Sabbatical – Chapter 203: New Goals

Aperio took a step to the side, letting the mechanised carriage and its rather inattentive driver pass by. How he had not seen her in the first place was beyond the All-Mother, but she was also not in the mood to gravely injure him by letting him hit her.

"Are they all so reckless?" Aperio asked as she looked at Adam.

"No," he replied, nudging the amalgamation of Gods away from the window of a shop that sold a variety of electronic gadgets. "But usually the one in the car is also safer."

"Oh, right," the All-Mother replied as she did her best to suppress a twitch of her wings. "The fragility of your world continues to annoy. Luckily, that will change once magic returns." Perhaps I should have let them hit me…

Aperio would be lying if she said she was not tempted by the idea of breaking a few things, especially since the mortals seemed to think of their creations as unmovable, or at least a lot more sturdy than they actually were. She'd quite enjoy proving them otherwise. Perhaps I should find more bandits, test the durability of their housing…

"No," Caethya said as she stepped up next to the All-Mother and wrapped her arm around one of Aperio's. "I know that look. No fighting the locals. If you really need to punch something, we can return to Verenier and find you a less fragile target."

The mortals and the God of Earth looked at the two of them, all but Adam having not understood what her love had said. Probably felt my mana… No matter how small the excitement might have been, it must have felt like a rather large shift to the magic-attuned mortals. It was something she had observed with the council as well. They had all reacted a little more than expected to even tiny shifts in her mana. In the end, it was something that she should have probably expected. You would have to be able to perceive mana quite well to find a usable amount of Earth. Quite backwards, really.

"Fine," Aperio said, taking Caethya's hand into her own. "I will not step out of the way of the next car, however." Her eyes followed one as it sped by. "I do not know why, but it seems like… fun to me."

"Of course you would find being hit by a car to be a fun activity," Adam said with a shake of his head. "What's next, getting the military to come after you on purpose?"

"Perhaps I should do that," Aperio said, looking at the man with a slight smile that did not betray the fact she had no intention of following through with that idea. Being hunted by mortals who are full of themselves seems boring… But hiding myself is also not what I want to do.

"She is joking," Caethya said, not able to hide the smile that spread across her face. "Though, now I kind of want to see how they would try to fight her. Anything I have previously seen brought to the task has been woefully ineffective, and I doubt it would be much different here, but whatever people select to use against her on Earth will be a new and interesting way of failing."

Adam let out a long sigh and shook his head again as they finally crossed the street. "If she continues like this, it's only a matter of time until you get found out. The police is probably already keeping an eye on you."

"Not as far as I can tell," Aperio said, letting her senses flow over every mortal that was currently looking at her or a picture of her. Even the ones that sat in a windowless car a few streets away. "Though, with the amount of recordings your people can make, I am probably missing something."

"There are cameras everywhere," Adam said, pointing at a boxy thing that hung from a wall on one of the buildings. "I assume the dictionary informed you of what those are."

The All-Mother gave a nod at the words. She knew what they were, of course. Moving pictures were nothing new. Achieving them without the aid of magic was still a little weird, and the base concept still felt a little ridiculous to her. But I guess that is true for most everything on this world. Even the cars themselves were bizarre, and unnecessarily loud in some cases. Who would think of using explosions to propel themselves forward?

"What are you talking about?" Ethan asked, not bothering to hide his annoyance at the fact that the Elves and Adam conversed in a language he had no hope of understanding.

"This and that," the All-Mother replied, the smile still on her face. "Nothing a powerful Vampire like yourself needs to concern yourself with."

"Your sarcasm is not appreciated," he replied, his eyes darting towards a few passerbys whose gazes lingered on the All-Mother just a little longer than was needed.

"Luckily, I neither need nor want your appreciation."

///

Caethya gave Aperio's hand a small squeeze, a rather considerable amount of force needed to actually get the gesture across. That had slowly been getting worse for a while now, to the point where it had become a routine occurrence. The only way the Demigoddess could actually notice it anymore was to actually stop and take note of what she was doing.

Ever since she had met Aperio, a great many things had changed. Most of it was, thankfully, for the better, and the things that weren't fell nicely into a pile of decidedly neutral. The single thing that could possibly be plucked out and considered bad was the fact that she was generally no longer travelling as much. Her current position, however, more than made up for that.

