"I don't even mentally frame it as 'no wonder it took thousands of years' but as 'how did you start the process of turning good and bad into math'. I don't think without that information I could possibly guess how long it should take!"

"In a sense everything in the entire world is made of math, if you go down deep enough and abstract enough. I could show you some of my starting work, though." His lips twitch. "And then if you want to re-derive the rest of it for yourself over the next five hundred years as a side project, you could. Or you could just read all my materials on it." 

"Maybe I'll try it the one way and see if I get too impatient."

"I am sure I will find the process delightful either way." He kisses her. 

Kisses! With her god-coparent!

And once all the vats of microbes are re-seeded and ready to use again, they can move on to the final stage. 

This is both the hardest and the simplest. Hardest because it's a lot of power and will go for a nearly a week, re-seeding vats as fast as possible in the interim to use them again. Simplest because there are no more specifications to add to the god, and because the god is now strong enough to slurp up the channeled power itself, making that part drastically easier to manage and requiring lower skill of the mages involved. 

Belrun busies herself on microbe duty.

It is a lot of very long days of work that's tiring but honestly not that interesting, and Leareth has to keep reminding himself that 'excruciatingly boring' is the best problem he could possibly ask for and is so much better than the alternatives. 

When they're done for the day Belrun is there to amuse him in whatever fashion he has the spare energy for.

Leareth is pretty tired but will try his best to dredge up some energy for being amused by Belrun. 

The vats are all fed again and in the morning have built back up to full strength.

Then they can do it AGAIN. 

- and again.

- and again. 

:I think our god is bored: Leareth complains to Belrun on the third day, as he tiredly stuffs some dinner into himself. :It keeps talking to me when I am busy: 

:Can you get someone to read it a book or something?:

:I told it to talk to the kitchen staff but it says they are not as interesting as I am. Which I suppose is flattering, but still. I can tell them to read it some of my books, maybe that will substitute: 

:What's it going to do to amuse itself later on?:

:I think that as soon as I set it loose to talk to other gods, it will be kept rather busy with that. Right now it is drawing closer to its full 'adult' strength and intelligence, and has much less to do with it: 

:Poor teenage god:

:It is! It is our restless teenage god, impatient to be an adult: 

:Hopefully books help. We can find out what its taste is:

:I am very curious!: 

Leareth passes this information on and is less troubled by their teenage god during the remaining days of the power-up process. He is, by the end of the last day, SO tired. 

Food. Sleep. And doing it all again the next day.

And finally they're done. It goes half a day over because of a logistical problem lining up some of the re-seeded vats in time, but they're done and it's barely lunchtime. 

:...Wow: Leareth says, standing sort of blankly in the dining hall while he waits for Belrun. :It - feels very hard to believe we are really finished: 

:Isn't that what all the checks are for?: she asks, sidling in and collecting beans and toast. :Making sure you're done?:

:I have checked all of the checks and I looked all the way down my list and I still feel as though surely I should need to go channel energy again for twelve candlemarks tomorrow. It must be just habit at this point: 

:While I'm sort of on vacation anyway we should stay a couple more days, have a vacation that doesn't involve any work, get used to our god being around. Then go home: