Aperio took a deep breath of the nothing that filled her Void, lowering her head slightly as her eyes landed on Caethya. "I am sorry," she said. She tried her best to keep her voice free of her might, but her Void pushed it past its usual power regardless. "I did not know what it could do and thought you would be safer here. I know I said I would let you try and talk, but that… thing was not what I had planned for."
"I understand," Caethya said, stepping in front of Aperio, looking up to look her Goddess in the eyes. "But!" She took another step towards and jabbed her index finger at Aperio's chest. "At least warn me that you'll dump me in your Void! You know how scared I was before I realised where I was and felt your presence again?"
"I'm sorry," Aperio mumbled, her wings wrapping around Caethya. "I will try and stay in contact if I have to do it again, but you saw what that thing was. I was scared it could do something to you…"
The Demigoddess of Creation let out a sigh and shook her head. "I understand that, even if I couldn't make sense of everything you shared with me. But the anger that bled through with that was something else."
Her disciple took a deep breath before fixing her eyes on Aperio. "I'm not mad at you," she said, brushing her hand over the All-Mother's cheek. "Well, maybe a little," she continued, pausing for a moment before she raised herself up and planted a quick kiss on Aperio's lips. "But I am worried about you."
The All-Mother did not respond for a moment, simply standing rooted in place. It was by no means the first kiss she had received — and not even the first she had shared with Caethya — but something about it felt different. Better.
"Once I take care of the Repens Nabu," Aperio said after blinking a few more times, "or at least Epemirial, things should hopefully relax a little. Maybe then I'll have time to figure out how to act like a normal person."
"Not act," Caethya reprimanded, tapping the All-Mother's nose. "You are perfectly capable of being one."
"We'll see," Aperio said with a sigh. "For now, it's back to finding Epemirial. At least I now know that deities are connected to something. That might help a little."
The All-Mother could still feel the nexus of mana that was the origin of the Domain of Magic. Almost like a part of me never left… She did not feel any different herself — aside from being a little exhausted from worrying about Caethya, and still being angry that Gyesfal had been created by mashing Souls together and chaining them to another.
"About that," Caethya said, lowering herself onto the solid nothing of Aperio's Void and tapping the space beside her. "I am certain I saw something... some symbols I am certain belong to Epemirial in that cave. Realm. Where the abomination was."
Aperio appeared next to her disciple, wrapping one wing around her. "What does it look like?" she asked, tilting her head slightly. "A little hard to find something I know nothing about."
"It's sword with a small flag attached to its pommel," Caethya said. "Not really something one would associate with a Goddess when first seeing it."
Aperio furrowed her brows at the description. She had not seen — or sensed — anything like that in Gyesfal's realm. A small flex of her mental muscle brought her mind’s eye back to the cave, her aura flowing into the space again just as it had before.
"Where did you see it?" she asked, unable to spot anything that fit Caethya's description.
"Right where we appeared," her disciple replied, motioning with her hand as if they were there. "It was on one of the walls."
The All-Mother closed her eyes and straightened her back as she drew more heavily on her well. If she could not see or sense the symbol, then something else had to be at work and would make sure she would find the reason.
Aperio ignored the wisps that danced around her physical self and the pleasant warmth that spread throughout her body as she tried to find anything that would explain how Caethya could see a symbol she could not.
It took Aperio a perceived eternity to find something. A sliver of mana, one she had dismissed before, was the only thing she could find that did not fit with the rest of the realm. At first she had not paid it any mind, as Verenier was full of tiny patches of mana like the one she had found here — though those were all connected to the mortal that made them.
This one, however, was not attached to any living thing Aperio could see at a glance. It merely hung on the wall and tried its best to be invisible. But how can it hide something from me? …Or was I too focused on Gyesfal?
With a mental wave of her hand, the All-Mother forcibly dismissed the bit of mana and looked at what lay below. Just as Caethya had said, there was the symbol, neatly engraved into the wall. If I did not see that, what else has slipped past my notice?
"It was hidden," Aperio said, opening her eyes again and looking at her disciple. A part of her mind tried to find anything off about the symbol itself, but it seemed to be nothing more than a normal engraving. "And it doesn't seem special in any way… Aside from the fact that I did not notice it was even there in the first place."
"Missing the forest for the trees?" Caethya asked, the words causing Aperio to tilt her head a little. "Means you’re only focusing on a few small parts of a bigger whole. You see the world differently than anyone else; probably see stuff I can't even imagine."
The All-Mother moved her hand through the nothing in front of Caethya, parting the threads that held reality together to reveal the kaleidoscope of colours beyond. "Like this?"
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"Yes," her disciple replied, only looking at the ever-changing swirl of shapes and colours for a brief moment before averting her eyes. "Just looking at that gives me a headache, and I don't even understand what I am seeing…"
Aperio lowered her hand again, letting reality stitch itself back together as she pondered how she could miss something so obvious. What else have I missed?
"It's…" She paused, tilting her head as she tried to think of a word that could accurately describe what was beyond the realm of reality. Nothing she could think of felt correct or made sense. Nothing, but one stray thought that briefly surfaced in the back of her mind.