[Veil Walker], she thought with a smile as she mentally looked at her newest title again. And she does it like it's nothing.

"I wouldn't try too much," she said, doing her best to push wandering thoughts of the fabled old ruins that were rumored to grant the power to travel to another world from her mind. "Her attempts at humour are still in their infancy."

"How?" Eleanor asked. "She doesn't look that old, sure, but we all know that she is ancient."

"Yes and no," Aperio replied with a small shrug, her wings moving freely with the motion and drawing more than a few eyes to their group. "I am older than you think, but I have also not interacted with anyone for most of that." She glanced at Caethya, a smile gracing her lips that for once also spread to her eyes. "I usually prefer solitude, but that has changed recently."

"What does recently mean to you?" Eleanor asked, her eyes flicking between Aperio and Caethya. "Also, where are we going?"

Caethya looked over, also interested in the answers her love would give.

"A year, maybe two. Perhaps more, perhaps less." Aperio shrugged once more. "Following the passage of time has never been my strong suit. As for where we are going..." She began to move her wing before folding it behind her back again and pointing with her free hand instead. "I spotted a gathering of peculiar people in that direction that I would like to meet."

Caethya followed her love's gesture, her aura looking past the buildings and spotting the mortals that had gathered in the park beyond. Unlike Aperio, the Demigoddess could not see much that was different about them. They had a little mana, sure, but the same was true for a good many people she could see by now.

"Probably the rest of the council," Eleanor mumbled to herself as she, too, followed the All-Mother's gesture.

"The rest?"

The mage nodded. "The meeting you went to was not the one everyone came for. You can think of it like a preliminary where the bigwigs hammer out deals the common folk should not hear about."

"They spent most of their time bickering," Aperio said as she glared in the direction of an approaching car, undoubtedly challenging it to hit her. "Still are, in fact."

"Are you sure you don't want to find something to fight?" Caethya asked, switching back to the language of their people.

Aperio remained quiet for a moment before she sighed, her shoulders slumping a little. "I wish to fight, yes, but nothing here would be capable of offering a satisfying encounter. I also cannot neglect why I came here in the first place: to judge them. So far, my impression is not great." She seemed to think for a moment. "Perhaps I should blow up a bit of their moon?"

Caethya raised a brow, but didn't say anything, certain that her love had simply made a joke. One of the few good ones, perhaps. The more time that passed, the more the All-Mother seemed to be in tune with her nature, something the Demigoddess could only think would be a good thing for the world. And joking about what you could do is a part of that, right?

"Please don't," Adam replied. "It's kind of important for the planet."

"It was a joke," Aperio replied, waving him off with a hand. "I might not have a good impression yet, but it could also be a lot worse. Most of your kind seem to at least try to respect one another. A vast improvement when I compare it with Verenier's past."

"She isn't debating if she should wipe out all of Earth, right?" Eleanor asked, quickening her pace slightly to walk beside the All-Mother.

Aperio slowed her stride slightly, eyeing the woman for a moment before she shook her head. "I am not."

///

Eleanor let out a breath at the words. Of course, the mere word of the winged woman might not be all that meaningful, but the mage still found herself relieved at the seeming lack of interest in the destruction of her home. As stupid as that thought is to begin with.

Her question also revealed another curious thing. She had not been exactly quiet, but none of the people that walked past them seem to have heard. Sure, they were being looked at, but that was mostly down to the fact that a winged, seven foot tall woman, not to mention one that had seemingly escaped the nearest gym after a lifetime of training, was essentially floating down the sidewalk with what appeared to be — at least to Eleanor — inhuman grace. The fact that her normally silver hair now shimmered with a blue glint that clearly did not come from any dye also did not help. Neither did the wings, but those were probably far enough out there that most people did not want to believe they were real; even if they very much looked like they were. And you can actually see them growing out of her back…

It was hard to see, but whenever Aperio twitched her feathered appendages, there was a small chance that you could glimpse how they connected directly to her back and not a harness of sorts. An open-backed dress might have been a poor choice in inconspicuousness. But probably much more comfortable… Though, she can hide them.

