The landscape of the Celestial Home didn’t actually change. At least not when viewed from here. That would usually be a given, but Regina didn’t know what to make of it compared to her journey here. Maybe Leianaleine had actually teleported them. But the landscape was shrouded in mist in a few weird places, like someone had randomly dotted clouds on it. It was a picturesque, breathtaking view.
She’d stared out at it for a few moments, when Regina realized she wasn’t getting anywhere and turned back to look at her host. At least the tumult in her head had settled a little, so she felt she could get started on trying to find some answers. Even if they were going to be just as disturbing as what she’d just heard.
“I’m sorry,” she told her.
Alianais smiled reassuringly. “Take all the time you need to process it.”
Regina crossed her arms. She was still wearing a torn and bloodstained tunic, but at least she’d managed to fold her wings properly again. “So, what happened?”
“That’s a rather broad question,” Alianais said. “The answer is quite long and complicated.”
Regina tugged on her mandible. “Well, the world is very different from what I remember. Let’s start with that. Was my soul taken to a different planet or something?”
“No. You’re still on the same world, but your egg was in stasis for a long time.”
Regina frowned. That just raised more questions, although she had almost suspected something like this. “Maybe you should start at the beginning,” she suggested.
Alianais sighed and stayed quiet for a moment, seemingly collecting herself. “It’s a long tale, but I would say that the very beginning of it starts on another world, the one we originally came from. We called it something that translates to ‘haven’, but it turned out not be as much of a sanctuary as we gods thought.”
Regina leaned forward slightly in interest, but stayed quiet.
“You see, the multiverse is vast and consists of many different places, different worlds,” Alianais explained. “This one may be an Earth, but there are several versions of it. Yours was particularly far advanced, although time does run differently between universes.”
“Huh.” Different worlds? Different versions of Earth? Regina bit her lip before she could ask more questions, to let the goddess continue her tale.
“Travel between different worlds is extremely difficult, and usually the territory of select few. There is one major exception, however, at least in what you might call our corner of the multiverse. A faction that has managed to somewhat institutionalize travel between different worlds, to their own benefit and the detriment of any worlds unfortunate enough to be in their grasp.” Alianais paused, looking into the distance with an expression that was hard to read.
“That’s what happened to your old world?” Regina asked. “They were conquered by these people?”
Alianais’ eyes refocused on her and she nodded. “Divine entities like my compatriots and I have greater power and greater knowledge than short-lived mortals on our worlds. We knew about them, and we knew their expansion was bringing them close to us, that our world was in their path. We knew that if we were to fight them, we might bleed their forces, but we were unlikely to succeed in the end. Not when they could suck magic itself out of our world. So, we prepared. Our world is a long way away from this one - insofar as such terms have any meaning when discussing the multiverse - but due to a quirk of the local magic or perhaps the matter of the multiverse itself, it was easier to establish contact with this world. As you might know, your Earth had very little magic of its own, at that point. But we worked at it and eventually managed to create a portal to this world. These portals would not have lasted, but it would have to be enough. Through this contact, some mana transferred over, raising the mana level in this world somewhat, and we transferred a few people as well.”
“A few people?” Regina repeated. She felt like she was keeping up with the story, but the more she heard, the more unreal it felt.
“The Hivekind, at first.” Alianais shrugged slightly. “They were newcomers in our old world, in a sense. We had only had contact with them for a few years. But we came to an agreement. The details aren’t important now. You must have been one of the first people they recruited when they came here, perhaps even the first. I assume you don’t remember anything that happened after this?”
Regina shook her head. When she searched the memory she’d apparently been left, she had a vague impression that magic existed, but the knowledge felt disconnected from anything else. Like it was just a fact everyone knew, but she had never learned details, or maybe like it was something she’d only learned recently and she’d never had the chance to learn, or had forgotten, any more information. She didn’t remember anything about a gate to another world, or any gods or aliens coming.
