Crusade – Chapter 88: Life Returns

‏

Aperio looked at her disciple for a few moments longer as the pleasant warmth that spread through her body was joined by a tingle that ran down her spine. What was that? She had not really felt anything like it before. There were things she knew of that could be the cause, but none really applied to this situation.

"Thank you, Caethya," Aperio said, smiling slightly. "That meant more to me than you might think." Even if I don't understand it myself.

Her disciple simply nodded her head, her ears and cheeks bright red. Aperio shifted her wing in response, making sure she was still securely held.

"Should I remove my wing?" the All-Mother asked, tilting her head slightly as Caethya's ears took on an even brighter shade of red and her breathing quickened. "It seems to affect you negatively." The idea that someone would blush so profusely simply because she touched them did not sit quite right with Aperio. Caethya's reaction seemed a little excessive, but at the same time, she did not want to stop.

"It's fine," Caethya replied after a moment. "The softness of your feathers together with the mana that flows at your touch are not something I am used to." She paused for a moment, taking a deep breath. "Not to this degree at least."

Who else bathes their surroundings in mana? Aperio thought as she shifted herself to sit cross-legged. The mana still burning through her body had decided that her legs were in dire need of rather drastic enhancement, making her previous kneeling position quite uncomfortable.

"If you are fine, then so am I. I simply do not wish for you to feel uncomfortable." A small twitch of the branches above her caused the All-Mother to direct her attention towards the tree. "Do you have something to say, Roots?"

"I merely wished to inform you that the temple has almost finished regrowing its lost leaves." Its branches shook in chorus with the deep rumble of its voice, almost as if it wanted to underline its flowery speech. "Should you wish to, your followers could soon come here to plant new roots for themselves. They will not want for anything — your temple will provide."

"Your temple can make food?" Caethya asked as she slowly leaned herself back and into Aperio's wing, seemingly not trying to draw attention to her movement. "How does it do that?"

The All-Mother tilted her head at the question, spreading her senses into her temple. She did not know what her temple could do, nor had she assumed it would be able to provide for her followers. It does make sense, though. Her old self was very much not the type to take time out of her day to care for mortals and, despite allowing other deities to have slaves, Aperio doubted she had any that could take care of the temple.

"I do not know," she said as her mind inspected every detail of her home. It did not take long for her to find a kitchen, one filled with more runes than most other rooms. "But I do have an idea."

A thought sent a minuscule wisp of her mana into a rune — one she could identify as 'Dawn' even though she had never before seen it in her life. A moment later, the entirety of her temple shone bright in her aura. The amount of mana that drained from her well gave the All-Mother pause.

"What was that?!" Caethya exclaimed, moving herself a bit closer to Aperio as her head spun around, undoubtedly trying to figure out where the monstrous amount of mana was heading.

"I activated a ward in the kitchen. It is quite fascinating." As silly as her words might have sounded, watching her mana flow through her temple and the island it resided on was fascinating to her. Aperio could feel every detail of her home, her mana almost eagerly letting her know what it was doing.

She knew a large portion was flowing to a field behind her temple, that it wanted to grow plants that her followers could eat. How exactly the runes accomplished that, however, remained a mystery to her. At least these don't break.

"How far does your aura reach?" her disciple asked, seemingly not as interested in kitchen runes as Aperio herself.

The All-Mother shrugged slightly, the shifting motion of her wings eliciting a small murmur from her disciple. "I have not yet found the end of its reach, nor do I plan on searching for it. Even without my aura, I already perceive more than I truly wish to know."

At least her mind was getting better at filtering out all the sounds the mortals made by simply existing, a fact Aperio greatly appreciated. Now if only I could do the same for smell…

With very few exceptions, the world the mortals called their home was rather offensive to her nose. Even the people that roamed it were little better. Caethya and Laelia both were exceptions to the rule, but both of them were probably more of a fledgling divine than a normal mortal.

"Is something wrong?" Caethya asked. "You don't usually frown for nothing."

Aperio waved her off. "Just a minor annoyance; nothing to worry about. I do, however, have a question for you."

Her disciple straightened herself a little at the words, her eyes focused on Aperio. "Yes?"

"If I hide my wings, is there any possible way I could pass as an Elder? I have been confused for an Elder of the Moons before and I do not wish to stand out as much as I currently do when I finally leave for Procul."

"Perhaps?" the Elf replied. "Could you show me again how you plan to look?"

Aperio gave a nod in reply, carefully removing her wing from behind her disciple before standing up and letting her feathered limbs vanish — her swordstaff settling comfortably in her hand at the same time.

A small touch of her magic straightened out the wrinkles in her dress, another adjusting the armour pieces to be slightly more comfortable to wear. The small weight they had previously carried had vanished, too, her body having become stronger yet again thanks to the mana she had retrieved. Will I ever stop gaining strength?

Caethya looked her Goddess up and down, her eyes lingering briefly on her weapon and the pieces of armour that slowly shifted over her shoulders and chest.

Even without her wings, Aperio would attract attention. She stood at least two heads taller than Caethya herself, and, as an Elf, she was already taller than most other races. She probably has to duck through every door…

Her choice of weapon and fit physique was another thing that would draw attention. Most Elves chose to be mages or rogues of some kind, very few training themselves to become warriors to the point that that it would show. The ones that did want to acquire more brawn usually did so through the System, hunting titles that would increase their strength.

Aperio shifted her weight from one leg to the other, her hair flowing behind her in a breeze that Caethya could not feel. The All-Mother also carried a subtle glow with her — a silver sheen that seemed to flow just below her skin.

