READ THE AUTHOR'S NOTE ABOVE PLEASE

TL;DR: Patreon is paused til the end of the year. Forgotten is not over. I am fine-ish, enough that I won’t just randomly keel over and die, at least. Mostly very busy. Updates will be infrequent.

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Aperio tilted her head as Caethya continued to stare at her. For a moment she considered whether she should strike a pose or something of the like, but decided against it. Her love was enthralled with something else, after all.

Instead, the All-Mother dipped a bit deeper into her well and let the pure mana permeate the space they occupied. In addition to being quite the visual spectacle, it should also offer Caethya some small hints as to what she could do with the piece of the System now under her control.

"If you told me mana came in so many varieties a few years ago, I would have called you crazy." Caethya's face was full of wonder as she reached out, trying to get some of Aperio's freshly-summoned mana to coalesce in her hand. "But then, it's not really a different kind is it?"

"It is just more pure," Aperio replied. "More potent, and much more dangerous for those not strong enough to control it." She hesitated for a moment, tilting her head to the other side. "Think of it as undiluted; the most potent of potions."

"Well yeah, it's what you use, I'd assume it's potent."

"I also use the mana everyone else does," Aperio said with a raised brow. "Besides, you will also be able to do this once you understand the System — and the universe itself — a bit more."

"I get to use more potent mana if I understand you better?" Caethya asked with a small smile. "Sounds like a good deal to me."

"You know that is not what I meant."

Her love laughed in reply. "I do, but I also don't care. I like my interpretation much better."

Aperio would be lying if she said she didn't agree, but she had expected her love to be a bit more intrigued by the piece of the System she could now control.

"Now," Caethya began as she turned around to look back at the runes, "what should I do with you?"

"Change it to suit your needs," Aperio replied, a thought causing a portion of the runes to rearrange and give Caethya access to the mana this segment held. "Like that."

The Demigoddess let out a sigh and shook her head. "Unlike you, I can't just think real hard at this and have it do what I want. I think it'll be a bit before I can actually do something with this. But hey, in the meantime I can watch you fix whatever Epemirial did to the Verenier System. That's bound to teach me something."

"You could try to find some of the tainted parts yourself, if you wish." Aperio offered Caethya her hand, bringing the two of them to yet another physical representation of Verenier's System.

This one governed a few of the more esoteric concepts that many mortals would argue were vital to living on a world, like gravity and the circulation of mana. The latter was not as important, as Verenier's leylines had been redirected by a myriad of mortal constructs over the many millennia it had existed. She would have to go and look at those at one point or another; perhaps she could learn a bit about how she appeared to function from an outside perspective.

"Oh, this makes much more sense than the other bits we looked at," Caethya said and let go of the All-Mother's hand. She pointed at a set of runes that hung just above her eye level. "That's Verenier and its moons, right?"

"Indeed," Aperio said after she glanced at the runes in question. It took her moment to parse the rather messy assembly, but it was easy enough to understand. "All it does," she began, pointing at the various runes as she explained, "is tell gravity to not apply its normal rules to them. If the laws of space and time remained unaltered, the spatial bodies could not possibly be as close together as they are currently. Nor, after Ferio blew up Venerier's third moon, would the planet have continued operating the way it always has... Maybe I should make a new moon?"

The idea — as ridiculous as it was — enticed her. It wasn't the creation of a world, but it was close enough to it without inching over towards something she didn't trust herself to do yet, like making a place mortals might call home.

Caethya turned her head and glanced at Aperio. "It would seem you always valued appearances quite highly." She smiled and looked back at the runes. "A permanent alteration of the laws of the universe simply to be able to have a pretty constellation of moons. Next you are gonna tell me that Diskrye only exists because you really wanted more pretty space to look at but your old self couldn't be bothered to make it personally."

"That is probably true," Aperio replied with a shrug of her wings. "We could always ask it."

"I'm not all that keen on meeting Diskrye again if I am completely honest." Caethya shuddered a little. "I get the feeling they really don't like me, or the fact that I am with you."

