My return was noticed by the people assigned to my section of the conclave. People I had managed to gain admission because most of the Tuatha de Danann was in [Sleep]. Members of each of the magic races were represented. I thought it was only just that they saw for themselves as the fate of the world was decided.

Pythia, Elf Queen, was the only one to confront me from any of those gathered. “How certain of the future you shared?”

“You know how the future can be changed as well as anyone,” I replied, not sure what she was getting at. “But the broad strokes are there, the river of history set, and to divert the flow of that river has become almost impossible.

“I won’t say that what I showed is inevitable and will come to pass, especially now that I have shared that future with every Pantheon of Gods here today. But it is the most probable future based on present-day events.”

“This future is partly your own fault,” Morgana interjected. “You had the chance to push back against the armies of man but didn’t. Why didn’t the magic races form an alliance to stop this?

“The Sidhe came to you, offered an alliance, and asked for your help, but you refused. You were content to let us be destroyed. Content to believe yourselves safe from the incursion of man.

“But you were never going to be safe. Caesar and Ragnar Lodbrok began their war against the Sidhe as a test, as a means to determine how effective their troops would be against those who could wield magic. They selected our people because our magic had all but vanished.

“The lack of our strongest magic and our weakness to iron led them to believe that we were the weakest of the magic races. But their goal of conquest and to remove anyone that wasn’t human from the planet would have seen them attacking each of you.

“Once he had exterminated our people, yours would have been next. Even the dwarves who believed themselves safe buried under their mountains would have eventually been dug out or buried as men collapsed the tunnels and caverns they call home.”

Pythia listened intently, her eyes darting towards Dracula, Beowulf, and Niroth Hammersmith of the dwarves as Morgana spoke the truth. The magic races would have survived that future that I had shared if they had joined together. But there was as much stigma and mistrust between each race as there was towards man.

“Perhaps you can use this conclave to create an alliance,” I suggested. “An alliance of equals. There are five magic races represented here. If you can come to an agreement, maybe you can create an association that has political and military weight to it.

“The association can serve as an advisory body that meets to discuss and try to work out problems that affect all of you. Each magic race would send a delegate empowered to speak for their people.

“When problems arise, the delegates would vote to resolve those issues. With five members, there would never be a chance of a tie. That is if it was agreed that a member delegate could never abstain once a vote is called.”

“Who would head this association?” Dracula wondered.

“Let chance decide who would lead first, but then rotate the leadership and determine what order the members would rotate when it is time to install someone new to serve as the head. Make the position temporary. We are all long-lived, so perhaps a ten-year term limit,” I suggested.

The details of what the five-member Council would be tasked with and the logistics for a meeting would need to be hammered out, but at least this was a start. The first time each of the magical races had even considered working together.

I would leave it to Morgana and the [Council of Twelve] to figure and work things out. The only suggestion I would make was that no one from the [Council] or linked with Underhill fill the role.

It would be best to find a facilitator, a Sidhe that was known for mediation and temperance. Sadly, Sidhe lacked those characteristics in abundance. We were more the type of people who claimed what we wanted by force or trickery.

“Tia,” I said, speaking with her through our bond, “have your people managed to find a way into Olympus?”

Tia’s goal to convert native feline species to Cait Sith had rippled across the world from that first transformation. The event triggered something, something that evaluated every feline worldwide and uplifted them to Cait Sith without any further intervention on her part if they met whatever esoteric requirements needed to be satisfied.

Her people were still few, barely breaking a thousand, but she had the numbers needed to expand now. Cats were almost as fecund as bunnies, and I was sure the realm of [Cait Sith] would see an explosion in population numbers soon.

“No,” she replied, “they have found the place of transition where the mountain and Olympus meet, but they haven’t been able to breach the barrier between realms.”

“Let’s send a few Azi to see if they can breach that barrier. They managed to get past Asgardian wards and protections to gain entrance to Thor’s home; if they can ignore those divine protections, they should be able to pass whatever barrier Zeus has in place,” I suggested.

I’m not sure why the Olympians decided to anchor their Divine realm to a real location. Unlike Asgard, which could only be entered via the [World Tree] or the Bifrost Bridge, Olympus was more easily accessible.

But just because there was a physical location that a person could enter from climbing didn’t mean that Olympus wasn’t as much its own realm, with its own set of Divine providence as Asgard.

The divine energies of Olympus had to be contained, or the bleed-over into Urd would transform the entire planet. The realms would merge, and the entire planet would be ripped apart as the other Pantheons fought to exert their Divine energies to keep Olympus from encroaching.

My understanding of that, of the reason why the realms were separate, was something new. I was beginning to glimpse the [Universal Law] that set limits on each Pantheon. Those [Laws] governing how the Gods whose [Domains] and [Authority] overlapped were able to fit together like a giant jigsaw puzzle. The [Paradox] of divergent belief systems negated by [Laws] that allowed overlap.

Each God, each Pantheon, was a pale reflection of the Alpha and Omega. Each empowered and given shared [Authority] because everything that ever was, ever is, or ever would be contained that spark of creation the Alpha and Omega had released when the multi-verse was formed.