Chapter Thirty Nine - A Quick Peek Behind the Curtain

Chapter Thirty Nine - A Quick Peek Behind the Curtain

[Priestess] Ophia POV:

To serve Alet was to see the Truth in all things. Although I lack Her sight and so it takes me time to pierce every barrier, eventually they always fall. To see the world with Her blessing is to see the workings of existence, to look at a grain of sand and see the parts that make up the parts that make it up. To see its long history and the many paths of its future.

[Priestesses] of Alet were trained with a grain of sand inside the Empty Room at Alets main temple. To survive, you had to be able to ignore the infinite knowledge that poured from that single grain of sand because otherwise it would drive you mad. Once you made it that far without becoming a gibbering wreck, the [High Priestesses] would begin to send you to find information. First, broad things like the age of the piece, but then more and more specific pieces of information. A [Priestess] of Alet must be able to pick out a single grain of sands worth of information from the infinite amount of knowledge that lies within a grain of sand.

I had passed that trial and now could see the workings of the world. I could see particles in motion, know their velocity and direction and see how they all worked together to form the marvel of reality. In Truth, for I cannot lie to myself, I understand almost nothing of what I see. It might be possible, but to try and peer into the minutia of creation was to lose your mind.

It was a tradition for servants of Alet to attempt it just before they died.

I knew better than to look too deeply, to try and understand the strange and small mechanics that inhabit every single mote of the universe.

I knew better than to look too broadly, to try and understand the whole of creation itself is to try and go beyond the Gods themselves. A mortal who could understand and imagine such a universe might as well be a God, able to create an entire reality in their own mind.

What I did see I could never speak of, save to a servant of Scalus and even then only in service to justice and Justice.

And I greatly appreciated that restriction, because I would never be able to explain what I saw when I looked at that wyvern - no, that Incarnator. Cadence Lee.

She stood out like a beacon and the Truth itself rippled from her touch. The many lives - the many worlds - that I saw were shocking enough, but what I saw running through them was terrifying.

There are no words to describe the breadth of the Truth, nor any human mind that can withstand it without couching it in metaphor.

Her very existence was pierced by a megalith, one that not only dwarfed her meager years but my entire world. I looked deeper and saw the workings beneath, the infinite and depthless machinery of gears churning without rest. Turning, ever turning, grinding worlds to dust and gathering the dust of worlds to make them anew. Infinite suns going dark and lifeless, endless stars being ignited in the void.

Time had no meaning: a world was born, lived, and died and the gears merely reversed themselves and the unending march of time was halted effortlessly and rolled back. The calculations ran, a variable was changed, and the world did not end again.

I could not stop looking. I could not stop seeing how the Truth I had seen my entire adult life was bent and broken by the gears of a machine, only to be remade anew, yet different, reality bending second on second. I could feel my part in the Truth be fed to those gears,

.I could feel myself being shattered like glass and reforged, again and again and again every moment. There was so much, there was so much, there was too much, TOO MUCH, TOOOOO MUCCCHHH, OH GODDESS HELP ME!

A pair of hands covered my eyes and there was blissful nothingness.

Some things are not meant to be seen, child, I heard the voice of Aleth, but I could not reply. And there are some things that must be hidden even from the other Gods, for merely knowing draws attention from Beyond. Now sleep little one; sleep and do not dream. I shall borrow your body and speak to the servant of my younger brother while your spirit recovers.

Cadence Lees (as Hewka) POV:

Well, now this is awkward.This chapter is updated by nov(e)(l)biin.com

Although, my home in the valley - Kohome? Boldhome? - didnt smell like horse manure, but [Aerokinesis] solved that issue quickly. I expected the horses to freak out, but instead I felt the bond between myself and Ray stretch to include the horses briefly and Ray projected calmness and friendship through the bond to the horses until they calmed down and then withdrew the bond. I wonder if the horses had to agree to it like I did? I somehow doubt it. Something for me to think of later, I suppose.

I curled up in the hay, expecting Ray to head back to the inn, but she sat down and leaned against me. Well, I wont say no to the company, especially when she started to point to things and start to name them! Step one of the plan was already going well!

Ray stayed with me the entire night, only leaving to grab a meal for both of us and a blanket for herself. Getting to eat real food after so long was wonderful, I could feel her amusement at my own excitement about the food, but there was no way I could help myself! Yes, as a kobold I was able to cook, but my maid training did not cover how to cook lizards over a campfire using a rock!

