“Are all of Father’s incarnations sufficiently preoccupied?” Elvira whispered to the two gods behind her. It was Sol who answered, Gilles, the one Elvira hoped would reply, remaining silent.

  “Yes, my Lady. Reika just handed Kei off to the final incarnation to keep His Majesty busy. The others have been distracted or are otherwise preoccupied by their duties. I will inform you if any fall out of sight of my Sun.” he whispered back, bowing his head, golden hair held perfectly in place by a jade band. Elvira grunted her appreciation, drumming her fingertips on the side of her stone chair. One benefit of Father’s injury was His newfound reliance on divine incarnations, which were notoriously distractible and limited in their sight. Very much unlike His true body, which had a habit of just…knowing things.

  Which meant, heavens willing, this meeting should be kept secret from Him.

  Almost all the gods of the Four Realms had gathered in her palace, milling about in the white-marbled halls, waiting for the meeting to begin. They’d been filtering in over the course of the past day or two, taking some time to stop what they were doing and travel from the far reaches of the Realms in response to Elvira’s call. The goddess of wind, Aeriel, hovered around the pillar Elvira had helped her mend, tracing her fingers along the lines of gold inlayed in the stone. The goddess of mountains chatted with the god of storms, water flirted with fire, and metal stood silently off to the side while the goddess of oceans talked at him.

  Besides herself, Gilles, and Sol, there were a grand total of sixty-four gods present. Only her siblings and Randus, and Kei, who didn’t technically count yet, were missing.

  She didn’t have to wait long for them to show up, however. The first to arrive was Reika, appearing in a flash of green just beside Elvira. The fresh scent of pine filled the air as she flashed her a smile, settling down in the high-backed wooden chair she’d set out for her sister. There was one for each of her siblings, laid out in a row, facing the grand hall. Elvira and Keilan were positioned in the middle, with Reika and Alexander on the sides. This would mark the first time all four of these “thrones” had been in use at the same time. And Reika’s appearance alone sent a ripple of murmurs through the crowd.

  “Don’t like your seat?” Elvira teased, watching as Reika tapped the arms of her chair, purple and gold flowers sprouting along the sides, a bed of fresh moss growing beneath her.

  “It could use a little sprucing up,” Reika replied, smirking as a miniature spruce tree sprouted from the back of the chair, rising up to make some sort of crude umbrella. Elvira snorted out a laugh.

  “Of all the things to take after,” Keilan grumbled, appearing already seated in his own black-and-grey marble chair in a swirl of black. “Why did you have to inherit Mother’s humor?” He shifted on his chair, shooting Elvira a glare as he stood, conjured a red velvet cushion trimmed in gold on the seat and back, and promptly settled back down. That was a good idea. Elvira shifted on her own, hard chair – she’d do the same, but now it would look like she was copying him and that was unacceptable. And judging from his smirk, he knew it, too.

  Bastard.

  “Come now, brother, it wasn’t that bad of a joke,” Alexander rumbled, pulling himself from the spirit realm and curling his bulky, sinuous form onto the wide stone seat made for him. He, like Elvira, refrained from changing his chair.

  Now they had all the gods’ undivided attention, a hush falling over those assembled as the First, the Big Four, settled into their seats.

  “Really? It was a fairly low-hanging fruit,” Reika drawled, grapevines growing from the arms of her chair, from which she plucked only the lowest-hanging fruit. Keilan groaned dramatically, holding his face in his hands.

  “I stand corrected,” Alexander sighed, shaking his head. Elvira just sighed. They were here to have a serious conversation, the first true council of the gods because that first disaster she tried all those years ago didn’t count, not whatever this was.

  “You need legs to stand, brother. You more…sit,” Reika said, cocking her head to the side innocently.

  “Reika!” Elvira protested, wishing nothing more than to move past this.

  "Is this the fate of every parent? Ever since you had Kei, your sense of humor has hit rock bottom,” Keilan deadpanned. Reika chuckled but a hush still fell over the siblings. The gods felt it, the sounds of their awkward shifting and whispers filling the halls. Elvira let out a breath in the ensuing silence. They didn’t have much time; they should get started.

  A small nod sent Gilles and Sol, still standing behind her to join the others, Randus appearing in the back with hands clasped together. Elvira stood and flared her wings, white light radiating from her. The assembled gods all turned to her expectantly.

  “Thank you for gathering here today. Please, take a seat,” Elvira said, voice booming through the hall. She snapped her fingers and the floor rumbled, a large U-shaped table with enough seats for each god rising up out of the floor. Each seat was fashioned with a specific god in mind, hinting that there was assigned seating, and after a bit of muttering they sat. Randus flitted between them, helping them find their places and setting a steaming teacup before each of them before finding his own seat. Only the gods of water and fire gave them any trouble, insisting that fire sat in water’s seat, and vice versa. But eventually they got settled as well, and Elvira sat back down with a nod of approval.

