Dinner started off like any other, with idle chat flowing easily, but as time passed, the world around me felt distant, hollow—like the faint buzz of a fly I couldn't bring myself to swat away. Erica’s voice would pull me back every so often, but my focus would slip just as quickly. It was as if I were a ghost in my own skin, merely observing myself nod, smile, and react—whatever it took to keep the conversation going.
The sound of Erica’s laughter echoed through the room, but it felt muffled, like it was coming from behind a thick curtain. I smiled and nodded at her joke, but it was automatic, like a reflex. My mind continued to churn, consumed by a low hum of static that made everything else feel distant, almost irrelevant. The weight in my chest grew heavier, and for the first time, I wasn’t sure if I cared enough to shake it off.
“You okay?” Erica asked, her voice soft with concern.
“Yeah, just tired,” I said, offering her a small smile I didn’t feel. The kind of smile you would practice in mirrors growing up, one that told everyone you were fine, even when you weren’t. She smiled back, and didn’t press me.
I started tuning back into the conversation, hearing buzzwords like "blessings," "factions," and other things that had to do with our current situation, how to make it more stable. I was hoping Sylphine could offer potential solutions, something to help us get through this before we started looking for delve spots. But then another thought hit me—Christian. We’d completely abandoned him. Not that I thought he’d care much, but it still felt wrong. I decided to write him a letter later, explaining the whole situation. He could choose for himself if he wanted to stay within the pantheon or join us in Umbraeth. I wasn’t entirely sure it was a good idea, especially since it might speed up the realization that we’d fled Sylvanel. Plus, we probably only had enough money to keep Erica and me afloat for a couple of years in our current situation.
“I want to give you both a blessing,” Sylphine blurted out.
I nearly choked on the water I’d just taken a sip of. “Excuse me?” I coughed, catching my breath.
Erica looked stunned, speechless, and Sylphine, oblivious to the weight of her words, pushed on, eager to break the silence. “I was thinking about it last night, and before dinner. I want to make Jackson my chosen, and give Erica a Divine Blessing. Or, if I can swing it, get Aurathis to make Erica her chosen instead.” Sylphine rattled off the words without hesitation, as if she hadn’t just dropped a bombshell.
Erica shook herself out of her stupor. "Hold on just a minute before you kill both of us," she said, wiping her forehead. "Aurathis? Like the Paragon who governs the Triumvirate of Light? The same Triumvirate of Light that’s all cultish and weird about anything light and healing?"
Sylphine winced but didn’t back down. “Govern is... not the word I’d use. She’s more of a figurehead. Hmm… how do I put this?” Sylphine tapped her nails on the table slowly, trying to find the right words. “Aurathis and I, we grew up together. Like, together, as elves before the system integrated us. She’s on her own journey now, much like me. While she definitely had ambitions to bring light and healing to the multiverse, those have faded with time, and the faction’s ideals have strayed from her original vision. What she wants now is to rebuild that faction from the ground up, which is no small task. Imagine trying to reconstruct a faction of high trillions that’s been around for 49 billion years. She’s not a complete imbecile, so she plans on leaving the Triumvirate soon, to build something more in line with my thinking—and hers. I wasn’t exactly planning on helping with that until you and Jackson decided to just drop into my quiet life and stir things up a little.”
"So what you’re saying is... what?" I asked, my curiosity piqued. Something like this could completely change the course of history, but was Sylphine really considering making two level one humans chosen of Paragons?
“What I’m proposing is that I offer a solution that aligns with my moral code, and gets you both out of this whole mess, almost immediately,” Sylphine continued, her tone more serious now. “You really rattled something in my head with all that talk about freedom and letting people choose their own paths.” She paused, thinking for a moment. “I’ve been dormant in terms of multiversal influence since I achieved godhood. And honestly, it doesn’t sit well with me. Knowing that if I’d pushed my ideology a billion years ago, how many lives could’ve been improved? I thought I was helping by being a small-time entertainer—performing on the streets, picking up instruments and playing in taverns—but in the end, that’s just a temporary escape for everyone who watches. It’s just me making butterflies out of pretty pink magic. Nothing more than a distraction.”
