5:21 Letters and Trees

"So do I get a second date?" the Rival asked, wiggling his eyebrows as we reappeared in the Four Realms. I shot him a mock little glare, he'd changed back to a him, for now, then folded my hands into the sleeves of my robe and pretended to think about it for a little bit, just to make him sweat. He became increasingly pouty, sticking out his bottom lip and everything, until I finally caved.

"I'll decide the venue next time," I told him with a little laugh, because if I was honest, that had felt more like having dinner with a friend than it did a date. Which wasn't a bad thing by any means, but still.

Regardless, his face lit up in a grin and he winked. "Excellent, good sir," he said, with a sweeping bow. "Then inform me of the next date, and I shall continue to woo you on this long and arduous path of courtship."

I shook my head at him, poked his forehead. "Get out of here, you," I pressed, and with a cackle he teleported away, darting off through the false void and the forming universes to the crust of the One World, where he was going to do whatever the hell it was he was going to do.

I laughed a little bit at him and started to turn back to the matters at hand, but quickly paused, the Rival's words still ringing in my head. What do I want? What did I enjoy? What did I miss?

Well, part of me missed the act of creating things, molding a universe like clay. But I was doing that with Sehuyun's body. Right now that felt more like a chore, more than an enjoyable task. I’d also automated it a little bit, which could be part of the problem. Maybe I needed to get my hands dirty again?

I also enjoyed watching my kids making their universes. More importantly, I think I enjoyed being part of that process with them. But they didn't need me right now. In fact, they needed me to stay the hell away, no matter how much I selfishly wanted to jump in and aid them.

My frown deepened a little bit.

There was one solution to all this that I’d been turning away from. I’d kind of glossed over it before because…well. I felt like I had a lot on my plate, in my mind. But I could be in a lot of different places now, and those administrative duties could use a bit of delegating, or be handled by incarnations and avatars dedicated specifically to the task. That was one benefit of my new existence, I supposed; creating incarnations was far easier now, than it had ever been before. And that was saying a lot, considering how many I had been able to create before.

I should reach out to Shin. Or Riley. Or even the Emperor. See what we could do there. Maybe I could, I don't know, get together with one of them and start talking with my peers. I chewed my lip a little and considered it for a moment, then finally pulled out a letter, composed it, examined it twice, then thrice, and nodded in satisfaction.

I sent them off with a wave of my hand. Two copies at first. One to Shin, one to the Emperor. And after a moment's thought, one more to Rising Wind, Crashing Waves, since the great Stag of Wisdom had been so enamored with a few things in my universes, and I was honestly curious about his.

The letters were phrased very diplomatically. Not at all like what I was hoping this would become, I will admit. But I wanted help, and I wanted to help others, and right now the path to that lay in the gift the Overgod had given all of us, the one I for one had been ignoring, for my own shit and for administrative duties. There were other universes right there I could go explore, and I had neglected to go see any of them.

A fourth letter I composed to the Oshun, though this one was more than just a little different. Like I’d done before, it was just a little update thing, and I sent it off. I didn't know if she'd read the last one. I wanted to believe she did, but I wasn’t keeping that kind of tabs on her. It was just a matter of kindness.

Then I looked back at the universes and really thought about who I should bring along with me, assuming any of the other Origins got back to me in a reasonable time frame.

My first thought, of course, went to Randus, and I teleported to him. The butler god was tending to something in my palace…no, not tending. Molding something like clay, in a way very similar to how he tended to my gardens.

"What are you working on there, Randus?" I asked, instead of my question. I could see his answer already, and it was sitting in its hands, and I wouldn’t want to tear him away from that.

He perked up a little bit, turning to me. "I," he said slowly, "am creating a People, I believe. The Guardians of the new regions are nearly finished. I can see their shape in the Mountain and the Tree and the Valley and the River, and they inspired me to try to make my own," he admitted freely. "Is there something that you need?"

