(Writer's note: The votes are still open for the review I had tagged at the front of my book page, if there are any changes or new books you believe may be a good choice for Heath to travel to, say so as a comment!)
POV: Heath Dollen.
Date: Góa 18th, 798 AD. (Alt: 1st March, 799 AD.) Location: Götaland (Ancient Sweden.)
4 days have passed since that meeting with Fáfnir, a rather civilised dvergr-turned-dragon, all things considered, the egg is roiling towards self-opening, and the Cavern is running smoothly.
The people did their jobs and passions through with an extremist productivity, finding and pushing the avenues of their own crafts as needed, all for the unifier, the Saviour, who brought them together, and has since been unseen since this morning.
Heath was in his workshop, the brick concrete structure made and left there over a month ago, forgotten but well kept, with the two original Auto golems still patrolling and maintaining the stability of the build. The great scientist God was foraging for some information involving the egg's stabilisation without the usage of incantations or spelled will, purely the intent of the dragon's consciousness to its creation. His belief in still turning all of the golems into flesh and blood would be best suited towards this goal.[1]
Besides the eternal phylactery, through the connection of over a quarter of a hundred million souls would be more than enough to maintain their federation's faithful magigeneration. To then be ready for the transportation up to the Antarctic Circle. "Or maybe, yeah, that could work." Heath noted down a possible workaround to this problem.
Utilising the same trade he had done to take all of the willing homeless and vagrants of the Vanir's problems, he could go to other outside territories and speak to the more amicable founding Deities in this warranty. Both to allow for greater living space, and to make this multicutural assembly be plausible before the screw-ups of the 9th century and later that led to greater religious bigotry and xenophobic nativism that led to collective nationalism between the multiple empires.
"-which would be best? I know the الْخِلَافَة الْعَبَّاسِيَّة (Al-Khilāfa al-ʿAbbāsiyya (Abbasid Caliphate)) is a rather inclusive multi-ethnic state, the discussed Carolingian Empire has its faults with its current Iconoclastic beliefs towards destroying all religious idols and the focus on Pentarcic Supremacy, still, they could be bartered with." . . .
"The بلاد الخزر (Hazar Kağanlığı (Khazar Khaganate)) would be a good option too, before their mass unification into the chauvinist دشت القمانيين قپچاق (Dasht-i Qumāniyīn Qipchaq ('Cuman Kipchak Plains' Confederation).) How could I reach there in time. . ? Stop hiding, I can feel you watching, Adal." Heath would comment to a shadow in the corner of the room, soon coming in with a little box that he leaves on the table of Heath's desk in front of him. "Are you sure you are not tiring yourself, Dryhten Dollen?"
His usage of sudden honorifics when he would usually speak standardly leads to confusion to the ðrútanmaðr's part. "Tell me, what is the issue?" He spoke a probing phrase that is becoming part of his common vocabulary at this point.
"Dróttinn Hœnir is here with clearance by Konungr Tiwaz, wishing to meet you." The furry wiseman's explanation made the tall God's already wide vision turn greater. He immediately warped to the private room outside of the physical sphere, finding that many of the decorations Freyja had once placed within had been removed, feeling rather bare. It did not matter, Heath immediately knelt to the one who was of a much higher station than him. "I greet Dróttinn Hœnir, may y-" The raise of his hand became a rather blunt cut off, reminding him of the thorned King's tactic, he closed his eyes in self-calming before standing straight.
From the oldest trio of the northern Gods, the giver of Wod and Wit was of an importance many in modernity would have kept in the back burner, yet those of the clades would know of his importance beside Óðinn. The silence became a limb as fluent as any of our own, feeling the spiritual essence of the soul in front of him.
Comparing the first scenes he had seen of him in the show, once with long flowing grey locks. Now, he appeared bald, emaciated. Still, his strength felt stronger than if Heath were without The Hopeful's blood price. The silent God's judgement of the one who ascended the deer and crows while also creating such grand, knowledgeable vaults that are a millenary in contrast, began by giving an approval that need not be voiced. It was throughout the room's existence itself. "*?*" Heath was not used to there being no way of communication between those he talks to, neither soul nor auditory, only directed visual cues and slight environmental changes.
