Sabbatical – Chapter 198: The Price of Imagination

GamingWolf

Lita hummed a tune together with the voice in her head as she laid herself down on the cold and hard stone table Jester had gestured towards.

She tugged at the robe he had given her, the silky fabric brushing against her skin a sensation she did not truly enjoy. The only things that should caress her like that were the hands of her master or the wind, not some annoying robe.

The voice offered its best approximation of a snort at the thought but did not say anything more. It had never been a fan of her choice of company or clothing, but Lita did not really care about that. If the voice truly disliked being with her, it would have surely left years ago.

"We are ready," a voice said from the side, obviously not speaking to Lita but someone else.

He was out of Lita's visual range, but he was still no doubt one of the countless masked figures she disliked that roamed around this facility that Jester had brought her to. If her master had not already told her that they worked for him, she would have hung — and maybe gutted — a few of them as a sign to the rest. They always looked at her funny, and a few demonstrative deaths had always worked in the past to curtail those who annoyed her.

"Proceed then," Jester replied. "The sooner this is done, the better."

"Of course," the voice said.

None of them addressed Lita directly, of course, and neither did they warn her before foreign mana forced its way into her veins. She did not scream, as the pain was lesser than what she had experienced on occasion from Jester's family.

The voice in her head did not take the forceful intrusion in such stride as it let out a blood-curdling scream that only Lita could hear. She wanted to speak out and soothe her friend, but her body did not react.

She could not speak, nor move her arms. Even her eyes were fixed on the ceiling above and did not deign to move no matter how hard she tried. And yet, despite being unable to control her vision, the world went black for a moment like she had blinked.

When vision returned to her, Lita found herself no longer in her body, but hanging above it; seeing it writhe on the table and scream. She turned herself, looking at Jester who stood a few paces away with crossed arms. He did not seem to care for her body's suffering, or even see her floating above it.

She tried to speak to her master, but her words had no effect on him, or anyone else in the room. Lita herself could hear her efforts just fine, as they simply sounded like her usual voice. Unheard, and disliking her position in the air, she tried to move away.

She couldn't.

Something kept her tethered there, unable to leave the position she held above her own, still screaming body.

///

Eleanor strained her eyes, pulling as much mana as she could into them in order to see the magic Aperio was weaving into existence.

The orb she had taken out of what she could only assume was the fabled Voice of the World still floated lazily in front of her. Inside, a fog danced back and forth, gradually shifting through the entirety of the colours Eleanor's eyes could perceive as well as a few she could only see thanks to her affinity with magic.

While she did not know what it was, simply looking at it filled her with an almost primordial dread. Like what she was seeing was not for mortal eyes. It likely isn't, she thought to herself as her eyes wandered to the wings that now sprouted from Aperio's back.

The feathers, while black, still shone with a blue luster as if an unseen sun was shining on them. The edges of her wings, which actively glowed blue, drew a trail of fog as dark as their feathers behind them whenever they moved. The amount of mana the woman was bleeding into the world this way was quite frankly obscene and Eleanor would love to do nothing more than yell at her for hoarding it, but she knew that would not end well.

Not only had Aperio supplied more than enough mana for the ritual without breaking a sweat, she had also killed what was probably the closest thing to a God on Earth, and simply teleported around as if that was easier than walking. Not to mention that she handled us like dolls without using magic…

Eleanor rubbed her neck again and narrowed her eyes slightly as Caethya and Aperio continued to speak in their incomprehensible sing-song language.

"What is she doing?" Ethaniel asked, taking Eleanor from her thoughts. "Some sort of summoning?"

"No idea," the mage replied. "I have not seen any of the patterns she uses, nor do I know of a ritual that needs this much mana. She could solve our problems simply by dumping this surfeit of power on the Council."

The vampire's skin faded to a paler shade of grey, and his fingers elongated slightly. "What is she?"

"Don't try to eat her," Eleanor said, slapping Ethan over the back of his head. "I can tell you that she is not, like Gale thought, a Fae or anything similar.. Faes have the same issue we do with the lack of mana. The nature-bound ones even more so. She just seems to… I dunno" —she threw her hands up— "make mana, I guess!"

"I am not making it," Aperio said, her gaze focused on something only she could see. "I am simply bringing forth a tiny fraction of what I can draw on to fix an issue. No, I will not just give you my mana, though I will attend your Council meeting and perhaps offer a solution there. It also does not involve worshipping me, or anything of the like. I dislike being treated like a deity when I am technically not."

"Technically?" The word left Eleanor's mouth unbidden, as she had wanted an answer, before her mind could even fully comprehend the meaning behind Aperio's words.

"It's a term made by mortals," Caethya said, looking at her, "and it doesn't really mean much. While I don't know the origin of the word in your language, in ours it comes from another that simply described someone so strong they could not possibly be the same as you."

Aperio gave a huff at her words before saying something that neither Ethan nor Eleanor understood but caused Caethya to shake her head. The two pointy-eared women exchanged a few more words, seemingly uncaring for the continuously growing amount of mana Aperio commanded to flow into the room.

The muscular maybe-Fae flicked her wrist, a blue shimmer briefly appearing next to her in response before it vanished and the entire room — or plane, if Eleanor was a little more honest with herself — distorted slightly.

Her heart skipped a beat as she felt a wave of cold wash over her. It was quickly followed by a scorching pain as something burned its way through the web-way of veins mana had constructed throughout her body over the years.

