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Author's Note: Here's chapter 18 of book two of Apocalypse Dawn. I'm still trying to shake off writer's block but I managed to get something done at least. ~Amethyst.
 

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Chapter 18: Imminent Domains

Before leaving the safety of Thor’s domain, we were given a brief lesson on domains and how they worked. Basically, domains are pocket dimensions but Sif described them as ‘bubbles’ in the void, an endless expanse of nothingness in a dimension adjacent to our own. All of those bubbles have been claimed by one God or another since long before even the Fae were created. These bubbles come in varying sizes and because new ones only rarely form some ambitious Gods will try to get more of them by defeating other Gods, as Inanna had in her youth.

Those bubbles are composed of pure creation energy and mana when they are first formed. So, when claiming a newly formed domain, the inside of the bubble can be made into whatever the owner desires. Their only real limitations are their imagination and the size of the bubble itself. Obviously, there is no real sun or anything else beyond the shell of the bubble but if the creator has a firm enough image in their mind and their will is strong enough, they can even make a day and night cycle, tides, or other natural phenomena that will become reality for those living in their domain. The Domain that Danu had given me was an exception though since it is partially inside our dimension and thus influenced by it.

An inherited domain can be changed to suit the new owner but it would take an enormous amount of power and strength of will. It would actually be easier to just merge it with another and use the surge of creation energy that resulted to change the new larger domain to suit one’s needs. Given that that option required going into the void, navigating it, and bringing two possibly very distant domains together, it’s usually just easier to keep an inherited domain as is, as long as it doesn’t offend you too much. In that case, Gods with multiple domains just connect them with gates or keep them separated. Usually, Gods who merge domains do it because their egos can’t handle having something that was made by a competitor.

Our instructors took us to the edge of Thor’s domain, which was pretty sizable at nearly three hundred square kilometers square. Suddenly the ocean, shoreline, and the fjords just ended in a thick silver mist that seemed almost solid when I tried to push a hand inside. Loki told us that it was the shell of the bubble and assured us that only the God who owned the domain could manipulate or pass through it easily because of the bond between the God and their domain.

“It’s one of the reasons that we have rules about not entering another God’s domain without permission,” Sif explained. “It can be done, but doing so leaves you weakened and in the domain of someone who likely isn’t very happy with you.”

“Oh yes, it is meant to save face. Saying that ‘there are rules against entering another God’s Domain without consent’ sounds so much better than just admitting that if you did you would probably get your butt kicked, especially for those of us with superior… egos,” Loki added.

“And there is no shortage of those,” Lilith scoffed.

“Ereshkigal managed to enter Varüus’kiel, and she brought Inanna with her,” I said thoughtfully as I looked at Lilith. “She did look weakened but I thought that was because of her wounds.”

“She wasn’t seriously injured, Sis. She had some cuts and stuff but nothing that would have been fatal, or even serious, but she was desperate for your help. That desperation probably gave her the strength and will to do it but she looked like she was ready to collapse when she carried Inanna to you,” Nishalle pointed out.

Lissany was still staring at the mist and poking it with her gauntlet-covered finger. “I’m not gonna lie, this is both cool and really creepy.”

“Just wait until you can see it from the outside, little one,” Thor said with a grin.

“We will have to hold off on that though,” Loki advised in an uncharacteristic show of restraint. “None of them have been Demigoddesses for very long. If their minds are still entrenched in the limited perception of mortals, seeing the void now could drive them mad.”

“You’re right, none of us wants that, Cuz. We will wait for that until they are ready. For now, we should make sure that there’s nothing dangerous in those domains that they have gained,” Sif agreed.

Our first stop on the tour of domains was the one that Lissany had inherited from Ares. Once Loki had given us all a quick lesson on how to feel our connections to our domains and how to use that link to create a portal or teleport there, Lissany was able to do as the Goddess of Mischief had instructed. I was a little worried about whether she or Nishalle would be able to do it since neither of them was a Magus but my Guardian managed it without too much trouble. It seemed that all Gods (or Demigods) who had domains had a natural ability to travel to and from them.

As soon as we all stepped through Lissany’s portal, we found ourselves in the center of her new domain. That seemed to be the default unless the divine figure in question focused on a specific area when making the portal, and Lissany could hardly do that since she had never been there before. As soon as we stepped out of the portal we were all on guard.

