Caethya removed her hand from Aperio's as the All-Mother opened her eyes. Being asked to help her Goddess remain calm had been a strange request, but she knew how Aperio reacted to some memories. She could still feel the anger in the All-Mother's aura; the coldness in the air. However, her reaction was a lot less intense than she had expected.
She could not claim to know how Aperio felt any one emotion, but she knew that some things made her irrationally angry. A very mortal trait that was, perhaps, a leftover from her time as one. But then Moria would not have asked for help, right?
"How are you?" Caethya asked, leaning forward and up a little to brush a few of Aperio's hairs out of her face.
Her Goddess' ever-shifting eyes rested on her for a moment before Aperio let out a sigh, one that was accompanied by a few wisps of mana which immediately took to lazily floating around her.
"Angry," Aperio said after a moment of silence in which her wings gently wrapped themselves around Caethya. "But less than I feel I should be." She paused for a moment before mumbling her next words. "Maybe because I can't see them all clearly yet…"
"You need time to integrate them?" Moria asked from behind Caethya with a hint of confusion in her voice. "I had thought that wouldn't apply to you."
"It does," Aperio replied, and at the same time her Goddess' voice echoed through her mind, asking Caethya if she could come closer. "Some of the memories I have retrieved on Procul are still a little foggy, for example." Caethya moved herself next to Aperio as she spoke, gently brushing her hand over her Goddess' back to counteract the way her aura flared a little with anger. "I do already know what happened in the memories you gave me, just not the identity of every deity that disgraced themselves."
"I see," the Beastkin mumbled. Her ears twitched slightly, perhaps picking up a sound Caethya herself could not hear, before she spoke again. "All we can do is wait, then." Moira nodded to the crystal, and it was then that Caethya noticed that it now looked to be nothing more than a piece of glass. "As this one contained more memories than simply my own, it could only be used once. My own mind is not made to handle the memories of all my lives.
"I cannot remember every single deity that took part in the rituals," she continued after a moment of silence. "What I do know is that Epemirial is one of the higher ups of the Repens Nabu. Higher than Vigil and Inanis were, anyway."
Aperio tensed at the words, the already frigid air growing colder still. Caethya could have sworn that the world itself was holding its breath as her Goddess set her eyes on Moria.
"Then I shall visit her and inform her about the error of her ways." The words, delivered with a clarity and lack of emotion that was entirely uncharacteristic of the All-Mother she knew, gave Caethya pause.
Aperio usually reacted with a wide variety of emotions to anything and everything, even when it was not really warranted. Despite her claimed trouble in expressing them, Caethya had never found it hard to figure out how her Goddess felt. Even without the bond. The All-Mother's wings alone had always told her a lot. Couple that with Aperio's tick of tilting her head and the subtle twitches of her ears, and Caethya was usually fairly certain of what was going on in Aperio's mind.
In accordance with her own gut feeling on the matter, the Demigoddess of Creation brushed her fingers across the armlet Aperio now wore on her right bicep. "Where did you get this?" she asked. "It feels… old. Ancient, even."
Aperio blinked at the question. "Moria kept it for me," she replied. "It was something I used to wear at all times, but for some reason gave to her before my life as a mortal."
"Was it always filled with mana?" Caethya asked, turning a little to look at Moria. "There is enough in there that I can't tell how much there actually is." Just like an ocean… Or Aperio. In truth, Caethya was almost sure that the small armlet somehow held more mana than Aperio currently did. Though, she can probably draw on much more.
"It was," Moria replied, offering a slight nod. Much like Caethya, she seemingly thought that a change of topic was in order. Or I am reading her wrong. "But I do not know why."
Her Goddess absentmindedly turned the armlet with her free hand after Caethya had removed her own. "Is it really that surprising?" she asked after a moment, looking at Caethya. "According to most people, I carry a ludicrous amount of mana in my body. Why would an armlet with some more be weird? Especially since I made it when I actually knew how everything worked."
"Not surprising," Caethya said with a small smile on her face. "But very interesting. Everything I know about you led me to believe that worldly possessions were not something you took much interest in, but it turns out you had one even before you knew the life of a mortal."
"I do not know the life of a mortal. I knew the life of a slave," Aperio snapped, setting her unblinking gaze onto Caethya.
The Demigoddess shrunk slightly under her Goddess' glare, and retreated further from the anger she felt in her aura. Before she could apologise, Aperio sighed, her wings brushing against Caethya's back as they slumped a little.
"I'm sorry," the All-Mother breathed, moving to remove her wings completely before Caethya lifted her arm in an attempt to stop the movement. "I…" Her voice trailed off as she looked at something only she could see. A notification?
"Your daughter?" Moria asked, seemingly knowing something that Aperio did not.
The All-Mother tilted her head slightly as she looked at the Beastkin. "How did you know?"
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"Just a hunch," Moria said, her ears twitching slightly. "I felt you doing something, and if I can feel something with the System change, your daughter most assuredly can as well."
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Aperio shifted her eyes back towards the notification. This gets her attention, but not my multiple attempts to talk to her? Ferio had asked her to her Dominion, something the All-Mother had considered doing without an invitation multiple times now. Why now?
She would go — that wasn't a question — but it still hurt that her daughter only wanted to talk to her after she had made a change to the System, and not because Aperio was reaching out on her own.
The warmth of Caethya's arm wrapping around her back caused Aperio to relax a little. For a brief moment she had feared her reaction to her disciple's earlier question would have put her off, especially so after she did not even properly apologise. At least I can apologise now.
