POV: Statera Luotian

I sighed in remembrance as I stared at a large scroll that had been tucked away in some obscure corner of the library in my Palace, reading through Power Versus Force with but a glance. It had been so long since I had written this thing that I had all but forgotten about it...how nostalgic. With another sigh I placed it back where I had found it, gently flying out of my massive library with the few books I had been searching for to begin with cradled in my arms. There were two books that were stories from the mortals - wonderful imaginations, them, they come up with some of the most interesting ideas...even if they are parallels to some systems and such already in place. The other three were records of my thoughts and memories from previous times, as well as a large scroll about my ideas from Yueya's One World.

I walked through the empty halls of my palace, entering the workshop and casually sending a dozen blueprints I had floating around in balls of scintillating golden light flying off to organize themselves in the corner of the large room. The books I was carrying were unceremoniously dumped on the large wooden desk situated against the far wall, my divine sense pouring through them one at a time as I began to draw figures in the air, my finger leaving trails of golden light that eventually came together to make blueprints. I must've gone through at least three versions of the single blueprint I was working on before I finally relented and turned towards the middle of the room, where a live map of the Four Realms hovered mid-air.

"...what to do," I muttered to myself, my mind running at a hundred miles a second. That, of course, was a mere abbreviation as to how fast my mind was working, what with me mentally giving commands to a thousand different beings at once, subtly manipulating some major events in the Realms, and coming up with ways to fix and improve upon the systems of the Four Realms. It's...a lot of work, to say the least. Any further contemplation was interrupted by an abrupt entrance of one of the oldest beings in my Four Realms...and a ball of condensed Void (...if such a thing was even possible) being thrown at my head. Needless to say I caught said ball, and frowned at Morgan as the wolf-like being glared at me.

"You're a fucking idiot, you know that?" He growled. I frowned.

"Attempted homicide is no way to say hello, Morgan." I chided, looking at the ball of condensed Void with interest before crushing it completely. How does one condense literal nothing, by the way...questions for another time, I suppose.

"I don't give a shit!" He snapped at me, and I sighed.

"Ok, spit it out. What's going on?" I asked, sighing in mild annoyance. He just growled and stalked about the room, ignoring my question and occasionally lashing out with his eight spider-like appendages, smashing various jars, blueprints, creating holes in space and ruining the few pieces of art scattered about the room...of course, everything he broke returned to its previous immaculate condition immediately, which only served to piss Morgan off even further. I found it rather entertaining.

"You know exactly what's going on! Quit messing with my shit!" He barked angrily. I blinked at him and cocked my head to the side, confused.

"I...don't follow." I deadpanned, giving Morgan a blank look.

"Your kids keep messing with my shit!" He barked, as if that cleared everything right up. I frowned and was about to tell him that I still didn't follow, but then realization hit me. He means about the Dimensional Creators...doesn't he? "The Arachions are supposed to stir up trouble, damn it!" He howled.

Oh, so that's what this is about. A few deities that took a shining to the Arachions have been trying to manipulate things so the beings don't recieve the scorn of the entire Four Realms, and...well, I suppose that they might've taken that avenue a bit too far, now that I look at it. I really hadn't paid it much mind because I thought it relatively insignificant, and a bit positive, seeing as how the entire Four Realms hating one race was a bit much, but now I see that why Morgan's so aggrivated. The deities are attempting to tamper with the intent that was used in creating the Arachions - Morgan accepted it when I did it, but not when someone else does it. The Dimensional Creators are doing fine as-is, they're not bothering anyone too much. Just doing their own thing...though I thought Morgan would be mad about Keilan and Gilles paying them a visit.

"Ah, sorry. That got out of hand." I apologized with a sheepish smile. Morgan glared at me, its eyes shooting swords - because mere daggers wouldn't do its intensity justice - at me.

"Out of hand? Out of hand?! Do you know how much work I've had to do to get that particular colony back to being the martial badasses they're supposed to be?!" Morgan spat. "Either you have a talk with them or I will. And I promise that you won't like my version of having a talk." Morgan emphasized, convincing me that when the word talk was used, Morgan actually meant beating them senseless.

I nodded, stifling a yawn as I did so. "I - awwwh - sorry, stupid yawns have been bugging me, I'll handle it. I won't promise about the deities leaving them completely alone, but I'll tell them to - yaaaaaaw - ah! STOP IT! Stupid yawns...I'll tell them to tone it down a bit." I told him, one hand rubbing my eyes. Morgan gave me an odd look, his anger momentarily forgotten before he resumed his tirade.

