Chapter 14:
I had grown up in a desert, admittedly one with oases, and bodies of water where we were able to make camp, but it would be fair to say that if I was a normal eight year old of the Great Divide, the gigantic desert that separated the Linnoria Kingdom and the Empire of Geb, I would not be expected to know how to swim.
But I was also a reincarnated soul with many memories of my past life, and I knew I had lived in an island nation, with seas to every side, and rivers and canals around every turn. Swimming was seen as a pastime and a sport both, and every child above a certain age was expected to learn to swim. I remember we were even specifically taught how to swim with clothes on, in case the unthinkable happened and we fell in to one of those many canals.
I may have been a few years out of practice, but I was also whipcord thin and in very good shape thanks to my father, so when the water closed over my head, I started kicking furiously and surged through the water until my face and Boones' crested through the meniscus membrane and back into the air of the cave.
I started kicking furiously, moving Boone in my arms so his spine was against my chest while I rolled over onto my back. He was unconscious, and while swimming on my back would slow me down, it meant that my friend wouldn’t drown unaware.
This did, however, give me a perfect view of the shore, where the skeleton legion - and that was exactly what it was now that I could see it clearly - was stopped in perfect lockstep on the shore, all perfectly at attention and waiting calmly. Turning my head I saw the serpentfolk standing on the opposite shore, grinning.
The ember of anger burning in my gut grew by a few degrees. It was burning blue, by that point. A lot of things around me seemed to burn with the colour blue since I was born into this world. The most important of them to me was Boone. And he was unconscious in my arms from trying to save my life - from the skeletons controlled by this Asshole.
I tucked the back of Boones' head into my collarbone and tucked a hand under his chin so his mouth stayed above the water. It let me hear that he was whining in his passed out state. As I started to kick, and stroke with my one free arm, I kept going back to the image of what I thought might have been me being beaten to death.
I remembered feeling that, in my previous life, all I had wanted to do was exist in peace, and for whatever reason, that had angered people. This life, I was only eight and I was being chased through a jungle by monsters, orchestrated by the Goddess that had apparently saved me. While I had experienced deep joy in this world with the family I was born into, I was having serious second thoughts about our bargain at the moment.
It took me a few minutes to cross the slow moving river, which did have the benefit of washing off a lot of the filth that had started to coat me since I fell into this dungeon. However, the water was freezing, and by the time I pulled us on the sandy shore on the other side, I was both exhausted and utterly freezing. What annoyed me even more, when I rolled over onto my knees and put down Boone to check he was breathing steadily, was when the serpentfolk offered me a hand to stand up, with a smug grin plastered across her face.
“Well done, Aspirant. It usually takes people much longer to figure out that the objective is simply to cross the river. Yours might even be a record in the times people have attempted this course.” Her voice sounded like she was holding down chuckles, and I knocked her hand aside before scooping Boone back up and climbing to my feet. His extremely warm body was comforting when I was this wet and cold, but his steady heartbeat and slow breathing against my chest was even more so.
“I was well motivated by the army trying to kill me.” I snarled, and gestured back across the river, only to see the legion of skeletons disappearing in shimmers of light and jungle mist, leaving the beach unmarked apart from my own footprints.
“Were they? Were you actually in danger?” The serpent chuffed, and shrugged her robed shoulders. “Tell me, at any point during this challenge room, were you hurt? At what point did the skeletons actually do anything that wasn't exactly what was said on the plaques? They came for you. A motivation, nothing more.”
“My friend is unconscious!” I shouted, and giant winged snake or no I was furious, and anger makes us stupid.
“Your friend passed out because he used too much essence. Not because he was hurt by my challenge. He's fine and will wake shortly. You, on the other hand, are to be congratulated, apparently. Please, meet me on top of the pyramid.” She sounded peeved, more than angry, at least. Just like her soldiers, the figure before me dissolved into must and multicoloured light, leaving me at the bottom of a long staircase set into the centre of the giant sandstone edifice. At the top, I could see from here the massive coils and wings of the serpent itself, as well as what appeared to be a clear platform, I'd guess where I was supposed to stand.
