5:13 Fishhooks

The Rival was not having a good time.

He paced in front of the statue of himself, having sat there for far too long in his expert opinion, trying and failing to do what Statera said and disconnect from the First. He knew, intellectually, what that meant. It meant separating his unconscious mind from his once-friend, getting away from it so he could come back to it with a fresh mind. But every time he tried, he came right back around to him. There was nothing else to occupy his mind, just sitting there like that.

The First was plotting something, and he worried about it. Not only for the Origin Deities, but also for the First himself. Because unless he found a serious loophole, whatever he was plotting was bound to end with the Overgod’s punishment. Something would have to try to destroy his actual soul as a Monkey Wrench, or physically sever his connection to the Overgod.

Surely none of the others were that dumb. Right? They couldn't be dumb enough to try that. He chewed his lip, drummed his fingers against his chin, looked up and around without actually seeing anything, and decided to hell with it. He couldn't just sit here anymore.

He turned on his heel and the action activated a teleport, space connecting him to wherever the Mad Scientist was right now. They agreed to such measures, when he’d first arrived. Mostly so the Mad Scientist could try to stop him if he got out of hand.

A cute thought.

The golden meadow vanished and was replaced with a massive expanse of green forests and a seas of elements stretching out before him. He furrowed his brows as he watched a couple of Elementals and Treants, those immortal beings of Reika's, wander about in the far distance. They were all relatively powerful for their species, but there were no settlements nearby.

For a moment he wondered if he'd got the wrong spot, or if he'd connected to the wrong teleport circle. Then he remembered he was now a divinity, and in a xianxia universe, and cast his senses out to see that he was most definitely in the right spot. There was just a certain God of Stars nearby that had pushed him just slightly off course, so he didn’t appear right next to the Mad Scientist. Probably deliberately, based on the way the man, lounging on a hammock as he was, watched him with one cracked-open eye.

The Mad Scientist herself was in a meadow nearby with Alanna; the daughter of Xing Wu and Inesa, Sequoia; Inesa herself; and Amari Ren. He blinked as his senses kept picking up more people he’d initially missed – not because they were hiding, but simply because he hadn’t been paying attention. Was that Fang Xu and Celene as well? Plus a couple of other gods and things.

It looked like a picnic was happening. There were various treats and things laid out. An entire boar roasted over a spit, slowly cooking to perfection as the god of fire and the goddess of water watched it. The goddess was visibly heavy with child, a development he had been in the dark about.

"Where the hell am I?" he muttered, shaking off some of his distraction to focus.

He had appeared near the top of the Life-Giving Tree, on one of the truly massive leaves, larger than some worlds, in the inner part of the tree where the elemental and energetic storms were less intense.

"What is happening here?" he wondered aloud. A shriek ripped through the air, and he turned to see Solana shooting between the leaves in a streak of gold, her light washing over him in a wave as she blew past him once, then circled around to stop before him.

"It's good to see you, my student," she said proudly, puffing up despite being in her smaller, palm-sized bird form.

"Again with the student thing," he said before he could think about it, and she cocked her head to the side, fluttering midair.

"Yes. You are the student, I am the teacher," she said firmly, apparently not even hearing his complaint at all. "It has been some time, has it not?"

"It's been a long time since I've been just a student, don't you think?" he asked, electing to ignore the student/teacher statement for now. He didn’t want to get into it, and, he supposed, as far as she was aware he probably was her student. Or had been, until now. Sure, she’d been a god in the Four Realms first, but he had so much experience over her it wasn’t even funny.

She huffed at him. "Not just a student. My student," she insisted.

“Fair enough,” he relented, rubbing one eye with his ring finger.

"Good. Now come, we have much to talk about, to discuss, and see," she said, fluttering down toward the picnic area, and he shook his head.

"No, not right now. I want to speak to the Mad Scientist."

"What, not even gonna see what's going on first?" she asked, cocking her head to the side. "Obsessing too much over one thing is not good for you. You haven't even come and said hi since you ascended to godhood. Which, okay, you were with Statera, I understand that. But you haven't even come to say hi since you were back. That's rude," she said, matter-of-fact.

