Of the many flavors of magic in the world, divine magic held the highest possibility of wide-area effects. Taking Zarali’s buffing powers as an example, she drew on Drogramath’s power to increase the effectiveness of potions for everyone within a town. While she no longer had access to those powers, Theo viewed them as something awaiting him in the system. Perhaps it was arrogance that made him feel as though he could unlock it, but he held onto that hope.


    Tero’gal had gone into a pleasant form of stagnation in recent times. There had been several cold wars fought along imagined borders, but the realm wasn’t having it. Even after it had been upgraded to a Throneworld, it was unwilling to allow its denizens to fight. While that might have changed in the future, for now there was peace.


    Belgar came jogging over when Theo landed, waving and smiling as he ran. “Been a while,” he said with a lopsided grin. “Anything interesting in the mortal world?”


    Theo waved the question away, heading over to the meeting area they had built so long ago. “Not really. Everything is developing as it should… Is it me, or does Tero’gal feel more like a place? I can’t find a better way to describe it.”


    Belgar shrugged. “Hard to say. If there’s a change, it''s slow enough for me not to notice. How is my sister?”


    “She’s busy. Sorry for not bringing her along,” Theo said. “She’s one of few healers in a time where we need healers.”


    “Oh, that’s quite fine,” Belgar said. He cleared his throat, giving a thorough update on the various towns within the throneworld. Although Theo hadn’t asked for such an extensive update, he focused.


    More than the cessation of wars, the people within Tero’gal were happy because they had been reunited with lost family members. Or they had established new families. It wasn’t Theo’s wish, but the first proto-nations were rising. It was much slower now with the time dilation no longer so intense, but it was there.


    Theo slid a cup of tea across to Belgar, taking his seat with a sigh. “The true reason I came was to discover the nature of Tero’gal’s magic.”


    “I’m afraid that’s too advanced for me,” Belgar said. “I wasn’t even decent with his alchemy.”


    The tea Theo had made was nothing compared to what Benton could make. The bear-man had a hidden tea-making core or something. He would ignore Belgar’s remark about Drogramath for now. There was no need to dig at old wounds. Instead, he sat with the company of the former mortal and felt the magic of the world around him. The alchemist might not have discovered any secrets of magic, but he was pretty good. And Belgar was always good company. He had fallen into the role of leader easily and was managing the region with little effort.


    "Well, I need to go check on a few things," Theo said, standing and excusing himself from the table. "I''ll try to visit more often, if I can remember."


    "Don''t worry about it," Belgar said, meeting him at the door and waving. "I know you''re busy.”


    Theo smiled as he focused on a region to the south. He could still feel most of the world, as though it was an extension of himself. While that power might one day fade, right now he could still teleport anywhere he wanted. In a blink, he was standing in the swampy region to the south. The platformed town Drogramath had created sprawl before him. They had expanded some in recent days, but not by much. The alchemist walked through the town and found the ex-god''s home.


    “I sense you''re searching for something,” Drogramath said. He was sitting at a large wooden table. The stump of his missing horn caught the light of a burning lantern.


    "I''m actually looking for Toru’aun," Theo said with a chuckle, "although I don''t mind checking in on you and your people.”


    "Oh, don''t worry about us," Drogramath said, waving a dismissive hand. "She took the Bridge of Shadows a few days ago, headed towards the marshling’s world. I think she intends to live there, rather than my fair town."


    "Well, I won''t keep you from whatever the hell it is you do with your time," Theo said. "If you need anything from me, just send a message to the north."


    He said nothing as the alchemist turned away, intending to leave. Theo stood there for a few long moments before he released a scion, dropping into the void. It was slightly more difficult to move around on Tresk''s world, let alone sense what was there. But he borrowed from his partner''s power, sensing all the lives in the world. It was probably the second least populated world in the new cosmos. But there were still a few hundred people here. It didn''t take him long to find the person he was looking for.


    Theo appeared in a swamp. The entire planet was a swamp. But whoever inhabited this area had mounded dirt in one section and flattened it out. A single log cabin rested there, with wisps of smoke rising from a brick chimney on the top. Although it was dark outside, the windows glowed with faint firelight. The alchemist approached the door and knocked. It swung open a few beats later.


    "Oh, it''s you," Toru''aun said, leaving the door open as she vanished into our house. "I figured it was only a matter of time before you came here to ruin my solitude."


    Her hair was looking more white than it had when she was a god. Toru''aun was the Queen of Mysteries before all the gods fell from grace. For quite a while, Theo held one of her cores in his chest, but had since converted it to one belonging to his own realm. Now he came as an awkward aspirant of a nonexistent form of magic. If anyone would know how to help him, it was her.


    "Sorry for the intrusion," Theo said. Entering the cramped quarters of her cabin awkwardly, she found a seat on a plain sofa before the fire. She went back to what she was doing after he entered, scooping up two knitting needles and getting back to work on whatever it was. To him, it appeared to be a blanket, but he could never visualize how these things came together.


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    "You''ve already intruded," Toru''aun said with a scoff. "No need to apologize. What do you need, Theo?"


    Without an invitation to sit, Theo didn''t want to be presumptuous. Instead, he stood like an incredibly awkward person near the threshold of the door and stuffed his hands in the pockets of his coat.


    "I''m working on creating my own form of magic." Theo said. When he said it out loud, it certainly seemed stupid. “Not that I think the magic you created was inferior, I just think a different approach would better serve me."