It could kill me, if it did want to, there was literally nothing I could do about it. There was absolutely no way in hell that something that big, and apparently that connected to a goddess was on the same level as a slightly more than mortal human child. But, honestly, I was ready for this trial to be over, and the serpentfolk was unfortunately right. The only things that had hurt us so far in this part of the trial was ourselves. It was about trust in the end. Did I trust the dragon-like being not to eat me? I groaned and started climbing.
Boone came to in a panic and tried to wriggle out of my arms, throwing off my balance for a second, but his movements were so weak it was depressingly simple to hold on to him, even now he had increased in size. I stroked his back and made soothing sounds in his ear, just standing there on the steps for a minute. The damn snake could wait.
“What happened? Did we make it?” He saw that we had moved from where we were and there were no skeletons surrounding us and relaxed, his head falling limp on my shoulder. “Sorry. I'm still weak.”
“Hush, you. There's nothing to apologise for. You made sure I could get out of there and I wasn't going to leave you alone.” I buried my face in the ruff if his neck and hugged him close for a few seconds. “Apparently we passed the test. The snake is waiting for us at the top of this place.” My voice was muffled against his neck, but if my words sounded congratulatory, my tone was just plain angry. I was done with this trial - done with this whole dungeon to be honest, if the rest was going to be like this.
“Let's get done with it then. I am sick to death of the jungle.” He wiggled in a way I knew he wanted me to let him down, but wasn't his panicked response from before - he just wanted to meet the boss on his own four feet.
Like that we arrived at the top of the pyramid, and found ourselves before the largest snake head I could have ever imagined. Its eyes were the size of beach balls, great yellow orbs with slit pupils. Its tongue flickered in and out of an immense mouth that was open just enough to see the curve of reticulated fangs set back against the roof of its mouth the size and length of my leg. On top of its head was a brilliant mane of rainbow hues feathers that moved in the wind stop the pyramid, and refracted the omnidirectional light in soft reflections. In the background, it's wings raised ever so slightly to adjust its posture and it was like watching two small, rainbow hued hills stand up.
“Welcome, Arcadia. It is good to meet you face to face.” Its voice was rich and deep, and strangely feminine, and seemed to come from all around me rather than its mouth, which never moved. “My Mistress must think a great deal of you. She doesn't bring me out for just anyone. It has been wonderful to have you in my trial.”
“And how did I do?” I was sweaty, dirty, with your clothes and matted hair. I was nearly out of my newly unlocked essence, as was Boone, and I was thoroughly pissed off with the giant snake.
“Quick witted, methodical, controlled, unorthodox, and brazen. I can see why she sees promise in you. But, one final test.” The snake rose it's head up until it was several feet in the air, and began to speak: “"Gold, in time, may lose its lustre, Courage falters through a muster. One thing only lasts for ages, boon of craftsmen and of sages. What am I?” That ember of fire bloomed in my stomach and I would have yelled, of Boone hasn't sent me a brush of thoughts begging me for calm.
“You are Knowledge,” the fox said tiredly, and stepped in front of me. The snake looked down at the tiny morsel that was my best friend in this world and grinned down at the pair of us.
“Very good! The pair of you. I commend you for passing my trial. You deserve your reward!” The giant snake opened its mouth wide over our heads and I flinched at the sight within - a sight no one should see and one I knew would haunt me in my dreams for a long time to come - before a pinprick of light coalesced in between its fangs, solidifying into a rainbow hued stone that fell out of the air and into my waiting hands.
Before I went to use it, though, and despite my anger at the creature and its games, there was one thing that had come up in our conversations that I wanted a better answer to.
“Earlier you called Dragons River Parasites. Did you mean the River of Souls? The one I saw when I died?” the snake closed its mouth and moved back, eyeing me with one massive orb and a lowered brow.
“Seeking knowledge should never be shot down, but be careful who you speak to about dragons. Yes, I mean the River of Souls, because that is where they emerge, but it is not my place to say more. If you ever have reason to need to learn about Dragons, you should ask the Mistress about them. All I shall really say for now is if something claims it is a dragon it is either exceptionally dangerous or exceptionally stupid - and you should run as fast as you can from either.” He nodded decisively, the motion like a tectonic plate shifting, before he gestured at the stone in my hands. “Now place that to your chest. Perhaps sit down first. I imagine this will hurt.”
