Leo awoke, unsure of how much time had passed, feeling unbelievably rested. Somehow this ordinary bed had given him the perfect sleep. It was just what he needed after the constant misery and violence. It didn’t wash away what had happened or the feelings he felt towards those that had been lost.

But he could hold it together a bit better now.

Ellie had woken up at some point while he slept and crawled onto him. His fingers dug into the area beneath her budding horns, making her mewl in a way that almost made her drool. He stopped before he was coated in slime.

Her big eyes blinked open and she grinned at him.

“What say we go visit a god?” he asked, lifting her into the air. She made her legs dangle and loved every minute.

A moment later she vanished, settling inside his soul-space. He was a little worried it might have changed after his whole apotheosis thing, but Ellie seemed perfectly content. He’d delve into the space again soon to take a look.

For now, it was time to broaden his horizons.

Accept invitation from The Archmagus?

Yes/no

Leo gave his mental assent, expecting to be transported immediately. Instead, another message came up.

You will be transported shortly.

During your invitation, you cannot be harmed by, nor can you cause harm to living entities.

You may be offered to train skills, gain professions, or be granted a blessing.

You will not be able to be influenced by any mental skills.

Basically like reading a health and safety warning about his field trip. He hadn’t even considered the possibility of dying on this trip, he figured it would have been a bit like his visits with Iskarion. While he was in whatever land Iskarion was in, he’d felt absolutely no sense of danger.

Cindralus had threatened his life in his invitation, but perhaps that was just him being a dick. The Primarch hadn’t actually expected Leo to accept, it was to let him know he was watching.

A wave of dizziness overtook him as his vision shifted. He blinked. The white room he’d been in vanished. His surroundings became what looked like a medieval study. Books lined the countless shelves around him. Small crystals lit up and dimmed as elements jumped between them.

It smelled like ink mixed with damp. Then it was like the damp was set alight, creating a smell of burning wood. It was all so intense, yet subdued. There was conflict and harmony. But none of it coexisted like the elements in his storm.

“Welcome.” A voice spoke softly behind him, distracting him as he spun quickly.

His eyes widened at the sight.

After seeing the study, and with a title like ‘The Archmagus’, Leo expected to see an old man. A wizened sage of sorts perhaps.

And there he was. A fairly older man, scraggly beard, grey hat. The whole shebang.

But beside him, standing there with mixed expressions of both pleasure and unease, were two other influential looking figures.

One was green. So vibrantly green she almost coloured the air around her. He could feel the earth mana in the room dance towards her with such pleasure, so much so even his Stoneskin tingled. Her green, twisted locks fell from her hair over a dress woven in leaves and bark. She looked like a dryad from mythology, but even more beautiful.

The other—with an expression of unease—was another woman, silk wove around her, coating her in a dress that shifted constantly as he looked at it. She was dangling in the air in a web of threads. Very spider-like.

The sheer pressure the trio of, what he assumed were gods, was overwhelming. The power they contained dwarfed Serrix to the point of ridiculousness. It wasn’t worth comparing. Grain of sand versus the solar system.

Which was possibly an insult to the solar system.

“Uh, hi?” Leo said, unsure of who to look at.

“My, he is impressive,” the lady in green said. The pressure in the room lightened all of a sudden like they retracted it back into them.

“I thought I was just meeting The Archmagus, did I take a wrong turn in the teleport?”

Caldrin chuckled. “Forgive my guests, they were too curious in meeting you themselves,” he said, standing. “My name is Caldrin, I am the Primarch known as The Archmagus.”

“My guests are also Primarchs, my dear friend in green here is Vera, The Verdant Matron. The other is a woman who goes by many names, but usually known as The Fate-bound Seamstress.”

Leo knew of them both, with the latter a bit more so. Iskarion had mentioned them briefly. He’d not expected there to be three Primarchs all wanting to meet him at once. The attention was a little much if he was honest.

“I should probably explain,” Caldrin began. “A Primarch is—”

“I know what it is,” Leo couldn’t help but blurt out. He winced, feeling a little rude. “Sorry. I mean. I’ve sort of heard the basics.”

Expecting a scolding for interrupting a bunch of all powerful gods, Leo dared a look. But they all sat with interested expressions.

“Where…” Vera whispered, her voice like a snake approaching. “Where did you hear about it?”

Leo felt a smile tug onto his lips. Just as it did, Ellie popped out of his soul-space and grinned up at them.

He opened his mouth. Then closed. He’d almost blurted it out, when he realised that this information should be kept perhaps a little confidential.

“Is this area safe to speak in?” Leo asked, looking around out of habit.

“It is,” Caldrin said. “You have nothing to fear here, Leonidas. You may speak freely. Please.”

“I heard of the term Primarch from the same person…god? That gave me her. He told me about all of you. Not in detail—we didn’t have that kind of time and it wasn’t really relevant. But the basics of what you all are. His name was Iskarion.”

