Aleph tries to blink the tears out of his eyes, but even those are gone. The material reality fades away like a distant dream. One he remains fully lucid for. Walls are stripped away and floors vanish into smoke. It all disappears until what remains is a child. Small, red, and with far bigger arms than-
I’m riding in her body!?
He was seeing the world from the eyes of a younger Ravanaughtilus. One who grew into wealth. High ceilings seemed higher and tall siblings seemed taller as she remained in the Vauntergale Household even after the departure of her Incubus father. Despite being the first child, Elves grew twice as fast and lived half as long as demons did, let alone Oniricus. Being the black sheep of the family but not particularly loved nor scorned, she turned to attention seeking. It took her to the streets, where she well and truly saw what her kind faced every day.
But the foolishness of youth is not to be underestimated. Neither is their inquisitiveness. A combination of both led to the beginning of her search for her family, rather than spending her time studying. Eventually, she came upon what she needed- for a price. It was only after smart uses of her inherited wealth that a lead brought Ravanaugh to her great grandmother, who worked as a parlor owner on a small corner of town. She came in expecting to see a example of who she should be, what role she should fit in, how she would find love, but ended up finding an old woman too tired to stand up for her people anymore. Even so, she treated Ravanaugh with greater love and warmth than her own family did, teaching her the history that the Archival Guild plundered and the gods hid away. The Tinrankus bloodline, and their long list of conquests along the South Incline, until the Wrath War.
The end to many long lines and longer histories.
When the succubi were killed in droves and by a coalition of other demons and their worst enemies; their antitheses, the Onidrudes. Where the cirus’ powers lay in Dreams, in the Exchange that brought them both information and power, the Druids came from Nightmares. Mind control, shocks, dreamless states that left them unable to rest their weary minds nor souls. They took control of weak-willed forests and brought them to bear against them. It was when they gained an advantage in the steppes of the Incline that they began to beat them back, and soon, they could overcome even those in the strongest of their forest hearthlands. They quite nearly erradicated their age-long enemy in those days using their magic. So thoroughly, in fact, that it angered gods and demons alike.
Soon, six nations of demons - the Onicirus themselves included in that number- marched to battle, and what followed was a century-long war of pain and misery. Where their enemies were numerous and strong in force, the Oniricus war machine was still strong after absorbing a nation whole. Magicks burned whole cities and scorched the earth that maintained their enemies supply lines, leaving small periods of rest from their unending enemy.
But it wasn’t enough- it was never enough.
The Onigin covered the land like a tide of green weeds, and as dim as their population was, their unending numbers meant they possessed the most spellcasters, artisans, and all other trades the demons possessed. Goblins filled every gap, both figuratively and literally.
The Onidamh, who they served as antitheses to, took an ominous support role in the war that belied their initially base and carnivorous nature. They drained the body rather than the mind, and ate even the rotting bodies that festered on either side. Much as the cirus overcame their worst enemy by taking them out of their natural environment, the dhampir thrived in the dark to the point of perfection. When the war began the dhampir were slaughtered in the hundreds. By its end, the Oniricus came to fear the night.
Then there were the Onicor, who were unremarkable in all but their strength and stamina. With the help of the Onigin crafting armours blessed with greater durability by the God of War, an orc themselves then, they became their direct adversaries for most of the war.
Onivan were tricky. Much like cirus, they shifted forms, but rather than doing so to infiltrate or create warforms fit for battle, they shifted from the corporeal to the incorporeal. The deft of their kind could shift portions rather than all of themselves, entirely tying up their martial attackers and allowing them to strike at the soft inner core of their designs if they went unanswered. The revenants grew greater control of their abilities with the blessing of the god of Undeath, unknown even after their passing of the torch.
The last of them came to be the most damaging. The Onijin are strong of soul and mind, wielding inherently powerful fire magicks. While the cirus’ armoured core found it difficult to protect the contents within, the djinn had a much easier time using space magic to keep themselves mobile and protected than the cirus did, compensating for their weak bodies. Combined with the array of distractions, they could melt through their lines as they struggled to respond effectively.
