RE: Deity - The Breath of Creation

I sent an incarnation to the Physical Realm. The four main nodes of the universal formation were working beautifully, with the supportive nexuses well on their way to completion. Once those were done I'd be able to rearrange the lesser regions to act as a boost to the entire array, with the four original regions in the center, supported by four middle and eight outer regions. These would make up the core of the entire defensive structure, where all life and souls would be protected – outside of that, I needed to make number of other regions for the secondary and tertiary buffer.

But I had to wait for all that to be completed. There were a couple other things that needed to be done, and it would be awful nice if I could get a few more Dao Progenitors to rise up. Not too many; just enough to fill out the remaining new regions with proper…guides. Rulers? Whatever they wanted to call themselves. Installing Dao Progenitors as heads of the new Trees would connect their Dao Stars to the regions themselves, allowing the power of faith and belief to flow through them properly. We had eleven Dao Progenitors currently, not including the gods who had formed their own Daos. That left two more needed.

It was reasonable to think that in the time we had two more Dao Progenitors would appear in the Physical Realm, even with me suppressing things. Some souls were far enough along in their journey that no amount of suppression could stop them; I was counting on that, actually. That, however, was not why I was in the Physical Realm.

Xing Wu was handling part of that task, much to his chagrin at having been forced into a bunch of new duties immediately after his ascension, but I desperately needed him and a few others to grow stronger. My task was to ensure that they did, which was part of the reason I was here, sitting on a bench in the Physical Realm, watching birds wing through the air and feeling the flow of energy.

The Eight Pillars had to be completed sooner rather than later, and we were missing two members. Xing Wu had yet to fully assume the role but it was just a matter of time with him. His personality would accept nothing less than excellence. Kei, as well, was growing into her position nicely; I didn't need her to be a warrior or leader, that role would be filled out by others. The Mad Scientist's decision to stay had greatly accelerated Fang Xu and Celene's hatching; which meant I didn't have to allocate any resources to accelerate their growth. Randus was Randus, and he, whether he knew it or not, was already functioning as a Pillar. Then there was Inesa, sweet little Inesa, who was waiting on a few others to get there before she took that step.

Not that she wanted the role, but her position was just too perfect and she had no idea what she meant to the Physical Realm and mortals, even if they didn't show it through worship or song. If Xing Wu represented the earth reaching up to touch the skies, Inesa was the sky, reaching down to touch the earth. It was adorable how their relationship had progressed; I was looking forward to the wedding, whenever they announced it.

Xing Wu wanting to punch me or not, I would be there for that.

A bird chirped above me and I whistled back, smiling to myself as it squawked in indignation and flitted away, fire and smoke trailing from her tail feathers as she winging away into the clear blue sky, circling above.

"What a prideful little thing you are," I told her.

The cool, crisp air felt refreshing upon my skin as I reclined on the little bench I had appeared on, drumming my fingers on the stone back as I watched my target flit about the little village. This was the fifth life Sol had lived as a bird, and the fifth time he – or she, as she had reincarnated as a female bird this time – had chosen to become this kind of bird. The locals called it a Scarlet Flycatcher, due to its brilliant red and black plumage and diet of insects. Not the grandest of birds, but…fitting, for Sol. Fire still coursed through her soul, empowering her even now, karmic threads from all she had done in this life and previous ones stretching every which way.

"Should I call you Solana, now? Since you're a girl." I mused to myself, the bird not responding or listening to my words as she settled in a nearby tree, watching me with beady black eyes.

Much of what she had done in the Sun War was resolved, karmically speaking at least. That was at least one benefit of me stripping her of her title and much of her power – that, in and of itself, combined with being forced to claw her way back up to the realm of the mortal and living over the course of hundreds of thousands of years, was enough to burn off quite a bit of her karma; be it negative, benign, or positive. She had a relatively clean slate, now.

Karmic strings appeared to me as wispy strands, almost like cotton but stronger, that bound and connected things. Keilan's influence ran through all of it as the god of connections, helping to guide the connective strings of karma so it wasn't so freeform. However, my attention was not on the karmic threads that bound her. My gaze lay solely on the strands of fate she was building with her own talons.

These appeared to me more like strong steel wire, leading souls on like tracks. Much like karma, fate was something that was, typically, built with your own hands. Desire that stemmed from the depths of one's soul compounded upon actions and willpower, which compounded with the energy the soul produced. Spirits responded to said energy and desire, karma wrapping around the fate "cables" and tugging them into place, the very universe and Dao itself pushing the soul to follow the path of fate it, itself, had laid out. Once the soul or the fate became powerful enough, its path snowballed until there was no derailing it; and that kind of thing usually had stories written about it later, for good or ill.

That, in essence, was the phenomenon known as fate; sometimes it clashed with others, sometimes it was solely upon the one person, and very rarely was it actually forced upon a soul by someone else. Solana's fate was ten silver threads, reaching up to the miniature sun above. We were currently on one of the outer planets of the first Region, and she flitted from branch to branch of a silver-leafed tree, occasionally glancing up at the sun as it made its lazy way across the sky. Longing touched the bird's soul, the threads of fate stretching up and up toward the flaming ball.

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Here she was, trying to reach out to the sun once again. I stroked my chin, gaze growing distant as I looked heavenward, keeping my sight fixated on the brilliant, sapphire-blue sky rather than piercing through it. If fate was something you built with your own hands…what was this, then? What was the fate of the Four Realms to be colliding with the One World? Was it something I built, something my children had, or something the collective Four Realms had created? Or, and this made my stomach squirm uncomfortably, was this a thread that was being forced in a new direction?

