The priestess walked into my room with a confidence that I personally thought was quite misplaced. She was a women who looked to have been just out of her teenage years and her white and gold robes suited her well. She would probably be described as pretty instead of beautiful, but regardless the woman was attractive.

I had always found it funny that the gods put so much importance on appearance when it came to their servants, but I was beginning to understand now that I had Holly. I was proud that my Holly was attractive, and I enjoyed the fact that she was pleasing to the eye. Judging by the priestess before me and what I remember of various clergy amongst the five worlds, that opinion of mine was not a unique one.

I don’t know what gave me away, but as soon as the door shut the priestess began to speak.

“I know that you are no child, monster.”

I would have liked to be able to speak, but my body was still too young to do so clearly. Instead I laughed, it conveyed the same message. I didn’t think much of the gods or their various pawns, all of them were misguided things utilizing a power that was not their own. The gods pulled power from the faith of their worshipers, and their angels and clergy pulled power from them. In my eyes it was all ridiculous, the only power that could ever be truly relied on was your own.

“That cursed eye of yours, I can sense a faint hint of demonic mana from it. Even if that wasn’t the case, no normal baby could go six days without food and still be as healthy as you are. Your deception has failed foul thing, and now you will be cleansed by the light of Lady Sol!”

I did not realize that I was still leaking some of my power, I had thought that all of it was tightly contained and controlled within me. I suppose I will need to work more on the matter, but for now it won’t be an issue.

I looked into the eyes of the priestess as she began to gesture around herself and chant, the moment we locked eyes it was over.

The mind and soul of mortals are such fragile things, yet for some reason both the forces of heaven and the abyss seem to find them quite durable. To them the mortal soul is even a valuable form of both currency and power. To me a mortal soul is a small spark gifted by a being far greater than the comprehension of all but my siblings, nothing more and nothing less. It was easy to snuff out the spark, and it was easy to change it, the only thing moderately difficult was creating a spark from nothing but then my siblings and I had never been much for creation.

My power swirled around the woman’s very being and watched as her soul began to flicker and change. For a moment I could see into the priestess’ mind, and what I saw there was amusing. She envisioned herself as surrounded by light as what I could only assume was her goddess watched over her protectively. As shadow began to eat away at the light washing over everything her mind trembled and the construct of her goddess wavered.

When one shadow reached the mental image the woman held of herself she came to understand who and what I was, and like all mortals that understanding soon broke the woman’s mind. Her thoughts, beliefs, memories, and even her very personality shattered into small fragments of nothingness.

The priestess fell to her knees and drooled as she jabbered about nothing. It was a sight that was both pathetic and impressive. Pathetic in that it showed how fragile mortals were, and impressive as it showed that the woman was strong enough to survive seeing me for what I really was. Not many mortals could hold on to their lives after even so much as a glimpse of one of the eldritch, and those that do are usually slowly eased into witnessing us. This priestess survived on her own with no preparation whatsoever, even if I only held a small fraction of my whole surviving after witnessing any amount of an eldritch being was an impressive feat for a mortal.

“Gah. Go Gah Gaa…”

Unfortunately I could not express my admiration of this woman clearly, though the broken shell kneeling before my crib and drooling probably wouldn’t have understood me even if I spoke clearly. I wondered how long it would take for the woman’s mind to recover, or if it even would. Somehow I suspected it would, the fact that she had survived at all was a credit to the woman’s inner strength. The priestess would likely recover on her own eventually, and afterwards her life would be forever changed. Recovering on her own would leave her feeling incomplete, and she would abandon everything as searched for fulfillment with a fanatical obsession that would dwarf all other thoughts or feelings she once had. Of course only one thing would sate that need for her now…

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That was the outcome if she recovered on her own at least, but I didn’t have time for that. I was hungry and I needed a place of relative safety for my body to grow, and that meant the priestess needed to get up and tell the people of the manor whatever they needed to hear so that they’d treat me normally again.

I had never personally done this before, but some of my siblings have and I understood the concept. I felt it wouldn’t be too difficult to aid in the priestess’ mental recovery.