At first their armies dominated the battlefield, and their five armies were cut in half within the first decade of the war. But they suffered from a problem the enemy didn’t, and that was time. Time to grow in power, in numbers. Time to recoup their losses. Time to keep vital targets safe, to guard their lands from stray forces. Their failure was in going too far too fast, and being as spread out as they became, they bled their forces too fast under the combined, united enemy forces. Where before they struck out as their forces came, they formed tactics that became the baseline of Total Domination Warfare, and served to win them the next nine decades of conflict.
This was all up until they finally surrendered. Some surviving druids took advantage of the dropped guards to ransack their capital so thoroughly it became permanently barren of plantlife, forming a part of what would become the wastelands in the south. From the continent beyond, the elves eventually settled in Mortum, a city on the edge of the peninsula with a ravine of death that premeditated the Oniricus’ settlement of the region. It lies as a trade hub for the southern continent and the northern lands of demons, necromancers, and a few other minor nations.
The reason the archive was able to keep a monopoly on this information was through simple means; they bought out the weary and downtrodden Oniricus’ descendants, and the other demons had a vested interest in the ignorance of their once-magnificent enemy. They could even turn a tidy profit on selling the secrets to others, sometimes in the form of soul contracts to keep them just that- secrets.
And so their plot unfolded before Ravanaugh, then, as she realized why they had truly warred against their people. The ability to make the mind, body, and soul malleable in the process of exchange left them unbeholden to soul contracts.
The Onigin received the aid of secretive master artisans, the Onicor were bolstered by the might of a god, the Onidamh turned the tides on what was supposed to be their most dangerous adversary, the Onivan were equally blessed and turned from magic target practice into dextrous and nimble foes, and the Onijin were able to “suddenly” discover spatial magic that assisted greatly in solving their supply problems and their fragile nature at the same time.
The game was rigged against them from the beginning, and the first place she began searching for clues was the Geeks. They were so named after being called as such for the founder’s deep knowledge of earth culture. Exactly who was kept hidden from her in their early days of doing information brokerage for them, bartering knowledge and, on occasion, performing exchanges with members willing to share.
She rose through the ranks slowly over decades, and now is one of the higher “ranking” members of the Geeks in Mortum. With this, she became privy to more forbidden knowledge- knowledge like the one who named them in the first place. Something worth knowing for Aleph in particular if he hopes to change the name to something more… appropriate for such a large society.
The reason it was kept hidden in the first place was because of the character of the person in question. Known by innumerable names, from The Demon King to the Flesh Alchemist, they were the most destructive force since the final battle that began the Restitution Era. So much so that their creations still cause havoc today. But even so, they were so eccentric as to ask all, whoever they may be, to call him by the name ‘Ben.’, no matter the horrors he unleashed.
The society was new when the founder met them, and was even invited to dine with them- mere years before the man’s demise. During this brief time, they recorded as much as they could about them, and Ben noticed their obsession eclipsed even theirs in the collection of knowledge. Amused by their dedication to finding out more about Earth culture and why the gods and cosmic forces keep bringing them to Alles, they were given a cube that would later serve to teleport possessions of the late Ben to the society for safekeeping in the event of their death.
These are still tightly guarded today.
Aleph experiences all of these as individual memories. Finely trimmed snapshots of conversation and culture. Sometimes with slight gaps filled where details were lost.
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Aleph observes as Ravanaugh comes to lobotomize freshly dead subjects and analyze nerve tissue. Magic reveals the link between nerves and the bindings of creation formed from mana, and he understands the nature of the mind.
Aleph watches bodies collapse and remend themselves under Ravanaughs’ abilities. Chronic illnesses and failed soul catalyst imprints being removed by her in turn, and so he understands the nature of the body.
He witnesses souls die and collapse in experiments in Vauntergale Hospice care, rekindling and reforming with the help of Ravanaugh, and discovers the nature of the soul.