Luckily, Heath understands enough about this Deity's personality to both recognise they wished to thank those who saved him after being returned to the land of the living. "I do not need gratitude, Af-bragð (Respected person of higher status.)" He is deferentially reticent before speaking once allowed.
"And what may be that behind you?" He sees a rather strange machine that even takes his sigil time to decipher, his emotions playing with a visual sweatdrop down his nose, Hœnir used his own power to bring what appeared to be an engine, 6 pistons in a hex-partitioned formation of 3 connected triangular faces began forcing a concentrated bio-oil through a corridoring pipe that led into a reverse-engineered portal network of recondite degree. It increased in speed enough that each piston became a blur to a God's normal vision, unnering, quiet.
It paused! An instantaneous reflux of energy pushed into a near-perfectly insulated container that then released an item outwards a cavity to its side. Hœnir grabbed the object, soon previewing the created small cube of *Dyḗusium, made without manual implementation.
"The bio-oil used. . . Rod gave you his own sap?" Heath questions the messenger to his Vanir-allied ilk, the other bald one giving a smile with a memory playing below that with the Tree's self-provisional exudate through the arborial network, they could easily make a full thumb-thick Cavern floor coating of the Divine CrCoNi per month if specialised, thanks to his plant botanology. The sigil finally pings the full schematic to his mind, realising how modular it was. "This can be enlarged, even automated?! Who is the creator, Áss (God) Vǫlundr?" Bingo, he got nodded towards with squinted eyes and a small mug.
Then, by that good guess, Heath theorised that it may have been that they shared the armour he had given directly to Thyra, they must have coutured a part of the armour to replicate the proportions and attributes while also working with another who would freely spill for their cause.
Heath would no longer keep a side profile in checking the *Dyḗusium trans-generator. He walks up to him, raising his hand in a prop giving, they grab each other's forearms and push their chests into each other. Afterwards, both used the same hands they had dapped each other with to hold a palm over their own hearts, mimicking movements to an exact mirroring. "You have no idea how much this means to me." He takes a finger, warping away the machine to a safe storage beside the Ĥstḗrium cube.
"I should get the basket of apples ready for you all soon, then. Currently, there are 65." The great scientist God's promise to them led to the other gaining wrinkles upon his forehead in tightening his features with both expectation and curiosity, crinkling his cheeks beside in giving the word 'Understood.'
Now that they have completed their gift-exchanging, the silent God twirls mass-spectered feathers and leaves around him into a vanishing act, the pure ruffled plumage that reminded the singular spectator of an autumn's migration, a beauty before moting into dissipating light particles. Heath warps himself away in turn, finding that his asking of Rod's production of 10 apples had been completed, he thanked Rod for all his work done, both asked and the surprise for him, which the leafy facial expression showed an amused pursing before refocusing on his daughter, Aussa.
He personally travels through the portal that connects to the Vanaheimr common grounds again, finding the apartments had been expanded a few floors upwards as asked, with centralising the population as a mega centre for Vanaheimr. Thousands of people live there in a beautiful complex of modern European design and initiative.
The same occurs as last time: the tall God is treated with respect by others, who give their own forms of homaging to a 'Deity so high above them,' whatever that means, through towards the Iðavǫllr council, a blur of blue suddenly shoots towards him with
"We can have time soon, love. We have an apple basket to gift." He showed it off, 75 full Apples of Immortality, ready to be consumed to bring back youth to the unendingly ageing Vanir. She smiles at the gilded, glittering fruit before refocusing on his face. "*Mhm*."
They turn towards the gated entrance, entering the hall that furthers through with the King of the misty storm sitting by his pod, seeming to have finished a session with his helpers in developing their world. "Brother, welcome." He points towards the 'donation table' by the side of the room, seeming that they had expected him to appear with the food. Where the basket is placed, another task has been completed, side-quest after side-quest, denoted down towards righting the wrongs of this realm.
"We have been waiting,*Pause*for you." Konungr Tiwaz's wooden visage alit with fireflies surrounding him turned towards the magigraphic (Magic holographic) screen that looked out of place with such naturist reliefs surrounding the magi-sci-fi device.
