There's a golden girl crying, and Corvayne sees himself as a boy sitting with her. She just keeps saying 'Mom...' and crying.
From his perspective, he sees Spears-Like-Water peeking in, her form shifting as if she's not used to holding herself together. A solid hand takes her, gleaming in the light from the torches around camp.
'Come on.' Diamonds-in-Passing says. 'I'll come back and get them dinner.' The glass-like woman looks back, then leads her liquid charge over to where a Mantis is tending the fire.
Corvayne sees the starry eyed girl then at the fire, and she motions for him to join her. He can feel it's a dream, but even being aware of it his mind fills in sensations like the night being cool, the sound of streams, the still intact structures on the high plains. The bark on the log is rough, there's the scent of smoke with a bit of the onion in the stew, and he can see the stars and two moons overhead.
"Was this real? Or am I mixing up where I was on Nel'Ferral with the past?"
The girl sighs, shifting her red and orange and yellow dress and shimmering gray hair as she blinks. Her skin is green, the texture reminding him of something like a billion pine needles. She smells like pine and clean air, asserting itself over other scents of camp in a moment. Is the smell fresh rain?
She speaks quietly, as if not to disturb the scene they are in. "It is real, but its the past. As his hold over you lessens, it shakes things loose."
"I've been doing a poor job trying to find you, but I remembered you asked. Sorry. Are you with the Watchers?"
She leans over and whispers, and it's the flapping wings of ten million fireflies. "There is no simple answer. The parts are together but apart. The long road has made us all weary. If you want to rest on my lap, do so. I have waited ages for you, and I will wait more. When you are ready, when you are free... find me."
He lets her hand, cold, guide him to her dress, and he starts falling, falling through leaves, and through branches and bays and into endless clouds.
Corvayne drops through the gray into deepening dark, where thunder lights up all around him as he drifts into his mindscape, trailing black shards as pain for a moment intrudes then vanishes. Colors start to seep into his endless fall as clouds made of red and blue and purple streak past. The storm is bigger then before, winds carrying shards of broken thorns.
The space in his mind is still islands divided by black thorns, with stone-henge like gates in formations around the islands, some of them wrapped in thorns and closed, though there's a disconnect in his head because they also look like empty arches sometimes too. There's a bridge to a massive gate in the middle, choked in thorns that he suspects would kill him. He falls to the same island he always drops onto, stonework bathed in the tri-colored light of the storm.
He lands on his feet and sees the lightning wraith before him. It stands nearly twenty feet tall now, forcing him to look up at the creature to even see hints of it's metallic face plate.
It looks down on him. "VERY GOOD."
He waits a little for it to fly off, but instead it stares. Probably. There's no face, just patterns of metal and lightning. "I AM COMING, BUT CAN AID YOU UNTIL THEN."
It is still generating heat in his mindscape that makes him uncomfortable to stand near, but he's not picky.
"What sort of aid?" He glances over to the massive gate that was past the adept gate, still covered in reams of thorns.
"THE CURSES CAN BE WEAKENED. AWAKENING HELPS. BECOME THE SUBJECT OF OR CREATE A GREAT WORK OF ART. OR DO NOT. THERE ARE MANY PATHS."
That's when it flies off, leaving Corvayne's mindscape quiet as the noise of energy fades to the low rumble of a storm. He decides to walk to Gylwin, now a robed elf. She looks like her real life disguise but a little taller and older. For some reason, he recognizes that she is beautiful but he doesn't feel anything looking at her.
She bows slightly, her voice fuller then her teenage form. "Greetings, Adept Corvayne. It seems turmoil has brought you here again."
"I see bridges, but I'm confused why I'm here. I shouldn't have much spare essence."
"It's already soaked in. I am starting to think we don't understand exactly what happened to you when those curses bound you."
"Book Binder after Wick." Corvayne was calm now but knew he'd probably be out of commission for a while. Mister I had, after all, shown him video of shards of black crystal erupting from his skull. It made him feel less bad for how terribly torn up his memory was.
Gylwin, whom he still wanted to call 'Growl-Whine' sometimes, summoned a blue box and flipped it to him.
