“And why, Liam, would I want to take this mage as my Champion?” Maridah’s voice carried with it the power of a localized storm, her eyes blazing like flames that were trying to turn her already charred dryad form to ash.
Liam was a bit too preoccupied lowering the unconscious Aisha to the ground to answer, taking a minute to check that she was just momentarily out of it.
“You need one before the meteor strikes,” he said calmly.
“You.”
“No.” He replied. “I know things you should not learn, that no God should ever learn.”
“You could erase-”
“With a divine tool made by you, thus intrinsically linked to your divinity?” He raised an eyebrow at her, unperturbed by the way the ground shuddered with her words. "It'd be like erasing the ink but leaving the imprint. We both know it."
“Why her though?” Bunny asked, hopping down and landing on his shoulder. “She’s not exactly… you know. And it’s not like you get something out of her getting the spot.”
“Becoming a champion loosens the boundaries of mortality somewhat, her lifespan would be... what, doubled? Tripled?” He stuck his tongue out. “Since I’m looking to become a demigod, I thought it’d be good to think long term.”
“You also want to put her in a position where it would be in my best interest to protect her.” Maridah interjected coldly. “And whether this… relationship of yours pans out or not, so long as you keep things friendly with her, you’ll have great influence among my followers. Correct?”
Liam kept his smile amicable, though it did take an impish twinkle to it. “I am only making the referral. Whether you two hit it off or not, or if either of you even try, it was and would never be my decision.”
That appeared to placate the Goddess, she crossed her arms, reigning in her oppressive and glowering at him for several seconds. After a second or two, the Goddess let out a sigh and shook her head. “Sometimes it’s hard to remember you’re a mortal.” She regarded the unconscious Aisha. “Since you appear so confident about this, then you wouldn’t complain if I gave her a proper test.”
“It’ll be her choice.”
“Oh please.” Bunny snorted. “If the quiet ones always turn out to be freaks in the bedroom, then it’s always the ruthless sociopaths that become giddy love-struck puppies.”
“She’s not a sociopath.” He’d spoken out almost as a reaction. “And also not a puppy.”
“Could’ve fooled me on either of those assessments.” Maridah shook her head. “Liam, do you want to hear what my take on her is?”
Grinning from ear to ear, he shook his head. “Nope. I’d rather find out on my own.”
“It’s that curiosity that makes me want you as my Champion all the more. But it seems not all things are meant to be.” With a heavy sigh, she shook her head. "I will warn you that what she seeks out of this relationship and what you wish out of it are entirely different. Whether or not you can resolve that disparity is up to you." The Goddess sighed. “Also, I suspect she won't accept the position.”
"Why not?"
"You asked me not to tell, so call it a Goddess' intuition." She chuckled. "If she does agree, I suspect you already know the rites and tests that await her, don’t you? It's annoying that you have insight into things you shouldn't have. Not much to do about it now." She reached out to him, presenting a wooden vial for him to take. “I did my best to collect the memories you erased with my knife. I'm sure you’ve figured things out already, but it's always better to have all the details.”
Clasping her hands, he squeezed. “Thank you for this, Maridah. I know it means a lot for you to even consider her seriously.”
“Giving an earnest chance to this girl is… unexpected, but a reasonable tradeoff for a favor. Just keep in mind that this will remain a spent favor, whether she agrees to it or not.” She gave a curt nod. “Besides, you’ve proven thoroughly helpful beyond what any mortal had any right to be.” Her gaze flickered to the occupant on his shoulder. “And you also happen to be Bunny’s bestest friend.”
A tap of her foot, and she and Aisha vanished.
“Did she just use ‘bestest’ in a sentence?” Liam eyed the rabbit on his shoulder. “She absorbed some of you, didn’t she? Those ears of hers look weird.”
“They do not.” Bunny grumbled, a tendril of darkness lashing out and grasping the vial from his hand. “Now drink up.”
The tendril shoved the vial into his mouth, emptying its contents in a simple go so quickly he hadn’t had a chance to react. There was no taste to the fluid, but not in the way water did, the liquid left no impression in his tongue other than its texture and temperature, sliding down his throat.
Then everything went dark.
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It was like being trapped in a dream, one built out of fragments… fragments he realized had been missing from himself. Liam stared through his own eyes, spoke with his voice, heard with his ears, yet it was all slightly misaligned, fuzzy at the edges. Liam sat next to a fire, before him were Wolf, Bunny, and Maridah in her wolf form. All four of them encased in a cocoon that blocked out the rest of the world, but perhaps it was just the odd localized nature of this vision.
