* * * EARTH – KENT CLARKSON * * *

Kent parked Mother’s truck near the first pier and watched as the small guardhouse disguised as a crate was lifted onto the truck’s bed and safely secured. While Rupert double-checked the fastenings Kent watched as the barge docked. He went to meet the emissaries from the Tarifax Adventurer’s Guild.

‘Well according to Lewis the dark elf is safe, he’s one of Mother’s followers. The gnome on the other hand is at the very least sympathetic to the tinkerer. Well here they come, um, she looks a bit green, surely she can’t be seasick?’ mused Kent to himself.

Kent smiled and inclined his head, “Welcome to Earth, I’m Kent Clarkson and I’ll be escorting you to the first chapter of the local guild. I’m afraid it is a fairly long trip and Mother’s truck is not the most comfortable of vehicles.”

Swiftfall Sunhigh grinned and offered his hand. They shook. Fidget for her part quickly recovered her colour once the ground was no longer moving. She stared in fascination at the crane, as it swung the crates they were escorting from the barge to the open rear of the, the vehicle, for it was not a firewagon. There was no boiler or pistons and no coal.

Then they were on their way. Kent grinned at the looks of stupefaction on the faces of his passengers. The drow couldn’t take his eyes of the passing scenery while the gnome lass kept swivelling her head to watch all the assorted vehicles they passed, That is when she wasn’t fascinated by their truck, his mobile phone and other simple gadgets.

Also both seemed staggered at the sheer number of people and lack of monsters and bandits.

* * * EARTH – KĪLAUEA * * *

Albert Monckton prepared for his meditation. He just knew it would work this time, hadn’t he been accepted by The All. He had selected Mystic. It was glorious. He settled himself on the slopes of Kīlauea and started his meditation.

‘It was working,’ he thought excitedly, and then it wasn’t. He forced himself to calm down and resumed his breathing exercises.

The scene seemed to shimmer before his eyes, and everything looked to be more alive. Small flames seemed to flit around, investigating rocks, circling him. He could almost swear they were giggling.

Then something startled them and they fled post haste towards the crater. A big woman surrounded by a bluish haze emerged from the sea and walked ashore. Where she stepped she left puddles of water.

And then an old white haired woman with a white dog was standing on the slopes. The two met, and talked. Finally the old woman handed the young one a fiery spark. Albert assumed it was a fire spirit of some type. The young woman seemed to juggle it while steam came boiling off her.

Then the young woman gestured and a rift opened in the sky above her, allowing Albert to see a magnificent volcano spewing fire and lava, surrounded by water, and what seemed like an endless vista of ice. He saw the young woman fly through he rift and release the spark into the volcano before diving into the sea.

The spark danced in the crater and transformed itself into a fiery skinned woman with black hair. She waved and blew a kiss to the old woman on the slopes of Kīlauea before the rift closed.

Then Albert knew no more until he woke with the dawn, cold and uncomfortable. Albert dragged himself to his feet, aching in every joint. Out of habit he checked his system log and froze, shocked. Somehow he had gone from Mystic lvl 2 to Mystic lvl 8 overnight, and he’d gained a Fire affinity.

He started scanning all his accumulated system messages hoping for some clarification.

* * * FRAGATTA – MARY * * *

Mary’s arms and hands hurt. She resisted the call of her backup core long enough to see the fire girl, who she suspected to be one of the Hi’iaka, settle in the volcano. At this point Mary stopped resisting the pull and sank into her backup core on Fragatta.

It took many long moments for the pain to ease, then she found herself on the Gods Plane. It seemed cramped, dirty, and uncomfortable. She found herself in what appeared to be a dirty room with an over elaborate throne. It was— it felt like a straight jacket. Manna was present but it was pooled, stagnant. And the throne was hers to claim; somehow she knew this.

‘No, if this is goin’ to be my stretch of the Gods Realm on Fragatta then things have just gotta change. Got to have the sea, a beach, combers an’ such. So...’

With a moue of distaste Mary grabbed the pooling manna and blasted it outward, shattering the walls and roof of the chamber and condemning them to oblivion. A sand fringed spur came into being the ocean pounding one side, the bay side washing the beach with small ripples.

‘Better. But that over elaborate piece of junk just has to go.’

Grabbing some manna from her reserve Mary obliterated the throne that had taken up residence as far from the sea as it was possible to go. Something tugged at her, somehow she knew a throne was needed, and it had to be visible and allow interaction with land and air dwellers.

She frowned, and then concentrated anew. A not so simple throne started to materialize in the shallows of her very own private bay. It felt unbalanced. Something was missing. Then it dawned on her, she was two in one, so the throne split, and then there were two identical thrones sitting side by side in shallows of the bay. The design simplified itself under her critical gaze, while carvings of assorted sea life spread across them.

* * *

On Parthia Mary felt the call of her core, worried she released her avatar and settled herself into it intent on discovering the reason for the call. However, no sooner was she settled than she was projected into the Gods Realm of ... Fragatta. She found herself sitting on one of twin thrones besides herself. They, no she merged with herself and truly became the two in one.

They contemplated the recent past and relaxed, grateful that they had managed to foist of the volcano onto some other poor sucker. The fire affinity it had inflicted on them had been uncomfortable, destabilising.

Then she/they felt annoyed. Bluey had snookered them. She had been acting recklessly. She had been revealing too much. She/They had to plan how to ride the turbulence that was coming as a result of their reaction to the fire’s fiery nature. Thankfully the water had remained dominant but... Beep Bluey!

* * *

Mary looked over what they were slowly coming to realise was the throne room of the gods of Fragatta. Something was missing. She concentrated and a fire pit took shape at some distance from the shore and the fiery skinned volcano goddess manifested herself with a laugh. She lounged comfortably amongst the lava.

