Prologue
The gods sat in their council chamber to discuss Peace’s… indiscretions. Law’s hand rose and fell, the stone clasped between his fingers releasing deafening bangs and a spray of sparks each time it struck the ivory marble.
“We are gathered,” he began in his aged voice, “to discuss the violations of etiquette and the Accords. She is charged with willfully issuing a Quest directing her followers to locate and kill the Avatar of Life. Our last meeting declared these actions out of bounds, to which everyone agreed.”
“Not everyone!” came a snarl. Meredith, the Goddess of Peace, crossed her arms over her meager chest. She was a short, green-haired woman, appearing to be barely over twelve, though she was centuries old.
“Abstaining is not disagreement,” Law replied without heat.
He looked to be a man in his eighties and had a long white beard that hung over the front of his gray, homespun robes.
With wrinkles on wrinkles, Law resembled an ancient wizard, which wasn’t far from the man he’d been before he’d ascended to his current level.
“If you had wished to register dissent, you should have voted nay.”
“A nay would have left us arguing for decades!” Meredith protested. “Your stupid rules won’t let us adjourn unless we unanimously agree on something. You were barely willing to grant us the right to abstain to show we don’t support the motion.”
Death let out a sigh, clearly bored. Her skull rested atop her bony hand, and only sharp eyes could register the transparent body wrapped around her skeleton.
She wore a black, floral-print bikini over a body that was bizarrely curvaceous for someone with invisible flesh.
Her long, gossamer hair hung over her frame until she flicked it over her shoulder with her other hand.
“Can we get on with this?” she asked. Delar glanced over at Julius, her smoldering gaze inviting.
Non snorted in amusement when her brother refused to look at his former lover.
Julius just licked his little muffin paw like his gray-furred toes were the most fascinating thing in existence.
Delar’s look of frustration was a delight to behold.
“Yes,” War agreed, “I have no stomach to waste time discussing voting procedures. What is the punishment for breaking our agreement?”
Rogush, War, had been an orc warlord before he’d become a god, and not much had changed in his ascension.
His armored form hunched heavily over the marble counter and his elbows cracked the stone each time he shifted.
“The punishment is reparations,” Law said firmly. “Peace must offer some form of repayment to the injured parties, and her ability to issue Quests to her followers shall be restricted.”
“Finally,” Non said with a happy laugh. “Nice to see I’m not the only one getting punished!”
“Your constant meddling on Ordinal is another issue,” Rogush boomed.
“We wouldn’t need to keep having these meetings if you’d stop trying to break things!”
The orc slammed his fist on the stone and blasted the marble to dust in a small explosion.
The material hung in the air, then the powder sucked back into the cracks and the shattered surface reformed itself.
“I’m Change, Rogush, that is literally my job.” Non rolled her eyes, snorting. “You don’t see me telling you to stop encouraging people to fight just because people I care about get hurt, do you? So don’t go asking me to leave things untouched just because you’re too dim to follow along.”
“How dare you!” Rogush roared. War surged to his feet, his fists once more crashing down on the counter before him. This time, however, a flash of Law’s power saw the semi-circular table surviving the impact.
Then Julius yawned, shifting, his back arching and his thick, feline body fluffing out as he turned his orange eyes on Rogush. The plump, fluffy cat’s flat face looked to be frowning, and his ears flicked in the orc’s direction while Julius’ tail lashed from side to side.
Rogush froze, looking warily at Julius.
He wasn’t the only one. Law’s fingers had half curled into defensive claws, and Delar visibly flinched away from Julius. Meredith, however, appeared the most afraid. Sweat covered her forehead, and she stared at the God of Life like he was a bomb that might go off at any moment.
Non took that moment of silence to transform. Her body dissolved into smoke, dark elven features disappearing. Scales grew out over her skin and she expanded, the smoky form flowing into the open space before their crescent-shaped desk.
When she solidified, she was a dragon, nearly eighty feet from the tip of her nose to the end of her spiked tail.
Scales of midnight black with purple sparkles covered her lithe form, and her huge wings looked like a nebula of purple gasses with black stars hovering among them.
She narrowed her crimson eyes and stared down at the other gods.
“Some of you have forgotten what it was that allowed you to reach godhood,” Non purred in a voice like silk and thunder.
“You have forgotten who it was,” she continued.
