I Am Zeus

The grey corridor terminated abruptly within a vast, vaulted chamber that defied the sensation of the platforms below. The air was noticeably heavier; not purely institutional, but weighted with a sense of personality and old age.

The weight of escorting pressure lifted, and no fresh stream of functionaries awaited them.

A single woman stood near the chamber’s middle, tall even by their standards, her long dark hair framing an uncovered face of unusual character. She was clad in layers of cloth that flowed into thinner plates of dull gold, and her gaze swept slowly but deliberately across the nine of them.

Zeus felt a strange sense of unease at the sight of her - this was not another filter.

’You are the nine who should not be here,’ she said at last. ’Unlogged. Intact. Extracted from an active sentenced design. The lower tiers loathe anomalies of categorisation. I do not.’

Athena’s grip on her spear subtly adjusted. ’You know what happened to our universe.’

’I know who ended it,’ the woman answered, ’and I know who made it.’

This was a harder blow than the pressure of any lower platform.

Poseidon narrowed his eyes, while Hades tilted his head back for the first time in several exchanges, even Loki’s composed facade flickering.

Zeus kept his voice level. ’Then say it.’

The woman circled them slowly, not with the menace of a hunter, but more like an appraiser already certain of conclusions she merely needed to confirm.

’Your universe,’ she mused, ’was never a serious work. An assignment. A childhood creation. Yahweh and his sibling Tohu were tasked with making a self contained reality, stabilising it...’ she paused, regarding the nine of them with an almost sympathetic expression, ’...and demonstrating their abilities. They created your sky, your underworld, your little pantheons, and then they grew bored, leaving the project abandoned. That is the source of everything you call the world.’

A heavy silence greeted her words before Sun Wukong let out a short, scoffing breath.

’A school project? An early one, maybe? We lived inside old homework?’

Odin’s one eye never left her. ’And the force that destroyed it?’

’An outsider remnant,’ said the woman. ’A failed piece that still believed itself to be the original authority. It opened a sealed corridor and invited external judgement outside the parameters of the design. The external judgement was indeed valid and the design was completed.’

Zeus felt a roiling sense of old indignation and forced himself to stop. ’You speak like the destruction of an entire universe is mere paperwork.’

’It often is, in this realm.’ The woman stopped circling and met their gazes in turn. ’You are in the Outer Continuum. That is the name given to the tier you have reached. It is not a single world but a series of bloodlines, Houses, Thrones and authorities, all competing in a graduated hierarchy. Power is measured in Kavod, density of existence. Authority is measured in recognition and Decree. Your power is real, but it is calibrated for a lesser design, here it is... lacking.’

Hermes turned his gaze over the chamber as if he could see the layers of power the woman had described woven into the stone. ’And what is your standing here?’

’High enough to receive unprocessed anomalies the lower tiers cannot resolve,’ she said. ’High enough to know that both Yahweh and his executioner are issues I already have.’

This seemed to surprise several of the newcomers. Hades spoke, his voice rough.

’You have a conflict of interest with both.’

’I have unfinished business with both,’ the woman said. ’Yahweh’s bloodline and its rivals have for ages regarded lower designs as disposable exercises. The executioner who answered the opened gate is part of a pattern of external judgements that I find... inconvenient to my own plans. Your survival creates a minor irregularity for both of their records. I am interested in irregularities.’

Kratos’ chains shifted. ’You saved us.’

’I allowed an extraction to be completed,’ said the woman. ’The difference between intervention and observation is not a matter of degree. I do not wish to draw attention I cannot control. Your continued existence is... useful, but not in a manner that I consider a debt owed.’

Loki smiled thinly. ’Honesty, refreshingly rare.’

The woman ignored the remark, turning her gaze back to Zeus. ’You lead this remnant, understand your position. You are not guests or refugees. You are unlogged survivors of a finished assignment, currently placed under my discretion because the alternative was erasure by protocol. I can retain you, utilise you, but even I am not above releasing to final correction if you prove more liability than asset.’

Zeus met her gaze evenly. ’Then tell us what you saw in us.’

’Endurance through external judgement,’ said the woman, ’and a certain... flexibility of natures which should have been eradicated or broken. Already you are showing signs of adaptation to higher densities. That is not common, nor is it unnoticed. If I can see it, others will soon follow.’

Athena’s voice was carefully modulated. ’Including Yahweh’s House?’

’In time,’ said the woman, ’and others. The Outer Continuum is scarcely a sanctuary. The Houses war, old Thrones press their claims, and independent powers slip between the cracks. A grouping of intact lower origin beings bearing your particular signatures will not go unseen for long.’

Poseidon let out a harsh breath. ’So we’re leverage.’

’You are potential,’ said the woman, ’leverage is merely one form of application.’

She turned slightly, revealing a section of the chamber wall that was, or had been, transparent, and beyond it the nine could see an impossible landscape of interwoven towers and bridges spanning distances that made Olympus look like a tabletop sculpture, the currents of traffic flowing between them consisting of recognisably living things.

’This is the edge of a managed territory,’ said the woman. ’Beyond this the Continuum opens out into regions you are not yet prepared to enter. You will remain in my jurisdiction for the time being, adapt, and provide answers when I ask. In turn, you will not be processed out of existence by the next functionary who decides you are a nuisance.’

Zeus turned to his fellow survivors, and found no dissent. They were not safe here, but the reality of this place pressed down on them with more weight than any of the lower platforms. Their universe had been a school project, its destruction a mere formality, and their survival was already being calculated as an asset.

He faced the woman again. ’Your name?’

She studied him for a long moment. ’You may call me Sera. For now, that will suffice.’

Though the name carried no weight of Decree, it was not necessary.

Beyond the chamber the great interwoven towers of the Outer Continuum carried on their slow, unknowable traffic, utterly uncaring about the nine survivors of a long ended school project.

Sera’s dark eyes swept the group slowly. ’Welcome to the only layer that matters,’ she said, ’try not to squander the irregularity of your continued existence.’

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