The feel of some sense of interconnectivity with the Pantheon was immediate, even without really being able to reach into it, like the groundwork for pipes being laid into a grand structure. And there was an overarching sense of cozy communion coming from Redberry’s realm — it was closer and the mutual energies mingled together. Two sisters coming to live on the same plot.

Ooooh… Big Tree Sis putting down roots! This is amazing!

Her realm of Servitors took a moment to clap and cheer for the event, as Samantha smiled down from her throne.

She began getting a sea of ‘acknowledgments’ in a great cascade, to Greenleaf and Stillwater, as evidently she was being introduced and paid homage to by numerous Redberry Followers.

Holy hell! And they keep coming.

“Uh Jeeves,” Sammy muttered, “I’m feeling just a teensy bit spooked! I feel like there are too many to trust will work out, here…”

Jeeves appeared in a mirror and held up a calming hand. “They will see only the names they know, Your Majesty. It is fairly unlikely a traitor persists among her remaining Followers due to their longstanding hatred of the Dominion and proving processes within their own systems. Mine and Pythia’s assessment is that our risk is low, especially with the quite capable mind of Vinewicker at their helm.

“I think we’ll be fine utilizing Redberry’s offered recruitment potential as well so long as we are screening as normal for our own processes. It might slow it down compared to what Red’s capacity is, but if we are offered ‘opportunities’ and select among these intuitively, we will avoid potential bad seedings.”

“Okay… okay, noted.” Sammy took a deep breath and tried to calm down her panic. It sounded like a good risk even if there was some degree of it.

How do multiple deities work normally, anyway?

“System, can someone normally worship two deities, and how does it change with a Pantheon?”

Yes, someone can be a Follower of multiple deities, if tolerated. However, they are restricted from Devout or Fanatic, and can still only contribute 1 daily FE to a single deity. They may pray for 30 minutes and contribute 1 FE twice to two separate deities per day, however.

Followers under the umbrella of a Pantheon may be Devout or Fanatic to one deity or to the Pantheon itself, and in addition, may pray 30 minutes for 1 FE extra to a separate deity or (if a deity Follower) to the Pantheon. This is the baseline and there are other special means for contribution.

“So, hypothetically, Red can keep her Devouts and such, and the less devoted can switch to me to varying degrees, even now…”

Jeeves cleared his throat. “Yes, and there are already preemptive requests, but I did not want to authorize until your go ahead. We’ve already informed them of how we want to proceed with this going forward, mind you. So far, these are quite trusted members on her side. Some of them are intended for Pantheon dedication in the future.”

Sammy nodded slowly. She no longer consciously had to ‘vibe check’ everyone, as Pythia, Aramis, and her Resemblants working together were arguably better as an objective and conclusive whole, and Pythia specifically basically had access to the vibe checking itself, if not quite so personal. “Go for it, Jeeves.”

He bowed his head with a note of satisfaction. “Very good, Madam. We will conduct ourselves with all diligence and perform this charge painstakingly one by one.”

“I can ask for no more, my good man English Muffin.”

Jeeves just gave her a flat gaze before the mirror flipped back around.

Wincing and deciding never to say that again, Sammy turned her attention to the Pantheon stuff she still knew very little about.

“System, send me the information about Pantheon contribution methods. I want everything you have on how I can accelerate the process and get the goodies live for our use.”

Acknowledged, User Sammy.

Hmm, so there is an incentive to have more to start due to the holy items. But we definitely need to figure that out pronto. In addition, she needed to insert the guidelines, what the holy symbol would be, and do the introduction… but the latter was better in the morning since most of her Followers were still asleep.

For a holy symbol, she went with a simplistic emblem of a winding white path, which could be a road or a river, on a dark, rounded plane or hill, leading to a horizon at the top with a starburst of white and a blue sky.

Guidelines… okay… let’s finish this puppy.

Sammy blinked at her own mental writing, feeling like she only partially wrote it ‘herself.’ A great hatred for the Sage rose up and channeled into it. It was his order that something inside of her desperately wanted to smash into pieces. All He could do was cause a slow, corrupted decline. It was his very nature. Out of balance and dominant without being checked, it was the only result.

What am I really? Who? Some Greater Word that keeps getting alluded to, something I’ll never know in frustration stuck like this. It’s like the damn Secret of Life, I guess. Doomed to seek it and never know it.

The Fortuneteller popped in at this pondering. ‘We cannot know. So far and beyond in the Cycle, and so deprived in this encapsulated, limited vessel. Hypothetically: things like [Hope], [Progress], and [Time] are among the best approximations. From such things, nearly everything you can think to do can spring. Especially when combined and orchestrated together with [The Lover].’

“They do feel like they have common threads. Those are all banned, right?”

‘Maybe. It doesn’t matter, as they remain approximations for something beyond us.’

“I guess that’s just how it is…”

✦•············•✦•···········•✦

As the Green Avatar was being carried through the air over the forests and swamps of Redberry, Sammy conducted odds and ends for the most part and meditated on her next moves. Things were tumbling to a head in Geirkos, with Aramis weaving his plot to unmask Mr. Smile. It would be a massive itch out of her shoulder blades to deal with that particular business.

Aramis seemed quite busy and hyper-focused, with the feeling like he was right on the verge of some breakthrough.

Good! If we unmask a targetable identity, we can make our next move…

Meanwhile, she was distracted significantly by constant Follower gains ticking up through the night, teasing at the final nail in the coffin of ‘333’ total and the quest completion. She deliberately kept her composure and didn’t rush the process, but inwardly she was very impatient about it.

I think it’s going to level me! Ahhhh- Level 6. What does level 6 have in store?! Almost certainly plenty of upgrades, and from what she understood, spell power upgrades, since they weighted most strongly on even levels.

A lot of the new Followers were Redberry’s elves scattered through forests and swampy areas. There was one larger community of humans and elves at the edge of the mid-central swamp that the gains were concentrated in, called Stuckmire. She had to take a peek, as she’d heard about it in passing here or there but never sought it out.

It had extensive docks and fishing boats, with a great, branching river nearby, though it wasn’t directly on it. Wetlands went in every direction. Signs of elves were evident in massive trees with homes and fortifications built into them. But even the lower-level homes the humans presumably lived in had the definitive natural and elegant look of elven architecture.

Good to know there’s a place where elves and humans get along. This has to be some culture Redberry’s mainstays fought hard to preserve and protect.

The people getting recruited were definitely hardy, rugged types adapted to the swamps. She gained a few druids.

She noticed another druid-like gain, too, further north in even more isolated swampland. It was a tribe of frogmen!

Oh fuck yeah! I got a frogman Follower now! A shaman.