It appeared that our caution was unwarranted though. We seemed to be in the middle of a training yard of some sort; it was mostly empty space set up with wooden dummies and weapon racks with simple practice swords, spears, and shields. Nishalle, Lilith, and I quickly manifested our wings to do some aerial reconnaissance but we couldn’t see anything dangerous, or much of anything at all.

The domain wasn’t very large, only about ten kilometers square of mostly forested land with the training ground and what resembled a Greek temple at the center. We couldn’t spot anything moving at all on ground level except our companions and the various forest denizens. Since it looked safe enough, we landed and joined the others, and then we all made our way to the temple.

As we waked up the stairs between twin statues of Ares, Lissany grumbled and stopped to glare at one of the statues. “What kind of asshole builds a temple to himself? The training yard could be useful but I’m gonna have to totally redecorate. I’m tempted to smash them but I’d eventually have to clean up the mess.”

“Maybe I’ll see if I can find a volcano to throw those in,” I offered as I ruffled her hair. “I’m sure that we’re going to have plenty of stuff like that to get rid of in these domains, kiddo.”

“Well, it worked for the one ring,” she agreed, cracking a smile as we continued on our way.

The interior of the temple was well lit by what appeared to be evenly spaced torches but were probably put there for effect when Ares originally made his domain. Fortunately for Lissany, there were only a few particularly aggravating decorating choices. The first of those was another huge statue of Ares in the foyer. From there, various doorways branched off into what mostly seemed like a simple living space, a kitchen that was millennia out of date, a massive bath fed by a hot spring that I was slightly jealous of, and the two other rooms with questionable decor.

The first of those was a room full of antique weapons and armor pieces that we assumed were trophies from defeated enemies. Lissany could probably make a ton of money selling those antiques since she had no interest in keeping them. She had even less interest in them when I told her that there was nothing even remotely magical in the whole lot.

The last room looked to be a bedroom of sorts, there was a large indent in the floor piled high with red and gold cushions that were rumpled and stained, and there were discarded bottles of wine all over the place. “Someone had a good time,” Lilith commented in a sultry tone. “Probably more than one someone. I never met him but Ares was well known for his affair with Aphrodite, and screwing anyone with a…”

“Lilith, please,” I interrupted the Succubus, “Lissany is only fifteen.”

“Apologies, my Goddess,” she said, having the good grace to at least look chagrined. I wasn’t mad with her though. She had been a Succubus in service to a sex Goddess for a very long time and she couldn’t help her nature. She was trying though.

“Ew ew ew! Everything in this room goes into the volcano too, kill it with fire! I think I’m gonna be sick,” Lissany complained before quickly leaving the room.

We didn’t find anything else in either the temple or training yard so it looked like Lissany would be able to get away with just a bit of redecorating. We didn’t even find any people but Loki figured that that was because Ares wasn’t really a people person, what with the homicidal rage on a hair trigger and all. He also likely preferred his privacy when he had his ‘female guests’ over.

The next stop was the domain that had belonged to Nemesis. It was slightly larger than the one that Lissany had gotten from Ares, maybe twelve to fifteen kilometers square. Nemesis had probably only gotten and formed the domain recently, which wouldn’t surprise me with so many Gods killing one another and her attempt to kill me. From some of the things that we found, either she or whoever she had gotten it from had obviously put out the effort to renovate since the Gods had been freed from the Veil along with everything else magical. I was betting that it wasn’t Nemesis though, the place didn’t seem like her style.

It was pleasantly warm and from the changes in the position of the sun between the time that we got there and left, I was assuming that there was a fairly normal day and night cycle. Almost the entire domain was covered in vineyards and a large orchard with peaches, plums, cherries, apples, and apricots. Snaking through the middle of the orchard was a small river with a waterwheel and a stone bridge crossing it, and there was a small but picturesque villa and winery in the vineyard. The place seemed full of life. There were hummingbirds and honeycombs full of honey and bees in the trees, fish in the stream, and we occasionally saw some peacocks, quail, and rabbits wandering around.

It seemed peaceful and idyllic until we found the dead Fauns who had likely been the caretakers until Nemesis had taken residence. They had been brutally killed and they all wore a symbol that Loki said marked them as followers of Amphictyonis, a minor Greek Goddess with the aspects of Wine and Friendship between Nations. She had never been widely worshiped and it sounded like she was one of the unallied Gods leaning toward joining Danu’s alliance. Well, now we knew where Nemesis had gotten the domain.

