-=[Callista Liesl]=-

I awoke with a start, my heart pounding in my chest. The remnants of my nightmare clung to me like silver cobwebs, the image of the Gygr’s piercing yellow eyes burning into my soul.

I shuddered, trying to shake off the terror that had gripped me in my sleep. The nightmare of becoming a Jotun, of being pulled into the Gygr’s bog, of remaining alive while my body slowly turned inside out, drowning within myself… was a constant presence now, hovering at the edges of my consciousness, drawing ever closer with each breath.

Chernobog called out to me in my dreams, seeping into my every waking moment. When I closed my eyes I saw it, a pure black, oil-slick spiral amidst the gray, desolate, lifeless swamp.

I saw the pit of pure red from which I would re-emerge when I was remade by Chernobog.

Soon I would be changed into an undying idea, a current of ever-flowing, ever unfolding entities formed from my sins, featuring everything living I have ever killed and consumed in my nineteen years of life as an Arcanicx.

No longer an I, but a We, the Song of the Abyss, the Symphony of Flesh.

As I sat up, rubbing the sleep from my eyes, trying not to whimper, I couldn't help but glance over at Ioan.

He was already awake, of course, scribbling away in that book of his, sitting across from me on the large bed within my sleigh, now surrounded with piles of earth, stones hanging from ropes and tools.

Did he ever sleep?

I watched him for a moment, trying to make sense of the enigma before me, trying to push away the sense of the damned void-spiral that sought to invert me, pulling me into its dark embrace.

I thought about everything that happened last night.

Moving a river once was a feat worthy of an Arch-Sorceress.

Purposefully moving it again to somehow obliterate two Jotuns was straight up absurd.

It took an entire Coven of Archmages and all of their Champions to end the malicious reign of the twins of Korranta who simply would not die, would not succumb to magic or blade. Ioan did it by himself with only a kitten on his shoulder!

Ioan Starfall.

A name that upended everything I thought I knew about the world.

The longer I spent with Ioan, the more I realized that he was not inversion-cursed like me.

Ioan’s mind-state was distinctively orderly to the point of obsession, doing the oddest things for unknown reasons. The language he spoke and wrote in, had a distinctive pattern to it, wasn’t the gibberish of a madman, wasn’t the result of hostile insanity radiating from the depths of the Abyssal Void. Ioan didn't slay me when he had the chance, even resisted striking me down with the Knell-blade when I tried to force him into it.

I suddenly remembered the words from the book of Legends of the Celestarch read to me by my assigned Strix in the librarium of Iridium when I was but a young kit.

"The universe was dark and vast and the distances between stars and planets unimaginable. Undeterred by this, the Celestarch had forged a great Wyrm, Space her name, the First, the Everywhere Door, the Great Cosmophage. With his new partner who could burrow holes between here and there, the Celestarch walked from world to world and found naught but silence and death there. Displeased by this, the Celestarch ordered the Cosmophage to gather every world within sight to Endalaus and seeded each with life, watching each garden of creation grow, thrive and multiply. And it was Good."

Legends of the Master Builder, the mover of stars entwined themselves around Ioan like the Divine Beast Oroborus of the Laima people leading me to but one inevitable, horrifying conclusion.

Ioan was a Celestial Lord who came here from Endalaus to judge the Arcanicx for our sins of using the Star-Shards. The Stellar Gods were angry with us for feeding on what rightly belonged to Heaven to our Champions.

How did the black kitten even understand Ioan’s language? How could a kitten interact with a diagram of kitten faces and letters?

How did all of these bell-flowers and green grasses around me survive the White Blight, bloom, persist in opposition to the biting cold of winter... unless they were simply enforced into existence by the mere presence of the Seeder of Worlds?

Was Stormy one of the presumed long dead Cosmophages in disguise, one of the many-eyed Elder Worms that long ago burrowed holes in the moons circling Endalaus, Astroshifted by the Word of Master Builder into the body of a minute kitten?

The dedication with which Ioan wrote things down, ignoring everything else like sleep, did not bode well for my kin.