He scowled a little at her, opened his mouth to argue, and caught himself. No. He didn't need to snap at her, especially since she was right. She’d come to see him multiple times after ascending to godhood, and he hadn’t even thought to visit her.

"Tell you what. Let me go talk to her, then I'll come see what you're doing. What is going on here, anyways?" he asked, despite himself.

"Oh, nothing much. Some of the gods just noticed something weird going on and decided to sit around and see what was going on," she said with a shrug. "I don't know much, nor do I care."

"That sounds like you," he admitted, already drifting down toward the Mad Scientist. This time, Solana let him, content as she was to keep flying between the leaves.

He shot to the ground, dodging past a few spirits that were idly circling about, to land right beside the Mad Scientist, who lay next to the Celestial Empress, bathing in the light of the Sun. Or was she just Alanna now, since she had largely given up her title as empress? It didn’t matter. The Mad Scientist was relaxed, surprisingly. He had expected to find her still watching the formations of the new universes and all of that, and that she wasn’t, and was instead here, was, while confusing, just meant she had time to help him out.

"Scientist. How you doing, friend? I have a favor to ask." He greeted with a lazy wave.

"No." It was not the Mad Scientist who spoke, but rather Alanna. The winged avian woman did not even open her eyes as he levitated in front of them, though her annoyance was clear as day. The Mad Scientist fixed her gaze upon him, however, adjusting her glasses, and he knew he had her attention.

"I need some help doing—"

"I said no," Alanna insisted. "Leave her be. She's been working far, far too much already. I had to drag, literally drag, her away from her equipment. Said equipment that will keep recording what she wants, even if she left for a few millennia. You are not putting her back to work until at least a full week has passed," she insisted.

The Rival frowned. "It'll just take a moment."

"No it won't," she scoffed. "Of course it won't just take a moment. Whatever you have planned, I can feel from here. It is nothing innocent. It is nothing simple. In fact, it aligns far too perfectly with your chosen domain of conflict, and not enough with what is actually needed."

The Rival scowled at her. "Now, that is no way to treat someone who just walked up," he complained. "I just want her help divining some things about my friend. Especially now that we have more access to the flow."

"You want me to divine parts of the First? Like what, his path and goals?" the Mad Scientist asked, sitting upright and meeting his eyes. Alanna opened her eyes to glare at the Mad Scientist, who largely seemed to ignore her.

He nodded. "I am concerned. I’ve been getting one thing, but I wanted to see if you’d get anything else. As I tend to be too close to him, sometimes my divination spells can be…distorted.”

"You are always concerned about him," she accused. “And that concern usually leads to mass destruction.”

"Yes, I am. That's because he causes problems no matter where he goes." He didn’t bother refuting what she said about mass destruction; sometimes, taking the First’s hooks out of things meant tearing them free.

"Sure, I'll help you," she said, and Alanna’s glare sharpened enough he wouldn’t have been surprised if he spontaneously combusted. "If you do one thing for me first."

Now it was the Rival's turn to scowl. "I don't have time."

"I just want you to take a look at the tree. Please? It's doing something kind of interesting, and I have my data, but I'd like a second opinion on it." She insisted.

"What do you mean, doing something interesting?" he asked, noting how Alanna’s glare lessened a touch.

“If I tell you, it may bias the data. Tell me what you see,” she said, and the Rival relented with a sigh, sensing he wasn't going to get anywhere without humoring her. That was part of what made the Mad Scientist the Mad Scientist. She had her hyperfixations, and if something was interesting her, he knew from experience he needed to help her figure it out before she could focus on anything else. Not that they’d actually met very much before…they’d inhabited the same universe maybe thrice, in all his lives?

"All right. I'll take a look at it," he allowed, already starting to close his eyes.

"No, not like that, you idiot. I could do that if I wanted. You need to actually look, not just briefly scan it," she protested, flicking a ball of colorless qi at his head.

