B2 Chapter 38

Sitting somewhere in an office of plush opulence, decorated with items of varying use from worlds and dimensions more numerous than any mortal had ever seen, sat three individuals. The man sitting in a chair in the middle of what was nominally the righthand wall after entering the door was an anthromorph with cat features mixed with those of an arc-niel or human and dressed in what someone from earth would probably call an odd business suit.

The arc-fen or ogre to the left, similarly situated on the wall, sporting a pair of golden horns poking out of the top of his silver hair with smokey gray skin and golden eyes was wearing a black and gold ensemble of robes and ornate filigreed armor. Plastered over his normally serene features was a vicious snarl that exposed his row of silver canines and left an ominous yellow glow emanating from his eyes.

Sitting on a seat that likewise told gravity to get in line and file the appropriate paperwork if it wanted to be heard, was an odd luminous being whose outline was hard to pin down but looked to be roughly humanoid, if enormous. His desk, likewise suspended from the ceiling of the room, was covered in an assortment of scrolls and stacks of paperwork. However, the most prominently featured items on his desk were an assortment of items that looked suspiciously like the items from the deific realm of the new goddess of only one planet.

Normally, the affairs of a deity that only controlled one planet would be eons outside the notice of the being whose office this was. This wasn’t a normal occasion however. The items on the desk of the upper god who was even now glaring pointedly at the ogre-lord were entirely too close to the same as the ones a certain goddess had created.

The luminous upper god spoke in a sonorous, resonant voice full of command and a tinge of weariness. “Httroath-Azu, I ask you once again. Why did you send one of your servants to spy on one of the deific realms under the purview of Descartes Malefecto, this Fugiwara Kaori?”

The furious ogre-lord turned his glaring visage away from Descartes long enough to address the glowing giant whose gaze was hanging at roughly the same height as his head and due to the strange geometry of the room was also at eye level to the much shorter Descartes. In a voice that sounded like it took every iota of its owner’s willpower not to sound condescending, the furious Azu replied. “My lord, By what right does this half-breed cur accuse me of spying? I have already stated that I was the one that developed those devices and this Kaori stole them from me! I demand that Descartes repay this disrespect in appropriate levels of authority. It’s only right that he have to compensate me and all the more so when he falsely accuses me!”

Descartes’s eyes flicked over to the glowing upper god with a wry smile plastered onto his face. He had noticed the being looking towards him. “What say you to this, Descartes?”

“Hmm. I suppose the punishment seems fair. I might perhaps tack on a restriction to movement in and out of realm but other than that it does seem a fair price.”

The ogre-lord god turned to regard Descartes with a look of incredulity and bafflement before instantly jerking his head back to the upper god. “See! He even admits his guilt.”

The luminous god hanging from the ceiling began chuckling. “He was agreeing to your punishment, Httroath-Azu. Descartes already submitted proof of your transgression. Your spy was observed and recorded from the moment he set foot inside the domain of Fugiwara Kaori.”

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“My punishment? What do you mean proof? I see no proof of any such transgression. If there were anything like that it would be because he fabricated it!”

Descartes flicked his ears in annoyance. “You don’t even understand how those are supposed to be used do you? *At his words, he pointed at the replicated implements on the desk above them.* I bet you don’t even know why they all stay blue instead of turning golden. I don’t even have to try here. Your ignorance of the evidence is more than enough proof that you stole them from my protégé. And if you keep pushing your luck, he’s going to take more than a few, probably mismanaged, systems away from you.”

The almost weary looking glowing eyes of the upper god swung to regard Descartes. “Mind your words. You are not the one that decides those things. However, now that it was brought up, I would like to see your reports on the systems that you are in charge of.”

Through the audible sound of grinding teeth, Azu choked out a reply. “Yes, my lord. I’ll get right on that.”

In a flash of black, gold, and silver fire, Httroath-Azu was banished back to his godly domain, which was now sealed off from all the other domains around it.

With the disappearance of the other occupant from the office, it snapped into a new configuration with Descartes and the upper god facing one another. Suddenly, the items on the desk above floated down between them and the size of the objects could be somewhat discerned as they got a bit closer to Descartes. He chuckled in amusement.

The strange spatial geometry of this office was always amusing to him. Descartes knew that the objects sitting on the desk weren’t the same size but they were forced to appear that way for the benefit of the owner of the office. Descartes knew that the globe was easily larger than all the other item together and yet it appeared to be the same size as the wrist-mounted PDIs at the moment.

Descartes ears swiveled and flicked again but this time in amusement. “So Yuli, why am I still here? I mean, I can guess but I just need you to say the words.”

The glowing one reached out a hand towards Descartes and it grew to enormous proportions and was preceded by a gale of wind. As the gigantic hand closed and one finger the size of a tower was left pointing at the assorted items floating in the air, the upper god replied in a jovial tone. “These creations are magnificent. I wish to purchase multiple sets of each of them and… perhaps even the temporary rights to produce my own?”

Descartes just shook his head, looked down and ran his hands over his face, then looked up wearily at the visage of the glowing god before him. “You didn’t even look at the catalog, did you? She hasn’t even put most of those items up for sale.”

Yuli: “I thank the Great Old Ones that she had her subordinate come to me immediately or that fool, Azu, might have managed to claim that some of the other items really were his creations.”

Descartes: “As it is, he was caught before anything could come of it but I’m going to have to change my ordering of deities around. I’m going to have to put her in a position of greater prominence just so I can keep a better eye on her.”

“What’s more, I have been told by a few of her subordinates that she has linked her domain to that of the Mysterious Old One. I know that she came from his world but We can’t even get there. She’s been taking her subordinate deities to his world with her! If something were to go wrong there it…”

A sudden gust of wind signified movement of the monumental hand and Descartes looked up to see an open-palmed gesture of negation. “Worry yourself not, old friend. If she were causing problems for that one, she wouldn’t be able to come and go as she pleases. I suspect that she is one of his many strange machinations but I have no way to verify as much. We will just have to patiently wait and see.”

“Now, back to my request. See if she would be willing to start selling her creations. I am especially interested in the system that lets one remotely view the changes to a world as they are happening. As for compensation…”