Side Story: Nare

Author’s note

Consider this to be shortly after Ben reaches the third tier

As was so often the case since it happened, Nare found himself leaving another meeting over their world’s newest third tier, the coming god of sacrilege demanding discussion, no matter how done to death it felt by that point, and it was all just so pointless. No matter the worries, no matter the fears, there was nothing for any of the naysayers and other worriers to do. Ben was with them, and even if his existence couldn’t help but bring out the paranoia of the divine after his latest change, he was simply too helpful for a consensus to form that he needed to be gotten rid of.

But that didn’t mean that Nare and the others on the boy’s side could slack on giving the sort of argument such an idea deserved, leaving him exhausted whenever it would come up. With it done though, Nare created a chair in his realm and allowed himself to sink into it, enjoying the comfort as he did.

There was work he could be doing, of course; there always was by that point, but overall, things had been going well enough that he could be allowed a brief bit of rest. His mortals knew what needed to be done after all; they didn’t need him to micromanage them, and they at least were given the mercy of sleep when a day ended. If he were to take a few minutes to try and collect himself then there’d be no harm.

Though I can’t deny I miss the few times I experienced sleep for myself, he thought, looking back at the occasions on his lost world that he’d been able to indulge in the act by descending upon a believer. While such a thing might have left him at his most vulnerable, back when he’d been ruling over his home, the risk felt minuscule. His new world, however, had not found itself so safe. Descending was a luxury not many of his ilk continued to enjoy, even if some of what would come from the act couldn’t help but be missed.

“Of course, it’s not like I can do such a thing casually either, even if I wanted to,” he sighed to himself. “The sort of fuss that would go up if I tried to sneak down to the world to taste the food on a believer’s lips or feel the comfort of any of the conveniences they’ve invented. The second one of my priests felt the touch of my divinity, it would become a mess.”

“Then you should have gotten your fill when you were working on siring your son,” a voice behind him said, Phixth making his arrival known. “Plenty of time to enjoy the mortal plane then.”

“I was rather busy with the task at hand, and if you’re going to show up, you should at least knock.”

“Then you should leave a doorway for that, or perhaps at least a sign and a plank to do it on,” the other god told him, making a chair of his own across from Nare’s. “So, how are you feeling?”

“I’m sure I feel much the same as any of our more reasonable companions, sick and tired of these pointless meetings when there’s so much better uses for our time.”

“I wouldn’t call the meetings pointless. It’s important that we’re all on the same track.”

“At this point, with how many we’ve had, some among us are intentionally avoiding the track altogether.”

Phixth had nothing to say to that, instead changing the topic. “Has your granddaughter been well?”

“She’s been working hard to grow her skills and has been filling arms orders day by day. She’s overworked like so many others are, but it’s not like I can stop her when it’s necessary, and it’s not like this is the reason you’re here. What have you come for, Phixth?”

He and the stone god had known each other longer than most on that world, both of them a part of the original group of gods and survivors that had found each other and colonized that planet, and with that time came familiarity. Phixth hadn’t simply come to chat.

A fact all the more displayed as the other sighed at the question, sinking just a bit farther into his seat as he did.

“I’m curious about your take.”

“My take?”

“Myriad’s apostle and the boy’s coming godhood. Considering all the boy has done for him, Myriad’s opinion can’t be trusted to be sound, and as for Helori, she’d let a lot of things pass if they seemed interesting enough, which that particular summoned is undeniably. As the third closest god to him, I want to know your thoughts on what he’s accomplished.”

“My thoughts? His awakenings haven't changed them if that’s what you’re asking. If anything, they’ve only been strengthened. Ben is a blessing to this world, more than what any of us could have ever dared to hope for when we first claimed the summoned and anyone who thinks otherwise is nothing but a fool.”

“Even though he rules over a domain that’s in conflict with the rest of us?”

