Chapter 8-17 Memories of the Future

Chapter 8-17 Memories of the Future

The Sanctus Fisher that Wasnt is an Ontologic best suited for Sixth Sphere Liminal Frames or above. A modern Heaven inspired by The Kingfisher Upon the Recursive Pond from Sanctian myths, the Fisher that Wasnt is suited for Godclads intending to serve primarily as Seers for their Cadre.

Considering the flexibility of its options, however, it can also be used as a Porter/Breaker supplement.

Described as a being shaped between a pellucid tadpole and a fishing hook fused from streams of time, it contains the budding essence of constantly changing tides representing the future, grafting the Fisher that Wasnt requires a mind that rejects structure in most forms and views linearity as more suggestion than law.The initial posting of this chapter occurred via Ñøv€l-B!n.

As such, Godclads are recommended to apply phantasmics or nueromods that exaggerate focus-pattern attention-deviating conditions with extensive Necrojack support to alleviate any lingering sanity damage.

-The Fisher that Wasnt, Elder Mythos VOLUME I

8-17

Memories of the Future

As it turned out, Zein wasnt lying: She did not give Avo another beating, but several other beatings.

New concepts and techniques became known to him. Known in the way one would come to learn a straight or a hook from getting repeatedly punched in the face. Yet, through it all he could not claim that Zein meant him any malice.

Rather, a single emotion dawned within her and it was glee, deep and genuine.

From all the legends and whispered rumors of the Thousandhand, he expected someone akin to Draus; a killer in presence and demeanor. Zein, though, was a child in a playground, her playfulness ageless.

Though not the same could be said for her brutality.

...And that was called a kimura, though most practitioners tend to do it on a temporally progressive basis. Zein snorted. Neophytes. Why waste time performing an action that you have already completed in a theoretical future, I say. Best to just enjoy the fruits of my labor, so that I might move on to the next thing. Wouldnt you agree?

Avo didnt answer immediately, too preoccupied with his arm and the incorrect angle it pointed toward. His elbow jutted toward Zein, the joint radiating with aching pain. The hurt he felt was more akin to a tear than a break, with his new mycelia bio-architecture sustaining the most harm beyond a few cracks in his Bone Demon carapace.

So far, each of his limbs had suffered a dislocation or break, followed by instruction on her part as to how to reset the limb, or the angle at which to best rip it off for use as a blunt weapon.

Zein, Avo said, using the mouths of two Echoheads to stabilize the limb while a third snapped it back in place, the training why?

Her eyes went wide, confused. To improve your capabilities of course. And because it amuses me. Probably more the latter than the former. Ah, and procrastination. Here I am, playing with my new ghoul consang, delaying my return to the scheming, the hiding, the plotting You will learn that age does not fix such a habit. But don't blame me. I enjoy violence. You enjoy violence

When it's happening to other people, Avo muttered.

--Masochism is an acquired taste. You already have the sadism by nature, Im certain you can develop another virtue.

Avo cocked his head at her in disbelief. Virtue?

She nodded vigorously. I strongly recommend you develop a deep enjoyment from getting hurt. As Godclads, pain is like water to a duck. So is death, but thats more like a waveas long you dive a bit and keep your Rend low, youll be fine.

He just stared.

His Woundshaper shivered. Master her Heaven has stripped her of sense and decency. Time flows softly around her we must flee.

Stop, Zein said, holding out a hand, I foresee your questions: Why did I not kill you? Why did I not interrogate you further about your nature? About Walton. About the Low Masters and that ridiculous existential tumor they serve...

Wondered about some of those, Avo said. Got distracted by you twisting my limbs.

She beamed. Ah. You see, thats the interesting thing: we had these conversations already, and each was rather boring so I dont want to repeat them. Or have them, if were looking at this from a stable continuum perspective. Her expression flattened into reconsideration. Well. Not us, perhaps, but the ontological conceptions of us within my Heaven using all parameters known to me or my Frame oh, better that I just show you.

The contours of Zeins Heaven did not reveal itself immediately. Not a terror rising from the depths as with Mirrorhead. Not a primordial steed striding within the flow of wind, nor tower of blood burrowing roots deep to suckle the inheritance of matter. No. Hers was an almost imperceptible line at first, seeing it like catching a reflection within a lake. A lake that was always shaking, drifting, changing.

Its tail ran down in edges, forming the limpid margin of her blade. Outward rose something between a dollop and a fishhook, the shifting rivers of time widening from the tip of her sword into a vastness of light, each ray playing a potential momentreels of futures churning within her Heaven, a grand pond the size of a small city block parted into a hundred and eight different scenes.

