The seed shifted.
Sun noticed it the same way you notice a sound in a quiet room. There was a change in the pulse beneath his ribs. Not the normal flow he had grown used to over four years. Something more like attention.
He had been trying to understand the seed since the day he arrived in this body. It had absorbed his divinity, taken specific memories, changed his existence from the inside, and then settled into him like it had always been there. It responded to almost nothing.
He had tried to study it through every method available to a four year old.
These methods were limited.
Now, for a reason he could not identify, it was reacting to something.
He remembered what had happened the previous night.
Among mortals, affection was expressed through a deeply questionable ritual known as a kiss. The act of pressing one's lips against another person.
The first time his mother tried it, he reacted immediately.
When he saw her face suddenly approaching his, lips first, he naturally assumed it was an attack.
A strange attack, certainly.
But an attack nonetheless.
So he defended himself.
Violently.
He would have seriously wounded her too, if she had not shouted in panic that it was just a kiss and not an assassination attempt.
He was forced to reconsider the situation.
After careful analysis, he came to a deeply unsettling conclusion.
He was still thinking about it when the door opened.
The man who walked in was dark skinned with blue eyes and a face that would have been considered beautiful if not for the scar that ran from beneath his left eye down to the corner of his mouth. A tattoo marked his right arm. Old ink, the kind that had been there long enough to become part of the person rather than decoration.
He moved like a retired climber who had stopped fighting recently enough that his body had not yet forgotten how.
Sun observed him the way he observed everything.
Then he observed him again.
Something was off.
He could not name it. The man's posture was relaxed. His expression was warm. His materials were organized. Everything about him looked correct. A retired climber doing private tutoring. Nothing unusual. Nothing worth noting.
But the seed reacted again beneath his ribs.
The same way it had reacted a moment before the door opened.
Sun kept this at the back of his mind and kept his expression neutral.
His mother appeared from the kitchen with a soft smile.
You must be the teacher. I'm Mary. Nice to meet you.
Kael, the man said, shaking her hand. Nice to meet you too.
Then he looked at Sun.
He looked at Sun the way people looked at things that were smaller than expected.
This must be little Sun.
Kael stretched out his hand for a handshake.
Sun's expression did not change.
Internally, a three thousand year old divine consciousness registered the word little with the specific displeasure of something that had once caused fifty gods to hesitate mid strike. An assessment was made. A response was calculated.
He smiled politely.
Nice to meet you, Sun said. I am Sun.
Not little Sun. Sun.
He noticed Kael's outstretched hand.
Sun stared at it carefully.
Is something wrong with it?
Kael blinked. "What?
Your hand, Sun said, pointing at it. You are holding it out like it has stopped working.
It has not stopped working,Kael said. It is a handshake.
Sun frowned.
A what?
"A handshake. You grab my hand.
Why?
It is a greeting.
Sun looked deeply troubled.
So when humans meet peacefully, you capture each other's hands?
No, you just shake it.
Shake it?
Yes.
He stared at the hand again.
And if I refuse?
That would be rude.
Sun sighed and carefully grabbed Kael's hand.
Kael shook it once.
Sun immediately pulled back and inspected his arm.
You also vibrate the limb.
That is the shaking part.
Your species greets others by temporarily kidnapping their hands and rattling them.
Kael rubbed his temples.
When you say it like that, it sounds strange.
It is strange, Sun said seriously. You could simply nod like a civilized species.
Kael thought this kid was something else entirely. He pushed the thought aside and acted professionally.
Your parents mentioned you were bright,he said. Teaching tower fundamentals to a four year old is, well. We will see.
Sun nodded politely.
Mortals often said we will see in situations where they had already decided the outcome but wanted to appear open minded about it.
His mother laughed softly.
He is very smart. He asks a lot of questions. Sometimes strange ones. She paused. "He is mostly alright.
Sun filed mostly alright alongside little and continued smiling.
The lesson began at the table.
Kael produced materials. A book, several illustrated charts, and the organized energy of someone who had taught this many times before. He set everything out with the practiced movements of a man who believed in preparation.
Sun approved of people who checked their work.
He also observed Kael's hands while he arranged the materials.
Steady.
Practiced.
The steadiness of someone who had learned to keep their hands still regardless of what they were thinking.
Sun noted this.
He also thought, wait, the high gods, who are those?
We will start with the foundation, Kael said. The seven High Gods. Everything in the tower, every path, every system, every law, traces back to them. Understanding them is understanding how the world works.
He opened the first chart.
The God of Light. The first and oldest. Before his arrival, the world was formless. Filled with nothing. Nothing could be perceived. The moment he came to be, light existed, and with it the ability to see, to sense, to understand what was around you.
He is called the God of Life, the God of Hope. He is the most worshipped being in the tower. Everything good in the world traces back to his arrival.
Sun looked at the illustrated figure on the chart.
The artist had drawn him well.
He looked familiar. Then Sun recognized him.
The moment it registered, something dark moved inside him. The God of Light. Kind? Benevolent? Sun almost laughed. He had spent thousands of years under that being. Treated like a tool. Like a dog. He had believed it was for some greater purpose. He had told himself it meant something.
In the end, all he received was betrayal.
The anger rose fast, like something that had been held underwater finally breaking the surface.
Then the seed shifted.
It did not remove the anger. It was more like a hand placed firmly on his shoulder. Calm. Steady. A quiet reminder that now was not the time.
Sun exhaled slowly through his nose.
The anger settled.
Still there.
Just no longer visible.
He also noticed something else. In his time, there had been no book like this. No official record. No organized lesson teaching children about the high gods before they could even read properly. They had built something here. A structure. A story. And they were making sure it reached people young enough to accept it without question.
