It was amusing to me, how the first Dao besides my own to fully manifest in the Four Realms was the Dao of the Warrior – just a bud though it was. The warrior who led his people away from its city. The warrior who stood before the Shadow. The warrior who battled the sea his whole life, as a fisherman. The warrior who studied in his room while his body was weak, sharpening his mind. The warrior who stood alone, and fought through the strange, hidden realm.

  Xing Wu. Star Warrior. I find the name ironic.

  His Dao fleshed itself out more and more in the years following him throwing off his restraints, especially when he went out across the lands, seeking challenges of all sorts; be they fights against angels, other immortals, or simple challenges of the mind. That had been what his lives had been all about, after all. Finding things that were his. But, more importantly, tossing aside things that were not truly his own. Even as Dei, had he managed to gain immortality in that life, he would have eventually set aside his crown and wandered off to pick fights and grow stronger in the only way he knew how.

  By immersing himself in chaos.

  Similarly ironically, in the years following the manifestation of his Dao, he significantly calmed down about the whole ‘rejection’ thing. In fact, he calmed down a lot in general, no longer the quiet, angry man he’d been as Dei. One didn’t need to fully reject something else to realize their own potential; that was simply how he worked. I had seen it within him – his initial rejection had to be that strong, in order to not tread the same path as before. It got to the point he actually felt embarrassed about it, the feeling popping up within him whenever he had a discussion with Inesa about the Dao, or he and Fu Hao sparred. Now that he was an immortal he was far more open to spiritual beings, and Fu Hao delighted in having someone actually able to challenge her.

  It didn’t take too long after that for a few others to hang their own Daos in the sky.

  Two hundred years after him, Inesa quietly hung her Dao of Hearth and Home beside his. Hers shone far brighter, as she was more powerful and had quietly deepened her understanding of what the two words meant by hanging around with Xing Wu. The third was unexpected, yet similarly expected, and had appeared just beside Inesa’s not but a day later.

  Aeriel, Goddess of the Wind, and Keeper of Secrets.

  I watched her hang her Dao in the sky, and she giggled at me when I stuck my tongue out at her.

  “Alright. Keep your secrets,” I told her with a smile. She vanished in a puff of wind, and I turned away. The wind was everywhere. The wind heard everything. Yet ironically, it could be trusted to keep secrets. Very different than the sayings of my past lives.

  Time passed all too quickly, however. Hundreds, then thousands, then tens of thousands of years flew by in the blink of an eye. The Realms expanded. Seeds matured, nearly ready to be spread. People and gods alike grew. And the time for the meeting drew dangerously close.

  Yet I had no one to take with me.

  “Randus, would you quit hovering?” I demanded as I strode through the halls of Elvira’s palace. The butler god wrung his hands and backed off a bit, bowing his head as the tea he had been trying to give me vanished entirely. He truly had been too clingy; hovering over my shoulder like a lost child. I understood his nervousness, but still. Enough was enough.

  Heaving a sigh I continued on, scratching my chin as I stepped out onto a balcony overlooking the grand court. My daughter was currently holding an audience there, listening to the grievances of a few young gods with a bored expression on her face. Behind her Gilles stood stock-still, his shadows pooling at his feet. The poor deity of shadows was listening intently to what she said, and I could see his decision welling up within him – but he had yet to act on it. One hundred thousand years, and he had yet to act on the desire to court my daughter.

  Not going to lie, I was kind of disappointed. Though I did understand his hesitation. She was in a…peculiar situation at the moment.

  Her energy was chaotic. All my children’s energies were chaotic. Keilan, Elvira, Reika, and Alexander were nearing the manifestation of their sub-domains and thereby realizing their personal Dao…they were so close, in fact, that I found I would be unable to bring any of them to the meeting. Being around that many powerful beings would do far more harm than good to their development, not to mention how the revelations involved might shake their cores.

  Which threw my original plan to bring Alexander along right out the window.

  “What am I going to do?” I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose. I only had a few years left before the date, and my list of potential “plus one’s” was dwindling rapidly.

  “You could bring me, Madam,” Randus said.

  “No, no. I know you don’t want to go, even if you say that.” I muttered. “Plus, I can see it will not be good for you. If it won’t benefit any of my children, I just won’t bring any,” I grumbled. That wasn’t the issue though, the issue was that the meeting would be actively detrimental to most potential candidates. Though I couldn’t see what would happen or who I would meet, I could see that much, at least.

  Xing Wu was out of the question; he’d made a promise to punch me next time we officially met, and by Me I planned to hold him to that. Not even to mention that he was sparring with Kei right now, the nine-tailed fox doing her absolute best to keep away from him. He was growing into an absolute monster of a warrior…though he desperately lacked properly powerful foes to fight. Kei wasn’t an option either.

  What about Fu Hao or Stilicho, my angels? No, that wouldn’t work. Those two were similarly out of the question. Even though I’d managed to beat some of their zealotry out of them, they could still be a bit too intense. Inesa wasn’t…no. I couldn’t bring her. Thyia? The dark goddess?

