6.07

“Gods are not simply ‘stronger’ or more ‘knowledgeable’ entities. Bundriroc is literally a pile of rocks, the God warding off Shadesmar is nothing more than a big fire. Are you to say pebbles and embers are greater and smarter than you? Fool, Gods are Gods because they play a Role.” - Magus Smar Da Ten Yu in her correspondence with the Mad Mage Khao, on the subject of apotheosis and deicide.

Heavy rain slammed down from the sky, battering the earth and grass. Their cool droplets dripped down my body, soaking into it and making me refreshed, like soaking in a warm bath after a tiresome day, except slightly the opposite.

“Dustin stop standing there like an idiot and help!”

I sighed, feeling a sensation much like waking up on a winter morning, not yet ready to leave my warm bed and face the cold outside. But shaking myself out of it, I looked over our cart, seeing Utoqa and Tai struggle and fail to lift it out of the mud.

“Empty it out first,” I suggested, glancing at Celine and Johnny who were already getting off, bringing bags of stuff with them.

Utoqa was slowing due to the lowering temperatures, wordlessly Noam spat out a glob of napalm on his hand before lighting it beside the lizardfolk. The heat kept his eyelids open just enough, but it was little compared to the rushing rain.

The bison-like creature pulling our cart, which Noam affectionately called Betsy and Utoqa emotionlessly called backup rations, was waiting patiently as now only Tai and I tried to lift the cart out of the ditch.

“Are you even pushing?” Tai called out with a grunt.

“I have eight strength,” I emphasised as my muscles strained with effort.

We managed to lift it a few centimetres, but nowhere near what we needed. Collectively, we dropped the cart back into the mud ditch, huffing for breath as we considered this conundrum.

“Let me help,” Noam called as he lit up a torch with napalm to keep warming Utoqa, freeing his formerly burning hand. Then, holding his hands to his mouth, he beatboxed a few bars, activating his Beatbox skill on me.

My formerly weakened arms felt themselves almost double in strength! Though that was because it was initially so low that a plus six from his Inspiration skill was actually significant.

Noam right now had eight total stats that he could give out with that skill, maxing at six per stat. He gave himself the remaining two as strength before getting beside us.

“Celine, get Betsy to pull when we push,” I directed her, even though she very likely had more strength than me.

She nodded, leaving Johnny beside Utoqa to keep warm.

“On my mark,” I called out, this time with both Noam and Tai beside me.

“One, two, three, PUSH!”

This time, my strength had been raised to fourteen, Noam’s was at seventeen with his own buff, and though I didn’t know what Tai’s strength was, it was definitely well above fifteen.

The three of us, plus a slap by Celine on Betsy’s rear, were finally able to free the cart from the ditch.

Falling back on my ass, I grunted as I shook the soreness out of my arms. I was the better of the group, as the rain was a supremely comforting environment for me.

The rest of us were wet and splattered with mud. Utoqa was already nodding off to sleep, Noam’s napalm fire be damned.

“Fuck we need to make camp,” Tai said.

I nodded, but Utoqa shook his head.

“Ground… too muddy…” he said, speech slightly slurred as he roughly tore a clump of mud from the ground.

“Fucking hell you’re right,” Noam replied as I knelt down to feel the dirt.

The ground was too muddy for our tent stakes to properly set in. Utoqa and I would probably be fine in the rain and mud, but it wasn’t something the others with their significantly more human bodies could comfortably tolerate. There was a crop of trees nearby, it would be cold, but it would have to do.

“We’re near farmland,” Celine called out, sheltering herself and Johnny under her cloak, “maybe there’s a farmhouse further up the road?”

“If there isn’t?” Tai asked, peering out into the darkness, “I don’t think we have any tree cover for the next few miles.”

“I can scout it out,” Noam offered, “I can head forward first and come back if I see shelter.”

“That sounds like a good idea,” I said, tapping my cap. “Take Yellow with you.”

“Here!” the wisp answered as it hopped onto Noam’s outstretched hand.

Snapping his fingers, Noam ended the Beatbox buff he had on the both of us. Ripping out a fresh beat to raise his stamina before he set out running further down the road.

