276. Interlude – Patching Up

276. Interlude – Patching Up

Interlude :

Its been decades since she saw active duty, but Kei was right all along.

A part of her wanted to go back, now that her kids have all grown up. It wasnt hard. It was only hard in her mind.

Whats worse, was that she knew it was her own mind working against her. Aeon said once, apparently, from an old philosopher, that the mind is its own unmaking. It was true, and yet it still happened to her. There were things that were so clearly headed their way, and yet, the mind would refuse to do anything.

She stretched, her elven muscles and bones regained its old flexibility. It was magic. Shed even say it got stronger. Since she took the Soul Strengthening Seed, she felt she was more complete. More whole.

Matters of the soul were hard to explain. The concept of being more whole, more complete, when the soul was already complete, seemed counterintuitive.

But the soul can grow.

The souls density. Its weight. Its presence.

More.

When she was a child, Aeon spoke to her at length about the nature of the soul. Of everyone in this city today, she remembered many small talks between her and TreeTree. Even now, she could feel him there, at the very edges of her mind.

A door she could open at any time. A voice she could reach out and talk to.

She remembered that Lumoof once said that if the mind was a house, Aeon was like one of the rooms in his mind. It was there, and she felt it was apt. For her, it was a door.

At times, it was like an invisible limb.

It was that door that allowed her to sense Aeons return from the Rottedlands.

Long ago, during the days of her travels in the Eastern Continent, she remembered how the door wasnt even there.

But these days, even in the Northern Islands, or the mountainous underground cities of the Eastern Continent, that door was still there. She knew what it meant. Aeons reach had covered the entire realm.

She could speak to him anywhere, and felt the rest of her soul. She wondered why she could sense herself.

A rare ability, the priests and other mages claimed. She wondered whether it was something she inherited from Aeon.

The soul grows. It grows when nourished. Each act of gaining experience is forming a brick that grows the spring of the soul.

She picked up the spear. When she mentioned she wanted a new weapon, multiple high level craftsmen volunteered to make her something customized.

Lausanne swung it around, as she practiced with her sparring partner, Kei. Her golem opponent used her golem-abilities to her benefit. She could create shields of crystal, a temporary growth from her limbs, and block her spear strikes.

You dont seem to be in the zone, today. Kei said.

Lausanne laughed, as her spear thrust slammed into Keis shield, then followed with a rapid series of jabs. No. Im not.

Whats on your mind?

Whats on yours? Lausanne countered. Kei didnt like the idea of the League of Heroes all that much, despite being forced to accept the task, and Kei believed a volunteer group, composed of people like Lausanne, would work better in the long term.

Kei wanted a mix of summoned heroes, and native champions because she saw the flaws of the summoned heroes, and believed that native champions could augment the gaps. The summoned heroes were too unstable, despite their power, and strong native champions could serve as their anchors.

Lausanne, therefore, served two purposes. Kei wanted Lausanne to be a counterweight to Aeons increasingly expansionist ways. It was impossible to stop an expansionist Aeon, and given the state of the world, some worlds definitely needed an expansionist Aeon to make up for their lack of support.

Along that path, Kei hoped that Lausanne would also support Kei as the anchor of the mixed group of heroes. Of course, Edna, or Roon or Johann would have worked as well, but Kei knew that group was part of the exploratory force that visited all the new worlds.

Eventually, there needed to be some kind of specialization. A defense-focused force of domain holders and heroes, and an offense and exploration focused force of domain holders. The worlds out there was too large, and they needed more pieces on the field.

But despite all that, Lausanne told herself she was doing this for the right reason. She didnt do it because she was selfish. She was not here to satisfy the hole in her heart.

She lied. She knew it was there.

A gnawing sensation.

She liked this.

She enjoyed it. Far more than being at home.

***

Mom, youre really going back to the military? Lauda asked. She had gone through six dungeon tours by then, and this was the fifteenth time he asked.

They were not young anymore. Lauda was an adult, and would soon have a family of his own. She would be a grandmother in due time.

A grandmother back in the military.

Laufen, her own mother, once said it is rare for elven grandmothers to serve in battle, but not so for grandfathers. But she wasnt just any grandmother. She looked at her own mother, and knew the life of a doting grandmother filled with social work and societal duties was not a role for her.

In her heart, her calling was still out there.

She suppressed it during Lauda and Arlisas younger years. Tried her best to dedicate her life to her growing children.

But the joy and lightness in her heart when she sparred with Kei was all she needed. She knew it when she went back to the dungeons and slaughtered monsters. She could feel it in her limbs.

Yes. Its where I should be.

Why? Arlisa asked.

Because I enjoy it. She was good at it. She still is good at it. She may be a long way from being the best, but she was pretty damned good at it.

Lauda understood. Stay safe, mother. But he would ask her again. Her son couldnt help but worry. Because doubt never faded. However remote, there was a chance she would not return.

That was life on the battlefield.

Arlisa looked at her mother like she was insane. Youre already so old.

Lausanne nodded. It was a response from her human half. For elves, and especially Lausanne with the [soul strengthening seed], she felt fitter than ever. I know. But I still want to do this.

