“Long ago,” she began, “when our world was still young, there existed 12 gods. Each shaped the world in its own image. Ignis, our All-Father, was one of these gods,” The fire danced as she spoke and shapes began to form in the dancing flames; I was able to recognize the outline of Ignis followed by several other figures that were unknown to me. As we stared into the flames, mesmerized, the image of a large table appeared with the figures seated around it. Two of the figures stood, one a man and the other a woman.

“My Brother Ka, you must know we will be better for it. Let us speed up our work and remake life in our image. It is only right for us to do so!” the fiery woman gestured emphatically; passion emblazed in her posture. Her voice was clear, but it didn’t come from our mother, it seemed to come from the fire itself.

“No Balah! Everything must be balanced,” the man replied, a low voice now resonating, “If we take this measure now then there will be nothing to gain. We will lose everything we have built!” the man reprimanded; anger clear in his voice.

Their fighting continued, the words becoming garbled and indistinct, but the anger resonated in their postures and voice. Through the rising noise, I heard my mother’s voice again, this time sounding distant. Almost like an echo.

“The fight between the siblings, Ka and his sister Balah, lasted deep into the night. Tired of their endless bickering, their words falling on deaf ears, the other gods left them to settle their dispute amongst themselves. But their arguing only grew worse,’ The flames flickered and the scene shifted, showing a fight between Ka and Balah.

It started as angry gesturing, then shoving, and then they began to exchange blows. The intensity of their brawl grew and grew, till Balah suddenly unsheathed a hidden blade and stabbed Ka in the chest. She held Ka in a vice-like grip and his body crumbled to the ground. Ka clutched her hand, which was still wrapped around the knife hilt.

“Balah regretted her actions the moment the knife pierced Ka’s heart. But she could not take back what she had done. As Ka’s breathing became ragged and he drowned in his own blood, she decided to do the only things she could. End his suffering quickly,” in the flames I saw Balah, cradling Ka in her arms, she raised the dagger once more.

“But before Balah could do so a roaring cry shook the earth! Ignis had returned in hopes to end their strife, but seeing his dear friend bloodied and Balah holding a knife to his throat, he charged forth,” I saw Ignis rush forward, beating Balah away with his arm as he helped Ka to his feet. Balah lay on the ground, as the figure of another smaller woman appeared, helping her up a.

“What have you done Balah!” Roared Ignis as he summoned an axe to his hand.

“Is this what you do to get your way?! Have you no loyalty, even to your own brother?!” Ignis continued to bellow, brandishing his weapon, and stepped forward ready to attack Balah. The smaller woman stood before him, arms out ready to protect Balah, and Ignis stopped.

“Step aside Aqua! Unless you wish to meet the same fate as this traitor!”.

“Wait!” a new voice cried out and the shape of a slender man appeared. He rushed to Ignis’s side, in his hands he held long cycle-like blades.

“Ignis there could be a reason for this! I’m sure there is more than what we see. Let us have her stand trial, it is the way of the !@$ !^@#$#,”. I furrowed my brow at the last word, I could hear the figure in the flames speak, but it was muffled as if underwater, and I couldn’t make it out.

“Zephyr is right!” came another voice, the figure of another woman, this one had a wide set body and brandished a massive barreled tube. Inside of it were many smaller tubes and a large box dangled from it by a heavy chain.

“The @#$!@ have made this our @#%#^&$!” she continued, stepping forward to face Ignis. They looked ready to exchange blows when two more figures appeared, attempting to calm their companions.

Then I saw the figure of another man, but this one was different. His shape looked, less defined. Not quite blurry but almost fragmented. Our mother spoke again.

“The gods began to fight amongst themselves, and the world quaked in the wake of their monstrous wrath. Hundreds upon thousands died as our world, Mundus Deorum, slowly broke apart at its seams,” Mother’s voice echoed as the figures all became distorted, floating towards the sky and forming a globe, orbited by a smaller sphere.

I watched as the planet and its moon broke apart. Small fragments of the broken moon became scattered around the planet, forming a ring. Chunks that broke off from the planet began to orbit it, becoming two new moons and leaving massive craters on the planet’s surface.