"Luckily for us, it does not matter what the embodiment of space thinks. What anyone besides either of us thinks of our relationship, for that matter."

"True, but I would still rather not meet them. At least not until I've become a Goddess myself." Her love smiled as she glanced over her shoulder at the piece of the System she could now call her own. "I get the feeling it won't be that long anymore."

Aperio only mirrored her love’s smile in reply. Caethya was much closer to ascension than she thought, but she wouldn't tell her that. Not yet at least. If her love were to be on the cusp of a decision that would harm her future potential, she would intervene of course, though that scenario was unlikely to even happen in the first place.

"I also have a question. Did Ferio really blow up a moon? That seems a bit much, even for her."

"She was a child unaware of her own power." Aperio shrugged and gestured towards the System. "It was nothing I could not fix. Even if this is rather… crude.

"The moons also help to keep the magic of Verenier in the correct balance. When Ferio destroyed one, I had to do something to keep that balance. This is apparently the solution I had considered passable at the time." Her wings twitched a little as she felt mana flowing through that particular bit of the System, most of it simply bleeding off into the nothing they stood in. "It is horribly inefficient."

"Is efficiency really a concern for you?" Caethya asked, her eyes fixed on the All-Mother. "You do have infinite mana, after all."

"Not from that perspective, no." Aperio stepped closer, brushing a hand over her love's shoulder before reaching out and grabbing hold of a set of runes. "But it does make me feel wasteful, and I do not enjoy that."

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"I understand," Caethya said, nodding. "But you did what you had to do to keep the balance. That's what's important."

"Yes, you are right," Aperio agreed. "But it still feels like a failure on my part, to have to resort to such a… clumsy solution."

"But you made it work," Caethya said, looking at the All-Mother with a smile. "That's what counts." She returned her gaze back to the runes. "And what now? Also, what did Epemirial do to this?"

"Now," the All-Mother said, her voice taking on a more serious tone, the echo of each word a little more distinct, "we must find a more permanent solution to the problem of the missing moon. One that does not rely on a crude solution I likely threw together in a couple seconds.

"As for what Epemirial's goons did," she continued as she highlighted a small 'attachment' to the cluster of runes for Caethya, "they tried — and seemingly succeeded — to get themselves more rights in the System than they should have had."

The All-Mother squinted slightly as she focused more fully on the unwanted addition to her System. At least I didn't give this thing access to more fundamental functions… For one reason or another, her old self had seen fit to allow what was essentially a glorified pulley system for both gravity and magic to actually change how mana itself interacted with mortals. That seems… wrong.

"How?" Caethya asked. "Seems like it shouldn't be possible to get into the relevant portions of the System from here. Unless this somehow needs to change some fundamentals to keep the world running as people know it?"

"It does not need to, no. The construct would be quite a lot more complicated if I did not involve it, but not overly so." It would seem I really did not care about my own creation…

It wasn't really a surprise, if Aperio was honest with herself. The only thing she seemed to have cared about in the past was not being bored; a sentiment she could agree with at times, but not at the expense of her creation. Besides, there are better ways to stave off boredom. One of these ways was spending time with Caethya, as even if they did nothing, the All-Mother felt content in a way she could not truly remember ever feeling before.

"What are you suddenly so happy about?" Caethya asked before she poked a finger into Aperio's stomach. "Some idiots broke reality, and you are over here just smiling."

"What?" Aperio asked, focusing on Caethya. "Am I not allowed to enjoy this? Fixing my creation and seeing you enjoy learning about it seem like prime candidates for my enjoyment."

"I expected your reaction to be more… shocked? I guess?" her love replied. "I'm pretty shocked about this, at least. To learn that the very things that let our world exist can be changed by a few determined deities is unsettling to say the least."

"Could be changed," Aperio corrected. "During my absence, the Elder Gods were given special rights to take care of the System in my stead. Predictably, they abused those rights. But, as I am returned, this is no longer possible. Every aspect of the System is run by myself and under my supervision."