The lack of shoes showed the mage yet more that was off about Aperio. Riverburg might be mostly clean, but it was still a rather sizable city, and one old enough to have accumulated quite the layers of filth on certain objects. And yet, wherever the winged woman stepped, whatever grime had coated the surface underneath her feet utterly vanished and left behind perfectly clean brick. In fact, those particular spots actually looked a little newer than the rest. How much mana does that cost?

"Something the matter?" the woman asked, her eyes settling onto Eleanor.

The mage hesitated for a moment as the silver flecks in Aperio's eyes shifted every time she blinked. Does that happen only when I blink, or when she does as well? "No," Eleanor replied, dismissing the wild idea of confronting the woman to make her tell the real reason she had actually come to this place. "Just lost in thought."

Does she even blink? She thought about it, taking back her mind from Aperio's supposed plans of judgement. Haven't seen her do that. Or breathe, for that matter…

"I see," the woman said before she resumed her talk with the other pointy-eared woman and the man that accompanied them.

Ethaniel bared his fangs slightly at the incomprehensible babble, seemingly not as fine as Eleanor herself was with simply listening to the almost song-like quality of it. Aperio might make for a good singer, if it wasn't for the fact that her voice came not only from her but also echoed somehow in your mind as if it was a thought of your own. Maybe that is different for the normals?

None of the magicless people seemed to be bothered by the rather oppressive aura that surrounded the self-proclaimed All-Mother. In the past, any mention of magic with this degree of strength was invariably accompanied by multiple warnings, and usually paired with a page-long memorial list of those who had paid the death toll. This, more than anything else, indicated to her that either the utter baseline workings of reality had somehow shifted, or the woman was doing something at a level Eleanor could not hope to perceive. The latter option was far more likely.

She pulled out her phone, opening a particular app — one created by her local circle of mages — with a tap of her finger. From here, she could begin to properly document her findings on what was more than likely the most powerful being on the planet. Should have started much sooner.

Aperio let out a small chuckle, either having noticed her actions or finding whatever her apparent girlfriend was saying to be quite funny.

Eleanor simply hoped that her curiosity did not offend, but after what she had seen the Werewolf representative do, she doubted that that was the case. Probably hard to upset a being that equals a natural disaster.

"I don't like this," Ethanial mumbled, quiet enough that the other group should not be able to hear. If they have normal ears, that is. Going by their pointed nature and the liberal displays of magic, Eleanor doubted it. "Why is no-one noticing her magic? It should be obvious even to people who don't know it exists. She isn't even trying to hide it."

"I am hiding more than you can fathom," Aperio replied without turning to look at them. "But I also do not know why the other mortals are unbothered. They take in my mana as readily as they do the ambient amounts, but unlike the energy borne of Earth, mine never seems to stay with them. A nice change of pace as far as I am concerned."

The Vampire let out a small hiss at her words, his teeth growing slightly before Eleanor nudged him with her elbow. Aperio might tolerate much, but Eleanor doubted her patience was as infinite as her mana seemed to be.

"You can't say that it doesn't bother you," Ethanial said before he mumbled something in yet another language Eleanor did not know.

Why does everyone speak such obscure languages? the mage asked herself.. I thought I got myself covered with five different ones. Even fucking Latin… That last one was somewhat of a requirement for mages, the same being true for Ancient Greek, but she still found it annoying that she could not even begin to guess at the origin of Aperio's mystery language.

Someone less educated might have assumed it was Latin, but Eleanor knew it was not. Not even close. Something led her to assume it was older, more closely linked to magic than the languages people knew of now. The same was true for Ethanial's mumbling, but in his case she was at least decently sure it came from somewhere in eastern Europe.

"It does," she replied, adding a few more notes as she observed Caethya use a magic she could not quite discern. "But imagine what we can learn from them. They have to be millennia old, at least. And if her claim is true…"

Eleanor let the implication hang in the air as she could feel the All-Mother narrow her eyes, seemingly unhappy at the insinuation that she had spoken a lie. The mage's heart skipped a beat as she could feel the mana density next to her sharply increase for a brief moment. She let out a sigh as it returned to normal, and waited to make sure nothing else was going to happen before writing another note.

GamingWolf

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