“Like I said, we managed to bring some people over quietly and peacefully,” Alianais continued. She was obviously simplifying the story. “We were in talks with the various governments of the world at this point, working out an arrangement that would help us all.”
“I assume something happened and you failed?” Regina raised an eyebrow.
“You could say that.” When Alianais paused, something that looked very much like pain flashed across her expression. “We were too slow, and the threat came earlier than expected. They … disrupted the portals we had opened, causing them to shut.”
Regina cocked her head and crossed her arms again, but she didn’t speak up this time.
“We tried to pull as much mana through the portals as we could - to save it, so to speak. So they couldn’t drain everything. But a lot of magic was, well, disrupted by the abrupt destabilization of the portals between the worlds.” Alianais met her eyes. “It led to calamity and cataclysm.”
“How?” Regina asked quietly. She clenched her fists. She was starting to feel her throat tightening, caught up in the story.
“Mana levels rose explosively, but not smoothly. There were surges that caused a lot of devastation, with chaotic and destructive effects. The more complicated and delicate something was, the more surely it was going to be ruined. Essentially all advanced technology was also destroyed. Take computer chips, as fragile as they were, with just the right atoms in the right places and electrical charges; I doubt a single one survived anywhere. And since the world was so technologically advanced, almost everything depended on them.” She sighed. “Perhaps the people might have weathered it - despite the widespread devastation, the sudden deaths, despite the natural disasters and the changes - if they had handled it better. But they didn’t. To be fair, there was tension even before the cataclysm came. And when it did, the nuclear weapons followed.”
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Regina bowed her head and stared at her hands. She could almost imagine what she heard about, the pictures Alianais painted in a few words. Although she knew that the reality would have been so much more horrifying, nightmarish on a scale she probably couldn’t really comprehend. She concentrated on breathing deeply while the realization of what had happened to her world, to her original home and the people she came from, sank in.
“It still - doesn’t explain everything,” Regina finally said, and if her voice was a little strained, the goddess didn’t seem to notice.
“It was chaos, for a time,” Alianais replied. “Even we don’t know everything that happened. There are a few more factors that came into play to shape the world like it is today, though. Every city was destroyed. Every single one. Many by nuclear strikes, some by the direct effects of mana surges or indirect effects like blowing the remaining fission reactors, some by earthquakes or volcanoes. The weather and climate were just as upset by the cataclysm as the rest of the natural world. Of course, soon enough, nuclear winter settled in. It was probably the primary cause of death for the survivors. Not that many made it. A few, scattered settlements survived, though hardly unscathed. A few places did better than others. Big islands, inland.”
“And the new species like the elves came through the portals before they closed?” Regina asked, raising her head.
“Indeed, and some humans as well. As soon as we realized that our time was up, we sent as many people through them as we could. Perhaps not many in the grand scheme of things, but it was still a sizeable population, which has had over a thousand years to grow.”
“A thousand years …” Regina shook her head.
“It was a long time,” Alianais said, nodding. “A lot has changed, beyond the obvious. The mana didn’t just bring destruction, it caused many other effects. The climate was eventually reset, bringing it more in line with both original Earth and our original world, incidentally. It helped plants and animals evolve, and we have also seen remarkable convergence toward what we used to have on our old world. It reshaped the landscape itself. If you look at a map, even the outline of the continents will not be the same.”
Regina started pacing, shaking her head to herself again. She felt like too much information was shoved at her at once. She both wanted to get out of here and grill Alianais about everything. She noticed that her breathing had become irregular. She tried not to, but it was impossible not to think about the implications of what she was being told.
“Did we really lose all advanced technology?” she asked.
Alianais nodded. “I’m afraid so, or near enough. Any electronic records were destroyed, and so were the vast majority of books. Libraries tended to be in major population centers, which were generally hit most severely. For a while afterward, no one could work with or create new devices without risking major damage to themselves and their surroundings. Besides that, while some humans did survive, like I said, many people came through the portals, or are those descended from them. And the arrival of powerful magic had other effects, as well. It was much easier and safer to use it to try and regain some of the comfort and benefits that had been lost, so even native survivor groups usually tried to learn as much of it as they could, which generally meant linking up with groups of newcomers. That was before the introduction of the System. And, of course, war didn’t stop happening, either.”
