The instant I repeat what I have just heard, I sense the confusion in everyone around me. The ascendant, a stunningly lovely woman whose mere presence can set hearts aflutter, looks at me quizzically, and everyone else simply stares at me wondering why I just said what I said. I lock eyes with the cosmic deity and continue to speak.
“Did you just say ‘Adonis’?” I ask, and she shakes her head but upon hearing me say that word her confusion turns into disbelief.
“So you heard what I said…” She says, her remark not a question despite the word choice. She then looks at everyone who have, at this point turned to look at her in confusion. They did not hear her. For a quiet moment she gazes at everyone gathered around her and then I watch a steely determination fill her eyes.
“I… didn’t say ‘Adonis’. I said ‘Vitalis’. Can you repeat the word that I just said?” She asks, as she turns and locks eyes with me. The moment after she says the word more loudly a hush falls over the scene. I hear everyone take a quiet, collective breath as they wait to see what I do. At the same time I see confusion fill the people around me, and they turn to look at me, waiting for me to do something. For me to say something.
I hesitate, sensing that there is some real potency to the word that I simply don’t understand. I once again lock eyes with the small cosmic goddess, and I ask her a single question.
“Is this related to what you’ve come here to investigate?” I ask, and I am unsurprised when she nods at me, though I am a bit taken aback when she actually speaks.
“It is but I didn’t know that when I first came here.” She confesses, while nodding at me, and in doing so revealing something. I pause and consider what to do here. I can hear the word, “Vitalis”, and I innately sense that I can repeat it. Somehow even knowing it seems to fill me with… something that I cannot yet describe in a single word, like a feeling someone experiences but can’t name. I am quiet for many moments, and I only speak when I faintly sense my thronemaidens tense and detect Chyliss readying something, just in case.
“‘Vitalis’.” I eventually utter, and the instant that I do I watch Mynassa’s eyes widen and fill with awe. The moment that the word escapes my lips I feel my heart begin to hammer in my chest, beating faster and faster with every passing attosecond, all while I feel warmth course out from my chest and touch every part of my body.
“Whoa… What is this?” I ask, as I touch my chest and feel the warmth continue to course through me, spreading further and further every time my heart beats. No one says anything, but when I glance up at the people around me I can see that their eyes are filled with both awe and concern. Eventually Chyliss turns and glares at the ascendant goddess, fury in her eyes.
“You! Explain what is going on. Now.” She demands, fearlessly glaring at the ascendant divinity. Her words snap the other thronemaidens out of their stunned states and they also turn on the divinity, drawing weapons and joining their sister-maiden in aggressively questioning the deity. Mynassa, to her credit, ignores the questions and continues to gaze at me.
“‘Vitalis’ is the name, the title, of someone I was once told I’d find someday. A seer named Toraesil once visited one of a palace-temples consecrated in my honor and prayed to me, asking for an audience. I granted it, and she told me that someday I’d meet someone who possesses energy unlike anything I’ve ever seen. I’d call him ‘Vitalis’, and he’d hear me.” She exclaims, reverentially.
“‘Vitalis’ is a cosmic word. A word of passion and love. It is a word of energy, of togetherness. Such words are normally inaudible, even to cosmic gods unless they possess souls that are open to the possibilities inherent in love and passion. I’ve never heard of someone having a cosmic word as a name before so I dismissed Toraesil, assuming she was actually a cosmic goddess of chaos or some other sort of trickster being. But you can hear it. You can… say it, despite not being an ascendant yourself.” She says, speaking to me and only me even though others can hear her. I can tell that in this moment, in her eyes, we are alone.
There is an intimacy to her words, a love visible in her gaze, an awe that she radiates. The radiant intensity of her emotions is beyond anything I can meaningfully name or intelligently describe, but something about it makes me feel safe. I turn my gaze away from the goddess and speak as I look at the thronemaidens.
