GREED: ALL FOR WHAT?

Harkam appeared in the council room. It is a large room with an open sky that shows the constellation. The seats are arranged in a semi-circle opposite the single high seat that the celestial god seats on. This room is called the council room but it might as well be called the Celestial Supreme's court of law because he makes the final decision after listening to different opinions.

As usual, the celestial supreme is there in his seat to preside over the matters of the council. He looks like any other giant of order except he is dressed in neat white armor. There are patterns of the celestial god's symbols drawn on the armor. There is the image of his scales and his hammers. The white armor forms a stark contrast with the Celestial Supreme's black-as-night skin. His eyes and hair alternate between white and black color.

Harkam found a seat and chose to observe the celestial supreme while he stewed before the meeting starts. The meeting will start soon because the celestial supreme hates tardiness and punishes it. But Harkam doubts he will be able to survive the short wait without hurling abuses at the celestial supreme. Even now, the calm look on the celestial supreme's face is already getting to him. He just feels like jumping from his sit, vaulting over the desk in front of the Celestial Supreme, and punching that ridiculous face.

'Stuck up prick. If I were not so benevolent, I would be the one up there making all the decisions.' Harkam grumbled inwardly.

He didn't grumble that out loud. Apart from risking the ire of the celestial supreme, his statement is also wrong. It is not because of benevolence that he is not challenging the celestial supreme. For the first real reason, he doubts he can beat the celestial god of order and justice if he ascends. For the second and most important reason, he won't be able to switch to the path of perfection if he becomes a celestial god.

If the gods were that motivated to become Celestials, they will organize a coup. They will fight and kill some grand gods and ascend in bulk. The celestial god of order and justice won't be able to take them on if they work together. They also have a secret weapon.

But grand gods are not interested in becoming celestial gods because it is impossible to switch then. They have no pressing reason to ascend. The ones that do also have to fight the celestial supreme, so only desperate fools will ascend.

The hall became filled pretty quickly as all the gods arrived. No one wants to get a scolding and a punishment from the Celestial Supreme for being late. What's odd is that there are two empty seats that did not get occupied as time passed by.

"Who is missing?" Harkam asked impatiently.

There should only be one empty seat belonging to the god of fate. That guy is even more antisocial than Harkam and nobody wants to be around him. The god of fate also doesn't care for the company of others and doesn't respect authority, so he doesn't come to divine council meetings.

The god of fate stopped hanging around gods all of a sudden and won't show up even if the Celestial Supreme calls a meeting. The gods have gotten used to the god of fate's absence, but it is the other unaccounted empty seat that is making the situation odd.

Harkam wants the meeting to start as soon as possible but there is someone apart from the god of fate missing. Harkam doesn't know how he does it but the god of fate manages to get away with being tardy. Which is a good thing too. He doesn't enjoy the presence of that caustic bastard either. But he doubts the god that is imitating the god of fate will get away with it. What is more important to him is that this missing god is delaying the start of the meeting and he doesn't like it.

The more astute gods noticed that all the known gods in the pantheon have already arrived. Which means the tardy god is unknown.

"What's going on?" They whispered amongst themselves.

Is there a new god that they don't know about? That's unlikely. There's no way a new god will ascend without their knowledge. In fact, no new god has ascended for thousands of years. Divine positions have been inherited but no new god has ascended or new churches allowed to be established.

The celestial supreme is a control freak. He has banned the ascension of new gods just like he banned the ascension of new celestial gods. He personally kills new celestial gods while his church in the mortal realm wipes new churches and religions to stop the ascension of new gods. That hasn't changed in several Origin cycles as far as they know. So why has he suddenly allowed a new god to ascend?

"This divine council is hereby called to order."

The Celestial supreme ignored the whispering. He declared the meeting officially started. Everyone became quiet immediately.

Harkam stood up immediately. "I have a very important issue that needs urgent resolution and can only be resolved by the celestial supreme."

He should have raised his hand and only stand up when he is allowed to by the Celestial Supreme but he is too angry right now to follow what he considers stupid protocols.

"You may state your issue." The celestial supreme allowed him to continue despite the transgression.

Harkam continued talking after receiving the go-ahead. He started from the very top. He complained about the changes to the heroic quest and the lack of information about it. He asked to be informed of the plans and for the surveillance of the heroic quest to become available. He made his case by saying it shouldn't affect the behavior of the demigods since the gods can't contact them and that while the lack of information adds tension to the entertainment of the gods, it is too dangerous.

He was being given strange looks while he was speaking passionately. Especially Stelios who is looking at him with that look that Harkam knows to be saying, "You're an idiot."

He could see that irritating face from the corner of his but he didn't allow that to distract him. He will take care of one slight after the other in due time. Nothing will distract him from this. He still didn't stop even though some gods were coughing and holding back their laughs as he spoke. One god stood up and interrupted him.

"Sky god. You should calm down. This matter is not as it seems."

Harkam shot back immediately. "I know it is not as it seems. The celestial supreme obviously knows what he is doing. He can't involve himself with the ants like this without a plan. I am not calling him stupid or saying he is trying to kill our demigods. I just want to know what his plan is. I deserve to know that."

The god that tried to stop him sat back down. Harkam became confused by their reactions. He expected to be joined by other gods whose demigods are involved in the heroic quest but they are not angry like him. He might be thick in the head but he began to realize that something is going on that he doesn't know about.

'Do they know something I don't know? Could the celestial supreme have told them but didn't tell me?' he asked himself.

He started to get angry as he tried to figure out why he is the only one making a scene about not being informed. He knows he isn't popular with others, but to be left out in such an important matter is making him very angry.

The sun god couldn't take it anymore.

"Sit down you idiot," Stelios shouted at him.

"I will not sit down," Harkam shouted back.

He chose to hold his ground against this injustice.

"Stop embarrassing yourself. Usually, I am one for you making a fool of yourself. If the situation isn't so serious, I'll even pile on, but the situation is serious. It wasn't the celestial god of order that did it."

Harkam paused at that. What Stelios said sounded credible because it sounded like the truth. If he is embarrassing himself, Stelios will pile on. That is the truth, but how is he to be sure that Stelios is not piling on right now? Plus that excuse is just silly. It shows that Stelios didn't put much thought into it. Who would believe that it wasn't the celestial god of order that did it?

He grinned smugly at having caught the fault in that argument. They must think he is stupid and will believe anything but he will show them that he isn't easy to fool.

He asked Stelios with that smug grim still on his face. "Then which celestial god did it?"