“Laddie, what a wondrous thing you’ve put together. You coulda just put out a place for everyone to sit and called it a day, but you really went above and beyond, didnja?” the Old Dwarf said as he marveled at the finished product. When he’d been by before, his mind had been entirely focused on the Table and had barely registered his surroundings, but now that Jun’s vision was complete, it was impossible for his craftsman’s spirit to not be stimulated by the scene before him.

The Lad had taken the information he’d gotten from the Monkey - the amount of detail contained having greatly shocked the Old Dwarf - and made three rotating tiers of floating rings of individually designed platforms with specially modified ecosystems and habitats tailored to each Elder’s preferences.

At the highest elevation, containing the largest platforms for the largest participants who were still suppressing their bodies to participate, was the widest outer ring. The smaller middle ring floating far below the outer ring were middle scaled platforms for large participants and the smallest ring floating just above the conference Table at the bottom was where human sized and smaller participants were placed.

All around them were moving seas of creatures and landscapes formed by white clouds that often merged and transformed into new animal forms or terrains. With clear blue skies and a sun and moon rapidly cycling the world between night and day, the world of fluffy whites played the canvas of all the natural warmth of the rising and setting suns and all the cool tones of the moonlit starry skies with the occasional shooting stars.

The Table would host the Elders in their down scaled forms, while their entourages remained in their platforms as observers.

This was the customary seating, but how that was arranged was up to the hosting Elder. Not everyone had grand aesthetics and often times were hosted in empty mirror dimensions with a few tables and seats.

If the young Elder was wishing to make an impression, even without the beautifully thought out venue, just the one special object in the middle was all he really needed.

At the center of the descending ringed formations was that marvelous Table that had shown an ignorant Dwarf so many stories he’d never known about his own world with 136 seats floating above the artifact along its solid border.

The faces they’d make when they realized what they sat above. Hehehe.

On his own platform on the bottom ring, Dogadon lounged back into a very comfortable chair made of stacked logs by a small beautifully formed stone bowl with a warm little fire at its center on a grassy hill with giant stones carved into totems erected by a bit of water. It reminded him of home. That Monkey was a pervert for sure.

“So, how does this work? Is there a time it’s supposed to start, or does it start when everyone shows up?” Jun asked as he tried to be nervous, but was too comfortable in his own stacked log chair to get too worked up. He would have taken out a beer or something, but momma was sitting right next to him, and he know how she thought about that. But if it was for his guests….

“They’ll start trickling in when they feel like it and when enough gather, we’ll begin. Don’t worry nothin. You’ve already provided the venue, now it’s time for the old folks to run things. We just hafta sit back and let it happen.” The very comfortable dwarf reassured as he took a giant swig of his flask. Ah, it was so nice here.

Jun’s lip twitched as he glanced around to see if anyone else needed anything.

His little siblings and his friends had taken the day off to spectate the Elder’s gathering and were mingling with Dogadon’s entourage of ten disciples who each had their own flasks of never ending liquors. Bunch of alcoholics.

He saw his dad take a secret swig from one of the dwarfs’ flasks. And saw him tip over. Lil Davie caught him before momma saw. Nice save.

Oh? He was reaching for the flask too?

Momma and Lily saw that. Now lil Davie was getting a beating.

And with no one to prop him up, Daddy fell over.

He was getting a few hits, too.

Those were flasks of 8th ranked existences. Jun wanted to try it too.

A visually loud disturbance marked the entrance of an Elder.

Gior Je the Ever Inquisitive boomed his trade marked laugh as he looked out at his surroundings from the neighboring platform that housed an exquisitely detailed five tiered pergola to comfortably seat the assorted species of accompanying Temple elders.

Before Jun could get up to either welcome his friend, or stop his mom from panic slapping his drunk dad into waking up as demigods came to visit, more demigods came to visit.

A flash in the outer ring and a group of fire elemental giants appeared in their shrunken hundred meter tall sizes on a surprisingly comfortable bed of molten rocks and beautifully formed burning alloy seats they were immediately tempted to take with them.

Another flash from the middle ring and a group of large purple whale like creatures with large and powerful fin-like limbs wearing tunics woven from colorful seaweeds appeared in a floating bubble of ocean water with just the right amount of salt, on a bed of sparkling sand and gorgeously grown coral furniture.

The platform on the other side of the Table of the bottom ring flashed, and Lady Cynth and her entourage of Night Elves entered bracing for the harsh rays of a well lit room, and were wondrously startled that they found themselves in a strange darkness concentrated around themselves. The light of the outside, in all their awfully glaring brightness, passed through the filter of that darkness and became a comfortable viewing experience.

They didn’t care about the gorgeous crystal pavilion that sparkled in the condensed darkened night that would normally have been of great interest to their vanity loving tastes, but instead were madly obsessing over the floating orbs of soft light that housed the Origin runes of Darkness and Comfort.

Lady Cynth was holding one up directly to her face as a small line of drool leaked from her normally pristinely managed red lips.

Apparently, it was a big deal.

As more and more Elders appeared, some he recognized, most he didn’t, Jun decided to relax and treat it like a work orientation party. He was new. These were his new colleagues. They were just getting together to introduce themselves. No biggie.

Ella and Sophie were running around the grassy slope as they playfully marveled at every new interesting entry, and seeing Dogadon, his guide, seem fine with it, Jun decided it was fine too.

Mary had left Juan passed out on a log seat by the side and had joined the kids in listening to stories from the experienced dwarfs around the fire bowl as they waited for whatever came next.

