The Eternal Tome of Lynoria was not a person.

  It was a thing, the smartest thing in all of existence, and the most curious being to have ever been.

  The knowledge it propagated was a bit of a mystery to other God-Imperiums. They didn’t understand why a being of their caliber would seek out information below the sixteenth rank, much less the immortal rank, or the mortal realms. It didn’t make sense to them.

  Mortals were everywhere. They lived, they breathed, they died. Their culture changed within an instant, and they all died before they could ever become worthy of remembrance.

  At best, God-Imperiums kept gardens, small universes flustered with civilizations. It was a bit of a pastime for some, playing god over trillions was an entertaining thing for them. Even the Tome had a few gardens of its own.

  It was an accepted form of entertainment for beings above the fifteenth rank.

  But that was all it should be, entertainment. They didn’t quite grasp any utility or power in the Tome’s actions.

  But the Tome didn’t need them to understand. It was the Tome, the Keeper of Eternal Truth.

  It was the first book to have ever been written. The first words of the first language were inscribed on its pages. Its paper had been gotten from Tree, the first quill had been taken from the first Phoenix, the ink had been made from primordial qi and Man himself had inscribed its existence.

  And ever since then, the writing has not stopped. It remembered everything, from the first sunset to the first fight. It had witnessed it all.

  It was the memory of existence.

  And it contained things that only it knew. Names of mortals long forgotten, lands empty but ignored. It knew of suns that had never been seen, of people that had only lived a day. It didn’t know all of them, but it tried to remember as much as it could.

  To know as much as it could.

  Even when God-Imperiums fought and erased concepts from the whole of existence, it still remembered. Even if an ant were to die in battle, it still remembered.

  That was its nature, to know.

  It knew the Earth from where a stray soul had wandered. It knew of laws that almost everyone had forgotten. It knew the names of victors, villains, kings, and peasants.

  And these things the Tome would never forget because to forget would be the greatest crime of all.

  “Why the stealth?” The lady asked.

  “It is necessary,” the Tome replied. “All exercises of my power are being watched and searched for.”

  “By that rotten thing? You know he could never come here. The Fey wouldn’t allow it.”

  “I fear that Yog-Sothoth is the least of my concerns, Titania.”

  The Fey queen looked at the Tome with interest.

  “Allow me to intrude upon your realm,” it asked.

  She looked at him and pondered for a moment.

  “Oh very well,” she answered.

  And the Tome came to be in all of its power. It couldn’t just protrude into someone else’s domain. It could, in a minor form, be carried through it. But there were many rules within the Pact of Life, and many more formalities outside of it.

  If it had just reached out to her, many would have known and felt the power connecting between the realms. And if it had just invaded, even for a mere message, that would have been tantamount to declaring war.

  So it worked in the old ways, it used the ways of emissaries and messengers. Though the one he used didn’t know that yet.

  Bill had contained a piece of him. A piece cut off from the rest, much like the bit of Wukong that stuck to the boy. It was one of the perks of working under a God-Imperium. You gained some of their protection, like the aversion to divination.

  But even then there were limits. He had barely looked at the boy and yet the child had almost crumbled. That had been intentional. Bill could do with more intelligence.

  Nonetheless, it proved the limits of a mortal or rather a Godling’s mind. However, the two didn’t seem any different from the Tome’s perspective.

  Bill had been a good messenger. He was no one and Wukong had already covered for his mistakes.

  He was a well-known Array-Master. His reputation made him known even among the fifteenth ranks of existence. But when he had died and been remade, he had been fundamentally changed.

  And that change made him into a whole new person. Someone not known by any sect or group in existence, a thirteenth rank that had popped out of nowhere. Not only his qi, but his soul had changed as well. It shouldn’t have worked, it was like reinforcing steel with tree sap but Dane had done enough damage to his own soul to make it work.

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  It was absolutely fantastic and something the Tome had only seen in demonic experiments.

  But aside from it curiosity, Bill was a nobody, and it needed that nobody to get here, someone not accosted with Lynoria or Wukong. And while it did followers in nearly every major realm and almost every minor one, most were being watched and they were being watched more carefully now more than ever.

  “Don’t stain my realm with your presence for too long now, book. What is it you have to say?”

  “War is upon us, Titania.”

  The Queen of the Fey looked at him. It was uncomfortable in here, each one of them so close to the other. Infinite space and infinite time wouldn’t be enough to contain even a fraction of one of them much less a reflection of their being.

  Titania relented and expanded the place. The Tome was still in her realms but she allowed it space to breathe.

  “Explain.”

  And so it did, and the Fey Queen listened.

  “Is this a prediction or truth Tome?”

  “It is truth. Wukong knows that at least Tiamat works with Tai Jey. She threatened him when he pushed against Tai Jey’s domain.”

  “And the children? What use would Tai Jey have of them?”

  “He seeks to create more God-Imperium. You know the troubles of such a thing.”

  The Fey Queen frowned.

  To create was an easy thing, but to create a God-Imperium, something separate from yourself was a task even she would struggle with. The problem wasn’t power, but rather nature. Technically you could create another God-Imperium, but in truth, it would just be a piece of you dressed up in disguise.