I used Nature’s Call to give the Fauns a decent burial in the orchard and then we entered the villa in a more subdued mood. I was surprised to find working electricity inside, probably provided by the waterwheel, and a very modern kitchen. Everything else was kept simple and comfortable. As much as I thought that it would make a nice vacation home, I decided that I needed to get some of my people to start taking charge of the place as soon as possible. The orchard alone would be very valuable to the people of Varüus’kiel and wine would be both welcome and a possible trade good.

We took longer than I would have liked exploring that domain but the Fauns deserved a decent burial and a few words said over them for their loyalty to their Goddess. We still had Nishalle’s domain and two of mine to look over though. Lilith wouldn’t tell me much about what had been Inanna’s domain; only that it was large, I would have to see it for myself, and that there was nothing dangerous there unless you counted thousands of Succubae as dangerous. We decided to leave that one until last since it was safe and when we did get there I would need to ordain those Succubae as my Priestesses.

That being said, we wouldn’t have much time to explore the other two domains if we wanted to finish that day. It was mid-afternoon already and since I would probably have to go to Varüus’kiel once we were finished everything to oversee the removal of Jonesy from his F.I.T. I had received a message earlier that the memories from his Aen’kuorüis were almost fully integrated into his mind. With all of that in mind, we decided to go on to explore Nishalle’s domain next.

There was something that I had to do first though. “So, how do I do this?” I asked of the three Gods who were our instructors as we stood at the edge of the domain and I considered the thick grey mist in front of us.

“Fortunately for you, the easiest method is to connect the two points with magick,” Thor explained. “Those of us who aren’t well versed in magick have to either get creative or call in favors with someone who is good with it. What you will have to do is create two stone or metal archways with the same physical dimensions and made from the same material, one here and then another in Varüus’kiel. Then you will cast a portal to connect the two and infuse that portal into both archways. If you can manage that then the two spots will be connected permanently, or until you decide to destroy the arches.”

“With both magick and nature aspects, that shouldn’t be too difficult for you,” Sif agreed.

Loki nodded her agreement as well. “You are intrinsically connected to all of your domains, Taelya. You will need to learn to split your attention eventually anyway, so we will start now. Focus on where we are now and where you would like to place the archway in this domain. Then think of a spot in Varüus’kiel where you would like the other side to be. Once you have both places firmly in mind, focus on the spell that you want to use to create the arches.”

Ten minutes later I was getting very frustrated. “I can’t do this! I mean, I can multitask pretty damn well but this is on an entirely different level, it’s like trying to be in two places at once and I can’t focus on the spell that way.”

“Whether you believe that you can or cannot, you will always be right, Taelya,” Thor advised. “You are a Demigoddess, you are able to do this, you are just still thinking like a mortal and your mind needs to get used to the idea.”

“He is right, my Goddess,” Lilith said as she took my hand gently in her own. “Splitting one’s attention between two different places, even if you know them well, can be extremely difficult at first. I think that there is a way that I could help You though if You would allow it.”

I was willing to try just about anything by this point. We were burning daylight waiting for me to figure this out and we still had places to go and things to do. I let out a sigh and asked, “What do you suggest, Lilith?”

“Allow me to link minds with You, my Goddess. Our link won’t be very strong until You have ordained me and my brood as Your Priestesses but, if You are willing, I should be able to allow You to see through my eyes. Then I can stay here to act as Your focus while You are at the location in Varüus’kiel.” Seeing my hesitation, she quickly clarified, “I would not enter Your mind, only allow You to see through my eyes.”

I was a little uncertain about the idea but Lilith hadn’t shown herself to be anything but loyal and supportive of me so far. Finally, I nodded. “Do I need to be close or can you do it once I’m in position in Varüus’kiel?”

Lilith gave my hand a reassuring squeeze. “If You do not fight it and allow the link to form, I should be able to do it from even a great distance, my Goddess.”

“Okay, let’s do this. Before I change my mind,” I replied, my heart fluttering uncertainly in my chest. I quickly teleported to Varüus’kiel, choosing a spot near where we were planning to place the Atlantean-made greenhouse farms eventually. A moment later I felt a light pushing sensation in my mind as Lilith tried to make the connection between us. Instead of fighting it, like my instincts were telling me to, I relaxed my mind and allowed the link to form.

I had my eyes closed but I could still see and I was startled for a moment since I was seeing my sister, Lissany, and three Norse Gods. I took a deep breath and opened my eyes. For several minutes, my brain was trying to come to terms with being and seeing in two places at once. Finally, I just grit my teeth and tried to calm my breathing as I attempted to focus on my task rather than allowing myself to freak out from the unnatural feeling of what my brain was trying to show me.

