(8x26) Sol Resurgent: Part 3, Episode 2
From her father and Amouch, Metis learns that while the Ehrban diaspora have been subjugated by Kron and his lackeys setting themselves up as gods for thousands of years since defeating the Berol, the Ehrban on their homeworld of Niarba have been successfully communing into a coherent collective consciousness, Geie, whom the diaspora can feel in their souls and worship as their one true god, from whom they pray for eventual salvation.
Not too far in the distant past, the presence of Keius himself, who created the immortals from whom Metis is descended, returned to Niarba, and though he is pained by the suffering of the rest of the diaspora, he has focused his efforts on helping to raise Geie and through her connect with her creators, the Minded Worlds. But Kron et al, with their modified nanites, are also connected to the collective subconscious of the Ehrban, and so have contaminated the mind of Geie for their part in it. The Ehrban have prayed that Amouch and the one sympathetic "false god" Osan could somehow overthrow Kron's leadership and purge Geie of their corruption, but their numbers are too few. But Metis' arrival offers hope to tip those scales.
Secretly, Osan and Amouch modify Metis' nanites to grant her the same powers that they wield. (Metis is surprised to realize that the mental interface to Ehrban "magic" is extremely similar to the "magic" interface in the old Virtuality from before the fall of Earth). They expect that they will take some flak for that from the rest of the "gods", but they hope that the tipped scales might be enough to weather that, if only one of the younger brothers could be turned to their side as well. But Kron sees through that ploy, and to avoid the confrontation and maintain the status quo, he declares that as Metis is already worshipped as a goddess by the people of Sol, she may claim that as her territory and rule over it without interference, so long as she pledges her subservience to the high god Kron. If not, then Sol, now known to be undefended by the now-dead Foundation, will be invaded and, within the century it takes to get there the slow way, annexed under Kron's rule. Reluctantly, Metis accepts the offer.