It was the flash and entry of figures from the other neighboring platform that finally got him on his feet.

His father-in-law had come to visit.

On a platform of white, sterile minimalistic decor, by the side of a single wide pool of crystal clear water located at the center, appeared a group of human shaped figures in pure white robes that covered their entire bodies, leaving only their faces of natural and white artificial flesh exposed.

At the front stood the stoic and completely expressionless Elder with the entirely white head and body that once sent a short appreciative note and a precious gift that was Sophie.

Having been entrusted with the guardianship of such an obviously treasured existence, Jun felt a weird sense of awkwardness, like he really was facing his father-in-law.

“Elder Paskone! Welcome!” Jun cried out as he jogged over to the side of Dogadon’s idyllic dwarven vacation themed platform to get within polite shouting distance to the very clean loving cybernetic people of Paskone’s version of Earth.

“Hello, Elder Jun. It is nice to meet you.” A metallic voice like rusting gears, many times worse than the sounds of nails scraping a chalkboard, called out in response from lips that didn’t even open in response. He didn’t like that at all.

Perhaps noticing their host’s discomfort, a series of beeps and whirring sounds came from the Elder’s throat before he finally opened his mouth and spoke in a rich calming baritone, “I apologize for that Elder, it’s been a long time since I’ve spoken with functioning vocal cords. Thank you for your patience.”

“Not at all, not at all,” Jun hurriedly replied, swatting away at the unnecessary shows of appreciation and assured, “You don’t have to be so mindful. As someone who’s benefited tremendously from Sophie’s attentions, it’s my side that should be honored to host you. Thank you for coming.”

While the two happily traded compliments over Sophie’s amazingness, an embarrassed Sophie buried her little red face into Ella’s little chest.

Elders entered in bursts of fanciful displays of power and pageantry, only to be silenced by the wonders of their surroundings.

The normal boasting competitions between old rivals and friends became small huddles of amazed demigods. Old wagers and unclaimed debts were temporarily set aside as more marvels were discovered worth obsessing over.

The elf wasn’t the only one showing a disgraceful side without shame over some casual ‘feature’ made of Origin runes.

If the powerful figures of the multiverse saw the number of pinnacle existences creepily caressing a rune formation like it were their greatest treasures, would they still be able to respect these demigods like they had before?

This was how Jun first saw them, too.

When they weren’t entranced by the generous displays of Origin runes, they were marveling down at the exquisite reliefs showcasing a world’s history from the moment of creation to its current point of near death and marveled at the world’s resilience to survive two invasions and produce an abnormal existence like the newest Elder.

No matter what anyone could say, the level of attention that had gone into receiving them all was universally viewed as an act of honor and respect.

Everyone already had a certain level of acknowledgment of the newest Elder that wasn’t even at the 5th rank, a previously inconceivable concept that none would have thought of accepting before, until they visited the Garden and experienced true magic.

Spiritual Treasures were miracles of the existence and couldn’t be forced into creation even by gods, and a mortal made one? He was basically a treasure of the multiverse that needed to be protected at all costs. Even if that one treasure was all that he ever created…

One…

Wait.

What were they looking at?

The table?

But something about it was off.

It seemed completely mundane and yet there was a strong pull inviting their hand to reach out. And touch.

Someone finally did.

Tiny sparkling dragonfly wings carried over a tiny little creature the size of Jun’s palm from an inner ring platform with little towers of modern resort like buildings for little tiny people, complete with water parks and multi-story viewing seats.

He was the sparkliest and glitteriest of all the cheering faeries, and was the first to give into the temptation.

A strange silence culminated for an instant before exploding into cries of astonishment.

Without a single fluctuation of energy, power, reality, or laws, the table transformed.

What once was a beautiful physical tapestry of the birth of Jun’s world fruit into a universe with two generations of masters silently morphed to tell the historic tales of a completely different world.

A world where spirits were dominant and the Fae Courts had ruled since creation.

From the center, a Fruit became a Universe and four children were formed.

The entire history of this world was tightly intertwined with the first four was basically the story of the rise of Four Fae Courts.

Billions of years of magical and spiritual progress were told with the backdrop of four forces and would have continued to do so forever if it weren’t for an interruption.

The Enemy found the peaceful idyllic dimension of the Fae.

Valiant armies of elemental guardians and sparrow riding knights withstood as many Waves as they could, but when the darkness threatened to devour the Four Realms entirely, the Four Fae Lords were forced to merge as one and became the True Fae King, breaking through at a critical moment of the war for existence and Glimpsing the Path to the 9th rank of divinity.

The silly little figure that was gleefully doing aerial somersaults, was depicted as a victorious warlord that once single-handedly severed the Enemy’s invading path to implosion and freed his nearly destroyed world from a terrifying fate and lead them into an era of healing and peace.

Heroic.

“Heeheehee! That’s me!”

In a non obvious kind of way.

“My name is Willow! Call me Willow or call me Low! Never call me Will! I am not a Will!” the Fae King warned as he introduced himself to his amazing host. His voice was like a tinkle of a small child’s laughter but echoed with an age that watched stars die.

“What a wonder. What a wonder. To have made another wonder. You are a wonder. I wonder if everyone else will come down and touch the table as they introduce their names?” the little ancient being challenged in sing-song that didn’t distract others from the confirmation.

A new Spiritual Artifact.

The new Elder made a new Spiritual Artifact. One that sees a world’s entire history and a few embarrassing moments of the Elder’s life.

A wonder indeed.

 

---

 

thank you for returning 14th

I hope we can put this tension behind us