I did as he asked. The stone was warm to the touch this time, but it was slightly harder to get into where it needed to be, just because my clothing was sodden and clung to my frame uncomfortably. Still, when the stone was in the right place and I had braced myself accordingly, the snake breathed a cloud of rainbow coloured smoke over the top of Boone and I, and the pain began.
This time, when the stone began to burrow into my chest, my core span up on its own, its speed and rotations increasing by a tremendous amount, till I could almost feel a pull on my mind as it drew at the boiling hot energies that poured from it.
Rather than heading for my core and spreading our though, almost all of this energy headed for my head first, and the feeling was like having my skull burst apart. My internal sight was getting brighter and brighter as the energy built and fried wherever it passed, but my sight was suddenly pulled up and away, into the night sky and to the east, where a new Constellation lit up in the night sky of my soul. Twelve stars arranged in the sinuous she of a serpent, with wide spread wings. Then the pain redoubled and everything turned so right it burned.
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I would like to use more descriptive language to give an accurate account of how it felt, but the fact is the pain was so intense and so blinding that my thoughts themselves stopped. For the minutes it took for that hot energy to pass through me, I didn't think a single thing - I existed only as white hot pain - and I could see that Boone suffered just as much as I did, if not more. His whole body shuddered and twisted on the ground, his form growing again by a small amount, and though I didn't have the presence of mind to read it, or even truly understand what reading was at that moment, I understood later that the same error message has showed up this time as the last time I unlocked an attribute, or Boone had leveled up - our growth was being reflected in the other, with the only cost being horrible pain.
Constellation stone of the Arcus Serpens consumed. This Constellation stone will bond with your Mind attribute.
Mind Attribute Unlocked. The Mind attribute governs both your speed of thought and ability to comprehend information, as well as your Essence capacity and Essence regeneration statistic. As you gain levels in the Mind Attribute, you will be able to recall and learn information at an increased rate, be able to solve logic and mathematics problems with greater ease, and will find that your Essence pool and Essence regeneration will increase.
Additionally, Unlocking the Mind Attribute grants you the passive ability: [Meditation]. When entering a meditative state, your Essence regeneration is improved by a factor equal to the level of this ability, with a minimum factor of .5. levels will increase with the level of the Mind Attribute.
Arcus Serpens Passive Ability unlocked: Tail of the Rainbow Serpent.
Arcus Serpens Constellation Stone is attempting to unlock an inborn Talent. [ERROR] Inborn Talents already unlocked. Reviewing: Divine Intervention detected, applying override. Redistributing essence to Mind Abilities.
Arcus Serpens Constellation Stone has unlocked its 1st Gate. Dawnslight has been unlocked from Mind Attribute at level Wood: 1. (1 / 4) Abilities unlocked of Mind Attribute.
Tail of The Serpent: [Wood 1 (0/3)]
* Transmutation ability. Ability may be activated to summon a physical transformation. You will gain the serpentine tail of the mythical rainbow serpent. This tail may be used as a natural weapon,ceith damage commensurate to the level of the Ability, and automatically improves balance and acrobatic ability, doubling the effectiveness of the Body attribute in these respects. Magical clothing will adjust to accommodate the tail, but mundane clothing may be destroyed. The tail also will act as a casting focus for further unlocked Arcus Serpens Abilities.
Once summoned, the tail requires minimal essence upkeep to remain summoned.
Dawnslight: [Wood 1 (0/3)]
* While your tail is summoned, you may activate this ability to summon a fragment of the Dawn's first rays that appears as a ball of light hovering over the top of your tail. As well as acting as a magical light source which requires a negligent essence feed, the ability may also empty its Essence reserve to trigger a powerful anti-enchantment effect in a localized area. At its lowest level, the anti-magic effect may only dispel effects on your own person, but as it gains in levels, you may project a larger and larger aura, and affect more people if you choose to do so.
[ERROR] Soul linked status of companion Boone has deific override applied. Higher order rules of reality overwrite local restrictions. Executing Override: A Mirror And Reflection.