I smiled, and because I was me I asked him anyway, despite knowing what his answer would be, simply because he should hear that kind of an answer for himself.

"Oh. I was just going to ask if you wanted to potentially go with me to other universes. But if you would rather stay here and work on your stuff, I would gladly let you. There's no pressure whatsoever," I told him. I could see the decision warring inside of him, face twisting into a tapestry of conflict that I observe impassively. For so long he had been, well, mine, I guess would be the best way to put it. My servant. My child. Working with me, constantly waiting on me. Now, with me largely gone from the Four Realms, he was really kind of working on something for himself. I could not be more proud of him, both for standing by me and for choosing something that could be his.

He must have seen it in my face, and bowed his head, clasping his hands before him as his decision solidified.

"I apologize," he said.

"There is no reason to be sorry," I quickly told him. "None whatsoever. You are more than allowed to pursue your own interests. If you would, though, would you show me what you’re working on? A people of Dreams sounds quite interesting." And I left that incarnation there with him while my greater consciousness drifted away, so that he could talk me through his dream people, while the rest of me searched for others, and came up relatively short.

The author's chapter is on their official story page, whereas this version was taken without approval; the published page supports them.

The other beings of the Four Realms and beyond all had their own purposes and things to worry about. Astraea, goddess of the stars, wouldn't be dragged away from the One World for anything, busy as she was. My children were, of course, preoccupied. As for the Rival…I didn't want that to be our next get-together. The Pillars were another matter entirely, each with their own ambition for the Four Realms. The only outlier was Xing Wu, who I didn’t want to bring for what I figured were obvious reasons.

He was currently teaching Sequoia the spear atop the life-giving tree, while Inesa watched. And he would come if I asked, but—

Actually, that could be amusing. I'll put a pin in that one.

Yet even as I drifted away, my mind kept pulling back to Xing Wu. And then, because thinking of Xing Wu reminded me of the two who had watched over him when he’d been mortal, I remembered two other beings who were lacking some direction. Fu Hao and Stilicho. My first two angels, still the most powerful angels in existence, now content to guard my palace and do a little bit of housekeeping around the Four Realms.

I hummed to myself and smiled, and looked down at Xing Wu, and at Fu Hao and Stilicho.

The angels were definitely coming. But as for Xing Wu, well, it'd been a little bit of time since I forced him to do anything. Since I challenged him. We were long past me needing to be some mysterious figure in the sky for him, now we needed some quality time together. And most importantly, I would find it very, very amusing to bring him with me.

But of course I would wait for—

My thought was cut off as a response came almost immediately. The Emperor had already responded, mere hours after I had sent my message. He must have replied the moment he’d gotten it, and now, floating in beside me thanks to the [System] of the One World so conveniently snagging it out of the flux and delivering it to me, was a glowing golden letter.

I grabbed it, flipped it open, read the very formal flowing script about how the Emperor would be pleased to accept our delegation, to better the relations between our two universes.

…well. That settled it. I was going to bring Fu Hao and Stilicho and Xing Wu, the latter solely because bringing a man as blunt as him on a formal delegation, a political, sort of alliance-seeking thing, sounded hilarious. And he wasn't doing anything too important anyways. Playing with his child? Yes, very important. But he was being lazy, honestly, about everything else. He needed to get off his ass. I never struck him for a man that needed pressure to advance, but I suppose it shouldn’t surprise me.

I chuckled a little, cracked my neck, and sent out the necessary messages to who I needed, sending a physical incarnation directly to Xing Wu to prepare him.

Yes. Delegation and political... stratagem, or whatever the hell the word was, be damned. I’d phrased it that was, the Emperor had phrased it that way, but I, at least, knew my real purpose. I was going to make friends. And they would accept my friendship by force if necessary.

*

Sequoia was a young girl now.

She was older than many things, as a divine being. But she was still young. Still felt it. She looked like a girl just getting on the cusp of being a teenager now, though! And she thought she'd seen many things, despite how her parents had tried to protect her.