"So," Caethya began, brushing her free hand over the inner feathers of Aperio's wing. "Are we going to visit Ferio?"
"Yes," Aperio said, raising a brow at Caethya's motion before glancing at her surrogate mother. "Do you wish to accompany us?"
The Beastkin did not reply immediately, and only looked at her. Aperio shifted a little under her gaze, not quite sure what Moria wanted her to do. "I think I'll stay here," she said. "I think my presence would not help matters. I also have to figure out what to do with my colleagues and what has become of the [Ancestral Guard]." She sighed, mumbling her next words quietly enough that Aperio had almost missed them. "Might as well start over with that…"
"Can I not help you with that?" Aperio asked. "I know that Selehan and Kenmo talked of corruption in their ranks; one stemming from the Pantheon." The All-Mother hesitated for a moment before she continued. "They also said that they are looking for you because you have the proof they need to fix the problem."
Moria gave a bitter laugh at the words. "Of course they would say that." She shifted a little, adjusting her clothes to hide the slight shake of her hands. "They are as corrupt as the rest of them; they just want the artefacts I carry."
Aperio extended her wing and almost moved herself and Caethya next to Moria before she stopped herself. As much as she wanted to give her surrogate mother a hug, she knew that it wouldn't help her. Moria had been very clear about that during her time as a slave.
"We will stay a little longer," Aperio said, letting a bit of her mana flow around her surrogate mother. Moria might not have been fond of physical touch when she was sad or in distress, but it still felt wrong to the All-Mother to just stand there and do nothing. "Perhaps we should deal with this first?" If Ferio wanted to make me wait, she can wait a little too.
"No," Moria said after a deep breath and a moment of silence. "I need some time to prepare myself." She offered Aperio a smile — sincere, but sad. "It's good that you are back. I was getting worried, despite your claims."
Aperio hesitated briefly. "I'm sorry that I am not the one you remember."
"Don't be," her surrogate mother replied. "Change was the whole reason you did this, after all." Moria sighed, fixing her gaze onto Aperio. "I did not lose a friend — I gained family.
"I got to know the real you, know who you are when you shed the eons you lived alone in the nothing. The you unburdened by the knowledge that the other Gods want to use you." A silence briefly fell over the three of them before Moira spoke again. "I think you wanted to forget. Gain a fresh start, of sorts."
“I failed, if that was the goal,” Aperio mused. “Floating alone in my Void would have been better than life in the Empire. I also still feel like most people — be it mortal or God — want to use me.” She shifted a little, still wanting to reach out to her surrogate mother, but as Moria disliked physical means of comforting and any words she could offer would feel empty, she was at a loss of what she could possibly do.
Her surrogate mother seemed to notice her dilemma, moving herself a little closer to touch Aperio's shoulder. "I know you want to help," she said. "And you can in the future, but for now I have to make peace with the fact that the people that have been like family to me died long ago."
"What about Neria?" Aperio asked. "She has been searching for you."
"I will meet her in time," Moria replied with a heavy sigh. "She will have to be the one that rebuilds the [Ancestral Guard]. I failed to do that. Twice." Her surrogate mother sighed again and shook her head slightly. "Go, meet your daughter. I need some time to think."
Aperio gave a hesitant nod and directed a mental query towards Caethya to ask if she was ready. Once her disciple had answered in the affirmative, the All-Mother mentally accepted Ferio's invitation.
For a moment, nothing happened. Then, the System's magic weaved itself around Aperio. The All-Mother narrowed her eyes slightly and, with a small flex of her mental muscles, bent the magic to also incorporate Caethya.
"I'll be there if you need me," Aperio said, looking at her surrogate mother.
"I know," Moria replied with a small smile on her face, offering a tiny wave before the All-Mother and her disciple vanished from the mortal realm.
Aperio blinked at the amount of people present in Ferio's Dominion. She had expected to find only her daughter, not a room filled with mortals as well as quite a few deities. At least they feel stronger than Caethya… Some of them might not actually be Gods as they merely felt slightly stronger than her disciple, but Aperio's view on such things was a little… skewed.
"Greetings, Mother," Ferio said, then glanced at Caethya who still had her arm wrapped around Aperio's waist. "And to you too, Caethya."
Her entrance had caused the few conversations that had been on going to cease and attention to focus on Aperio. She could easily spot Edisicio, the God of Knowledge and Love giving her a small nod. Aperio did not know any of the other Gods — or what she assumed were Gods — present.
A pair of figures further back managed to grab at her attention despite the vast number of other people in the space. One of them seemed to be made of light, while the other seemed to be made of darkness. Both of them seemed very interested in her, just like the third glowing being in the room. Aperio had noticed it as well but had not paid the being much attention, as it had felt far weaker than the previous two, until she spotted that it seemed to flick back and forth between brightness and darkness every other breath.
The All-Mother did not pay them any more mind as she faced her daughter. "Hello," she said, shifting one of her wings around Caethya slightly to better support her and offer her a little cover from prying eyes. "You wished to talk?"
"I do, yes," her daughter replied, motioning for them to join her as she walked towards a large table at the center of her sunlit Dominion. "I had hoped this conversation could wait, but your new Directive makes that an impossibility."
Aperio narrowed her eyes at her daughter's back, and a few of the mortals in the room took a step back as a bit of anger crept into her aura. Caethya let a bit of her magic flow around her Goddess, following it with a mental message and slightly tighter grip around her waist.
The All-Mother wanted to confront her daughter about her silence, but knew full well that now was not the time for that. "And why is that?" she asked instead.
"Because it changed the rules for the [War in Heaven]," her daughter replied.