then it becomes, it becomes, it becomes a problem, then--

[monzun]

Monzun watches over their people. They teach their Creature. That was all they knew and all they really wanted initially, when they were freshly-created, and perhaps it ever would have been if another god's cruelty hadn't cut in.

Their goal had never been to be the only god. It was that, and then it had been surviving to oppose Nemesis, and now he was gone, and it seemed they were the only regardless.

("Eh, screw 'em! What've other gods been but trouble for us, huh?")

("Well...It is a bit lonely. And Khazar's actions are the only reason we're around today, isn't that right?")

The power of the Creeds trickle back alongside the power of the people. And then torrents, and a flood. The Miracles they use grow stronger beyond even Wonders' assistance.

Generations of their people live and proliferate and die, and Monzun's strength doesn't waver, but increases even as the populations settle lower than the war efforts and post-war burst their levels to being.

("Yeah! We're badass! Even if it could use a lil more fireballin' to make all this peace more exciting, Boss.")

 Their Creature and people are safe. They revel in being only gentle without consequence but worshippers' occasional disrespect, and they find they care little about that--unless they harm others in their village, and then Creature gentle scolding or abrupt relocation across the land tends to work nearly as well as lightning would have.

Their intervention is needed less even as they notice more. Little beacons where their people were, somewhere well beyond the seas, still worshipping where it once couldn't reach. 

And something else. A shard of something.

Another...another god? Near their people? The numbers waver, some converting to the other, fewer converting to Monzun, as reasonable without them there to demonstrate their power. 

They need to look. 

("Could be a fresh threat we need to squash.")

("Or they may be a new god in need of a Guide?")

A fragment of them even hopes...

...

...Nemesis' brutality means their consciences say nothing while their Teleports are slowly practiced until they look something closer to a Vortex the old gods used.

It's not quite as large. Redder. But far more than a simple Teleport.

The day comes where they reach across the Lands and place it where they sense their lingering people and that god.

("Let's go!")

("It's so exciting! But we don't need to rush quite yet--")

Monzun takes some time to look over their nearest people and discuss. Khazar brought them Disciples; they could bring some possibly willing to convert to another, although they seem confused by the conversation. Do any of theirs know Miracles? Oh? Yes? One of Sable's decedents picked up the Wood Miracle, they hadn't realized that was possible--

A part of them is distant, distant, distant.

Monzun reaches for their Creature and finds they stare down into the Vortex.

Ah. 

It seems their impatience was noticed and acted upon.





In another part of Eden, a Vortex opened on the side of a mountain that Monzun's old Temple still stands on. The air splits with a shocked bellow as a massive Leopard Creature steps onto nothing and tumbles down into the water.

Ouch.

Only a little ouch. It wasn't that far, but Sweetheart wasn't expecting it. She stands and shakes the water off a little--oooh, fish. Scoops up a handful of fresh fish to eat, and then turns around to claw up the mountain to peek over the edge.

There are a few people! Worshipping wrong, or maybe just frightened. That's okay. She's pretty different now. She doesn't mind when they take off running when they un-freeze.

...Most of the trees she grew are missing. She doesn't like that, she worked hard on those.

She climbs up all the way--oh, the Temple's smaller, or she's so big as to match?--and immediately gets to Miracle Watering the withered ones in the worship sites left.

Comments

[lethys]

"Her power grows with the Creeds." Merely an observation. The Creeds have changed much for this god and their Creature. "But she is still undisciplined."

This is a risky thing to say. But it's the truth as far as Lethys is concerned. In case Monzun is not pleased, he tempers the blow a little.

"There is no lasting harm from a Swarm of that nature. A Creature's body can recover from far worse."

If they look hard, Laetes' fur is a little mussed in some places, like it's been fluffed into directions that hide the thin patches. His fur sticks out at odd enough angles already that the signs are subtle. But Lethys speaks the truth again; no real damage was done. Whether Laetes' temperament is different to Ichor's or whether Lethys intervened is hard to discern.

Laetes, too, is sick of standing around. When Sweetheart suddenly moves to scratch her nose, he full-body flinches like he's expecting a claw to his face, but recovers fast.

