For a moment I felt like I was falling, and then my foot made contact with the ground and the void was replaced by a real space. In the center of the room the floor went down several feet, and rising from the indent stood a statue made of the same white marble as the walls and floor. The statue resembled a androgynous person but scaled twice as big. The statue was beautiful in a way I couldn’t quite place. Its face was the most detailed part of it, with a blank expression looking straight ahead. With effort I pulled my eyes away from the statue to look at the rest of the room. The shrine was an octagon, and while behind me was the obsidian black door once again closed every other smooth stone wall held a stained glass window. Each window was a single color of glass forming a scene. a red boar charging hunters; a green field being harvested; a purple cavern being explored by adventurers. Each window captured an aspect of humanity in one color of the rainbow. After fully taking in the room unsure of what else to do I decided to approach the statue. I took a single step and the shattering of glass filled the air as every single window split in two. The shards floated toward the statue leaving windows open to a black void, the same one the tear led to. My body screamed at me to run, glass was flying but I was rooted in place as I watched an oddly familiar scene, it was happening again. First red took its place, and the statue started to glow. Orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple took their place behind the statue, but instead of a ring they formed two curves that almost resembled wings. Still not done, I heard something else shatter, and I found out what when ten long thin black shards, the remains of the door, took their place over the statue's head.
With this final piece the statue came to life, its stiff pose relaxing slightly to become a casual stance as its glass “wings” lowered slightly. The Primordial’s spoke, its voice like pure crystal ringing.
“I am a shard of The Primordial, created to guide humans in the process of creating their avatars. I detect an origin shard of the armor aspect in your possession, do you wish to begin avatar creation?” I took a moment to digest what the being had said, they weren’t the primordial, something more like an automated copy?- The being moved making me flinch in surprise. It paused as it noticed my response.
“Sorry, I was just stretching, being a statue is rather relaxing, but when I wake up I am always a bit stiff.” The being resumed stretching, leaving me a bit baffled. After a moment I recovered. So they aren’t The Primordial, but they are not just a construct either. I looked up at the being, and decided to just ask, it had worked everytime I tried it this week, maybe it would work this time too.
“What do I call you?” The being paused its stretching, placing its hand on its chin, and it smiled and pointed up in an exaggerated emote.
“I’ve got it! You may call me Prim, because I am a piece of The Primordial!” the being- Prim said excitedly. They were incredibly expressive for a literal statue, and I felt the last bit of fear I had about this being melted away.
“Prim, how do I make an avatar?”
“Easy, first you hand me the orb, and then I will help you to see and manipulate the origin essence from the orb.” I didn’t follow the second half, but I understood the first part, and I decided to go with it. I held out the armor aspect orb and Prim carefully grabbed it, raising it to their chest and letting go, leaving the orb floating there.
“Now you’re going to want to take a seat.” I looked around, and noticed a seat behind me that hadn’t been there before. Carved from the same stone as the rest of the building throne may have been a more accurate descriptor. The throne was pretty simple, only decorated with fourteen glass panels that made a ring where my back would go like The Primordial’s. Prim had been nothing but polite and earnest so far, so I trusted them and took a seat, which was about as comfortable as it looked. Once I was settled Prim spoke again.
“Now I will temporarily elevate you, this may be unsettling.”
“What do you mean by unsettling?” I got my answer very quickly as Prim stiffened in a neutral pose, and the black crown rose off their head, shrinking down until it looked like it would easily fit… My head. I stiffened as the crown settled above me and a tingle ran through my body, leaving me feeling odd, but not bad. I relaxed, only to jump as I heard Prim's voice directly in my head.
“I have now elevated you, you can… oh, it looks you’ve already figured it out, congratulations!”
“Already figured what ou-” I stopped before finishing the sentence, my voice sounded melodic, almost like Prim’s, and my mouth wasn’t moving, or my vocal cords. I tried to reach up and feel my face, but my hand didn’t move. I was floating several feet above the throne, my body still seated on it.
“Aaah, what’s happening! What did you do!?”
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“Oh, you didn’t intend to do that. Do not worry, I have just temporarily elevated you so that you can create your avatar.” Prim explained, and I tried to relax, taking- imagining taking deep breaths and latching onto one word Prim had said.
“Temporary, you said this is temporary.”
“Yes, I have temporarily elevated y-” I cut Prim off.
“Can you undo it now? Sorry, could you please undo the elevation?”