"You'd better." He ground out. "Or I'll do something drastic."

"Oh come on, you wouldn't risk your freedom to roam the Four Realms over this, now would you?" I teased. Morgan opted not to deign that with a response, instead turning around with a huff and disappearing once again. I chuckled to myself and turned back to my designs, staring at the blueprint for a few minutes as my mind drew a blank. Where had my thoughts been, again...?

"Father!" Elvira said, bursting into the room a few minutes later and startling me out of my musings. I looked at her and smiled, spreading my arms wide.

"Elvira! It's good to see you. So what's up?" I inquired, scratching the back of my head.

"I - are you alright?" Elvira's statement died in her throat as she asked that question, worry evident in her tone. I shot her a confused look.

"Yes, of course. Why do you ask?" I asked.

"You look...tired. Really, really tired." Elvira said slowly, looking me up and down. I chuckled a bit, feeling warm at Elvira's concern but likewise feeling it unnecessary.

"I am quite alright. It's been a long few millennia, but I'm doing fine." I assured her, smiling confidently. Did I really look that bad? I don't feel all that bad...a little drained, sure, but not that bad. "Now what was it that you so desperately needed?"

"I wanted you to be present to help clear a few things up to the high deities, specifically my Coucil. That was two days ago. I kept sending you mental messages but you never replied." Elvira explained quickly, crossing her arms and doing her level best to glare me down. "You said you'd be there, too. What happened?" She demanded. I hummed and scratched the back of my neck in embarrassment, remembering that I did promise such a thing. I just...forgot. How unlike me.

"Ah...sorry. I forgot. And as for your messages..." I paused a moment to root through the constant flow of information and commands that was my mind, finding a backlog of Elvira's messages that had been put on hold in favor of dealing with other commands and issues. Huh. Whoops. "They kind of got put on hold." I answered honestly. Elvira stared at me with an astonished expression. For a moment we just stared at each other before Elvira sighed and shook her head, her tails twitching in worry.

"Are you sure you're ok? This isn't like you at all. Perhaps you should rest a bit, leave all of this to me and the rest of the Big Five." Elvira said, gesturing to all the blueprints and such flying about even as we spoke. I shook my head.

"I'm fine dear, but I appreciate the concern." I told her.

"Father, I'm going to be completely honest here - you're not fine. I have never, not once seen you look even mildly tired, to say nothing of being this exhausted. You're forgetting things when you shouldn't be, and you're clearly distracted." She listed, raising one eyebrow and daring me to challenge her.

"Semantics." I said airily, waving one hand dismissively.

"...Is that even the right word?" Elvira asked honestly. I pondered that for a moment, furrowing my brows.

"I...I don't know. It's the same as saying 'trivalities' or 'technicalities'....right?" I asked, the true meaning of 'semantics' escaping me. I knew what I meant, but...was that the right word...?

Elvira gawked at me for a bit before setting her expression into a determined one and shaking her head. "Right. That's it. You're done. No more working for you. Go rest." She said, making a shooing motion with her hands. I frowned and shook my head, opening my mouth to argue but Elvira cut me off. "Oh no you don't, get going." She said, starting to physically push me towards my meditation room.

"I really don't think -"

"Father, you look exhausted. Please, trust me and just go rest for a bit." Elvira said pleadingly. I frowned, allowing her to push me but disagreeing with it.

"Elvira -"

"Don't make me get Reika. I can and will convince her that you need rest, and then what will you do, hmm?" Elvira pre-emptively countered my argument, causing me to abruptly close my mouth. Reika could be very....convincing, in the intimidating kind of way, when she really wanted to be. And, truthfully, I was tempted to take a rest for a bit. Wait, am I being bullied by my children? I am, aren't I? How embarrassing.

"Alexander will side with me." I argued weakly.

"Alexander will agree with anything you say, but even he would be hard pressed to agree with you on this one." Elvira shot back, making me pout a bit. Either way I'll probably just slip out while she's not looking. It's not like she could do anything to keep mer here indefinitely...by herself, at least. With some aid she could most likely do something, but...Elvira finally pushed me into my meditation/bedroom, giving me a whithering glare that spoke promises of much retribution if I did not do as she asked. I chuckled inwardly as I looked about the room, glancing at the meditation bed for a moment before nodding, walking over to it and sitting down. Many of the stones still glowed from absorbing so much of my power.

And as soon as Elvira shut the door, I vanished.