Mary searched and slowly got frustrated. Fragatta’s Godscape was virtually empty. She felt some sparks and invited those that seemed still active. Several were almost completely moribund. One of those had the affinity she wanted, so she grabbed her by the scruff of the neck and dragged her into their presence.

* * *

Graiazella found herself dragged out of her torpor and into the throne room of the gods. Resentfully she forced her eyes open and didn’t recognise where she was. The Frost King wasn’t presiding over his icy throne room. The throne room was gone, and the sun was beating down heating the sand and sparkling of the waves. A twin goddess was lounging comfortably on her twin thrones knee deep in an endless sea. Graizella found herself standing on a grass-covered dune near the beach. The twin goddess looked at her and nodded. She felt a rush as manna flooded into her along with the knowledge of a peculiar moss.

« Add that to your portfolio o goddess of the Harvest. You understand how it will help melt the Beep Ice. Right. You will help reclaim Fragatta for its people, right? »

Graiazella gave a jerky nod and heard a hissing laugh. She looked and saw another newcomer, a fiery skinned black haired goddess lounging in a pool of lava.

* * *

Altogether Mary found another two near moribund gods. She hooked them up with a small manna feed. Maybe they’d come in useful in the future and surely they would be hostile to the New Gods.

Then finally her invitation bore fruit. Altogether some twenty-one minor gods manifest in her, yes her/their throne room. Each one represented a concentration of survivors.

‘Only twenty-one, Beep those beep new gods. And I have to work with two of ’em. Creevar the creep an’ Azurea the self-centred. Scary they seem the best of a bad lot. Makes me wonder ’bout the so called Great Gods. Mmm, this may not be bad, manna’s already startin’ to come seepin’ in.’

Then all present saw the same blue screen proclaiming:

« The Gods Court of Fragatta has been reconvened. Present are all the current Gods of Fragatta. Presiding is Mary Mother of Monsters. »

Mary grimaced. « Beep Bluey, what are you plain’ at? First foisting that volcano on me an’ I’ve fires to put out on Earth thanks to that prank of yours. An’ now this, how in hell am I supposed... »

« Mother of Monsters, are you implying you can’t hold onto Fragatta and save this world? »

The Marys straightened on their thrones and glared. « What is mine I hold. Somehow or other I will remain, it’s just it would have been easier... »

« Believe it or not Mother of Monsters you have ensured Fragatta will not die. Still, you have much to do or only about half the oasis’ of life will survive long enough. And the Great Gods are going to take notice now Fragatta’s has a new functioning Gods Court. And they have to find someone in charge when they do. »

« Great incompetents you mean Bluey, » sniffed Mary in contempt.

And for the first time in a millennium The System snickered.

The Marys rolled their eyes.

« Huh, have to find a sun god. »

* * * EARTH – MARY * * *

Mary relaxed, happy to be back home, she flickered contentedly and spread herself through her own slice of the Pacific. ‘Now how do I hide for a while longer? Maui is close to the tippin’ point, that is if it hasn’t occurred already. Soon anyone is goin’ be presented with a message ’bout Blue Lagoon. Yeah that’ll work...’

Mary gathered her domain and withdrew it from the beach and then from the surface of the ocean. It took a bit of work but retaining the link to the cliff and her caverns proved possible. Otherwise she withdrew her domain so it started four meters under the surface at high tide. That left her feeling cramped so she spread it further off shore and deeper into the Pacific.

A bit more testing left her satisfied. ‘Next, let’s see what’s been happenin’, an’ I guess I owe Mycroft an’ Moriarty an apology for makin’ things difficult.’

« Mycroft, Moriarty, Lane sorry for making things difficult recently, got rid of the volcano now. Anything urgent I should know ’bout? »

Mary heard Lane laugh. « The committee is in a shambles, they’re knifing each other in the back. Suggest you hold the Leopard girls in reserve. The chairman’s resigned and is scrambling to save his career. The new date for them to convene is sometime in a few months time. »

« ’K, they’ll be sorry. But ’K, Next. »

« Everybody knows you made the Ponies. They’re being studied. Nothing is going to stop them being recognised as sapient beings. There is a massive demand, especially the unicorns. You are between a rock and a hard place. You will need hundreds if not thousands to satisfy demand, and the more you hand out the more will demand for something similar for adults grow. »

« ’K Lane, sorry but a couple of hundred will be pushing it. Can do maybe, but thousands is right out. »

« I’ll do what I can Mother, but lots of folk are going to hate you. »

« Let ’em hate. Maybe they’ll feed me if they hate enough an’ get stupid. Got an idea for the tweens an’ adults. But they will prefer to fix the youngsters just like the ponies. »

« Fix? I thought they healed? »

« Keep sayin’ that. But yeah, Fix is the word. Not doin’ this for nothin’. »

Moriarty snorted in amusement. « Magitech Inc. has had several orders for the DNA set. Our finances are now completely in the black. Legally so. The IRS are going to have kittens. We need an address. »

« How ’bout, Queen’s Court, Castle on the Moon? A rover is due soon right? Put up a notice somewhere prominent in the entrance hall. »

« Please Mother, how is that going to allow us to claim the profits? »

« Do we need to? Oh all right, set up a branch office somewhere. Near Pearl for example. Hire a couple of patsies to answer phones and monitor the online orders, after we’ve screened ’em naturally. An’ I’ll bet the patsies will all be government employees. Can you arrange it so each works for a different agency? »

« I probably can Mother, » agreed Mycroft. « But why? »

« ’Cause some idiot luddites are bound to think it a good idea to attack ’em. And I’d prefer not to get innocents killed. I could turn the place into a fortress and still not guarantee the safety of the poor so an’ sos. »