He caught it out of the air, examined it, and noticed it was slightly dense with half-divine energy. She was almost a god. Good for her.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Fine," he said. "No need to be so prickly. I'll take a serious look."

"You just said you would. Stop saying that you're going to and actually do it," she spat back, already laying back down.

The Rival huffed, turned on his heel, and marched a few hundred meters away, away from the blinding core of the group of gods that were picnicking her, and at the edge of the meadow.

The moment the Rival sat down, though, he knew he was in trouble. He could feel their beady little eyes latch onto him like a dog to steak; their intent sharpening in the air as the crept closer. With their attention, came the half-attention of their parents and caretakers. He could have teleported away to avoid the coming disaster, but he’d already mentally committed to this spot, so the best he could do was ignore them and hope they went away on their own. Lord knows he couldn’t shoo them away in any way that would work.

He stilled his aura and domain, shutting it down completely so he couldn't be sensed or seen, and tried to ignore them, sinking his attention deep into the ground toward whatever oddity was happening in the Life-Giving Tree.

He tried. Statera knows, how he tried, but he was too wired. Couldn't give it his all. And they came closer and closer. And he debated the merits of trying to shoo them away.

But it was too late.

Something poked him in the back, and he pretended it hadn’t happened. Then it poked him in the back again, and he did his best to ignore it. Then it poked him again, and again, and again, and he slowly turned to face the little ones.

Sequoia, Xing Wu and Inesa's daughter, looking perhaps ten years old now with her green hair and a missing tooth and her bright smile, held Amari Ren like a shield before her, the little toddler holding out a finger, not moving their arm as she moved them physically forward and back to poke him. It was, in his honest opinion, adorable. Also, not something he could direct his current frustration toward.

"Can I help you?" he asked.

"No," Sequoia chirped. "If the doctors couldn't help me, I don't think you can."

He furrowed his brows. "Where'd you hear something like that?" he asked.

"Dad says it to Mama every time he's acting crazy and she asks him about it," Sequoia said sagely. “Then he kisses her, which is icky.”

"Conf’ct," Amari Ren chirped, moving their finger up and down and side to side and pointing at the Rival. Sequoia obliged, moving them forward once again to poke his back, and then pulling them back, much to their squirming amusement.

He pursed his lips. "Conflict. No," he said. "I am not conflict. I am the Rival." And he wiggled his eyebrows. "And the Rival has something very important he needs to do. He can’t play right now," he insisted. Amari Ren wriggled something fierce, nearly squirming free of Sequoia’s grasp.

She set the little one on the ground to avoid dropping them, and they immediately toddled forward, heterochromatic eyes narrowed at their best approximation of a toddler glare, slapped his arm as hard as they could. Which, for a toddler, was quite hard. The sound barrier was broken.

"Tag," Amari Ren said. Then turned and immediately scuttled off, giggling.

Sequoia followed at an insane speed, laughing gaily, scooping up Amari Ren and ducking behind a particularly tall batch of grass, giggling, eyes alight with mischief as she peered around the bush as if that would hide her. He knew this game, though. The point wasn’t to hide, it was to get him to chase.

The Rival tried to turn away. He really, really did. He tried to maintain the seriousness. And he managed, just barely, to stay sitting, fighting his inner child with all his heart, because he had something he needed to do. Unfortunately for him, they had the determination of children, and that was something he was far too weak against.

Already they were approaching again, set on getting a reaction out of him. He could hear them snickering, creeping forward, step by careful step, until they reached out—

The Rival jumped up, spinning around in the same moment, making claws out of his hands with them mere inches from his spot. "RAWR!" he shouted.

Sequoia squealed. Amari Ren howled in laughter as they shot off in a blur, tearing across the ground with him hot on their heels, boxing them in. Every time they tried to juke, he was in front of them. Every time Sequoia tried to slide between his legs, he just flipped upside down so he could touch her forehead with a finger midair. Every time she tried to jump over him, he tickled her bare feet.