He soon disappeared into the distance, the rest of us set out making the area we had as comfortable as we could. Setting up the tarps above the cart to ward off the rain while we waited for him to return.

After a while however, a bright ball of fire flew up far off in the sky.

Seven times the small balls of fire flew up into the air, barely more than pinpricks in the darkness.

“That’s him,” I said, getting up, “he found a spot for us.”

Tai groaned, getting up from her comfortable spot, before asking, “We got anymore tarp?”

The front of the cart wasn’t covered, Betsy had a blanket on her, but the seat was exposed to the elements.

Celine rifled through our remaining stuff, before shaking her head, “We’re out of blankets.”

“Do we have a spare umbrella at least?”

I shook my head this time.

Tai looked at me.

“Say… you kinda have the shape of an umbrella right?” she asked.

I paused.

Two minutes later, I was sitting on Tai’s shoulders, an oversized baby used as an impromptu umbrella as she drove the cart.

Why was I on her shoulders? Well, that happened when she realised even if I stood behind her, my short height meant my cap would be blocking her vision as she drove.

There was a stifled chuckle as Celine failed to hide her laugh.

Desperately, I wanted to pull my cap down and hide myself, but I resisted the urge. I can’t acknowledge my embarrassment after I agreed to try it.Through my manavision, I could sense that Tai was also regretting the idea, but also too prideful to ask me to get off yet, to acknowledge that maybe her idea was just a tad bit awkward.

“I’m so high up!” Greenie said from atop my head.

Stacked atop the cart, Tai and then me, Greenie did have a pretty good view of the land, probably the only one of us who was enjoying it.

Then, I heard a second laugh.

Not from Celine.

But from Johnny.

So, I silently sat there.

It was a minor sacrifice to hear that child laugh for the first time since I met him.

At least until the farm came into sight!

Because fucking come on! I was not letting Noam of all people see me like this!

“I think I should get off now.”

Tai stiffly nodded, a moment of shared clarity letting the both of us know we regretted ever conceiving or even going through with this.

As I got down to the back of the cart, Tai decided to stoically endure the rain for the last short stretch to the farm.

I silently gave her a thumbs up.

“You know you could just drive right?” Celine casually mentioned to me.

I froze and Tai noticeably stiffened as well.

We were all silent until we reached the farm.

“So what is a God?” I asked Discovery, the roar of the train a faint rumble around us.

Matt leaned in as well, though he could not hear Discovery, which I fixed by connecting our AAD’s.

There was a pause, before he began speaking.

“A god is something given Concepts to embody and govern,” he answered finally. “How they obtain a Concept can be through two ways. The gradual strengthening of a Path until they reach Conceptualisation, or to be worshipped as an embodiment of that concept.”

“What were you?” I asked.

“I was a mixture of the two,” Discovery answered. “I made the exploration of the world my life’s joy, and my discovery of the New World made my name known in every household. Just that knowing, that association with Discovery allowed me to embrace the Concept. I initially used it to explore as far as I could through the many multiverses, uncaring of the consequences of the power.”

“But the problem,” Discovery continued, “is that a Concept is ultimately a shared power. You are not the only one who defines it, worship is strength, but you do not control it.”

“Eventually, people ceased knowing Ekon Zaeba, but began worshipping the myth of Discovery itself, and so, I who was attached to Discovery, began to cease being Ekon Zaeba.”

“What about now?” Matt asked, “Are you Discovery or are you Ekon Zaeba?”

“I have enough strength to still be called a God,” Discovery answered, and the roar of the high seas seemed to briefly overcome the rumbles of the train.

“But I retain enough of myself to still be Ekon Zaeba,” Ekon Zaeba said. “This is the state of balance many Gods try to achieve, retain the mind, but keep the worship, though, I can’t hear the worship of Indiri anymore, so that may change for me soon.”

“What about the Historian?” I asked him.

“He is one who has achieved balance,” Discovery replied. “His concept is a bit more special, since he embodies the concept of a job or role, he has more control over it than something more nebulous like Discovery.”

“Could he have stopped me from taking both Eyes back then?” I asked.

He paused, perhaps sensing the slight bitterness in my tone.

