A Summoning, Part XLVIII

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Part XLVIII
~Justice~

It was hard to know just how to be ready for a meeting with a god-dragon. So Zotha just went about her usual business Saturday, keeping the fact that that was going to happen on her mind. After all, she'd made no particular preparations for the meetings with the other gods, and Bastet had been more-or-less a surprise...

At any rate, after she fell asleep with Jess, as usual, in her arms, she found herself back in a dream for the third time since ascending. She was standing in front of a giant mouth of a cave; there was the vague impression of a path leading up to that entrance, surrounded by some hills, grass, and trees, but similar to the hallway of the "school building" before, there was also a sense that those details weren't important enough to focus on.

After she'd had just a moment to look around and take all this in, she actually felt Bastet appearing nearby, just slightly out of view to her right as she was looking left. "Oh..hello," she said, finding the cat goddess in the same appearance as their initial meeting.

"Just letting you know I'm here. It's..best if you meet him as 'alone' as possible," she said, and then vanished again.
"Oh, okay—uh. Well, thank you, anyway." If she was 'here', then she could hear that despite no longer being visibly present—and this was her domain anyway. The goddess of change was fully aware of what happened throughout her domain, so it was likely the same kind of thing.

With a slight shrug at that, Zotha started into the cave. The entry cavern was unusually large, with just one opening going deeper out of it, which was closer to human size. Then there was essentially a winding hallway, which in all of its twists and turns quickly lost the sunlight from outside entirely. Despite what soon became total darkness, Zotha had the sense that she knew exactly where the walls were, just as if she could see. Maybe this was her own power, or maybe this was because it was a dream—she hadn't had much occasion to experience this little light since becoming a goddess.

The trek continued, gradually descending downward as the path wound and twisted around. If there had been any branches, one would greatly fear becoming lost when descending this far for this long, especially in complete pitch darkness. But eventually that darkness gave way to a faint, reddish glow from up ahead. A few more turns later, Zotha found herself facing an opening to an enormous cavern—the source of that light. It was considerably brighter straight-on, yet also dimmed a bit by a thick layer of smoke.

Walking through the entrance revealed the source of the light, and also further elucidated just how unimaginably enormous this particular room of the cave was. It seemed to be deep enough underground for magma to be present, as well as a number of large, continually-burning torches lining the walls. The ceiling, quite far above, seemed to have an opening through which some of the smoky haze escaped, keeping the place from being entirely suffocating. And, of course, the entire back two-thirds or so of the cavern were occupied by a suitably gigantic dragon, covered in pitch-black scales that shone in the fiery glow. His eyes were closed, and seemingly his only movement was slowly breathing in and out.

Zotha hadn't felt any "pressure" from Ouroboros up until this point of the dream. But coming into his actual "home" hit her with a wall of heat that was at least as much magical as physical. On top of that, the imposing sight of such an enormous creature triggered something deep in her still-human instincts that strongly suggested she back away and leave before he woke up. She had no choice but to pause, take a deep breath, and try to be a little less overwhelmed. He probably meant her no harm, she reminded herself—and, maybe more importantly, Bastet would not allow him to harm her within a dream. So, gathering the courage accumulated through a couple of weeks of being a deity and having to meet with other, vastly more powerful ones, she began walking forward again. Finally, she stopped within what felt like decent conversational distance—and far enough away that he'd have to at least stand up or crawl forward before he could snap her up in his mouth and swallow her whole.

"Er...hello?" she tired.

"Mmh..?" The giant dragon grunted softly, blinked his eyes a couple of times, and then yawned. It sounded like an old man, deep-voiced and gravelly, and was even followed by a couple of soft smacking sounds as the dragon opened and closed his mouth a couple of times. His eyes themselves were a brilliant red that matched his surroundings quite well. "Oh, hello there. I must have the pleasure of meeting...miss Zotha, is that right?" Even though he was speaking now, he still sounded kind of like he was still yawning.

"Yes. And you're.."
"Ouroboros, indeed. My pleasure to meet you. You'll forgive my impoliteness if I can't properly stand up to greet a lady of your status," he said. "Hmmh..yet I can at least..." The giant black dragon slowly stretched his wings out, briefly dimming the entire cavern as their shadow blocked the light from all of the torches on the walls, leaving only the glow of the magma along the edges of the floor. Then he closed them again, fidgeting a few times as he did. "Aah, phew. Not bad to have a little stretch now and then." At about this point, Zotha realized that maybe half of the smoke in the room was coming directly out of his nostrils, and even more of it appeared whenever he opened his mouth to speak.

