Creation Lost: Hiding God

Dalvin's hands shook as he slowly wiped the dirt from the object in his hands. The feint sea green shimmer became brighter with every stroke of his fingers. Impossible. Impossible. Impossible. That was the only thing he could think yet there it was right in his hands. The Eye of God. The translucent pale green sphere shimmered as if hinting at the vast power it held. Dalvin could only stand in awe, he had seen thousands of source stones in his years but nothing like this. Several stones the size of seeds were embedded in his belt and he had seen stones the size of a thumbnail used in weapons. The stone in his hands, however, was the size of his head and was of a pure hue he had never seen before. It seemed impossible yet like Odithian who created the mighty world Yggdrasil he too now held an Eye of God.

Coming to his senses Dalvin began to make his way out of his mine. He focused ahead and visualized the entrance, then cradling the Eye under his arm reached down and touched the stone in his belt. The stone of space compression activated to shorten the distance between him and the exit. He quickened his pace to reach the mine entrance before the effect of the stone could wear off. As Dalvin exited the mine he quickly made his way to the nearby shelter he had carved into the cavern walls several years before. Setting the eye on a table hewn of stone he collapsed into a pile of furs he used as a bed his mind racing. What should he do? He had to keep it, even if he wanted to give it up there was too high of a chance he would be silenced. He could not stay in his mountain home when the merchants came they usually had source hounds to determine the quality of goods. One of those could easily catch wind of the Eye and he would be exposed endangering his life. If only he had studied more combat source techniques he could just easily defend himself with the Eye. What could he do....run, there was nothing to do but escape but where would he go. As he thought about this lightning struck, a lost world that's where he could go. The lost ones did not use source so he would never be found out, which would give him ample time to learn to use the Eye's power. Then....well he would become a God. Dalvin smiled as he left the shelter heading for his main camp, fine-tuning the plan in his head as he walked.

As Dalvin entered his main camp he quickly began his preparations. First, he went to his humble home he carved into the mountain to collect his sourcebooks and crafting gear. As crafting was his primary profession alongside mining he had many such tools and books. He was going to have to abandon his larger automated tools and equipment and he struggled to select which smaller tools to leave behind. Some of these Dalvin had used for hundreds of years and were like family to him. As he packed what he would take into a leather tool case he cast one last forlorn look at his workbench. "Goodbye old friends", Dalvin croaked. With tears threatening the corners of his eyes he left his home for the warehouse. He approached the door to his warehouse or at least what looked like a painting of a door with a small cloudy green stone in the center with a small ring of metal around it. He reached down and grabbed his seal pen from his waist. The wooden pen had a tiny green stone affixed to its tip. He touched another stone on his belt and created an aura of heat transference then recalling the melting point of the silver metal he etched his password into its surface. The stone flashed, the metal surface rippled removing his etching, and the painting solidified into an actual door. Dalvin opened the door and entered the warehouse then repeated the process from the inside to seal the door again returning it to a painting. He set down his case filled with tools and books and walked to a corner of the warehouse where three large objects covered by tarps stood. Pulling away one of the tarps revealed a statue of Delvin himself, the detail of the statue was incredibly lifelike. The exception being hundreds of symbols carved all over it with grooves connecting them and entirely inlaid with silver. He carefully examined his double ensuring everything was intact. He kept these here in case of an accident mining, plus as a source miner and crafter, it was more economical than a doctor. But right now he figured he might as well have a fresh body for his journey. After removing his clothing he reached up and clasped the head of the statue with his hands. Dalvin focused and the source dust in the metal etching began to glow and hum softly. He let his mind sync with the humming, his body became warm and he felt himself drift forward...Dalvin opened his eyes staring at a stone statue of himself with its stone hands clasping his head. Sliding from the statues grasp he put his clothes on and stretched his fresh limbs."Ahhh, that's better feel a hundred years younger. I suppose it has been at least fifty since I used a double.", he mused. Refreshed he returned to his case and retrieved a book from it. 'Lanthers guide to the worlds', he had mostly kept this book around for amusement, reading about all the different worlds was fun. Especially the bits about the kinds of rocks and metals they had. Lots of pretty mountains too. Now though it would be his means of escape. Thumbing through the book he found the section on lost worlds. Looking through them he found a suitable candidate, a world called Earth. It was last visited four thousand years ago by the explorers An and Enki and their team. After staying there a great deal of time they discovered that the Earth was source forged and therefore contained no source stones. So the planet was deemed lost and abandoned. Dalvin gave a wry smile, too bad for An and Enki explorers funding came from new source locations, their team was probably disbanded. He offered them up silent thanks for finding his new hideout. He thumbed through the article to the location of the planet and copied down its coordinates.

Closing the book and returning it Dalvin got out his tools. Now for the hard part. Grabbing his hand smelter and some lace rods a silver and source dust mixture Dalvin began inscribing in the floor of his warehouse. With a notepad off to the side, he alternated between inscribing and calculating the position of stars having to stop several times to reference his books. Scribing a gate was no easy task. If not for the need for secrecy he could have used a public one but that would not do. So he had to do it himself. Several hours later a large and complex pattern sprawled across the floor of his warehouse. He stepped back and admired his creation, it was very impressive and beautiful. Normally he would be horrified by using a years worth of lace rods on a one-time use item but to a dwarf who had his heart set on running, it was beautiful. Dalvin returned the tools to his case and slung it across his shoulder. He grabbed the Eye and walked to the center of the pattern scrawled on the floor. Normally he would not have the power to personally open the gate to another world but...he rubbed the Eye fondly "My curse and my salvation are you", he focused on the Eye, "Earth here I come." Everything blurred.