“Eventually, the pain of our world became so great that it woke the gods from their blind rage. Remorseful for the harm they had caused, they surrendered their bodies to the world," the flames morphed into the figures of nine gods. Each of them then transformed into a crystal that fused with the planet. The fragmented world then began to stitch itself back together. But while the planet became whole once again, the fractured moons remained the scars of the violent battle still visible.

“With that, the world was restored. Now the souls of the gods guide our Vaettir, what we know as our true souls, into the next life. Each is given their rebirth from the trees sewn from their sacrifice. Modrus Maer, being the one sewn from Ignis’s Sacrifice for us,” a giant tree, like the one I saw from my dream, appeared in the blazing fire with a stream of smaller wisps forming around it.

I felt myself slowly come to and I was able to draw my attention away from the fire. That was amazing, I felt dumbstruck by what I had been shown. So everyone was aware of the gods, and they had all experienced what I had. My mind raced with questions. But as I recalled what I had seen an oddity that, at the moment I couldn’t dwell on, came back to me. Some of the words were distorted, did anyone else notice it? It felt reminiscent of when I first inspected Malkadian, when trying to look at the ‘Player’s Soul Name,’ it was distorted as well.

My thoughts were interrupted when our mother spoke again.

“Now you know this story. Some of you may still be too young to remember it correctly. But, through imprinting, we will make sure you never forget it. I have many more stories to tell before you come of age and take your first trials.” She reached into the fire, removing a shimmering vermillion plate.

It was decorated with orbs and shards of crystal in various colors, glowing with red runes and insignias. She stood, taking the plate to an old chest at the far end of the room. Placing the plate inside the chest she closed and locked it. After the chest was closed it seemed to shimmer for a moment, like sunlight on clear water, before disappearing completely. My eyes were wide, and I stared slack-jawed at the spot that used to house the chest. I only looked away from the empty space on the fur rug when a new window appeared.

Pre-tier Milestone Achieved!

Witness Inscription and runic magic coinciding together.

Congratulations!

You have completed the Third Pre-tier Milestone!

You are awarded 10% Growth. You are now at 35% growth.

The time needed to reach adulthood is reduced by 10% of the total requirement. Your attributes and size will be finished adjusting within 10 seconds.

‘That was, a little random,’ I thought as I read the information on the popup, 'Just seeing those trinkets was enough to reach another milestone?’ I contemplated this for a moment when I realized that it made perfect sense. I was a baby; all I could do was look at the world around me. So it made sense that I could reach milestones by being exposed to new things, right?

I needed to find more ways to reach these milestones, from what I had experienced so far, I seemed to grow older each time I reached one. My mind whirled with all this new information. I had gotten comfortable with just letting the days pass, but now I felt energized. My desire to learn filled me with almost manic energy. I couldn’t sit still, I needed to move, to learn, to grow.

Congratulations!

You have advanced from Baby to Toddler.

[Expand]

I mentally chose ‘expand’ and the flood of text hit me like a storm. I hadn’t bothered to expand any of my information before, as I figured that nothing had been changing. But seeing the text filling the window before my eyes I realized just how much I had really achieved. I also noticed that my body had grown bigger once again, I decided to wait to go over the new information when things were quiet and my mother was busy with other things.

Right now I wanted to test out my new ‘toddler’ body, I certainly felt stronger. I decided to start small and attempt a crawl. I positioned myself on all fours and began a slow deliberate shuffle forward. I felt a lot more stable than Malkadian had been when he first tried this, and I was pretty sure I was moving faster as well. Looking up from my efforts I saw that several of my brothers had also gained a size, and some were crawling around as well.

Our mother quickly traversed the yurt, scooping up the runaway goblins, swaddling them so tightly movement was impossible, and putting them to bed. I was not spared from this fate despite my best attempts. As I lay with my brothers I spotted mother passing by, holding a large orange-colored jug with a cloth tied to its top, heading toward the front of the yurt that led outside. I watched her retreating form till she disappeared behind the leather door.

‘Just you wait mother,’ I mused to myself, ‘I’ll join you out there soon enough. Just you wait,’ and with that thought, I summoned the red window and began reading the new information.