Alene insisted on finishing her drink before they went, she needed the courage. And it was nice to be able to taste again. She was about to find her soul shard. She had been waiting for so long to be whole, to regain herself, now that it was actually within reach the idea of achieving her goal was almost too overwhelming. The anticipation was intense. She had no idea what to expect from the experience, whether it would feel like the awakening sensation of regaining her memories for the first time, or like the saturating feeling of gaining opacity from consuming the little fish god.
She sipped the purple supercritical fluid, it tasted like sweet sugared violets and each sip gave her a subtle feeling of vertigo and a bubbly sense of contentment. Sym begrudgingly picked up a drink as well, a dark black shot that soaked up all the color around it, creating a sort of gray scale in its immediate vicinity. She made a gagging sound after she took it, ‘blegh, licorice.’ Clearly it was not as delicious as Alene’s. She went back to glowering at every being in their immediate vicinity, her leg jittering on her stool, tracing the stub of her missing pinkie as she waited for Alene to finish hers.
They walked among the casino guests, soaking up the fantastical scene around them, the bizarre beings and their bizarre games. It stoked a strange feeling in Alene, to be around so many gods and their entourages. A sort of greediness that she wasn’t sure she liked in herself. Had she been comfortable here once, as Una? She wanted that back, to be comfortable in the godly world, now that she had committed to godhood. Wanted to have her place among them. It was rightfully hers as a goddess, right?
Finally, she couldn’t put off leaving anymore, Sym was starting to look at the doors impatiently, and Alene knew it was time to continue onward. She tipped back her head, drinking the last sip and set the empty crystal down on one of the attendant’s platters.
Walking back into the water through the barrier was an uncomfortable experience, Alene had gotten used to the warm air of the casino, and the cold water came as a shock. Sym seemed unbothered, easily slipping back into her tailed form and swimming off in the direction of the golden thread still emerging from Alene’s chest, apparently eager to distance herself from Ketsuri’s domain. The feeling of danger diminished as they sunk into the depths, apparently Ketsuri had been the source of the dangerous feeling she had felt, her position obscuring the subtle pull of the shard. Why had she not felt the same danger from Novem, as a god eater, surely he would be even more dangerous? Or maybe it was the collection of gods altogether, a feeling of their power that was prompting such a reaction. That seemed more likely.
The thread led them deeper still, until its subtle gold gossamer light was the only thing visible, deep deep into the winding caves of the sunken catacombs. Alene worried anxiously about their ability to return, when she looked behind the darkness seemed impenetrable. Gradually the caves seemed to go more upward than down, caches of air available for Sym and Alene to take quick breaths before continuing onward. Eventually they surfaced in a cave entirely unsubmerged, Alene climbing gratefully from the cold water and Sym switching once again to legs.
The cave was just as dark as the water, but Alene was glad to have earth under her feet again. The air was stale and dank, almost heavy in her newly formed lungs. It was…unpleasant, she decided. She much preferred the air back on the surface. From the light of the luck she could see the faint outlines of stalactites and stalagmites, flowstones, and ancient fossils of some great, long dead creatures. Gypsum flowers and cave pearls sprouted on the walls nearest her, and she carefully stepped on the rocky floor to get a closer look at them. They were beautiful, unlike anything she had seen on the surface, like a whole new, alien world that existed under her feet this whole time. Sym followed behind her, rubbing her arms, trying to regain some warmth. It was damp and cold this far underground.
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‘Do you think the strand is getting brighter?’ Sym asked after a couple minutes of walking, trekking along a rough narrow stony pathway. ‘Maybe,’ Alene replied, their whispers echoing strangely off the walls, ‘though I think there might be some light coming from up ahead, the light is turning a sort of purple, not just the gold of the luck.’
Alene’s observation was confirmed when they turned a corner, a smattering of luminous purple crystals, emerging from the walls, pulsing softly, asynchronously. ‘I’ve seen this before,’ Sym said, after a moment, approaching one of the glowing stones, running a finger over its surface. ‘It’s godseed.’ She looked at Alene, ‘but…there is so much of it. It can’t all be from the zombie-god, right? Does…does godseed grow?’ she said with disquiet. Alene shook her head, shrugging. She wasn’t sure what to make of it either. Would eating this also strengthen her? She wasn’t sure she really wanted to try swallowing a rock, though. And from what Novem had told her, it was her own original godseed that she needed now, in order to regain herself.
They continued onward, now easily able to make their way, though Sym swore that the luck thread was increasing in brightness as well, and Alene was inclined to agree. The beads of luck were becoming marginally more frequently now, though still highly interspersed. ‘Do you…do you hear voices?’ Sym asked after a time, slowing down to listen more carefully. Alene stopped, cocking an ear to the corridor, trying to hear what Sym was hearing. There was a slight cadence coming from somewhere ahead of them, a soft inflection of voices talking. She looked at Sym with wide eyes. Who could be down here? Was it another god? Or maybe…maybe humans had somehow escaped the apocalypse above and survived below ground, she thought excitedly.
As they got closer the voices separated into two, one a rough rasping thing, while the other was smoother but deeper. The pathway was widening, the ceiling now high above their heads and they could walk next to each other with ease. The light was intensifying as well, independent from the occasional glow of the godseed, the dancing orange glow of a flame.
The passageway abruptly widened, forming a cavern, the size of which reached far overhead as they peered out from the corridor they had emerged. Torches circled the walls, their dancing light casting shadows strangely on the irregular surface of the cavern walls. Old dilapidated buildings, much more ancient than the graceful glass skyscrapers on the above ground connected the floor to the ceiling, their empty windows and doorways like the eerie gaping maw of a skull. The petrified corpses of trees twisted amongst them, lining the remnants of some long gone streets. The voices intensified, taking an argumentative edge. Sym and Alene walked through the ruins. Sym was right, Alene thought with awe, there was a whole other city beneath the ground. It was like walking in a reflection, an inverted, ancient version of the city above.
They reached the edges of a city square, following the string of luck directly to the voices. Did whomever it was have her luck, Alene thought with sudden unease. She had already been uncomfortable sharing her loss to Ketsuri, but the idea of exposing her vulnerabilities once again, to some unknown, potentially dangerous being was distressing.
Two figures took shape in the city center, surrounded by a petrified stone garden, winding walkways lined with vegetation frozen in time. One tall humanoid and the other on four legs like some massive beast of a dog, its chest heavy and thick, its coat spotted - a horned hyena. Definitely gods, Alene thought, troubled. And her luck ran right up to the chest of the humanoid one. ‘Hiru?!’ gasped Sym.