It seems on a larger scale than I expected. I was expecting just a small farm of demonic trees, not an entire forest. Lausanne looked, and in her heart, understood the domain holders concerns.

In her mind, maybe it was just their scale of things that didnt line up. To Aeon, a forest really was tiny. If its trees covered multiple worlds, relatively, what was an entire forest of demonic trees?

It could be just 1%. No, less than that.

But seeing it for itself, it did make her feel a sense of disturbance she couldnt quite explain. Lavaworld was a land of magma and lava. If any, what little original vegetation here consumed the minerals and gasses of the vents.

The demonic trees didnt attack her at all. No. As someone who could feel a connection to Aeon, it disturbed her that she felt that same connection with these demonic trees. Aeon was the master of these demonic trees. She saw the demonic beetles crawling between the branches of the demonic trees, jumping, stumbling, falling.

The demon champion is around here? Lausanne asked.

No. Its far ahead.

Why are we not teleporting?

Kei looked around. I thought you needed to see this. What Aeon tries to do with the demons. Learning. Absorbing. Assimilating. Studying our opponents to become better. But the humans once said, just as one gaze into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into them. I fear Aeon learns more than he bargained for.

Youve become really good at propaganda. Lausanne countered. She felt shaken.

Its standard espionage and insurgency training. The spies talk about instilling fear. They speak of the gravity of the offense. To show proof, to spin small realities into great horrors. To show darkness such that they drown out the light. To rig the scales by playing with the emotions and expectations within ourselves.

And youre still doing it. Lausanne frowned. Youre scaring me about the spy operations insidious nature.

Kei laughed. Ive spent too much time with Spymaster Intip. But the best propaganda all starts with a little grain of truth. By showing angles to the truth. By showing how the same fact can be interpreted wildly differently, just by taking a different position. Its like the void sea.

The elven lady and the golem walked past even more demonic trees, and into an area where Aeon bred and experimented on large amounts of demonic beetles. The entire spawning area was filled with purpose-built demonic trees.

The truth is whatever you think it is. Kei laughed.

You dont believe that sort of flimsy statement. Lausanne countered.

Kei laughed some more. I dont. I do believe there is some objective truth out there. I believe there is right and wrong, good and evil. Id like to believe Im still innocent and naive.

Lausanne nodded. That sounded a bit more like the Kei she knew. They stood there and watched the demonic beetles emerge from their large tree-sacs. These were experiments, and they noticed each beetle was slightly different. Very slightly.

It was essentially evolution by sheer quantity and brute force. The demonic trees all spawned little beetles. Some collapsed, and their bodies were reabsorbed by the trees.

She felt a bond with them. She could feel them through that door in her soul.

These were Aeons.

She knew it.

And she wondered, as her eyes gazed at the strange, alien creatures, whether what Aeon needs is really a moral guide.

Kei.

What?

I dont think my role is to be Aeons moral guide. There were others to guide the ship.

Oh?

She thought about her own history. From the very first days of Freeka, to New Freeka, and then to Freshka. She held faith that their tree was there to protect them. Even when it seemed like TreeTree was overwhelmed by the demonic sludge, the entire valley overflowing with demonic energy, it tried its best to protect them.

Then what do you think it is?

To be his first believer. Lausanne looked at the demons, and felt her connection to the world around her. It was not malice. It was curiosity.

A desire to learn.

Despite how dark and grim Aeons actions may seem, it is guided by a desire to save us all. Even if all else fails, I want to believe in it. Ive seen him in weaker times, and his desire to resist has not failed. Even when he converted demons, even when the demon kings threatened to overwhelm us all, I believe.

Kei looked around. Lausanne guessed Kei knew people a lot better than she let on. Kei seemed to have a sense of how to press buttons.

Progress does not come instantly. Progress does not always take a straight line. Lausanne recited it, but her heart trembled at how it felt so relevant to herself. Progress often requires us to gaze into the depths, and discover where we should not go. When a cave explorer dives into the deep dark caves to find whats down there, our role is to keep the faith, and ensure that the ropes for the diver remain secure. We protect the path, for them to climb back out of the darkness.

Lesser beings cannot even try to explore the depths of the demons corruption. The demons would overwhelm them. There truly is no one she knows that could even hope to venture into the darkness and live to tell the tale. If it is not Aeon, then who?

Someone has to be foolish, insane, and a bit twisted, to venture into the dark, and create the first light. To touch the unspeakable, to understand the taint of their corrupt energies, and master the means to reverse them.

Kei smiled. You have more faith in Aeon, than you have in yourself.

Lausanne felt that. That is true.

And Id like to say you are born from pretty much the same cloth. Or patch.

Lausanne shook her head. Her mind thought of Uncle Jura. She wished for many things, but ultimately, she accepted his decision to die a hero.

He died a hero, and left a set of shoes that was always too big for her.

It wouldnt be possible to fit into his shoes. But she hoped her shoes would walk the path he once did. To continue the journey that ended for him. It just took her more than a century to realize it.

Aeon wouldve said she wasnt ready, back then.

She probably wasnt.

Now, with lesser worries behind her, she will be.

***

Spaizzer

NEXT WEEK CHAPTER AS NORMAL

But I'm taking a week off on the week of 17th January. I need a break. A long break.