A Summoning, Part XXXIV

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Part XXXIV
~Emperor~

"I haven't actually been here in a while..." Zotha placed a hand on a concrete pillar, running it down the side. For their 'neutral ground', she had chosen the place where Jess (and the rest of the 'cult') had originally tied her up and tried to sacrifice her—the place where she had first ascended. It seemed like a sufficiently private space to be easy to keep a secret and guard from intrusion; it was nice and close to her 'realm' without technically being inside of it; the constructions built for the ritual were a decent enough landmark; and...ultimately, Sol had agreed with using it.
"Feeling uh...nostalgic?" Jess asked uncertainly.
"I don't know. Is it nostalgia if it's tinged with disgust?"

"...Sorry. Even if the results were..good for everyone, the whole thing was still..."

"I've already forgiven you," the goddess said. "This architecture, though...maybe I'll ask Thomas to come earthbend it into dust for me later."

"It's yours to do with as you please, Master."

"Ah!" Stella's voice came from above them, and then she swooped down, making a quick, tight circle on her way to a landing. "Here it is. My apologies if I am late."
"No no, we're just early," Zotha said. "Hate to keep the..what, king of the gods? Waiting."

"Oh, no, Sol's no king," Stella said, shaking her head. "The gods are more like a representative democracy, except that the constituents can't elect a new representative. Errm...at least, not most of the time?"

"I'm well aware of being an exception," she nodded. "So...what do we need to do?"

"Oh, ah. You need not do anything. Just...allow me some space, and a moment of time."

Stella walked over to an empty part of the clearing, holding her hand out and softly clearing her throat. "I..hereby request a gate to my creator's realm, as previously agreed upon by both parties." A thin vertical line of bright light appeared a foot or so in front of where her hand was, then seemed to tear itself open into an oval shape, emanating an orange, firelike effect and an aura of power out from itself as it slowly widened to the point where any person could step through. In fact, two people did step through from the other side: A tall woman and man, both evidently celestials, fully kitted out in some very modern tactical armor but with no obvious weapons on their person.

The woman nodded to Stella. "Good work. We can take over from here, unless you wish to stay?"
"I...would prefer to remain," she said somewhat hesitantly, "to see the job through?"
"That is acceptable." She turned her attention toward the other two. "Lady Zotha, please step through. Your..priestess, Jess, is permitted also, if desired. We will keep the portal open and the area clear for you."

"Very well," Zotha nodded. "We'll both head in, thanks."

The three celestials stood aside to let them in, Stella falling in with the two evidently more experienced guards like it was second nature. They formed a kind of 'human hallway', an evidently respectful posture that seemed to recognize those passing them as being of higher rank.

Zotha took a deep breath before stepping in, Jess coming quickly behind her. They both encountered a brief flash of golden light before stepping out into a small hallway, close to one end of it. The hallway seemed fairly plain and stark, white walls made of some sort of plastic with a few boxes and panels sticking out, some wiring running in and out of those. The end they were facing had what looked to be a big iris door, currently closed. Looking behind, there were some more ordinary doors lining either side, and another iris door on the opposite end.

The pressure of another god's power was something which both of them had experienced before, during their audiences with the Ruler of Foxes. However, that power seemed insignificant in comparison to what could be felt now. It might have been overwhelming, forcing both of them to their knees, if they hadn't already gotten somewhat used to a feeling like it (though much smaller) through those visits. As it was, Zotha took a slow, deep breath. I guess this is what 'normal' people who're magic-sensitive feel around me when I'm not actively trying to hide it.

We could still leave, Jess pointed out; an oval of light matching the one they had come through was flush with the wall next to them, evidently the other side of the same gate.

Don't be silly, we haven't even seen him yet. Aren't you at least curious what the 'sun god' really looks like?

In absence of any further direction, it seemed most logical to try the door at the near end of the hallway, so Zotha started in that direction. You know, I can sort of feel...the physics here are being messed with somehow. You notice that?
Jess nodded mentally. I'm not sure how to describe it myself. That 'pressure' feels a little bit like...it's being directed downwards? Yet I don't feel like I'm being crushed toward the floor or anything.