"So, you're pleased to meet me?" she said. "I didn't think you liked me too much."
He tilted his head just slightly. "I had not met you before. How could I possibly have such an opinion in the first place?"

"Well, you were one of the ones who voted to get rid of me."
"Oooh, that. One must make policy decisions based on information and logic, not feelings. I never had anything against you personally. But I know which way the wind is blowing now, and so—it really is a pleasure to meet the now-youngest ascended mortal. Congratulations. However accidentally, you have achieved something almost nobody else has, or ever will."

"I guess I hadn't thought of it that way. But..you've been asleep for almost a hundred years now, right? Do you only know what's happened through Bastet?"
"I certainly have...her impressions of things. But that is not my only source of knowledge. The world is my hoard, after all, and even a dragon fast asleep will feel distress when something is being stolen. Besides, I can see through the eyes of my kin, and those who are especially devoted to me."

"Devoted...you mean like some of the Mammon are?"
"Indeed. Though, so many of them are well-off, and dragons are awfully rare these days. It's difficult to get a view without quite a bit of bias. Bastet is..a little more pessimistic about things, and it is good for me to know when the world is not as wonderful as the wealthy folks think it is."

"I also thought you might have..taken up her opinion of me, or something like that?"

"When she speaks to me in dreams, her true feelings are difficult to hide, yes. I do try to take it with a grain of salt. Besides, you should know...the lady of dreams spent a few nights recently trying to do damage control. Saying some very complimentary things about you, and the behavior of you and yours. I would be well and truly mollified by now either way."

"That's...good to know. And, unlike her, you're okay with me bringing the aspect of 'change' to the table?"

"Change, too, is a part of every cycle. You have surely heard the saying: 'The more things change, the more they stay the same'? Hohoh, if anything, I could be jealous of you for taking up a part of 'my' domain as your own. But...I have done all I can to leave such prideful emotions behind, a long time ago. No, if anything, I should be glad to have that bit of work taken off of my shoulders, and onto more eager and youthful ones. Besides that...your exercising your power has gained me another member of my kin to see the world through already, and I've a feeling that a world with more change will afford more such opportunities, in the near future.

"I have a question for you, now," Ouroboros said, "as long as another viewpoint is standing right in front of me. What do you think of the state of the world?"

"Hm. Pretty good?" Zotha shrugged. "Could be better, could be worse. There are definitely some flaws I'm working to iron out to some extent myself. Lots of people are able to live long, happy lives, but not everyone or everywhere. No big wars happening right now. We've done a pretty bad job with nature and the environment, but at least a decent number of people are trying to fix that. I think, though, there are a lot of problems that could be solved, or at least made a less bad, which some more-or-less arbitrary barriers are keeping us from solving."

"You speak, perhaps, of the veil?"

"Weeellll. I won't pretend that wasn't on my mind. There are other inequalities of power and opportunity, but it's a pretty big one, which I guess I'm a part of maintaining for now, so I find it especially distasteful."

"Obviously Bastet would not have withheld your opinion on that from me. I think, perhaps, it should be phased out soon."

"You..really? You want the world to be stable and profitable, right? For everything to go in a neat, clean cycle?"

"Oh, well. I am not really satisfied with a flat circle. All dragons want their hoards to grow, you know. Besides...

"The veil is not the natural state of the world. It is something which we introduced, artificially, for reasons with which I wholeheartedly agreed at the time. But it is part of a natural, healthy cycle for things to return to their original state—in a safe, stable manner, of course. I have not missed, in our meetings on maintaining the veil, how much hard work Sol and his people have needed to do in recent years. Adding rules upon rules, exceptions to exceptions, to keep the whole thing from collapsing in on itself. We've increasingly many incidents of humans dropping out of the veil because they believe hard enough, or they happened to see just the right thing at the right time, and sometimes the veil will simply slip off of a person for unknown reasons. And some are awakened with nobody nearby either capable or interested in helping maintain the veil, and their confusion tips off humans who'd otherwise remain fully ignorant. If we do not control the unveiling, I fear it will take care of itself, in a far more destructive manner than we would like. That debacle back around the 1940's was bad enough.

