“So there are two kinds of gods,” the Emperor mused from his spot in the Sixth Heaven. Reilly paused in his explanation of the movement of luck – which was less of an explanation and more of a rambling about how he can’t and doesn’t want to control it – to look up at the golden-skinned Origin Deity. His Jester stood behind him, and muttered something that set his God-king to howling with laughter.

  Two other gods stood before him, ones of Reilly’s universe. One was like Pyrah, with golden wings and a radiant aura of light, though she only had four wings and her aura was far dimmer than the Empress. The other god was a Shade, a being of shadow and darkness, muscular and humanoid in form with glowing red eyes. It, despite appearing bolder both in nature and in aura, had stepped behind the winged god to shield itself from prying eyes. Behind them cosmic dust swirled, slowly condensing into planets and stars…or perhaps not, and would instead remain dust.

  “Yes. Creation and destruction.” Reilly said, nodding and gesturing to the winged and Shade god, respectively. Those were the only kinds of gods to have appeared in his Seven Heavens so far.

  Statera and Yueya’s incarnations moved over to investigate the two gods next, who stood there looking very uncomfortable. Yueya immediately started circling the two, looking them up and down, while Statera simply stood there stroking his chin thoughtfully. Shin, on the other hand, remained next to Reilly, quietly listening.

  “Fascinating that divinity is manifesting itself in different ways. I have elemental gods, you have gods of creation and destruction.” Statera mused. “I do wonder how that influences the mortals…”

  “Um, Reilly, are these the guests Empress Pyrah brought back? Could you tell them to be more respectful with their prying?” The winged creation god asked, folding her arms across her chest. Yueya chuckled.

  “Don’t worry, we’re just looking.” She promised, while Reilly scratched himself and shrugged. These two were two of the older deities amongst the gods, they could use a little bit of pressure.

  “They truly do not hold great respect for you,” The Emperor said from off to the side, having moved off from the deities to observe an entire solar system as it was moved down from the Fifth Heaven to the Sixth. The system still had the energy density of the Fifth, but its luck had caused it to move down. Would it be good or bad? Who knew?

  He knew.

  “They respect me as the creator, but their functions are different than mine.” He admitted. “They help expand and clarify what is within, I dictate what is without.” The Emperor said nothing, gaze turning up to the Fifth Heaven above. From here it looked just like more space and worlds, starlight filtering through the blackness of space, but there was, of course, more to it than that. The barrier between Heavens was more than just empty space; there was a pressure there that could crush a soul if it didn’t follow the correct channels.

  “Do not sell yourself short, Lord Reilly,” Steward said, bowing slightly as he appeared beside them. “You are not Her Highness Pyrah, but your role is incredibly important.”

  “Thanks, Stu,” Reilly said, taking a deep swig of wine and glancing at the shade god out of the corner of his eye. He appeared relatively calm, all things considered. Acting as guide hadn’t affected him as much as he’d hoped, and Statera had been annoyingly tight-lipped about his reaction.

  “The real question is, and I do not believe even our real bodies have discussed this yet, but I do not see any attempts to expand into the Void,” The Emperor continued. Reilly smacked his lips thoughtfully, toying with his gourd and acutely aware of the attention of most of the other gods falling onto this conversation.

  “The dice haven’t rolled that way yet,” he admitted, taking another sip of wine. The creation and destruction gods took this moment of inattention to escape, fleeing in a flash of light and swirl of shadow. “Sometimes it does, and we experience a surge of growth. Sometimes not.”

  “A steady expansion rate is preferable,” MR-10’s drone beeped. “Is it not? The Void is emptiness, yet I have discovered that fluctuations occur within it while a universe is expanding. I have multiple drones dedicated to the study of these disturbances, and a steady, slow expansion rate limits them. Or is a sudden burst more effective?”

  “I find sudden bursts to be most effective,” Yueya chimed in. “It causes some fluctuations, like you said, and makes the edges of your world crinkle a bit, but the sudden burst creates far more energy. Smoothing the wrinkles takes time, but it’s nothing to worry over.”