"Was our gift, well received?" The thorned King smirked, his knotted teeth spurring with pride at how his people had broken all expectations. "Most definitely!" Heath would realise that many were focusing towards their world's ecological profile through a real visual makeup, seeing the astropolis (Ecumenopolis focused on resource production)'s full makeover from the last time he had come 14 nights prior. "You had not expanded past your world?" He wondered further, hearing a cluttering of chirps behind him.
"Of course, for all to see the achievement." Baduhenna relaxed the capercailles and puffins that fluttered around her to rest upon her perchable shoulder pads, them puffing up into each other or onto her neck. '"Now."' She sends a mental note to Thyra, still in her Uni-pod, manually sending out the arc-ships to the 2 robotically created, empty colony-based arcologies below the soil of the rocky orbs comfortably within the goldilocks zone. With the simulation unslowed with it still being 250,000 'Terran' years / Model second being at full speed, it was only a word before they filled up the hive cities in a few real blinks.
"Holy damn, you can see the underground networks expanding so- already complete?!" Heath felt it was almost exaggerated with the speed, 1 moment it was empty, the next the 2 settled bodies having billions each on their surfaces of the trifectal symbiotic species.
Nevermind, quintefectal, there were two more with them he had not noticed, a flying species and a synthetic hive-mind sort per world from a central planetary computer that helped with local stellar governance. The few around the tables not within the Uni-pods telegraphing a clapping in a clip well done. All around the table began drinking or eating their share of mixed foods, a portion ready for the arrival of the new Vanir-Ally. Few could ever sour the mood that has been set in the hall around them.
"Well, I think it may be time for your apples. You have 36 Gods total, meaning each of you can have 2 apples, with 3 left. If you also wish for your þegnar (Servants) and þrælar (Thralls) to be unaged. . ." Heath turned his head low, his eyes squinching with mixed playfulness and proactivity.
"We will call for your,*Pause*magic touch." The King of the misty storm swaggered over with glee by the preparations coming together ever so smoothly, being at his happiest since before the Æsir Vanir war a few centuries prior. No death or destruction, pure built-up economic value with a brother who, as he knew he would say himself, was a 'ride or die' sort. All were surprised that the riches that had long since been coffered up dry by their opposing siblings to be refilled in just the month alone, and ever-larger.
"A 'toast,' for new beginnings." Iði would raise his dual-appled hands high, the light catching the hemispherically smooth surfaces in an auric mirror, it bouncing throughout the hall like a dozen disco balls for a Mansa Musa rally. Sublime, and appetising with so much fruit above them.
All except for Heath, who absconded while holding a single from the 3 apples left to be part, bite down onto their right-handed bice, the sappic ichor drunk and the flesh in making the Divine back to their most vibrant appearance, working as they had remembered. The strength of the oldest felt reinvigorated, renewing towards what had been felt in their spiritual primes. The most visually striking being Konungr Tiwaz's. His dead mane rebirthed, and a hair-tarp of leaves created a backing that complemented healthy bark skin.
"Just as I remembered." Tuisco's left head comments with silent celebration, his right head nodding at feeling his 'brother's taste buds on his own tongue in shared sensory. "Tastes sweeter to me." Mannr's right head *Manu remembers it being a bit more sour, *Yemo nodding to his brotherly head.
"Now that you say it.*Hmm*." They find Heath giving a hug to his wife, to question him. "Yours were resemblant to a 'Granny Smith.'" Heath represented the note of memory from his own tongue to those who wished to try, next creating the other replicant of his favourite apple type. "I made it photosynthesise more sugar to match the Fuji apple, fresh, is it not?" They bob to his explanation, him recuddling Skaði, both slowly floating upwards into the air, without any expectations of etiquette.
They found the couple cute with their open sharing of affection, when it would otherwise be kept behind closed doors for their era of manners and protocol. "Population: 1.384 trillion and slowing." Thyra's voice was heard after leaving the Uni-pod, her own staring towards the duo being rather poignant.
