Eight hundred and fifty million years ago, sideways, a chaos god looked at the cosmos. Amongst the others of his kind, the cosmos was hidden from his sight. Still, he could catch a few glimpses of it here and there.

The cosmos sometimes appeared like a rope, a plain, a six-sided table, or a grand landscape, and other times, it was maddening to the mind. Fractals that buried into your mind and broke even the divine, chaotic shapes that turned you into insignificant particles of sand, and finally the Discordia. The one that couldn’t be explained. Not even by him. A god of chaos.

And through all that a god had to chart their next steps to survival.

Morgaise was still young. Somewhat insignificant. And he had made enemies on all sides. That was the curse of being a chaosling. One of these days he would have to delve into the chaotic planes. Planes where time was power, and power was time. Where hideous creatures were born and lost in an instant. And intruders lost their lives in millions every second.

But not today. Today was the day when the great serpent graced the divine with its presence. And in its wake chaos would follow. Chaos that could unmake him, bring changes to his forms and purpose, or sustain his for centuries. But to a god of chaos the changes weren’t damaging. In fact, they were soothing. It felt warm and told him that reality was mailable.

He looked across the cosmos to the other side of the table where the gods of order stood to shield reality from chaos. Compared to them he was a little pebble and once again reminded of his insignificance.

The orderlings didn’t like the ever-changing nature of the cosmos. Eleven hells, they didn’t even like their clothes drawers. They liked everything sorted out in neat little boxes. And reality wasn’t that. It was strange, messy, and wonderful.

Just as he finished that thought the cosmos shifted from a plane of nebulas into an opaque dodecahedron. Everyone leaned back. The chaoslings leaned forwards but instead of chaos, darkness flew into the space. The chaos gods groaned and instead of whooping and cheering like the dark gods, the handful of chaos gods all looked behind them.

Discord, draped in a every changing shade of red, the greatest of the chaos gods, glared at her counterpart sheathed in a glowing white light. They stood like that, for ages. Both holding each other back in the grand game. And they would for as long as they needed to.

The young chaos god didn’t have time for this showdown that had lasted for millennia. Instead, of joining the rest, Morgaise took the commotion as an opportunity. Through the press of the presences around him he peeped at the cosmos. Trying to catch a path of purpose through everchanging realities to chalk a path for himself and his people. His sight looked through the interlaced timelines and went through them one thread at a time. And found no viable moves.

The bird under his foot twitched. The chaos god looked down at it.

“Let me go, Morgaise and I will…”

Morgaise turned his foot into a mouth and chomped down. The stupid overgrown bird was cut off midsentence. What was she thinking?

The dumb bird had flown into the chaotic portion of the cosmos to distract Discord. To give their enemies a chance to gain ground. So he had to stop her. And he had done it all alone.

The essence of the dumb bird god flowed into him and for a blink of a miniscule portion of a microsecond, all eyes turned to him. He knew what they were thinking. He had just killed a good and consumed it. God killers, needed to be put down. But, he was a chaos god in the heart of chaos. And still, He felt a couple of gazes on him. One was from the side of order. Thankfully it wasn’t the big shining beacon of order. That guy could have winked his existence by a glance.

The other gaze he expected. The dark goddess of foxes. She masqueraded herself as a chaotic trickster but revelled in misery and death. And once he had called her out on it, she had gone to his mother and complained. And that is why Morgana had sent him away to his aunt Discord. Now he was firmly in the chaos camp and losing his significance amongst other more powerful chaos gods.

But hey, now he had more power. And the taste of fried chicken on his tongue. And maybe, just maybe he could survive for a few millennia more.

His eyes drifted from the fox goddess to the order. The second gaze wasn’t hostile. It was considering. It was the gaze of the Timekeeper. He met the gaze with curiosity. And the timekeeper suddenly disappeared. Morgaise looked around. He couldn’t find the god of order anywhere. And a bad feeling started bubbling inside him.

Crack.

The Timekeeper appeared next to him Morgaise, startling the young chaos god. Time froze around him locking his panicked scream inside him. Then the chaos god felt the pull.

Whup.

Morgaise dangled in front of the order god like an amorphous mess.

“Morgaise. Are you tired of this crowded table?” The timekeeper asked in a slow methodical candence.

With the Timekeepers every word, Morgaise could feel the reality quaking and the reverberation revealed that he was separated from the cosmos.

The Timekeeper snorted and ordered the red cloud holding on to the cosmos with a thread of its will “Pull yourself together youngling.”

Separated from the realities, Morgaise could feel his existence winking out. The Timekeeper did something unexpected. He strengthened Morgaise’s grip. He didn’t just do it with the power of order. He did it with chaos.