"But—do not mistake my willingness for haste. I speak of what must be done within...mmh, the next decade or so? Perhaps by the time I wake up, or...a little afterward."

Zotha crossed her arms, leveraging a little bit of outrage to keep herself from just agreeing with the gigantic, powerful dragon-god in front of her. "I wonder how many people will die in that span of time, who didn't have to. Who might have all kinds of useful things to contribute to the world. Don't get me wrong, I agree being careful is the right approach, but there is such a thing as hesitating too much."
"Haah..well. I would hardly insist on waiting any particular period of time. My interest is that a solid, well-thought-out plan is in place before the thing is done. I tend to think on draconic timescales, so forgive me if what I think to be reasonably fast feels terribly slow for you."

"...Fair enough.

"Can you tell me a little more about your philosophy?"
"My philosophy?" Zotha was pretty sure he moved his head just slightly, tilting it perhaps. "That's quite a deep matter."
"What I mean is—how you feel about the world overall, and your beliefs on how to 'manage' it. I've heard something of the kind from the other gods, for the most part, and I have some indirect information that you've partially confirmed: The world is your hoard, cycles, and all that. But it'd be nice to know exactly how you think about things, from your own mouth."

Ouroboros's head moved back to its original position. "Aah, I see. A wise thing to wish to know, for being so early in your time with us. Let me see...

"The best way I know to explain it, is to say how I first started. I was one of many throughout history who thought to..take over the world. Manage it myself, as I saw fit. I had grand ideas of the right way for it all to be done, you see. I was a powerful, and talented, but most importantly an extremely stubborn young dragon. I gathered a collection of genuine followers, including even many of my own kind, who aided in my ascension to true godhood. That very moment of success...is when things began to go horribly wrong.

"Tethering myself, with my own recklessness and the instinctive greed inherent to my kind, to certain aspects of the world, caused a great wave of disasters, both natural and societal. I came to meet with the other gods thinking to make demands, and they were the first to open my eyes to just what had happened: The true price of my hubris. Not even my own followers, those I had promised to help and protect above all others, were spared from harm. And I tried to fix things myself, by my own actions, but that was not enough. The root of the problem, after all, was me. Therefore, the only way to change things, was to change myself. This was not a task I could accomplish quickly, nor on my own. But my willingness to repent alone, my coming back to the other gods to beg their forgiveness and aid, was enough to begin to quell the disaster.
"With their help, I rebuilt myself. The first thing to do was to make my instincts work for us instead of against us, and so we made the world my hoard. After that, I had to work on my personality and beliefs. Ironically, perhaps, to our present conversation...what I thought I wanted to do when I ascended was enact a great wave of change. Seeing that the change I had brought was so disastrous, I now needed to undo it—to bring things 'full circle', so to speak. Those left faithful of my followers adopted the snake biting its own tail as a symbol, and deliberately spread a belief to all they could that I was a god of cycles rather than of the irreversible. It is a miracle that it worked—the aspects gods preside over are usually entirely outside of everyone's control to intentionally modify, as I'm sure you're beginning to find in yourself.

"It is only after adopting this particular view of the world, which I did for entirely practical reasons, that I began to see the wisdom and logic that it holds. For instance, a wider view of history revealed to me that my behavior was far from unique—except for its level of success. It seems that every once in a while, some individual gains power and influence and believes that he or she knows the best way to run the entire world. There is a rise, and a fall, and a fallout.

"But it is not just the grand, broad strokes of history. Even individual people go through phases of their lives, only to return to where they were by the end—in one way or another. Sometimes the cycle is from one generation to another, as a son inherits many of his father's virtues and vices, despite all of his efforts to the contrary. At other times, the old become young again, or those who are changed come to propagate similar changes in others themselves.

"As I said before, however, I don't favor cycles as a form of stagnation. The one small bit of my old self that I keep around is the one that wishes the world to change for the better. I sneak it in by saying that I want my hoard to grow. What appears at first to be a circle, may be an upward spiral from the right point of view.