The Heal sweeps through him and soothes the raw places under his fur. His temperament however remains unpleasant. A twitch of the edges of his lips indicates they desire to peel back and show his teeth, but he obediently withholds the response.

Lethys is quiet. This is awkward - no way for a god to feel! What does Monzun expect from them? What does the Creature expect? Either way, Laetes needs something constructive to do or his patience will wear thin.

Suddenly, Lethys calls:

"Laetes. Return the gesture." The sound of fingers snapping seems to call Laetes immediately to attention.

With a wildly focused look, Laetes steps back, traces the same pattern in reverse, and casts a far less impressive Heal.

[monzun]

"She was long prior to the Creeds!" Monzun objects. "...I've allowed her to run freely since gaining them, however," they admit. It had been no trouble without other territory to be concerned about.

The return action is, admittedly, quite unexpected.

Sweetheart's eyes flick up to Lethys, eyes widening and jaw twitching side-to-side. What's he doing? "Leeeethys-god," she says. He is not a Creature. Her head rolls to look to Monzun, but they do nothing.

They did tell him to do as he wanted. A part of them does want to tell him to stop--but they cut the urge. This may be an opportunity to study Lethys as much as the Creatures.

Sweetheart looks back at Laetes for a while and rubs her chin.

She can make this work.

Another Gesture. Miracle Water, this time, though she keeps from tweaking his tail, instead shifting the cloud to hover over the ocean.

[lethys]

"This is noticeable," Lethys informs them.

Laetes snort-yips in response to Sweetheart's little speech, perhaps voicing distaste for another Creature showing off, or maybe just reacting to Lethys' name.

"Laetes," Lethys prompts, again.

Laetes focuses. Water. He can do that, too.

With raised arms, the Wolf calls a much-smaller cloud over... He stalls, and casts about for something to water. Finding nothing, and shooting a meaningful glance at his god, Laetes casts over the open grass instead. At least it's something.

"Do you have any insight into this?" Lethys asks Monzun. He can't really see the point of this yet. Laetes certainly can't. But they are adhering.

[monzun]

Monzun wobbles back-and-forth. It seems a scoff, but it is the truth. They'll need to be a little more careful from now on. It should be easier now that communication is better.

The sun beginning to lighten the world behind her, Sweetheart leans in, settling one front paw on the ground and eyeing his. A smaller Water, a smaller Heal. She remembers--oh, she remembers he has the reserves for Gestures of Lightning and Fire. If he cannot do this, it's only because he doesn't know how.

Slower, she traces one claw higher, nearer his face. Another Gesture, another large Heal.

"...I have an idea," they say slowly. "but allow more time for us to observe. Also, Lethys, I have been wanting to ask for a long time--do you know anything of curses on people?" Monzun shifts the subject abruptly.

Back and forth Sweetheart will keep on this--until one of them breaks, or hungers, or he learns.

[lethys]

Laetes makes a snarl-adjacent grumbly noise and steps away, eyeing her distastefully. She is too close and too much and Laetes is not supposed to fight her, so he doesn't. But he isn't beholden to this game unless Lethys says he is.

Laetes stalks away, sideways, leering unhappily at her and clearly hoping he'll simply be allowed to leave. Perhaps normally he would be.

Monzun has asked for more time. Lethys considers it carefully, and then to Laetes' immense displeasure, a Leash whisks into existence and snaps to Sweetheart, the ethereal rope binding him to her with only about a forest's worth of leeway.

Laetes gives an angry little growly whine and rolls his eyes.

Lethys fixes back on Monzun. What are they planning?

"...There are a hundred ways to curse a man," he says cagily. "Why?"

[monzun]

A low growl starts in the back of Sweetheart's throat. The Leash! His Leash, she doesn't want his Leash attached to her, even if it isn't to start a fight!

She doesn't care either about the Gods' suggested rules. If Laetes fled, she would rather just chase him--the earth groans as she settles back onto her haunches, since she'd been moving to do so already.

She follows with another Healing Gesture, but her aim is crooked, eyes fixed on the Leash rather than Laetes while she heavily considers snapping it.