When they approached, the iris door opened into something in between a throne room and the kind of office a corporation's CEO might be expected to have. From the former, there was a walk-up of gold-colored carpet running across a few short steps upward, and also some more armored guards like the ones who had greeted the two of them back in the forest. Actually, a few of those guards weren't even celestials: Also in attendance were what appeared to be a normal human, a werewolf, a Kitsune, and a non-werewolf with wolf-like features whose 'magic signature' Zotha didn't quite recognize. Rather than a throne, however, all of this pageantry ended at a tall, wide wooden desk with several monitors on it all with their backs to the front door the two had entered through. The walls were of neither realm; they were fairly similar to those of the hallway before, except that those on the sides and back were interrupted periodically by strange little windows, rounded rectangles in shape. They reminded Zotha of the windows in an airplane, maybe, and she couldn't make out anything on the other side of them but blackness.

Obviously, the main attraction here was the person sitting behind the desk—or rather, from the moment Zotha stepped through the open door with Jess in tow—standing behind it. There was no need to question this person's identity; the immense pressure of power they had felt was obviously coming from him, along with an independent sensation of light and heat besides. He cut an impressive figure: He was fit, broad-shouldered, had to be at least seven feet tall, with short, well-kept white hair, bright red eyes, bronze skin. He was wearing a suit and tie that matched the 'CEO' style of the desk he was behind, and some giant gold-feathered wings were neatly folded behind his back. His entire body had a sort of halo, or aura, of light that somehow managed to both seem exceedingly bright, yet not blinding or painful to look at—as if someone had taken all of the pleasant attributes of direct sunlight and divorced them from the unpleasant ones. Faced with this paradox, the most logical conclusion to draw was that this halo of light was not really physically present, or at least it wasn't "light" per se at all—anyway, that was Zotha's guess.

"Zotha. Glad to see you could make it," he said in a somewhat casual tone of voice. It was hard to stifle the impression of a businessman greeting an equal or near-equal at the golf course when the two had only very informally agreed to 'try' to meet there.
"Sol, I presume?" He nodded. "In that case, I guess it's nice to meet you—in a, relatively friendly context."

"Likewise," he nodded, not really acknowledging the qualification. "I'm pleased to see you brought Jess with you; I'll take it as a token of trust. Please...take a seat?"

He gestured at the empty space in front of the big desk, as if there were chairs there. Suddenly there were chairs there: Two tall, somewhat ornate chairs with red velvet cushions, both turned precisely to face Sol's position. The chair Sol had just been sitting in—and which he settled back into after this gesture—was a rolling office chair, more practical and less comfortable-looking than the ones he'd just summoned. Zotha mentally shrugged to Jess, making the journey up a few short steps to the chair on the left and watching her priestess briefly examine the one on the right before doing the same.

"There is much I would like to discuss with you, but what should come first is my thanks." As Sol spoke, the monitors in front of him slowly moved aside like so many curtains, stacking themselves into two neat rows on the sides of the desk to give the parties on either side of it a clear view of the other. "Really, my gratitude cannot be overstated for saving the life of one of my people."
"I can't really take all of the credit," Zotha said. "Thomas is the one who actually rescued him."

"True enough. I'd appreciate if you'd pass my gratitude along to her as well—although it is worth mention that she'd be in no position to have helped without your actions, too."

"Is there a good reason why she was in enough danger to need saving in the first place?"

Jess sort of mentally panicked at her about issuing a challenge like this, but Zotha held her ground, maintaining a calm demeanor. Neither Sol nor any of the guards around physically reacted to the question. Instead he answered calmly and patiently: "Stella was created with instructions to 'determine the source of' a rash of lesser demon attacks in a particular area, and to 'see the end of them'. She was not told to confront that source alone. Since the source was unknown, there was no way to be certain what it was. A stray portal left somewhere would have been easy for him to close by himself; a human summoning demons accidentally or otherwise in error could have been helped or persuaded to stop. There were well-trained, experienced warriors on standby in case the source was something dangerous and hostile, as turned out to be the case, but he chose to confront that demon himself rather than calling for backup."