“Pfff, if that’s so much of a worry, then the rest of them should have used whatever hundreds or thousands of years they’ve been on this world to learn to act with some decorum. You know my nature. When so many who worship me sell their wares, you expect I wouldn’t be on the side of one who seemingly only wants to be paid appropriately? We’ve gotten how many hundreds of new second-tier mages he helped awaken, with more still to come before the next wave? That alone should be enough to show his value and for the other gods to be bending over backwards to please him yet still, everything is an argument and a fight. If his ascension does lead him to war against anyone in the future, I have no intention to fault him for it.”

“I’ll ask you not to say as much in any future meetings.”

“Ha, what would it matter? No matter how many meetings we have on the topic, I’d say the majority have their minds made up, one way or another.”

“For now. If we win though, I wouldn’t expect these conversations to end.”

“What, you think when we stop needing his work, some will try to push the matter?”

“I didn’t say that. I’m just not so optimistic that it will end until he’s finally by our side.”

“Or perhaps not until he’s so powerful that even the dullest among us could see how foolish continuing the topic has become.”

“Don’t talk like that. I miss the days when you were this world’s maddest crafting god.”

“Even if he’ll have a lesser divinity for it, he’s going to be a god of sacrilege and minds.”

“Then I miss when you were this world’s maddest crafter in general.”

“You’re right; that’s the real part I should have argued. I’ve never been mad.”

“A sane mind wouldn’t suggest and design the system.”

“That was called desperation. If madness lies on the other end then I can say that every one of us who arrived here did so carefully walking that thin line. Besides, you know how I made it, I could have never done it without everyone else’s consent. At least without being hailed as an evil god.”

“True,” Phixth gave in, the memories still feeling fresh for him even all of those millennia later. “But do you ever regret it?”

“... The guilt of it eats at me constantly, but if I could go back, I’d do it all over again,” Nare told him, his gaze turning towards the distance as he drifted back to those days. So shaken with the loss of his old world, so filled with horror when he found others in the same position, so desperate to never see such a thing happen to a place he called home again. “No, if it was an evil act then to me at least, it was a necessary evil, the world we have now is proof enough of that. And you? Do you regret letting me?”

“How could I, when it’s so plain that the world would already be on its last legs without it?” Phixth asked back. “When the first wave came to my home, most settlements were destroyed, and when the second arrived, there was nothing I could call so much as a tribe left. Just a few scattered survivors, hiding in the dark. All it took was seeing those horrid portals still standing to know that it wasn’t the end, but when I look at all of this we have left on this one, one can barely imagine that so many worlds had already long since fallen by this point.”

The god opened a view of the mortal plane as he said it, showing towns and cities full of life. Places that, even if they were in the throes of the darker atmosphere the future was holding over them, still held enough peace that they could see people going about their days. Friends greeting friends, children at play, indistinguishable from the hell that was the aftermath of the second wave on any other planet. What they saw was a future that still held hope.

“And that’s exactly why it’s impossible for me to take any thought against Ben seriously,” Nare said, staring into the view. “If any of this success can be laid at my feet then from all he’s managed, thrice it belongs at his. In my darkest moments, I would have been willing to accept some true monsters if they could have helped give us a world a fraction as nice as we currently have it. Anyone who would speak out against him despite everything he’s done is simply too worried about themselves and not enough of the horrors we all fled from. I’d take a god of sacrilege conquering us all so long as it meant my people wouldn’t be slaughtered.”

“Another view I might ask you to try and phrase a bit better if you want to express it in any coming meetings,” Phixth told him. “But I understand your point. Thank you for sparing some time.”

“Ah, it’s not like the rest of them will care for my thoughts on the matter, anyway.”

“Maybe not, but to me, your opinion will always hold value.”

With one final nod, Phixth left, more work to do and more people to see, leaving Nare to himself once more in his realm, to enjoy whatever bit of break he’d let himself continue to have and stared down at the world as he did to get what comfort he could from any happy face he’d find.