Inborn Talent: Soul Companion Level Increased [Wood 3 (0/7) > [Wood 4 0/9].
When my brain decided to work again, the contents of my mind had been shifted a second time. As I began to groan and shift myself from where I had fallen into my side, and heard the telltale tinkling of glass as the broken shards of the Constellation Stone fell from the remains of my shirt, I realised my worldview had changed again. More information had been summoned into my mind, but this time a lot of it was more nebulous. Including, much to my immediate horror, how to operate a completely new limb.
I could feel it too. It wasn't there, physically, but in the same way I could feel my core, Boone, or the essence receptacles for my Abilities, I could feel the long, sinuous length of a serpentine tail in the spiritual plane, both connected to the small of my back, and to my soul. My entire mental image of my body warped to include it, while the image of my soul remained separate; I wanted to be freaked out. Some voice that rebelled at the idea of my body changing cried out, but that voice very quickly became smaller and smaller as the Ability settled into my mind.
It was a magical ability, it was a tool, just like the body I was wearing. It was a part of me as much as this body was, and would one day be a part of me no longer, as my last body had ceased to be me when i left it.
The message felt strangely right as it flowed through me, but I could tell neither version of myself was mature enough to think it. Whoever I had been in my last life had spent almost all of it desperately trying to to make a body fit the shape of a soul, and that part of me, although still present and a part of my psyche, had quieted with the body I was in now, but it had never gone away. This body was, at its core, much closer to how I thought I should have looked in my first life - an idealised self, perhaps, but closer none the less. The idea that I was the soul and not the body wasn't something I felt I was prepared to face yet. Instead, it seemed to have originated in a part of the system and my abilities that I hadn't unlocked yet, but was still doing something to reinforce my mind.
I had, after all, spent far longer as a soul with no concept of a body than I had as anything thinking and feeling.
As I calmed and recovered, I let my refilling essence activate, and felt the power manifest. The spiritual weight of the tail became a physical weight, and in a rolling wave of blue fire, a five foot long tail appeared attached to the base of my spine as if it has always been there.
I looked back over my shoulder in something of a daze as it appeared, examining it in a slightly detached way as my body and brain came back together in the fact that it was there. It was a long, muscular scaled snakes tail with scales the same green as my eyes, and a lighter cream banding underneath. On top, was a ridge of pink feathers that started at the small of my back in a joining tuft and travelled its entire length, and ended in a wide fan of longer feathers at its tip.
Reaching around, with both my arms and the tail itself, my new limbs and old met in the middle and I got a feel for my new appendage. It was strong, I could feel that. Much stronger than my arms or legs and probably entirely serviceable as a weapon. I could also feel the essence woven into it, could feel how it acted as a focus for the receptacle of the other power that had appeared within me. With a thought, a ball of sunlight appeared above the tail, and lit the top of the pyramid with a new source of light, which shine brightly and distinctly in the otherwise sourceless lighting that lit up the entire cave.
Boone, larger yet again after his upgrade, and now almost the size of an adolescent Labrador, looked at the tail that had appeared with a feeling of true surprise that echoed down our connection and was met by my own.
“That's new,” was all he could say, and I nodded. New it was - but also, strangely right. And maybe just a little bit cool.
“Ah, the Arcus Serpens. You honour me, Arcadia. No longer an Aspirant in my eyes, you have succeeded in my test.” The giant serpent shifted himself and revealed a smaller set of stairs that had been covered by his body. They descended inside the pyramid, and at the base was a portal that looked very much like the one to my storage space. “You should leave now. This will take you back to the foyer. However, for your next trial, I would offer you some advice. You should be brave.” The serpent turned to catch me with its luminous yellow orb again and I saw myself reflected in its eye, pink hair, pink feather, green hair and scales and all. “Kintsuji in her wisdom has offered a bargain to a second soul, one who you know well in this life. She is in a danger far more real than mine, and she most likely needs your help. You should go to her.”
I heard the words the serpent said, but they didn't really register at first. I was too busy trying to get used to the weirdly familiar and utterly alien feeling of my new appendage.