She hadn't expected, though, the look on Dad's face when the Creator appeared before them all, informed him he would be coming with Them on a political assignment to another universe, and then promptly vanished. The Creator's presence had been one thing, and though she remembered it from when she was a girl it felt a little different now, like the ground beneath her feet had come alive and looked at her and found her just as beautiful as everything else, and just as perfect as the universe, and then had stolen her dad from her while Mom laughed at him and pushed him to go along with it. Not, she said, that he had any choice when the Creator wasn’t so much as asking but telling.

No, even over the Creator's presence, she still remembered her dad's face better. The shock. The annoyance. The I-so-want-to-punch-you-in-the-face-right-now sort of look she'd seen only a couple times but had been pushed down by the fact that the Creator wasn’t really asking anything too unreasonable of him apparently, and mom said he needed to get off his butt a little bit anyways and go find something to fight but to be back soon so it made him look grumpy and annoyed and ready to kill something!

She wanted a face like that of her own. That thunderous, stormy look that promised pain. But frankly, she knew she didn't have one. She was too cute, according to both mom and dad. And Aunty Kei always laughed at her when she tried it.

"Where is Dad going?" she asked Mom, for the umpteenth time.

"He's going to another universe. Think of it like a trip overseas, or across the stars," she replied, the same answer she’d given twenty times now.

Sequoia rocked back on her heels, still not getting it, but fine, whatever. She hummed in the back of her throat. "How long will he be gone?"

"I don't know," Mom said, bending to tend to her garden, weaving strands of light together to make a little trowel. Sequoia wished she could do that.

She pursed her lips. "Okay. I'm going to the Tree," she announced.

Mom nodded her head, shooing her off with one hand. "Just be careful. You've got my protections on you, but you know how mortals can be. They can be just as cruel as they are lovely," she reminded her.

Sequoia bobbed her head. "I know, I know."

And then she vanished in a swirl of green light, and reappeared in the Physical Realm atop the Tree, where a thousand million spirits played and the elements swirled and cultivators with all their silly little rules and silly little games tried to reach the Heaven Realm and almost never succeeded.

She'd watched them do it a hundred times. No, a thousand times!

Every time, they came up pointing upward. Because they would reach the top of the Tree and look down at the world below, and some small part of them would realize, or think, I've risen above you, so I am worthy of Heaven.

When that just wasn't it. That was a silly thing they thought.

It was why the Tree itself slapped them down every time. It was why the mortals squabbled below, causing all that pain just to be silly, for their silly reasons she thought were so dull. Because when you reached the top of the Tree and reached for the Heavens, and took a moment to look at how far you’ve come, you were supposed to think not of superiority, but of humility.

Sequoia looked out over Pangaea, and the galaxy beyond, and beyond that, the other Trees and their other galaxies growing in the far distance. Even if she couldn't see them yet. Not like Dad or Mom or the other gods could.

And she thought, I'm just a silly little girl. And this sure is a pretty Tree.

And the Tree reached up to her and patted her and wiggled its way around her, and she would giggle as the bark gripped at her feet, and the wind would blow, and she would run wild and free despite the Tree trying to root her.

But this time she didn't do that. She was a little older now. Not wiser. Just older. And she took after both her mother and her father. She didn't wonder what the lives of mortals were like. She'd seen that. She found it not as interesting as Mother found it, nor as bland as Dad did. She just found it curious.

And as she looked out over them this time, she had a thought.

I wonder what they'd say if I told them they were wrong. It was a question that would not leave her. It was a question she would see answered, as she watched the warlords down below start to build up the Tree to reach the top and claim it as their own, while darkness waited in the shadows for them to tire themselves out, and she realized that if she wanted to be like Dad or Mom, she couldn't grow where the grass was green and the trees were tall.

She was Sequoia.

And she would find the answer to her question, and show that answer to those who caused it.