The use of [Fairy Daisies] to plot a path worked. A magical ‘ping’ to track my location in relation to the line of plants I was sowing allowed me to maintain a sense of location. It also allowed me to discover a trait of the Forest that made movement even more manageable.

The [Forest of Nightmare Plants] used illusion and dream to confuse the mind of any person or animal that entered. I might not have noticed if the space between the [Daisies] and me hadn’t revealed this facet.

I had tried to destroy those patches of Forest and plants with fire and ice. Those areas that were restored to total health were a lie. The Forest was intertwined, each plant a part of the whole, and the damage I had done was spread across that entity. But the damage was real, and the healing process wasn’t as immediate as illusion had made it seem.

The Forest did not have the healing abilities of the Sidhe, and once the blinders were removed from my sight, my passage became markedly faster. Now that I knew illusion and dream were in play, I embraced my [Domain]. I wasn’t the Tuatha de Danann God of [Illusion and Glamour] yet. But I would be.

And my body and soul had already begun the process of ascending. When my soul had reached the [S-] Rank, the Divine Mandate that would be mine to command had solidified, my body already beginning to resonate with what would be. The connection was made. [Universal Law] had acknowledged my choice and my [Authority].

I admit to a bit of anger that I had allowed myself to be fooled so easily. I was too used to seeing through illusion, too used to being the person that deceived others. To be deceived in turn rankled, but it served a purpose.

I had claimed the [Domain] of [Illusion and Glamour] without accepting or understanding what my [Authority] as the burgeoning God of that [Domain] really meant. I had allowed the mantle to lie fallow, to settle across my shoulders without really incorporating what those changes to who I was and what that meant across the Universe writ large might mean.

I was becoming

My evolution to Godhood was inevitable at this point. The speed with which I had progressed, my elevation from Prince to King to Demi-God not even taking a century. Insights about the workings of the Universe and the [Law] that created order and chaos out of that Universe were beginning to become apparent.

I was beginning to understand the reason. The reason for existence. The reason for life and death. The reason for magic or science. And the basis for a multitude of Universes.

But my understanding was infantile. The flailing of arms and legs as I learned the coordination needed to control my newly forming identity. I had barely reached the newborn stage in my development. And like a newborn recently gifted with life, everything was both confusing and wondrous.

I should have noticed the illusion protecting the [Forest of Nightmare Plants], and I hadn’t because that part of myself that remembered living another life didn’t think I was worth it. I didn’t believe I deserved or earned the [Authority] and [Responsibility] that the ramifications to myself and the cosmos meant once I’d taken the final step in becoming an instrument that served as a pillar in the multi-verse that the Alpha and Omega had commanded to exist.

Actions that would have wide-reaching implications because I fully intended to wake the Tuatha de Danann. They had been bound in [Sleep] long enough. And I was convinced that the moment I breached the barrier and claimed my Godhood, the Tuatha de Danann would wake and rejoice.

I doubted they would rejoice long. The Tuatha de Danann would begin scheming for vengeance almost immediately if they were anything like the Sidhe they had given birth to.

Of course, that belief was predicated on the quests I had accepted. Stealing Odin’s eye and Zeus’ thunderbolt was a task worthy of a God. Or a demon. And the Sidhe could be both.

Now that I had pierced the illusion that imbued the Forest, I was able to make my way past dangerous plants and treacherous paths without incident. I still stopped occasionally to plant a [Fairy Daisy], using the magical signature of each plant as a waypoint. Still, the locations I selected for planting were safe relative to the rest of the Forest.

The longer I traveled the more diversity in wildlife I encountered and the greater dangers I uncovered. Plants reacted to passing animals by releasing gases- hallucinogenic or miasma of sleeping fogs. Animals, what few there were that succumbed to those effects, were captured by vines and tendrils, wrapped in a cocoon of greenery that held them fast no matter how hard they tried to escape.

I knew the path I was taking was never a straight line. I had to take detours to avoid the life signs I detected at times. Life signs that mimicked ley-line nodes, but it remained consistently in the direction I had decided was west.

I renewed the illusion I had first created to mask sight, scent, and sound each time I stopped to plant a [Fairy Daisy].

I decided it didn’t hurt to travel under that illusion, even if there were few signs of anything other than plant life. With my aura and magical signature adapted to mimic the energies of this realm, if by chance I did stumble across someone or something that could detect me, I should register as an Asgardian, not a Sidhe.

I had met Loki in my Universe and had managed to gain an understanding of the difference between Asgard and Sidhe’s magical signatures. My mind might only be at [A Rank], but that was high enough for me to have developed an eidetic memory. Even better, I not only remembered everything about that encounter, but I could also re-experience the full spectrum of sensory input.

I was able to experiment with my aura and signature and make small changes using [Glamour] until I had masked my Sidhe origins completely. I had toned down the aura I projected. I wasn’t as powerful as Loki and didn’t want to risk Asgardians challenging me to test my strength. Still, it was good to know that I could recreate an aura with Loki’s power signature.

Thor wasn’t the only lusty God of this Pantheon. A host of bored Gods enjoyed drinking and fighting amongst themselves, too many for me to risk a good-natured fight. I hoped that I would be ignored or dismissed as a servant by projecting a weaker aura.

The Asgardians created spirit servants to fill the roles of servants and townspeople—the barmaid, the innkeeper, each a spirit servant. Even the Blacksmith, who was a God had his forge staffed with spirit servants to assist him.

One of the nexus of life that I noticed and was preparing to detour around was unmasked between one step and the next.

A house was revealed.

If a Stave church could be considered a house. An interesting building that had been grown within the bounds of the Forest. A building entirely comprised of plants and flowers. Each tamed and encouraged to develop into walls, roofs, and a central tower.

The clearing was a hybrid of well-groomed lawn and unclaimed gardens of the more dangerous plants and flowers found within the Forest. There was no moat, no drawbridge to protect the entrance, but one wasn’t needed. The entire Forest served to defend and preserve this building.

The clearing and building were covered in illusion, but those protections meant nothing now that I had accepted my [Domain]. It was a good thing that I had embraced that [Domain] because standing at the entrance to the building was a God.

One that I was able to identify now that I had access to a part of the System’s functionality.

Baldur [Asgard God of Beauty, Purity, Light, and Joy]