"So..you're saying Stella was in mortal danger because he made a mistake."

"It can only be called a mistake in hindsight, and not necessarily an unjustifiable one," Sol shrugged. "Even then, that ignores the fact that she found help in the end anyway. I apologize if providing that help inconvenienced you."

"Saving someone's life isn't an inconvenience," Zotha said, bristling slightly at the suggestion. "If you had people on standby..they didn't notice he was fighting that thing and losing before Thomas did?"
"They did. But he had already chosen to confront it alone, and it was necessary to respect that choice and allow him, or others, to learn from it," Sol said. "We couldn't intervene once he was facing the consequences of that decision."
"But Thomas and I were allowed to intervene?"

"You didn't create him," he said mildly. "I can't be seen to exercise favoritism toward 'my people', and I don't have the resources to protect every person who makes a potentially deadly decision from its consequences. But, I can still be grateful to anyone who does so of their own free will. So, again: Thank you, Zotha."

He's not at all like I expected, Jess commented. Indeed, the contrast between the sheer power coming off of Sol and the mild, careful, almost kind way he talked was striking.

Speak softly, and carry a big stick, Zotha mused back. She still wasn't sure she agreed with him, but the way he thanked her sounded earnest and felt very genuine. He, at least, believed very strongly in every word he was saying.

"Well..you're welcome. I'd do it again if I have the opportunity," she said.
"You are most kind," Sol replied. "Now..."

The sun god leaned back slightly in his chair, his eyes scanning around the room. "If you feel we are sufficiently acquainted, I would prefer to have the rest of our conversation here in private. I will dismiss my..other company, if you are comfortable being alone with me. Oh, but of course miss Jess can stay, since you two can share your thoughts at any distance anyway."

"I have no problem with that," Zotha said. Truth be told, even though Sol was obviously the only real 'threat' to her here, the presence of numerous slightly tense guards (or whatever they were) was the main hindrance to her feeling at ease.

Sol nodded. "Please, leave us alone for a while," he said. "I'll call you when we're through." The various people attending him nodded or saluted, and then all filed out of the door, its iris shutting behind them.

He leaned back a little more, exhaling what sounded like a small sigh of relief. "All right. Now we can really talk," he said. "Before I begin, I should say this: We have absolute privacy here; my power is sufficient that nobody of our world is capable of viewing our conversation in this place. That is why I really invited you; I mean to converse about a number of topics, some of which cannot leave this room. I hope I can trust you both to keep confidence in these matters, but to further encourage you, you should know that even if you divulge something I'd rather you didn't out in public, I will deny it, and my word is exceedingly likely to be taken over yours."

"Uh..okay?" Zotha wasn't really sure how to take the half-threat. She decided to ask about something else: "When you say 'of our world'..?"

"There are many universes, Zotha, and a multitude of immensely powerful beings reside both within and between them. Some prying eyes are completely impossible to turn away, but suffice to say that nobody able to watch our conversation is both interested in interfering with our world and capable of doing so. I suppose I should start in on that topic, actually; it isn't among the secret matters I mentioned before.

"One of the roles of us gods, as powerful beings residing in this universe, is to protect our world from extrauniversal threats. That sounds like a lot more work than it really is; the mere existence and presentation of our power is sufficient to deter the grand majority of them. If you stick around long enough to reach a certain level of power, you can expect to be asked to contribute some of that power toward this effort. Since it keeps our world safe, I doubt you have any real objections?"
"I'd probably need to know the details of how I 'contribute' to even think of any," Zotha said. "On the face of it, it sounds fine with me, though."

"Fair enough," Sol nodded. "There are also some extrauniversal beings—not threats—which our world has contact with.

"Let me tell you of the Fae. They are each exceedingly powerful, but are also collectively bound by certain rules and restrictions. This binding is absolute, not something that any of them can willingly violate. Our world has an agreement with them—a fully binding contract—which is too long for me to read to you in a year, and far too complicated to explain in a couple of decades; I have brokered it with them since the first days of humanity. The gist of it is that they won't sow too much chaos in our world, and they will not meddle in the affairs of its gods. If you ever encounter a Fae who you feel is interfering with you, your efforts, people you care about particularly, etcetra—do not confront that being yourself. Let me know immediately what is happening so that I can investigate and either inform you that the Fae is acting within its rights, or inform the Fae of the violation so that it will leave you alone."

