The CANONICALS

A Meeting Between Gods.

Four Years (Earth Rotation), Prior to Current Events.

The ruby-hued god whistled quietly to themself as they grazed their hands across the golden books lining the shelves. Their wings twitched and stretched every few seconds as they looked around, staring at the endless array of shelves. Their attention snapped to a shelf with five empty spaces.

They tilted their head slightly and separated their hand from the bookshelf before marching towards the empty shelf. The ruby eye above their forehead narrowed slightly as they examined the empty spot.

They separated from the shelf and glanced up to see the marking. These were the summoning rituals for the gods, and five were missing. The spare rituals were missing.

Cubit's eyes quickly grazed across the names on the side of each book. Everyone except for Nova, Rhases, Hugh, Aion and Null were accounted for.

They stepped away from the bookshelf and began to walk back down the hall back into the main quarters. They exited the library and glanced around before spotting the godly lifelines. They stopped in front of a large wall with a map of the entire multiverse. Cubit's eye glanced across each of them, scanning for abnormalities.

Chronix's signal was hidden, but his status was recorded to be alive. Xivrix was the same. Alba was of course split into each corner of the multiverse, but his status was alive. Salice was recorded to be in his barren dimension, but of course was alive. Sam and Zero were in random dimensions, while the rest of the gods were all accounted for, in their dimensional sectors.

Except for Nova, Rhases, Hugh, Aion and Null. None of their signals were accounted for. None of their statuses said anything. This was unheard of. Cubit turned away from the status board. None of them could be summoned, either. Usually when a god's form was recorded to have a discrepancy, they could be summoned in perfect form.

But their summoning instructions were gone from the library. Missing. And that wasn't good.

"I really don't get it," Hues stated, staring at the hologram of the new structure he was thinking of. "Can't you just use their summoning inscriptions?"

"Hues, Cubit said their summoning instructions were missing!" Teaspoon exclaimed.

Hues looked up, "What?"

"They're missing!" Cubit exclaimed. "Nova, Rhases, Hugh, Aion and Null, all of their summoning instructions are missing!"

Hues turned the hologram off and their eyebrows furrowed. They stared at Cubit and Teaspoon for a few seconds.

"Call a meeting," Hues stated. "This is..." They shook their head. "Just call a meeting."

The Bargainer sat at his long table, staring into a window as he lazily watched a random universe unfolding. It had been like this ever since their last meeting and now The Bargainer simply assumed that the rest of the hierarchy wanted nothing to do with him. He was just waiting for something to happen. He yawned, bored, just as Bart emerged through the doorway.

"Uhm... Boss..." Bart muttered, inching into the room.

The Bargainer turned his attention to Bart, uninterested.

"They, uhm..." Bart fumbled with his hands, trying to think of what to say. "The others called a meeting..."

The Bargainer paused, examining Bart closely. A grin stretched over his face and he quickly stood up. His eyes lit up with excitement and he darted out of the room. Bart inched towards the doorframe and glanced into the hallway.