I concentrated on a spot in both my fields of vision and then started speaking and drawing the sigils for my spell, keeping in mind exactly what I wanted. “Kaida kiara kuorüis ipheil yasrin!” Once the sigils were complete I poured my mana into the spell and watched as both my current sets of eyes took in the violet-hued crystals that were rapidly growing from the ground to form a pair of massive arches. Each arch was formed of a durable violet crystal of my own creation that emitted a bright yet relaxing light in the darkness of Varüus’kiel. The space within the curve of the arches was roughly thirty feet high from ground to top and forty-five feet wide at the base, which I thought would be more than big enough, even for vehicles or some of the larger Namahage.

As soon as the arches were both completely formed, I could sense a burst of magick as they were connected. The moment that happened, Lilith disconnected our minds and I was thankfully returned to seeing through only one set of eyes. That set of eyes was looking through the arch and seeing daylight and my companions on the other side so I quickly stepped through to join them.

“That was fast, I was expecting it to take you a few minutes to link the arches once they were done,” Sif commented. “And what is this material?”

“Oh, she probably winged it and pulled some entirely new spell out of her ass,” Nishalle said with a smirk.

“Yeah, I totally winged it,” I admitted with a smile. “It was easier and less time-consuming to create a whole new spell that would create and connect the gates all at once instead of going through two big spells one after another. The material is a type of crystal that I kind of came up with in the moment. I wanted something durable, easy to grow for the spell, and something that naturally emits light. We need to be able to find the damn gate during the night months on Varüus’kiel after all.”

“You came up with an entirely new spell and material to do all of that in the spur of the moment?” Thor asked, his eyes wide.

“She does that all the time,” Lissany said as she shrugged her shoulders. “We’re used to it.”

Thor, Sif, and even Lilith were all gaping at me while Loki was laughing her ass off. Still, the Goddess of Mischief managed to gasp out, “I told you… that she had… a gift. Shit… you should… see the looks… on your faces!”

Nishalle’s domain took the form of a massive underground cavern and we appeared inside the courtyard of a fortress in the very center that was made of black stone. It was dark and kind of creepy, with stone gargoyles sitting atop the walls and fortress. The only illumination was provided by occasional blood-red floating orbs of lights. “Well, I gotta give Ereshkigal props for leaning into the whole death and darkness thing,” Nishalle said as she looked around.

“Who are you? And why have you entered the underworld?” a gravelly voice asked from somewhere above us. That was when I noticed that the gargoyles were moving. They flew off the walls to surround us and all of us were suddenly on guard, hands hovering over our weapons as one of the ugly stone creatures came in closer, narrowing its eyes at us. “Hmm… you are not dead, nor do you bear our Lady’s mark. You smell like Gods to me, and that means that you are intruders.”

Lissany and Nishalle stepped protectively in front of me as my sister said, “Whoa! Chill out for a minute! Ereshkigal is dead. I’m Nishalle, and… well, I guess that I’m her heir? I was the one who eased her suffering and gained her divine essence.”

The gargoyle looked at Nishalle intently for a moment, sniffing at the air. Then he snorted and his posture seemed to relax a bit. “Your essence is similar, and you do smell a little like Her, a lovely fragrance of death, blood, and earth. Ah yes, I can sense it now, your connection to the underworld and us. Hmmph, passing her mantle onto a mortal, and a dark elf at that, sounds like something she would do. I am Impaekitus, Your Seneschal, my Lady.”

“So what? You’re like her butler, Imp?” Lissany asked, tilting her head in curiosity as she examined the Gargoyle.

“It’s Impaekitus,” he corrected testily as he gave my Guardian an annoyed look.

“That is a bit of a mouthful,” Lilith pointed out.

“Yup, I am not going to be trying to stumble over that name if I need you for something, so I’m going with Lissany’s idea. Imp suits you. So… uhh… what exactly do you do for me then?”

“I serve Your needs and desires whenever You are in the underworld and…”

“So, you’re a butler, like I thought,” Lissany interrupted with a playful grin that was showing her fangs. “I need someone like you for my domain. Could you recommend someone? Oh, and they have to be good at renovations.”

Liss was obviously only half serious, and mostly messing with him, while Loki and Sif were both trying to keep from laughing at her antics. “See, this one knows how to have fun,” Loki whispered to her cousin.

“C’mon, kiddo, stop messing with my butler, or we’ll never get done here,” Nishalle chastised. She was grinning though and she did call him her butler instead of her seneschal. “Okay, Imp, other than looking after me, what do you do around here?”