“Lower… Your weapons. Mynassa does not mean us harm.” I say, firmly, despite the time it takes for me to get the words out. My thronemaidens glance back at me, and then at each other, and when Sif nods at them they do as I ask. Mynassa looks at them, and the emotion in her gaze changes. She pleads with them, and I can faintly sense her projecting her will, her thoughts, into the maidens. They sense a faint echo of what she senses, and they actually relax a bit. She smiles as she darts forward, closing the distance between her and myself in an attosecond, moving at speeds that are even faster than I can move.
I suddenly feel her arms around me, and I relax in her embrace. As I relax I feel my level of energy begin to crash, and before I can say anything I lose consciousness.
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“Ah that was… unexpected.” A soft voice whispers, apologetically. When my eyes open I find myself looking at Mynassa, but I am not in her arms nor am I on the surface of the planet I was just on. I gaze at my surroundings and find that I am on the roof of what must be some home for Mynassa. By looking out in the distance I can see a breathtakingly stunning view of a glorious beach and a huge coral reef not far from the shore.
“I apologize, Emperor tel’Avos.” Mynassa tells me, and I can hear that she is sincere. I look at her in confusion, and I am pleased when I don’t even have to ask the question in my mind before she speaks up.
“Ah, you don’t know where we are. Understandable. We are in the present moment atop one of my temples, but you are actually safely tucked away in a dream. We are, in truth, back in Etherscape and both of us are in the vessel you used to arrive at our meeting. We are in a new place, specifically the planet of Iomean, the capital world of the Iome hegemony.” She explains, smiling brightly at me.
“Several of your brides are here, including the two diplomats, a genie named Jourdal and a Sorothustran named Kelarset. Both of their magicks, working together, are helping you heal. With every passing moment you draw closer to the waking world.” Mynassa says, joyfully.
“I did not know that uttering the noun you uttered would have an effect on you in the immediate term. Toraesil did not tell me about that little quirk.” Mynassa complains, but I smile at her and look out at the beach.
“Has anything else changed in the time since I passed out?” I ask, as I gaze down at Mynassa. The goddess seems tiny in my arms, but both she and I are comfortable. We clearly possess an unusual connection of some sort. She pauses as she considers my question.
“Well… In the time since you’ve fallen asleep, you have begun to acquire more Vitalis energy. A lot more. It’s vaguely like you actually ARE an ascendant and you’ve acquired new power sources. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.” Mynassa confesses.
“Vitalis energy IS linked to life, love, lust, fertility, and pleasure. You seem to be drawing about as much of it into yourself as I do whenever an instance of those things occurs, though your range is a lot smaller than mine because I acquire a healthy amount of power with every passing second. You… don’t.” She says, curiously.
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“You’re also generating a lot more of it than you did before. Funnily enough doing so is forcing your other internal energy generating organs to be active with every passing second. They’re also getting faster. I think saying ‘Vitalis’ somehow awoke something in you.” She tells me, smiling as she does. Then her smile darkens.
“But there’s one weird consequence of all of this. Stuff keeps coming to life around you. Well… That’s not fully accurate. Somehow your presence keeps awakening avatars of things. For example, you are currently fast asleep on a bed. The bed has had an avatar for a few hours, because of your proximity.” Mynassa explains, causing me to laugh. She huffs in response to my laugh.
“It’s not funny! I’ve never seen or even heard of an ability like this. I can give living things, like trees and plants, avatars but BEDS? It’s not even the only thing you’ve awoken, it’s just the most bizarre example I could think of.” She complains, though even as she speaks her smile lightens and she begins to find the situation as ridiculous as I do.
“That said, this ability is ridiculous, Ignacio. With it, you could create things like spaceships and have them pilot themselves. Or worse yet, have an array of guns that can lift and aim themselves. It’s akin to one of my greater megapowers, but on a scale I can’t even imagine…” Mynassa explains. I look at her in confusion and it takes her a beat to realize I’m asking a question with my eyes.
