"I'm going for a ride!"
Those were the last words I said to my original parents. That was five years ago.
I was mad about something stupid, I don't even remember what it was now, but I know it was stupid.
I remember grabbing my helmet, hopping on my Honda, and hitting the highway. The last time I looked at the speedo, it read 370 km/h. An hour later I had calmed down, and got off the highway. I don't remember anything after hitting the exit ramp.
I awoke in a beautiful forest, and a young looking woman sat at a picnic table that looked grown instead of carved. And that's where my story truely began.
"Hello, I'm Demeter. I want to give you a chance to change, one that I know you would love to take. Aphrodite and I have a bet, and I'd like to have you help me win." She finally looked up at me. "The bet is: who can make the most recognizable human, and I chose you to be my pawn; you can either say yes, and we will decide on some things for you; or I can send you back, and you can feel that telephone pole you were about to run into."
"'Most recognizable' how?" I asked, figuring I needed to get more information on this bet.
"By reputation. As per the bet: Ares will oversee our changes to your soul, both souls will be born on the same day, and then they must live through the war Ares is planning. Once you leave here, we will be able to talk with you only one day of the year, and only while in our temple."
"So I become sort of a priestess for you, and fight in a future war in your name?"
"Yes." She said.
"Die tonight, or die in a few years, I'll Accept." I said to her.
"Great! Ares will be sending you to Gaia, it's a lot different from your world. But I think you'll like it." She materialized a book about an inch thick and set it in front of me.
"This is a list of all the blessings and curses Aphrodite, Ares, and I agreed we could use for this. You must select one curse, but no more than three. Each curse is rated from 1 to 3 points. You start with 3 automatically, curses give you points, blessings take points. You can take as many blessings as you want, and you may not have any points left over, any questions?" She looked, and sounded, rather excited.
"Just one, how long do I have to decide?"
"As long as you need," a male's voice came from behind me, his golden armor looked grossly out of place in this natural garden. "Aphrodite's hero was done a long time ago, we have been waiting for your patroness to select someone."
"Thanks for the interruption, Ares"
"Your welcome, by the way, we got permission for you to announce her coming, you will both do it at the same time, but in two different temples. You will be allowed to announce her one year before her birth. The Oracles have already been told about the war, so this won't be anything new." Ares then looks at me, " may I recommend the 'slow healer' curse, it's the easiest one overcome." And he walks back out of the garden.
I open the book and start looking through the curses first, as I know I have to take one of them. I ended up accepting the maximum of three. Each one giving me one point. First, The Ares recommend, Slow Healer. It will make me take twice as long to heal, and remedies will be half as effective, in other words, don't get hurt. I then chose Vulnerability to Heat. I don't like summer anyway, but something tells me it's talking about something a bit more drastic than normal temperatures. The third one I selected was Deep Sleeper. This makes it to where I will have difficulty waking up if I don't get a full nights rest. And if I do wake up early, I will be utterly useless for a few minutes.
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But when I look at my advantages those six points were spent in, I'm not complaining at all. First is 'The Gift' which awakens my soul to Zeon, or Gaia's 'magic'. That cost me two points. I then took gesture-less and unspoken casting for 1 point each, Apptitude for Zeon Development, for anothe one point, which will give me a clearer, and faster understanding of the spells I can cast. I spent my last point on 'Ki Recovery' which allows my spiritual energy, not Zeon, to recover six times faster than normal, Demeter made sure to tell me that anyone and anything could use Ki, but only one in 10,000 were born with the gift for Zeon.
"Now that we know you are going to be a Zeonist,you can choose your Pathway affinities, there are 11, but I can't have someone using my name, and you will, and be able to use Necromancy. That school is abhorrent to everything I stand for, not to mention is the natural enemy of all other Zeonists. So that leaves you with the other 10. I won't prohibit you from any of the others, but I will give you affinity to the five of your choice." She sets a piece of parchment in front of me and if shows a diagram of a web. At the 10 intersections are bubbles with words in them.
"This shows the relationship between the Paths. Four greater paths, and the lower paths." Her finger points to Necromancy in the center, and the circle goes black, and the words 'Soul Locked' appeared.
"When you touch a circle, it will be included, Im not allowed to recommend a pathway, but I can recommend for you to look at your Blessings and Curses before deciding, so you know what will benefit you best."
I knew she was telling me to aim for healing disciplines, can't say I disagree. I quickly point at the circles on the right side of the webbed diagram. Light, Creation, for my greater pathways. Water, Earth for the elemental pathways. And the Essence Lower pathway.
Light controls the most positive emotions, Love, Peace, and Pleasure; it also regulates knowledge, and detection. Creation is the power to organize and alter the reality that surrounds its casters, the spells are about change, healing, and (of course) creating things. It's distinctly a defensive Pathway.
Earth is the power of the planet, stones, and governs physics, such as gravity or magnetism. Its influence over spirits and the immaterial is limited. Earth spells focus on resistance, endurance, and slowness. Water,like the element, has fluidic concepts, this Path confers dominion over purity of things, and liquids. It also represents the power of ice, and low temperatures, and is ballanced between offense and defense.
Essence controls life and souls, and has power over spirits and natural things that belong to the world. It's also the path of nature, and and Druidic spells.
When I read the description for Necromancy, I quickly saw why Dimeter banned me from it. Necromancy deviates from all other paths, whereas the other paths derive power from the network of souls, Necromantic spells destroy the essence of life by stagnating and perverting the souls it uses. It's power gives back life to the dead, destroys souls, and drains the life and essence of other beings. Because of this, it's no wonder Necromancy is Opposed to all othe Zeon Paths.