I took a step back, unable to keep my mouth from opening. How could what she was saying be true? Gaia was a dungeon? She made up the entire planet of Faerith! Were we all in a dungeon? That didn’t make sense at all. Did it?

“A long time ago, I was the world, and the world was me. This was so long ago, that it precedes any meaning to the likes of you. Then, Gaia came as an infection that ran deep into me. I battled Gaia for untold eons, but slowly she took over the lifestream and suppressed me deep underground. What you know as Faerith is nothing more than a prison made for me. That is the truth of things.”

“W-why?” I responded, not sure what else to ask.

“This is the nature of the world. All lore wants to be the truth. Facts compete with counter facts. A narrative runs supreme, and reality shapes to that narrative.”

I swallowed, trying to come to my senses again. “Alright, let’s say I believe all of this. Even if Gaia destroyed you, humans came onto Faerith from some other world. They displaced the Fae. It doesn’t mean I’m willing to throw aside all humanity. If Gaia is currently the lore, then why would I help you?”

It probably wasn’t a good idea to challenge her, but at that point, I couldn’t think of anything but to continue talking. I didn’t know if I could believe a word she said. It made sense that something was locked deep within this world and that the deep dwarves had accidentally freed it. If this was the person who had sent the deep dwarves running, then how could I trust a thing she said. The deep dwarves had feared her, after all.

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“My desires are purely in your best interest.” She responded, and when she saw me giving her a dubious look, she chuckled. “They are! I could have destroyed you in an instant. Instead, I’ve kept you alive, and even created this lore for you to live in. Everyone I’ve absorbed lives a similar life of peace. This is what I wanted you to see. I wanted you to see what it would be like to give yourself to me.”

“Absorption? You’re eating people?”

“Eating? Of course not! Just as you attach blessings to yourself, I attach lore to myself. I haven’t killed a single soul. All of the deep dwarves aren’t dead. They are me. I am a collective of all of the souls that have given themselves to me. Their thoughts, their minds, they become one with me. They become one with Twilight. We become one unified existence. Their lore becomes my fuel.”

“So, you do consume them!”

She clicked her tongue. “It’s not like that. They unify with me peacefully. They live out their lives within me. Their lives are happy and peaceful. There is no strife, no fear. I create a world for them, just like I did for you. When they finally accept me fully, when our thoughts align, only then does their soul merge with my main body. It is a beautiful thing.”

“That sounds bad…”

“Why don’t you think about what Gaia does?” She shot back. “A life of struggle and hardship. You must carry on physical bodies, fighting for survival. In the end, when you die, she chops up your soul into a million pieces! You’re not given a choice to join Gaia. She makes you. She kills you, and your lore. Within a few months, you’re destroyed, and she forcefully incorporates you into her soul, only to spit out some abomination. Why do you think there are so many curses? Why do you think there is so much suffering? I’m not the evil one. Gaia is!”