She was certain that it was not mana that had rushed through her but something else; a weird absence of everything. Eleanor could not properly put the sensation – briefly feeling as if she might be turned inside out but in a direction that seemed to come from a higher dimension – into words, nor could she shake the feeling that something had just looked past all that she was to stare directly at her Soul.

///

Aperio squinted at the System notification her actions had brought forth. It had done what she wanted — namely enabling itself in the Dominion of Earth's deity — but it was also telling her that 'adaptation' would be required for a more widespread implementation on Earth. And of course it doesn't tell me what that means.

She had shown the notification to Caethya, but her love had no clue either. How should she? Aperio had made the thing and only had a passing knowledge on how most it worked, how could anyone else help her with it? Perhaps the few mortals who had devoted themselves to figuring out the world she had made could help her, but even then, none of them could even view a fraction of the true nature of the System without it hurting their fragile little minds. Not even Mayeia — a literal Goddess — seemed to have gotten very far in understanding her System.

For now, she had done what she wanted, and figuring out what exactly the System would have to adapt on Earth would be something that would take a little more time. And probably some work. Of course, the obvious answer was the fact that the mortals of this world had adapted to the absence of mana, and might not react all that well to the surge of it that an active System would bring.

"So, what happens now?" Caethya asked, looking up at Aperio. "It certainly feels a lot more normal now."

Aperio shrugged, unfurling her wings slightly to underline the motion. "For now, we wait. The Soul should hopefully figure out that its Dominion has more than enough mana in it, and then do something."

"And if it doesn't?"

"Then I will have to think of something else," the All-Mother replied. "I dislike the idea of making a body — or bodies — for it, but I will if it is required."

Caethya shook her head at the words. "Seems like a bad idea to give some random God anything made by you. Even if the System is responsible for its existence and state."

Aperio was not sure how she should reply to her love’s words so only offered another shrug before turning her attention to the two mortals who were staring at them. Both of them were undoubtedly confused, even more so because she had stopped trying to hide.

"It will be a while before this Soul understands what it has to do," the All-Mother said in English. "If you wish to leave, simply let me know and I will bring you back to the ritual chamber."

"And you don't mind that we saw all of this?" Ethan asked, gesturing first towards the blackness that surrounded them before pointing at the floating Soul and Aperio's wings. "You can't think that we will simply ignore this."

"I do not and neither would I expect you to," she replied. "But it also does not matter. First of all, who would believe you?" She let the question hang in the air for a moment, continuing as no reply came forth. "Secondly, I plan to announce my presence at your little gathering anyway. Gale is already informing them that we will come. He is doing so right now, in fact."

Keeping watch of the Orc had been an easy feat; there weren't many of his kind on Earth, after all. Not seeing everything else that happened on the planet was much harder in comparison. I wish I had a switch for omniscience… Having to devote a large part of your mind to specially not see things was likely never going to be a fun experience. At least the body helps. An errant thought caused the wallet she had made to appear in Adam’s pocket as he was patting himself down in obvious search for something with which to pay the increasingly annoyed clerk in front of him. Sometimes… 

"And what are you, if you are not a Goddess nor a Fae?" There was a little more venom in Ethan's voice than Aperio would have liked.

"I am me," she replied with a shrug, turning her attention back to the Soul that had begun to draw some mana into itself. "Nothing more, nothing less."

"You can think of her like a minder," Caethya added and smiled at the All-Mother. "One that sometimes comes to fix age-old mistakes."

Not wrong, Aperio mused to herself as she did her best to not poke at the Soul in front of her, observing it weave the mana that filled its domain into what she assumed was a vessel for itself. So far, she could not really tell what exactly the Soul would end up with, but the process was still marvelous to behold.

Is this what happened after I died? The question had come unbidden to her mind but it was not without reason. She had not made her body with a conscious effort. It had been there when she had awoken, and the only change she had made was her height. And that happened in a fit of rage. But she also felt comfortable with the vessel she had made for herself, even if did not follow the same rules as a mortal's body.

"Why now?" Eleanor asked, taking a shaky step forwards. "Did something happen that called you here?" She hesitated for a moment, her eyes flicking between Aperio and Caethya, who had begun to gently trace her fingers over the All-Mother's wings. "Where did you come from?"

"Originally?" Aperio asked as she tore her eyes from the Soul and set them on the mortal mage. "A place much like this," she answered once Eleanor had given her a shallow nod. She gestured towards the empty blackness that surrounded them and lowered her gaze slightly. "My earliest memory is of myself alone in a dark abyss devoid of life. Just me."

Ethan closed his eyes and shook his head at the words while Eleanor only stared at Aperio. The All-Mother for her part did not care. They had wanted to know where she came from, and she had told them. It had not been a lie or even an attempt at deception. Just the truth.

The warm hand of her love slipping past her wings to brush over her back caused Aperio to make a conscious effort to look away from the inky nothing upon which she stood, focusing once more on the Soul. It was close now, or closer at least, but the mana that swirled around it had begun to take on the vague shape of a Human.

Aperio narrowed her eyes slightly at the ghostly form before unfurling a wing slightly and draping it over Caethya. Perhaps talking to the collective deities of Earth would help her understand a bit more about the System and, failing that, the people that had dreamed this deity into existence.

GamingWolf

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