    "You''re not going to offend me here, Theo," she said sadly, gesturing to her simple living arrangements. "I''ve cast off all mantles of godhood and have embraced the simple life. I don''t miss being a God at all. In fact, I was forced into it from the start. I hated it."


    "Really?" Theo asked. "I couldn''t tell."


    Toru''aun looked up, offering the alchemist a sly smile. "You always were hard to pin down, Mr. Archduke," she said. "Fine, I''ll tell you everything I know about creating your own magic system. But you’ll need to have a seat.”


    "Right," Theo said, crossing the room awkwardly and having a seat beside her. Sadly?, of all the gods and the old pantheons, she was probably the one he liked the most. Unlike those other gods, she never tried to get involved in things. She kept to herself, keeping quiet on almost all matters and avoiding interactions at all costs. The alchemist had a theory that the only reason she got involved was a special request from her sister. From what he understood, Uz’Xulven was her blood sister, but he wasn''t brave enough to ask.


    "Unfortunately, I think I know you well, Theo. Perhaps a little too well," Toru''aun said. She never looked up from her knitting, still working the needles at impossible speeds, to create something he still couldn''t conceptualize. “You like forcing things into their place. I get it. Just look at this place. Anyway, the magic systems we made through the system were based partly on our nature. But we designed some of it by hand.”


    "That''s good news," Theo said. "Can you tell me how exactly to do it?"


    "It might be different in your case since you''ll be working through the realm, but I suggest coming up with a plan and proposing it to your world. Then it''s possible it will work with you to make your preferred magic system."


    "So you''re telling me my realm doesn''t want to make the new magic system since I don''t have a plan?" Theo asked. "I guess I am being kind of vague with what I want out of it."


    "That''s just my guess, of course," Toru''aun said. "Your realm could be completely opposed to whatever you have in mind and is simply refusing to help you. Since these worlds seem to be more sapient than most realms, you might run into further roadblocks."


    Well, that would be a kick in the pants. I feel he wasn''t exactly sure what he wanted from his magic system. Perhaps if he let go of any future ideas and simply proposed the idea of wide-area magic to his realm, it would be more willing to work with him. At least he had some perspective on how tenuous his grasp on the situation was. That, at least, gave him a direction.


    "I figured out a way to weave spell arrays into potions," Theo said with a shrug. "I thought you might be interested in something like that."


    "I don''t think I''ve ever heard of anything like that," Toru''aun said, shaking her head. "Do you have an example I could see?"


    Theo pulled an imbued potion from his inventory and handed it over. Toru''aun set her knitting stuff down and took the potion, rolling it over in her hands and humming to herself.


    "Now, that is very interesting," Toru''aun said, squinting as she looked into the murky liquid within the vial. "You''ve taken the fundamental magic of the potion and bound it with a spell so expertly, I really have never seen anything like it."


    “Yeah, I thought it was pretty cool too, but nobody else in my city shares my enthusiasm for it.”


    "Well, let me be the first to say I am extremely enthusiastic about it," Toru''aun said in a flat tone. She certainly didn''t sound enthused.


    Before departing from Tresk''s world, Theo chatted with Toru''aun for a bit about what she had been doing and what she expected from this new life. Once he got her to open up a bit, she revealed that this was the ideal life for her. She was self-sufficient out here in the swamp and had minimal contact with other people. Somehow, she had already contacted Tresk, cordoning off a hundred square mile radius around her lone cabin that would prevent anybody else from building here. It was a strangely thoughtful thing coming from the marshaling.


    When he was done chatting, Theo headed back to his own world. Instead of landing in the town run by Belgar, he navigated toward the tallest peaks where the Dreamwalker''s Throne was held. Within the ornate building, it was nice and warm, though outside it was inhospitable, with flurries of snow and ice. He sat upon the throne, propping his head up by placing his elbow on the arm of the chair and his fist on his chin.


    A spike of ice ran up his spine as an unfamiliar voice echoed through the hall.


    "Heavy is the head," the voice said, bearing a tone of familiar amusement.


    “You can say that again,” Theo said, searching around the area with both his senses and his aura, but he found nothing. “And who am I speaking to?”


    "You''re very close," the voice said. "Very close to fixing everything. Meticulous plans are coming together after so many years."


    Theo just couldn''t shake the familiarity of this voice, but his near-perfect memory failed him. Normally, he could recall these things if he thought hard enough, but this one just wouldn''t bubble to the surface like he wanted. Instead, he stared at the gilded halls of his opulent castle in befuddlement. No one should have been able to breach into his realm, and fewer still could penetrate into the sanctum of the throne room.


    There is only one being he could think of that could get this far without detection.


    “I suppose it''s been a while, hasn''t it?" Theo asked, allowing the faintest of smiles to play across his face. “I didn''t think you really cared.”


    "This world and your old world were my responsibility. My policy of... no interaction has not served me well here. It has taken far longer than expected to get things working as they should, but we are close."


    "You''re saying you could have intervened at any time, but you simply chose not to?" Theo asked, shaking his head. "That didn''t work out very well, did it?"


    "It was a unique situation," the voice said. "The first I, or any of my kind, has encountered. It is simply regrettable that my other half chose the path he did. All has been corrected, and we are nearing the end of the road."


    “Some quests along the way would have been nice,” Theo said with a shrug, “Maybe you could have told me I was doing well, or told me what you had planned.”


    “And yet, you found yourself at the end of the road anyway,” The voice responded with a strange clicking sound. “Alas, I am spread too thin and must go.”


    Theo clicked his tongue as he listened to the fluttering of feathers somewhere in the distance. He shook his head. "Damned bird people," he grumbled.