“There’s something fundamental about the Weaver that needs to be understood before we move forward. It’s a secret she’s shared with no one.” Liam took a deep breath. “Her powers, specifically her vision, rely not just on fate as a force, but fate as a choice. Let’s say your everyday fate-based diviner looks into your future, and you have two unresolved fates hanging overhead. One of them leads you to die while working in a forge, the other leads you to become a cobbler and have ten children. The diviner sees the chances of each path being proportional to the strength of the corresponding fates. Weaver doesn’t work that way, she can tell which fates are pulling you in which direction, but she also knows which one is going to resolve properly, and which one won’t.”
“Wait, so she can just… see everything you can do?” Bunny frowned from his lap. “We’re fucked.”
“No, she sees your choices within the spectrum of unresolved Fates, with capital F. She doesn’t know if you’ll drink coffee or tea, but she knows whether you’ll marry your childhood best friend or not.” He raised his finger. “However, there is one crucial little detail. This only works if there’s no meddling.”
“To observe something is to change its nature,” Maridah said. "Secrets revealed are secrets no more."
“More like it only applies if someone does something. It’s why she’s made a point to create a near monopoly on divination and keep tight control of who gets involved predicting what. It’s why she uses her blessings to block off any divination that involves targets she doesn’t want to get meddled with.” Liam nodded. “Sure, low stakes stuff can get meddled to hell and back, but she keeps big-stuff behind iron curtains unless she very specifically wants to change a result.”
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“So… what does this mean? How is this useful to us?”
“It’s useful to us because it lets us know where she will be looking at. We choose what information to reveal to her.” He glanced at the Goddess. “Or to be more exact, Maridah will be the one to do this.”
“Hm?”
“You are a Goddess of Secrets, in this current Age there is not one single entity that can hide better than you do.”
The wolf nodded, then paused. “What about other Ages?”
“Not important.” He quickly dismissed the question, Bunny snickering on his lap. “What matters is that you are our best candidate when it comes to making sure what actions have an impact on someone’s fate. Thus, what actions Weaver will see.”
“And what actions she doesn’t see.” Maridah paused, staring at the campfire. “Then, based on what you’ve told me, if I realize a mortal has been approached by the Weaver…”
“Then you’d be able to poke and prod at them with minimal risk of the Weaver finding out. At least so long as it’s nothing overt.” Liam confirmed. “That is the core of the plan. To use her own tools against her. Anything else risks creating disturbances and inconsistencies she could pick up on.”
“What about you?” Bunny squirmed on his lap.
“I get to be bait,” he said with a grin. “Because I disrupt fate, she wants me gone. But because I don’t have god-tier powers of sneaking, I get to be ignorant bait.” He leaned back. “It means I get to go on a proper vacation while you do all the work. Future Liam gets to sit back and enjoy.”
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As he opened his eyes, a stream of information slammed into the forefront of his brain, as if someone had just tried to stab a nail into his forehead. Raw knowledge and tiny bits and pieces from scattered memories, moments when Liam had discussed further details, tiny slip-ups as they traveled towards Doeta, and other memories to make it less likely he’d catch on. Everything piled on until it coalesced into a throbbing headache.
“Future Liam regrets some of his choices.” Blinking through teary eyes, he rubbed his cheeks. “God, I am not doing this again. As soon as I get the chance, I’m asking for some telepathy-spoofing.”
Opening teary eyes, he sat up, looking around and taking a minute to just adjust to having everything in his mind mostly back in place. He also noted the pain in his shoulder had mostly vanished, which he suspected meant Maridah had discreetly thrown a healing spell his way.
“By the way, where’s Imani?”
“The cat is enjoying the spoils of war well away from you.” She giggled. “Origin gave her the divine artifact she looted from the Weaver’s temple since it suited her. But it being fate-based means you’re not allowed anywhere near the thing.”
Liam hesitated. “It… it can’t be THAT bad… right?” He asked, hopeful of getting a chance of toying around with some other divine tool.
“You tell me.” She produced a familiar silver coin. “Thing’s busted and leaking mana all over the place, which is why I’m snacking on it. The enchantment will take a few months to break down, but right now it’s mostly useless for anything other than a meal.”
“Fuck.” As he said this, his gaze trailed upwards, towards the curved inner walls of the beak that surrounded Doeta. “Wait, then that means…”
“Origin says it’ll be anywhere between four to five years before They-Who-Eat-Space breaks out. Unless you start hugging the thing to make it go faster.”
“This… this is bad.” Liam’s eyes widened, biting his lower lip. “If it’s going to break free in five years, then that means the alarms the Pantheon put in place will be going off like mad by next summer.”
“Sure, and?”
“And, that means the Pantheon will show up to this area, Cracked Bay isn’t that far away from here, and everyone in Doeta will basically become collateral.”
He’d need to talk with Maridah about possible ways to mitigate damage to themselves and bystanders. The whole “war is about to break out” divinely-empowered rumor was already an attempt to reduce loss of life from the disaster that would follow the meteor’s fall… This was something that they couldn’t just ignore. They-Who-Eat-Space were a threat that could level an entire continent, and though the worm was definitely weakened after not having consumed anything for so long, it could still prove catastrophic to mortal life in the area.
