I don't own the Tortall universe…Though I wish I did. I'd set myself up as an ultra-goddess or something, now wouldn't that be scary?
Review-Responses! Mwahahaha!
Ivory Nightshade, Thanks for reviewing again! I love getting reviews. And the answer to your question is both…sort of.
It wasn't as much that he was Lazy as going out of dream and asking another god for a favor was way out of his comfort zone; he's not used to doing that sort of thing. And he'd have to leave his realm; Gainel is a real home-body, he feels uncomfortable when he is outside of his own realm. He's only really concerned with his own territory and the living realms. Though he wishes he could have some company, Gainel still doesn't like being around other gods very much, and most of them think he's slightly off-his-rocker. He doesn't get out into the rest of the divine realm overly-much.
But it's also that he didn't want her to leave, and his own natural aversion to leaving is a nice cover-up for his unwillingness to send her home, don't you think? It's more subconscious than anything else. He's never really had to leave his realm when he didn't want to, so he's never noticed his dislike for it himself, Gainel agreed with Lynn that it wasn't Lazy-ness because he didn't really want to explain it to her.
Nativewildmage, Awesome, you reviewed again! I was beginning to think you'd abandoned me! Just Kidding.
I'm constantly logged on so I don't have to worry about that problem. Ha. And I don't care whether you logged on, its fine with me, a review is a review, and I love reviews. The reason I'm constantly logged on is so I can gaze at my story-stats and watch my hits and reviews go up little-by-little.
And
yes, Gainel is thinking about this business of him actually being
someone's patron god. He's never done it before so he doesn't
know what he would need a charge for, so there's going to be a lot
of confusion with this subject in future chapters, Mwahahah!
Providence Smiles
By LGR
Part I: Discord and Violence
The scenery of the chateau fell away, and Lynn could see that the world was flying past her, though she felt as if she were standing still. Thread-like, glowing wisps floated elegantly around them as every shade imaginable flew past them in a wave of color.
"What are those?" she asked in awe, indicating the delicate fibers of light, wafting lazily in clear contrast to the streaming colors flashing behind them. Her voice had taken on a strange resonance after the shift her body had made to stay with Gainel. But if her voice sounded strange, Gainel's sounded even less human. She didn't so much hear it as she felt it; a lightening bolt zapping her and rocking Lynn to her very bones.
"They're ripples of energy caused by the intruder's interference with the dream-pools," was the shuddering reply. Her jaw hurt from the reverberation, but she didn't falter, she kept her incorporeal hand in Gainel's, not daring to let go or loosen her hold for even a moment, lest she be left behind.
She could sense her patron's consciousness as it scanned the dreamscape with tremendous speed; noting every disturbance and slight variation of substance.
And she could see them too, the places where the twisted worlds that were dream-pools, were skewed, bent, broken or disheveled. However, in most cases, they moved so swiftly out of the range of her senses, that she barely had time to register them at all
But Lynn felt the differences. Though the dream-pools in themselves didn't really have much of a 'shape' they possessed an eminence when they were working properly that became distorted when tampered-with. She began to recognize this as she paid close attention to the pools that Gainel examined, and the ones he passed over.
And she could tell that Gainel wasn't very happy about them. His ghostly face wore a frown as his awareness darted from place to place. Sometimes he would hover over one disturbance for slightly longer than the others and the distortion would lessen or sometimes snap back to harmonize with the rest of the dreamscape, but he left most alone, taking note of there existence but choosing not to alter them for whatever reason.
They continued on.
A pressure began to build. Unlike Gainel's tension field, which felt to Lynn as if someone had laid a heavy blanket of sparks that flickered like sheet lighting over anything in the area, this was something different.
Time seemed to stall as they hit a bubble of inertia. Lynn's awareness narrowed then nearly disappeared, and she felt as if she was floating inside an endless sea of rippling darkness.
And a strange hand coagulated as from the blackness and reached forward her, filling her vision. In the far part of her mind, that was unaffected by the spell that had befuddled the rest of her brain, she watched as it unfurled its long fingers and moved toward her.
She could tell something had gone terribly wrong, but her perception of time was off, and though her mind screamed for her to leap away and body struggled to move, everything was happening in slow-motion.