Regina found it hard to look at her, although she tried not to let it show. She didn’t want to show how much the goddess’ tale was upsetting her.
“Does that have anything to do with why my hive seems to be the only Hivekind left?” she asked. “You made it sound like I was put into an egg and kept in stasis for a long time without being hatched, but I don’t imagine they transfered souls just to let them languish.”
Alianais seemed to hesitate for a moment. “You’re not wrong. I think that you may have been a case different from the other Hive Queens that were raised after their arrival. Under review, so to speak, perhaps not up to the standards they used later. It hardly matters now. The fact is, the Hivekind were one of the targets of the new warfare that broke out after the apocalypse.”
“Why?” Regina asked.
“Because they were different.” Alianais sighed softly. “That’s the way it usually goes, especially in times of crisis like these. To be honest, it was exacerbated by the fact that the Hivekind were relatively new to the scene. Many people connected their arrival with the cataclysms that happened afterward, and many races banded together against them.”
“But they weren’t actually at fault, were they?” Regina frowned.
Alianais shook her head emphatically. “No, they were not. I think their end proves that, more than anything. The Hivekind relied on advanced technology more than any other race. It left them weakened after what happened. And most of them were very new and very young; the older Hives died in the catastrophes like anyone else. Their reliance on a Hive Queen proved to be the weak point that doomed them. Some drones may have survived, but they couldn’t perpetuate their species, and most barely even tried to keep going.”
Regina pulled a face. She could imagine that all too well. It sent a shiver down her spine, especially when she related it to her current situation. One mistake or unlucky move, and if she died, the Hivekind would be essentially extinct. Again. At least on this world.
“I’m afraid that’s all we have time for today,” Alianais said, looking off into the distance. It had started to rumble sightly. Although the landscape didn’t really move, it looked like it. Regina wondered if another god was expressing their annoyance.
“Wait, why?” she asked.
“You can’t stay here too long. You shouldn’t. Besides, I’m sure your companions are worried about you.”
Regina hesitated for a moment. It was clear she wouldn’t get the opportunity for a lot of questions, so she should focus on what she needed to ask the goddess now. Put that way, the choice was pretty clear. “Just answer me one more thing. Why are you telling me all this? What do you get out of it?”
Alianais hesitated visibly again. At this point, Regina really wasn’t sure if the goddess was playacting or if she had so little interaction with others, or at least mortals, that she really hadn’t learned to control her expressions better.
“I won’t force you to do anything for me, if that’s what you’re afraid of,” she said. “I will offer you some protection, at least to an extent. Beyond that … I did what I thought was right.”
Regina thought back to the short exchange Alianais had had with the other god. Clearly, that had something to do with it.
“Now, you really should go.” Alianais waved her hand, and a shimmering curtain of light appeared next to Regina, about the shape of a person.
Regina glanced back at Alianais, then nodded after a long moment.
She didn’t really know what to think of this. At the moment, her emotions were a bit of a mess, she’d had too much input too quickly to really process it. But she was really unsure how to feel about Alianais, or these gods in general. Arguably, they indirectly caused the apocalypse, killing billions of people. I’m not sure it’s fair to put it that way, but …
But she tried not to let any of that show. She could sort out how she felt and what, if anything, she might want to do about it later. If there was anything she could do. For now, she should take this calmly, at least outwardly. Alianais seemed inclined to be helpful, and it would be stupid to provoke her to change her mind.
“Thank you for the explanations, anyway,” Regina said.
Alianais returned the nod, then waved her hand. It seemed like a sudden gust of wind picked Regina up and pushed her to the portal, although there was no actual wind. She didn’t fight it, and stepped through the portal. In a moment, awareness of hundreds of drones nearby snapped back into her mind.