“Compare that to kicking down a door. Mmm, no. To THOR kicking down a door.” She blinked. “Pick the lock with picks in your teeth.” I pointed at the one snowball. “Weather goddess kicks in the door.” I waved at the sky.

“Oh.” She had a thoughtful look in her eye.

“Your Shaman Levels naturally represent the teachings of your ancestors, and so are tied to your Goddess Level. So, mortal skills, mutant skills, and ancestral skills,” I pointed out for her.

“I see. And these? My ancestry?” she asked, pointing at the Talents.

“That is a double Lineage Talent, which you just don’t see. I imagine Survivor and Claustrophobia are two sides of the same coin, something you gained as a child.” She nodded slowly. “The two Lineages are tied to your Core, and are what empower your empathy with the weather. There are many, many people who can wield the wind, Ororo, but there are very few who can feel it, until they are much higher Level.

“You could feel it as a child. So instead of the wind and weather merely being blunt instruments you throw around, you can feel the living elemental forces behind them, the consequences of doing things... and you have the awareness of how to wield them that aeromancers, Wind Shamans, and aerokinetics simply do not.

“It is a Divine awareness of the weather. Most simply command it blindly. You can feel and understand it. This is driving your entire status of being a goddess. It is the foundation of your path to the Divine.”

“I... see.” Clearly she had not framed it in such a manner, nor considered how others who had similar powers might be wielding them. “So... my grandparents do not have such awareness?” she asked.

“Perhaps if they were to engage in deep Meditation and Commune with the Land, they could reach a state that you have as naturally as breathing. That should be unsurprising. They have at best one Lineage, and supplement it with experience and Levels. You have two Lineages. In some things, Talent trumps Experience, unless the discrepancy is truly vast.”

“I...” she began, then halted. “Dealer has... immense harmony with the Land. Not just the weather...”

Since Dealer was a direct reflection of me, that was actually talking about me, I just didn’t manifest it. “Well, Dealer is a Fifteen. The phrase ‘immense discrepancy’ kicks in, yes?”

“A Fifteen? But...” Ororo bit her lip, glancing back at Njord, then at me, “I do not wish to sound silly, but her power would slice through Njord’s like a hot knife through butter! She can destroy my hold on the weather with ease! She can defy the Sphinx with aplomb!”

“Well, you’re a Seven at best.” Her mouth opened, closed as she blinked at the number in front of her. “Your mutant power and lineage give you vast power and control without effort, sure.

“But in terms of quality, you’re a Seven. There are a LOT of people who can disrupt your control of the weather.”

She stared at me, and at the numbers in front of her, clearly shocked. She had thought she was hugely powerful, and this was changing her understanding of magic on its head.

“Did you never contest the wind with your grandmothers? I do not know how powerful or skilled they are, but I imagine it was a frustrating experience of subtle control undermining your natural talent?”

She looked rather thunderstruck. “Yes... and if they worked together, it was difficult for me to control the winds at all...”

“Quality vs. quantity. If the Sphinx had struck at your control, instead of being preoccupied by Dealer and Sunstone, he could have basically shut you down instantly.”

It was not welcome news, and she flushed despite herself. She had been extremely vulnerable, and had not even realized it, thinking she had come far in her control and power.

She was just a Seven!

Her blue eyes flashed with sudden conviction. There was a reason why she was here!

“What... what would you do in my place?” she asked, almost despite herself.

“If it was me, with your talents and gifts?” I inclined my head, considering that. “An interesting question.”

The Holo in front of her changed, splitting into her three Tranches... and the Goddess Class, which gained a subnote, (Asgardian).

Her eyes widened on seeing that, too.

Her Skill Tranche was also her Combat Tranche, by default. The Scout Levels stopped, and were replaced by Monk Levels. Four Levels, and then Minstrel Levels accumulated.

Three levels of Sorceress were stacked atop her Shaman Levels, and then Elemental Theurge stacked above those for ten Levels.

At the same time, Cerebramancer started accumulating on her Psion Levels for ten Levels, then switched to Divine Mind for the remainder of her Levels there.

“If you do this, you will be a Twenty as far as wielding the power of Nature, the Arcane, and psionic energies, with tremendous exposure to the Heartsong, enough to touch the Sublime Chord. As a Threefold Theurge, these energies will all be the same thing to you.” I slowly spread my arms wide, miming a great road. “Your Road to the Eternal will be wide and vast, and when you step into it, you will be a goddess on your own terms, not reliant on Faith to boost you up.”