“Oh! I keep forgetting how new this is to you. ‘Greater Megapowers’ are potent abilities that any and all ascendants can get. There are powers that are unique to ascendants based on their type, ‘Cosmic gods’ can get domains for example, there are powers within those powers that are even more unique, for example I have ‘Desire’ which is a domain perk, and then there are more common abilities. Greater megapowers are those more common abilities.” Mynassa tells me, smiling all the while.
“One of mine is ‘Giver of Life’, which allows me to create life using nothing more than my energy. I gain power from worship so creating life is a handy way for me to gain quick and easy access to new followers.” She says, clearly attempting to brag. I smile, actually impressed by the thought of such an ability. When she sees me smile she brightens.
“I can show you sometime! Creating humans is easy for me, as is creating elves, and a range of other humanoids.” She reveals, grinning up at me.
“So… What now?” I ask, even as I sense something beginning to subtly change within me. She looks at me and her eyes narrow unexpectedly.
“Well for now it looks like we’re about to be interrupted. Your dreams are shifting. I can feel you beginning to wake up. When you do you’ll be in a separate room from me. Hmm… It’s okay, I’ll see you soon.” She tells me, before leaping up and kissing my cheek. As soon as her lips part from my skin everything goes dark for a split second.
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I open my eyes and find myself in a room I’ve never been in, but my senses quickly reveal that Mynassa was telling me the truth. I am on board the ship, and I am aware that I am not alone, even though all I can currently see is a chrome-colored ceiling above me. I let out an airy laugh as I get up from a laying position and see a new sight.
I am in the middle of a large and private room. I am now seated on top of a plush bed, and I can see various figures looking at me excitedly. Chief among those figures are Sif and the other thronemaidens, as well as women I am familiar with and ones I’ve never seen before.
Among the women I’m familiar with are Mirvel, Thalace, and Zara tel’Drok: a goblin I met last night. Included among the unfamiliar faces are a blue-skinned woman and another smoking redhead, both of whom are so powerfully magical that their magical auras are visible to me even here in Etherscape where the ambient ether is supposed to disrupt magic that is not rooted in ethermancy. I only get a second to study them before Sif darts towards me so fast that she causes a shockwave to explode out from where she was before, stunning everyone even as we feel the effects of the sonic boom she just caused wash over us.
In an instant Sif has pulled me into her chest and is telling me how happy she is to see me. I am only somewhat listening, but I feel it when she begins to lightly kiss my hair. At the same time I can feel a distant corner of my brain filling with strange new knowledge.
The corner of my brain blessed with knowledge is steadily being filled with a constant flood of new information. I learn new names with every passing second, names belonging to people in love, people in lust, and even learn whenever new life is conceived. Curiously, I can also sense WHERE each instance of love, lust, or other related elements occur, and I swiftly notice that I am sensing instances taking place throughout Etherscape. I am somehow attuned to love, desire, life, pleasure, and fertility throughout the total territory I control!
Sif continues to hold me against her, and to lightly kiss me and each time she does I gain knowledge of a new instance of love, and I feel a twinge of power flow into me. I eventually manage to pull myself free, gently, and I look at her with a soft look on my face.
“I apologize for scaring you. It was not my intention. And for what it’s worth, Mynassa also apologizes. Now… How long was I out?” I ask. My remarks about Mynassa confuse Sif but when she hears my question she immediately gives me her full attention.
“It’s been just under a day. We’ve moved… a lot of the imperial government into the ship, in the time since you fell unconscious. Mynassa is in another room being watched over by numerous thronemaidens.” Sif tells me, causing me to let out a low laugh. That explains some of what she said earlier.
“Wait, how did Mynassa tell you she apologizes for what happened?” Sif asks, causing me to pause and look at her as I think about how to explain what happened while I was dreaming.
“So… She appeared to me in a dream and talked to me while I was sleeping. She told me about Kelarset and Jourdal.” I remark, which causes the two women to flash me amused looks on their faces. I then turn and thank them for helping me heal faster, which gets smiles from the two diplomats.
This is not the only place I’m awakening in, either. My clone in the End of Time is also waking up in a soft bed of his own.