Attention splitting, Monzun drifts very slightly higher. "There is a...strange man on this Land who has been here since my arrival, still living even now. The most immortal human I've ever come across." It's possible to survive ages beyond what's natural, some through a god's tending, some through other spiritual means, but this one... "Impervious to everything. I would have thought he was blessed, perhaps. He nevertheless lives far from all others of his kind and uses his time only to throw insults to all who come across him. He has faith in nothing, but seemingly with me at the same time. I simply don't understand it."

[lethys]

"I have seen this man," agrees Lethys, and there is a heavy implication in his tone that there ought to be an unfortunately in there somewhere. "He will not drown nor age, and as far as I have seen he persists through spite alone." A pause. "Endless reserves of it."

Laetes is fed up. He is stuck to Sweetheart like her Holy Swarm was stuck to him, and Lethys (and perhaps everyone else here) expects something from him.

He knows what Sweetheart wants - it's whether or not he's supposed to do it... So far, any clear explanation or command has failed to turn up, even from his master. But he has been watching closely.

Laetes finally acquiesces, with an irritable little snarl. He slowly, deliberately carves the gestures into the air, and a shimmering aura of healing power fountains around him.

(Around him. But the edge catches Sweetheart, forced into close proximity as they are.)

"Whether blessing or curse, he plagues my hearing. You hold his land. You may keep him," he tells Monzun, in what might be the first, tiniest trickle of (admittedly unfriendly-sounding) humour they've heard from him.

"Good," he declares a moment later, seeing Laetes' cast, and Laetes turns baleful eyes up at him.

[monzun]

"Drown!" Monzun sounds delighted, if only because yes, they've tried similar and failed. As well as this contradicting an idea they were going to sidle up to asking--that he was someone Lethys had cursed to try to catch them off guard in some way. They'd believed such when they came to this Land, but the longer they lingered, the less they thought, as he wasn't significantly effective as threat nor distraction.

He could be deceiving them, but what would the point be? And, in truth, they care little if that's the case. They'll learn later. They're learning more interesting things now.

"You know more than I, and so spite must be it. I will keep him...though I could solve his curse on us by placing him on your altar?" they say with blatantly false innocence, as they know that won't work either. (It took some time to get in the habit of avoiding his campsite.)

Forgetting the Leash, Sweetheart is delighted as well! Good, says his god, and "Good!" repeats Sweetheart, rising to stand fully and partly bracing herself as she reaches to pat the other Creature on the head. "Good Laetes, good job Laetes, good, good job," she says, echoing Monzun's old encouragements.

[lethys]

"You will do no such thing," Lethys snaps, easily wound up by the taunt. It seems to occur to him this may have been a joke only a second after his outburst, and he falls quiet. "...Also ineffective," he reasons, feeling slightly sheepish.

Once more Lethys almost seems to flinch at the sound of Sweetheart's voice. In these early stages where her words are few, it is easy to forget that she can speak at all.

"Laetes," he warns, as Laetes' lips pull back and he snap-yips at Sweetheart's paw.

Laetes shakes himself instead. He does not want to be touched by the enemy!

...Enemy, turned ally? Where do they stand, now? Laetes is confused and a little angry about it. He retreats backwards to the end of the Leash-length.

Lethys offers no further input for him. After a moment his symbol tilts vaguely in Monzun's direction and he offers some reserved opinion.

"Your Creature is attempting to play tutor."

[monzun]

"It would do nothing," they concede, and add with steadily-increasing amusement: "You'd tried that as well?" Monzun considered after the fact that they had overreacted, but it seems as if not--or perhaps they both had.

Sweetheart flinches back, but he doesn't get her this time! She puts her paws together into a couple pleased claps, though drops the litany of goods, because biting at her is not! It's quite not good. Bad, in fact.

But now she's feeling the effects of so many Miracles in a row.

"It appears that way! I was wondering. I didn't know Creatures could--of course they can," Monzun cuts off their own words off. The Guide did, after all.

Sweetheart's head swings around the area, looking at mostly grass and barren stone. Any animals are far too small. Monzun is made aware of her hunger just before she peers back at Laetes, suggesting to him, not either god, "Food?" and points vaguely towards where the plains lay.

