Although I am the mistress of chaos, (except not), I don't own anything from the Tortall world, sigh…
Fiefiefofum, thanks for the review! You really made my day! And yes, I know I make all kinds of mistakes, it makes me sad. It's not so much grammar mistakes as just typos; I get typing and I'll skip words because my mind is way ahead of my fingers. And the semi-colon is my best friend, if anyone's noticed how much I use them. They're used correctly but I still use them more in my stories than any others I've noticed. I need a beta but I don't even have e-mail so how would I send it? I've been meaning to get a yahoo account but I'm just too lazy. When I do get e-mail, anyone who'd like to beta me can e-mail or review me and we can hook up.
Though I do look forward to your update don't worry too much about it, the real world does call us despite the fact that we could care less. Or I could at least but I'm pretty psycho when it comes to books and my fanfictions.
And about the ether-being…I'm not telling! I will tell you that he isn't God…per se. At least not the way we think of god. He's more of an entity than even the regular gods are. If you want a hint, think The Balance… and I've practically told you already! Yay!
Nativewildmage, I shall never doubt you again! You'd like me to read some of your fanfics? Sure thing! I already started before I posted this. Be prepared, I'm not the meanest critic, but even so…
Anyways, the best thing I use to defeat writers block is music. I'm always listening to music while I write it helps me block everything else out. Muse is what I've been listening to writing most of this. They are an awesome band. If you manage to get a-hold of some of there music cough download cough know that the song "Stockholm Syndrome" is basically the theme to the entire story…cuz it's my favorite.
I also read other fanfics and things, so maybe a nice bit of ProvSm double deep fried and served with your choice of potato wedges or coleslaw will get the juices flowing.
And Violence and Discord; yup they are kind of important, sort of…I'm not too sure yet actually, although I can safely say that they'll show up for some more screen time later on. I knew exactly how I wanted Discord to look; it was Violence that threw me for a loop. So I just went with the typical-insane-thug gambit. It fits.
And description, I have been blessed or cursed (whichever you prefer to call it I'm not sure yet,) with a pretty good imagination. All the scenes I can picture in my head perfectly and to get you guys to see it to I have to be as descriptive as I possibly can; plus it adds more words to my word count. Sometimes I wonder if you're all seeing what I'm seeing but I hope my impression of it at least comes through so that you may have a glimpse into another world…or something to that effect.
In the words of me: "You have not seen till you have seen what I have seen."
Yeah, I actually said that to someone once. Pretty redundant, but it sounded profound until they started laughing at me.
And Ivory Nightshade, yes, I really like getting reviews and I like responding to them. Answering your review is all in a days work. Thanks for reviewing again. And although I have been putting responses before the story, if you guys start thinking it's annoying there or something I can always put them at the end. I don't care whichever you guys prefer. Keep reviewing, I love them so…
Providence Smiles
By LGR
Part I: The Herald of the Gods
"Oh Gainel, you'll never be at peace now." she smirked from the shadows before disappearing altogether, along with the Chaos Gate. But Gainel paid no mind, Discord's very nature was to cause dissention and doubt and he didn't feel like falling into her trap. He was in too much of a fury wondering how the gate could have been opened in his realm period. It was supposed to be watched; Equitus was going to get an earful for this, and he was going to give it.
He once again took up a less divine appearance and bent down to check on Lynn. Tears were streaming down her face and she was breathing heavily. Fresh bruises could be seen on her arms where the chaos-construct Panic had attacked her.
The festering masses that had once been Turmoil and Paranoia lay not too far away. He would rather not have destroyed them; destroying another god's constructs was very insulting, and the last God or Goddess you wanted angry with you was Uusoae; however, they'd made the mistake of jumping a Great God in his own realm.
It was obvious now that the main target had not been him, which would have been very stupid on their part, or the dream-pools, which would have made much more sense to Gainel, but had, in fact, been Lynn.
One of his dream constructs approached. This was not the many-eyed black bird, but a marine-like animal with an assortment of colored fins and tails with fanciful and strikingly bright neon splotch-patterns.