Amari Ren was squealing with laughter, throwing untrained qi in balls that turned into snow and ice and water and wind in their delight. He grabbed them and flung them back, but in different flavors. Strawberry sometimes. Sometimes mango or peach. Sometimes that weird ten-thousand-year-old ginseng cultivators seem to love. Sequoia would bat them out of the air, or catch them and eat them.

After a mere few minutes, he tried to sit down once again, pretending to breathe hard. "All right, that's enough," he said. "I got something to do."

He should have known better. Almost as soon as he had sat down and tried to clear his mind he felt Sequoia's intent spike, and with a gleeful cackle, she threw Amari Ren at him like a tiny squirming missile. For anything less than an immortal child or a god, that was a terrible thing to do. For Amari Ren, it was probably one of the most fun things they’d ever done.

The toddler came streaking through the air, little baby robes flapping in the wind, eyes bright with glee and mouth wide in a cackling laugh. He caught them while sitting down, rolling onto his back and letting their momentum carry him skidding across the ground, the little one laughing and, with hands coated in lightning, slapping his face repeatedly.

When he came to a stop, having dug a furrow in the ground like a meteor from being dragged about, Amari Ren had been wrapped into a tight hug, their hands no longer able to slap him, and his head popping up to stare directly into Sequoia's eyes. The little girl was vibrating in place, dirt smeared on her cheek.

"All right. Now you've gone and done it. Get back here." He announced, giving up the idea he might try to get anything done here. It had been a stupid idea anyway.

She ran with a happy shriek, but she did not make it more than two steps before he was scooping her up over his shoulder and spinning as fast as he could, turning into a whirlwind that tore up grasses and trees as he shot across the ground. Both of them were alight with delight and laughter, and he eventually fell over, laughing, as they sat atop his chest.

"Again, again!" they shouted in unison.

"No," he said, grabbing Sequoia by the arm and wrapping her in his Qi. "I have something better in mind." And he tossed her into the air. She flew miles high before falling back down, landing with a thud on a soft pile of divine qi he had made just for her crash landing. She rolled to her feet, breathless, red-faced from laughter, already charging toward him like some sort of demented animal.

"You're in trouble now," he said, slinging Amari Ren around so they were clinging to his back. "I didn't want to do this. I had something to do, but now you've gone and made me wired." Divine power coated him, whipping up a tiny snowstorm just around him, because he was suddenly in the mood for a snowball fight.

"Daddy, help!" Sequoia shrieked as he pelted her with weakly thrown balls of loose snow.

The Rival looked across the yard to where Xing Wu was no longer reclining on his hammock. The warrior strolled across the torn-up meadow, hands behind his back, sly smile on his face, the wind and snow not even clinging to him. He looked at her, then looked at the Rival, and winked.

"Oh no," he said. "I think it's time to get you." She gasped in mock betrayal, and the games began.

It took hours for the Rival to finally escape the massive game of chase and tag that had been ignited. Xing Wu dragged Fang Xu, Celene, and Inesa into it. Even Alanna and the Mad Scientist got roped in somehow, until adults and children alike were laughing and shrieking with joy. For certain couples, for far more flirty reasons than the pure, innocent delight of the children.

They were still playing when he got away, going farther this time to sit on the edge of the leaf this entire world had been built upon, and look out over Pangaea below. It was time to do what had been asked of him, so he could get the Mad Scientist’s help.

Yet, he didn't feel like it anymore. He didn't feel like he needed to get her help, or obsess over this, or, much less, dig deep into what the Mad Scientist had said. He had already caught what it was, hadn't he? That thin silver thread that connected the Tree to Sequoia, the little one forging her connection through laughter and chaos and mayhem, and that special blend that only children could manage.

It was the birth of a myth, not a founding myth, but one of magic beasts and children who tamed them. She had known, hadn’t she? It was a simple enough thing to figure out, so she had to have known, or at least hoped, exactly this would happen. Because he was smiling now. He felt good. Light, clear-headed. His shoulders straight where they had been slightly slumped and slouched before. His qi flowing clean and pure through his chest, not tainted with clogged emotions.

In a flash of light Solana settled next to him, shifting to her human form, fiery feathers preserving her modesty.