  Eventually there would be more seats; some for angels, powerful spirits, and other gods. But for now, this would do.

  She and her siblings’ seats were only nominally higher than the other gods, still mostly eye-level, but still the clear “head” of the table. Only one seat rose higher than all the others – the one that stood behind her siblings, large and imposing, yet would, in all likelihood, remain perpetually empty. That was Father’s seat. A large part of her hoped He never felt the need to use it, but it would be remiss of her and her siblings to not acknowledge that He was the peak of the Four Realms.

  “Thank you all for coming on such short notice. There is not much time, so I will cut right to the heart of the matter. We have gathered you all here today,” Elvira began, voice still booming. “To discuss something of vital importance to the Four Realms. There is an enemy amongst us.” This blunt statement caught most of the assembled gods off guard, a round of murmurs rippling through them. Gilles made a small motion with his hand, indicating that she should slow down, but that felt wrong. There was no need to drag this out.

  “Something lurks among us. That being that attacked us, that injured the Tree, was drawn here through the Void by someone within the Realms. Some of you may have noticed this. We are confirming that rumor.” Keilan added.

  “But who?” a voice called, from the god of storms.

  “We are not sure. We have taken to calling them the Shadow. Do not mistake that for meaning the deity of shadows – the Shadow is the darkness of the entirety of the Four Realms. They represent that which seeks to overthrow balance and plunge our lands into disharmony and chaos.” Elvira said. Even if Father is uncertain as to the purpose of their observation and limited actions, I am positive that is the case. Its anger is directed at us. She thought, keeping that to herself. Father had confided such a thing to her privately, she would not betray his trust like that.

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  “Is this why the Creator rushed the creation of angels?” Aeriel asked, floating above her seat and playing with a leaf.

  “Father created the angels to better guide the mortals during times of chaos, He did not create them to combat the Shadow.” Alexander rumbled. “That duty will fall to us.”

  Murmurs rippled through the assembled gods, and Elvira sucked in a breath. They were coming in on the hard part, now, and the reason Father wasn’t to be part of this meeting. Yet she was not the one to bring the conversation full circle – that honor belonged to the god of metal, who had been silent this entire time.

  “Be still, everyone. There is still information we do not know. What do you mean by the duty will fall to us, Lord Alexander?” he said, calm and collected, steepling his coppery fingers in front of his face. Alexander was silent for too long of a moment, tasting the words in his mouth. “Do you, perhaps, mean that Statera Luotian will not be aiding us in our fight?” the god continued, realization dawning on his face.

  “I requested that He does not, yes,” Elvira said simply. That got a round of disagreement from the assembled gods, a few standing bolt upright with shouts of protest. “Quiet!” she barked, but it fell on deaf ears as many started to work themselves into a frenzy. Fear still abounded from the attack of the foreign god and Father losing an arm – Elvira had underestimated how deep that fear ran.

  “SILENCE!” Sol roared, standing up so quickly his chair fell over. Bright, burning light burst from his body, vaporizing the teacup before him, the sudden burst of power curbing the brewing arguments. “Lady Elvira has not finished speaking! His Majesty will be busy with many things in the coming years! Now listen, before you panic!” Sol boomed. He turned then, back to Elvira, and gave her a soft bow as he sat back down. “The floor is once more yours, My Lady.”

  “Thank you, Sol.” Elvira said, but it was Gilles, the deity of shadows, who stood up next, silently requesting to speak. “Yes, Gilles, since you asked so nicely you may ask a question.” The pale-faced man bowed his head but did not address her, instead speaking to the other gods.

  “Our Matriarch will be busy with many projects in the coming years, not least of which will be the creation of the Lunar Star.” He rasped. Elvira noticed Sol’s expression darken for a split second at the mention of the future celestial object, but he quickly smoothed it out. “This will keep Her preoccupied as She builds power. Undoubtedly this means the enemy will begin to move in earnest the more She builds, as the creation of the Star means a further balancing of the Realms. But, most importantly, and what the Big Four are trying to say, is that we should not rely on the Matriarch for everything. We are Her children, and She will protect us, but we need to be able to protect Her too. You saw what one paradox did. She has bigger threats to worry about than an internal squabble.”

  ‘Internal squabble’ may be a bit too weak of a word for the storm that is coming, but it works well enough. Elvira mentally added, nodding to the pale man as he sat back down. Leave it to Gilles, though, to figure things out on his own. I didn’t even really share much with him.

  “None of you remember.” Reika started, looking down at her hands and drawing all attention to herself. “What it was like in the beginning. When Mother first created us, and it was just us, Her, and the Void. But we do. I remember the power that flowed through Her, the greatness of Her being and the all-consuming love She felt for us, protecting us with Her very soul. She is but a shadow of Her former self. Creating the primordial chaos, from which we fashioned the Realms, was a sacrifice of an order of magnitudes. All to give each of us a chance to grow. To evolve. To be born anew as gods, and give safe haven to the weaker souls. She loves each of us equally, and though it may seem distant at times that is out of necessity, not of want.