"Uh, okay..got it," Zotha nodded. "It doesn't matter to this contract that I'm 'new'?"

Sol shook his head. "The contract has quite a lot of future-proofing built in. Can't have the Fae replacing the current gods with new ones just so they can use our world as a playground. Anyway, other visitors we generally deal with on an individual basis, and we have at least a cordial relationship with all of those we allow to make repeat visits. I'll introduce you to any of note if the opportunity arises."

"Sure. It's uh..I have to admit it's a little surreal for you to just casually announce that we're part of a big wide multiverse," Zotha said.
Sol nodded. "It's not something most mortals are aware of, but it isn't exactly a complete secret, either. Anyone who's had sufficient interaction with a Fae or certain other individuals would be well aware, but maybe disinclined to discuss it with others. Don't get me wrong; we keep such visitors quite rare and ask most to keep their origin a secret in order to prevent our world from becoming too chaotic."

"Now let's see.." Sol sat up slightly, appearing to consult a mental notepad. "Another matter I should discuss is the veil. You are familiar with it?"
"That's what people call the thing that makes humans unaware of magic, right?" He nodded.
"The veil is not an accident, as I believe you are somewhat aware. It is an institution we gods agreed to create and maintain, and still do to this day. I am one of its architects, along with Bastet and Ouroboros. Actually...are you familiar with those two?"

"I can't say I've heard of either of them. Fox wouldn't tell me about any other gods besides La Lune, and it's only you that I've heard of since," she said.

"Ah. In that case, I should tell you about everyone first.

"Bastet is the goddess of cats, fertility, mystery, and dreams. She takes the form of a large feline, or sometimes a humanoid version of the same, and is..your most vehement opponent, I would say. The important thing to understand about Bastet is that much of her anger and hostility is performative; she prefers to be seen as unpleasant and aloof so that others will leave her alone. She essentially wants the world to be stable so that she has minimal work to do and can go back to sleep. You shouldn't take that to mean that she doesn't care for the state of the world, or mortals; if she didn't, she would sleep when the world was in trouble instead of viewing it as her job to do something about it. She owes La Lune some great debt which neither of them will tell even me the details of—or at least claims to, perhaps as an excuse to work with her while still keeping her at arm's length."

"So, she's the fertility goddess, but..not also the goddess of love?" Zotha asked.

"No," he said, "That's someone else...I'll tell you about him in a moment. Bastet's domains make her nature somewhat chaotic, which frustrates her immensely. She..produces 'children' involuntarily from time to time: Cat spirits, with varying levels of sapience and magical power. Other kinds of animal spirits exist but are quite rare; Bastet's contribution makes cat spirits relatively common by comparison. Any animal spirit can...'merge' with a human if both parties are willing, either temporarily or permanently becoming a single being. The children and descendants of cat spirits merged with humans are the race known as the 'Neko'; their nature is consistent across all known instances, and fundamentally differs from the 'merged' persons they descend from. So they are viewed as 'her race' or 'her children', although she does not really willingly claim them."

Jess tilted her head slightly. "Um..when you say she 'produces' them..."
"I could say 'creates', similar to my creation of celestials," he said, "but that would suggest that she does it on purpose. They simply appear, as if from her dreams themselves, onto scattered points in the world. And while I call them her 'children', they are no more biologically related to each other than any two unrelated mundane cats."

"So, anyway," Zotha said, quickly changing the subject, "Bastet doesn't like me because I'm also 'chaotic', right? My behavior changes things up and keeps her from her naps?"

"More or less," he nodded.

"Second, Ouroboros is a dragon who ascended to godhood. He is the only dragon we will ever allow to do so, as the results were exceedingly troublesome. His domains include stability, cycles, weather, time, and—as he is a dragon—greed. He is asleep this century, but Bastet informed him of the situation..that is, of your ascension, and he immediately joined her on the side which is against you."