That one didn't feel right to me, but I couldn't ignore the possibility that I was intentionally blinding myself. Self-doubt wasn't something I usually did, but…stress did things to people, even gods such as I.

I was searching for the link that bound it all together, but it was frustratingly elusive, even with my new sub-domain of fate. That was the trouble with this concept. I could see other people's fates, but when peering at one's own fate? It was far, far harder to decipher the truth.

I sighed, and looked again at Solana.

"Would you stop that? Desperation does not suit you." I flicked her with a small ball of energy that trembled her soul, her steel threads jerking to the side and flying every which way, away from the miniature sun. The bird shrieked her displeasure, fire flaring from its wings as it took to the skies once again, circling around me and screeching furiously. "Oh hush, I am doing you a favor. There is little else I can do for you; you do have to crawl up on your own, but this, at least, I can do. Do not empower yourself on something you do not truly wish for." I chastised her, rolling my eyes. She cawed at me once more before settling back down in her tree, glaring about.

She wasn't mentally aware of what I had done, but her soul knew. The soul always knew.

"Now I'll have to dedicate a little bit of time to your brother, too." I mused, scratching my chin thoughtfully, enjoying the breeze as it ruffled its way through the little clearing. If Solana was to, potentially, be one of the final pillars, that left Gilles as the other.

A fountain burbled excitedly in the middle of the park, the trees that surrounded it swaying in the breeze, a small temple atop a hill to my left. Aeriel was listening in, I knew, as she always did. The wind knew all that was spoken into it – with a wave of my hand a barrier was formed around me, silencing that wind, separating myself from the world. Here it was just me, and one of my wayward children.

Solana chirped.

"Well, I can't do much more for you. This much is a bit too much, even – you haven't even considered asking for help yet. But you have worked hard so far, and I figure a little reward is in order. You desire to reach for greater things, do not be tempted by the easy path." I chided. Solana cocked her head to the side, then stuck her beak beneath her wing to scratch an itch. With a chuckle I shook my head, mind returning to my own fate for a brief moment. "You know, it's funny. If I squint my eyes and tilt my head, I almost feel like I can sense where this is going. Almost. Ah, I'm probably overthinking it. I am just an incarnation, after all – one of the weaker ones, too. My processing power is limited."

I looked around the park again, standing. Reika's power was flooding the place as the Sun rose high above, invisible to the mortal eye, yet its power filling the world with light and warmth all the same. Spiritual energy is what it provided, as opposed to the more physical of the miniature suns. Change had come, winter was coming, even as the day continued on.

"My dear," I said, raising one hand, extending a finger. Solana hesitated for just a moment before flitting over to me, landing upon my finger. "Good girl. Thank you for listening, but even though you will forget what I say, I do hope your soul remembers. I am proud of you. You were always meant to be great, I just hope you do not trip and fall this time around; you had been the Sun once, but I had hoped you would become more than just that." I planted a little kiss atop her head, then pushed the bird away, watching her flit off into the skies, her strings of fate trailing after her, searching for something to grasp.

And I let the incarnation fade away, its power returning to another incarnation that was in charge of ensuring the formation lines would be properly made.

"Easy now, easy!" I shouted as a few of the angels in charge carefully laid the spiritual foundation for it in the depths of space. They were Elvira and Keilan's angels, though they did, of course, still listen to me.

At least this whole Original Sin nonsense would turn into an unexpected boon, to help solidify the Pillars. I'd have to monitor the situation closely and potentially provide more support than I probably should, if things were going poorly, but I couldn't allow too many mistakes.

Ah, but at this point I was just thinking in circles.

Soon it would be time for a little meeting with Yueya. I worried my bottom lip, folding my hands into the sleeves of my robes as my two angels, Stilicho and Fu Hao, appeared beside me. They would accompany me to the meeting, once the time had come, and I turned my gaze to the skies, where the thread of fate that bound the Four Realms and the One World together hung ominously.

Karma and Fate were intertwined things; they could effect the other greatly. Maybe, if we worked in enough positive karma to the connection, we would be able to lessen the dangers of this calamity. It was worth a shot, at least, and I would take any advantage we could get.

***

The bird flew through the air, fire trailing from her feathers as she flapped her way across the sky. She was not the biggest thing in the world, this she knew. She had to hide from the greater birds with sharper talons, whose wings were silent in the night. She had to pick her nesting spots carefully, in case the cats who crept in shadow attempted to snatch her up.

She had to fear the two-leggeds, who could change the world so drastically, though maybe not the one who had just spoke to her. That one was kind.

But she dreamt of a day where she was the largest thing in the sky. Where she could fly freely, as far and fast as she could, unafraid and unchained by the tethers of fear. She folded her wings to her sides, diving down, into the forest, where she dove and wove through the dense trees, shooting through gaps in branches and leaves with expert skill. Her beak snapped open, catching a bug as she shot by, her fires instantly roasting it of any poisonous qi that coursed through it before she devoured it whole.

Then she shot skyward, through the leaves, up into the air, the power that fueled through her expanding, slowly, ever so slowly, but fast enough that she had long since outgrown any others of her kind. A thermal wind caught her wings, yanking her further skyward, toward the puffy white clouds above.

These skies were not hers. But they could be. A part of her soul whispered.

No. They were no one's sky.

But she dreamt of the day all the same, where none could force her to land.

Where none could doubt who, and what, she was. Where all could marvel at her fire.

It was a compelling thought for such a little bird, but qi had the habit of making even the simplest of things complicated.