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“How… bizarre.” I say, as I wake up in a room somewhere in the End of Time. I close my eyes and feel this version of my mind attuning to same things the “Me” in Etherscape is continually gaining power from. There are far fewer instances here of those things here, in the End of Time, but there aren’t none.
I smirk as I gain an awareness of the intensity of Delphi’s feelings for me. Most of the instances of love I feel in this area come from her. At the same time I can hear distant footsteps slowly becoming less and less distant. I can also hear faint conversation, something which surprises me. I can make out voices, some such as Heartening Glimmer’s and Delphi’s I can recognize, while others I do not.
I uneasily get out of the bed I’m in and I also do something I haven’t done before: I use metacreativity to fashion some clothes for myself. I use the ether inside of me to create a simple outfit that a sci-fi adventurer might wear, a bodysuit that clings to my body and shields my most intimate body parts from view.
The room I’m in is far smaller than the bedroom in the palace I’ve spent a healthy amount of time in. It only takes me a scant few seconds to reach the door and open it, and when I do I find myself only a short distance from four figures heading my way.
The room just beyond the private bedroom I am still in is a large living room. Not far from me I can see Delphi, Heartening Glimmer, and two figures I’ve never seen before. One of them is a woman wearing a bodysuit not unlike mine, with dark hair styled in a pixie-cut. The other is an elegantly dressed old man with whisker-like facial hair and two horn-like shocks of white hair on the edges of his head. He holds a magnificently fashioned staff, and he studies me with a mysterious smile. Delphi’s eyes fill with tears as she darts towards me and hugs me when she reaches me. I gently kiss the top of her head and I tell her to relax, even as I gaze at Heartening and the two strangers.
Delphi’s quiet and elated sobs wrack her small body, and I comfort her while the strangers and the damaged godsphere slowly approach me. When the others are in front of me, the man nods respectfully, and the woman kneels, while the godsphere simply walks to my side and turns to face the others. The old man is the first of us to speak.
“Hail Ignacio, King of the Final Megalopolis. I am Kismarc the Grand, a Sorothustran blessed with potent magic, and I am pleased to meet you.” The man tells me. I smile at him when I hear that he is, like Kelarset, a Sorothustran.
“Greetings, lord. I am Insoucia of Dim Moons, one of the Brishor Monks. My clan is a clan of warriors and spies trained by an ancient omega lord and sworn to the service of the lords and ladies of time itself. When you wouldn’t wake up Delphi found me and called me to this place.” The woman explains, causing me to look at the oracle curiously. She smiles now, but tears are still streaming down her face.
“We were called here to heal and protect you, but I see that such a thing was not necessary. Indeed you seem… greater than Delphi described you.” Kismarc exclaims, causing me to laugh gently.
“Delphi was worried about me. I was fine, but I recognize and appreciate your concerns given the abruptness of my collapse. That said, if you could heal me… Is there any chance you can help Heartening?” I ask, which causes the godsphere to blink and look at me curiously. Kismarc studies the woman and I watch his eyes narrow as he contemplates my question.
“Well… I have heard of the godsphere you managed to help and the extensive damages she endured. Delphi knew such a thing would interest me almost as much as your sudden appearance. I don’t know if we could heal her completely, but I think we could begin to help her over on Sorothustra.” Kismarc eventually exclaims. His words prompt Delphi to inform me, telepathically, as to the extensive and devastating damages Heartening endured, which are total and she came frightfully close to being irreparable according to the scans done by Delphi back in the starport.
I take a second to absorb all of this new information as I realize that I’ll be needing to make a visit to a whole new world soon. I inform the Sorothustran that in the days to come we will be paying his homeworld a visit, which makes him smile.
And with that time begins to pass for the first time since my chaotic adventure began, now days ago. Over in Etherscape the version of me that lives as an emperor gets busy learning about the government, my powers as an emperor, and finally getting used to a new sense of normalcy. Over here I take time to begin making use of my powers to help learn more about the city, and I begin to get ready for my first real adventure, an expedition to Sorothustra. Before I know it, four whole days have passed.