He decided he would pay closer attention to these lessons.
Is something wrong? Kael asked.
Stomach ache, Sun said.
Kael did not look entirely convinced. He wrote something in his notebook.
Sun noted the notebook carefully.
It appeared to be a teacher's observation log.
The column for unusual behavior was likely under serious strain.
The God of Desire, Kael continued. "Before his arrival, living beings existed but had no direction. No ambition. No want. He gave them desire. The drive to reach for something beyond the present moment. Without him, nothing in the tower would function. Nobody would climb. Nobody would grow.
Sun thought about the God of Desire sitting alone in his domain, feeling nothing, searching for a purpose he had never found, maintaining the tower only because the logic said he should.
What is wrong with having no desire? Sun asked.
Kael looked at him.
Well,he said carefully, without desire, you would not want anything. You would not try to improve.
But would that be bad?
A pause.
It would mean no progress, Kael said.
Is progress always good?
Kael looked at him for a moment.
This was clearly not where the lesson was supposed to go.
Generally,Kael said.
Sun considered this.
What if you grew in the wrong direction?
The tower provides guidance for that.
But what if the guidance was also wrong?
Another pause.
Kael opened his notebook.
Sun watched.
Teachers, Sun had noticed, frequently wrote things down when confronted with questions they preferred not to answer right away.
The God of Imagination, Kael said, returning to the chart, gave living beings the ability to picture what did not yet exist. Thought. Intelligence. Without him, you could want something but never picture it clearly enough to reach for it.
Sun thought about a being of pure thought who had built an entire world trying to get home and kept missing the door.
He did not say this.
The God of Progress gave us strength, the capacity to act. The God of Manifestation gave us knowledge, the ability to understand how things become real. Together they built the foundation that makes advancement possible.
What about the God of Shadows? Sun asked.
Kael paused.
We will get to him.
I am curious now.
We will get to him in order.
Sun accepted this patiently.
Mortals often needed information to arrive in a specific order even when the order itself did not matter.
The God of Corruption,Kael said.
His voice changed slightly.
Not dramatically.
Just enough that Sun noticed.
He is a rogue god. When the world had been given everything, desire, thought, progress, knowledge, he introduced corruption. He damaged what the other gods built. He is the reason power can consume its user. The reason the world is imperfect.
Sun studied the chart.
The illustration was darker than the others.
The artist had made deliberate choices.
He made the world imperfect, Sun said.
Yes.
And before him the world was perfect.
Correct.
Sun tilted his head.
What was wrong with a perfect world?
Kael blinked.
Nothing was wrong with it. That is what perfect means.
If everything was perfectly ordered, Sun said carefully, and everyone followed the correct paths toward the correct destinations, would anyone be able to choose a different direction?
The gods provide guidance.
That is not what I asked.
Silence settled over the table.
Kael wrote something in the notebook.
Sun watched his face while he did.
For a moment something appeared there.
Recognition.
As if this argument was not entirely new to him.
Then it disappeared.
The God of Shadows,Kael continued, is the strangest of the seven. He gave living beings self awareness, the ability to see themselves rather than only the world around them. He also created death."
Why? Sun asked.
To give mortals identity. Without an ending, there is no meaning to a life.
No,Sun said. I understand the function. I am asking why he chose death specifically. It directly opposes the God of Light's domain over life. Was that intentional?"l
Kael stared at him.
I do not think, he said slowly, that a four year old is supposed to ask that question.
Sun considered this carefully.
He had once participated in the construction of several divine frameworks and the collapse of a minor civilization.
Age restrictions on questions were new to him.
What age is it supposed to be asked at?
Another pause.
I will research that,Kael said.
I will add it to the list," Sun replied.
The list?
Of things you are getting back to me on.
Kael looked at him for a long moment.
Then he wrote something in the notebook that took slightly longer than the previous entries.
The lesson ended an hour later.
Sun now had a clear goal. He needed to understand what was happening in the tower. What were the high gods doing? Were there other gods beyond the seven? Had they been erased? The world had taken a strange turn and he intended to find out why.
Sun's mother appeared with tea and the careful expression of someone who had been listening from the kitchen while pretending not to.
How did it go?she asked.
Kael considered this question carefully.
He is, Kael said.
Very thorough.
He asks strange questions, she said.
Yes.
Is that a problem?
Kael glanced at Sun.
Sun sat exactly where he had been the entire lesson. Hands folded. Posture straight.
No,Kael said finally. It is not a problem.
He gathered his materials.
Sun caught a brief glimpse of the final notebook entry before it disappeared into Kael's jacket.
Who taught this child to think like this.
Sun considered the question.
The answer was technically complicated.
At the door, Sun's mother spoke quietly with a neighbor who had stopped to talk after Kael left.
Sun listened without appearing to listen. A skill he had developed around day three of his current existence.
Still no word about the Lena girl,the neighbor said. That is three children now. Three in one month.
They are saying Nullspawn activity, his mother replied.
The moment the word Nullspawn was said, the expressions around the door changed.
Nullspawn were creatures cursed by the gods. Monsters. That one word was enough to put fear in anyone who heard it.
A pause.
Do not say things like that where the children can hear,his mother said.
The door closed.
Sun sat at the table with his hands folded.
Three children missing in one month.
Nullspawn, according to the official explanation.
Sun thought about what he knew of Nullspawn. They were territorial. They killed when threatened or hungry. But they had a preference for adults. Larger life force. More energy. Children did not fit their pattern.
This did not look like their work.
It was a strange matter. He filed it at the back of his mind for now.
Something was beginning.
He was not certain what yet.
But in his experience, the things worth paying attention to rarely announced themselves at the start.
They accumulated.
Quietly.
Until they could not be ignored.