Sylphine took a deep breath, her eyes focused. “To put it simply, I want to create a faction—with Aurathis and you two as the spearheads on Earth, our chosens. It sounds grand, but there’s still a lot to work out. I need to speak with Aurathis about this, and I plan to do that before morning here.”
“We’d be fools not to accept,” Erica sighed in relief. “But we can’t do anything as we are. We’re just two sixteen-year-olds with no experience—level-wise, and in every other sense.”
“I know, I know. It’s absolutely insane. But you’ll have to trust me on this—I've got it under control. Aurathis will accept this. And any faction with two paragons at the top will have an insane amount of pull, no matter how many followers we have. You two will be completely safe—unless someone’s bold enough to challenge two of the strongest beings in the multiverse. Even Sylvanus would have to back off, fearing retaliation.”
Sylphine's eyes gleamed with an intensity I hadn’t noticed before, as if something deep inside her had suddenly ignited. Her confidence radiated from her, and the shift in the air was palpable, almost as if the room itself was charged with energy. She stood tall, unshaken by the enormity of what she was proposing. There was a quiet but undeniable force to her now—determined, sure of herself, and eager to take control of everything. It was a side of her I hadn't fully recognized, but it was impossible to ignore now.
“I’m in,” I said flatly, my voice void of any enthusiasm. “Anything to live normally, to be honest with you.”
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Sylphine nodded and looked toward Erica looking for acceptance. Erica gave a small nod with an unsure look on her face still.
“Okay… You needn’t worry, Erica, I’ve got this under control. Now both of you, I’m going to visit the Triumvirate to see Aurathis tonight. I should be back by morning. While you sleep, I’ll visit you in your truesouls. Jackson, I want you to help teach Erica how to latch onto hers, before you go to sleep. I’ll be making Jackson my chosen, and for now, Erica, I’ll grant you a Divine Blessing when I visit both of your truesouls—just in case Aurathis falls through. Now, off you go, head to your room.”
“Wait, how’d you decide who gets to be your chosen?” Erica asked, her voice tinged with jealousy. I could feel her annoyance brewing. First the bloodmark, then lightning, a solid foundation in my truesoul already, and even the forced resonance with an affinity she found natural to her.
“Honestly, Jackson’s affinities align better with mine. You may have picked up the fae affinity like you were born from fairies, but Jackson already possesses three of the seven affinities I hold: Lunar, Fae, and Lightning. I can’t give you more than this, it would be utterly idiotic of me not to give him this.” Sylphine said with an apologetic smile, patting Erica on the back.
Erica nodded thoughtfully. “I see, that actually makes a lot more sense when you explain it like that.”
I reached over, letting my hand rest gently on hers—a silent gesture of reassurance. She glanced at me, her lips curling into a soft smile. “Alright,” she said, her voice lighter now, “off we go.”
With that, we both stood, offering our farewells to Sylphine before heading back to the place we’d be calling home, at least for now. The walk back was quiet, the kind of silence that felt less like a void and more like a mutual understanding.
The night was peaceful—tranquil, even—but not for me. Sylphine’s plan should have settled my restless thoughts, giving me hope that things might stabilize, that we wouldn’t have to live in perpetual hiding. But instead of comfort, it left me with an unsettling void.
I leaned against the window, staring at the sprawling city lights below. Umbraeth wasn’t what I expected. I thought it would be a city cloaked in eternal darkness, but instead, it shimmered with life, the glow of countless lights breaking the night. It was beautiful in a way I hadn’t anticipated.
I should have felt something—relief that we had a plan, anger at everything that had brought us here, or even sadness for what we’d left behind. Instead, there was nothing. Just an endless hollow emptiness gnawing at the edges of my mind, like a void I couldn’t fill.