It was going to get her. Though she was slowly moving backwards, the merciless hand seemed unaffected by the resistance to movement she was experiencing.
It grabbed her.
It closed around her face with a grip that felt like it would crush her skull. The touch of the hand caused her to begin shifting to synchronize their consistency and she found she could move almost normally again.
Except that another hand reached out to take her right arm. Another sprang from the blackness to grab hold of her left arm, and still more secured her legs. She thrashed, and knew if she lived through this she'd have bruises covering her body from the force the hands were putting on limbs to keep her in their grasp.
And the chaotic mass of darkness converged to reveal a creature she could never have dreamed even in her nightmares. Its features were so indescribably horrifying that she began screaming with all her might and couldn't stop herself from shaking, even as she lashed out violently to get away.
Its three milky white eyes held no mind or soul. Its black, raw iron jaws were shuddering uncontrollably, and saliva was sprayed everywhere as it shook it's had and smashed its teeth together violently as if trying to hold itself under control even as it wanted to tear limb from limb.
There was a deafening crack and an explosion of color as the blackness tore away to once again become the ever-changing plane of pure color and imagination.
An all too familiar tension-field swept over her and the monster knocking them both back. She scrambled to get away and she nearly managed it but the monster let loose a metallic shriek and one of its many hands grew enormous and flew to trap her like a cage.
But its screeching laughter at her failure to evade capture was cut off as a bolt of pure energy snapped to render the creature immobile. White-hot tongs of electricity with darkened edges arched in what seemed like random patterns as it played along the entire surface of the creature. Its shrieking invaded her brain and flung her hands to her ears, wanting to cry from the pain of it.
The shrieking stopped. The lighting flickered and the last remnants of sparks converged and leapt off of the convulsing monster to solidify into human-shaped being; colors flashing across it's image so fast it became a white blur with a hardened black edge. She couldn't bare the beings magnificence but she wanted to see him.
It was Gainel.
He moved to step in front of her. "Leave." he said, in a voice like sheet-lightening playing across black clouds in a tumultuous sky.
The monster hid its face behind three of its hands, shunning the glory of the Great God, and limped away from the battle-ground to a depression in the space.
The cavity swirled into the image of a copper and raw iron filigree gate, its bars of metal twisting into ever-changing patterns. The left hinge of the gate swung open to reveal a beautiful, smiling woman dressed in a black dress that rippled across her generous frame. She was holding an apple of pure gold.
The other hinge opened and there stood a toughened man in tattered clothing, his muscles bulging and hands flexing around the hilt of a dagger, his expression a maniacal grin.
They were Discord and Violence, the gatekeepers of chaos. The creature limped towards the gate and stepped through it disappearing into the shadows. Violence let loose a peal of giddy laughter then closed left hinge of the gate and disappearing into the shifting darkness after the creature. Discord lingered longer to give Gainel a false smile before she began to close the right hinge of the gate.
But a divine hand shot out to stop it from closing.
"Tell Uusoae that she will never send her constructs to trespass upon my domain again." Gainel professed, his face mere inches from hers. Black-rimmed white static rippled across his hand and struck the gate, its copper and iron tendrils temporarily shedding light as the electricity raced across its surface.
"I'll tell her." Discord said in a voice like liquid diamonds. "But you would know better than anyone, Gainel; my mistress doesn't abide by constraints."
"She may be the Mistress of Chaos, but I am the Master of Dream."
"My mistress is quite aware of—"
"Don't mock me, Discord, just go." Gainel slammed the gate closed, with a rattling peal that echoed into eternity. Discord stood within the gate wearing as façade of calm that was unable to hide how utterly terrified she was of him.
She stepped back, her eyes never leaving Gainel for as second, as if she was afraid he'd change his mind and lash out at her through the rungs of the gate.
He didn't move.
The Gatekeeper's eyes briefly left the Great God to hold Lynn in her vision, then back to Gainel, who'd noticed and had his eyes narrowed. Discord's face turned from fake tranquility to outright rage then to thoughtfulness.
"Oh Gainel, you'll never be at peace now." she smirked from the shadows before disappearing altogether, along with the Chaos Gate.
And that ether-being known as Providence flinched.
