“You plan on leaving, then, Exalted One?” asked the matron one evening when Esperanza happened to be visiting the training chamber. She had visited the place less after some of the [Progenies of Yore] caught on to the needed skills and started to teach each other as well as the locals in what they did. The way they explained things was simpler and based on their own experiences, which was easier for the locals to grasp.
“Not immediately, but probably in a week or so, yes,” replied Esperanza to the matron. It had already been the fourth week of their stay in Zikeal. While the rest was much appreciated and the hospitality was much welcomed, it would not do to tarry overlong and forget about their goals, after all. “Most of my group had finished training how to hide their aura to a satisfactory level, so we figured that we might as well stay a bit longer and return the favor you have shown us.”
“We are most grateful for that. This has been… the culmination of our tribe’s efforts over generations, something that our ancestors dreamed of achieving. To think that I would live to see it realized in my lifetime… is a boon I could never thank the Exalted One enough for,” said the old matron with another exaggerated bow. After Esperanza’s group showed how they found a way to keep the subterfuge of the tribe’s skill without weakening themselves and were willing to share it, the whole tribe seemed to practically worship them, or at least, worship them more than they did before.
Left unsaid was the implication that if Esperanza’s group succeeded in their mission, then the tribe’s skills would no longer be needed. On the other hand, if their skills would still be needed in the distant future, then that would mean that Esperanza had failed in her endeavors. Neither of them brought that point up, though, both knowing better to let it lie where it was.
“It is we who owe you a debt of gratitude for your people’s kind hospitality, matron, as well as your willingness to share your inheritance so freely with us,” coaxed Esperanza kindly. Even after the time that had passed, she still felt rather uncomfortable to have people treat her like such a venerated being, when she only became what she was by happenstance. As such, she still habitually tried to get people to not venerate her too much when she could.
When she considered the progress shown by the locals, she was confident that given another week multiple of them would have mastered the new method well enough to be able to pass down the technique to others, which would allow her to depart with a clean conscience. It wasn’t everyday that one came across an inherited technique of a tribe and improved upon it, after all.
Her own group had taken to the modified technique swiftly as well, which gave them additional options in the future. Be it in the human kingdom or the demon territories, now some of the members of the group could infiltrate cities and towns unnoticed, which allowed them to gather information in ways they couldn’t before.
Of course, the ability to hide their presence also meant that they could escape more easily as well. There were many reasons to rejoice at the group’s newfound ability, all considered.
That evening, Esperanza communed with Oldies. For once, she wasn’t mostly updating the Deities over the group’s progress and situation as she had mostly done in the past months. Since they had been relaxing for a while, she chose to take the time to have a good chat with the possible eldritch Deities like she used to do often when she was still by her lonesome.
“Turns out you’re all not quite as forgotten as you thought, huh?” she asked in her mind.
We will not deny that it pleased us to see multiple communities of those who still remember the old ways to live, and even thrive despite the worst attempts of the new gods. We did know and have a general idea as to the location of these hideouts as their worship acted as a beacon for us, but without one such as you to serve as a medium, we could not inspect them for ourselves. For that we thank you, Esperanza.
We have also noticed that you seemed to be more… at peace? More willing to lend your aid where you were doubtful before? It is a bit difficult to describe what we wish to say in words at times.
“You all wouldn’t be wrong, I guess,” replied Esperanza as she laid down on the bed in the room that was lent to her during her stay in Zekial. Her body did not need rest as much as when she was still human, but it was a habit she kept when she could get away with it. It was also more comfortable to lay down while conversing with Oldies. “I guess… when I started to let go of the suspicions that I had early on, I started seeing them like… kindred spirits to myself.”
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Oh? This is news to us. What prompted such thoughts to manifest, if you would care to explain for us?
“Right, I don’t think I’ve told you much about my previous world, have I?” noted Esperanza as she thought back to her previous life. It was odd how she felt so far and detached from that life despite only months having passed as far as she was aware. In some ways, it was like remembering a dream – or a nightmare – that she had some time ago.
“In my previous world… not everything was perfect either, despite all the comforts and amenities that we enjoy,” she started to explain, somewhat haltingly as at times she paused in search of words to use. “Much like here, we have some people who would hate others simply for being different from themselves. Whether that difference be in skin color, culture, which god they follow, or even some choices made in life, there’d be people who hate you just for any or all of it.”
