, quickly springing up from the chair and staring at the fireplace, hands glowing with a cool light.
“Now, now, no need for that, Mayer.” A jovial voice, not too dissimilar to Gallar’s, but reedier and more bookish than the heavyset innkeeper’s.
“Who are you?” Mayer said quietly, though underneath the level-headed dialogue was a fiercely caution.
“Well, I can’t tell you that, Mayer. Unfortunately, the other Gods have become very good at tracking us, and with our First One coming to greet young Maximilian over there, they’ve become highly suspicious of our activity.” The fire crackled, as if adding a full stop to his sentence. Mayer nodded slowly clearly still suspicious, but I had another plan. I took in a breath and slowly extended my aura of safety outwards, reaching towards the fireplace and felt it snap to another domain, like a magnetic piece of metal.
“Ooh, very good little brother! I was just a bout to ask you to do just that.” The pleased voice thrummed through the fire, then after a moment a feeling of relation was sent through the connected auras, just for a moment, and then cut off.
“What was that?” I asked, cautiousness gone, replaced with curiousness.
“Bah, nothing complex. I believe that a similar technique is possible with shifting. I believe the kingdoms use it to verify the blood of an heir to the throne. I may be mistaken, the topic frankly bores me to no end.” I turned to look at Mayer, a questioning look.
“A bloodright ritual?” He inquired of the fireplace.
“Ah, yes that is the one. Though less spilling of the blood and more swapping of the divine energy that lies within us. If the divine energies are mutually compatible, you are of the same Court, it’s as simple as that. Some courts simply connect their divine energies together permanently.” There was a motion in the fire that you could have sworn was a shrug.
“Why doesn’t every God do that?” I asked, earning a look from Mayer that said something along the lines of ‘Is this really time for question and answer?’.
“No, this is the perfect time for question and answer! Well, for the limited time I’m able to be here before the other courts start sniffing in the right direction. The answer to your question, brother, it that it comes with the benefit of true connection, but with the downside of individuality and physical freedom within the divine realm.”
“You can use the bloodright ritual to take over someone’s identity?” Mayer asked, perturbed by the possibility.
“Absolutely not. The worst you could get from a bloodright ritual is a blood curse.” The fire said firmly, “Though the basis of the ritual itself is nigh identical, divine energy is a fundamental part of a God’s being. To link yourself to a collection of Gods for a long period of time is to sacrifice identity for power. Somewhat like an army versus a small mercenary group.” Mayer seemed mollified with that.
“I can imagine why the Hearth Court isn’t interested.” I said with a knowing grin.
“Of course! I couldn’t dare to sacrifice any of my superb intellect and charm!” I could feel the grin through the fire. Mayer laughed heartily, finally putting down his guard and moving his chair to face the dancing flame in the fireplace.
“Oh Gods, I can’t possibly understand why you decided that Max was a good fit for the Hearth Court.” I did the same to my chair, pulling closer to the fire.
“Hey, that’s hurtful!” I say, smiling all the while.
“Yeah, Max was a perfect fit.” The unnamed hearth God chuckled, “Though we only found him because we were trying to track you down, Mayer.” Mayer’s head quirked to the side in surprise.
“Why would your court be looking for me? I can’t imagine that I ideologically fit with the hearth court very well.” The flames stopped dancing for a moment.
“Do you want to save the world from the impending war with the Champions of Earth?” The voice asked, curiously. Mayer’s nose scrunched up.
“Of course I do.” The fire made another pseudo shrugging motion.
“Then we were willing to deal with any other ideological difference. We wanted a warrior, a Champion of our own cause.” There was a crackling hum as the God on the other side of the fire thought. “Though, I don’t believe you would have been given a divine seed. You wouldn’t have been compatible with our domain closely enough to have survived implanting it within your soul. Maximilian was exceptionally compatible, which lead to a rather last-minute decision on our part.”
“I see, so I would have been given this grand blessing by itself, then?” The fire does a facsimile of a nod.
“Indeed. It would have made you quite powerful. But after seeing Maximilian and his work throughout his time in our worlds, as well as his aspirations? Well…” The God paused thoughtfully, “you could say that we had the longest and most intense argument the Hearth Court had ever seen. I believe that it lasted a total of two months, if I remember correctly.” Mayer chuckled along with the fire.
“Causing problems for everyone was he?”
“Ooh yes, we were deciding the biggest bet that had ever been made in the entire history of the universe, barring the initial creation, I presume. We are betting millions of years of wealth on our little brother, no pressure.” The fire smiled, laughing at my now slightly more pale face.
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“That’s a lot to be betting on a kid.” Mayer said, seriousness creeping back into his voice.
“A kid you say?” The God questioned, “A kid would be hard pressed to make any difference whatsoever in even a town as small as this. During being here, he has managed to employ a poor beggar and help turn them into a capable warrior, deal with a complex social issue that has been inbuilt in the culture of Virsdis and Orisis for thousands of years, manage to set a child who tried to kill him on the correct path, leading him to find a talent in woodworking, convincing those on their deathbeds to give their bodies to science, creating a culture of being conscious of the greater good, and then convincing a young girl that she is capable of changing the world? I’d consider that something a man would be capable of.”
Mayer turned to me, amusement clearly written on his face, his thick eyebrow arched high.
“That’s quite the rap sheet you have there, Max. Even I didn’t know about a few of those.”