What was he listing in that book of his, constantly making charts of? Was it the names of the worst sinners to be turned into crystals forevermore, was it the names of City States from the Ring of Castia, places to be expunged from existence?

As the only Arcanicx who knew the truth, one potentially doomed to lose her mind in less than a week, I had to act now, had to assuage the Star Lord’s judgement!

My mind was made up, a decision was reached.

“Oh hey Cali, you’re awake,” Ioan said as I uncurled myself from where I lay.

I quickly rotated and slid onto my knees, bowing low before Ioan. My heart raced as I pressed my forehead into the bed.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"Oh Great Celestarch, Lord of Heavens!" I began, my voice trembling, "I beg your forgiveness for the sins of the Arcanicx. We have trespassed against the laws of Heaven, consuming that which rightfully belongs to the Stellar Gods."

I dared not look up, keeping my gaze down as I continued my desperate plea. "We were blinded by our pride, our lust for power. We thought ourselves above the natural order, but now I see the error of our ways."

Tears began to form in my eyes as the weight of our transgressions bore down upon me, along with the feeling of my personal doom. "Oh, Emissary of Endalaus, Sovereign of moon-devouring First Elder Wyrm, I implore you to show mercy. We are but misguided children, led astray by the allure of the Wormwood Star! I beg, not for myself but for all Arcanicx of the Ring of Castia! Please…”

“What?” Ioan asked.

I bit my lip.

My confession lacked conviction, wasn't good enough for the Celestarch, my words probably failing to match the Celestial language of his kind. I treated him like a mortal boy, a mere Nordstaii Champion to be claimed, but he was obviously none of these things.

My mind had been clouded by the six contracts and I…

Shit. I didn’t feel any of the pull of the contracts, that’s why I felt so clear-minded now!

“I’m sorry, my Lord!” I cried. “All of the contracts you’ve bound me with have all lost their potency!”

“They did, huh?” Ioan asked. “Hrmm. Guess there’s some factor that I’ve missed, thought that they would last a tad longer. Stormy, if you please…”

Ioan said something in the Celestial tongue to the kitten and opened the book with the drawing of cat faces. I swallowed, guessing that my faith was about to be tested.

There would be no lies this time. I could not allow myself to deceive the Emissary of the Elder Gods, the only man on Thornwild that could undo the inversion-curse that I now bore with but a mere Word.

“My Lord,” I exhaled. “The contracts hold no sway over my mind because Arcanicx blood decays between one and two weeks time!”

“Hrm,” Ioan said. “And the male blood does not decay, yes? Unless the contracts with Champions are occasionally refreshed?”

“The blood of Champions does not decay,” I affirmed. “Once outside male bodies it only becomes more magically potent with time.”

“Interesting,” Ioan commented. “So if a Champion spills some blood during a fight, what happens to it?”

“The Great Colosseum of Iridium absorbs the spilled blood of Champions to reinforce its ward,” I explained. “If a Champion spills their blood elsewhere, he usually pulls it all back into himself after the battle ends so that its power is not wasted. If a Champion is slain and their body isn't found in time, the blood usually permanently contaminates an area, poisons and twists it."

Ioan eyed his kitten. Stormy’s black paw was firmly planted under the happy kitten face.

“I swear never to lie to you, in the name of Goldara!” I revealed. “For as long as my mind is clear of the influence of the void-born, I will serve you, my… Omniarch. I understand what Amari meant by this name now!"

“What’s with all the aggrandizing titles, Cali?” Ioan asked. “Were you not sending me angry glares yesterday?”

“I was! Forgive me!” I lamented. “Yesterday I was still bound with the last of the contracts, the magic of which was making me behave as though you were my best friend. Today, I am fully free of their influence! If… if you wish to bind me again, I am willing! Please, just spare my kin the wrath of Heaven!”

“Say what?” Ioan asked.