  Making something not of your own nature was possible, but to create something entirely separate from you that was at the seventeenth rank? That was an impossible task.

  After all, if anything limited God-Imperiums it was their nature.

  That was why Tai Jey had risked so much to make these children. They would be of opposing nature, both beast and tamer, and whatever path they chose, they would be born of these two powerful beings. But they would still be separate from them,

  “This is hardly war, just the beginning steps of one. I’ve seen more attempts at a new Eternal War than I care to remember. This is common Tome. People plot, people try, and when the Guardians find out about it, they fail. What makes this any different?”

  She was right. Many did try their hand at an Eternal War, but this was different.

  “Think of those involved. Beast, Tiamat, Tai Jey-”

  “That boy couldn’t wield a sword unless a dragon held it for him,” She cut in.

  “Yes but think of it Titania. A dragon did hold it for him, one of Beast’s grandchildren. And even Beast bred with him. He is the Tamer, why would any creature of Beast’s bloodline subject themselves to his favors unless they received something of equal value?”

  This time the Fey Queen frowned.

  “Beast wants War,” she whispered.

  “She always has, since the first moments of existence. Now I ask you, what would make both Beast and Tiamat move for this man? It cannot be just the two of them.”

  “Yes. I suppose it can’t be just them. But what other proof do you have? It implies a union of some sort but what makes you think it’s war?”

  “What else does Beast desire?”

  “Nothing, but she does as she pleases. She has to logic to her action and if Tai Jey entertained her enough then he could have gotten what he wanted.”

  This was true.

  “Wukong spoke to Tai Jey and all but confirmed his believes.”

  “That monkey sees war in a puddle. Of the past ten thousand fights held within the Sea of Death, one thousand involved him. And regardless, even if this is war, what would we have to do with it anyway? The Fey have not fought in any of the Eternal Wars aside from the first. We do not take sides.”

  “Of course,” The Tome answered. “And I ask it stays that way.”

  Titania’s eyes widened and suddenly the Tome found her pushing back against his presence. He found the space almost rejecting him, trying to push him out. But it was too late, he was here and to put any more force on him would to be noticed by the other God-Imperiums of the forest.

  “You dare?” She whispered.

  What the Tome had said, what it had implied was that one of the Fey might have taken a side in this conflict and that was an insult.

  The Fey were the heart of the forest, the connection between all things, both the Yin and the Yang, the prey and the predator, chaos and order, innocence and lust. They were all those things and because of that, they took no sides unless someone directly attacked them.

  They fought, killed, and bled of course, but to imply a side would make them too much of one thing and too little of another, and to the Fair Folk, that was a disfigurement of the highest order.

  The Fey had no concept of evil but if they did then it would be this. A never-ending summer, an eternal winter, death without life or even life without death, to them this was the evil of the world. It was why they talked to mortals as much as they talked to God-Imperiums.

  All things changed and the fey cherished this so.

  To be fey was to be connected to all things of the world, and to choose a side would mean cutting off one of those connections.

  “I merely ask you to make sure your fellows do this. If there were any I trusted more I would have gone to them instead.”

  “They would not betray themselves so easily!” The Queen stated.

  “It is an Eternal War, Titania. I ask you to do nothing but pay attention to your peers and look out for your best interests.”

  “Because you believe one of them to betray me?”

  “Because to be a Fey is to change. And if one of you gets dragged into one side then so may the others. Your kind avoids war but there are connections there for them to tend to if they seek it. I wonder if the Courts of the Kind King wouldn’t want to fight for the Heavens someday, or if the court of Goblin Emperor wouldn’t seek out a pact with the Hells? What of the Hunter’s Court?”

  “Do not assume to know them better than I,” Titania responded.

  “I do not. I just question how well you know them at all.”

  She glared at the Tome. It was a glare that could burn infinity and strike down civilizations, but to the Tome it was just an annoyed glance.

  “I hope you have a reason for this insult.”

  “The Fruits, has anyone bought one recently,” The Tome asked. “And if so, do you know what for?”

  “The fruits?”

  “From the Tree of Life? I know the Druids there harvest and sell it among the Fey first before they offer it to anyone else. Who has bought it recently? And for what reason?”

  “That is no business of mine.”

  “There are very few things that can help a God-Imperium heal Titania, and Tai Jey did not escape from the encounter with Beast unscathed. He would search for many things to regain his power before anyone on his side would make the first move. You should ponder these things. The Hunter's Court bought many of the fruits this time. Do you know why? Do you presume to know them that well, even after such a long separation?”

  “So this is why you’ve come to me? To insult me? Should I let the others of my court know this? Or shall I tell all the Fey that they might declare Lynoria a scourge and empty our forest of your people?”

  “It has been done before,” the Tome replied. “And it might be done again. But words once spoken are heard. I know you have doubts Titania, I hope you can quell them, for the both of us.”

  She did not throw the Tome out of her realm, but rather let it disappear in the same way it had gotten in. Good, that much told the Tome she would take his words seriously, even if she was insulted by him.

  is now 30 chapters ahead.

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