In the blink of an eye, decades of developing her soul trait come to head. And she keeps going. And going. Training her abilities to break out of soul contracts in order to see what the Archives are keeping hidden, but still unable to use them with her status as a Succubi is inescapable no matter what concealment or identity she tries.
More experiments go by in a blur. Some with the help of the society, others independent, others done just for the sake of doing them. She collects allies, sets just the right amount of rivals at the right distance from herself to dodge any sudden attacks. The game is set for just the right person to rig the remainder of the board in her favor. Enough to finally accrue leverage over the guilds- to discover exactly what she has been looking for. And not just the Archives either. The Combined Arms, the Free Artisans, and the Tower of Magic. They were inextricably linked.
She just needed to find the right person to free those bindings that wrapped around that which she sought. When that finally happens…
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Ravanaughtilus Tinrankus Vauntergale
Aleph’s life grew to feel increasingly artificial under the scrutiny of the demon, who was much more experienced than either Alec or Aleph at identifying flaws in the tapestry of a soul.
His parents are faceless and nameless, but still present enough in morals and lesson to feel as though they are still properly remembered. His hometown is still a core facet of his being, though, and it’s a wonder to behold. As though witnessing an artifact be built, the fluff cut out for her viewing pleasure. The transitions were seamless- no evidence of any manipulation whatsoever, somehow, despite the symptoms being blatantly there to an outside observer.
She compares his life, growing up in New Mexico, to hers. Being far hotter than anywhere she has had the displeasure of living at, it was a scorching land with the highest temperature in the world in some areas of the state. Ironically, human culture associates demons with fire due to an inherent religious tie. One that predates Solomon, even. The only demon that Ravanaugh knows of that makes the average Alles citizen think of fire are Djinns, whose flame can rival that of dragons on a similar scale of power. Even so, even Aleph was subject to this bias. In her case, it was because of the scales, and some strange association with dragons.
To be fair, I did drain one to earn these. But that’s besides the point.
The point was in how earthlings seemed to have so much in common, yet so much entirely different. He lived with both luxuries she has always dreamed of having and entirely without some things she has always considered basic. She suddenly took in the full reason that a vast majority of new cutting edge technology came from Luna and Measurement’s pantheon- it’s because he was a human who recognized where magic could pick up the slack for technology and vice versa.
Besides that, she saw each of Earth’s limitations in turn, and sensing the emotions he held towards things she couldn’t live without- the aircabs, teleportation, telekinesis- she saw things from his perspective. Considering magic, spatial magic was absurdly broad in its potential uses and conveniences. What kept it from being more prevalent than schools already are trying to was also unbelievably difficult to learn, as many of the concepts regarding its use departed from tangible things. There was a reason why teleporters never moved- it’s because the necessary math for finding your destination is more complex with each additional motion vector. Suddenly, she reached a pit- not an empty hole, but a deep and unfathomable pit of learning.
She was, very quickly, buried under absurd amounts of math, physics, and esoteric theory.
“Oh, that can’t be good. You’re faltering more than I’m comfortable with- you should probably ease off before you regret it.”
So lost in the whimsy of ‘lost’ history, Ravanaugh forgot to tween the faucet that formed the connection between her and Aleph to moderate things to an extent where she wouldn’t just be deluged in information before she could see past to present. It was Alec’s words which drew her from that reverie, and despite her shock at another present mind, she quickly ‘eased off’ on her end of the connection.
“Why do you say that? His soul should only be about three times as dense as mine.” She spoke to the void. This person- he must be embedded in his soul, so she couldn’t actually see him while she was in the space between the soul and mind where the self internalizes thought and being. The connection was two way, so she imagined he was able to hear her in much the same way she heard him.