The moment Leo spoke the name, it was like the whole world he was currently in shook. The books on the shelves quaked and disappeared. The crystals started to vibrate, elements inside them wildly sparking until they cracked.

Vera placed a gentle hand onto Caldrin’s shoulder and it all stopped.

His face met his hands, tears pouring out as his emotions came all at once. Leo was unsure what to do in this situation. It was all completely different than what he had been expecting.

He’d expected to meet an almighty wizard and chat to him about spells and dragons. This felt much more personal. Seeing a Primarch, one of the nine strongest beings in the multiverse, in such an emotionally vulnerable state had to be unique.

“I’m sure you have many questions,” Vera said, still comforting Caldrin who sobbed. “Those will be answered, I’m sure. You must understand that we also have many questions of our own. But this news you have given us is something he and I have been dreaming of for a long time. To have it confirmed is that dream coming true.”

Leo spotted a tear forming in her eye, but she was more reserved. “He was our ally. Our friend.”

Caldrin stopped his tears, wiping his nose on his robe’s sleeve. He was disheveled, eyes red from crying. He looked so human and fragile. Nothing like the imposing wizard he was a moment ago.

Caldrin was suddenly in front of him, faster than a blink. He grabbed Leo’s hand and shook it. “Thank you.”

“No… worries,” Leo said after a moment, recovering a little.

“Like Vera said, you must have many questions. Some of those will be answered as we are not short for time. But I must know, where is he? Where is Iskarion?”

“That… is a little trickier,” Leo started explaining. “I don’t know exactly where he is. Couldn’t get there if I tried, which I have done a few times. I haven’t seen him in weeks actually. Usually I’d get angry, or sad, or push myself past my limits and then when I passed out I’d wake up in a wasteland. He was there each time.”

“A wasteland?” Caldrin echoed, stepping back. He leaned on his desk, joined by Vera who extended the wood out with a thought, creating her own seat. The Seamstress remained hanging, still silent in the background.

“Yeah.” Leo nodded. “It was stormy and barren. Iskarion said it was filled with elementals that gave him a hard time in fighting. I didn’t see any of them though.”

“That doesn’t give us a lot to go on,” Vera said, twisting her hair. “Was there anything else he mentioned?”

“A few things, yeah. Stuff about the… Prismari? I think he called them. And how he was locked in that realm.” A thought pinged him as the room went silent. “There was a monolith he showed me, it had some writing on it he wasn’t able to read. But I could read it somehow.” Leo shrugged.

“Does any of this help?” he asked skeptically. Teaching and explaining weren’t his strongest suits.

The room was stunned once again, mouths agape and eyes focused on him.

“Did you just say Prismari?” The Seamstress asked, speaking for the first time. Her voice was like harpstrings being plucked, melodic and ethereal. It made the hairs on his neck tingle.

Keeping his composure he answered. “Yeah. Not sure what they are, but that’s definitely on my list of questions.” Leo smiled at her. “Thank you for blessing my friend, by the way, I appreciate you looking out for her.”

The Seamstress said nothing in response to his thanks.

“What are you?” she asked suddenly. “Everything about you and your past is so mundane and normal. The threads are vivid, or were. Denier.” There was a bit of venom in that last word but he ignored it.

“You are human. There is no doubt. Yet you somehow managed to do the impossible. How?”

“Uh, not really sure how to answer that one,” Leo said, looking at Caldrin and Vera who seemed to be still stunned. “I was hoping to get some answers about that here.”

“Are they okay?” Leo asked, pointing at the silent Primarchs.

“They are silently discussing the meaning behind your words. Telepathy. It is so I am not privy. It doesn't matter. I simply wanted to meet the one who denied his fate. I am sure we will cross paths again, even if I cannot foresee it.

With that, and not even a goodbye, she vanished. The moment she did, Leo’s confusion continued to mount. This was all so unexpected and random.

Ellie suddenly leapt at Caldrin before Leo could stop her, crashing into him and demanding head pats. The action wasn’t a surprise to Caldrin, who let it happen. He stroked her gently, smiling down at her. “Sorry for ignoring you, little one. There is much information to discuss.”

“I’d appreciate being included. If that’s okay?” Leo asked, trying to be polite.

“Yes, yes,” Caldrin said. “Of course.” He gestured, and all four of them warped, suddenly sat around a table, food and drink laid out across it.

“We couldn’t risk talking about it in front of The Seamstress,” Vera said, smiling warmly despite the meaning.

“Is she not your friend?” Leo asked, curious about the dynamics.

“Not exact—”

“No,” Caldrin interrupted Vera, who smiled and shook her head lightly.

“Why was she here then?”

“Because she’s a nosy, fate obsessed, p—”

“She is unaligned to anyone. She cares only for fate and following what the ‘loom of her soul’ tells her to do,” Vera finished, much to Caldrin’s chagrin.

