After returning to the Temple of Sleep, Hypnos did not immediately lie down, which came as somewhat of a surprise to Aergia.
The young goddess was originally preparing to take her leave, but just as she turned around, the deity on the obsidian couch called her back once again.
“Aergia.”
“Your Highness?”
Hypnos slowly fiddled with the bouquet of poppies in his hand, his pinkish-purple eyes half-lidded. As his gaze fell upon the young goddess and sensed the aura of death radiating from her, he found it immensely grating.
Thanatos had only given her a sliver of authority over death—an amount of power that, to master deities like them, was hardly a gift worth noticing.
Yet now, that fellow had not only used her to supplement his own laws of death, but had also smoothly incorporated Aergia into the ranks of subordinate deities under the Temple of Death.
The fingers Hypnos used to toy with the flower petals paused for a moment as an inexplicable wave of annoyance welled up within his heart.
Standing before the stone couch, Aergia had no idea what he was thinking. Seeing that the God of Sleep remained silent for so long, she did not have the courage to rush him, so she could only wait quietly.
“You have been organizing those dream crystals for quite a while now, haven't you?” Hypnos finally deigned to speak.
Aergia was slightly startled.
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“Have you discovered anything?”
Aergia pondered for a moment.
“The form of a crystal is tied to the dream contained within it. Some are relatively stable, while others are constantly changing. Even if they are placed in the same spot, they may scatter again after some time.”
At this point, Aergia paused before adding, “Furthermore, new dream crystals are constantly being generated. For now, I can only temporarily place them separately based on the strength of their divine power and their surface properties.”
As for deeper matters, she had not yet truly come into contact with them.
Dreams were part of the sleep domain. Hypnos allowed her to organize the crystals, but he had not granted her permission to freely enter them to explore where those dreams actually originated or how they were formed.
What she had done up to now was closer to tidying up a pile of messy items.
As for why they were messy in the first place... those who knew, knew.
After listening to Aergia, Hypnos raised his hand, and a strand of amber divine light flowed from his fingertips. Deep within the light, however, floated many indecipherable colors.
Those colors were unstable, and from time to time, different scenes surfaced within them.
Aergia almost seemed to see a forest emerge within it; in the next instant, its branches and leaves transformed into a surging sea of clouds. Deep within the cloud sea, some living creature appeared to spread its wings and take flight, but before she could see it clearly, the figure dissolved back into a hazy mist of light.
After gazing at it for merely a moment, she felt her consciousness grow slightly dazed.
“Dreams are byproducts of sleep.” Hypnos's voice was lazy as ever. “After living beings fall into slumber, some of their consciousness continues to be active, piecing together things they have seen, memories they retain, or sights that never even occurred. These dreams leave traces within my domain. Once accumulated over time, they become the crystals you see.”
Aergia nodded thoughtfully.
So those endless crystals deep within the Temple of Sleep were merely the condensed forms of dreams within the sleep domain.
No wonder every time she finished tidying up, a new batch would appear before long.
As long as the living beings on the earth continued to dream, this job would never truly reach an end.
Hypnos continued, “Since you have been in contact with them for so long, you might as well continue to look into them.”
That strand of divine light slowly descended, merging into Aergia's body, and quickly made contact with her divine core.
Her godhead of Sleep Induction was the first to respond, a layer of hazy brilliance expanding from deep within her core.
At the same time, Aergia's perception of the sleep domain underwent a transformation in that moment.
The boundaries that she could previously only vaguely perceive gradually became clear.
Beyond that gentle, quiet divine power of sleep lay an even more complex region, within which suspended countless dream crystals.
Some were bright, while others were dim; some drew near to one another, appearing ready to merge at any moment, while others snapped apart the second they touched.
New points of light continually emerged from afar, while old crystals gradually dispersed, reverting into free-floating divine power.
Aergia watched, somewhat mesmerized. What she had organized before was actually only a tiny fraction of it all.
“The laws of the sleep domain shall be opened further to you.” Hypnos's pure white wings slowly folded shut. “Take this portion of dream authority to research as well.”
This complex domain of dreams was indeed worthy of research, and Aergia felt her researcher's soul burn fiercely once more. Her eyes, similar to Hypnos's and often tinged with a bit of weariness, instantly lit up.