"I wonder...miss Zotha, are you familiar with those, Tarot cards?"
"Hmm..vaguely? I mean, I've heard of them, and played a game or two that use them as part of their setting."
"A relatively recent invention, to be sure. Silly, perhaps, to take a deck of mere playing cards and assign so much meaning to every one...but I find the overall idea rather compelling. Life progresses through a cycle, from The Fool to The World—or, at least, for a very rare few it may go in the 'right order'. For the most part, however, the phases of life are much more like a properly-shuffled deck. What was there before eventually comes back around...but you can never quite be certain exactly when that will happen. If you're lucky, or careful enough, then the cards may come out the right way up, in the right order, and you live the happy life you want. Sometimes it's very hard work to discard something you don't need, so that something better can take its place. It's a funny thing, to take a philosophical tool like that, and imagine that it can actually predict what's coming—when the entire point of shuffling the cards seems to be that you cannot really know."
"I guess so. You must do a lot of thinking about things like that."
"Certainly. There tend to be long stretches of time where thinking is really all I can do, so I hope you'll forgive me whittering on like an old man every now and then."

"It's fine. If anything, someone as experienced as you, who spends so much time thinking, might have much better ideas or solutions than the rest of us. Maybe you should be the one to come up with the plan for the 'unveiling', for that matter."
"Hmm. Perhaps so. Wouldn't hurt for me to think about it, at least."

Zotha said, "You know...it didn't occur to me at first, but: This is a dream. Both of us are asleep. Yet I came down into this cave to find you asleep..while you're asleep. Or—at least, doing a pretty good imitation of it."

"Aaah, well. Closing my eyes makes it easier to see through those of others. And I enjoy dreaming of familiar environs; the lady of dreams kindly provides me with a portion of her realm to 'live in' while I am asleep, since having too long of a dreamless sleep would leave me dangerously disoriented upon my awakening. My true domain consists of a volcano, and the cave system connected to it. Naturally, the way to my physical form is a considerably longer and more perilous walk, through a great underground maze...but that body does reside in a chamber very much like this one. And I have not left my volcano in...hmmmh...I am not sure. A very, very long time, it must be. Old dragons grow awfully sedentary, and I am no different. Besides, maintaining the veil would be exceedingly difficult if a large black dragon were to suddenly, publicly emerge from a well-known, scientifically studied dormant volcano, collapsing the entire mountain in the process."

"Not gonna lie, that sounds really boring. Just—lying here in your cave forever, watching the world through others' eyes? I'm sure you do..some things with your godly powers at a distance, but never actually getting to walk around and experience the world seems kind of...sad."
"Hmm. Perhaps, it is a little sad. Humanity has built a great many fascinating things I would like to see or do for myself. Perhaps...once we are rid of the veil. Though, unlike modern dragons, I am not able to change my form. So—it would be difficult for me to look very closely at anything without destroying it. Truly a shame..."

"You can't take on a humanoid form? Or even make yourself a little bit smaller?"

"Yes..dragons were not capable of such things in my day. Besides, much like the lady of dreams, my nature as a god locks my physical form all the more. Although...hmmmn."

"'Although'?"

"Err...Bastet is reminding me that I am not to speak of that. My apologies. Or rather—I should say: Maybe a powerful enough goddess of change could..." The dragon shook his head slightly. "Well, the moment to excuse myself with a white lie has already passed. Sorry for being so slow, to both of you. And to you, Zotha, for having to be so cryptic."

"It's fine. I'd rather not know something everyone doesn't want me to know, to be honest. But I wouldn't mind trying to free you from this place—or, that is, its equivalent in the real world—some time in the future. I guess it'll be a blink of an eye for a dragon like you."
"Hhahah. Perhaps so."

"Well, I can't think of much else to talk about at the moment," Zotha said. "Hey—Bastet, if I really want to pick his brain for something, you wouldn't mind a request to talk now and then, would you?"

"...Fine," her voice said, coming from vaguely above them. "Just don't abuse it."

"Well then...perhaps I shall see you again, before I wake," the old dragon said. "Either way, it has been a pleasant meeting for me. I will look forward to seeing you again, lady of change."
"Likewise."

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It kind of sneaked up on me, but this is a pretty momentous occasion for this story! This is the very last part of the second "loop" through all of the Arcana, so it definitely needed to be something special. What better than Zotha's last formal meeting with one of the preexisting gods? And he leans on the fourth wall a tiny bit by talking about the Tarot themselves! Also, having only one choice for the title managed to be kind of lucky this time; I think this arcana fits Ouroboros fairly well.

What? Are you thinking that we forgot somebody? One of the gods? Surely not...