“I see Your orders carried out and devise appropriate and ironic tortures for those You condemn to the underworld. Not that there has been a lot of that going on lately. Ereshkigal hasn’t been directly involved in what goes on here for millennia. She hasn’t sent many souls here to suffer in that time either. Most of them finished their sentences and were allowed to reincarnate. The only ones still here being punished are the ones whose crimes were so terrible that Ereshkigal ordered them tortured for eternity.”

“Wait a minute, so this is like Hell?” I asked.

“The writers of the Bible likely got many of their ideas from here and other underworlds like it, my Goddess,” Lilith said with a frown. Yeah, she had a real hate on for those people.

Since Nishalle had no idea what she was supposed to be doing as a Demigoddess with the death aspect, Loki, Sif, and Thor gave a brief overview of what she should know and expect. Death Gods bring death and mete out punishments to deserving souls. It’s actually one of their responsibilities, especially if they have a domain to serve as an underworld. They also ease the suffering of those who are near death when they can and are inclined to.

For the divine punishment aspect, when they find someone who they wish to claim for their personal little hell, they leave a mark upon their soul. Then they either kill them immediately or just leave the mark there until their death does eventually come. When the claimed soul dies, a Reaper or some other form of spirit shepherd will activate the mark on the newly deceased soul to send them to the underworld that they have been claimed for.

Imp offered us a tour but admitted that except for the fortress there really wasn’t much to see since there were so few souls still there being punished. Apparently, he and the other Gargoyles were very bored. If Nishalle ever did send someone to her domain for punishment, I would almost feel sorry for them. When they did get someone new to punish they were going to be very enthusiastic, and probably very creative too.

Since there wasn’t much else to see we just took a quick look at the fortress, which was fairly utilitarian and had dungeons with various pain-inducing devices for those that the Queen of the Underworld might want to deal with personally. There were also barracks for the Gargoyles, several guest rooms, a throne room with a lone obsidian throne, and a fairly luxurious master bedroom that could only be described as Death-Goddess chic. Nishalle liked it, like that was a surprise with her whole femme fatale shtick.

The fortress was surrounded by a thick and high stone wall with a pair of massive gates with a variety of locking mechanisms. Imp told us that the wall was actually a perfect circle at the center of Nishalle’s domain. Around it were nine other walls, each with their own locked gates and forming a series of concentric rings. The idea was that the souls that Nishalle claimed, or any intruders, would appear outside the outermost gate where they would be greeted by the gatekeeper and marched inside.

Once inside the condemned soul would walk through the outermost ring where the least severe punishments were carried out. If they were lucky, they were delivered to their torturers there. If not, they would continue to be escorted through gates, and the rings within them, until they reached their destination. Each ring had souls being punished for specific types of offenses and as you got closer to the fortress at the center ring the punishments would get either more severe or more creative, often both.

It sounded a bit like Dante’s Inferno but with concentric rings instead of circles, and Imp said that the punishments were often catered to the individual. Once the torturers had examined the condemned soul, they took the crimes that they were guilty of, their worst fears, desires, personality traits, and a bunch of other factors to come up with the most terrifying or ironic punishment that they could think of. Nishalle promised Imp that she would send them some work slash entertainment soon. She figured that there were plenty of shitty people in the world and some were bound to piss her off sooner or later.

“Whoa! This is awesome!” Lissany squealed once we had stepped through the gate to Tiamat’s former domain and were trying to get our bearings. We were on a white sandy beach that seemed to stretch on for miles, it was warm, the sun was shining, waves were lapping at the shore, and the smell of the sea was strong in the air.

“We need to stay alert, Liss,” I reminded my Guardian. “Tiamat created monsters, specifically dragons, and considered them her children. She also loved to cause chaos and this was her home turf, so who knows what we’re going to find here.”

“I do. Dragons, probably a lot of them,” Lilith muttered. “We should get an aerial view, my Goddess.”

“Right, but we stick together in case we encounter anything dangerous,” I replied with a nod.

We took to the air and tried to get the lay of the land. The domain was a lot bigger than the others we had seen earlier in the day; I was guessing that it was fairly close to the size of Thor’s domain at roughly three hundred kilometers square of ocean with a chain of tropical islands scattered across it. The ocean part wasn’t too surprising since Tiamat was a sea Goddess, but I wasn’t expecting it to be as big as it was. It was nothing compared to Varüus’kiel but I could see uses for it, especially with the tropical fruit on the island and a large amount of sea life that I was able to sense as I stretched out my awareness.