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It does not take a god, only faith...

If you're not reading this on Royal Road, you're helping pay a thief. Please read it in its original home, it's still free! You get the foreword and afterword, author comments, and comments from people with questions! I have not given permission for this story to be posted ANYWHERE ELSE.

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She looked somewhat dazzled at the implications in front of her. “This... has Dealer done something like this?” she had to ask.

“Yes, but without the focus on Natural Magic.” I had the Levels associated with her Druidic power glow. “The true power of doing this is the Druidic Theurgy. In short, when a Druidic power of effect is shared between different Traditions, your Druid Level stacks with the other Tradition.” I let that pause a moment to sink in to her. “There isn’t a lot of overlap with Arcane and Psionic power, save down certain elemental roads...”

“Like the weather...” she murmured softly. “By the Mother... this is the kind of thing Dealer does...”

“Yes. It is a form of specialization that does not impinge on one’s versatility. If you are already a Weather specialist, well...”

“Do you... do you know what Dealer’s Caster Level is?” she asked me softly, trying to put a number to something that felt so vast.

“Like you would be,” I gestured at the build, “it depends on what she Casts. She’s better at some spells than others because of how her Matrix is set up. But her absolute Base is above 30, her effective Base is higher yet, and her Dispels are, eh, 40+?

“She told me the Sphinx’s power was a flat 25, if you are curious.”

“Mother...” Ororo murmured slowly. I am a Seven... “And what would this do?” she had to ask.

“Well, if you learn to sing the Sublime Chord, that’s a potential +4. So, twenty plus twenty plus four. Your Weather Control is instantly at +44, with other bonuses certainly possible here and there.”

Ororo swallowed. Potentially higher than Dealer, and so unbelievably further along than where she was at now!

“How do I follow this?” she asked sharply, eyes glowing with her power now, and the wind picking up sharply for a moment before she fought it back down.

I smiled slightly, and pointed. “They are going to be building Arcane Matrices. You need to do the same.”

She blinked, and looked at the Richards, down there talking with the god helming the rudder of the longship, moving the oar and the entire weight of the ship with effortless ease.

It was so perfect that it was plain this was completely planned out for her. She felt an odd knot in her throat at this.

“Above and beyond all this...” I murmured quietly, and she glanced at me again, and the holo changed. “Remember that lass carrying the wood to market?”

I’d seen her do the double take, as she’d been dressed like a young girl, in an extended skirt and trousers beneath... and she’d had most of a tree balanced on her shoulders, bringing the chopped-up firewood into town, at least several tons of it.

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Monifa of Asgard, a faithful lass.

Asgardian Demigoddess (Outsider/10)

Expert/7

Strength: 24 (55)

Dexterity: 26

Constitution: 40

Intelligence: 15

Wisdom: 20

Charisma: 20

Notable Talents/Traits: Asgardian

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“She’s a totally average Asgardian,” I noted to her. “Quite literally nothing special about her. An average working-class young woman, walking down the street. Oh, and she’s 514 years old, too.”

I pointed to Ororo’s Goddess level. “How would you like to be a totally average Asgardian physical specimen?” I inquired.

Underneath her dark skin, Ororo blushed hotly despite herself. “This is the power you used in the tournament?” she realized, remembering what I had said before.

“Yes.”

“This... this is what it means to embrace the bloodline of Thor, does it not?” she asked slowly.

“I am going to guess, by what your grandmothers have said, that it is your Rain Goddess’ ability to gather Faith which ‘turned on’ this potential. Otherwise, you simply would be a normal human evolving to control and accumulate Divine power, without a path already there.

“Thor’s Bloodline has given you access to an alternate Racial Evolution path. This is incredibly valuable for your Road to the Eternal. If you take this all the way up, well, mmm. Asgardian royalty potential...”

She stared at me in disbelief. I just raised my eyebrows and shrugged at her. “Roads to the Eternal are not strolls in a park down the road.” I eyed the environment around us. “And here you are in Asgard...”

She sighed and closed your eyes. “You are as scheming as T’Challa!” she accused me softly, but she was smiling.

“Take no more Goddess Levels until you get all three levels of your Arcane Matrix established, and you take Human/3. Once you take that Asgardian Level, you cannot take further Human advancements. You are on the road to being an Asgardian Goddess.” I waved my hand above my head tellingly. “Probably have a natural white mohawk plume, too.”

She looked a little scandalized at the idea, but excited despite herself. Well, who wouldn’t?