“Before Julius and I arrived, you were primitives, tribal folk who’d barely begun to master your personal magics. The Horrors were tearing their way into your world, and you were all destined to a slow death as reality broke down around you.”
She swung her serpentine head, making the horns on either side of her jaws gleam as she leaned forward until her muzzle hung over them like the Sword of Damocles.
Her wings mantled menacingly, and she hissed to release a cloud of purple flames that swirled around them to form an ominous shadow around her body.
“Julius and I held back the Horrors. We burned shut the rifts that let the Void enter Ordinal. It was our knowledge, our magic that allowed us to build the System. Our support allowed humanity to establish the magic schools that educated you, Todd,
and sheltered the orc tribes enough for you to unify them, Rogush. We preserved your village, Delar, though you ended it yourself with your experiments in necromancy—”
“You didn’t help me,” Meredith interrupted with a sniff.
“WE DIDN’T WANT YOU!” Non roared. The power in her voice shattered the back wall of the meeting chamber, and Law—Todd—sighed as he used magic to restore it.
“The Empire of Light and its tainted beliefs have no business on Ordinal. You should have been purged before you ever got a chance to sink your nails into—”
“Calm,” Julius murmured softly. The gray cat rolled onto his back, wriggling to rub his spine against the tabletop. “Let’s calm down, Non. Meredith was just about to tell us how she planned to make her reparations, right?”
Non squinted at her brother, but the dragon chose not to disagree with him.
She simply turned her luminous crimson gaze on Meredith, and the green-haired goddess silently swallowed.
Meredith took several deep breaths, then grimaced.
“What… do… you think would be a fair offering?”
she asked Julius. The goddess sounded like she was being tortured while she asked, which caused Non to chuckle.
“Release the Hero from your Geas,” Julius offered promptly, like it was of no importance. His orange eyes remained fixed on her. She gasped like she’d been slapped, her complexion paling.
“Never!” she snapped. She slapped the table and white light flared under her palm. “I led the summoning to bring the Hero here. The agreements you all signed clearly state that he’s my tool and mine to direct. You all had your chance to influence a member of his Party, but the Hero himself is mine.”
“You also made that girl, Emma, your Holy Lighthouse,” Delar pointed out. The skeletal woman flashed a bright smile, pretending she was trying to help. “Oh, and made Davis a Lightmender.”
“Those were their natural affinities!” Meredith insisted. “It’s denoted in the subclauses that—”
“Whatever,” Non growled, “get back to apologizing.” Her tone had mellowed, though, as she forced herself to calm down. “If you’re not willing to remove the Hero’s mind from your Geas, what will you offer?”
Merideth’s face turned red and she took a deep breath while looking like she was about to launch into a screaming tantrum.
Todd brought up his stone and crashed it down on the tabletop to send more sparks into the air. “Let us please remember our rules of discourse,” he said in an exhausted voice. “I understand that none of you are as concerned with propriety as I am, but still, we made our rules for valid reasons.”
Rogush and Delar didn’t seem willing to comment, both of them shifting their gazes between Non and Julius.
Their pride had clearly been pricked by Non’s comments, yet neither of them were willing to confront the dragon…
or the husky-sized cat purring on the marble counter.
Todd simply looked exhausted, which Non took great satisfaction in.
“You’re right,” Non said suddenly. Everyone except Julius blinked at her, and she giggled while her body dissolved back into smoke and reformed into the dark elf form they were more familiar with.
She smoothed her toga and reclaimed her seat at the table.
“We do have our rules for a reason,” Non continued.
“Change without restriction is entropy, and my goal is not to destroy Ordinal. While my nature may rankle some of you, remember that my purpose is to see the world we shepherd grow as powerful as it can.”
Julius offered a nod of his feline head before ducking his face to lick one of his paws.
“Well said,” he murmured between cleaning his claws.
“Personally, I might feel upset if I thought that Meredith was attempting to wiggle out of repaying her obligations… After all, she did send a Bloodrager after my Avatar.”
Meredith opened her mouth to retort, but Todd slammed his stone down on the table again.
“She did. No one disagrees with that. The System records show that the Quest was issued by Meredith herself. However, the recommendation to lift her Geas from the Hero has been rejected. If Peace is unwilling to offer a secondary reparation,
then it is our job to think up a suitable punishment for her.”