Sabbatical – Chapter 186: Apsis

GamingWolf

Let's hope it actually turns out to be a vacation.

As soon as Caethya and herself had appeared in her Void, Aperio let out a sigh and stretched her arms over her head, letting her wings unfurl themselves to their full length.

"I like your mother," she said as she folded her wings behind her back and set her gaze onto her love. "She is fun, if a little exhausting."

"You wanted to hear more stories about my past," Caethya replied with a small shake of her head. "I can also tell you that most of what she said has been grossly exaggerated."

"Oh? I guess I have to find some more monsters for you to fight, then. Can't have your mother spreading lies."

Caethya remained quiet for a moment, seeming to contemplate the idea, then crossed her arms in front of her chest as she met Aperio's eyes. "You know, that might not be a bad idea. It would certainly give me a better frame of reference for where I am now."

"Something we can do after we return, then?" The idea of going out to fight some monsters sounded a lot more appealing than it had any right to. "It was meant as a joke, but if you think it is a good idea, I will not say no."

"I figured," Caethya replied as she started to walk around Aperio's Void. "Is there anything else we need to do besides actually learning that language before we leave? Do I need to bring a suitcase, or will my magic work there?"

"Magic is inherent to your being," Aperio replied. "You should be fine, and if you are not I am more than capable of supplying you with ample mana. My fear is that my presence there will cause the System to grow a little more active than it was before."

"And that is a problem?"

The All-Mother offered a small shrug. "It might not be, but as it stands the System on Earth is maintaining nothing more than ‘basic functionality’, whatever that actually means."

If she could, she would slap her old self for having made the System as enigmatic as it was. Aperio had tried to figure out more about Earth ever since she had found it, but all that she could manage to dig up on the System was that it was present there, doing something that was deemed to be important. A look past the curtain the mortals called reality had not revealed much more, either. She could see a few tendrils that connected the System to Earth, but that was the same as any other world. At least, the others I checked.

Aperio had selected a few planets — from the ones her mind had brushed past on her way to find Earth — to see if the tendril connection held true for them, too. It had, and she found it reasonable to assume that the rest of the planets that existed would follow the same sort of architecture. Figuring out how the System interacted with the worlds in her creation was probably a good idea, even if it already looked like a most frustrating endeavour, but this was likely something she should only look into later.

"I guess we will find out," Caethya said. "But I also think that it's only a matter of time before you decide to bring the System to every planet anyway. Perhaps you might alter how it works for a given world, but I am nonetheless sure that, one day, every realm will have it."

"Probably," Aperio replied, an single, insignificant thought causing a tear in reality to open next to her. She extended her hand towards her love who took it without hesitation. "Are you ready to leave?"

"To visit Adam? Yes. For Earth? Not quite. I would like to have a firmer grasp on at least that one language before we go."

"I could try to give you the [Translation] skill Adam possesses," Aperio offered as both she and Caethya stepped through the portal she had made. "That should be easy enough, and I am sure I can pick up the language fast enough if I try." Something I should do with the local language of the Humans, too.

She already had a dictionary; all she needed now was a person to pronounce some the words in it and tell her how to place them in a sentence. Or have them give me a book on grammar. It was still a little weird that she had little trouble learning this English Adam used while essentially only getting bits and pieces of it, but not one of the other languages mortals used on Verenier. The only thing Aperio could think of as to why that might have been was the fact that she — for one reason or another — had not really wanted to learn those language, and therefore did not. After all, the universe always obliged her will.

"I would rather learn it on my own," Caethya said as she looked around the courtyard of the House of Healing that Aperio had declared their de facto arrival destination. "I have enough skills to help with that, and my memory has become a lot better than it has any right to be. Being able to recall entire days in perfect clarity will take some getting used to."

"Just remember that your memory might be good, but it is not perfect," Aperio knew all too well that being able to remember things did not mean that you could not forget. As paradoxical as it might have sounded, it was most certainly true. She could recall nearly anything that had happened in her life, but sometimes Aperio still forgot that some things had actually happened. A good example of this were the corpses that still resided in her Void; at one point or another, she would have to find a place to put them.

"I know that," Caethya replied, smiling slightly. "I see that with you often enough."