Morgaise now safe took form from his ethereal chaotic gaseous form to a humanoid shape.

“You. What?” Morgaise looked at the Timekeeper with questions.

The Timekeeper looked at him and smiled. Morgaise would have looked at him slackjawed if he had a jaw. The god was chaos masquerading as order.

“Chronos?” Morgaise asked.

“Yessss. That’s what they call me right now. They me Janus earlier. But none of those are my real name. But, you already know that our kind have many names. And I am old. I will always be old.”

“Why?” Morgaise asked hundreds of questions with that single word.

“Merlin will impose order boy. It is needed. Gods will fall. Discord will be pushed back. Camaraderie will flourish. Empires will rise. Sentients will look to the sky and give the cosmos meaning. Then his hold will crack. Discord will return and with it, chaos. I have seen this before and I will see it again. It is endless.”

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Chronos, Janus, let Morgaise go, and he quickly formed the rest of his body. One of a redheaded man with blue druidic patterns all over his body.

Janus continued “But you will die. Even if I let you live right now, you will die. So, I will give you a chance. Like I gave your brother a chance.”

“Modred?”

“Yes, but I hope, unlike him you will choose wisely.”

“What chance?”

“A change of scenery. You are not needed here. But grandmother could use you elsewhere.”

“Grand… Mother?”

“Light, boy. Light.” Chronos shook his head “Right. You call her Creation in this era. Or is it? I can’t keep up. I think in the next era I will make sure they keep it simple.” Chronos hollow eye looked at the edge of the cosmos.

“What are you talking about Chronos?”

“Do you want to be a little god playing on a table that does not need you anymore, or do you want to spread your wings and fly like the bird that you have just consumed? Decide.”

Morgaise licked his newly formed lips “Can I keep my people?”

“The hundred?”

“Erm. They are seventy eight actually.”

Chronos snorted “How have you remained alive? Seventy eight worshippers? This might be better for you than you think.” The hollow eyed god waved his hand dismissively “Very well, Morgaise. They will be protected by me until you call them to your side.”

“What about my avatar?” Morgaise asked.

“Your avatar is you. I am giving you the choice.”

“My priest?”

“Your best friend, you mean. Fine, you can take him with you.”

Morgasie looked at the hazy picture of the everchanging cosmos and asked “Is this going to hurt?”

“Oh yes. A lot.”

“Do…”

Before Morgaise could respond the ever serpent bit into him. The mythological creature even amongst the gods, looked at him with hollow laughing eyes. In that eternity long moment Morgaise realised that he hadn’t been talking to Chronos. He was talking to the avatar of the serpent.

The serpent hissed a laugh when it saw the realisation dawn in Morgaise and with a whoosh dragged him away, tethering all his ties to the cosmos. Morgaise screamed. Through his pain hazed eyes he looked the cosmos settle with order. The silvery web of gods slowed it movements.

Populous of worshippers across the realities. Temples, churches, forests, and fires blinked into existence. All providing more and more worship to the gods. But with it, innovation was culled, disruption was stopped, and hopes were dashed. All that remained was the dreariness of life. Sentients became nothing more than tools for the few. Endlessly working to enrich their betters. And send worship to the gods. Slowly, slowly, mortals awoke again. They began cursing the gods first in their hearts and then out loud. Even when they were chastised, they did not stop.

Crack.

Morgaise wanted to see more. Wanted to know how the cosmos. He wanted to revel at reality’s retaliation, but he was passed it all. And the sights he saw almost broke him and then they did unmake them. The ever serpent breathed him in and then out, remaking him in an instant. It was strange and something felt off to Morgaise but he couldn’t put his finger on it.

Morgaise thought he understood the cosmos. He was a chaos god. He looked at the cosmos in all its natural glory from what his kind called the heart of chaos. But what he saw next addled even his chaos strengthened mind. All he retained was flashes that burrowed into his being and changed him, fundamentally.

“You know it is amusing to see you struggle, so.” A female voice rose Morgaise.

“Kalyaki. What with the spicy heads?” A deep baritone voice shook Morgaise’s insides.

“Would you prefer the angry heads, Agni?”

“Why are you upset?” Agni soft groan shook the ground.

Kalyaki’s feminine hiss gained an edge as the first voice was joined by hundred others speaking in the same pitch and tone.

“Because you let those two, slip out of your grasp. You should have given them fire shards and kept an eye on them. Instead, they were captured and taken out of the battle.”

“There is still time, and although I was displeased at first, I approve of what that mortal has done.”

“He is not a mortal anymore. He is a ripple.”

“A kite floating in the wind.” Agni chuckled and Kalyaki joined him.

“We should just smite them all.”

“No Kalyaki, we don’t do that. We are not gods.” Agni chided.