“Yes, just will your spirit back to your body and I will return you to your natural state.” Right, I can do this, I just need to focus. At my willing my sight drifted back into my body, and I felt pins and needles as the crown raised off my head and returned to Prim. Prim relaxed again and gave their arms a quick stretch.
“What the heck was that!?” I shouted as I stood up. Prim didn’t seem to mind.
“I elevated you, granting you greater control of your spirit and origin energy so you could begin to create your avatar.” I took a few breaths, I was fine, I wasn’t in trouble or danger. I had been very snappy at Prim, and looking back a moment I had overreacted.
“Sorry, I panicked. you really should have explained what being elevated meant before you did it, but I guess I should have asked. This won’t cause any problems for my body, right?”
“No, when your spirit leaves your body it is in stasis, it will not even age until you return to it.” I took a few breaths, and then sat back down.
“Alright, let's do this Prim.” Prim smiled, and then stiffened as the crown (which I was starting to suspect was their actual form) moved to my head, and this time I didn’t jump when Prim’s voice spoke in my head.
“Alright, you are elevated again, you can move outside your body by willing it, and can manipulate flows of origin energy to create your avatar.” Testing out my abilities I drifted toward one of the windows to the void, which to my surprise looked entirely different, the darkness was gone, replaced by vast streams of ever changing color. I bumped into an invisible wall as I tried to get closer to the outside.
“Careful, those barriers are made to keep the Origin out, not keep you in. The Pure Origin would rather effectively vaporize an unprotected being of your size. I do not intend to offend”
“None taken.” I responded. The endless rainbow will melt me, noted. Deciding to distance myself from the rainbow sea of death I approached the statue, the gray orb floated over the statues chest, and I noticed something slightly different about it. The orb felt less like a solid orb and more like a tangle of energy. Following what felt natural I grabbed the flow with a mental hand, and with a tug the orb broke apart entirely, becoming a cloud of gray light like the sea of color outside the shrine. It was a wisp of pure origin energy. Looking at the cloud of light as it slowly spread out around the room I realized that I had no idea what to do next.
“Hey Prim, how do I start my avatar?”
“The statue. In addition to serving as my body the statue is made to temporarily hold an avatar, allowing you to see and manipulate it better. In order to become more than smoke the energy needs shape. As this is armor aspect it needs to become some form of armor, but beyond that it is up to you.”
“Alright, but how do I manipulate it?”
“It will become what you desire, trust yourself and follow your instincts.” Prim sounded just like Jake. Alright, here goes nothing. I tried to grab the armor aspect like I had grabbed the orb, and it formed a loose ball in front of me. Alright, that's a start, now to make it something else. I imagined a breastplate, and the smoke globed onto the statue, loosely resembling a breastplate. It's a step in the right direction, but Jakes looks like real armor, how do I do that? I imagined the breastplate, solid steel like the knights, and I willed it into existence, the smoke shifted, gaining a slight metallic sheen. Alright, that’s progress. I got closed and tried again, this time focusing specifically on it being steel, and it solidified into steel completely. Yes! I had done it! The only problem was it was just over the chest, and I wanted protection in other places too. I tried to will leg armor into being, and though it partially worked it took some of the breastplate with it, leaving the breastplate short. I tried making chainmail, and after a few attempts I got it to form the links properly. I got more coverage, covering the body, arms, and upper legs, but it still wasn’t enough. I was thinking about how to best defend myself when I had an idea. I imagined the two foot wooden shield I had been using, and watched the armor transform into a vague shield strapped to the right arm. I only had enough mail left over to cover a small part of the chest, but it was enough. Making up my mind I envisioned the statue with a two foot round shield strapped to its arm, the entire thing metal unlike the mostly wood one I had in real life. It took a few tries to get it just right, but soon enough it was done. With the remaining energy I made chainmail greaves to protect my legs where I had nearly been bit last time.
“There. What do you think Prim?”
“I like it, do you wish to finish the avatar?”
“Yes, is there anything special I need to do?”
“No, just return to your body and I’ll teach you to call upon the avatar.” I willed myself back to my body, and as the crown left me I felt pins and needles erupt all through my body. Ack, this was much worse than last time. I stood and shook my body out a bit trying to get my body feeling back to usual, and Prim watched for a moment in amusement before joining in, shaking enthusiastically. By the time they finished my pins and needles were gone and I was laughing hard, leaving Prim watching me slightly confused.