Mark appeared three feet in the air and collapsed to the ground, landing face-first in a clump of yellow moss. Horan appeared next to him, sitting on top of a boulder.
Horan looked down as Mark lay unmoving on the ground. “Hey, um, you can get up. We’re fine.”
“Moss smells nice.” Mark’s voice was muffled and only just audible.
“Then take some with you, you can use it as an air freshener for yourself.”
Mark got up slowly. “Wow, insult of the century. I feel so humiliated.”
Looking around, Mark saw that he and Horan were in a misty forest in a small valley between two mountains. The fog seemed to congregate near the ground, as he could almost see the tops of the mountains around him, but couldn’t see more than a hundred feet in front of him There didn’t seem to be a fixed light source, as what few shadows were cast by the nearby trees and rocks danced and flickered, as if they weren’t sure where they were supposed to be cast. What was more, the trees were a sight to behold as well. Thick, yellowish tubes protruded from ten-foot-tall wooden trunks, like palm trees made from toilet paper cores and spaghetti.
Horan gave Mark a few seconds to adjust to the new surroundings. “You get used to the place after a few visits. We’re heading up there.” He pointed up one of the nearby mountains, atop which sat a small, black tower, the roof covered in spikes.
Mark looked up at the tower. “That’s where your dad lives?”
Horan nodded. “Built it himself. Pretty impressive, considering he only has one arm.” He touched his eyepatch. “But I guess working at half capacity isn’t the worst thing ever.”
Mark stared at the spikes adorning the tower’s roof. “You dad seems… interesting. Let’s go.” He stood up fully and started walking, but collapsed to his knees after a few steps.
Horan winced. “Yeah, should’ve mentioned that part. Travelling to and from here takes kind of a lot out of you. It’s why my dad can’t leave. He’s so weak, the strain would kill him. We’d better rest up for a few minutes.” He patted the part of the boulder between his legs.
Mark crawled over to the boulder and rested his back on it. After settling in, he startled forwards when the boulder abruptly jolted down. Horan fell off the side with a yelp as the boulder began to slowly rise out of the ground. As Mark scuttled a way, he tripped on what felt like a root rising out of the ground and stopped in his tracks.
The clump of moss Mark had been lying on pulled itself out of the ground to reveal that it was attached to the top of a large, grey, reptilian head. The head’s neck made itself clear and snaked back to the boulder.
Before long, a long-necked, tortoise-like creature had fully climbed out of the dirt. The moss formed a sort of hairdo on top of the creature’s head, and the boulder was a squat, tall shell from which seven bent, hooved legs protruded like the legs of a spider.
Mark and Horan stared at the creature in silence as it slowly turned to look at both of them, then trundled off into the forest without a word.
Horan was quiet for a while as he watched the creature vanish into the trees. “Told you there’s some weird stuff down here.”
Mark propped himself up. “What was that? One of the soul things?”
“Yup.” Horan hesitantly got to his feet. “We used to call them Lost Souls, but that’s boring, so we changed the name to Joeys about fifty years ago.”
Mark pulled himself up using a low-hanging tree branch. “Where’d that name come from?”
“Because they live in the land down under.” Horan covered his face and suppressed a chuckle. “It’s dumb, I know. But I still love it.”
Mark took a few tentative steps. “Well, I think the adrenaline got me moving. Let’s go.” He walked off in the direction of the tower.
Horan slowly caught up to him. “So… The trip’s gonna take a few hours, and I’m in a talkative mood now. Wanna talk about stuff?”
Mark ducked under a tree. “What kind of stuff?”
Horan shrugged nonchalantly. “Dunno. Whatever you want to talk about. On the off chance that you actually want to talk about anything for some reason. I just don’t wanna walk in silence.”
“Well, I guess I do have a few questions about some stuff.”
Horan gasped. “You? Questioning things? Impossible!”
“Don’t make me change my mind.” Mark picked up a pebble, inspected the bottom, and tossed it into the air. “I was wondering a few things about Thel. And how exactly he… does all that stuff.”
“Alright, shoot.”
Mark thought for a moment. “So, he’s so much stronger than everyone else because he took a bunch of people’s Ro, right?”
Horan nodded. “That’s my best guess, yeah. Also, I think the plural is Roi.”
“Right, sure. So, what exactly are Roi? How do they work?”
Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
Horan sucked in air through his teeth. “Okay, this isn’t something I know too much about. I’m gonna have to remember my mom’s Thaumatology lessons.”
“Wow, you’re the best source in the world.”
“Oh, shush. So…” Horan held his hands out in front of his face, as if trying to visualize what he was talking about. “A Ro is a thing only Egyptians have, it’s our unique Domain-only thing. It’s like this detachable part of our soul that we can transfer to other Egyptians. It’s like a power booster, the more you have, the more powerful you are. It’s also an exponential thing, which is how Thel managed to get so powerful with only a few of them.”
Mark nodded. “…Alright. That’s not too complicated, I don’t see why you had to think so hard to remember that stuff.”
Horan folded his arms as he walked. “You try remembering something you learned 3,000 years ago! It’s hard, even for us!”
“And it’s gonna be… a good deal harder for me, all things considered.”