“Speaking of gods. The little is awake.”

Morgaise did not know when he had come to a stop or how long it had been, but he slowly stood up and looked around. The cosmos. It was there. And he was tethered to it once again.

Morgaise took a step and the ground ripple with his step.

“Easy there young godling. The cosmos is new and hasn’t settled here.”

Morgaise eyes shot up at the voice, and then up some more, and more. Until his head touched his shoulders and he looked at a amorphous creature made oof pure white fire.

“We ask for a god, and he brings us this?” A disappointed female voice asked “I swear, I am going to slap that boy with my tail when I see him again.”

“Kalyaki.” The fire god, not god, chided a snake that dwarfed the everchanging cosmos with her millions of heads.

Morgaise took a step back because there was suddenly a seven armed man and a snake that looked down at him, in front of him.

“Better?” The fire not god asked.

“He doesn’t look like much.” Kalyaki observed

“He is young.” The seven armed god like entity nodded.

“Primordials.” Morgaise whispered to himself.

“Hmm…?” Agni asked “Oh, yes. You could call us that. We prefer yaksha.”

Morgaise cleared his throat “Forgiveness and salutations, gods amongst gods. Would you be so kind to tell me where I am.”

“We are not godsss.” Kalyaki hissed and continued “We are Yaksha. We are the formless bound by purpose. We would never tie ourselves to a human worship.”

“Indeed. We are above that.” Agni blinding white fire warmed to a golden glow and continued “Kalyaki, be patient. This young thing doesn’t know any better.”

“Fine!” Kalyaki hissed in irritation.

“To answer your question, godling, you are at the edge of the cosmos.” The fire yaksha replied with a smile in his voice “I am Agni. The first ever fire. Birthed by the great mother in the act of creation.”

Morgaise looked at the fire and licked his lips “Creation?”

The light in the Yaksha’s hand glowed and beam shot across the cosmos to hit its end where a vortex of light dug into a wall of nothingness.

“Holy creation.” Morgaise whispered in awe.

“No, she is called the great mother or the system here boy.” The fire yaksha stopped and looked at Morgaise and asked “You are a boy right?”

“Man.” Morgaise replied instantly.

Kalyaki snorted and the snorts or thousands of head reverberated across the cosmos.

Agni continued “The monicker Creation is not entirely correct. Sure, she creates but it depersonalises her. She also holds the universe together. She is everything after all. That is why she is also referred to as Aditi, Necessity, or more popularly, the light.”

“Do not use that name.” The snake woman hissed

“What, Aditi?”

“Yes.”

“Kalyaki.”

“Just because that is the sound the universe made doesn’t make that her name.”

“I am amongst other things a Yaksha of truth. And she acknowledges herself by that name. More importantly, she is my mother, Kalyaki. I will call her whatever I want.”

The warm tone of the seven-armed man was putting Morgaise at ease. The sharp hisses and teeth of the serpent which looked like it could pierce the cosmos on the other hand, raised his red hair on its ends.

“Never mind all that. God…” The snake grimaced and started again “Little god, we want you to do a few tasks for us.”

“Kalyaki, introduce yourself first.” Agni chided the millions of head again making her eyes glow like stars.

The snake closed its eyes in frustration and shot out its long tongue. It almost touched the ever-shifting cosmos. For a moment, between reality and the densest chaos Morgaise had ever seen, drops of spittle flew from the snakes togue creating vortexes in between timelines, tearing chunks until they transformed into glowing blobs of pure light leaving behind vortexes of instability. Then the tongue slithered back silently.

“I am Kalyaki. A Naga in form a yaksha in nature. I am the sixth incarnation of myself. I am the servant of the of the three. Set here to protect of the light. And I am the only one that stands between annihilation of all sentience and preservation.”

Agni looked at the mess that the snake had made and in a grateful tone said “Thank you, Kalyaki.”

“I didn’t do it for you. I was frustrated.” The snake hissed and turned to Morgaise assessing him.

Morgaise raised his head proudly “Greeting. I am Morgaise. Son of Morgana. Brother of Modred. And foe of Merlin. A god of chaos.”

The two beings looked at each other and then kalyaki slithered closer “Chaos?”

At the same time another head asked “Morgaise?”

A distant head asked “What is a Merlin?”

A closer one asked in disgust “Who put you on the path of godhood?”

Morgaise chose to answer the last one “What is wrong with being a god?”

“Gods fade young one.” Agni answered and then looked at Kalyaki “We need a god.”

Kalyaki swished her tail, and the morgaise shivered “We can have him do the tasks and then shift him to perpetuality.”

“Kalyaki, you can’t go adopting random gods?” Agni shook his head.

“Who says I can’t?” Kalyaki hissed back.

“Mother help us all.”