“There is a flaw in your model when it comes to internalizing soul information. Density isn’t the only important thing- Aleph is taking in some of your knowledge on souls right now, and through a strange daisy chain, I’m internalizing part of that too. Enough to say that your model doesn’t weigh in the sheer difference in concept that memories may have. And by concepts, I don’t mean metaphorical ones- I mean- agh, this is difficult to explain. I don’t want to interrupt you too much- Aleph can relay my thoughts to you later- but consider how different the knowledge in your mind is to what you’re taking in, and how much you can afford to internalize it if part of it is already known.”
The second consciousness disappeared from her soul’s proprioception, and underneath it, she saw the inner workings of something deeply powerful for a split second. Compared to the pit she had stumbled into a few moments ago, what she just saw was… unbelievably deep in scope.
Okay- nevermind. Let’s move on first.
She continued to look through Alephs’ life story, his society. Magic apparently made Alles’ scientists to skip over many parts of the ‘tech tree’, which results in a very different appreciation of concepts and valued scientific theory than on Earth. There, science is advancing to such a degree that it may just infringe on magic. Even so, this growth was slow. Somehow, Earth managed a comparably slower explosion of tech, but that was more due to Earthlings coming to Alles than anything else.
Earthlings that Ravanaugh now found herself agreeing with Aleph on, combing through his thoughts and opinions.
Definitely different places and times. Or maybe just time? Time is one of those few fields I haven’t been able to get information on yet, so that may provide clues.
Truth be told, while the demon had indeed collected troves of magic over the decades, not all of it was committed to memory enough to be of use to Aleph. The basics would prove incredibly useful, but Ravanaugh?
Her main weapon wasn’t her support tools.
Ravanaugh witnessed Aleph’s discovery that his grandpa and great grandpa had both worked in the nuclear physics program. How his father had hidden it, and how he scorned them for it. More importantly, however, she witnessed how there was a growing number of small voids of information in Aleph’s memories.
Points that just vanished from memory, like missing scenes from a movie that you didn’t even know existed in the first place. If it wasn’t for the fact that she spent so much time practicing on getting around soul contracts, she wouldn’t even know where to look- but she did. She saw the small, nigh imperceptible changes it made in memories, to overt them in a way an outsider couldn’t see and were just as imperceivable to the person looking at their own memories. Not one who didn’t know what to look for, and how the contract worked in exact terms- something most soul contracts also restricted sharing . To such an outsider, they might still see that there’s something that should be there, but not why there isn’t.
Even so, this was beyond even Ravanaugh- these were so frequent and so flawless in their execution that she recognized perhaps only one in every five this way. In fact, she had never seen such a sheer level of consistency in their wipe, especially not across the soul and mind. Were it only one of either, recovery is still possible if it’s not too long after their removal. Before one adapts to match the other, depending on how strong your soul is.
Here- the modifications were so perfect there was absolutely zero dissonance. Soul contracts always, always have some amount of dissonance that results from a scalper not being able to perfectly match their modifications to mind and soul. You can get close, but as far as Ravanaugh’s ears can reach, nobody has ever actually accomplished it.
For the remainder of the time, Ravanaugh went through Aleph’s life multiple times, being careful to avoid overstressing her own soul in the process. Maybe a bit too much focus was placed on their life rather than relevant information, but at minimum, she had acquired a significant contribution to the Geeks.
Maybe even a name change, if Aleph was adamant enough about it. If it was anyone else making the suggestion, she would have been mortified. So, it really depends on how much stock the rest of the organization is going to place in him.
Her thoughts stilled as soon as she felt the pull that she knew to mean their time here was over- the exchange was finished. She just needed to relax herself, and allow it to take her out of Aleph’s soul-mind connection.
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Aleph
He resisted the pull as much as possible. He was still absorbing all the information he could, and he wasn’t end it without a-
Violently pulled in a fashion he has never experienced before, he snapped back to his own body just as Ravanaugh snapped back to hers.
He then remembered what they had been doing prior to finishing.
“Oh.” He said, not sure what else to say.
“Oh.” Ravanaugh echoes, in a similar state of ‘dress’.