It was the only time the All-Mother would not curtail her ability to be omniscient in any way. The foundation of reality was a bit too important to give in to her rather selfish wish to be just another person. There was also the fact that she rather enjoyed being in charge of it all. Having to keep track of — and in some cases intervene with — the myriad of interactions happening at any one time challenged her more than many other things were capable of doing. Not enough to be a strain by any stretch of the imagination, but more than an idle thought would be able to handle.

"Unless you hand over parts of it to normal mortals like me," her love said. "Then we will take over and reign supreme!"

"Oh, please try." Aperio stepped in front of her love and bent down slightly to bring her face closer to Caethya's. With a gentle nudge of her fingers she tilted her love's head back, her other hand wrapping around the Demigoddess's waist. "It would be a most welcome surprise."

She pulled back after placing a quick kiss on her love's lips. "You are also not a mortal, and if we go by what you can do and the power you wield, you are already beyond many of the smaller Gods as well."

Caethya placed a hand on Aperio's stomach and looked up. "Where did that come from?"

"I wanted to do that?" the All-Mother replied, tiling her head. "Did I go too far?"

"No, not at all." Caethya's answer came quickly. "But it was unexpected to say the least. Quite a few things you have done recently are quite unexpected, actually. Welcome, but still surprising."

"I am simply trying to be less reserved around you. We have been together for a good while now and if I do not push myself, I would either be waiting until you give me a nudge in the right direction, or forever be stuck in my ways." And if I do not get over some issues, I'll lose you.

Aperio left the last part unsaid, as her love was smart enough to figure that one out if she wished to, but the All-Mother did not want to risk spelling it out on the off chance that it might be displeasing to her love. Not upsetting the woman she loved was of paramount importance. A requirement for a well-functioning universe.

"So I take it that all of this," her love began, gesturing at their surroundings, "is not nearly as dangerous as I thought it was?"

"The people that made the changes are no longer, nor were they able to interact with them once I returned." Aperio offered a small shrug. "The System would have worked just fine without any changes needed, but I dislike the blemish of imperfection that has been forced onto my creation. Not to mention that it makes any change I actually want to bring rather a pain to implement."

Caethya poked Aperio's abs once again, this time with a bit more force than before. "Add this type of clarification to your newfound openness, please. I was worried the entire time that the System could, like, blow up or something!"

"Oh." Aperio lowered her head slightly, a thought beginning to finally remove the bits that Epemirial added to the System here. "I thought that that had been obvious… You can rest assured that nobody is in danger. It is fully possible for life to exist without the System; it's just more annoying for me in that instance."

Caethya rested her head against Aperio's chest and let out a long sigh. "Sometimes I really wish I could read your mind."

"I would not advise that," the All-Mother replied as wrapped her arms and wings around her love. "It is quite a bit more expansive than even you would assume. Remember, when I show you what I see, it is a mere fraction of what I truly perceive. The same is true for any emotion or train of thought I present to you. Try as I might, I cannot work like a normal mortal or Goddess in that regard."

Caethya poked a finger into Aperio's stomach once more, the motion having seemingly become her love's favourite way of showing what the All-Mother classified as playful displeasure.

Aperio simply smiled at that while a part of her mind began drawing up designs for a new moon despite not trusting herself to make one yet. Contrary what most mortals thought, there was a bit more to them than just rock.

"Didn't you just say you are trying to be yourself?" the Demigoddess asked as she continued her barrage of pokes. "Stick to that conviction. Also," she continued, squinting up at the All-Mother, "you showed me your true form, so I think I have a good idea of what's happening in that pretty head of yours."

"Then what am I thinking about?" Aperio's thumbs began tracing small circles over the sides of Caethya's hips. She met Caethya’s gaze, holding it until her love ceased her attack on her midsection and smiled.

"How you should make a new moon, of course,” Caethya said with confidence in her voice. “And probably trying to come up with reasons as to why you should name it after me."

"Not entirely wrong," Aperio mumbled in reply. "I should not do that now, though. Fixing the last bits of the System still take priority. I have been slacking on that front despite being here already."

"It's fine," Caethya said. "We made some progress, and you said yourself, the System will run just fine regardless."

The All-Mother smiled once more. "That's true."