Methaphoras

13 HUNTER'S KARMA

Chontranate handed the shark over with the necessary formalities, while Brymir did not need to know that Oric kept a blood sample of the creature enclosed inside a small silver ball that now hung around his neck.

As a trophy, he kept the nucleotide threads of these animals he hunted, some of which he thought, were worthy of resurrection since many of them were about to go extinct at the time when he defeated them. Others, he kept merely because they behaved like worthy opponents. He received the oldest specimens from an uncle who stirred up the love for the hunt in him and one day he was going to revive them to populate his gardens. For the time being, however, he possessed no estates, because in service of Mito he led the life of a nomad, which he preferred above undergoing a meaningless existence at the court in Chondrion, unlike many of his kindred. Everywhere he came he sought the most dangerous exotics and declared invariably that he practiced nature conservation because he was averse to the word "hunter".

Brymir promised explicitly to work on the development of the polyp jellyfish, after which the reception ended and four ladies said goodbye to their sisters to go to Tormack's ship. Oric begged Cassandra to remain in Cynnia's service on Theia, and given his remarkable intervention plus the result, she allowed this.

And thus, the four sisters of the dawn handed over the message to Ardor concerning the beautiful beings that developed in peace and prosperity. For the time being too small in number, but if Brymir kept his word, everything would turn out fine within a reasonable timeframe.

In the Hall of Emerald, Ardor considered the case and also Brymir's chances. Without great joy, he acknowledged that Brymir's creatures evolved in diversity, but it also disappointed him because he did nothing more with the Chyon species. On the other hand, the developments surprised him and filled him with hope, with the necessary caution. A little bit bitter, he thought, that Varuna was the only one who had reason to be delighted with the course of events because, in one fell swoop, he had won back half of his written-off ships.

Meanwhile, the presence of the children of dawn became known everywhere on the beacon planets. Many flocked to learn about their universal wisdom. A teacher never left her castle because she could only survive in the vicinity of the Acheron canal. Most Elvarae stayed near their lady and helped her with the teaching while others wandered around the beacon planets to explore them and proclaim the message of her presence. They showed the people the way where wisdom was to be found as if they were the ears, eyes, and protectors of the dawn daughter in the world in which she had landed. Occasionally, an Elvar crew sailed off and on with messages for Ardor.

After the departure of the delegations, Brymir did his best to meet the agreements, but unfortunately, it did not take long before he dreamed away again. He identified himself so intensely with Urantium that he neglected to sow out his creatures to the millions of fallow planets that yearned to bud. The lords of the elements waited patiently because opportunities were approaching. If things continued to evolve the way they did, it was only a matter of time before Mito or Ardor would put an end to Brymir's reign, and then they would be ready to take over the rest of the universe.

At a certain time, as Oric the hunter-astronomer came back from a journey to the umpteenth empty world, it happened that he could barely avoid a head-on collision with an unknown planet.

Discontented, he wondered how that was because no matter how hard he racked his brain, he had no data about the mysterious celestial body. Either, his memory was failing or the thing was never registered in the beacon stone. Further, he also thought of a newly formed celestial body but rejected that idea almost immediately because mature world globes could of course not arise so quickly. For him, there was no doubt that something or someone deliberately obscured the planet. For Methas, who usually traveled immaterially, that strange world could probably go unnoticed forever.