THE FISHER THAT WASNT, DIVER OF FUTURES PAST

By her will, it collapsed in a falling cascade, each moment shuffling together like a deck of cards to crash down on both of them. New un-memories combusted in Avos mind, these murky dreams of variant futures slotting alternates of him back into himself.

In more than one, she killed him, her blade lashing out a full minute into the future while the strike was delivered five minutes from the past. In this sense, death came to him sudden and absolute, like the hand of fate itself had struck his name from the list of life and marked him for the Big Nothing.

The world dissolved in these memories, his cog-feed fracturing into component parts as his mind sank into a fragmented abyss, the stygian nature of a Godclads Soul-frayed demise a thing no one could comprehend while still being alive.

Shaken by the touch of death, he was unprepared for the sudden injection of knowledge to come. Conversations came back to him then, of each inquiry. There was a reason why she didnt ask him any questions, choosing combat instead, and that was because versions of them had already spoken.

She did not kill him because she did not wish to risk damaging the Helix, nor did she wish to expend a Necro of his caliber if he could be turned to her cause instead; more perplexingly, she stated in such a timeline she had no interest possessing his Frame, but only the functions of it.

Confining the Soul in a concentric cage, a dragon ate itself, its scales dim and its vigil perpetual, the only thing of motion in a dead galaxy. Further still, a dark shroud resembling a curving weave of brambles rising to form something between an insect and a deer bearing a v-shaped skull greeted him, the heaven not attached to his current Soul yet.

Ah. It has been a while since I have seen a Soul so drained.

Avo felt himself shiver. Zeins voice pierced through the quiet of his inner sanctuary. She came as Kae did, but instead of mounting herself on a pedestal of tears, she skimmed along, propelled by crystalline light sparkling from the hilt of her blade.

No no! The Woundshaper cried. The pure terror in its voice was near-human, its desire to avoid Zein all-encompassing.

Your hilt? Its a False Heaven? Avo asked.

Her expression turned melancholic. A gift from someone. I liked breaking gods. He liked rebuilding them toward purpose. In time, I came to enjoy watching him.

Jaus?

She brushed past his question and turned her attention on Woundshaper.

The Heaven of Blood gushed over behind the Galeslither in a splashing tide.

Keep her away from me, master, the Woundshaper said, huddling behind his currently grafted Heaven. Get thee away from me, partling crone! This is not your Soul.

Zein, for her part, cared little for the Woundshaper, shaking her head. Why if it isnt a fragment of Mother Sathwu. Severing your fragments was quite the chore after the Fall if such means any compliment to you, old one.

It does not! Be-gone! Send her away, master! She cannot be here!

Zein smiled and turned her attention to his new dormant Soul instead. You got this from Burners Way, correct?

Avo grunted. You already know.

No, Zein replied. Not here. Here, I am a guest. My Heaven does not reach in. This is solely your reality. The Sangeist; the Galeslither, you took both of them from golems?

Yes.

She pouted with all the strength of an old woman that got to enjoy herself too late. You get all the good things. Its hardly fair.

Avo glared at her using his partially decapitated Galeslither. Woke up in the Maw. On a corpse barge. Got sold to a Crucible. Got an unwilling Syndicate job for a few days.

Bah. Practically a vacation. You will look back on this time and well, if you think very hard and manifest your delusions into truth, youll find something about it that amuses you.

He considered her words for a moment. Did get to eat some eyes.

See. Remember: You are a Godclad. Conceptualization means more than truth. Now, let us seemy word, your Soul is pulling on me like a wormhole. Quite literally, in fact, the feeling is uncanny. It's just like fighting next to an event horizon in the void.

Avo was taken aback. You fought in the void?

She nodded, blade glinting. Godhunt. A stray entity wandered too close and I had to make a victim of it. Worry not, if you do well, get lucky, and survive long enough, you too will break your share of wandering gods in the dark.

She is plague the Woundshaper hissed.

You know Zein said, gesturing to his other Soul. This should be impossible. The Agnosi claim a Soul is meant to be bound to a single ego. And yet, here you have one sharing room with another without them being conjoined or bridged somehow. How trailblazing. I like it. Have you tried to pour some of your ego into it? Try to run both at once.

No, Avo replied, not sure if he liked where she was going with this.

Do it, she said, grinning. Whats the worst thing that can happen.

My nous tears in half and I permanently die? Avo said, remembering Kaes words.

She hummed, as if recalling that detail herself as well. Oh. Well, that would leave your Frames to me so a pitiable loss, but not unrecoverable. Why dont we see if you can activate it somehow? Just dont connect to it is all. Feed it some thaums?

A plague,the Woundshaper cried.