Definitely something to think about while they prepared for the meteor.
“Hey, speaking of things, and stuff, and events.” Bunny shifted to her human form, this time she’d not bothered to summon the turban, leaving her large black floppy rabbit ears on display. “You’ve been doing all of this to help Origin, but what about you? What plans do you have?”
“I’m not that selfless. I need a base of operations, and getting the Whisperer to set one up for me is very convenient.” He ruffled her hair, turning to walk towards the estate. “Hopefully that’ll be well established before winter and the meteor. After the drop though, I’ll be heading out.”
“Where to?”
“A little bit of everywhere.” Chuckling, he leaned back, glancing up at the sliver of visible sky overhead. “The demigod thing is my priority for obvious reasons. There’s really only three ways to become one, but two of those involves indirectly enslaving myself to some God or another.” He cracked a smirk. “Since that’s not a real option, what’s left is to gather up some experts to help me bring down a demigod on our lonesome.”
“Wait.” Bunny poked his cheek. “Wouldn’t Origin be strong enough to do that herself?”
“That’s option number two, and I can’t go for it because divinity is stupidly sympathetic in nature. Once a bond is established, it’s borderline impossible to break.” He explained. “If the Whisperer kills a demigod, extracts their sliver of divinity, and plants it into a mortal, then it’s no different from her having taken a sliver of her own divinity and handed it out.”
“Is it that bad?”
“It messes with your essence.” Liam answered. “In a way, it’s like when someone gains ownership of a mortal’s soul. Complicated stuff, but if you do pull it off, the victim’s very essence begins to twist. It starts off as an inability to even consider harming their owner, but over time it becomes blind loyalty as their free will drains further and further. The only saving grace is that most mortals die before it goes all the way.” He grimaced. “Demigods don’t die from old age, and they are partially beyond the material plane. Over time the divinity that makes them what they are overcomes them, and they become an aspect of the God they are tied to. Even if the God dies, the demigod can end up becoming the vessel for a proto-reincarnation.”
“So it’s not possible to escape? Even if the God tries to sever it?”
“A God is as unable to deny their divine portfolio as I am to kill myself by holding my breath. I’ll eventually just pass out and my body will start automatically breathing again.” Liam shook his head. “The most either participant can do is stall things out.”
“Sounds… rough.”
“It gets worse, because if the demigod tries to escape the link but the God doesn’t, then the deity will be forced to act. Having an aspect of one’s portfolio in rebellion is… not healthy.”
“And you’d think Origin would do this?”
“Volkanar was a demigod sympathetically linked to her in a very convoluted way. Once upon a time, the Whisperer tucked away a bit of divinity she’d picked up from one of the monsters she’d killed. A mortal found the thing and became Volkanar.” He tried not to think about the fact that it’d been him who’d specifically set this story-line up. “They became aware of one another. Volkanar wanted to erode their link, fight her off. It was weakening her over time, and she needed to find him, but without his name, it was fruitless. But now she found him, and that’s why your eyes are a little fiery.”
Because he’d given her the name during their first meeting. Liam would’ve felt some degree of regret over selling out the guy, but he’d never really felt any sympathy for a character. The guy had been written into the setting as a soft-form of torture for Maridah, back when Liam had been hurt and petty. It was something that he’d wanted to remove, but never got around to do so.
Work just took too much of his time, and his effort had felt better dedicated to expanding the setting rather than editing unwanted things out.
Bunny snatched his hand, walking next to him and looking thoughtful. “So… you can’t just get Origin to make you a demigod and then find a way to get out of that link?”
“I can’t go down a path that’ll result in me turning into an extension of a deity. Period.” He emphatically shook his head. “Breaking that sympathetic link is near impossible even with the help of the Triumvirate Throne.”
“Huh, fair enough, I guess.” She pouted for a moment, thinking. “Say, if it’s impossible for a demigod to break off of their link from a God, what about an aspect?”
“That one’s a walk in the park, comparatively speaking. Mostly because you don’t have actual divinity of your own. You’re just borrowing power from Origin. If an aspect ever did split from their God, they’d become a spirit.” He shrugged. “Spirits being to a God what a seed is to a tree. Though it’s rare for a deity to allow one of their aspects to branch out, it usually only happens when the aspect and the God have been cut off from one another for a very long period of time.”
“Sounds troublesome.”
As they walked, his gaze lingered on the back of her head. Liam felt like he wanted to add more to this particular topic, but kept his mouth shut. Maybe right now wasn’t the time to point out how the impression he was getting from Bunny was every day slightly more and more distinct and detached from Maridah’s.
If he was picking up on this, then the Goddess must have realized it too.
Which begged the question as to why she might be allowing this.