There was wildlife on the islands too and we encountered a few small dragons but they were easily taken care of. It seemed that Tiamat had used most of her remaining children in her attempt to draw me out and ambush me in Vancouver. If we didn’t have to deal with a metric shitload of dragons to make this place usable, I would be a very happy Demigoddess.

The island that we had first appeared on seemed to be the largest of the six islands and, like the others, it was covered in pristine white beaches and lush jungle. This one also had a volcano, though it seemed to be a dormant one. That was where we were headed first. I had definitely sensed something alive on the island in that area and I wanted to investigate. I already suspected what we might find but I wanted to be certain.

We were with the others again almost two hours later and making our way through the jungle toward the volcano as the sun was close to setting. Once we had pushed our way through the tree line and got a good look at the peak rising above us, Lissany turned to grin at me. “Sweet, you have a volcano. Now I can get rid of all that crap from Ares.”

“You know, Liss, I was joking about finding a volcano. I don’t blame you for wanting to do it now that we have one available though,” I conceded.

I was on edge and just trying to make conversation, but I figured that Lissany was doing the same. Nishalle and Lilith seemed to be on edge too. I was straining my senses for danger but the strong scents of the sea and the volcano and the unfamiliar sounds of the jungle were making it hard to get a good read. I had gone into full Nature’s Call mode to try to get a sense of the living creatures on the island and their locations but what I was sensing from the volcano didn’t feel quite like the dragons that we had encountered earlier.

“There’s a cave over there,” Lilith pointed out, interrupting my thoughts.

I followed the Succubus’s finger and after communing with nature once again I nodded. That was where the unrecognizable life signs were coming from. “Let’s go check it out but be ready for anything, everyone.”

As we stepped into the dark cavern I was ready to cast spells at a moment’s notice. Nishalle had her katana drawn and Lissany was wielding her hammer and shield as the pair covered my sides, Lilith was on guard behind me, and the three Gods were taking the forward position. Thor had Mjölnir in hand while Sif had drawn her sword and Loki had materialized a metal staff from somewhere.

The mouth of the large cave quickly became a tunnel that wound and descended into the depths of the mountain. The heat seemed to become more intense with each step that we took until we finally found ourselves in a massive cavern. “Holy shit, now that is a fucking hoard!” Nishalle gasped out to my right, trying to keep her voice low.

“Tiamat wasn’t just a dragon, she was the queen dragon, mother of them all,” Lilith said as we all gaped at the dunes of precious metals, gems, and treasures of other sorts stretched out before us and illuminated by the light from my hair. “It’s not surprising that she would have something like this set aside.

“Treasure is awesome, this heat isn’t though,” Lissany quietly complained. “I feel like I’m slowly roasting in this armor.”

“Treasure later,” I agreed, even though I was itching to see what ancient treasures we might find. “I’m still sensing life in here aside from us. I haven’t seen or heard anything moving but that doesn’t mean nothing is waiting to pounce on us. Let’s fan out but keep each other in sight.”

We spread out, everyone straining our ears as we watched the shadows with one eye and each other with the other. I really needed to learn to dim the light from my hair, I was giving away our position to anything that was around us in this otherwise dark cavern. I felt for the mana of the natural world around me again and the only source of life that I found nearby was ahead and to my right. I couldn’t tell what it was though, I couldn’t even tell if it was one really big creature or a bunch of smaller ones huddled together.

Finally, I crested a dune of ancient metal coins and saw something that looked out of place. Glad that my natural balance and agility as a Fae kept me from slipping, I slid downward to get a closer look. When I realized what I was looking at, I was bombarded with a surge of conflicting emotions and had to swallow the lump in my throat before I could call out to the others. “Guys, I’m really not sure what to do about this.”

My sister instantly materialized beside me. “What’s wrong, Sis? What did you find?” Like me, it took her a moment to parse exactly what she was looking at before she muttered, “Oh hell.”

The others quickly caught up with us and I heard a wide variety of comments muttered under the breath of Lilith, Thor, Loki, and Sif. Lissany was still trying to figure out what she was looking at though. “What are these things? They kind of look like…” my Guardian started to say before realization struck.

In the hollow that we were all looking over, there were over three dozen large ovoid objects, some of them bigger than Thor. I could feel their warmth and the life inside of them even from where we stood several dozen steps away. They were dragon eggs, and I had a feeling that they were very close to hatching.