“Heh. Mortality. Oh, that reminds me. One interesting thing about being empowered by someone else’s Ro is that, since it’s not really a part of your soul, you can’t Amp it.”
“…You really need to start remembering that I typically have no idea what you’re talking about when it comes to these things.”
Horan slapped his forehead. “Duh, sorry. You know when I do some big flashy move but then get really tired? That’s me Amping. I’m basically pushing my powers past their normal limits to do one extra-strong move. I’ve seen some people do some seriously impressive things, but the really big stuff can’t even really be done on purpose. Remember back by the Suez when I blasted that one demon to bits? I didn’t even do that intentionally, it just happened because I was so mad.
But if you’re Amping hard enough to do something like that, it’s gonna have a toll. You can’t really predict what happens to you when you’re done Amping that hard, but it’s never good. But if Thel’s really getting all his power from people’s Roi, then he can’t really Amp himself up. That’s a side-effect I remember hearing about.”
Mark thought for a moment. “I’ll… keep all that in mind.”
The two walked through the forest in silence for the rest of the way. Mark constantly looked around for something moving, while Horan simply enjoyed the walk. Mark may not have been noticing it, but the trip was quite serene. More so than the snow-covered hellscape that was the world above, at least.
-
Mark and Horan reached the foot of the mountain, where they found a small hiking trail leading up to the tower.
Mark looked up at the trail. “Did your dad make this?”
Horan began walking along the trail. “Wouldn’t surprise me. He’s the kind of guy who would go out for a walk with stuff like that turtle-thing out there.”
It took a few minutes of hiking for Mark’s legs to grow accustomed to the incline. As he ascended to the point of being able to look over the treetops, he stopped for a moment to take in the view.
Higher-up features were visible through the haze from further away, but Mark could only see anything out to a few miles away. But piercing through the haze like a lighthouse was an incomprehensibly large pillar of faintly luminous ice towered over the landscape. The pillar seemed to stretch infinitely into the sky, fading into obscurity as it rose into the blue haze above. As Mark stared at the pillar, it began to be covered by a dark patch on his vision, like when he looked at the sun for too long.
Horan stopped when he noticed Mark staring off into the distance. “Yeah, that’s what this place does to you. Makes all the questions you’ve got rattling around in your head all come spilling out.” He stood next to Mark and looked at the pillar off in the distance. “Go ahead, ask.”
Mark looked over at Horan, vaguely irritated. “Do I have to? You already know what question I’m going to ask.”
Horan shrugged. “Fair enough. That there is the very originally-named Pillar. It’s a prison of Deus’ own making.”
“Then who’s in it?”
“...I don’t know, actually. I feel like I should know, but it’s slipped my mind. Probably just Deus getting rid of the memory of something he’d rather sweep under the rug. He does it all the time, did it with his original name and everything.”
“What, can he just do that? How powerful even is he? How’d he get like that?”
“Simple: Dumb luck. When a new Domain manifests due to a human civilization starting, there’s a random number of Primoi starting off. Usually, those Primoi start getting together and having kids.”
Mark cut in. “With their siblings?”
Horan sighed deeply. “…Yeah, the first bunch of Primoi to get manifested usually call each other siblings. So, yes. With our siblings. The more Primoi that get added to the Domain, the more the power granted to them by their connected civilization gets split between the Primoi in the Domain. But if a Primus dies, their share of the Domain’s power just vanishes. Nobody’s getting it back.
Well, Deus was the only Primus to manifest in the Roman Domain. Considering that, plus the inherent power being tied to a civilization like Rome gives you, Deus became a big deal, fast. He became so much more powerful than… everything else in all of existence, he basically took over the entire world, without humanity being aware, of course. He took a liking to your kind, enforced a strict zero-interaction policy. Course, he decided a while back that it’s a good time to take all the humans he likes and leave. Real nice of him, considering all the fun we’re having in his absence.”
Mark got to his feet. “Yeah, I heard about the whole leaving-without-a-trace thing. Omet told me during the party.”
Horan got up in turn and patted Mark on the back. “You see what happens when you actually talk to people? When you ask the questions you’re thinking about, you actually learn things! That, Mark, is the power of the Breezy Slide!”
Mark began walking up the trail again. “I don’t know what that even is, but I know it’s stupid.”
“Oh, it’s anything but!” Horan walked alongside Mark. “It’s a state of mind. The state where you know exactly who you’re talking to, and exactly what they want you to be, and being exactly that! The Breezy Slide is my secret to talking to people, it’s how I get you to talk about your secrets so easily. I’m just a more trustable guy, when it suits me.”
“No, it’s just because I have no filter for that kind of thing.”
“Hey, don’t discredit yourself. the Breezy Slide is a simple trick, but it’s perfect for getting into someone’s good graces. And now, you’re harnessing its power to pass as someone who actually talks to people on a regular basis. I’m so proud of you.” He faked wiping a tear from his eye.
Mark rolled his eyes. “I asked someone a question and they answered. Don’t make a big deal out of it.”
Horan tutted. “Alright, but you ought to know that it is a big deal. We’ll get you a social life yet, just you wait.”