  I hummed to myself and peered through space, my gaze falling on the dark goddess. She was currently on probation, helping Reika tend to her garden. The dark goddess was scowling at a flower, arms crossed as she observed the flow of energy within the plant. …no. She was close, but not quite. I’d rather she stay. Speaking of, maybe Morgan…?

  I turned my attention to Morgan’s cell, where it sat, playing with a bit of primordial chaos. Its eight spidery limbs worked in tandem, twisting energy to form a new body – but it apparently wasn’t satisfied with the result of the clear core it made, for Morgan scowled and promptly shattered it, returning it to the uncontrolled building blocks of creation. No, not Morgan. Creating a People was taking more effort than it had expected, and while Morgan might benefit from coming, it would benefit more from staying.

  With a single blink a thousand images flashed before my eyes, peering through space to catch a glimpse of all sufficiently powerful beings in my Realms. Not a single one was perfect for bringing along. The one who was closest was Aeriel, but even she wasn’t ideal. Barring anything else, I’ll bring her. I decided, though it set my gut to twisting uncomfortably. Ever since she’d become a goddess of secrets as well as winds, her future had become more murky to me. Which wasn’t a bad thing, but I got the instinctual feeling bringing her to the meeting would be one secret too many…or, perhaps, go against her Dao in some way.

  I sighed once again, straightening up, casting one last glance at Elvira. She may have been listening to the god of tides, but I could feel her attention upon me.

  “I’m going to the base of the Life-Giving Tree, Randus, to do some gardening. Would you mind checking on the outer planets? I’d like to make sure things are stabilized.” I told him. Randus bowed to me and promptly vanished. With but a thought I vanished from Elvira’s palace and reappeared at the base of the Life-Giving Tree, peering through the thick bark to the seeds that lay beneath.

  I needed to clear my head. Anguishing over who to take would do nothing to solve the actual problem. And these seeds were just about ready…the meeting itself would take place for an unknown period of time, and I didn’t want to plant them until I got back and could oversee their growth.

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  Grumbling to myself I knelt and dug my fingers into the soil, wrapping my power around one of the seeds, trying to estimate the density of its aura, the weight of its existence, the time it might need to grow…

  The place I had laid out for these seeds to be planet in was already prepped, but…

  “The best time to plant a seed is twenty years ago. The second best time is now.” An unfamiliar voice said from just beside me. I jumped a little, genuinely startled by her sudden appearance – and then startled by the fact I had been startled. Immediately I locked eyes with the little avian standing beside me, her expression blank and oddly serious for one so young; she couldn’t be older than twenty two, practically a baby, with a soul that shone with a steady, blank light. Everything about her screamed of painful neutrality, from the glasses she wore over her green eyes, fixated as she was on the seed I had wrapped my power around, to her mottled brown wings, to the short-cut hair pulled into a rough pony tail.

  The girl frowned and looked up at me, pushing her glasses up her nose – only to freeze in place the moment she met my eyes, her entire being stunned into silence.

  Now that I was looking at her, I could clearly see the path she had come from. There was a little village not but an hour’s walk away from the base of the Tree, that had recently become home to a series of formation experts seeking to study the Life-Giving Tree itself. She had grown up in that village and walked over here to begin her own studies, using the formation experts as an excuse, when I had appeared just in front of her. She shouldn’t have been able to notice me. And besides –

  Where was her future? I could see where she had been, but not where she was going. She might be the only being in the entirety of the Four Realms I could not see the future of.

  “Who are you?” the girl asked.

  “I should be asking you.” I replied, feeling my consciousness multiply in strength and ability as my true body focused its power into this incarnation. It took only a split second to keep picking out inconsistencies in the girl’s existence. Her glasses were no simple glasses – formations had been etched into the rims, giving them a comprehensive ability and enabling her to see more than should be possible. It was also made in a manner completely foreign to the Four Realms, the runes inscribed upon them in no way similar to most things in the Physical Realm…they shared some similarities with a civilization growing on one of the outer planets, but she should have, in no way, been able to contact them.

  Plus, her work was far more advanced. The density of energy that flowed through the Tree was far too much for any of the Fae’s abilities to peer through; let alone the ability to pick out the Seeds.

  “I am-“

  “One second, sorry, this is taking a bit longer than it should.” I interrupted with a frown, narrowing my eyes at the girl. She stared at me unflinchingly, her soul mired in a sort of black apathy marred only by a little hint of curiosity that came from her truesoul. Natural curiosity. Yet her truesoul was oddly shaped…it looked like a fresh one, and bore a tiny mark of my touch, however…

  My true body turned its full attention upon the girl, and suddenly I was no longer an incarnation. The girl stumbled a bit at the pressure my full presence put upon her, but it was no more than a stumble. I spared one moment to raise an eyebrow at her as she turned pale, then peered closer.

  Something was fuzzing up my vision. Parts of her soul were hidden from me, and not in a way that seemed natural…ah. Like pulling aside a curtain, there was a pop and all of a sudden a string was reveal, tied about her truesoul. It stretched high, high up into the sky, leading…outside the Realms.

