Chương 1106: Day One Thousand One Hundred And Four

Dear Diary, Y'know, by now I ought to realize that here and now, each and every 'rule' has at least one exception, and in all likelihood that exception has something to do with Divine Woo. I mean, on the one hand that just kinda makes sense. Like I said in my essay on Mana, the core utility of Mana is its ability to bend the laws of physics.

I remember seeing an episode of Star Trek back in the day where the dude from Reading Rainbow and human Discord fucked with the gravitational constant of the universe using the warp field. Mana is, I guess, kinda like that, only usually on a way smaller scale. Okay, honestly, I'm fairly willing to bet that's how fuckin' Dragons fly. Fuck, in all likelihood any Mana enabled birds fly that way.

Sure as shit things like Griffons use Mana to get and stay airborne, because they really seem too dense for their wingspan to keep them airborne. Even the tiniest changes can have an effect way out of proportion with the change made, which is, from what I can tell, how shit like Swift Foot and Strong Arm work for normal people. Because even if I am a people, which is still under review by yours truly, I am not a normal people. Fuck, I'm not even a normal Deity. Normal Deities...

Well, shit, I think that might be a weird kind of oxymoron right there. Every Deity has one or more Domains, and it really feels like along with enormous amounts of Mana, Deities actually spend less of it for more effect whenever they're dealing with anything related to their Domain. Domains. Whatever, their woo works wonders when wielded with Domain in mind. Or even out of mind, but just in effect.

From what I've seen and experienced, I can store more Mana when I'm physically larger, whether by Shapeshifting or Mimicking something big. That just makes sense, what with the whole 'Deities are Souls made flesh', and Souls being, from what I can tell, made of Mana. There's also what Dad told me back in the day, where higher 'tiers' of Deities have more Mana. Like their Mana Density per liter or kilo is higher or something. Which... I'm an Elder Primordial whose M-Space ass covers the eastern seaboard of Atlantis.

Fuck, I think by now I'm covering the eastern half of Atlantis, probably all the way in to the Mississippi, not to mention stretching out into the ocean to the point where I can threaten Iceland without meaning to. At least I think that's where the base of Yggdrasil intersects with the Mortal Realm. Right around there, anyhow; I don't think I've ever stepped to the Mortal Realm there. I probably should, although right at the moment I think that might invalidate the whole Norn divination thing. At any rate...

I cover like a quarter of a hemisphere of the planet. At least an eighth, I think? And I'm an Elder Primordial. And my Domain is fuckin' Change. Which means I gotta be real careful when exerting my fuckin' Divine Woo, because if I want to Change something, shit gonna Change, but from what I've seen Deities do not have the most refined granular control of their Woo, and when it comes to controlling raw Divine Woo, I'm on the worse end of that scale. Huh.

I just realized, I may have been rewriting the rules of Mana on the fly in order to pull off some of my funkier new Shapes. Kitten? Is that cheating? Are the Norns laying a sloppy post coital pile without you alerting me so I could watch? The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. Kitten! I haven't forgotten to tell you even once. Which means you haven't cheated. Now, what were you talking about? Shaping. I took a moment to gather my thoughts.

If I'm using Mana to rewrite how Mana works to modify my Shapes on the fly, is that cheating? Oh, lord, I needed to find more ways to make Saffron chuckle in my brain. it felt like her rubbing velvet over the inside of my skull, my bra, and my lady bits all at once. Given that the entire purpose of Mana seems to be altering natural law, I'd rather say you're using it exactly as intended. If you're simply using more than any of the rest of us can do, that's not your fault, being the biggest and strongest.

Synchronicity hit me. I didn't know I'd shown you that movie? Which movie is that, love? After a moment, she interrupted my reverie about Netflix and chill. At any rate, the ways you've used Shapes, altered them, have given many of us in the field of Shaping research new insights into Shaping.

So even if we can't create those effects exactly as you did, much like Karen and I both found ways to create Mana Blades without using your Mana, we can follow in the path you've forged to recreate them in ways the merely Mortal among us can use. Somehow that made me feel a lot less, I dunno, like a fuckup. Like I wasn't Doing Mana Wrong. I was some kind of Mana Test Pilot, going higher, faster, harder so that other folks knew it was possible. Thanks Kitten. You're always welcome, love.

After a brief delay, she thought, your High Clergy wanted to know if you would...

'Feel some kinda way' if we led the Temple Revels in your place this evening. i looked around at the Norns, realizing right then and there that they weren't really doing anything I could see as 'divination' as of yet. Mostly Urd and Skuld seemed to be arguing about methods. Not, like, knock down drag out fighting, but more of a sisterly bickering.

Healthy sisterly bickering, even; I'd done plenty of unhealthy bickering with my own sister back in the day, and with our horde hoard nearing two dozen, nary a day went by at the Homestead when we didn't have at least a little friendly competition going on. I sighed, then thought back, I really wish you could put each and every one of you up on the big screen next to the Maw later. How much later? I... Hadn't really expected that. I probably should have. When I'm done here?

I mean, once I'm done here and I can sleep to appreciate it? I also hadn't really expected a chorus of all my High Clergy saying, let it be so. After that I settled down to wait. Aisling clung to me, still shivering a little, and Dad stood behind me, hands still on my shoulders.

"I'm guessing you gotta stay here along with me?" He sighed, a breeze blowing across my shoulders.

"Given Odin's typical love of legally binding agreements, I suspect I ought." So we stayed there, watching the sky fade to black, the stars wheeling overhead. After a while, Urd and Skuld both disappeared, slipping out of my perception. I wasn't sure if they'd stepped into the past and future, if they'd stepped to the Mortal Realm, or they'd just fucked off to someplace else. For her part, Verthandi just... Stared at the bark of Yggdrasil.

By morning I figured I'd be kinda beat, but a steady stream of Worship flowed into me from the West. Some time after dawn, Aisling yawned and stretched.

"Sleep okay?"

"... kay."

"You know you're safe there at the Homestead, right?" She shook her head, a single jerk.

"... safe." I sighed, hoisting her up so I could look her in the eye.

"Are you worried about something in particular?" She shrugged.

"You don't have to tell me. I'm not gonna force you to do anything. Okay?" She nodded. I sighed.

"Would you like a hug?" She nodded again, but kind of curled into herself. So I pulled her to me and just cuddled her while we waited. After a few moments, Loki murmured, "would you like a hug?" I smiled.

"Yeah." He scooped me up and held me. It had been a while since I felt small. Felt... Safe. So we stood there through the day, watching Verthandi watch a tree grow. I hate waiting.