"Are you actually sure that's as bad as it can get? Like, if nothing else, if anybody else has anything dangerous lying around that can get set off -

- also, that doesn't sound like some the current gods have much reason to want; can your god fix it where they can't?"

"I suppose it could in theory be worse, but - nearly everything would have to go wrong. The storm itself will have lost force in transit; I expect it to still be very bad because the world is in worse shape for it. I do think the current gods are not incentivized to let the worst case happen, and may succeed at preventing it even though they failed to prevent the Cataclysm itself. They do have more warning, as I do. Though given what I have seen, They would consider it a benefit if, for example, the Eastern Empire was destroyed due to magic failing and technology levels fell everywhere and did not rise again. And it would give Them a great deal of leverage to enslave several more population groups and otherwise clamp down on the world. So, if I do not succeed at this project first, it might not be catastrophic in terms of destroying the world, or even all of civilization, but - I fear it would be next to impossible to succeed afterward." 

"Oh yikes I didn't even think of 'what if literally everybody was like the Tayledras'."

"That would be one of the better case scenarios, in the short term! It would mean that said populations were alive." 

"Would the gods even like it if everyone were dead? I guess they could make some new species and turn them loose if they didn't."

"I think they do have some preference that people not be dead - the Star-Eyed and Vkandis both worked what must have been very costly interventions to keep the relevant population groups alive, even if they extracted a very advantageous-to-them pact out of it. But note that these were quite small groups - tens of thousands, maybe. The Star-Eyed did not seem inclined to help the other ethnicities of Tantara, and...I have no idea what befell most of my former people in Predain, certainly no recognizable lineages were around when I next visited that geographic area."

"Where do the gods get their energy from?"

"Some kind of interplanar interaction, I think, on a much, much larger scale than what is possible if one is a mortal being localized to the material plane. But - similar in concept to what generates energy for one of the superweapon designs." 

"...why do you think you can build something that does that if it's a god but not if it's a power source for a god?"

"For the same reason I have not been able to build anything similar to a Heartstone despite knowing of their existence for literally fifteen hundred years. The internal structure of a god, that serves this purpose, is not one that can be neatly separated out and imitated in isolation, it seems. It requires true intelligence to make a process with enough robustness to control those forces, not merely draw on them as a weapon would. At that point one is already making something godlike. I suppose I could try to make it as minimally godlike as possible, and then power the rest of the god from it; I have considered this, but it would not be that much cheaper, and I am less confident in getting a value-aligned god out of it, which is kind of the most important piece here." 

"A person couldn't control it?"

"I cannot imagine so. It would require sensory modalities that people are not set up to process - the same way Companions require some god-fragments to handle direct contact with Foresight, except moreso - and even if that were not an issue, it is very hard to imagine a setup that would not result in the person in question instantly vaporizing. I have done some experiments in this field, but it is kind of costly to do experiments that run a high risk of exploding one's researchers." 

"Before you said the exploding part I was wondering if you could talk an actual Companion into it somehow if you got one that was amenable."

"I do think a Companion would have a better chance of making this work! However. Exploding. It is possible for mortals to interface directly with very large quantities of energy, on the scales of Heartstones if not complete gods, but - that is another place where the Heartstone itself is semisentient and doing a great deal of work to facilitate this." 

"What if you got a bunch of Companions on board? You were pleasantly surprised about Vanyel, he could maybe take his own Companion's temperature on the idea - it's a much more palatable idea if it doesn't involve murdering a staggering number of people."

"I suppose it is worth considering. I - kind of expect it to backfire in some horrible way, given the Companions' degree of link to a god - and I do not expect to be able to convince them anyway, but it does seem worth at least considering taking the risk, for some chance of not needing to murder a staggering number of people. I will think on it." 

"I'll try to sound Vanyel out a bit without giving anything away. I know you've been talking to him a long time but..."

"You may be equipped to notice different things than I am, including perhaps things about him I have missed. Also you are - I am not going to say you are actually harmless because that is very false, but you appear friendlier and less intimidating than I do, at least." 

"I have historically been harmless, and do not advertise my theoretical capacity for harm."

Nod. "All right - we should review the plan of what to say to Vanyel if and when the dream comes again and you are in it. I will ask directly what his intentions are on sharing information with King Randale or others. You will try to sound him out on the matter of his Companion, without giving too much away. Possibly you will explain Urtho and the Cataclysm. What else?" 

"Is the thing where the Cataclysm is coming back around shareable?"

"...Let me think. Maybe? I think I would prefer to share it after the rest, and - possibly not in the same conversation, I am hesitant to hit him with too many things at once." 

"Why after?"

"One, it will make more sense if the part about the original Cataclysm has already been covered. Two, I think it is more likely he would feel some obligation to share it with King Randale? Since it has strategic relevance for the future. So I would like to be more confident of whether and how he is likely to do that. None of these are fully conclusive reasons, though, so I am open to being persuaded otherwise if you have different considerations." 

"Mm, I was thinking it kind of provides motive for having a huge potentially country-invading operation and also just in general people deserve to know? The gods already do, right? But you're right the initial one will be useful context."