But then the trickled properly into my mind, and my heart seized. Out of all the people in my family, there was only one I knew that Kintsuji wanted to approach, and while she had promised to wait until her Quickening, if they had made a bargain to make this her Quickening, it would still meet the basics of our agreement.
“Mia!” I shouted the name, shot to my feet, and raced for the portal.
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The Trickster had come earlier than expected. Or perhaps his prescience, if it was acute enough, might have led him to set out even before this opportunity fell into Kintsujis’ lap. It didn't matter at the end of the day. The lower ranked God had arrived and taken to searching the area where the mother, touched by the Trickster Gods’ magic, lay in Kintsujis’ stasis field.
The actual field was something of a drain on her resources, but the Goddess had long learned to overcome her shortcomings in most fields - an inevitable result when immortality gave you an eternity to polish your rough edges. So instead of it taking up most of her attention to maintain a bubble outside of the linear progression of time, she had instead tied off the enchantment in a dormant corner of her spirit, and dedicated a quickly bound Rune spirit to watch over it and maintain its essence flow.
Kintsujis’ main mind, however, was busy with a massed illusion field to hide all forms of her presence from the desert ruins, so that she could observe the god that had appeared.
The man was almost human in appearance, if one discounted that their shaggy orange hair was closer to fur, and they had two triangular ears poking out of the mess. The were of average build and height, had fair skin from the few traces the goddess could see, and were dressed in, of all things, combat robes. The reinforced garments were what a lot of the mid to higher ranks preferred when they reached a point where few actual armours were effective, and cultivators had to rely more heavily on Runic Enchantment. As sewing Runes was as easy as engraving them, wearing lightweight cloth that breathed and was comfortable to wear for long periods simply made more sense than bulky and heavy armour that you'd be miserable in after a few hours.
On their face they wore a stylised fox mask, like a Kami or spirit mask from some cultures, and Kintsuji could see from here it was the most heavily enchanted item the god wore. Probably high Adamantium or Celestium rank. Unfortunately, it seemed one of its main enchantments was identity concealment, as despite Kintsujis’ high Celestium Perception attribute, she couldn't penetrate the masks’ aura of obfuscation.
Lastly, the man wore wrapped Tabi slippers and carried a pair of wicked looking straight swords in a pair of crossed back scabbards.
If anything, apart from the mask, the God looked less like a deity, and more like a soldier from the Immortal Legion. In fact, the way he began to grid search the area, head on a swivel and with his essence manipulated into a flattened detection field that travelled around his body like a radar ping was something straight out of Ares’ playbook.
“I know you are here. You have nothing to fear from me. Quite the opposite. I - we - need your help.” The god stopped and turned in a slow circle, before his eyes seemed to lock with mine from behind the mask. “My name is Mischief, and we really need to speak, face to face.”
Kintsuji didn't know how he could possibly spot her, behind celestium grade illusion wards, but she had little doubt he was addressing her, and not just guessing. Perhaps his future sight was just that clear, and he could see her emerge from the illusion at exactly this point. “To prove my point, I will remove my mask. Please do not attack me.”
Setting actions to words, he undid the clasps of the Kami mask and pulled it away from his face, shaking out his hair as he did so. As the mask came away, it's enchantment stopped protecting him and Kintsujis’ Identify was able to get through his wards.
Mischief. Son of Coyote. [Iridium 9]
Iridium!? Kintsuji had expected high adamantium or low celestium on a world with such an age as this - even as a low stone rank planet, the deities should have been absorbing essence for millions of years. Low Iridium barely even counted as an Immortal!
“Who are you!? What is the meaning of you pretending deification in my presence!?” Kintsuji, incensed, emerged from her illusions, thoroughly thrown by the temerity of a low Demi-god acting like a real god in front of her. “I am a Planetary Auditor for the Celestial Bureaucracy, and this will be reported to your Pantheon!”
The Iridium rank immortal in front of her flinched at her words, but then forced himself to stand up and face her again. “1st lieutenant Mischief, precognitive division of the Immortal Legion, ma’am. And that's just the thing we needed to speak about. The gods of this world are dead.”