My hands curled into fists at my sides, my fingernails biting into my palms. What’s wrong with me? The thought echoed like a drumbeat in my head, relentless and maddening. I glanced toward Erica, sitting across the room with her head tilted, engrossed in her book. She flipped the pages absentmindedly, her focus wavering. When our eyes met, she smiled—a soft, gentle curve of her lips. But it didn’t reach her eyes.
She knew.
She knew something was wrong with me, even if I couldn’t put it into words myself. And I hated that. Hated the way I was pulling her into this swirling mess of apathy and bottled-up anger. She deserved better than the storm brewing inside me, better than the shell of a person I felt like I was becoming.
For a brief moment, the weight cracked, just slightly, under the pressure of a new thought—one that hit me like a blade. If this keeps up, she’ll stop smiling at me altogether.
Eventually, Erica and I sat down for the lesson. My job was to help her stay connected to her truesoul when Sylphine visited.
"Well... hmm." I paused, trying to piece together how to explain something that had felt so intangible at the time. "I don’t know how to describe the feeling exactly, but I’m confident you’ll just know when it’s happening. For me, it was right after Sylvanus left my truesoul. There’s usually this timeframe, maybe a few minutes, where you’re alone in that space. I used that time to sit down and focus—really focus—on my surroundings and the way my affinities felt."
Erica nodded, her expression thoughtful but uncertain.
"I latched onto those feelings," I continued, "and then I pulled them in, like drawing them closer to me. Once I had a hold of them, I tried to give them shape—how I imagined the affinity would look if it was completely manifested. It’s not easy to describe, but it’s like you’re sculpting with pure instinct."
"Shape them..." she echoed softly, her brow furrowing.
"Yeah. You’re not forcing anything, though," I added quickly. "It’s more like letting the affinity guide you while you guide it back. Does that make sense?"
She gave a slow nod, though I could tell she wasn’t entirely convinced. "I think so," she said. "It’s just... a lot to take in."
"Yeah, I get that," I admitted. "But you’ll feel it. I’m sure of it."
That was the fundamental difference between Erica and me. She was a super genius, able to analyze problems in her head and arrive at the most logical solution with ease. I could do that to a degree, but I usually let instinct take over.
When it came to my affinities, I hadn’t dissected the process or mapped it out in steps—I just knew how to pull them together, like a reflex. Erica, though? If she could latch onto her truesoul, I was certain she’d take the time to think it through, break it down, and come up with her own technique. Something methodical, precise, and entirely hers.
That was the thing about her; she didn’t just solve problems—she owned them. If anyone could figure out how to make this work, it was Erica.
After a bit more explaining that led nowhere, we both gave up and headed to bed. I assumed Sylphine was already speaking with Aurathis by now, working out the details of her plan. Once we fell asleep, we’d know whether Aurathis was on board.
I hoped she would be—Erica would have an easier time gaining the affinities Aurathis governed. If public records were accurate, becoming Aurathis’ chosen would naturally open doors for Erica to access the Light, Holy, and Life affinities.
The Life affinity was especially odd. You’d think it would fall under Nature’s domain—and to an extent, it did—but it also extended to everything alive. It was a subtle force, one people overlooked because it was too familiar, like a background hum you stopped hearing over time.
Gaining the Life affinity wasn’t straightforward. For most, it required coming perilously close to death—or outright dying and being revived. The concept was hard to grasp, akin to trying to identify the smell of peppermint after hours of constant exposure to it. The essence of life was all around us, but picking it out consciously? That was an entirely different challenge.
Becoming Aurathis’ chosen would undoubtedly simplify things for Erica. The blessing itself would act as a bridge, allowing her to grasp the Life affinity without the usual trials and hardships. It would become second nature to her, the way breathing was to everyone else. The daunting process most people endured to connect with Life would be reduced to a mere moment of realization, gifted by the favor of a Paragon.
Sleep took me quickly. I could still feel the stir of Erica next to me while I fell under the spell of unconsciousness.