"This should help somewhat, at least."
TRIALS / CURSES:
[Nameless] [100%]
[Exiled One] [100%]
[Past Lock] [66%]
[Essence Suppression] [80%]
[Twisted Race] [7 Left]
[Wanderer] [0% Portals left, Extra Condition not met]
[Trial Giver I: Nameless] [324 Names]
[Trial Giver II: Exiled One] [3/5 Left]
[Dust Midas II] [52W] [604800]
[Blunted Edge] [5 More]
[System Breaker: Complete. You survived despite weakening the system around you (Range modifier: Infinite). With all the power you bound released, you have been pushed to have increased affinity with both the Universes systems and the alien ones you've grasped from would-be invaders.]
[Mind Lock: Complete. You have survived and thrived for the duration of the curse while 'unawakened' This trial awards you enhanced extra senses and a bonus to your overall luck.]
[Night Blind: Complete. You have spent a significant time in dangerous dark places, despite seeing extra poorly in them. Adds resistance to darkness and night vision.]
[Dust Midas I: Complete. You survived despite reduced effectiveness in skills, classes, and powers while not using them. This trial awards you enhanced essence gains, skill gains, and higher Tower affinity.]
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"That at least is... something." Corvayne could see on the screen she provided that the large number by Dust Midas II was constantly dropping to 604799 for a second then popping back up. Hmm. 52W? And the first one was completed by not using any of his skills, so it was possibly a timer. Was it because he had an Adept power on? Or were his shadow hands pulling potions out of his ring and popping them in his mouth?
He took a deep breath. "Can I see my health numbers?"
It was bouncing all around, but notable was that it had moved up to a 1158. Last he checked it was half that number, maybe five thirty something? Though he was pretty sure a few points went into CON which was related to it. It was possible he was getting stats from his pacts, or from things he had on, though most of his armor was in his ring.
It kept moving to max and there was nothing he could do inside his mindscape to change it. At least, he was pretty sure.
"What about the pacts?"
Understanding: 25. [Environments change to have increased pictograph information. May induce into reality additional Libraries, Book Stores, and Data Havens. Small contributor to 'Vaulting' behavior. Civs will carve and paint eyes on things a lot more.]
[Pact Dangers: Extremely Low. Creates and counters chances of [OUT OF CONTEXT SUMMON/ OOC RIFT/OOC ISOLATION BREACH CONTACT]. Increases chances of rouge AI but also increases chances that an AI will develop an appreciation of non AI lifeforms. At 120 a Civ will turn into pure energy and ascend. Leaves many things undone, and sunders them from their old ties. (((((That sounds like a flat out win condition to me....)))))]
All: Improves Reasoning.
5: Vastly improves language acquisition.
10: Radar, Accentuates humanity for 'others'.
15: Insight into 'Unknown' events. Improves System outcomes for Info gathering.
20: Improves Magic/Mana/Chi/Energy/Computer System Mastery. Gives Pact Hints.
25: Vastly improves skill gains. +.2 Dimentional awareness.
+Unity: 5: Improves Emotional Bonds.
10 Improves joint skill training. Improves chance at finding friendly/compatible Civs.
15 Gestalt size scales mana pool
20 Improved Diplomacy. Allows Civ Merging. Improves Mercenary finding Range/Price/Search Accuracy.
+Growth: 5: Hints at Next level of power's function. Hints at next core pact bonus when considering pacts.
10: Helps clarify Pact Break Points.
15: User has improved power selection for a build.
20: User is given three descriptions of tier evolution from their current class and how often the requirements are met. [+]
+Essence: 5: Gives improved chance to gain essence sight. User gets hunches about 'Exp' buffs and penalties. (You are currently under approx .000001% modifier for exp)
+Tower: 5: Improves 'finding' entrances, exits, stairs, and doors.
Unity: 24 [Environment of Unity boosted people grow closer. Creates smaller, more efficient and intimate spaces with all meanings of the word considered. Slightly increases chance of conceiving twins in domain. More likely for random chance to produce pairs or things in order.]