"He's asleep 'this century'?" Jess repeated, and Sol nodded.

"He sleeps for precisely a century, and then remains awake for the entirety of the next. It's been this way for millennia."
"Did you..hear him say he was against me himself? While he was asleep?" Zotha asked.
"No, but I know what you mean. Bastet's word can be trusted when it comes to communication with Ouroboros. The real problem is that, whether she intended to or not, she passed her own opinion of you into his dream. It isn't really possible to give someone an unbiased description of the facts inside of a dream; whatever you say will always be colored by your own impression of things. So, even if she hadn't wanted to, she couldn't help but poison his impression of you with her own thoughts. If you want to keep Ouroboros from attacking you first thing upon waking up, you will have to convince Bastet to help you meet him yourself before then. But...there's no rush, you've still got around two thirds of a century left in which to do it."

"Apart from those two, you are already aware of myself and La Lune, and the fox."
"You say 'the fox'. She said I could call her 'Fox' like it was a proper name. Is there anything wrong with that?" Zotha asked.

"One who takes the position of the Ruler of Foxes gives up the right to have a name—nobody is capable of recalling or using that person's name, nor any other proper name, to refer to the Ruler. The title is all that remains to call him or her by," he said. "If you can call her 'Fox' and have it stick, it is only as an abbreviation of her title. Among the rest of us, it became common long ago to refer to the current Ruler in informal conversation as merely 'the fox', 'a fox', 'that fox'..and so on, depending on the situation. When formally addressing her, we use the full title. Her people tend to call her just 'Ruler', but you may have difficulty using that word to refer to her since she isn't your ruler."

"Anyway..so, both of them are on my side. As far as I know," Zotha said. "That's two against two, not counting you, and I was told there was a deadlock."
Sol nodded. "I am the third one against you...officially, at least. This is part of what I was saying can't leave this room. Once Bastet announced her opposition to keeping you around, and further gained Ouroboros's support, I had little choice in the matter. That is...after the other three also came out in support of you—including, unexpectedly, my sister."

"Before we get ahead of ourselves—who's the third person for me, then?"

Sol sighed. "The god of love. He is...the most chaotic, dangerous, and problematic of all of us, yet his existence is completely inevitable and necessary. I could not be seen to take the same side as him, at least not at first. Unlike the Ruler of Foxes, who has no name, he has many: Eros, Agape, Philo, Mania, 'the man in the mirror', 'the wedding guest'...every name is another him. His personality, behavior, and capabilities change depending on 'who he is' at any given moment in time. Some of his 'selves' are perfectly reasonable, but others..." He slowly shook his head.
"So..he embodies not just the good kinds of love, but every unhealthy kind too," Zotha concluded, and he nodded.
"I would not be surprised if he had...something to do with your ascension, although it is impossible that he did enough to take any real credit for it. Anyway, whenever he decides to show himself to you, be very careful. Ask him first with whom you are speaking, and think carefully about how best to respond to whoever he is at the time. Sometimes the appropriate response is to run or fight back. He is prohibited from going inside of any god's realm, including yours, so that would be a safe place to retreat to if necessary."

"Okay, so he likes me, and you're publicly against me. I guess you were going to explain why we're sitting here having a nice conversation, then, instead of you working out a way to destroy me?" Zotha said.

"Right," Sol nodded. "Bastet and Ouroboros both tend to hold..extreme positions, for lack of a better description. The god of love is typically extreme, as well, and..the fox is much more reasonable on most matters, but could hardly be counted on to be very moderate when it comes to you. My sister and I had to take opposing positions to keep things in balance, and to act as..relatively sane voices on each side. So, with her being for you, I had to be against you. It is only from this position that I could possibly hope to help persuade the two of them to accept you."
Jess said, "I assume that simply helping form a majority would've caused them to just start directly attacking that majority, or else Master herself, outright—risking some kind of god-war?"
"More or less. A deadlock where we cannot come to an agreement and do not interfere carries the least risk of harm to humanity, even though it allows you to 'run loose'. It also, incidentally, is the situation which risks the least harm to you for as long as the two of them are against you.