"Milord, intruders at the chateau," its echoing voice was exactly the same as every other one of his constructs, "They killed; they were neutralized."
"Were they identified?" he asked it, turning back to watch Lynn as her breathing returned to normal and she managed to get herself in a sitting position. She swayed and nearly fell but Gainel caught her, helping Lynn to stay upright until she could hold the position under her own power. She nodded a thank you as they listened to the Construct's report.
"Chaos-constructs," it answered, "Pain and Enmity."
That proved it. It was a two party effort: one party to keep him busy and another to take the mortal from the chateau. Gainel had the feeling that the three constructs had not been expecting the need to capture Lynn themselves.
For some reason Uusoae wanted Sarralynn. He saw now that Lynn's 'dent in the universe' must have been a portal made by one of the Mistress of Chaos's constructs. There was no doubt in his mind.
No one else would have been able to wander in by accident; the only reason Lynn was able to notice or enter it herself was because of her unique senses and shifting capabilities. Neither Uusoae, nor her constructs could interact with Lynn while she was in the living realms, however, in any other realm, the goddess could send her constructs to imprison her.
And though Uusoae would have seen it as lucky at the time, Gainel's realm being so close to her own, Lynn's choice of worlds had proved her undoing. Not only was he one of the Great Gods, perfectly capable of handling anything but a personal attack by another Great God, but Gainel was also especially protective of his realm and didn't tolerate trespassers or unwanted guests.
Neither had she bargained on Gainel's taking a special interest in Lynn's well being.
He should have destroyed Panic, he thought, changing his mind; it would have sent the message clearer that he didn't appreciate the Chaos Queen's meddling. Gainel wanted there to be no confusion between them that Lynn was strictly off-limits, but he figured that Discord would tell her Mistress that she was now under his protection; Discord was very observant and he was sure that was what she had been commenting on when she'd told him he'd have no peace.
And as he pondered further, he realized that must have been what Discord meant: Uusoae would not stop coming for Lynn, and she didn't care who or what was in her way.
In the past Gainel had sympathized with Uusoae, being the only other of the Great Gods who was barred from direct contact with the Living realms. He knew the loneliness, and understood that despite the many gods and constructs that inhabited her realm of Chaos, it was still no comparison to contact and influence over mortals. He also knew that she hadn't a consort of her own, just as he hadn't.
They both contained the element of chaos, and she understood that he felt her pain, and any contention between them was only for traditions sake. The Great Gods had always fought for his Brother Mithros, even if the call to arms was against an ally, or in Uusoae's case, a peaceful affiliate.
Gainel had always done the bare minimum in the battles against chaos. He despised fighting as a complete waste of talents, time and energy; there were so many more important things they could be used for.
Though chaos was apart of him, and he appreciated it's uses in stirring passion and keeping races from stagnation, he would still rather stay out of wars and fighting himself.
So, Uusoae did herself a favor, eliminated him as a major enemy by not interfering with him or his realm, and leaving his constructs and the immortals, which were born from human dreams and brought to life by his power. In turn he was perfectly happy to stay as far from the fighting as he could manage without getting his divine brother too angry with him.
And that turned out to not be as much of a problem as one might have expected. Most of the gods thought of Gainel as some sort of odd, pacifistic hermit, especially those who hadn't been there from the beginning of the ages. These days he was figured, for lack of a better word, to be a wimp; or at least as much of a wimp as a Great God can be.
Gainel knew that most humans, and even most gods who one would think would know better, thought that he was by far the weakest of the Great Gods and probably not even a match for many of the stronger second generation and self-manifested gods.
For Gainel's part, he didn't particularly feel like disillusioning them, for it fell in so perfectly with the image he'd wanted displayed of himself, he'd actually wanted to be left alone then, and even now when he grew so lonely and depressed, he couldn't help but shun their company. As desperate as he was, the presence of other gods usually made him feel worse.