"May I?" She would ask her master, who would nod in believing she deserved it at a minimum. 2 left then, now kept within a locked treasury bond with a chain and key. "Well, I will have to-" Heath was about to say he needed to do more work back at the Cavern, but his lips were stopped by the great Huntress's. "*-ah*No, no." Skaði would point towards her own quarters. "For the night, at least." She lolled out her arm over his, eyebrow tightening in hiding that she would miss him. "Fineᵉe~." That earned a drink, dinking their stein mugs together where they enjoyed a fine berry mead.
On the other side of the forest, where a quest had been set for Leif and Sigrid to complete, they were travelling south to reach the nearby river before nightfall in finding an elusive macro-creature that is known for only appearing in seas or deep basinous rivers.
They utilise their binoculars towards the scurrying gravel and muddy bores through the Angerelfr (Ångermanälven River) by the north, where a century from now it would be named Hälsingjabotn ((Bay of the Hąlsings (Bottniska viken (Gulf of Bothnia)).) What they were looking for was a creature much like the one they had rescued, the Hafgufa, not as large as the Lyngbakr (ἀσπιδοχελώνη (Aspidochelone)) that Grandma was, with it instead of appearing as an island to be able to be confused in appearance as a barrier of rocks when under a running flow.
"Now to see if they are as friendly as she was." Leif would comment sardonically towards his blómtvinnr (Twinflower,) who herself was getting rather tired from scanning each running of rocks in case it was the giant fish.
"*ᴴᵁᴾ*." He would put out his arm to get Sigrid's reaction, finding lithic teeth in two half-moon circles, sticking where the shore of the future settlement of Sparrhugget would sit. He was told by Heath that from the myths involved, this beast would keep its mouth open into the waters to release a vomit-like chumming-bait to gather prey-fish, but fully capable of consuming smaller boats and even mennskr (Norse humans) that strayed too far into its open jaws. Each tooth was as tall as the Dollens from his perspective.
"L.S. Opting, we have found Hafgufa. I repeat, we have found Hafgufa, over." The Clan Heir voiced through the communications array of his armour, pinning a note with his eirring grenade cover to then teleport themselves back quickly, but found themselves unable to, with something blocking their magic.
Someone archaically powerful and strangely enough, caring? A form that would blind vision raised itself from the waters, Jǫrmungandr's torso-sized irises peering over first before her mouth opened as a trap-door lid, using its tongue to push out an object from her jaws before rediving down below the watery depths, the portal turning back on after the object rolled towards them, they turned their heads back to the direction of the hafgufa, which they realised it was not there!
With them internally freaking out on how such a big creature could jus-, they were forced to flickingly stare at the object from the giant serpent's manual abstruse pull, seeing a little snake-esque form within, matching the attributes they had seen of the teeth, frozen.
Well, that made the job much easier. Sigrid had her own suspicions that this may have 'tracking capabilities' they could not figure out as they did not have enough experience to match their lead scientist. They could not just leave it here and be rude, however, so to Den höga ormtungan (The tall snake tongue) it is! They pick up the object, then moving away with a new plan towards introducing the two aquatic creatures in hopes this may be sapient as well. ""Thank you."" Both say, before leaving, feeling Jǫrmungandr's presence swim in accomplishment after having helped them.
Valyria was at the scene with a single *Clap*, scanning the orb that held the creature in realising that it would open itself and resize back to normal on contact with water. She gently takes it off them, scanning the temporally frozen creature suspended in magic.
In thanks for doing this task. She brought over the new promised flavours of alcohol for them to try, and another blessing with greater magic regeneration when doing God-stuff in either ETERNAL or the 'Minecraft Realm.' "-There is some news." Sterling had asked the top brass to come around for a meeting, 3 deer, 3 crows and 9 humans total. "It has been recorded that 'he' has at most the intelligence of a dog, easily rectifiable when their size can permit a larger mind and soul." He would flip through his mental notes, figuring the best way to put it lightly.