  “Do not make Her choose sides between Her own children. I will not ask Her to sacrifice more of Herself for us, not when She has given so much already.” She finished, glaring out at the gods, daring them to challenge her. Alexander nodded his head, and spoke next.

  “Every inch of the Four Realms was crafted of Father’s own being. Each of us are His children, including that of the enemy. Though it may pain Him to punish us, to ‘play favorites’ as it were, I know for a fact that if push came to shove and the destruction of the Four Realms was imminent, He would act. We will not let it get to that point. I do not wish to hide in our Father’s shadow forever; I will stand beside Him, eventually, as an equal.” Alexander said.

  "Don’t you feel the same?” Keilan asked, standing and smoothing out his robes. “That is why Mother is not here, after all. Because we think it is high time we gave back to our creator. This will be a thankless task, there will be no glory or reward. It cannot even count as a repayment for all that Mother has given to us. I simply do not wish to burden Her with this. She has enough on Her plate. Call it pride and arrogance to wish to solve this ourselves, but that is the truth of it.”

  “Will you join us, then? Give us your all?” Elvira asked.

  “Of course!” Aeriel chirped, still upbeat and chipper. Wind swirled about her, forming a ball of condensed air. “We’ll need a game plan though.”

  “Mm. This thing has been hiding, hasn’t it? We’ll need to find it, figure out its plan of attack.”

  “Should we study mortals? They’ve been battling against each other, maybe we can learn some tactics from them.”

  “I don’t want to fight, but…I agree with the Big Four.”

  “They’re right. Patriarch Luotian is still injured, too. He needs to rest.”

  And more was passed around between the gods, most of whom seemed to be agreeing. The amount of positive affirmation was, frankly, better than Elvira could have imagined.

  She shared a satisfied look with her siblings, pleased at the way things were going. But that only meant they needed to double down on their efforts to strengthen themselves, and counter the Shadow’s own movements. It had eons on them for planning its attacks, while they might only have millennia. They needed to catch up. Only once the muttering had quieted down a bit more did Elvira speak again.

  “Now that that’s decided, we’ll be meeting fairly regularly to discuss battle plans and the like. Rarely will we all meet together like this, but we still will if necessary. Thank you all for coming, but go now! Into the Realms and resume your duties. But keep an eye out.” Elvira warned. The assembled gods rose to their feet, talking rapidly to one another as she turned to her siblings.

  “It is done,” Keilan said, standing from his seat. He ran a hand through his slicked-back hair, and adjusted his robes.

  “Are we certain the enemy was watching?” Reika asked.

  “There is no way to be certain, but I cannot imagine it would not have noticed this gathering and not taken the chance to peek. I doubt even Mother failed to notice, She likely just gave us a pass. You know how She loves surprises.” Keilan explained. Elvira nodded. This meeting was two-fold, and this was the true reason Father was not supposed to be here. This was all but a declaration of war, an ultimatum, to the enemy, who was likely watching. And Father was not to be a part of that.

  “Regardless, we have put our hand on the table. We must wait and see what the response will be, if it is anything.” Alexander said. The four were silent for a moment, each in their own thoughts, until Randus, Sol, and Gilles all stepped up to join them. Among all the other gods, those three were the most powerful besides the original four themselves. Elvira was not sure why, perhaps their very nature was different from the others, but it was the truth. Perhaps in raw power Randus would lose out to the others, but none would doubt his strength.

  “You did not mention much of the rogue god, or the existence of other universes,” Randus pointed out as he approached, phrasing it more like a statement than a question.

  “We decided that such a topic is better suited for Mother to explain. I, personally, still have trouble with the idea that She came from another universe.” Reika said with a small shake of her head. “Did She ever fully confirm it?”

  “In Her dreams, yes. She allowed me to see a few of Her past memories, lives She lived, things She’d seen, before She became Statera Luotian.” Randus explained. “I counted five mortal lifetimes, though there are likely more hidden from me. Nor do I understand how She came to be who and what She is now.”

  “In the end it does not matter,” Alexander said, shaking his head. “Father is here now, and is the most powerful being in the universe. I will not pretend to understand what His plans are, or the depth of the meaning of these revelations, but until the time comes that it is important or He addresses it directly, I will focus on what is before us.”

  “Agreed,” Elvira said with a nod. “Let us put it behind us and plan for the future. We have a war to fight, after all,” she shared a look with her siblings who, one by one, nodded to her and vanished to their own, respective realms. That left her to clean up the mess, and to handle the other gods who didn’t know exactly what they were doing.

  She mentally sighed as she stepped forward. They had a war to prepare for.