Everything had gone swimmingly, but then she'd imprisoned immortals—his agents in the living realms, his—to extricate her escape, and he'd acted against her using Daine the Wildmage, and ruining her plans. And the mistress of chaos had never forgiven him for that, even once the truce was back on, if a little shaky.
But now, Uusoae had blatantly disobeyed the unspoken truce by entering his realm without permission, creating mass damage to the dream-pools, attacked his constructs, not to mention himself, and tried to kidnap his charge.
The deal was apparently off. Gainel knew that his ages of neutrality were over, and the next time the Great Gods were called to face the onslaughts of chaos, he would be fair game. In fact, Discord had hinted that Uusoae might now hold a special grudge for him because of his actions.
Gainel would need to be vigilant in the future, both over his realm and the living realm, as much as he possibly could, anyways.
"Gainel?" Lynn had been studying his face, trying to guess what he was thinking, "what just happened?"
"Uusoae just crossed the line," he said, his voice once again a whisper, "She tried to take you from my realm, she attacked my constructs and the dream-pools."
Lynn could tell he was angry, beyond angry, be she knew it wasn't at her and so she wasn't worried he'd hurt her, she could tell he wasn't the kind to lash out at anyone or anything in anger; if he were to attack, it would be because he had a reason.
He breathed a world-weary sigh, and his voice softened again as he said, "We need to get you home."
Lynn had been so anxious to return to her own realm—
—Until now.
She wanted to stay, she didn't know what she could do to help, but she wanted to do it, whatever part she could find to play in what seemed to be an important turn of events. She wanted to say "No I want to stay and help!"
But then he spoke again, "They may come back; it will be much safer for you in your own realm."
He was worried about her, he didn't want her to get hurt and he didn't want any more damage done to his domain. She understood.
"Alright," she said, her voice horse from screaming and filled with not a little bit of hesitation and disappointment.
But Gainel was barely paying attention. His head was tilted as if listening, when another of his dream-constructs appeared. This one was a luminous insect with eight color-shifting wings that rippled at every movement.
"Milord, a visitor." It said simply.
"That will be Equitus," he said, his voice tinged with dread, "We'll wait for him at the chateau."
Equitus? Wait…
"Equitus? The son of Mithros? The herald of Mithros's court?" she asked.
"Yes, we should go I want to be there before he arrives at the Chateau," Gainel answered, helped her up from her sitting position, and they shifted back to the library of the chateau with an ease and familiarity that would have told any on-lookers that they did this sort of thing everyday.
Lynn gasped, "Your home!"
The library, not to mention the rest of the country estate, was in a shambles. Furniture was destroyed, walls were barely holding themselves up and patches of everything in sight were burned.
"The physical damage doesn't concern me." Gainel said sadly as he bent down to examine an object lying on the floor.
It was the many-eyed bird construct.
"Oh no!" she cried, "Is it…"
"No, it hasn't been completely destroyed." he told her in reply to her unfinished question. He picked it up; examining it's torn and broken body.
"Will he be okay?" Lynn's voice had been reduced to a whisper.
"It's too far gone to perform its original function, even with any restorations I could make upon It." he said, the blinked and raised his head to look at Lynn, "However…"
He looked liked her brother and her cousin when they had a rather devilish idea.
"What is it?" Lynn asked suspiciously, she wasn't sure if she wanted to know. When her little Brother Rikash and her foster cousin Aly's son Taythun got together, it was sure to be an absolute travesty; she knew from experience.
Gainel looked insulted but she could that he was feinting, "Why do think its something bad? Maybe I'll just change my mind, since you don't want it." He was teasing her again, but she was too curious to care.
"Okay, I want it, what is it? What does this have to do with…Wait…your not…are going to give it to me?" She new she looked pitifully hopeful, but that was what she was going for; she'd liked the black bird from the moment she'd seen it; and it had liked her back; and she certainly didn't want it to be destroyed…
Gainel pretended to be indifferent. "After I fix it up a bit…I suppose I could give it to you…" he said.
"Oh, thank you—thank you—thank you!" she was jumping up and down with excitement. No one had ever given her such an amazing gift.
