Gwyn ap Nudd’s arrival had changed the emotions across the chambers. The Gods that had just watched with reverence as a new God, as I joined the ranks of the Tuatha de Danann, had become darker. Fear and apprehension soon swamped the chambers as each Pantheon murmured among themselves, informing those Gods who had no idea what Gwyn ap Nudd represented meant.

Gwyn was a God, but more than that, he was a force for [Justice] and [Vengeance]. He was primal, his [Domain and Duties] a constant that not even the other Gods could impact. It was the reason he was not forced into [Sleep]. Those who had bargained and tricked the Tuatha de Danann into entering [Sleep] had been careful not to draw his attention.

If he had been present when the bargain was struck, he would have unleashed his huntsmen. Once he began to hunt, there was no place, no multiverse you could cross into to hide that would keep him from your trail.

Because his name was not invoked, he was powerless to interfere when Danu had agreed the Tuatha de Danann would not resist and would enter [Sleep].

He was a [Power], and when leading the hunt within the boundary of his [Domain], he was stronger than even [Order] or [Chaos]. If either of those entities stepped beyond the bounds of their own [Domains], if anyone were brave enough to challenge them by invoking Gwyn ap Nudd, then even they would fall beneath the tides of his Huntsmen.

Because of this duty, he had not fallen into [Sleep] with the rest of the Tuatha de Danann. He was Tuatha de Danann, but he was more. He was a constant of the [Universal Law] that served the multiverse.

Gwyn ap Nudd’s arrival did not worry me. I’d had enough dealings with him to know I was beneath his attention. I had never engaged in any actions that would draw his countenance. I had been careful with what [Oaths] I had offered and made sure that I honored those [Oaths] if one was given.

I wasn’t sure the same could be said for some of the Gods in this room.

Zeus and Loki seemed to revel in breaking their given words. The same could be said for many of the Roman and Olympus Gods.

What did concern me about Gwyn’s arrival was the secondary rift in space that soon followed. A rift that summoned Caraid into the chamber. Caraid’s appearance had changed. He was outfitted as one of the Huntsmen. That was worrisome enough, but even worse; he was holding his daughter.

The child had none of the protections [Justice] had ensured was in place when I’d chosen leaders of the magic races to attend this conference. Without those protections, the child would be changed.

She would become God-marked, and if she weren’t Sidhe with the magics of Immortality running through her veins, she would have died. No mortal being was meant to gaze upon the face of Gods in their true forms. That she was unlucky enough to find herself under the gaze of [Justice], [Chaos], and [Order] themselves would have real ramifications on her development.

Danu was quick enough to envelop the child with her magic and return her to the Sithern cache where Caraid had been raising her. But no matter how fast Danu had acted, the damage had been done. The sight of Caraid’s face, the utter despair and sense of loss as his daughter was removed, was heartbreaking. But for me, the hardest part came when he was subsumed by his role as Huntsman, and all emotion, any care he might have for his daughter was stripped from him.

He had lost his daughter, and now he had lost even the memories or emotions that linked him to the gift I had managed to claim for him.

“Caraid?” I said in sorrow, stopping my hand from reaching out to clasp his shoulder.

Gwyn ap Nudd and Caraid turned to me, in perfect synchrony, to answer my unspoken question. “Your time in this universe is almost at an end, Teigh, God of [Illusion and Glamour].

“Your Quest has been completed, and the [Oath] and [Pact] you agreed to when I opened the pathway betwixt and between to bring you to this universe is almost concluded. There is but one final step, to return you and the Tuatha de Danann to your point of origin.”

Their voices resounded, a small hesitation as first one and then the other, an echo of the first gave their words an inflection and weight even more profound than when Gwyn ap Nudd spoke alone.

“What is he speaking of, child?” Danu asked.

I wasn’t sure if she was feigning her cluelessness or not. She was the most powerful God in our Pantheon, and with her powers of omniscience and omnipresence when the matters within her Pantheon were concerned should have already processed what I had done, how I had done it, and the cost involved. She should have been able to understand our conversation and the hidden words behind them.

But maybe she was asking so that the other Gods assembled would understand what I had done.

“This isn’t the Universe I was born into,” I began to explain, projecting my voice so that all could hear. “In my Universe, Athena, Loki, Coyote, and Set approached me. They offered me a [Quest].

“I was to come to this universe and steal the [Eye of Odin] and Zeus’s [Lightning Bolt], delivering the Eye to Athena and the Bolt to Loki. I was reluctant to get involved at first. The Gods from Olympus and Asgard have not been kind to my people. The Sidhe have been repressed since the Tuatha de Danann entered [Sleep].

But they had evidence. And they had shown me the proof that Odin and Zeus would discover a way to kill other Gods. They would find a way to absorb and claim the [Domain] and [Authority] of each God slain.

“Those [Domains] and [Authority] would be theirs to harness and control in the process. The future they showed me was one of devastation and conflict until the last God had fallen and the final battle began. The battle where Zeus turned on Odin and Odin turned on Zeus.

“The multiverse could not withstand the conflict of two Gods that had absorbed the combined Divinity of every other divine being from every other Pantheon. This battle would make Ragnarök pale by comparison. The power and energy they unleashed was the death knell for all that life, and as the last star was stripped of energy to fuel their mad war, the multiverse collapsed.

“In exchange for completing this [Quest], Athena and Loki are bound by [Oath] and [System] to depose Odin and Zeus. But those [Oaths] would only come into effect after I had placed the [Eye of Odin] and [Lightning Bolt] in their hands with Coyote and Set as witnesses.

“My [Reward] for my part in fulfilling the [Quest] was freedom for the Tuatha de Danann. They would be freed from [Sleep], and whatever blackmail or leverage the other Pantheons used against them to get their cooperation to agree to enter that foul condition would be destroyed and removed by the System.”

My words had sent whispers of anger and fear across the room. Even [Justice] turned to focus her eyes on the two Gods that would scheme to destroy everything. “I could have tried to find my way to this universe through the Summerlands, but the chances of succeeding were so remote as to be impossible.

“Caraid has been my friend. He was my inner voice and a steadfast ally when I reincarnated into this body. He paid the ultimate price and sacrificed himself to take my place as a Huntsman early in my new life- before I understood who I was and what I was capable of.

“Caraid used his position as a Huntsman to broker a meeting with Gwyn ap Nudd. One that didn’t require he be called to act in his role as a weapon of [Justice]. Gwyn ap Nudd agreed to use his abilities to open the void, to pass between the membrane of reality that separates one universe from another so that I could fulfill my [Quest].

“In stepping betwixt and between, he traveled the [River of Time] so I would arrive before Zeus and Odin had discovered the means to kill Gods. But traveling through time is not without Cost.

“I had to agree that my time here was limited. That I would need to return to my universe and my time, and that if I was successful and the Tuatha de Danann woke, they would have to travel back with me to deny [Paradox] a foothold across the multiverse.

“Our entire Pantheon will be joining me so that your presence does not affect the course of events that would already have happened from my perspective. You are awake. Your long [Sleep] has been broken, but if you don’t return to my time, [Paradox], which already will have to be controlled because of the changes my actions have meant to Zeus and Odin and their scheme, will reverberate across the multiverse.

“[Paradox] will grow until [Order] and [Chaos] can no longer be contained.”