POV CHANGE: Elvira

"Randus...you're there, right?" I asked. It took a few seconds, but Randus finally appeared out of his dream world (something I really don't understand and don't have any desire to investigate, in all honesty) with a flourish and a bow, on hand held behind his back and the other in front of his stomach.

"It is good to see you again." He said in a very formal tone, sporting an accent that he most certainly didn't have last time. It sounded...arguably pretentious. Electing to ignore that, I forged ahead with what I was going to ask.

"Yes, good to see you too. Say, could you keep an eye on Father for me? Tell me if He leaves His room...that feels weird to say...like I'm trying to keep watch over a child...a very powerful, very wise, and yet annoyingly whimsical child." I said, muttering the last bits as my thoughts began to trial off.

"She most certainly does act as a child sometimes...and though I am surprised you have not noticed, I am not glad to confirm that She has already left the confines of Her meditation chambers." Randus told me. With a sigh of annoyance I pinched the bridge of my nose, resisting the urge to go dragging Father back to make Him rest...by force. He is not like the other deities. I cannot overpower Him if necessary. Threaten Him with Reika and my other siblings, absolutely. But not overpowering Him. "For the record, even I agree with you on this. She needs to rest, though I do not believe it is for the reason you, or any others who agree with us, think." He said cryptically.

I stared at him expectantly, but when no further elaboration came I decided to give Randus a prompt. "Care to explain?" I asked, glaring. Randus met my eyes and held my gaze for a few seconds before he broke it off, and began to explain.

"I believe Her own body and subconscious are telling Her that She needs to enter meditation. For what reason, I am unsure, but I feel it is important. Much has happened for us recently, and that kind of knowledge tends to accumulate. My current theory is that She needs to solidify some of that information." Randus explained. I hummed and shrugged.

"Doesn't really matter what the reason is, the point is that Father needs to get some rest. I'm going to see what I can do to convince Him, pull a few strings to get everyone else hounding Him, and a few other things. You do what you can as well, if you're not too busy. In the meantime I have some deities to finish dealing with. And a few of the angels have been acting a bit strange, so I'll have to deal with them as well...urgh." I muttered, shaking my head and spreading my wings, leaping out the nearest window while waving farewell to Randus. For now, I wanted to fly back to the Holy Mountain. Teleportation was quicker, but I needed a few moments to get my head on straight.

As I flew towards the Holy Mountain at breakneck speed - passing through the barrier without slowing down one whit - I slowly calmed my mind. It took quite a bit of effort, but I managed to get it empty enough to prepare myself for what I knew I was going to be greeting the moment I stepped back into my Palace. Namely more arguements. Which was really getting on my nerves. It's not that hard to come to an agreement.

I paused for a moment as I hovered over the rooftop of my obnoxiously white palace (just because my color scheme generally includes white does not mean I want everything to be a glittering white) peering through the material to prove to myself that, in fact, a few deities were arguing with one another while five angels stood off to the side.

"Ok," I said, preparing myself for having to deal with all of this. After a moment of psyching myself up I flew around and entered the front door, throwing open the doors with a bang. "SILENCE!" I bellowed, the argument, and all other forms of chatter for that matter, coming to an abrupt halt. Surprisingly, I spotted one of Alexander's children within the confines of the palace - one of his dragons. I hadn't spotted him before...oh well. Guess I just didn't look hard enough.

The entire room was silent as I made my way to the throne, sitting down on the uncomfortably hard surface. "Where is my husband?" I asked one of the spirits that generally resided within the palace.

"Still not back yet, my lady." It said with a small bow. I hummed and nodded.

"Inform me when he arrives - if I am not already speaking with him. He may pop up anywhere within the palace, as I'm sure you know." I informed the spirit, who muttered a "yes ma'am" before scurrying off into one of the hallways that led off of the main hall. Then, I turned my gaze to the deities who had been arguing before - all six cowering a bit under the weight of my stare. "Now, since all of you are present, then I assume you want some matters cleared up. I will oblige you. However, you will not start any further arguments, you will not antagonize one another, and you will be courteous to whomever I decide to speak to first. Are we clear?" I asked.

"Yes, ma'am." The deities coroused, earning a nod from me. Letting out a sigh I resisted the urge to rub the bridge of my nose, making a mental note for later to talk to Reika and Alexander about Father, before getting the court session started.

"We'll start with you," I said, pointing to the dragon. Might as well start with the most interesting one first, I suppose. The red-scaled serpentine dragon stirred and met my gaze for a moment before bowing its head, and beginning to speak. After the first few words I couldn't help but release a mental sigh. This was going to be a long day.