POV: Reika

I hummed as I tended to my garden, singing a happy tune as I continued to pour my power into the Life-Giving Tree, helping it heal. It hadn't yet fully recovered from Sol's fires, though some of those scars would never fully disappear. Still though, I felt happy today. The light from the Sun and Moon warmed my skin, nourishing the Four Realms and causing it to grow explosively. Even the mortals, after calming down a bit from their wars, are growing very fast.

A sudden jolt shook me out of my dazed gardening, and I shook my head with a wry smile. That girl -the one immortal left after Dei reincarnated and the other two became the sun and the moon -was trying to once again reach the top of the Life-Giving Tree. Little miss empress, or the Celestial Empress, as they now called her, had grown far too arrogant for her own good. That was to be expected, however, as she was far and above the most powerful cultivator in any Realm, including the Heaven Realm, which was beginning to gain its own immortal cultivators.

Not only that, but she ruled over the biggest and most powerful city of cultivators, Manu Ti, which still floated in the skies today as a beacon of hope for all mortals. Although many cultivation cities had followed Manu Ti's example, none could match the city's grandeur -not even I could deny that. However, it still paled in comparison compared to the constructs of the deities. How could a city compare to Elvira's Mountain, Keilan's Valley, Alexander's River, or my Tree? How could it, for that matter, compare to Mother's palace, in all its simplicity?

But I'm getting off track. They did good with that city, and it was doing far more good than harm. But the Celestial Empress was tenacious and annoying as ever as she tried to reach the top of the Tree. This time she made it about halfway through the leaves of the Tree before, with a snort, I waved my hand and sent her flying back down. She wasn't quite ready to reach the top, and if she got much higher some ancient and powerful mystic beasts would chase her down. For a second I paused. What will I do if someone does reach the top? Looking around I spotted a few curious beasts, both normal and mystical, as they ran about the planet-sized leaves and massive branches. Each dip in the bark was like the deepest of valleys, each rustle was like a giant earthquake, and was home to innumerous creatures of all shapes and sizes.

Huh. There are beasts up here but no mortals. Strange. I suppose it is meant to be a challenge for them...Suddenly I grinned. Ah, that's it. That's what I could do. Reaching the top of the Life-Giving Tree signifies that they are ready to be granted the ability to pass between Realms. Mystic beasts will have another trial, but, seeing as how no mortal or immortal, only spirits and deities, have traveled between Realms, I figure it's a good milestone to set.

"Lady Reika." A voice said, almost catching me off guard as the speaker materialized behind me.

"Ah, it's you Avidan. What can I help you with?" I asked, turning around and looking at the Deity of Justice. He was young, only five millennia old and having fought in the war of the Sun, yet was not the youngest. In the past thousand years alone five more deities had been born, proof that the small size of the Four Realms had been stifling its denizens. Still though, for Avidan to have such a vague domain as justice...that must be hard.

"Alexander has called all deities to the Karmic Palace." Avidan said, bowing slightly. I smiled and nodded, turning back to my garden for a moment. Oh, would you look at that? The Iceflowers are blooming.

"I'll be along in a moment." I said absently, admiring the field of flowers before me. The Iceflowers in particular were shining brilliantly, their snow-white petals gleaming as icy mists rolled from the stamen, turning the area in which they were planted into an icy wonderland.

"My lady," Avidan said, obviously impatient but afraid to speak out against me. "I cannot leave without you." He said, and I sighed. Why are the young ones always so impatient? Alexander and Keilan are not going anywhere, they can wait a few more minutes. None of the deities that normally stay in the Mortal Realm, such as the elemental deities, have left yet so I wasn't feeling too rushed.

"Hmm," I hummed, glancing at Avidan and shaking my head. "Is there any particular reason why I'm supposed to go now rather than later?" I decided to ask. Avidan frowned, thought about it for a moment, and then shook his head. "Good. Then go get everyone else in the Mortal Realm and when they're all gathered come get me. I have no desire to go stand around in the middle of the Karmic palace waiting for who knows how long." Avidan hesitated and then bowed before vanishing. Shortly after I could feel all the other deities in the Mortal Realm begin to leave, either physically or via incarnation, filtering towards the Karmic Realm. When Avidan reappeared not but a few hours later I merely sighed and followed, vanishing and reappearing in Keilan's Karmic palace.

Specifically I appeared in the massive auditorium he had built just outside of his palace for entertainment purposes, as that is where I sensed Alexander to be. The auditorium itself was very impressive, with thousands of seats rising up along the side of the Valley and looking down on the stage, the darkness of the Realm only broken by braziers filled with purple and white fires. A giant ball of karmic light hovered overhead for the occasion, illuminating the area for those who could not see solely through Karma and mental energies.