  “Fluctuations in the Void?” Statera asked, sounding alarmed.

  “I would put more effort into expansion.” The Emperor spread his arms a little, his cape flaring dramatically. “One of a country’s greatest limiters is its size. It doesn’t matter how fertile the valley if you can only access a small percent of it.”

  “No no, let’s go back a bit. Fluctuations in the Void?” Statera parroted again.

  “Yes,” Reilly said, taking another sip of wine and watching the purple-robed god closely. “When you do a big expansion all at once, the Void fluctuates a little. Never really thought much about it.” He’d only done a massive expansion twice, though, and the next one was a while away yet.

  “Your reaction indicates fear, Statera.” MR-10’s drone noted monotone. “Why would this conversation induce fear?” Reilly squinted at Statera after MR-10’s words and noticed that he was, in fact, a bit paler than usual. He seemed to consider how to answer for a moment then, with a sigh, rolled up the sleeve of one arm all the way to his shoulder.

  “The Void is dangerous,” he said, and his arm melted away. Reilly sucked in a breath at the grievous wound – his arm up to a few inches above where the elbow should be had been completely eradicated. The flesh itself seemed to suck inward, a line of golden light, spewing little sparks, marking the end of his limb and also where it was regenerating. “This was given to me by a Paradox – a beast created by the Void itself and designed to return all creation into nothingness. Pushing the Paradox out of my Realm cost me my arm all the way up to my shoulder; that was many eons ago, and I am still recovering. I am not saying we do not need to expand. I am merely saying we need to be careful while doing so; creating massive fluctuations in the Void sounds like a great way to prompt the creation of a Paradox.”

  Statera’s arm slowly reformed, what Reilly could now identify as primordial chaos coalescing to remake the prosthetic limb.

  “…I see. That must be what The Overgod meant by ‘threats from the Void.’” MR-10’s drone said. “This is good data, and must be properly analyzed. Thank you.” And with that, the drone turned away. The Emperor was silent, staring at Statera’s arm, even as the purple-robed god turned back to observing the flow of karmic luck through the Sixth Heaven.

  “That’s terrible,” Yueya said softly.

  Ding!

  Reilly shuddered. A being that can inflict a permanent – even if it is slowly healing – injury upon an Origin Deity was only part of the Void’s influence? That was terrifying to even consider.

  “It seems, out of all of us, Statera has the most experience.” The Emperor noted casually. “It is wise to heed the advice of those who know, but unwise to claim it the end-all be-all. We must understand such problems ourselves.”

  “So long as you understand that there is a threat, I cannot complain or control what you do. I just wanted my experience to serve as a warning.” Statera called over his shoulder. “Reilly, would you resume your conversation about Luck? Keilan would like this…it’s something I need to discuss with him when I get back,”

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Reilly blinked, took another swig of wine, and once again resumed his lecture. Yueya was front and center, aggressively scribbling notes in a little notepad she had conjured, in particular paying attention to those little nuggets Reilly gave about how random bouts of luck could boost a soul to a higher plane of existence. But every once in a while he would turn his gaze to Statera, who listened intently and nodded along.

  …I am disappointed we are saving his for last. He admitted to himself. I have to know what kind of a universe a being like that has created.

  To me, Steward was a fascinating change from the Shadow I knew. The little destruction god was neither overly powerful nor outright malicious – in fact, it seemed to respect Reilly greatly, often countering the beggar deity whenever he tried to play the humble card. It honestly made me wonder if my estimation about Steward being Reilly’s Shadow was wrong, but my eyes didn’t lie to me.

  Whatever trial Steward was going to cause for Reilly in the future was doubtless to be a big one – and it was his unassuming nature that I felt was the cause, at least for now.

  Though it was hard to imagine Reilly being outmatched in terms of power, especially after his casual displays of strength. His manipulation of matter was as effortless as my own, but could be done on a far grander scale. His incarnations were able to perform feats that I had to leave to my main body, and the way he interacted with his own universe was…effortless. The power he wielded was immense and, in some ways, I was beginning to suspect that might be part of the problem.