"Oh...?" Monzun shifts to hover over the mountain that way.

[lethys]

Lethys ignores Sweetheart, since she seems to be so focused on his own Creature. But he does offer Laetes one command: "Do not stray far."

Laetes huffs in response. He'll stray where Sweetheart strays, obviously. He doesn't have a choice.

With a grumble, the wolf approaches Sweetheart and stops just short. Look, he's following. And he is quite good at this part. He raises his wet nose to the air and sniffs, then points in the same direction: yes, there is food that way, if that's what she's after. (Another growl, this time from his stomach. Laetes' ears flatten back irritably at Sweetheart's convenient timing.)

Lethys hesitates. He has cultivated the godly art of never revealing information - secret or not - to other gods. It's gotten him the upper hand a few times before (unfair is fair, when it comes to the Void). What use are secrets now, though?

He can still be cautious.

"How much do you know of Creatures?" he asks, in an offhand sort of way, as though he's simply curious now that they're on the subject.

[monzun]

Sweetheart rumbles a pleased purr. Good! Now they can eat and try different games...

Monzun ponders the question seriously. They feel they know much, but isn't certain if that's true. They'd rather not flaunt ignorance.

They're aware they do not, however, know everything, and not all discovery is easy or comfortable. Discussion of a subject they are overall fond of rather than having to learn through desperation is highly preferred.

"I know much about Creatures individually, as how to train them, and of capabilities that even I--that we Gods lack, such as casting Miracles we cannot hold across Lands. I know many smaller things, as their inability to eat grain we have not blessed with our touch, and that they can grow significantly larger than even my own."

Sweetheart has crept to the top of the nearby mountain range, peering towards the plains that very much do not belong to them.

"I know they can be very headstrong and mischievous. That is Lethys' land. You're supposed to stay away from there," Monzun hangs over her head to address her now.

The Leopard's ears swivel. Maybe so, but, but! She sticks one arm above the worn stone peak. "Getting food."

"There is other food."

"Getting THAT."

"I will bring you a cow. Cows."

Sweetheart's ears flatten down. "Nooooo..." There's nothing wrong with cows, but she wants to get the horses. She just can't remember the word to explain it.

[lethys]

Lethys is pleased that Monzun would refer to his land as his, and even insists it out of bounds to their Creature (at least to his face). Pleased, or perhaps a little more assured. Their strength still hangs heavy in his mind, but despite his apprehension this meeting has thus far been... not terrifying, or even wholly unpleasant.

He is not quite amicable enough to go fetching gifts for the Leopard personally, even if he privately suspects what she might be after. But it appears he has some room to probe Monzun a bit further.

"Headstrong and cunning," he adds. "Yours strays often. As does mine. A god is always more powerful, but a Creature is never fully obedient..." He stops himself there. That was something he would not have said to Nemesis, perhaps.

"I will not punish your Creature for straying into my land," he decides, after some thought. "But whatever trouble arises beyond myself is not my nor my Creature's concern."

Laetes eyes Sweetheart beadily. He is clearly doing some thinking of his own, though currently he doesn't act on it. He just stands there, waiting.

"...What is it you linger here for?" he asks Monzun, and this time it doesn't sound so much like a shrill demand. "Did you tire of the Land you took from him?"

[monzun]

"...Very well?" Monzun is startled, and in no little way concerned. They had meant this all to be neutral. Had they been threatening in some manner, an accidental demand for their Creature to do as she pleased? "Nothing will happen this time," they say seriously, hanging high above Sweetheart's head.

She tips on her toes, brow furrowing. Monzun elaborates to her: "Go on. But if you cause trouble--!" they snap another Leash for a moment, catching her off guard "--only Laetes will get...whatever you are looking for, and I will feed you grain for your next several meals." Perhaps this will cut any problems off early, rather than after.

The Leopard makes a noise of excitement cut off with her tongue stuck out. Ew! No trouble. None planned. She waves an acknowledging (and dismissive) paw before continuing her creep onwards, as though the horses will notice her or Laetes so many miles away.

A flicker of annoyance is quashed. He is asking again--but not quite the same.