The first few rows were filled with all two hundred and eighty three deities, many of whom sent incarnations of themselves rather than abandon their duties. This was also the reason as to why there were no angels present -they were too busy trying to guide mortals and keep them from doing too many stupid things. I believe two were placed on Tian, this time around...

Kei waggled her fingers at me in greeting from the front row, a mischievious smile on her face.

"Sister." Alexander's voice rumbled out, dragging my attention to him. The great serpent was -well, not in his dragon form. Instead he was in the Fae-like form that Mother gave him, a form I hadn't seen since...well, the beginning of time. His white scales covered most of his body, except for the bronzed skin of his stomach, chest, and face, while to large bat-like wings stretched from his back. A scowl was plastered on his face, and I couldn't help but have to suppress a smile.

"What's got you so riled up?" I asked, watching as Keilan descended from the sky, talking with Elvira. The duo landed next to me, giving me a nod in greeting.

"Your daughter, that's what. I just wanted to talk with you three and Father, but somehow Kei got wind of it and made this into a giant show." Alexander scowled, sending Kei a scathing glare. She just giggled and winked playfully, completely ignoring the look I shot her.

"Well it's not that surprising. This is Kei we're talking about, I'd be more surprised if she didn't do something like this." Keilan said.

"Still though..." Alexander grumbled.

"Quit your whining you overgrown lizard. You're enough of a recluse as it is, you need to show your face a bit more." Elvira chided, earning herself a glare and growl from Alexander. I just smiled wryly as I listened to my siblings bicker, opting to stay out of it for now. My eyes wandered a bit and I found myself looking at Kei again, wondering if Mother's influence had anything to do with Kei's mischievious nature...probably. No, not probably, definitely. It's definitely Mother's fault.

"I'm pretty sure she would've turned out the same way regardless of what I did." Mother suddenly said, abruptly appearing behind me and giving me a little jump-scare, answering my thoughts. In the entire Four Realms, only She, Keilan, and Gilles could sneak up on me like that.

"Mother!" I protested, giving her a half-hearted glare. She just laughed, the sound echoing out and silencing the drone of chatter from the present deities and their incarnations.

"Mother." Keilan said respectfully.

"Father." Elvira and Alexander said.

"I hear you've got something to show us. Well, don't keep me in suspense! I've been waiting for a long time for this, you know!" Mother said happily, grinning at Alexander and taking a few steps back, towards the front row of seats in the auditorium.

"Your seat is there, Mother." Keilan said with an amused smile, stopping her from simply sitting on one of the benches and instead directing Her towards a large ostentatious throne in the very center of the front row. Mother stared at the throne for a minute, before looking back at Keilan. The two had a staring match for a moment before Mother relented with a sigh.

"Cheeky brat." She muttered to Herself, and I could almost hear Keilan laughing in his heart. He knows full well that Mother doesn't really care for thrones...or anything of the sort. Which made it all the funnier for us four. Especially when She pouted upon actually seating Herself on the chair. As for the other deities, they looked relieved that Mother wasn't sitting on the same seats as they were, like it was expected for Her to sit somewhere else.

As for Keilan, Elvira, and myself, we all moved to the very back of the collection of deities, choosing not to sit down.

"Right. Well. I'm going to be introducing a new race of sentient beings into the Four Realms with the permission of Father." Alexander said with a deadpan expression. "Two races, actually. Dragons and draconians." With a wave of his hand two dragons appeared out of nowhere with a loud roar, looking very similar to his serpentine form, albeit with a different color scheme. These two were gold and silver in color, and were obviously smaller and less powerful. Then, Alexander waved his other hand, causing two more figures to appear on his other side, a male and female version of his human form, complete with long, curling horns.

Murmurs rippled throughout the deities, admiring the dragons as they stood proudly next to Alexander, and the draconians as they hung in suspended animation. All eyes turned to Mother as She stared at them, a goofy smile on Her face.

"Wonderful!" She said happily, clapping Her hands. "You have my blessings." Alexander bowed slightly to Her, waving his hand and causing all four of his creations to disappear. Then he shot up into the sky, turning back into his dragon form and disappearing into the Spirit Realm. Kei withheld a giggle and I smiled, shaking my head and vanishing as well.

POV CHANGE: Statera Luotian

Now the Four Realms has five...no, six sentient races. Unfortunately none of the mystic beasts have evolved to that stage yet, so I might have to provide some sort of boost for that. Once the Four Realms gets to a certain size I won't have to worry about it, but for now...

"My Lady, it is an honor to meet you once again." A deity said, approaching me and bowing. I smiled and returned the greeting, watching as he moved out of the way to allow the next group and group of deities to greet me. Apparently after Alexander left this had turned into a social event, as those that weren't greeting me were milling about and talking to one another. The Four Realms may be a little small right now, but there's still plenty to do, so they don't always get a chance to talk to one another.