I locked eyes with the woman once again and tried to encourage a full mental recovery within her…

***

Olivia walked out of the room and tried to hide her expression of awe. The duke wouldn’t understand, the church wouldn’t understand, the entire world wouldn’t understand. Olivia had gone into that room as an ignorant and filthy worm convinced of its own importance, but she came out as something new. Her master had shown that filthy worm the truth of so many things, more than she could ever possibly hope to comprehend and it had unmade her.

“But now I am reborn…”

Olivia whispered reverently as she walked down the hall to the duke’s office. Her master, the one that the duke had foolishly named Charles, was a being she couldn’t help but worship with all her heart and soul. He was so far beyond the thing that she had once proclaimed as her goddess that it was laughable to compare the two. At the thought of her past target of worship a sneer came across Olivia’s face.

The goddess Sol was the caretaker of the sun and was said to be the origin of both light and fire. Olivia had believed wholeheartedly in that doctrine, but a mere glimpse of her master had caused the years of religious dogma she had known to be true all her life to collapse like the lies they were. Sol was as much the origin of light as Olivia herself was the queen of the fairy lands. If any could claim to be the origin of light it would be her master, as he existed as both light and shadow before creation itself.

Thoughts of her master filled Olivia with a euphoria that she could only describe as spiritual fulfillment. Her brief contact with the being Lux Et Umbra had changed her as well as shown her so many things. Olivia understood now that she was a meaningless spark of inconsequential value amongst the vast endlessness of all things. Her life was worth so very little it almost didn’t even matter, and the lives of others were the same, as was the world they all lived on. Before the eyes of the eldritch all of creation was merely an amusing diversion from eternity. Olivia’s very being, her very soul, was nothing more than the random construct of a system built by a long dead Creator.

It was a humbling realization, but also a joyful one as she now understood what could give her existence some small modicum of meaning. All she had to do was devote herself fully to her new master, to offer all she was to a being that was so far beyond herself. By serving her master she would be connected, even in an infinitesimally small way, to something great beyond her comprehension. Her life would be meaningful if she lived it for Lux Et Umbra…

Olivia could feel her master, he was always with her now. The comforting presence always just beyond the reality she perceived, a constant existence that would never disappear or abandon her. To Olivia it was like she had been both blind and deaf before, but now after only a single glimpse of the truth she could see and hear better than anyone else alive.

Opening the door to the duke’s study Olivia found herself staring at the man who had sired her master’s mortal vessel. She pitied the man, because she knew that he would die for incurring her master’s ire. Even still it was not her place to concern herself with the duke’s fate, her master needed only one thing from her now.

With a smile Olivia spoke with the certainty that all followers of Sol were trained to project.

“Rejoice Duke Aver, for your son is neither cursed nor possessed. Instead the boy is blessed by one of the gods!”

The duke sunk into his seat with relief from Olivia’s words and felt as if a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

“You are sure priestess? Charles is not some unholy spawn, but in fact blessed by the gods?”

Olivia suppressed her distaste at the duke ignorantly calling her master an unholy spawn, she merely smiled graciously at the man and reassured him.

“Yes, I can feel the power of the gods coming off… Charles. The boy has a very strong blessing, and a very bright future. Treat him well Duke Aver, for the gods smile upon your son…”

The duke’s sigh of relief and growing smile told Olivia all she needed to know. Her work was done here, now she was faced with a far more difficult undertaking. Her master may not desire anything of her, but Olivia loved her new god and wished to offer him something for all that he had given her and Olivia knew of no better offering to a deity than fresh converts…

***

Holly was with me less than ten minutes after the priestess left my room, though I was surprised by how different Holly looked without her pregnant belly. She was still my Holly, just different. Thinner, and with a strange new aura about her. It was a good change for my Holly, I liked it.

“There, there little one. I know, I know, you’re hungry. Who wouldn’t be, those mean people kept you from me for so long…”

As I drank from Holly I felt a bit of my hunger ebb away, but instead I felt a new desire take its place.

I think I could understand why Spreading Throughout All had such a fixation on creating cultists devoted to her, the feeling of that one soul tied to my being was almost intoxicating. I wanted more…