"That is not...exactly the case," they respond slowly. "That Land does not need my presence now. I believed this one did."

Monzun goes quiet for a time, following their Creature. Why are they still here? They don't need to be. Lethys is alive, and does not require their guidance. Other Lands likely could use their tending.

The Land they took from Nemesis needed them for so long because of what he did to it. Other Lands need such for his wars, direct or proxy. Lethys fears them because of what Nemesis did.

(Khazar is dead.)

(The Guide is dead.)

(The sky above is awash with the sun's rays, but Monzun is aware of the stars and blackness beyond.)

"I wish to reverse the damage caused," they say finally.

[lethys]

Well, it wasn't exactly an invitation. But it seems to have gone down fairly well with Monzun. And they're taking it more seriously than he expected, which may be a positive.

"Laetes," he addresses the Wolf, who perks up, "watch her."

Laetes grumbles an affirmative, and turns to stalk grumpily after Sweetheart. And then past her, although he has to break into a trot to match her much bigger stride. When headed into Lethys' territory, he will lead. He's still not convinced he isn't supposed to fight her, but so far it doesn't seem to be so.

Lethys watches them leave, lost in thought about Creatures and their strangeness. No gods he met claimed to understand Creatures fully. He certainly does not. Laetes himself is, sometimes, especially perplexing.

Monzun's words bring him back to the present. Though he doesn't move, Monzun might feel his attention fixed on them once more.

"What damage?"

This is not posed because he can't fathom there being any - he knows there was plenty. The question is a much more open one.

[monzun]

Sweetheart lets him lead, slinking along until nearly fully on all fours, playing leopard rather than Leopard.

"Everything that Nemesis caused, I suppose. That which I am capable of fixing." They loosely Gesture, but form nothing. "He caused war over many Lands I crossed, where despite myself I destroyed much and witnessed more." This answer is honest enough, though a piece of them hums a note of doubt.

[lethys]

"Giving morals to our godly actions is the job of mortals." He's almost dismissive. "Destruction is inevitable - by your Hand or mine."

Unlike Monzun, Lethys seems sure of this. At least, there's not a moment's hesitation in saying it, which may not be the same thing.

[monzun]

"This is true." Monzun's own people begged mercy for crimes they care nothing about recently, just for their burning of fields it took immense labor for farmers to reach. "However, the scale of mess seems beyond us without such outside prompting. Myself, at least. I cannot speak for your everyday use of Lightning," they say dryly.

They wouldn't have allowed a bordering forest to burn down with their own clumsy use of it if they weren't at enraged war with another god, and personally doubt he would have tormented so many villages with it for the same reason.

[lethys]

Annoyingly, Lethys' response does not clear that up much.

"You may continue speaking for yourself," he states coldly.

They may needle all they like. Lightning is effective, and gets results fast. His decisions on where and how to use it are...

He has his reasons.

"I rebuild what I destroy, when I can. I am nothing without belief - the same as you. My worshippers will respect me or fear me. Either way they feel my presence. So long as I escape the Void, it is all the same. Do you feel otherwise?"

[monzun]

Hmm.

"It appears I do," Monzun says thoughtfully.

It scratches at them, but far more mildly than having him meteor across their territory and fling anxious accusations. Assuming he does not bluff, and truly uses Lightning carelessly.

They never enjoyed destruction-- (Ahahahaha keep tellin' yourself that boss!) --overmuch destruction, but their priority was protecting what they had left, their people, their home, not...them. Monzun had not even genuinely realized there was a risk to them until Khazar was gone.

"...Lethys, to clarify something. When you say 'the Void', do you mean where...where...where I..."

How do they even begin to make words for the space where they came from?

"...before the first prayer?" they finish roughly.

[lethys]

Sharply:

"What else?"

He continues in an adamant tone, like they ought to know...

"The Void. Beyond the Veil, the long, dark sleep of the gods - you may call it whatever thing you please!"

...But maybe they don't.

He relents a little. And paints, quickly - in glimmering reams of blue, directly against the cliff face: little figures, people, arms raised.

"Before the first prayer --"

A light above them, like the sun.