“I see.” Leo nodded slowly. “My friend is blessed by her. Is she going to be okay?”

“I know you mentioned it, but is she really blessed by her? It’s a very rare thing.” Vera looked at him, filled with intrigue.

“Yeah, said she was acknowledged by her, or something,” Leo said. “I don’t really know how blessings work.”

“Perhaps a good place to start,” Caldrin said, smiling. “Blessings come in five different levels, or perhaps tiers is more appropriate. The first stage is acknowledgement. That happens when a god forms a connection with a mortal, usually due to a skill being offered related to a god’s legacy. When they take the skill, the god is informed of the connection and is able to look upon the mortal. From there, they can observe and assess whether they are worthy enough to invest in.”

Leo nodded, following along so far. Caldrin seemed quite adept at explaining things, reminding him of a teacher he once had.

“So that’s why you didn’t reach out to me before? Because I didn’t take any skills related to you?” Leo asked.

“Not didn’t. Couldn’t,” Caldrin corrected. “The system disallows gods to contact mortals during a tutorial, unless they are blessed or have the…” Caldrin grumbled.

“Thread of fate connecting them,” Vera finished, giggling.

Leo gave a friendly chuckle, not entirely sure what was funny.

“I see, so you couldn’t have contacted us at all. I’m guessing you were able to watch or something though, otherwise how would you know what happened.”

“Correct,” Caldrin said. “We have been able to watch the ongoings of tutorials for a little while now.”

“Must have been a lot of you watching,” Leo said, sighing. “I had so many invites.”

Vera chuckled. “A lot of gods—Primarchs included—have been searching tutorials for the newly hatched dragon.”

Leo’s eyes widened.

“How did they know?”

“I do not know the specifics,” Caldrin began, “It was shortly after the initiation when a pulse of sorts echoed across the multiverse, spreading wide. It called out. Clear and true. A dragon had returned. An impossibility.”

Leo sighed, tilting his head back. “That explains Ruby.”

Caldrin nodded solemnly. “Ah yes,” he said, not with any hint of sadness. “She was an oversight.”

Leo felt a little affronted, even if she tried to kill him. “An oversight?” he questioned, not hiding his tone.

“A god in my sanctum blessed her originally, which is where we found out about you,” he said, shaking his head. “She renounced him after he pushed her too hard to grow closer to you.”

“Is that why she started losing it?” Leo asked. “Although apparently she was a bit out of sorts before then. I still don’t like the way you referred to her. You talk about her like she was just a piece on a chess board.”

“Most mortals are barely that. In the grand scheme of things, that is,” Caldrin said. “I understand you do not feel that way, having been newly initiated, but I have lived longer than your planet a million times over. Yes, there are some that become gods, but a lot of them barely scratch the surface of power.”

Damn. That’s not a good look.

“Can’t say I really like that,” Leo admitted. “Kind of pisses me off actually.”

“At this very moment, Leo, there are billions upon billions currently undergoing initiation. Your entire universe, spanning a countless distance, is being introduced to the system. And it’s the sixty-fourth. Gods and factions everywhere are recruiting. Those initiates are dying by the billions. It’s all statistics,” Vera said calmly, smirking.

“Until someone makes waves,” she finished.

Leo was about to speak, argue his and humanity's case, but she spoke first. “If you don’t like it. Become powerful enough to change it.”

Leo nodded. It sounded like a speech she’d used before. He doubted he’d been the first angry mortal when a god tried to call them an ant. He decided to ignore it, pushing for an answer he wanted more than anything right now after finding out the gods ability to watch what was happening.

“If you can see into all the tutorials, can you find Natalie?” Leo asked, desperation clear in his voice.

Caldrin tilted his head.

“She’s my sister,” Leo explained. He gave her a description as best he could, even told her about where she was and her interests. Anything to help.

“Found her,” Vera said after a moment, making Leo pause. His body shook with worry. His breath quickened.

“She’s alive…” Vera frowned. “You will want to find her when the tutorials end, I assume?”

Leo nodded vigorously.

“I cannot reveal what happens when a tutorial fully ends, not until it is happening,” she continued. “But I can tell you how great an item is. An item called ‘Compass of fates.’”

“Thank you,” Leo said, getting the gist of what she was saying. “Can you tell me more about her tutorial so far?”

Vera shook her head.

Damn.

“Okay. Thank you for telling me though. To know she’s alive means a lot to me.”

Vera gave him a smile that didn’t quite match her others. Caldrin brought the attention back to something else.

“We will talk about the Prismari in a moment, and start to answer some of your questions. However, you spoke of a pillar, or monolith earlier. It sounds like something important if Iskarion showed it to you.”

“Oh, yeah.” Leo paused. Shit. What did it say again?

A voice suddenly entered his head. Familiar and warm.

“I believe this is my cue.”