Surprisingly, not unlike the situation here in Ephemera, where the worshipers of the new gods would persecute those who still followed the old ways just for that reason alone. We think we are starting to understand where you are coming from, but please continue.
“Right, anyway, the place I lived in before… people like me, or my mother… we aren’t the ones who were the majority or in power there. Many hated our kind, seeing us as foreigners who snuck into the country to steal work and living from those who were already there before us. It didn’t help that we look different to the ones who consider themselves locals either…”
“Amusingly, it’s that bit about being ostracized just because you don’t happen to believe in the same god as others that I can sympathize with the most,” added Esperanza. “You see, Oldies, my mom, she wasn’t a christian of any sort. She’s from one of these families that still believe in the old ways, in the myths and deities that most everyone else had long consigned to the realm of old stories and history.”
Interesting. We see the parallel that has to our situation here. Do you happen to also worship those old deities yourself, Esperanza?
“I don’t think I’ve ever really believed in any god in my previous life, to tell the truth,” admitted Esperanza. “Given how shitty my life back then was, though, I guess I would have leaned more to the ones mom liked to tell me stories about. It’d be a greater comfort to believe in some deity that could and would bring terrible punishments down on sinners than ones that tell you to turn the other cheek.”
“Because fuck whichever pendejo came up with that bullshit to whichever hell actually exist!” she cursed vehemently. “They always just say to suck up the indignities you suffer, that your reward would come later in life, that the ‘good’ people wouldn’t be neglected. My mother suffered from all sorts of shit only to barely eke out a living, and never was she rewarded even until she died! I’ve prayed to every one I can think of myself and none ever answered! Only when I took things into my own hands… did something actually change.”
We wish to express our condolences that your previous life was saddled with such… unresponsive ones, Esperanza. We also hope that you feel better now that you have… unloaded the feeling you have kept within yourself for so long… You are supposed to feel better after airing your grievances if we remember correctly, aren’t you?
“Heh, gracias, Oldies,” said Esperanza as she rubbed some non-existent tears from the eyes on her face. One thing her new body was unsuited for was crying, apparently. The rant she had just gone through reminded her of a lot of unpleasant things, like how she was often bullied at school. Or the abuse she and her mother had to go through at the hands of her step-father, abuse that they had to stomach quietly as being with him was the reason they were able to stay in the country.
It was when it all became too much for her to bear that she finally took matters into her own hands at the end and gutted the vile pendejo of a pig masquerading as a man before choosing to end it all, because she knew that there was no way the situation at the time would have had any happy endings in store for her. Not after a very obvious murder, even given her circumstances.
Life had already shat on Esperanza enough to extinguish such wishful thinking by that point of time.
We are glad that you seemed to have achieved an understanding with some part of yourself We have not been privy to. Would you prefer for us to withdraw so you could have some time on your own?
“No, todo está bien, thanks for the offer, though,” said Esperanza with a shake of her head. “You were right in that airing my grievances had done me some good. It was just that there was never anyone appropriate to air them to around here. The locals are all too worshipful for that, and there’s no way I’d air my grievances to the kids.”
In that case We are pleased that we have helped you with the matter. You also seem to be quite interested in this… intriguing method to hide one’s presence before observers?
“It would allow us to glean far more information than just what we manage to get by raiding. That would prove useful one way or another,” explained Esperanza.
It will also allow you to witness how this world runs under the rule of the New Gods with your own eyes. That is a good thing. If it were not so potentially problematic to have you and yours infiltrate the current society those usurpers established, We would have suggested it long ago, so you could make your decision with more certainty. We are surprised and pleased to have discovered that you found a solution to that approach on your own, unprompted.
“Things happen, I guess,” replied Esperanza with a chuckle. “So you wanted to let us see how things are for ourselves as usual huh? Always big on letting people make their own decision as usual, I see,” she added with a smile. That was one quality that made her put a good bit of trust in Oldies despite their avowed goal to end the world. That they always told her to make her own choices, rather than force or even command her to do things.
Oldies never did that. Oldies only asked, as well as let her see things for herself so she could make her own decision. It was why she trusted them thus far.