"It is good to see you again." Gilles said, moving to stand next to me. I nodded to him, greeting the other five elemental deities of Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, and Light in the meantime. Gilles watched the newly born deity of light as she moved off, having taken over Sol's position as the light deity, with a sad expression. Unsurprisingly she had appeared to balance out the elements rather than in connection to the Sun, seeing as how the two were the same but now slightly different, as both the Sun and Moon were shining down upon the Four Realms. It was...a little convoluted.

"How's she doing?" I asked, talking about the light deity.

"Good. She's very different from Sol, much less prideful." Gilles said back. I hummed and nodded, glancing at him out of the corner of my eye.

"Well? Is there anything you want to ask me?" I inquired. Gilles shook his head.

"No, not yet." He muttered with a sigh. "I was merely enjoying your company. For now, I will bid you farewell." He said with a tinge of panic, vanishing in a swirl of shadows. I just chuckled and shook my head at his mild panic, watching him clearly flee the scene. It's ok. I can wait. I'll be patient. He'll come around eventually. After that I turned my attention back to the approaching deities, greeting them one by one with a warm smile. Most of them were of the older generations, greeting me with relatively relaxed tones and varying informal addresses. Things like "Parent" or "Creator" were very common here. However the younger the deities got, the more and more formal the addresses and greetings became.

It made me frown on a few occasions, but there wasn't much for me to say about it so I merely told them that it is ok to talk to me normally and sent them on their way. Once the line was finished I stood up with a sigh, looking around at my children as they all spoke and chatted with one another, many of them talking about mortal races, even some of them wondering if they could create a sentient race as well. Some of them weren't as interested however, including the elemental deities, who technically had their own races in the form of elementals, or the ones tied closely with the sentient races already present, such as the deity of justice.

However the deity I was most interest with at the moment was the youngest deity in the Four Realms, as she was only around six hundred years old. Truly young.

As I walked across the auditorium floor the various deities kept their eyes on me, watching to see what I would do. It was actually a little unnerving, but I somehow managed to ignore it as I approached the deity. The conversation of the five deities she was talking with died the moment they noticed me approaching. They were all fairly young, with the oldest being a mere twenty thousand years old.

"Hello there. How are you all doing?" I asked, smiling.

"Very well, mi'lord." One, a minor deity, said with a bow. The others all mimicked him with varying degrees of formal respect, all bowing to me. The youngest, Inesa, a minor deity of the hearth and home, bowed the deepest. I sighed inwardly, my lips unconsciously twitching as I fought the urge to frown. I really don't like it how they bow to me...

"That's good. Inesa." I said, causing the young girl to flinch as she remained bowed. Her warm brown hair fluttered slightly with the action, her loose-fitting robes not quite hiding her trembling. I withheld my frown once again, glancing at the other four, who shook their heads. Checking up on new deities was a habit of mine, though I hadn't been able to do it while in secluded meditation, but I'd never seen this kind of reaction before. "What, am I really so scary? I'm just asking how you're doing. You are still young after all."

"Th-this lowly one is ashamed..." She murmured quietly, and my next words caught in my throat.

"What?" I choked out. "What did you just say?" All conversation ceased when I spoke this time, and the deities all looked at me and Inesa.

"I-I...This lowly one..." Inesa said, her entire body shaking.

"That's enough of that." I said a little too harshly, but at this point I was done. I'd dealt with this for far too long, and it was time to nip it in the bud before it got too out of hand. "Inesa, look at me." Inesa's trembling only worsened, and yet she didn't dare to look up. With a sigh I stepped towards her and placed one hand underneath her chin, gently lifting her face so our eyes met. "You are not a lowly one." I said calmly. Confusion flashed across her face, and I continued. "There is no need to debase yourself so. You are one of my children, and there is no need for you to lower your head."

"That goes for all of you! I have ignored this problem for too long, because I knew that no matter what I did I would not be able fully destroy it. However here is where I shall draw the line. Who do you think you are? Who do you think I am? Do you see me as your superior? Do you see yourselves as inferior to me? If so, then you severely misunderstand the nature of the Four Realms. It's not about superiority. If you wish to compare, then the only thing that you should be superior than is your former self. We all have our purposes, our duties, and you are all born with equal chances to grow. Do not lower yourselves in such a manner.

"As for me, it is my privilege, my honor, and my duty to watch you grow as your parent and creator." My expression was serious as I met the gazes of all the deities. Every day I am cursed by the mortals, why would I be afraid of a little ridicule, or disrespect? Then I smiled and looked at Inesa, shaking my head. "You all are my family. Why should I feel superior to you? That in and of itself is a folly." I said, patting her head. "We are here to guide and grow. That is part of what it means to be a deity."