“The tongue of the Nordstaii mortals cannot express how much wretchedness I feel for my mistaken presumptions!” I stammered out far louder than I intended. “I treated you as if you were a mere... Nordstaii male, a mortal boy! Your mundane appearance has deceived this foolish, simple Felix Arcanicx, which is testament to the great power of the Word you wield!”

“Back up a little,” Ioan said. “Why do you think that I’m your… Lord?”

I took a deep breath, trying to gather my thoughts.

Ioan's words only reinforced my belief in his divine nature–of course a celestial being would be amused with the ineptitude of a simple, minute, earth-bound creature such as myself.

"My Omniarch," I began trying to sound as respectable as I could, "During my studies at the Maggelanum, I was read a few arcane manuscripts. They spoke of old legends, stories passed down through generations, of the Elder Gods, the Builders of Endalaus. The Heaven-born, they were called. Entities of immense power who could move celestial bodies with a mere Word, who shaped the very fabric of creation. In my folly I thought them… fiction.”

I dared to glance up at Ioan's face, searching for any sign of anger. "These beings were said to have used their Cosmophage Wyrms to feast on the moons that circle Endalaus! To have carved out the seas and raised the mountains on every world falling through the Infinite Abyss across the Magisphere of Desire, never reaching Endalaus. And now, seeing your power firsthand - the way you command the rivers, how you obliterated the Jotuns - it's clear to me that you are a true Emissary of the Heavens and I was but a fool trying to bind you!"

Ioan's eyebrows furrowed, and I hurried on, afraid I might lose my chance to explain. "The texts speak of the Heaven-born using a divine, long lost language. Just like the strange writing and tongue you use to speak with your... companion." I glanced at Stormy.

"The mundane earth you’ve filled my sleigh with," I continued, gesturing to the ground packed into the sleigh, "it defies all known laws of magic, lacks stardust. It grows flowers with barely any sunlight, resists the White Blight. Mundane water blessed by your touch, heals even the permanent tissue damage from dragonglass!”

“Riiiight,” Ioan said.

“Without access to Wormwood, I… I thought that I would turn into a grey Drallus by now and yet my mane and tail remain as white as snow!” I waved a hand at my hair.

“I guess your people don’t know much about the Nordstaii Yaga,” Ioan said. “Or nature spirits.”

“Not many of our kind chase after Champions this far North,” I said. “I do wish that I could remember what wonders you have shown me in the Shalish wood, but alas… my mind draws a blank when I think about it.”

“Should we tell her?” Ioan turned to his cat.

“Brrrrrr,” Stormy looked at me, evaluating my expression with pale-silver eyes of absolute judgement.

My heart accelerated.

What great truths would the Star-born reveal? Would he curse all Arcanicx and wipe us all from existence? Would he simply watch in amusement, write more names in his book as the void-born dragged me to their bog? Would he laugh as I turned into a Jotun?

“I beg for your mercy, oh Celestial Cosmophage,” I bowed to Stormy. “Forgive me for my transgressions against you. You are the highest Divine Beast, above the Felix-Mother Goldara herself!”

“Mrrrrr,” Stormy nodded, seemingly considering my words.

"Oh divine one," I continued, "I was blind to your beauty but now I see the sparkle in your fur and the shine in your silver eyes like that of myriads of stars cast across the cosmos! Forgive my foolishness, for who would suspect a creature so small and fluffy to possess such vast cosmic power?”

Stormy tilted her head, her eyes seeming to gleam with amusement. She let out a soft "Mrrp" that I could only interpret as acknowledgment of my grovelling.

Ioan made what sounded like a chortling sound.

"Oh, great and powerful Stormy," I pleaded, "I swear to erect many great temples in your honor if you forgive me for my sins and let me live! Devourer of worlds, seeder of gardens, she who gave birth to all life on Thornwild! If you could find it in your celestial heart to spare us lowly Arcanicx, to…”

It was then that Ioan started to laugh.

I paled, my voice stuttering to a halt.

The Emissary of Endalaus found amusement in my words. He would not save me from Jotunification.

I clearly said something wrong, something stupid, failed to save myself, doomed my people.