Aperio exaggerated a gasp as she leaned away from her love slightly and placed a hand on her chest. "You wound me; implying that I am anything less than perfect."

"I would never," Caethya said fondly as she stepped through the door Aperio had opened with a touch of her magic. "I simply speak the truth."

The All-Mother chuckled at the words and ducked through the doorway herself. "Perhaps one day I will manage to achieve perfection. Somehow, I am starting to doubt that, though."

"Perfection is a myth," Caethya countered. "At least when it concerns oneself. I have no doubts that you will become ever more perfect in my eyes, but I suspect that you might never see yourself in the same way, just as I will likely never see the perfection that you see in me."

Aperio shrugged. "The main issue is that perfection is not definable; everyone has a different view of it and by the time you get where you initially wanted to be, your views might already have changed." She let out a small sigh. "I know that my views have changed a lot since I returned.

"But that matters not, now," Aperio continued as she took a turn and used just a little of her magic to transport both Caethya and herself in front of the door that led to Adam's room. "We have another world to visit."

"First, we have to learn that language."

"That reminds me," Aperio said as she used one of her wings to very carefully knock on the door and let the dictionary of the local Human language appear in one hand. She began to leaf through it. "I need to figure out this one as well."

"Didn't you say that it doesn't really help you?" Caethya asked, giving Adam a wave as he opened the door.

"Yes, but I also did not consider that I can just have someone pronounce the words for me." Aperio folded the wing she had used to knock behind her back again and gave the Human a small nod. "I figured out parts of Adam's language with less help."

Caethya did not reply immediately, only looking at Aperio for a moment before she let out a sigh and shook her head. "You really need to get better at asking for help."

"What would she need help with?" Adam asked as he stepped aside and motioned for Aperio and Caethya to join him in the room. "Can't she just do anything she wants?"

"That is not how it works," Aperio answered, ducking through the door and moving towards the throne she had not yet removed from Adam's room. "I am neither omnipotent nor omniscient. I cannot make something that I could not destroy, for example."

The first one was a simple impossibility, but the second was more of a choice on her part. There was nothing that stopped her from invading the minds of everyone that wandered around her creation to find out what they planned to do. Nothing, of course, but her overwhelming desire to not do exactly that. The mere fact that she could do it was already discomforting enough.

"You are as close as you anyone can get to being omnipotent, then," Adam said. "And the way you seemed to just know a few words of my language, without it being possible for you to know, makes me think you can just do what you wish."

Aperio shrugged as she sat down. "If that is what you want to believe, I will not stop you." She leaned back, letting her throne carry her full weight, and closed her eyes. "It is also of no consequence now. The time has come. Caethya wishes to further her understanding of your English a little more before we leave, but once that is done we will be on Earth."

"Ah," Adam began, producing from one of the drawers of his desk an old tome bound in what appeared to be leather. "Mister Penbrooks gave me this. It's like a multipurpose dictionary."

"May I?" Aperio asked, holding out her hand.

As soon as Adam took a step in her direction to deliver the book, the All-Mother offered him a smile and teleported the tome into her hand. "Thank you."

"Can't do that on Earth," Adam mumbled and shook his head as Aperio opened the yellowed book.

It was filled with many languages — most of which she had not heard about — and seemed to work a lot more like a skill than any enchantment she had laid her eyes upon. The runes woven into every page reminded her of the mind-bending mess that was the [Translation] skill. If she did not know any better, she would have said that whoever made this had been… inspired by her work.

Finding one that translated between the Ancient Common she knew and English only took her a moment. There was no page number next to the line, only the same note that was next to every other language pairing. It read 'touch me', though Aperio could see that there was no script for the words, only a rune that was linked to the rest of what she would call the translation matrix. Neat.

She followed the instruction and tapped the entry, allowing the enchantment to take a minuscule bit of her mana to power itself. It flowed through the entirety of the book, each page slowly changing to display new content that it retrieved by means Aperio could not quite understand. The All-Mother flipped through the book, her eyes wandering over every page as her aura scoured it not only for all the words it knew but also a deeper insight into the enchantment that powered it.

"Quite useful," she eventually said, closing the book and letting it float towards her love with a wave of her hand. "I would like to know who made that and talk to them."

"You would have to ask Mister Penbrooks for that," Adam replied. "He simply gave it to me and said that it might be useful for the two of you."