Even I had forgotten about a few of them. The woodworking one I definitely didn’t know about. It was the Jothian boy who had come to attack me, and somehow I’d managed to scare the kid straight. I had said that I’d go check up on him, but I honestly forgot entirely. Good to hear he was doing well for himself, though. Other than that? When you put it that way, it sounded pretty damn impressive. Though I couldn’t help but feel that the God was trending towards the more story-telling side of things. I just rolled my eyes in response.
“Either way, we found him exceptionally fitting for our cause and our Court. We had been searching for a long time for someone in the mortal world to properly embody out domain, and our First One has been searching far, far longer. To see him so excited about Max…” The God’s voice took on a fond tone, “It was compelling to us. Many of us see him as a father. To see him so excited to bring another of his own ilk into the world? It was compelling in and of itself.” I could feel my cheeks reddening as the seemingly endless supply of flattering remarks were made.
I certainly didn’t feel impressive, even after I had legitimately become a Demigod, I felt no different than I had, bar some mundane qualities. It slowly reinforced within me just how much I needed to accomplish, if not for me, for those that seemed to trust in me and see that degree of potential within me.
“Oh look, you’re making the boy blush!” Mayer said, a grin drawn across his face.
“Of course! We are the next closest things to seducers you know! It’s out Godly duty to make people feel better about themselves.” The warm but slightly nasal chuckle from the fire just made it hit home how quickly the conversation had been shifted from the immediate suspicion that Mayer had shown. I guess Gallar didn’t remark that the Hearth Court were the peacekeepers and Gods of quiet political intrigue for nothing.
“Regardless, I just wanted to let you know that we are here, and I’ll likely to be the one contacting you in future. Other than that–” There was a sudden cut off in the God’s voice, which seemed odd at first, but over the next few seconds the concern became a real worry when the fire flickered and the voice returned.
“Maximilian, Mayer. A sister that is helping survey your surrounding area just told me some potentially worrying news.”
“Go on.” Mayer said, not a lick of anxiousness in his voice, sounding entirely task focused. His emotional state was quite similar. In a way, he felt uniquely at home in this sort of situation, which would be more odd to me if I couldn’t feel the man radiate his emotional state to the world.
“A few towns over, maybe ten day’s ride, there is a–and I quote–‘man cloaked in shadow’ wandering in your direction. She managed to catch a conversation between a farmer and another man where the farmer recounted being asked by the cloaked man about inn prices. He had no horse of companions, and talking to him seems to have given the farmer a bad case of the shakes.” Mayer thought for a moment and then nodded.
“Any more information you can give us?”
“Nothing. That was the only lead we have. We don’t have much time, and I won’t be able to contact you again for a good while. We won’t be able to get you any more information. Be careful, Maximilian.” The fire suddenly disappeared, somehow sucking the warmth out of the room with it.
Mayer and I sat there for a few moments, staring perplexedly into the quiet fireplace.
“That didn’t sound good.” I said dumbly. Mayer didn’t bother to respond, his affirmation obvious. A moment later, the man clicked his fingers and a small flame sputtered to life, floating mid air, somehow surviving without wood to fuel it. A testament to Mayer’s shifting abilities that he can read and to other tasks and maintain a completely safe burning fire in the other room, even.
“I believe I know who is coming towards us and if I’m right, there is no amount of running that would get us away from them.” He said as he stared into the fire.
“What do you mean we can’t run away from them? Surely I could.” Mayer just shook his head in the negative.
“If this were anyone else, I’d have a large amount of confidence that you could get away from them. But if this is who I think it is, then there are few people who could dream of running from them.” Mayer sighed deeply as he slouched back into his chair, “You are fast in a very mundane way, Max. You can run forever at a truly impressive speed. But when you add shifting into the mix, and the sheer amount of experience that they have with it? No. We can’t run.” He began to rub his forehead gently in a circular motion, an action that seemed to calm him slightly.
“So who is this person then?”
“A Keeper.” I turned to the man, eyebrow raised.
“Keeper? Like a beekeeper? Do they keep monsters or something?” Mayer chuckled dryly.
“Close enough, but no. Keepers are a small collection of people that have sacrificed everything to protect the world from what they keep.” I rubbed my chin in thought.
“Does that mean there is, or is not a Keeper for monsters?” Mayer just shrugged.
“I honestly wouldn’t be surprised. But, I haven’t ever heard of one. They seem to focus more on singular categories of things, generally very destructive or harmful, especially in the wrong hands.”
“So they go around and collect crazy dangerous stuff? How do they even determine what is dangerous and what isn’t and what should be kept from the world and what should be left to help us advance?” I asked, trying to understand the morality of it myself.
“The Keepers are pseudo priests of the Court of Mysteries.” I was about to ask how he knew that, when the Court of Gods of Mysteries were involved, but he waved my brewing question away, “They are an open secret. They have their own fairy tales associated with them. Rethi would probably be able to recount a good amount of legends off of the top of his head.” You both share a smile at that. The boy loved his stories. We had a bet going that he’d try his hand at writing his own at some point. I took nay just for the sake of it, but we both know he will try at some point, if he hasn’t already.
“So, their Gods tell them what to take and where it is?” I concluded.
“Basically.” He sighed again and then turned directly to look into my eyes, “Now, the question is, whether they are here for you or me.”