Crusade – Chapter 98: An Agreeable Agreement

The smile that had already started to take root on Mayeia's face widened a little as the woman did what Aperio could only describe as a victory dance in her chair. Caethya stifled a laugh next to Aperio, retreating deeper into the soft embrace of her wing.

"Is there a way to see the System?" the Goddess asked, the smile still on her face. "I have no idea what it would look like but I do know that it is a physical thing somewhere. I have tried on multiple occasions to see if the [Status] windows are connected to it somehow, but could not find anything of note."

"She cannot see them?" Caethya quietly asked, her voice further muffled as her face was buried in Aperio's feathers. "Why can I see them, then?"

"Them?" Aperio inquired, tugging on a few of the tiny strings that bound reality together. "Do you mean the threads?"

Her disciple nodded, removing her head from Aperio’s wings to better see the section of space in which the All-Mother had broken reality. "Yes, threads is a good word to describe them," Caethya said after a moment longer. "I cannot make out individual threads, but I can sense that they are there nonetheless."

"So, you are like a spider on a web, tugging on its strings?" Mayeia asked, her mana flowing around the section Caethya was focused on — where Aperio had briefly messed with reality. "It is very subtle, then. I can't feel anything off."

"Aperio is not subtle," Caethya giggled, leaning herself against the All-Mother. "She is overwhelming."

Aperio herself could not help but raise an eyebrow at the statement. She had not expected Caethya to act so …familiar with her in front of others, nor was she entirely comfortable with it. A small mental nudge told her disciple as much and a quiet apology came quickly, the other woman moving herself a bit away from Aperio to merely rest against her wing. Inside, really. Her wing was easily big enough to fully cover Caethya, but at the moment it merely provided support and a bit of warmth as it wrapped the Elf in a feathery hug.

A thought also let the armour covering her dress disappear, something she should have done much sooner. She might be able to ignore the laws of the world and not poke holes in her bed — or hurt Caethya — with the pieces of extraordinarily sturdy metal, but having them gone for the moment seemed like the better choice.

"The System is quite obvious if you know where to look," she said, as nobody else seemed willing to speak. "Your spider analogy is, however, fairly accurate. In the end, everything connects back to me; uses my mana to sustain itself. The System is no different, it merely has more authority over the mana it has."

"And it doesn't think," Mayeia added, her brows creasing a moment later. "Or does it?"

"It does not," Aperio confirmed. She knew the System was as unthinking as a rock, merely pushing mana through its runes to get a desired result. "Just a very complex set of enchantments."

"Like the Ebbcom, then?" Jerien asked, having found enough courage to interact with the All-Mother.

Aperio, for her part, just tilted her head slightly as her aura focused a little more on the Beastkin. "I am not aware of this ‘Ebbcom’. You have to understand that I am not omniscient. I have little interest in what most people do."

"It is a communication system built by the Ebenlowe guard," Mayeia quickly said, seemingly not wanting Aperio to question Jerien too much. "It uses enchantments to receive and transmit the voice of whoever uses it. You can even attune it to different 'bands,' as they call them, so more people can use it.

"The 'bands' are not really what they think, though," Mayeia continued. "They have not yet figured out that mana is attuned to each and every mortal, and that those slight differences make it possible for the streams of mana to not interfere with each other."

The attunement the excited Goddess spoke about was something Aperio already knew, as it was trivial for her to spot. She had never cared about it however, the differences so minor that they would not matter for most anything. Perhaps simply knowing is not that good?

"What of the [Identifications Stones], then?" Caethya asked, leaning slightly forwards. "They identify a person by their mana, so they have to pick up on this 'attunement', no?"

Mayeia nodded, sitting a little straighter as she spoke her next words. "They do, but those are not an invention of a mortal. I made the main enchantment; the mortals merely add their own twists onto that."

"Has nobody tried to figure out how they work?" Aperio asked, not quite believing that the mortals would ignore a magical invention from the Gods like that. "I cannot imagine that they would blindly use it, not if someone like you made it their life's mission to understand the System."

"Of course they tried," Mayeia laughed. "But most people who have the required finesse with their mana to understand it are not really interested in it."

The All-Mother simply nodded in reply, filing the knowledge away should she ever need it. Not that I forget things. ...Anymore. She shifted her attention to Kiro and Jerien, the two mortals having relaxed a little since their arrival. Still, neither of them seemed to be comfortable.

"Is there anything you need of Kiro or Jerien? If not, it might be best for them to leave, as neither seem to be particularly happy to be near me." A sentiment I share. Aperio could perfectly recall what Kiro had said — the way he had looked at her — and she could do without him on her temple grounds.

"They are free to go," Mayeia said. "Like I said before, I merely brought him because he is the closest I have to a disciple, and it is customary to bring your disciple along. I did not want to make a bad first impression."

"Where would you like to go?" Aperio asked the two mortals without turning around. It might have been rude, but she did not want to leave her comfortable sitting position with Caethya and she thought neither the Human nor the Beastkin were that deserving of getting looked at.

"If you could bring us to Mayeia's temple, we would be very grateful," Jerien said, grabbing Kiro's arm with a bit more force than needed to take him out of his chair.