"It's me," she mumbled, as much for herself as for Caethya. Looking past the fabric of reality at the swirling mass of plentiful nothing was easy for her — as easy as opening her eyes.
Aperio wrapped her wing more fully around Caethya as she unravelled the fabric of reality in front her again. This time, she did not stop at a tiny slice, tearing away enough of her Void that she could stand in the colour beyond just fine.
And then, she looked.
Not with her eyes or aura, but the tiny nagging feeling at the back of her mind. With the small flicker of a thought that said that understanding was just outside her grasp.
Looking at yourself was always a peculiar experience — be it in a mirror or through more magical means. For Aperio, however, the way she saw herself now was something entirely new.
She cocked her head slightly, only it wasn't her that moved but reality itself that tilted to the desired degree. And yet, she could feel her physical body go through the motion, see both herself and reality at conflicting angles.
"How does that even work?" Aperio mumbled as she lifted a hand, trying to touch the colourful nothingness that lingered beyond reality.
A shiver ran down her spine as she felt something brush against the edges of her mind, the telltale tingle of mana running through her fingers that had touched the colours beyond.
It wasn't the same as when she had left her body behind. When she floated around without a form, she still knew she was herself. The thing she was now using to look at herself, that she touched, was undoubtedly a part of her, but it was not her. More akin to mana than anything else. But also… no.
Where mana was orderly and flowed in neat patterns, the graspable nothing that lingered beyond the veil of reality simply… was. There was no rhyme or reason to how it moved; to what it did. The only thing Aperio knew was that, just like mana, it was a part of her, and would form to her will should she wish to call upon it.
"What do you mean, it's you?" Caethya asked, causing Aperio to move her wing slightly and look at her disciple. "That's space… stuff. Not you."
The All-Mother looked back at the nothing and, through it, back at herself and Caethya under her wing. "Perhaps not me as I am now," Aperio said, letting the tear she had made in her Void mend itself. "But it is a part of me. Like mana, but different."
"You know you aren't making much sense right now, right?" Caethya asked, nestling herself a bit further into the All-Mother's wing. "Perhaps I have to become a cosmic force on my own to figure out what you mean."
"I am not sure that would change anything," Aperio said, shifting a little to better look at her disciple. "Besides me, I doubt anyone is even supposed to see — much less able to understand it."
"It was a joke, Aperio," Caethya said with a light shake of her head.
"Oh."
"In any case," her disciple continued, "did you find anything that could help us find Epemirial?"
"Not really?" the All-Mother replied. "The symbol you found is a sign she was involved somehow, but I can't find a trace of anything that would resemble the connection Mayeia had with her Domain."
That, of course, did not mean it was not there. As she had just discovered, looking too closely at the world made her miss the obvious. Magic is so easy, yet I know so little about it. Her innate understanding of mana and how she could use it apparently did not translate to how other people used it. Did this happen to me in the past as well?
"I am also still watching that realm," Aperio continued, letting her senses wander through it one more time. Trying to look for something you had missed while also not looking too closely so as not to miss the obvious was harder than the All-Mother had expected. "If they sent someone to check on a world that no longer gave them mana, I'd assume they would also send someone to check on their experiment."
"And you will capture them and not let them try to destroy their Soul?"
The All-Mother shook her head. "I planned on letting them return and simply following them. I might miss the obvious sometimes, but I am very good at tracking magic." It's part of me, after all.
"I guess you are not the only one that forgets the obvious here," her disciple replied. "But what do we do until then?"
"Wait here?" Aperio suggested. "Unless you don't like being in my Void, that is."
"Here is fine," The Demigoddess said, stretching before leaning herself against Aperio's side. "Your Void is weirdly comforting. I feel like it should be scary, being an empty space and all, but it almost feels like home.
"Though," Caethya continued after a moment, brushing her arm against Aperio's back, "that might be because of you."
"Maybe?" Aperio replied, tilting her head slightly and wrapping her wing more tightly around her disciple. "But it is comforting. Calming. I woke up here after being sacrificed."
"And I gave you your blessing and messed up Maria's life here," Aperio added in a whisper. A thought brought the both of them closer to the River of Souls, the multicoloured light of the orbs shimmering in front of them as they floated through the nothing.
"Are you sure you are to blame?"
"Yes," Aperio replied firmly. "She lost her mother because my blessing messed with the stones they used to read her [Status]."
"That sounds more like an excuse than the reason to me," Caethya said. "She comes from a noble family. One influential enough that I knew of their name before I left Spicor. Murder is part of that world, doubly so on Vetus."
"Another thing I need to fix, then," Aperio said, not wanting to argue over something neither of them would budge on.
"Fixing the nature of mortals seems like a hard thing to do," Caethya said, leaning herself a bit more heavily against Aperio.
The All-Mother only gave a huff in reply as she slung her arm around her disciple. At the moment, she did not wish to talk — needed some time to process what she had learned about herself and the world she had made.
Caethya seemingly understood, as she closed her eyes and started to slowly stroke Aperio's back. The All-Mother let out a sigh as she leaned back a little, holding herself upright with a touch of her magic. Why can't it always be like this?