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“When you have new discoveries, remember to inform me.”
Hypnos waved his hand, finally closing his eyes once again.
Poppy pollen slowly drifted about with his long, measured breaths, and the amber threads of light in the hall resumed their original unhurried flow.
Standing in place, Aergia felt her newly acquired authority within her body. While delighted, she also felt a faint, ominous foreboding.
For some reason, she felt that her worries regarding her workload would likely become reality very soon.
The days that followed proved that Aergia's intuition was remarkably accurate.
Thanatos was a deity of swift and decisive action.
Starting on the second day after Nyx permitted him to incorporate Aergia into the Temple of Death, the young God of Death came to the Temple of Sleep in a completely natural manner, called upon the young goddess, and set off with her to the earth.
Hypnos did not block them either, merely offering an unhurried reminder before they departed.
“Remember to return when night falls.”
Thanatos was quite dissatisfied with this, but he said nothing, as this was something they had agreed upon long ago.
Aergia led Nephele as she walked out of the temple.
Able to go to the earth, the silver-gray divine steed seemed immensely joyful.
Though the garden was comfortable, it was born between high mountains and a sea of clouds after all. Now able to leave the Underworld every day and fly once more toward the vast earth, it was naturally far more satisfied than lying amidst the poppy flowers all day.
Of course, that was provided Thanatos did not constantly urge it along.
On occasion, when the clouds parted just right and the sunlight fell squarely upon its wings, Nephele would slow its speed slightly to spread its translucent long feathers. Then, the God of Death up ahead would ruin the mood by turning his head.
“What are you dawdling for again?”
The divine steed immediately tossed its head and blew an extremely displeased snort.
Caught in the middle, Aergia had no choice but to comfort Nephele while prompting it to catch up with those dark wings.
Whenever a life was about to reach its end, the God of Death would pause, carefully sensing the connection between life and soul, waiting for his duty to arrive.
In this era, death was by no means rare.
Whenever the pressure of the sky bore down and tremors echoed from deep within the earth, collapsing rocks and abruptly diverted rivers could cause lives that were originally meant to be long to meet an early end.
Aergia also gradually came to understand why Thanatos had displayed such impatience and disgust whenever he brought up Uranus in the past.
The descent of that Sky Father indeed added a great deal of extra work for the God of Death.
After officially becoming a subordinate deity of the Temple of Death, Thanatos would hand over living beings that aged naturally to Aergia's godhead of Cessation to harvest, allowing their final vital processes to come to a peaceful halt.
Rest loosened fear and obsession, while Cessation touched the deeper life origin. Once the soul lost its physical anchor, light-golden butterflies would flutter forth to complete the final guidance.
Having a portion of his workload lightened, the young God of Death was thoroughly pleased with this. The time his daily patrols concluded was brought forward significantly, leaving Thanatos thoroughly won over—regretting only that he had not found himself a subordinate deity sooner!
Only when night began to unfold from afar did Aergia's other duties arrive.
Nephele carried the young goddess over mountains and forests as the divine power of Sleep Induction dispersed, allowing still-conscious living beings to gradually relax and naturally enter sleep.
Once the night completely shrouded the sky, she returned to the Temple of Sleep, where new dream crystals awaited organization and the poppy fields required tending.
Aergia would first handle the temple's affairs, then organize the crystals, and finally reserve a portion of her energy to research her authority over dreams.
Yet when she truly submerged her consciousness into those bizarre and varied dreams, time would always fly past with extraordinary swiftness.
On one occasion, she was observing the dream of a bird.
The sky in the dream was boundless. The bird flew upward continuously, straying farther and farther from its nest, yet it stubbornly believed that the cliff face it knew so well would appear behind the very next cloud.
Aergia wanted to see where this dream would actually end.
In the end, before the bird could find the cliff face, Thanatos's voice resounded from outside the temple.
“Aergia, let's go.”
Aergia's consciousness snapped back from the dream, falling silent for a moment.
It was daytime again?
She looked down at the crystal in her palm that she had not yet fully comprehended, suddenly feeling that for deities to possess bodies that never grew tired did not seem to be an entirely good thing after all.
It made it so hard for her to find even a single excuse to go on strike with a clear conscience.
Rate on N.U.