"Yes," the man said, his voice slightly shaking as he spoke for the first time since his arrival. "That would be greatly appreciated."

"That can be easily arranged," Aperio replied, looking at the Goddess to whom the temple belonged. "If you are permitted to enter."

Mayeia simply gave a nod. "They are welcome to."

A thought of the All-Mother twisted reality apart, the two mortals vanishing from the field of flowers without leaving a trace, appearing far below in Ebenlowe. Finding the proper location had been easy, the seal she had on her hair ornament proudly presented many times in the library that was Mayeia's temple. I like her.

The building held a collection of books that rivalled the Imperial Library of Inaru. Might even have more, she thought, her mind supplying a quick count of books in each of them. She was not quite willing to trust herself with the tally despite knowing that it was accurate.

Still, the fact that the temple lacked most things one would expect was something Aperio took a liking to. Mayeia seemed to be more interested in knowledge than anything else, whatever duty she had as a Goddess seemingly not that important.

"How I wish I could use magic like that," Mayeia said as she looked where Jerien and Kiro had been but a moment before. "Not even a second to teleport two people. I couldn't even notice a mana buildup."

"You noticed no buildup because I have more mana in my body than you can draw on," Aperio stated matter-of-factly. "And drawing even more from my well would only need a thought."

"Perhaps, but it really does not feel like it. You radiate large amounts of mana, yes, but they feel more like the ambient mana that surrounds us." She paused for a moment, tapping her chin in thought. "Purer is probably the best way to describe it. Your mana feels like purer ambient mana, not something one would notice without looking."

"Some mortals seem to have trouble being near me, though," Aperio said, tilting her head slightly. "How can it be barely different from the mana that surrounds them every hour of the day and yet be overwhelming?"

"Ah, well," Mayeia began, her eyes wandering to the ground. "I am not sure how much contact you have with mortals, but while it might just be a slight change, it would still be overwhelming for them.

"I remember how it felt to stand in the presence of a God; could feel his mana resonating with my soul," she continued. "When I became a Goddess myself I asked a few of my followers how they felt near me. Most said that they were filled with a desire to learn and an eagerness to explore. They feel what you embody — at least that is what I think — and you are the origin of everything. …At least I think so."

Aperio remained quiet for a moment as she thought about Mayeia's words. Time did not seem to slow down as it did last time she contemplated what the Goddess had said, her mind not as frantic to find an answer.

"It is true, in a way," Aperio said with a sigh. In a sense she was everything, after all. "But I still think their reactions are excessive in some cases and while possible, excluding every mortal from my aura is not something I want to do."

"I can't even do that," Caethya mumbled as she retreated a bit further into Aperio's wing, leaning herself more heavily against the feathered appendage. "How do you do that?"

"I just do it," Aperio replied with a tiny shrug. "I might not be the best teacher when it comes to using your mana. For me, it is like breathing for a mortal — it happens naturally."

"I could help with that," Mayeia chimed in, then hesitated briefly as Aperio's gaze landed on her. "But it will take a little while, as I do not know how far Caethya has come in her magic studies and…"

"And you would like information on the System or other things that might be of interest, no?" Aperio continued for the Goddess, guessing as to why she might be hesitant to speak further. After she received a nod, the All-Mother continued. "I have no problem answering your questions, but I will warn you that I might be unable to explain things to you. Like I said before, for me magic is as natural for me as breathing." A thing I often forget nowadays…

Her reply, however, had been truthful. She found she did not mind explaining what she knew to Mayeia. Maybe she can even help me understand the System… The All-Mother was not yet ready, however, to tell the other Goddess of all that she had forgotten, or of her life as a tortured and abused mortal slave.

It was not the Goddess that replied next, however, but Caethya. "You don't have to do something you don't want to just so I can learn something a little faster."

"I would have answered her questions regardless," Aperio replied, her words accompanied by a mental nudge informing her disciple of the possibility that Mayeia might be able to help with the System repairs. If she chose to, and if it turned out Aperio could fully trust her, that was.

The other Goddess smiled brightly at her words, fidgeting in the chair she had made as she tried to contain her excitement. "Thank you," she said after having calmed herself a little. "I've waited ages for this!"

"You are free to stay here for as long as you wish," Aperio said. "I will leave for Procul in a few days as there is something there that requires my attention. The mortals that are here are not to be commanded; they are free to do what they wish. Rooms that are off-limits to you will be closed."

"Of course," she replied, bowing her head slightly. "I have never seen the need to have mortals do my bidding. If I wouldn't do it myself, why should someone else?"

"She really doesn't," Caethya confirmed. "At least not that I have seen, and I did follow her for a bit over a decade."

That's not really long for a Goddess, now is it? Aperio thought to herself, her mind wandering back to the millennia she had seemingly spent floating in her Void, absorbing those little lights. Still need to figure out what those were…

She knew that they were not the souls of people. They had lacked that certain feel she had noticed on every other soul she had seen or touched. More like mana, but not quite.

A shake of her head dismissed the thought and she returned her attention to Mayeia. "Then ask what you wish, and I shall try my best to answer."

GamingWolf

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