Weaver first wove the world using bits of stars and strings of the void. Weaver had woven many worlds, each one another gem in the fabric of reality. Together with its fellows, billions of worlds were added to the fabric, adding on to the grand weave, but while this weaver was proud of its work, something was missing. Weaver pondered this for many, long centuries, continuing to weave worlds. Beautiful sapphire worlds of water, flowing ruby desert worlds, lush emerald forest worlds, and yet they were all missing something. Weaver began to experiment with the worlds it wove, mixing and matching different parts of worlds. No longer were this weavers worlds simply one color, but a collage of colors. Many of the other beings who traveled the weave, praised it for its work, but still the Weaver felt its work was missing something.
One day as it examined a new world, it had weaved, it found something strange on it. Something not moving with the rhythm of the world. At first Weaver feared that its world had been Tainted, but its fears proved groundless. It was a different type of anomaly, one that rarely found on worlds.
It was life.
Many of Weaver’s fellows had discovered this anomaly as well, and they were at a loss to explain it. Some thought it was another form of anomaly, like Taint, and should be purge. Others thought it was the remaining anima of their kind who had passed on. Finally there were some who just accepted it as part of the weave, and didn’t think to much of it.
Weaver was of a different school of thought, it believed that this life might be what it was missing from its works. Weaver, for the first time, decided to stay and observe the world it had woven. The first thing it noticed was the fact that this new life was constantly changing and improving to better survive the world’s conditions. It adapted to the world and the world adapted to the life. It was a delicate balance, but as the Weaver watched it became convinced that even had it wanted to it could no longer remove the life from its world. The world needed the life and the life needed the world. The two machines were one now.
Weaver was convinced that this was what had been missing from its previous works. It became more convinced when a new form of life began to form on its world. This new life had the ability to think outside of their own survival. They tried to learn how the world worked and invented new inventions to help tame it. Weaver found them quite interesting. They lived short lives and yet their curiosity drove them to to create and discover leaving gifts of knowledge for their spawn. Weaver was reminded of the history of its own people, when they were far simpler beings.
-Ah are we almost there? Hmm, alright let me just finish this page.-
Strangely when Weaver told its fellows about these new life forms they couldn’t understand why he found them so interesting. They warned Weaver that their curiosity would lead to them to their own destruction. They advised he purged them before they disrupt the weave. Weaver scoffed at such thing and believed that given time they could rise up to their level and aid them in building the weave. For surely a race with the ability to think and create would love to build worlds and reality?
One by one the Weaver’s fellows left it to it’s fate. The final fellow to leave, Forger, gave Weaver a blade and a prophecy. Forger told Weaver that one day soon the Taint would come to its precious world and the Weaver would need to sever that world from the weave lest it doom them all. Weaver laughed at this but took the blade and promised to do its duty. Weaver believed in the strength of this worlds new people and believed that they could evolve into something that could aid them in the weave.
Weaver’s faith would be rewarded for one day the people found away to use the weave. It was very limited but Weaver was pleased to see such progress. Although some of the people did abuse the weave, Weaver found that whenever power was introduced to the people some always abused it, but on a whole the people were evolving in the correct direction. Naturally something went wrong and the fellow’s warning came to pass.
Despite its best efforts, the Taint did come. Weaver was saddened to see its world be invaded and prepared to sever the world, with the blade Forger had left it. Despite his love for the world and its people Weaver knew it couldn’t let the Taint spread across the weave. Mid way through the strike that would sever the world, Weaver looked upon it one more time, and saw something beautiful. One of the people of the world was using the powers gained from the weave to fight back. Weaver was reminded of one of the warriors of old, standing against impossible odds to defend their home. The warrior would later be known as the First Knight and because of this knight Weaver changed its mind. Using the power of the blade, Weaver descended on to the world for the first time and chose to fight alongside the First Knight.
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-Almost done relax.-
It was forbidden for a fellow to directly enter a world they had crafted and Weaver knew there was a good chance that it would never be able to leave the world once it became a part of it, but Weaver didn’t care. Taking the form and name of a man, Weaver fought alongside the First Knight and their comrades. They fought for hundreds of years the power of the Weave keeping them alive, but it was a hopeless fight.
Weaver knew what had to be done, but couldn’t bring himself to do it. Instead he came up with a desperate plan
-Yes, I am done now. So impatient.-
Gregor shut the pages of the old book and slipped it into his backpack. He then dimmed his book light so that his eyes could better adjust to the darkness around them.
Just getting to the good part to.
Gregor touched one of Sue’s feelers and concentrated for a second. The gentle rumble of the earth moving around them as Sue dug her way to the surface was relaxing and Gregor took a moment to appreciate it.
-About 5 minutes? Alright thanks.-
Gregor removed his hand from the feeler and reached into his pocket and pulled out a pair of sunglasses. Gregor took a small sip of water as he waited for Sue to surface.
Gregor had heard about the giant fish that lived in the ocean and how when the breached the surface it created an explosion of water. Gregor had never seen the ocean or giant fish, but he imagined that's what Sue looked like breaking the surface of the earth.
The cocoon of worm like feelers that had kept him safe during the journey underground unfolded and refolded into a hood for Sue’s head. The sudden switch from the dark of the underground to the bright light of the surface was blinding, even with the sunglasses, and Gregor had to take a moment to let his eyes adjust to the light.
The scenery was…… typical. Ruins of one of dozens of lost cities scattered across Augment. Outside of the Carnival the remnants of Augment’s old cities were a common enough sight. These ruins were, hopefully, the husk of the old capital, Aquil.
Of course Gregor was careful to temper his hope, it wouldn’t be the first time Gregor had been called out to investigate some ruins on a rumor that they were Aquil, only to find out it was just a small village of no importance. Then again there were times where something interesting was pulled out of those, small village ruins.
The book Gregor had been reading during the trek underground was a old creation myth story that he had dug out of such ruins not to long ago. He had only just gotten the book translated into a readable state a few days before his journey, but the dig over here had been his first chance to read it.
Although now that he was at his site, it would probably be awhile before he could finish the story.
As Gregor grabbed his pack off of Sue, one of her feelers brushed his cheek.
-I should be alright from here, head back to the Carnival and tell the troopmaster, I’ll be back in 3 months-
Sue’s tipped her head and another feeler brushed his cheek, this time however, it felt more like a concerned family members touch.
-I know you're worried, but it will be fine, I have my Canneries in my backpack. I’ll call you if there is a problem.-
Sue was a molekin and while she couldn’t speak, her feelers could transfer feelings between intelligence that she was in direct contact with. No one was quite sure how it worked but, it did. It wasn’t words that passed between Sue and Gregor but something more like concepts that their minds converted to language. Gregor couldn’t really translate what she was saying to traditional words and to be honest he wasn’t sure what she heard when he sent his thoughts were sent through the feeler, but like many things involving molekin it was easier to accept it then try to think too hard on it.
Molekin were very protective of their riders thinking of them like their surrogate children in some cases. Sue and Gregor had traveled together many times and while he didn’t think of their relationship as mother and son, it was definitely deeper than the relationship between rider and steed. Gregor cared for Sue, but sometimes she could be a bit too protective. If Gregor had to think of their relationship it would be closer to siblings.
Gregor smiled and gently grasped the feeler.
-I’ll be fine, this area is stable.-
Reluctantly Sue finally relented and dove back down the hole they had emerged from.
Gregor waited a second to make sure she had actually left before shouldering his pack and heading into the ruins.