Malakai was sitting at his desk checking the latest Transcendent intake. He had used his limited illusionary powers to make it seem like he was sat in the centre of a pleasant glade in the centre of a wood rather than in one of the observation stations spanning the outer zone. The gentle trickle of a stream kept him calm and focused as he worked his way through the list checking which worlds could be crossed off as a lost cause and which needed further observation.

He struck another world from the list designated for ongoing observation. The strength of the mark demonstrating his frustration about the new directive to add in a wave of candidates from worlds that had passed to a scientific age. In his opinion it was a waste of resources. How was any candidate with no background knowledge of the Seven have any chance of actually making it off world? Some had even failed to integrate with the system properly. However, this was the will of the celestial beings he worked for, his forceful completion of a list was the furthest he was willing to go to share his feelings about the matter.

Each of the Seven had their quirks. Aeon's expansion in new directions to try and increase her power was, at the least, a safe one for her follwers. Malakai kept working through the list; inspecting the details of each world to determine if continued observation was necessary. He was not surprised to note all the primary worlds were progressing as expected, it was the secondary mix that always tilted the balance after a spawning.

Maybe this time it would be their turn. He remembered the anticipation and planning that had preceeded the event. All of the higher beings had been involved in some way; with all above his rank having memories of spawnings in the past. Malakai was raised in the last cycle so could not tell any tales of the battles and tricks that came in the spawning before. It was a generational event; and for Gods a generation lasted a long time. Ignis was the first of the seven at the moment and all involved in cycle before knew his power well. Even Malakai remembered the burnt out husks of worlds that had been left in his wake as he ascended above his rivals.

Now there would be a new leader though; this spawning would guarantee it as the others plotted and planned behind his back. While most had at least one alliance; he had none. This was evident from the scheming seen at the last grand council. It had been agreed that the spawning would restore the balance of primary worlds. All six other than Ignis voted together on this; unprecedented in moves that would give others power too.

The spawning was an uneasy time. None of the Seven could create worlds on their own so had to work together when one was designed. The pact was complex and detailed with the magic behind it being unbreakable. So once the terms were set; hundreds of worlds would be created at once; the Seven allowed to put a candidate on each in the hope they would claim it as their own. Primary worlds had such a bias towards one of the Seven those not designated to Aeon didn't even form part of Malakai's list. It was the secondary worlds, which in principle favoured none, where the battle for superiority would lie.

Malakai was pleased to note several of the worlds containing candidates raised from Aeon's old primaries were doing well. He crossed another off the list where their candidate had an unfortunate accident with a boar off the list. The next entry caught his eye: Adam - level 2. What was that about? He thought, concentrating harder on the entry. It was one of the candidates from a science world Malakai noted in scorn. At least he had integrated with the system; and had designated levels to help understand. Moving past, he left this entry on the list for the next review.