"Now, hold on a moment," he said being serious again, "It is going to look different than it does now, because of all the damage that was imposed on it."
"That's fine!" She was so excited she could barely contain herself; and then she had a thought, "Oh, but can you make it white?" she asked.
"White?…I suppose I could, why?" Gainel looked a little confused, "It looked fine black."
"Trust me, It'll look better white."
"How do you know?" Gainel was unconvinced by her lack of explanation.
"I'm a woman I know these things!" she said emphatically, but the God adopted a straight face that was more cynical than any sneer could ever have been.
"You're twelve." Gainel said.
"Twelve and a half!"
"Same difference to me," he said shaking his head with a sigh, "this is ridiculous, but fine, it can be white."
"Yay!" She cried.
Gainel had been wondering this whole time how he would be able to keep Lynn safe when he couldn't watch her himself, and turning his favorite construct into a special immortal, had seemed the perfect plan.
Even with the critique of his work by a twelve year old shape shifter.
It would look different yes, because of the damage, but mostly because of its new purpose. This immortal would have to be able to change realms easily and often without growing tired or week. It would need to communicate much better to him and to her, if it was to be useful. The ability to become in visible or unnoticeable would also be a plus; also having it's one magic could help it enormously. And it would need to be able to Phase shift, just as Sarralyn could.
And it needed emotions, because something with a passion for it's job would undoubtedly perform such a mission with all its soul. And this creature would have a soul, because that was what happened when you gave something emotion, memory, and the capacity to think.
This wasn't going to be just any immortal. For one thing it wasn't born completely of human dreams; his own imagination, the imagination of a Great God, was going to be incorporated into its make-up. Such a creature had never been created before, of this he knew. It would be more powerful, have fewer weaknesses, and it would be one of a kind.
Gainel went to work re-shaping the construct. The bird shape it already had was perfectly fine and Lynn had seemed to like it anyways, but it needed to be bigger.
It's original size had been about eighteen inches with a wingspan of fifty-six inches. He tripled it to three feet tall with a wingspan of eleven feet. He heard Lynn gasped at the sudden size increase, but when he looked at her she seemed delighted instead of scared, as he thought she might be.
It's many eyes were perfect for keeping vigilant, especially after he made it so the bird could move its eyes separately in any direction, gave it enhanced vision and The Sight. Gainel made the brain very large to keep up with all the enhancements being made upon it. This would be a very smart being; nothing else would due.
Now for it's magical capabilities. Here was where he'd have to make the most compromises in its physical appearance. Unlike in humans, the magical abilities an immortal possessed had a great effect on its overall appearance. A creature with an affinity for wind was not going to be able to look like a fish and swim in the ocean, and a creature with an affinity for earth would certainly not be capable of having wings and living only in the air.
It would need some wind magic, to keep it aloft. Even with its hollow bones, it was fairly heavy. The ability to compress air to create barriers would also be helpful if something were to try and attack Lynn physically. The ability to disrupt magic and change shape was a distinct ability of chaos property. And becoming unnoticeable was a neutral ability. The ability to traverse realms had a divine affinity.
As an artist, the aesthetics of the creature were very important, but Gainel was very surprised how well it turned out.
The neck had lengthened, as had the tale and wings. It silver beak and claws proclaimed it a magical being to anyone who looked upon it. To appease Lynn he had made it white, but the rings that surrounded the large, color-shifting false-eyes that had appeared all over its wings and tail, were black. Extremely colorful plumage now crested the bird's head, accenting it's whirling jeweled covered eyes.
Gainel decided it would do, and he brought it to life. The bird opened its seven eyes and let out a soft chime
"She's perfect!" Lynn exclaimed. The bird immortal hopped on Gainel's shoulder than swooped to flutter silently onto Lynn's. Lynn flinched before it landed, expecting the immortal to be very heavy, but to her surprise, she could barely feel that it was there.
"How do you know it's a female?" Gainel asked her as Lynn gazed on the bird adoringly.