"Oh, it is most useful," Aperio agreed. "But knowing the words only gets you so far; now I need to hear the language." And then I will learn all the others.

Some might say that it was unfair that she could simply leaf through a book and listen to people speak in order to learn a language, but Aperio would still make full use of that ability. In all honesty it was something she should have figured out much sooner, considering she had likely always been capable of it since her return. Nonetheless, the ability was available to her now, and she would certainly avail herself of it. Who knows, maybe I can learn even more on Earth.

///

Despite Adam telling Caethya that what she was capable of after the first day of learning was sufficient, the Demigoddess wanted to put in a few extra days to get to a level of proficiency she considered acceptable. Her zeal for learning never waned, and through the learning of niche vocabulary she and Aperio learned a little more about Earth's culture and mindset. Or, at least, that of those who spoke English.

Three days passed, in which neither she nor Aperio slept a wink, and Adam grew increasingly concerned as he watched the tireless beings at work.

"Do you wish to take anything?" Aperio asked as she began to let more and more of her mana flow towards Earth.

She would not place the portal on the world directly, but immensely high above it, further out than the unusually large moon the planet had. It was probably safer that way, both for the world itself and for them. Appearing out of a portal in front of someone — or where something had even a small chance of noticing them — was not something Aperio wanted to risk. Space was vast, and even though these Humans had put a great many gizmos around their world, she had no trouble finding places that were as they needed to be for travel purposes.

"No," Adam replied, already having donned the attire he had worn upon his arrival to Verenier. "This is all I have to my name that wouldn't get attention on Earth, anyway."

"You have the two of us," Caethya said with a smile as she ran a hand over one of Aperio's wings. "That'll get you more than enough attention."

Aperio let out a sigh as she forced her wings to disappear from the rightful place on her back. "I will hide them, but that is all I will change about myself. The ears stay."

"I know," Adam replied. "You'll have to contend with people asking which character you are supposed to be, though."

"I am me," Aperio replied with a raised brow. "People should learn to mind their own business and leave others in peace. Why would it matter to them that I like my ears as they are?"

"It's probably more the fact that they don't have any Elves," Caethya replied as she put on the hat Adam had made for them. "Well, real ones, anyway." She paused, adjusting her new headwear slightly before giving a nod. "I do like this 'beanie' thing, though."

"Perhaps," Aperio agreed, "but I still fail to see why they have to bother me. Why not just leave people be? It is none of their business how I wish to look."

Adam shrugged, taking a step back from the black, silver and blue portal that was starting to take shape next to Aperio. "It's just how some people work there."

"We shall see how things go," the All-Mother replied as she weaved the last bit of mana into the portal, making it stable enough for anything to pass through. "For now, we have to actually go there."

Aperio held out her hand for Caethya to take while a part of her mind was busying itself with making the section of space habitable enough for Adam. Neither she nor her love strictly needed to breathe to survive, but their feeble mortal guide most assuredly did.

"You may still choose to stay here," Aperio said as Adam did not move, staring instead at the portal she had made. "Once we step through, your decision is final." Unless you annoy me enough to send you back…

The All-Mother would not trap Adam on a world he did not want to be on, but he would have to ask to be returned. She would not read his mind nor would she try to interpret his actions. If he wanted something, he would have to say it out loud.

Caethya took her hand, brushing away a few imaginary wrinkles in her dress with the other before holding it out to Adam. "Come on," she said. "I want to see your home."

Neither Aperio nor Caethya showed much of a reaction as the portal closed behind them, leaving them standing on nothing but an invisible platform made from the All-Mother’s mana. Adam, on the other hand, was holding his breath and frantically looking around, searching for something only he knew of before his eyes landed on the blue and green marble that was Earth.

Swirling patches of white clouds drifted across its surface, becoming almost invisible as they passed to the night side of the world and gave way to a network of lights that spanned across its surface like a spider’s web.

He did not speak – could not, if Aperio was honest with herself – as he simply stared at his home from a perspective he had likely never thought imaginable. She let him look in peace, using the moment to pull Caethya closer and simply enjoy this brief instance of tranquility.

As comforting as the moment was, it could not last forever and Aperio finally asked their mortal guide as she gestured towards the planet, “Where do we go?”

GamingWolf

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