"But, he is incredibly gluttonous, and seems to suffer from what my Dad's home realm would call in humans 'Prader-Willi syndrome.'" He described the symptoms of how their hypothalamic dysfunction from a POMC gene variant, leading to no sense of satiety, where even if you ate many times your body weight, one would still feel
"He had no choice, and with the addition of faith power, it led this creature to grow unimaginably huge from previously being a catfish, with the genetic sample we had been able to collect." He would show the clean test tube with the sample given, and a comparison on screen that showed there was a 0.08% drift. Basically still a purebred Wels in comparison, yet made immortal with it being ≈ 3rd of a kiloannum old. A hand raises, it being Gorm in a pensive posture.
"If any creature, like the two most recent that came, could be made this way due to some unique trait that led this individual's story to be spread to mythical status, what says there could not be more but undocumented from lost knowledge?" Seems the Clan Formaðr made a good point, Sterling started scratching his unruly ponytail of hair in contemplation.
"Seems we may need to create an 'S.C.P. Foundation,' no?" Agnarr jokes after reading about it in 'fictional history of Heath's home realm' in their built wiki, finding the concept rather entertaining. "Aye." His love Hervor would agree with reading beside him in his spare time, them holding their hands in imagining together how it would look. "Before we plan on that, we will have to ask Papa about removing the Hafgufa's endless voracity." She would ask through the leftover mind-link from when they had talked last, but she immediately shut it off with her somehow pulling a blush when having no blood.
Valyria would give meaningful looks, with a rising heat in her ears, that she should have realised from all their 'escapades' together towards knocking. "We will do so later, then." Sterling tracked back the sentencing to their next point.
"*Crʳrᵒoᵒ~*What sort of personality do you believe he would have?" The North Crow Clan's Matriarch, Paulina, asks them in turn, with Rhoyna suddenly appearing and giving a breakdown that he appeared to be most curious in figuring out underwater puzzles and trinkets when not trying to consume them, like a parrot's penchant for solving mysteries, even when so old. "We're gonna have another researcher n'our grasp." She would vote in English to wait until tomorrow, which is when they guess Heath will return.
"Should we leave to find more like them?" Leif would question them, with the Dollens shaking their heads in not wanting to be overwhelmed with too many problems at once. Adal in the background, who was listening in, shook his head, thinking that it would have been better to have done so.
"We should try your new magic regeneration." Sigrid would ask with tinging redness to her cheeks, a manner of imaginative ideas playing in her head on the ~possibilities~. They leave after giving respects, reaching their two-story apartment room and to their Uni-pods, leaving the rest to their devices. "Us varðir can travel through the planes of the earth. Do you allow me to scout ahead?" The furry wiseman's hopes of finding magical creatures to remove them from harm's way were given supervision by Rhoyna with greater autonomy.
"S'long as you notify us." By being given the go-ahead, he flows below the earth in swimming, the only thing left being a few strands of hair where he had stood. Her curly hair that fell onto her face was pushed away with a hand, turning back to the meðr (Norse persons,) deer and crows left.
"I can see tha'look, what's wrong?" And from their descriptions, not much as of currently, just that the newly crowned sapients are wary about their creator being away for too long. A standard with what seems to be growing daddy issues. Oh! There was an issue with the new refugees that seem to be wishing some of their extended family from multiple towns to be brought here as well, after having seen the near million empty floors of the structure they lived in. Many claim that such a miracle should not be wasted so wantonly.
"Dad, he's, well, said 'no' to-" She scrunches her nose in remembering the punishment of having to help manage some of the program-generated societies that were failing in ETERNAL from their own issues and growing internal strife, of all kinds. "-doing that again."
Gorm looked between him, Agnarr, Egill, Hervor and Yufren, the last 2 people that were there having already left before their conversation. "Should we do it?" The sparkles of his own ascendance played against his skin in excitement, the others agreeing with silent cackles.
[1] From Chapter 24: It was made of bricks from the (concrete brick / glass farm.) Partially melted together with what may have been extreme magical heat. There were no windows, but there was one large entrance facing northwards towards the (forest farm.) It was entirely out of place with its brutalist design. There were two golems continuously patrolling around it in a clockwise pattern. Inside, there was loud talking and the sound of working. 'They must be on a project they did not want others to see. Yep, I will not disturb them then.' Heath turned and raced.