  Not least of all because he had separated himself from karma.

  No, that wasn’t right. I shook my head a little to clear my thoughts. While it simply appeared like he had separated himself from karma, it wasn’t actually true. It was simply that he was so powerful that most of his universe’s karma could not touch him, and he willingly let it go. Even the karma of the Seven Heavens was separated from him. In fact, the only karma I could see connecting him to anything was that which bound him to Mr. Boxes – and that was karma from the most powerful being in existence, the Overgod of the Multiverse. Which means karma is a multiversal existence, not just my own creation. I realized, then refocused on my thoughts. Reilly.

  As far as I could tell, he always had kept himself separate. That, in and of itself, was what I saw as partially an issue; Reilly wanted to simply maintain things, but that wasn’t his personality. He took too much of a hand in maintaining the universe, building up his relationship with those within, to keep himself completely free of karma. I sighed and ran a hand through my hair.

  Such a thing had its positives and negatives, but looking down at the Seven Heavens I resolved myself to at least try to free myself from karma more. Entering the meeting room had been eye-opening for me – I was allowing myself to be bound too much by my own creations. Again, while not inherently bad, such a thing was limiting both myself and my children in worrying ways. Ways I had to overcome. But this was going to be a cyclical thing, to my estimation. There would be times to remove myself from karma, and times to bind myself to it again; the pendulum swings, as it were.

  It was, at least, almost time to leave the Seven Heavens. Reilly juggled his dice in one hand and laughed as our incarnations returned to us, MR-10 accepting the little drones it had sent out and flashing its light. Yueya was practically vibrating in her seat, rubbing her hands together in anticipation.

  “I already have so many ideas!” She said. “Thank you, Reilly, for showing us all this!”

  “Of course! I apologize we could only spend so much time here, but it is time for us to move onto the next universe.” Reilly said, shaking his head. We had only spent about twenty or so years talking about and exploring the Seven Heavens – longer than my initial estimate that it would only take ten – and now it was time to move on. I, at least, had gleaned all I could from this universe in such a short time-frame.

  Luck was going to have to be bound into the Will of the Four Realms as a fundamental…thing. The interactions between it and karma were too interesting to ignore. But only I could do that, it wasn’t something I could leave to any of the rest of my children. Keilan was the closest, and I would show him what I was doing, but he didn’t have the insights to look at luck as a fundamental force of reality. Even then, I still had to study the effects of it on the Four Realms before fully implementing things…

  I sighed and filed that thought away for later, literally storing a few blueprints some plan ideas in a little subspace I had created just for this.

  “This was even productive for me,” Reilly noted as we all began the short walk to the portal, scratching his chest. “Honestly, all these different perspectives have given me so many new ideas to test out, or to give to Pyrah. MR-10 was surprisingly helpful in providing more consistent data on the movements of the mortals.”

  Surprisingly, Reilly had a very young mortal population. Only a few ten thousand years old. Seems he did the opposite of me, and focused on building up the gods and such first. There was a hint of magic amongst the mortal populations as well, though nothing so intense as my own.

  “That said, what did you think?” Reilly asked. I cocked an eyebrow at him in confusion, wondering if he was talking about a specific part of the Seven Heavens, or as a whole. Then he gestured to Steward, and I understood. I was quiet for a moment, observing Reilly and the shade-like destruction god, peering into the potentials of what I had to say about the entire situation.

  Reilly had gotten lucky. Incredibly so, to notice Steward before he had fully blossomed into a Shadow. It was there, brewing, but not yet fully formed like Morgan had been – and Steward was different from Reilly, even. I could not see the destruction god really desiring the annihilation of the Seven Heavens like Morgan had; the destruction gods, at times, seemed more moderate than the creation gods.