[Pact Danger Self Inflicted/Mild: Pact has functions that can influence self control and personal choices of entities that choose to enter the Civ with Pact Holder. Level 25 has some influence on Party members and/or organizations the Pact holder is in. Level 50 Pact introduces increasing breakdown of barriers between minds, breakdown of the ability to leave a party or Civ outside of a consensus, and almost no ability to reject gestalt generated orders when participating 'Gestalts' and 'Pack Parties'. 120 - Entire territory and all Civ members become a Gestalt that is a tremendous threat to dimensional stability.]
All levels: Improves Emotional and Thought Linkage.
5: Linked Civ can share health, mana, stamina, chi, quintessence pools. When full, shares some regeneration stats with other civ members.
10: Linked Civ vastly improved conflict resolution. Improved Diplomacy and Negotiation.
15: Linked Civ parties have improved sense of other members. Shares some regeneration stats with Party or Familial members at all times.
20: Previously linked members will come together when parted. Improved formations and timing with others.
+Growth: 5: Improves joint training effects. Users have higher chance of triggering a jointly trained Trait, Skill, Weapon Skill, Spell, Cultivation skill, or Domain effect. Artifacts and Powers more likely to appear if a unity link has it.
10: Party members take the best HP/MP/STAM/QNC/KI growth on level of any class they are partied with. Improves hidden stat detection for high stats in Civ's Party.
15: Party members share some of their positive growth modifiers. Growth's 'Level up' recovery shared between unity links.
20: Chance on improving powers to accumulate partial racial bonuses of Civ members in Party. Human racial bonus improves stats, including hidden ones, currently under 10.
+Essence: 5: Improves Party Essence/Exp splitting. Reduces hostility in creatures that share essence gains.
10: Consuming Essence laced consumables or crafting with essence shards improves EXP granted, or refunds part of the essence used as EXP to the crafter and consumer of the crafted item.
15: Improves chances of gaining essence based powers, essence based traits, and improves Subjob progression. Passive essence cultivation.
+Tower: 5: Increases chance of generating Essence shards in chests. Improves odds of '[High Essence]' tags on swap/generation.
Growth: 25 [Environments under Growth are larger. Plants and animals have a higher upper limit on size. Planets, continents, and atmospheric range increase at a rate that outpaces the other effects. Life more likely to adapt to environments and fill them. At 50, starts generating in territory super large 'ascendants' randomly from affected living things.]
[Pact Danger: Mild. Large Creatures may pose threats to low level civilizations in territory. Pact level 50 has pronounced effect on territories without access to combat classes. Pact 120: Every being in territory becomes super ascended, with pact members become hyper ascended. Increased irrationality eventually leads to highlander situation with implications for all other life in the universe.]
All Levels: Reduces thresholds for system marked advancement. Improves height. Marginal boost to reproductive rate.
5: All essence gains related to self improvement is increased. Stacks and boosts effects that boost essence gains and efficiency.
10: Skills improve faster. Allows some focusing on forcing a skill, power, or another pact to develop.
15: Training, Power leveling, Natural Selection, and Forced Evolution are all improved.
20: Improved Physical attributes. Increased likelihood of non-standard system development triggering.
25: All pact holders are bigger and have improved durability and regeneration. Increase in dimentionality [+.2]
+Tower: 5: Tower is BIGGER.
+Essence: 5: Essence gains can Critical.
10: Increases efficiency in harvesting essence.
15: Essence more likely to trigger Skill/Power/Race Evolution. Improves Mutation outcomes and reduces essence needed to 'fix' trade off powers/mutations/traits.
Love: 3 [Environments under the effect of Love become more pleasing to the eye. Environment has more love themed decorations and buildings or locations. Weather may attempt to push people together. Pink, Sweet, Velvet, Warm and Moist are more frequent swapped tags on Tower floors and influenced pact territory.]
[Pact Danger Extreme: Pact influences self control and personal choice of anything near the civ holding the pact. Every break point compounds this effect. At 120 there is a total breakdown in activities not related to LOVE and may represent a universal extinction event by locking anything possibly able to feel LOVE in non-sustaining behavioral patterns barring counter-pacts.]