  “What in the world…?” I muttered, for the first time spotting the ball of energy floating just outside my domain. No, wait – it wasn’t just energy. It was…memories, too? Though I couldn’t view those. The ball was invisible to every sense except my eyes; and even then, I could barely make it out. If I blinked, I’d lose sight of it. I narrowed my eyes and turned my attention back to the girl, who was watching me carefully, but still apathetically.

  “Would you happen to be the curator of this tree?” she pressed.

  “No, but also yes.” I said, rubbing my chin thoughtfully.

  “I apologize, but my vision is slightly limited here. I have not yet grasped the intricacies of forging with qi. Nor the true limitations of formations. But by my best estimate, the seeds are on the brink of maturity. If they wait much longer to be planted, it will be detrimental to their growth.” The woman said. I hummed, turned, and promptly yanked the eight new seeds out of the Tree. Across the Four Realms, various other incarnations of mine similarly pulled the seeds of the River, Mountain, and Valley out of their respective areas as well.

  She was right. I knew she was right. I had just been stubborn about it, and controlling. I wanted to watch over the seeds’ growth myself, and not knowing how long the meeting would take delayed my plans. It was a silly worry. My children would do fine, and having some additional responsibilities would take their minds off of my absence.

  “Where will you plant them?” the girl asked.

  “There is a spot I have in mind. I – are you ok? Most people would not be so calm about the situation you find yourself in.” I asked gently, stowing the seeds in my robes pockets meeting the girl’s eyes seriously. Her expression twitched exactly once, apathy transforming to hurt within her, then vanishing once again.

  “I am fine, thank you.” A lie, but I let it slide. “Just some bad memories today.” I hummed again. Then came to a decision.

  “If you wouldn’t mind, come with me please.” I said softly. The girl did not verbally respond but I still felt her consent; and we teleported away, to the middle of the false void. She blinked and staggered a bit at the sudden teleport, her wings flaring to stabilize herself. Though I said my children would do fine in watching the seeds grow, I would plant this first batch myself. In later iterations of this process I would let my other children do so, but as this would be the first, well. If it failed, then it would be my fault.

  “That was a long teleport.” The girl said, looking back over her shoulder at the Realms. Her eyes widened and she averted her gaze, pressing a hand against her forehead. My power wrapped tighter around her; her cultivation was fairly advanced for her age, but the false void was a difficult place to be. However, she was handling this exceedingly well. My suspicions grew.

  “I apologize, I do not think I ever got your name.” I said, looking out at the plot of seemingly empty space. Raw energy pooled here, forming a sort of…vase for the seeds to grown in, before I transplanted them to something more permanent and allowed them to grow fully.

  “I am The Mad Scientist.” The girl, the Mad Scientist, said, her voice coming across as staticky and almost…distant, to my ears. I furrowed my brows, even as I waved my hand and sent the seeds hurtling out into space, where they buried themselves in the energy alongside the other seeds my incarnations tossed out. Almost immediately the entirety of the Four Realms began to shift and change, the seeds cracking open, little buds beginning to form in the pool of energy. I expected there to be another hundred or so years for the next big change to them, but already I could feel the growth of the Realms increase.

  “The Mad Scientist? That is a strange name.” I said.

  “No, I said the Mad Scientist. How do you know that name?” she countered, showing true emotion for the first time. A spike of fear and panic flooded her, but I tuned that out as I processed her words. There was another name, buried under the title of Mad Scientist, but it was secondary. Irrelevant compared to what that title meant.

  “I see. The title you have given yourself – or is it a title someone else bestowed upon you? – is overriding the name your parents gave you. Does it have something to do with the extra memories you carry?” I asked, looking back up at where the ball of energy and memories still was, floating out in the Void. It took a little bit of searching to find. Mr. Blue Boxes had to have something to do with this. I could feel it.

  “How did you…? No one has figured that out so quickly.” The Mad Scientist said, voice shaking.

  “Perhaps not. Who are you? I can peer at your soul, and I get mixed signals as to how old it is. Twenty thousand? A hundred thousand? Give or take? I am uncertain. No, wait…there is an explanation.” I muttered, realization dawning upon me. The foreign runes. A soul that should be fresh and brand new, this being her first life, having memories and power that existed outside of my Realms. It was practically slapping me in the face.

  She, herself, was foreign. From another universe. But not in a way similar to what the rogue spirit had been.

  “I…I…” she stammered. Fear colored her emotions in a sickly yellow, swiftly overtaking the black apathy.

  This had Mr. Blue Boxes written all over it.

  Ding!

  A soul that had seen multiple universes…the timing was suspicious. I felt myself smile. It seems I might have accidentally found my plus one. Just in time, too.

  “Do not be afraid. On my oath I wish you no harm, little one.” I told her softly, genuinely. The words soothed her fears, yet she still furrowed her brows in suspicion of me. I spoke again, before she could question me. “My name is Statera Luotian, Origin Deity of the Four Realms. When I speak truth, it is known.” This got an appropriate reaction of shock from the strange girl, who sucked in a breath at the revelation. I smiled. Got her. Curiosity wormed its way to the forefront of her emotions. “Now, I believe we have some things to discuss. Do take care of me.”