  The question was what I could say. What would be beneficial? What would be harmful? We still didn’t know what Steward would turn into, and the wrong word could make the calamity even worse. But it still had to be a warning…

  “It’s too early to tell, but…at this rate, you’ll lose.” I said softly, and left it at that. Reilly took a swig from his gourd and didn’t say anything else, instead passing me another bottle of wine, which I gratefully accepted. Lucky wine, he called it. Distilled essence of luck. I took a big swig and sighed happily at the way it swirled in my gut, walking through the long hall and back out to the Pyrah’s palace in the Seventh Heaven. Small talk filled the air all the way back through the portal, where we met up with everyone else in the meeting room.

  “How did it go?” Rising Wind, Crashing Waves asked from where the great stag was meditating.

  “Well,” Reilly drawled, one hand in his pocket. Steward stood beside him, surprising me, as Pyrah had been his previous plus one. We were allowed to change them out? “Ten out of ten, would recommend.”

  “Then, if you all would not mind, I would like to do mine next.” MR-10 beeped. “It is unlikely I will be able to stay away for much longer, and would like to implement some changes as soon as possible.”

  Good. That would give me some time to internalize the information I’d learned from Reilly’s universe. I stepped away from the group as they gathered together, Yueya and Shin both slipping off to the side to go meditate in a corner, while Reilly and a large number of others gathered around MR-10. I, myself, moved over to the Mad Scientist, who was sitting silently beside the incarnation I had left with her.

  “Are you ready to return?” I asked her softly. She met my eyes, ringed with dark circles as they were, and nodded.

  “I thank you for the opportunity.” She said. The apathy within her was nearly gone now, the dark blackness that had been slowly consuming her soul fading away to more neutral colors. Reds and greens and blues, all tinged with her natural curiosity, swirled about her in a pleasant rainbow.

  “It was my pleasure. Where would you like me to return you to?” I asked, mentally sending a request to Mr. Boxes. The portal to the Four Realms opened before me, swirling with a myriad of colors.

  “I would like somewhere…quiet.” She admitted. I nodded and picked her up with my power, sending her through the portal with but a thought. It snapped shut behind her and I let out a long slow breath, reviewing everything I’d learned in Reilly’s universe, as well as the conversation I’d had with the Mad Scientist while she was here.

  I sat cross-legged on the ground, not bothering with the seat Mr. Boxes had given me. Shin nodded at me from across the way, looking as if he had something to say, but knowing now wasn’t the time. The Primeval Dragon watched me with a calculating gaze, popping her jaw with a massive yawn. And Yueya kept glancing my direction, the desire to talk bubbling up within her but knowing I wasn’t ready for it.

  A few others remained in the room with us, but I closed my eyes and pushed them out of my mind, clearing my head to meditate. There was time for that later.

  We had nothing but time.

  The Mad Scientist appeared in a familiar library, sitting in a plush armchair with a crackling fire before her. Hundreds of bookshelves rose all around her, filled to the brim with all the literature the Four Realms had ever produced; be they books, or scrolls, or even stone tablets. The warm scent of tea wafted through the air, accompanied by chocolate chip cookies that appeared on the little table set beside the velvet armchair she reclined in.

  Her chest tightened.

  “Thank you,” she said softly, to the butler god she knew had set them out for her. She’d met him only once or twice before, and he always seemed the pleasant sort. Her hands trembled as she grasped the steaming teacup, bringing it to her lips and taking a quick sip. It was a nostalgic flavor. Black tea, flavored with just a bit of lemon. No honey.

  It was one of the few things she had shared with Statera Luotian; a flavor she longed for, from one of her past lives. Their meditation and discussions in the meeting room had been mostly professional, but the Mad Scientist still occasionally let slip such things. Things she would rather keep secret if for no other reason than her own sanity.

  I should have been able to stay longer. I neglected my cultivation far too much; and now I don’t get to see the other universes. She chided herself, resolving to rectify that problem as soon as possible. A shaky breath escaped her as she looked about the room, and came to a sudden, terrible, horrible realization. One that froze her breath in her throat, and made her heart clench in abject terror.

  This is bad. This is really, really bad. She realized, clutching her cup tightly. The image of Statera’s eyes flashed in her mind, full of warmth, kindness, and understanding. I’m starting to care again.