"I know a girl when I see one." she said, "especially when she's an animal or immortal."
Gainel examined the bird's aura and was actually surprised to see that she was a girl, Lynn had been right.
Gainel just shrugged.
"Gainel, trying out new frames for magical animals? You haven't made any new ones in ages. Creating these 'immortals', as you call them, used to be your favorite hobby." came a sly voice from behind them, but Gainel had been expecting it, if not the insult hidden behind every phrase.
He turned to see a tall and thin, but well-muscled sapphire-blue haired man with golden skin and a long face with a razor thin nose and a very business-like smile in a blue plumed, golden helm, and golden legionary-armor over a formal white pleated tunic rimmed in blue. The helm, arm braces and golden sandals of the god all had rather large white wings fluttering furiously along with the symbol of the sun set in a ring.
"Your sire knows that it wasn't a hobby."
"Yes well, he is the one in charge after all. I don't see any use for them." The god said haughtily.
"Well, you wouldn't now would you?" he said cryptically, and let the grave insult the lesser god had inflicted upon him rest for the moment. "I thought you would be here sooner." Gainel answered, for it was true.
"Well, it seems you know why I'm here then." The man said with a haughty smile. Gainel frowned; the other god was talking to him like he was an idiot.
He had only ever been called to stand in Mithros's court less then a handful of times, and every time he had been fairly meek and well mannered, even when the herald of Mithros had grown snobbish and sneering, mostly because he'd had no cause to do otherwise, and because he had been enforcing the image of a unassuming Dream King.
Gainel saw that his acting unimpressive had sorely undermined his own authority among the gods. If Gainel was going to stand in front as a wall between the little shape-shifter next to him and the entirety of Chaos, he'd have to remedy that—Immediately.
"Of course I know why you're here, Equitus. The Chaos-gate was opened in my realm without warning or reason, and five Chaos-constructs were released to cause mass havoc and destruction. Tell me how this happened, Equitus?"
Equitus was one of those younger generation idiots that had the nerve to think they could best one of the Great Gods; he needed to be clued into reality. Gainel realized that it was partly his own doing that he was seen as such an ineffectual individual, but it still wasn't anything close to a legitimate excuse.
To mortals, his behavior at being seen as a lesser god when, in fact, he wasn't, might seem extreme, but in the politics of the gods it was a major offence, comparable to a slave brutally beating his master.
Lynn saw the guards placed on the Great Gods energy dissipate while at the same time, shields popped up around her, masking most of the glory flowing in visible waves off of the being before her.
He was so full of Light and Darkness all at once, his features perfected and blazing, his dark, severe coat and slacks had subtle silk patterns of white, gray, silver that twisted even as one looked at them. His perfect light skin and dark hair were only frames for his eyes, which were shifting pools of color, first turquoise blue with bubbles of gold, then a fountain of red shaded with violet, then silver sprinkled with green... She realized that this was what she'd thought Gainel was supposed to look all along, and it took her breath away.
"I believe, that you owe me an explanation, hmm? Haven't you anything to say? I believe it is one of your jobs to over-see the seals placed upon of the Chaos-gate, isn't it?"
None of the Second Generation Gods had ever seen Gainel in his full glory, they only saw the shadow they thought was the true Gainel. This was the Master of Dream, the one they all thought was week and oblivious.
Equitus seemed to realize he'd made a grave mistake. He was shaking and his own godly sheen seemed drab, even pitiful in comparison.
"Milord, I…" he stammered, but Gainel waved his hand.
"Silence, you'll have time to make your inconsequential excuses in the Court of the Gods. If my guess is correct, then you have a proclamation summoning us there, yes? Then do your job, don't just stand there gaping like a fool." Gainel commanded.
Equitusnodded furiously, eager to do as he was told, barely taking note of the mortal standing just behind the Great God and the large immortal standing on her shoulder.
"If you would please follow me, Milord, lady." The herald of the gods bowed almost to his knees then nervously led them through the divine realms to the court of the gods.
And that ether-being known as Providence watched on.