“He could’ve,” he admitted. “But it would’ve cost him too much. The groove he had been carving out for himself was shattered for a night to free me from that world. To sever my apotheosis, he engaged in History, a contradiction for Historian who is supposed to only record it. If he had not quickly returned to the role, he might’ve been destroyed along with it.”

“So he could’ve only hoped that his warning was enough for me to get rid of it, or that I really did discover a miraculous cheat to overcome the Balance of the world,” I guessed.

“Adding one or two more words couldn’t have been that dangerous right?” Matt asked.

To Discovery’s surprise, I was the one who answered it.

“It may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back,” I told Matt. “A single action can tip it, if I told the you in Indiri right now a few sentences, I would be able to screw up your karma.”

To Discovery I said, “I do not blame others for my mistakes, I should’ve seen the pitfall I was walking into.”

Bringing a hand to my still red eye, I told them, “If the cost of learning that lesson was just an eye, I would gladly pay that price.”

“Experience is a bloody teacher,” Discovery agreed. “But their lessons are ever important.”

As our cart passed by their fence, I saw a mailbox in the shape of a winged foot. On the doors to the farmhouse was a symbol of a hearth.

Celine quickly got off, bowing to the middle aged couple who greeted us.

“We come asking for warmth and hospitality for a night,” she said.

The two bowed back, tapping their chest four times clockwise in a square- no, a Hearth shape. “We offer it in the name of the Old Laws, may you return like with like.”

“We thank you,” Celine said. “May you find honey on your doorstep.”

The couple broke out in a wide smile, “It is not often we meet a youngin who remembers the traditions.”

“I um… sorta picked it up along the way,” Celine said with an embarrassed smile.

“I am Gherkan, this is my wife Ferrar,” he introduced himself. “Your friend tells us you are adventurers.”

I nodded as Noam joined us, helping unload some of our sleeping gear.

“We are travelling for now until we reach the next big city.”

“Please come in,” Ferrar welcomed us, “no need to be standing in the rain while we talk. We have some heated soup.”

“That would be greatly appreciated,” I answered.

Betsy led into their barn along with our cart, we filed into the house. Celine held Johnny’s hand as we entered.

After accepting the simple, but hearty soup, Celine tucked in Johnny, singing a lullaby beside him as he drifted off to sleep.

The rest of us were by the hearth.

“... that child,” Gherkan began. “You need to bring him to a church of the Hearth?”

I nodded, the rest of us as well.

“Do you know of any place nearby?” Noam asked.

Gherkan nodded, “Further down the road, towards the north. You will find the city of Taebut, there you will find a Church to the Hearth.”

The fireplace beside us crackled with flame.

By the sides of the hearth, there were two empty seats. Forever dedicated to the Gods Lorn and Gwaina, the protectors of home and family.

There were many Pantheons on just this continent, the names and rituals of all the different gods, even abbreviated, could fill out an entire encyclopaedia.

But no matter what, there would still be gods in greater prominence compared to others.

The Elder Pantheon was the previous ruling Pantheon of the humanoid races, though lessened in modern times due to the rising of the White Pantheon, their influence remained. Bundriroc was a part of the Elder Pantheon, as were Lorn and Gwaina.

Their influences were set in the land and people itself.

I bowed, “Thank you for this information.”

As we retired for the night, I glanced towards Celine’s room, finding her dozing off beside Johnny, her living cloak wrapping itself around the both of them.

When morning came and we bid our farewells, I saw something on the doorstep of the farmhouse.

A jar of fresh honey, one not there last night.

Gherkan smiled towards me.

“Hospitality and Honour, we remember to follow all those things.”

I nodded in understanding.

Altruism gets rewarded in this world.

For voluntary loss has to be balanced.

Celine bowed, and the rest of us mimicked her this time.

“Thank you for lending us your roof,” Celine said.

“Thank you for the honey,” Ferrar replied with a cheeky smile, as if sharing a joke.

Gherkan tapped his chest four times, making the shape of a hearth, “May Bundriroc protect your journey.”

“May Tasha visit your fields,” Celine answered.

And with that, we set off.

When the farmland bled away into the stark walled city of Taebut, I got my Status Screens back.

And I had finally levelled up.