"You look… divine, even without your wings," Caethya said, a bit of heat flushing through her ears. "Not many of our kind are as… fit as you are either." I doubt a mortal could even accomplish that.

The longer she simply looked at Aperio, the more obvious it became that she was something divine. At a glance it would be fine, just an outlier that had not perished like so many did. But people would notice, especially ones that could read auras better than Caethya could.

"Thank you?" Aperio replied, slightly tilting her head again. Her hair shifted, and Caethya's eyes were drawn to its blue sheen. "But, I assume that means I cannot hide? The goal was to not stand out, after all."

"You will always stand out, but I don't think you would be recognised as a Goddess or the Creator like this. As for passing as an Elder…" Caethya's voice trailed off as she glanced over Aperio again.

The way she held herself, how she somehow seemed to be in command despite not doing anything certainly fit with the few Elders Caethya herself had met. Aperio also had a certain feel to her, one that seemed to be almost ancient in nature. The Elf was not quite sure if that was because she knew who her Goddess was, or if everyone would feel like that.

"I think it could work for short periods of time," she said after a moment. "But, do you know what the Elders usually do? Have the proper identification if someone asks? …Do you even have any form of identification?"

The All-Mother sighed at her question, her swordstaff vanishing as she sat herself down. "I do not have anything I could use to identify myself with. Except perhaps my voice and the wisps, but that is not something truly unique."

"I forgot about those," Caethya quietly admitted. She had gotten used to the power in Aperio's voice and the wisps of her mana. It was not exactly a common occurrence — enough so that it would seem off to the average person — but she had seen quite a few adventurers that displayed their mana in physical form. She herself had done it a few times, mostly to scare off some annoying patrons in a certain bar she used to frequent.

"You can hide the wisps," Caethya said, though the inflection was more that of a query. "While it is not that uncommon, it is usually only done as a show of strength. Condensing your mana into physical form like that is not exactly easy. As for your voice… It might actually help you sell yourself as an Elder."

Aperio tilted her head to the other side, the tick of her Goddess bringing a small smile to Caethya's face. "Oh? How would that help?"

"Well," Caethya began, her hands brushing over her dress as she tried to banish from her mind the idea that an Elder might somehow be listening in. "They like to play themselves up; intimidate people. Infusing your voice with mana is not that hard, but doing it every day for every word you speak? Not something the average person can do."

"So I will be seen as either an unusually strong Elder or an especially pretentious one? I assume the way I speak will lead people to the latter."

"Perhaps," Caethya said, nodding slightly. "But there are many noble houses that prefer your way of speaking. My parents do it too when there is someone not from the family present, and we are not even nobles per se."

Aperio paused for a moment at the mention of her parents — or perhaps her status. "Have you told your parents about me?"

"I did," she replied immediately, her heart beating faster as the aura of her Goddess changed almost imperceptibly. "Should I not have?"

"You are free to do as you please," the All-Mother replied. "I just realised that I might be keeping you from your family. If you wish to visit them, all you need to do is ask. …And tell me where I should bring you when you do."

"You have not been keeping me from anything. I chose to stay with you. Honestly, I never really thought I would find you, and never planned on going home until many years from now. Vetus is huge, after all. It would have taken me centuries to explore it all."

Aperio's brows creased lightly at her words, the All-Mother perhaps aware of the workings of the universe that she herself would chalk up to Fate or Destiny. But then, she does not seem to be aware of the world at all sometimes. Almost as if she had forgotten about it…

Caethya's thoughts were interrupted by a surge of mana washing over her — the tingling of Aperio's mana replaced a short moment later by the confused chatter of people. Laelia's voice rose over those of the crowd as she tried to get their attention, the sound reaching her ears despite the fact that the people were not close at all.

"I am sorry to cut our talk short," the All-Mother said, lowering her head slightly. "But Laelia asked if there was a space more suited for the freed slaves." A small sighed escaped Aperio as she looked in the direction in which Caethya assumed she had teleported the group. "I have freed them, and now I have to care for them. I hope you understand that I have to do this, and that it is not something I do to get away.

"Spending time with you is… calming to me," Aperio continued. "Enough that I would consider asking you to accompany me to Procul had we not made prior arrangements with Lord Terenyk."

Caethya averted her gaze at the potential option of travelling with Aperio. She would very much like to do that, but much like her Goddess, she had made a promise that she intended to keep. There was, however, an option that the All-Mother had not — or did not want to — consider.

"I think both Maria and Adam could use some actual experience in the world from time to time," Caethya said. "And who could protect them better than you?"

Aperio tilted her head slightly at the question. "They would be better protected if I did not put them in danger in the first place. I have no intention of letting any harm come to Maria, and I do not know what awaits me on Procul. Not truly, at least."

"Maria is stronger than you think and Adam will need to learn the ropes of this world. From what he told me, where he came from is… very different. Neither monsters nor magic, for example."

"I know," Aperio sighed, quietly mumbling her next few words. "Another thing that is broken and requires repair." With a shake of her head, the All-Mother stood up, extending her hand towards Caethya. "I will think about it."

The Elf took the offered hand, letting Aperio pull her upwards. "Do you wish to listen to the address?"

"Of course I want to join," Caethya replied with a smile, giving the All-Mother's hand a slight squeeze. Perhaps the gesture did not mean much to Aperio, but it did to her.

The smile did not leave her face as she felt the warm touch of Aperio's mana wash over her entire being for a brief moment. Then, the magic of her Goddess ripped the both of them from the field of flowers. When they reappeared, Caethya could only describe her surroundings as a throne room.

GamingWolf

If you like the story, do leave a rating. If you really like it, please write a review!

Want to chat? Join the Discord. Want to read ahead? Check out the Patreon or Sponsus.