Then a vertical line, to separate all this from whatever sits beyond it. Another light. Dimmer. The ripple of Gesture lines slowly settles the spiky glow-outline into something much duller, until it's a meaningless circle.

"--and after the last."

The Gesture resembles something little more delicate than cave paintings, but he is in an exasperated hurry. Apparently he is capable of a touch finer detail than they're used to.

It fades the same as ever, a little while after he finishes.

He waits, looking for any sign of recognition or understanding from Monzun. Surely?

[monzun]

Monzun slides away from the stalking Sweetheart to more closely observe Lethys' motion, enraptured. They do not know the details, nor did they realize a god could make...this. A story, almost, in Gesture.

"I suspected that is what you meant. Khazar did not have time to teach me such things before he was killed--returned there," they answer quietly.

Their Hand hovers over the cliff, long after the blue light has vanished.

"Is it the same for Creatures? When they are gone?" Monzun asks, a strained note to their words.

[lethys]

"That is your concern?" he asks in disbelief.

But it is not so surprising that Monzun might wonder. Certainly gods can become quite attached to their Creatures. It is not as if Lethys himself has never wondered even once, when it comes to Laetes...

"I cannot answer that question. I have never lost a Creature, nor known any god who..." ...outlived theirs.

And a few things are now becoming clear that Lethys overlooked.

Khazar didn't have time to teach them, no, but surely someone must have told them, or let slip...

"From where did you hail," he begins carefully, "before you came to my-- the realm in which we battled?"

Further ahead of the drifting gods, Laetes is trotting faithfully in front, pleased to at last have a clear task. He is to mind Sweetheart, and to keep her from trouble, he has decided that he will do the directing of where and what to eat. As the plains open out in front of them, Laetes is heedless of the gigantic Leopard's attempts to be a stealthy hunter. He merely beelines for one of the herds the villagers keep.

(Hearing the pounding of paws, a nearby shepherd braces herself for a day of rounding up scattered horses.)

[monzun]

Sweetheart is letting Laetes go ahead, but she takes a moment to stand and speed up until she's nearly at his side again. "Laetes!" she hisses excitedly, in word and between fangs. She dips down again. "...Chase it!"

"It is. We have many differing priorities," Monzun says flatly.

An odd question he gives in response, and reluctant to answer, but--had they not asked him the same back on their very first meeting? It is their home. They are still lingering in his home. Or had to chase him from his, although they cannot regret it properly.

"A far warmer Land--you know of it," they interrupt themselves. "You opened a Vortex there from here, to find the Creed that yet rested in a different Creature's bones."

Their tone re-warms, albeit briefly. "That was a Creature we found when we were very young...The Guide, we called him. He taught us much! Of Miracles and what Creatures can do and other such secrets of godliness. Before, of course," they Gesture again, the lines of a five-pointed shape they dissipate before it could potentially become something, "Nemesis killed him."

[lethys]

Laetes makes a disgruntled noise and glances over his shoulder at her, lip curled. Chase? It is bad enough she made him spend effort on Healing for no apparent reason! What is the point in wasting his energy?

A smarter Wolf might suspect this was her plan all along, in some sinister game to catch him exhausted. Luckily, Laetes has not been taught to question things all that much. He just points and makes a toothy face at her. He is getting one. Don't rush him!

...He breaks into a slow trot. He is not running. He is wandering into a larder and taking things.

The horses begin to scatter, though with the stride of a Creature - even one smaller than Sweetheart - it doesn't look like they'll get far. This is not exactly how "real" wolves hunt...

"You are from there?" clarifies Lethys. "You travelled no other Lands before that one?"

He had begun to suspect. And wiping out Monzun - if he'd managed - would have been no different to any other young god he or Nemesis may have conquered.

And yet. If he had managed... Gods do not feel the cold as men do, but a chill touches Lethys nonetheless. His symbol jerks oddly to the side, like a flinch, as they begin to trace a star. It is enough to change his train of thought before it holds fast, which may be a good thing.

"I know of that Creature," he says. "I do not know if he was Nemesis' first. But he was old." A very slight pause. "Wise," he admits, too. "Much knowledge will have followed him to the grave."