I got a cooked breakfast too! Forget my plan, Ill swear myself to you as a pet for eggs with hot sauce! I havent had hot sauce for nearly forty years and finally Ive been able to eat it again! Ah, Podi I take back every bad thing I said about you for making me a toad. Bringing me into this world, even if it had to be as a toad, was fantastic.

Curiously, by the time Rays party made it back to the inn, I was already starting to understand the language a bit. I suppose that [First Words] was usually activated when I was a human baby and had basically no Acuity and my much higher Acuity now was making it easier to learn? Or perhaps the bond was helping me to understand what Ray was teaching me. It could be both.

Everyone, aside from Ray, left to go to the temple - at least, that is what I think they were doing - but she stayed with me. They came back without the kid, so he was probably still healing. I was actually pretty impressed, the kid would have died in RaSharon or the HinTye Empire because of the weakness inherent in healing magic. They seemed much more advanced here.

It seemed that they were going to wait for him to recover before they left again, so I got a lot more lessons on the language over the next few days. It was day three when I realised that my act had failed hard. They - the low B ranked adventuring party, Seeking the Horizon - were perfectly aware that I was as intelligent as a person and had been pretty much the entire time.

I would have been terribly embarrassed, but for once my instincts were quite helpful because wyverns were pretty much shameless. Instead, I focused on trying to use my [Aerokinesis] and Air Magic to talk. It wasnt going well, even with Ylma helping me learn to better use magic. Still, I had gained a couple Levels out of it, so that was good.

It was five days in total before the kid - Tamlin - returned.

Hewka, thank you, he came straight to me and bowed. You saved my life; I owe you my life.

He bowed to Ray and repeated that to her - dont think I dont notice that slight blush kid! Probably the entire team did, because they all had very high Stats. They never mentioned their exact numbers, but I had watched Rauvin help a cart get unstuck from some mud. The man lifted the cart like he was Podi-damned Jean Valjean!

Ylma and Rauvin started teasing Tamlin almost immediately, with Ylma leading the way. I couldnt quite understand it all, but I did see him go from a slight blush to bright red! Even if I dont always know the words, understanding tone and body language is easy enough. Rays are slightly different from the humans, but it wasnt different enough to make much of a difference.

Karlin - who barely ever talked - threw in a dry comment of his own, and Ray started to blush as well, hiding her face by turning to me and inspecting my scales. The whole group was laughing and I had to say it was a nice atmosphere. I think I could stay here for a while.

*Two Days Later*

-an equal part of all gains, plus repayment for costs incurred while working with the party. Rauvin was reading the contract to me, with that [Priestess] from before - Ophia - in attendance to guarantee his truthfulness. She very conspicuously refused to look at me and wouldn't - couldnt, apparently - tell me why. In the event this contract is broken or canceled during an officially issued Adventurer Guild quest by the Contractee, the Contractee will forfeit all claim on their share of the issued reward except that which is otherwise required by-

So it turned out [Lawyer] was a Class and Rauvin had paid one to draw up a legally binding employment contract for the party. Officiated as it was by a [Priestess] of Aleth - when I learned what they could do it became really obvious why Ophia had fell over screaming earlier. Podi does seem like the kind of ass who would be very big on his own privacy rights, despite not giving me any - it could be confirmed by a servant of Aleth and enforced by a servant of Scalus anywhere in the world.

After much miming and difficulty, I had managed to ask and apparently there wasnt a God or Goddess of Law in this world. I found this interesting, because personally I didnt see how there could really be a God of Justice without a deity for Law. Apparently the law was completely in human hands though, which seemed a very poor choice but was more functional than I was used to due to the influence of Aleth and Scalus.

I was asked if I understood the terms of the contract, which was a fair question given that it was written in fantasy legalese. The contract didnt have any real surprises in it, in my opinion. I didnt sign away any rights except claims on treasure (treasure was to be divided equally after costs had been paid) but I couldnt actually use any treasure anyway. I wasnt even sure what I would spend the money Id be paid on, but I am sure I could find something. So I agreed that I understood the contract and agreed to it.

[Priestess] Ophia signed on my behalf and I became the newest member of Seeking the Horizon.