"Student. What has your soul wound up?" she asked.

"Just a friend I'm worried about," he admitted with a shrug, thinking back to the First, and the worry that soul induced in him. "A friend I've been chasing for a long, long time. I don't know what he's up to, because he just looks like he’s doing nothing when he’s really not. I just…"

He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, that good feeling fleeing him.

"You're slouching again," Solana told him.

He looked at her, leaned over as he was, and slowly sat up.

"Still slouching," she said.

And he noticed, slightly, that he was. Just the top of him, the shoulders rolled forward a little. He rolled them back, found the feeling stiff and tight in the chest, even though not moments before he had been more easily relaxed. He frowned, deeper, and harder this time. Took a breath, closed his eyes, and pushed thoughts of the First away. But this time, he paid attention to it.

It took a little bit. Felt like pulling fishing hooks from his flesh. But he managed it, ripping them free one by one until he had that carefree…no, not carefree. Just relaxed... No, not relaxed either. He just felt like…himself, for all that was. Without the pressure and fog of distraction, and foul thoughts that had clouded his mind. The worry about the First was still there, but it was a background hum. Lesser. Less important. Less all-consuming than it needed to be.

Then he let the fishing hooks back in and felt it all come crushing in. Then he ripped them out again, and pushed it all away. His eyes opened, and he looked at Solana. Was that why he’d been annoyed at her ‘student’ talk earlier? That was never something that bothered him before.

"You've got to be fucking me," he grumbled, looking skyward at where he swore he could feel Statera watching him.

"Who has got to be fucking you? And why are they fucking you?" Solana asked, the idiom clearly not one she recognized. His jaw worked. He laughed and shook his head and stood, turned back to that group of gods behind him.

"Nothing. It means nothing. It just means I need to approach this problem with a clearer head. And not let him get to me like that. Gods above, talk about a toxic relationship." The words felt like ash in his mouth. He didn't really mean them, despite knowing Statera thought exactly that way. But he couldn't deny what he was feeling now, that he was feeling better, that the First’s presence did press against him and alter some of his mind.

"Solana. Have I ever told you what I am?" he asked suddenly, deciding it was best to put it out of his mind until he could return to the First without letting him sink his fishhooks into his skin. She shook her head, rocking forward onto her thumbs and index fingers, keeping her knees tucked close to her chest for no apparent reason other than liking to hold herself like that.

"Well, now's about as good a time as any. I tend not to tell people. But you know what? I think I want your opinion on the problem." And he spoke, and she listened. And others did too, though they pretended not to, far away on their picnic as they were. He didn’t care much if they did eavesdrop. And he felt little pieces of himself return, one by one, the more he spoke.

*

The First perked up, because he felt something , no, someone, pull away from him. It was not a slight thing in the slightest. It was a violent, sudden tug on his fishing line that told him in no uncertain terms a catch was trying to pull free and, judging by the sudden slack, had at least succeeded. At first he was pissed, until he followed the thread and discovered who it was that was trying to tug free of all his hooks.

He honestly wasn't sure whether to feel relieved or annoyed when he finally did realize it had been the Rival. He settled on the latter. He was sick and tired of that one hovering around him, but never actually taking the bait, ever actually crossing that line that would allow him to act in any way that mattered.

He considered briefly trying to dangle the bait a little bit further, try to drag him back in, but eventually decided against it. If he wanted to leave, fine. He would drop his friend like a bad habit. Yet…the longer he sat there, the harder it became. He truly did try to turn away. But had to admit to himself that, well, frankly, his correct version of the world included his Rival. The man just…added something, a zeal, that would be missing without him.

But what could he do all the way over here, just let him walk away? He'd have to. He'd have to just hope that the Rival came back to the bait eventually. The First shook his head to clear his thoughts, chiding himself for worrying too much. The Rival would return to him. He always did. The First and the Rival were always together, no matter how much they annoyed each other.

So he sat back and waited, and smiled to himself as he felt other tugs on his lines. It was only a matter of time now. Just a matter of time.