Tower 5 [Environments in Tower are more likely to produce 'Up' entrances. Verticality and Spires more common in nature and buildings. Environments more likely to be dark at the bottom and lit near the top, creating imposing landscapes. High level Tower Environment make local Towers visible in the sky.]
[Pact Dangers Mild: Pact manifests more towers at level 20, creating a mild danger of 'Dungeon Break' incidents. At 30 the Pact can remove an increasing number Modifiers while holder is on a floor which can create sudden catastrophic shifts in habitability. At 70 barriers for Tower entrances expand around 'safe' areas. At 100 the Pact represents a soft 'System Apocolypse' when local Tower conditions are inimical to low level life outside safe zones.120: The entire baseline universe is fractured into the Tower to move every floor up and a new Floor 0 is generated.]
All levels: Improves Tower outcomes.
5: Reveal Modifiers of Current Level [+]. Alerts when a modifier is changed.
+Essence: 5: Improved EXP based on current Tower Floor.
Essence 15 [Environment show higher chances of stars, lights, and crystals. Tower and non tower areas are far more likely to produce slimes. Produces invariably glowing Focii spots in remote areas. Higher chance of level spiked monsters appearing outside the tower.]
[Pact Dangers: Mild: Environmental effects at high levels usually overshadowed by Pact Civ out-leveling even the level spiked monsters. Pact can create 'EXP' sickness in low levels pushed up too fast. At level 50 areas that were Focii in early levels become environmental hazards.
At level 120 start converting everything in the universe into EXP while also creating an ultra low level stable space bubble. Outcomes vary with certain hidden stats the primary pact holder has, but generally results are not favorable to life outside either the pact holder or the highest level person in the universe, whom can be expected to gain an estimated (Func=TREE(3)) levels. This then destroys the system and the user itself. Or makes them the new system. (((((They didn't apply the fix here nameless one FFS don't level this to 120)))) ((((((This creates an overflow and might crash the samsura. We have forced 119 and all levels thereafter in comparable universes to pre generate a single level/next level of the pact [[(EXPx0)]] which prevents the 120 from activating. We are also flagging anyone at 115 now as MAX HOSTILE.)))))) ((((((((YOU WILL REGRET FINDING A WAY AROUND THIS TRUST ME))))))))]
All levels: Improves Essence gain. Enables Essence classes and powers.
5: Allows better vision of and manipulation of essence. Reduces unintended essence mixing.
10: Improves non hostile essence generation.
15: Essence stores or EXP banked for next level can be spent in place of other resources, up to a certain percentage of the cost.
Corvayne blinked.
"Gylwin, the system giving me a run down of this pact stuff... It doesn't sound even remotely safe."
The elf tilted her head. "One can also eat too much food and choke on it. I also advised you that some pacts are very dangerous. It is why some of the words that seem like good ideas are self destructive. It is why I recommend safer pacts like Understanding, Growth, and Unity."
"It seems like [[Unity]] in the wrong hands is not safe. Is it affecting my friends minds? Or Preshe's?"
Gylwin snorted at that. "It is harder to misuse then you think. Pacts tend to also have counter-effects. You cannot mind control someone under [[Unity]] unless there was a firm consensus that it would not harm the group, which means if the person objected to your intended use, they would know it because you can't project without opening up. They would not have a firm consensus unless they wanted you to hurt them or control them, thus break the group. It is why you have not rejected this shard of my mind, even as you've grown more powerful in this realm."
"You don't think the loss of freedom is disturbing? Or privacy from it."
"I am a being that can cross minds. I am a gestalt between a nearly mindless bug monster that wanted to just eat everything and a woman who administered a galaxy sized population. You are a collection of cells, ruled by a few at the top. [[Unity]] is the same as how your arm does not attempt to rip off your foot despite them being different, because they are part of the same."
Corvayne looked at her. "So what you are saying is that asking you was a bad idea."
She thought about it and nodded. "Terrible idea. Wick or Mister I would be better versed in the morals of it. Nyx, myself, and I suspect Grunt would tell you to just go for it."
"Lots to think about, if I ever wake up." Corvayne said, then thought about it and then laid down on the cobblestone island in his mind scape to go to sleep.