"Actually, I should mention that I was not really lying when I announced my opposition to keeping you around—or at least to immediately providing you support," Sol said. "Of course safety and stability is good for humanity's survival in some ways. I wanted to see what you would do if you were left alone before really making a decision. If you used your newfound position to bring harm to everyone around you, we wouldn't be having this conversation. But in that case, La Lune would've been won over to 'my' side by now. That would have been the end of it: The fox can't really do anything against a majority, and the god of love, well—he can make things much worse for a little while, but he can't keep himself consistent long enough to hold an actual grudge."

"I've been wondering about this, actually," Zotha said. "Why do you feel that 'protecting humanity' is your...duty? Your..job? Is it an unavoidable part of your nature to feel that way, or something?"
"It isn't that," Sol said. "Each of us gods is a person, too, and we each have our own goals and wants. La Lune and I came into being before humanity, and observed them as we first became conscious of our own existence. We both concluded that we liked these new, intelligent creatures, as well as what their minds and beliefs gave to us, and we wanted to help them.

"Eventually it came to be that I set as my goal that humanity should not only survive, but thrive—and La Lune set as her goal that humans should be happy and enjoy their lives. To her, humans living in harmony with nature is one and the same with that goal; she cannot picture humans as truly happy while they are in conflict with, or in absence of, the natural world. To me, survival—even complete happiness—in stagnation serves no purpose, and will eventually result in extinction. Our goals, then, are similar, but not the same, and we are sometimes at odds because of that.

"The fox...the present fox wants her people in particular to thrive. She also finds engaging with us and playing her tricks on the world to be entertaining perks of her position, and wishes to enjoy them for as long as she possibly can. Of course, if they ever elect a new Ruler, the goals of that person may be completely different.

"As I said before, Bastet just wants the world to be at relative peace so she can go back to sleep. Ouroboros views the world as his hoard, and like any dragon, wishes it to grow ever richer and not be damaged or stolen from: That is, he wants civilization to prosper, while remaining peaceful and at minimal risk of destruction. What the god of love wants depends on his present personality; the more pleasant ones want to see humans making themselves and others happy in certain ways, while the worst of him wants most or all humans to suffer and die."

"I think I get the picture now," Zotha said. "So, if I want to 'win you over', I have to be good for humanity, even if it's not in a way that makes everyone happy."
He nodded. "You already have some advantages. Progress itself is a form of change. People are motivated to move forward when they believe their wishes and goals can and will be fulfilled; gratitude is a fine motivator for cooperation, which humans need in order to achieve great things."

"And for Bastet and Ouroboros...I can't rock the boat too much and make a lot of trouble, but I still have to make the world better. Those are..a little contradictory, and I'm not sure I can help making a splash when I use my power to do pretty much anything."
"You have an aspect of 'unintended results'," Sol said in agreement. "But to some extent, you've already displayed a willingness to take charge of those results, emphasizing the positive ones while mitigating the negative. For example, that fox's prank with the rainstorm. This behavior will be a point in your favor for both of them, if you can keep it up enough for them to notice. Anyway, Bastet of all gods should be able to empathize if you sometimes cannot fully control your nature."

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Every long-running story has certain landmark scenes that I'm constantly looking forward to getting to while I write everything else. I write little pieces of those scenes off and on ahead of time, I have large chunks of them outlined in my head long before they ever arrive, and when it's finally time, I tend to feverishly write out the entire thing in a single go over a few hours if I can find time to do it. This is one of those scenes for this story, and it continues into the next part.

This scene is not only important for this story, but some of the things Sol is talking about here are relevant to events that have happened in various one-off stories and captions. For example, there have been several captions or stories that included someone 'merging' with an animal spirit; the story "Of Fae and Foxes" as well as a few captions involve the Fae; "Wishing to Fall" and is sequel are some of the god of love's friendlier antics. There are actually even more things he could've mentioned/explained, but I had to strike a balance at some point between references and explanations I wanted to include and things that Sol has any actual motivation to talk about. Anyway, look forward to the next part too!