Hare of Misfortune

Dionysus clapped, and the world slipped away; in the next instant, she was standing in the VIP box with Eostre, Conner on his own across the stadium. The god took center stage, darkness overshadowing the arena as a single ray of light illuminated him. He was monologuing.

Eostre wore a frown while calmly watching the lesser god explain to the crowd how it was possible to make changes to the Legend Quest and ’Greater Seeds’ within their followers, given the proper caution and methods. Everyone who joined his side in this conflict amongst the lesser gods and other 5th-dimensional entities stood to gain phenomenal power through joining his faction, as many already had, such as Circe.

Rachel had no clue what the difference between a 5th-dimensional personification, like Nike, and a 5th-dimensional lesser god, like Dionysus, was, but she didn’t get the instinctual caution from him in the same manner as Relica. Sure, he was vastly more powerful than the witch, but he wouldn’t kill her because he couldn’t for some reason.

Her eyes narrowed upon noticing Eostre’s hands, waist, and feet tied to her seat by a golden thread; obviously, the autumn-haired Easter goddess was not here by choice. Eostre’s life did hang in the balance, and due to his showy nature, Dionysus had given her the luck of conversing with her.

Taking up a leaning position against the wall to view the lesser god, Nike, and Eostre, she gauged the flow of misfortune and felt sharp tugs pulling the strings of destiny further away from her as fate wound around her throat. Somehow, Dionysus was forcing Nike to pull things in his favor.

”Quite the predicament you’ve found yourself in,” Rachel whispered, showing the sober goddess a tight smile. ”Was getting kidnapped by a psychopathic god your plan, or is this something you’re dumping on me to solve?”

Eostre breathed in a long breath before easing it out. ”If...this was a part of the plan, I most certainly wasn’t made aware of it. Your perception of me is quite over-inflated due to your ignorance regarding the higher planes; I am not a lesser goddess or anything close to such potent prowess... I am what is called a tulpa.”

Recalling the title from the list Dionysus called out earlier, Rachel crossed her arms and scanned the coliseum, a slight tilt coming to her mouth as she spotted a particular multi-colored bunny among the throng.

”Okay. Well, it’s good that I can finally get some straight answers, regardless of the terrible circumstances; at least you haven’t been staked,” she mumbled, studying a strange, blue, four-armed djinn-like entity piked to one of the pillars.

”Until the insane Greek gets bored,” Eostre said with a sad chuckle. ”To put things in perspective, as a tulpa, at my strongest, I’m at the bottom of the 4th-dimensional weight bracket; Moongmor is a powerful 3rd-dimensional companion of mine. You, heh...are actually the cause of my capture. Imagine that. Damn you, Cerridwen; I knew this was a terrible idea, but far from me to say no to a 6th-dimensional contender.”

Rachel pulled around her braid to play with the end, mind racing through the complex weave of information she was gaining through this dangerous gambit. Clearly, this was a contest to the death between Conner and her, yet he had all the cards stacked against her.

She could see why Relica had been so perturbed about her confidence. Yet, her chances weren’t as slim as they appeared; she just had to play the right angles.

”Don’t be so glum, Eostre,” Rachel mused, her ears tilting to the left as the thrill of an uphill battle tugged at her gut.

”If I’m getting what Dionysus is laying out in his recruitment speech, there is a solid barrier between the 5th-dimensional lesser god weight class and the 7th-dimensional creation deities, but the wall blocking the 6th, or your average ol’ god tier-level, is just thin enough to allow some interference...which is where my cauldron-loving nightmare visitor comes into play. Correct?”

Eostre’s jaw tightened as her gaze drifted to Nike, golden blood mixing with the wine that slid down her bare skin. ”It’s more complicated than that...but in essence, yes. We can’t peer into the future like we used to... Well, at least I cannot as a 4th-dimensional being.

”You see, when the barriers between dimensions thickened, it became harder to interfere between each one, and that is when we all realized things were about to change...and not for the better. This film seems to multiply greatly with every rising dimensional ’weight class,’ I suppose you could call it, isolating the higher deities from the lower ones.”

She paused, giving Rachel a short vision of countless spheres swirling in chaotic patterns. Then, an effulgence sparked from seemingly everywhere at once. Flashes of various heavens and hells were thrown into a panic, causing divides and opportunistic parties to act.

A frustrated sigh passed through Eostre’s mouth as her thick autumn locks fell in front of her face, her hands still strapped to the chair by grape vines. ”Could you...thank you.”

Rachel swept them aside before the woman wiped away the image and continued her explanation; she figured the lady could have used her powers but wanted a little show of kindness, given her situation.

”A flood of unnatural energy emerged from the aether...a place beyond my understanding, which then acted like a magnet to mesh my universe into many others.”

Rachel slowly nodded, trying to keep up. ”And that became?”

”Well,” the heavenly woman whispered, gesturing to her, ”what you’ve known all your life—Earth. To you, history is without blemish, but to us higher beings...it is nightmarishly alien. Everything before a century or so ago, again, totally normal in your mind, is actually quite messy and tangled. Time wasn’t so linear until that point for us higher dimensional beings. Now...we are trapped as if time has locked us out of its sphere.”

She swallowed, turning her sight to the stands. ”And right now, all of the 4th-dimensional weight-class beings, as you put it, such as myself, are in perpetual fear of becoming like Nike... The 5th-dimensional heavyweights are fighting over the rights of the Greater Seed holders, trying to entreat them, while we cower on the sideli—”

She cut off as the muscular god appeared beside her, plucking grapes off his vine to pop them into his mouth. ”Spilling secrets to your soon-to-be skinned hare of an art critic, Eostre?”

///SMENote///

How about a Power Stone Goal?

Every 200 Power Stones this week = +1 Extra Chapter

We could have the normal 2 Daily Chapters... Or +2 Extra Chapters Every Day. The power is in your hands! Or should I say Stones?