8. Eidolon

“Father, what do I look like?” Atla asked while I was having tea with my mother, Hien Ro, and my youngest sister.

I blinked, for everyone else had stopped moving as I was pulled into the liminal space where my connection to Atla was most profound.

“What do you mean?” I asked my world-child. “Do you mean what do you look like from far away? I could fly to the moon and you could see yourself through my eyes.”

“No. Okay, maybe later,” Atla said. “But what do I look like?”

I paused, sensing that this was one of those concepts that Atla had trouble communicating. “Do you mean to ask how I see you?”

“Yes!” Atla exclaimed.

“I see you as my child,” I answered immediately.

“Not a big rock?”

“You are a big rock, but that is not the shape of your spirit,” I answered. “Your spirit is that of an innocent child who needs guidance and protection. That is how I see you.”

“So I’m a person? A human like you?”

“You’re a world, Atla. But some worlds are like people, and you are one of those worlds,” I answered. “But you are a child-world. When you are older, you won’t need me so much, but those days are a long time away I think. I understand that worlds take some time to grow up, and I am ready to guide you for as long as it takes.”

“How do you know that?” Atla demanded.

“In one of my past lives, no, actually it was in one of my afterlives, I spoke with a very wise man. He told me a lot about how to raise a child world like you,” I explained. “It was his guidance that allowed me to awaken you in the first place, for which I am deeply grateful to him.”

“What did he say about worlds like me?” Atla questioned.

“Many, many things. We spoke for years about the subject, child, and I do not think that you have the patience to listen to all of it. But mostly he advised me to be open and honest with you, and to treat you like you were my own child, which is how I have been raising you,” I explained honestly.

“Okay. But what do I look like?” the world-child insisted. “Not my rock-body, but my spirit. You said those are different things.”

“I don’t know,” I admitted.

“You don’t know what I look like?”

“I’m sorry, Atla, I don’t. I wish that I could tell you. But I think that it’s better if you decide for yourself what you look like,” I answered.

“How do you mean?”

“I think you know. I think that’s why you’re asking me what you look like,” I said. “You’re just struggling with the words. If you don’t know, then I’m not going to put the idea in your head before you’re ready for it.”

Atla was silent for a while. “Father, am I a boy or a girl?”

I blinked. I had not been expecting that question for some reason. “That is an interesting question, and I do not know.”

“If you had to pick if I was a boy or a girl, which would you rather me be?”

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“I wouldn’t make the choice. I would make you make it for yourself,” I answered definitively. “And if this is going where I think it is going, then it’s not a forever choice that you have to make right now. You can change your mind. I am happy to start thinking of you as either a boy or a girl, both or neither, if you wish.”

“What does my face look like?” Atla insisted. “I can get the rest of it right if you show me what my face looks like.”

I was quiet. Then I closed my eyes, and pictured two faces. One of a mischievous young boy, and the other of a clever young girl, each about eight years old.

“If you are a boy, then your face looks like this,” I explained. “If you are a girl, then your face looks like that.”

The world was silent, and the liminal space collapsed. I was back to having tea with my family. I looked around.

“Atla?” I asked, reaching out for our bond. I felt it, stronger than ever, but there was something happening on the other end. Something which I wished to exert no control over. I was silent, even as a gust of wind swept through the building and blew blue dust about.

The form of the boy that I had pictured appeared in the middle of our tea party, coalescing slowly as Atla struggled to figure out how to manifest himself. My younger sister shrieked and buried her head in Mother’s lap, while Hien Ro turned to me in awed silence. Mother looked at me, and then judging by my calm expression, simply accepted the situation.

Within moments, the Eidolon of Atla manifested himself for the first time. A child of seven or eight years old. A boy, with black hair and a mischievous smile.

“Hello father,” he said.

“Hello Atla. Mother, Hien Ro, Little Sister, this is my son. He is also the world where we live,” I said. “Now let us find him some clothes.”

~~~~~~

Hien Ro sent word to Di Ram and Di Tonilla immediately as Di Sana fawned over the Eidolon-boy. They didn’t have any boy clothes that would fit him at the moment, but they borrowed some of Little Bug’s younger brother’s clothes to start with while a servant ran to fetch something that would fit.

Di Tonilla was the first to arrive, both due to the fact that she had been the closest and the fact that she was a wind cultivator of some power and could fly quite fast. Di Ram arrived soon after.

Hien Ro met them in another parlor while Sana was busy combing her sort-of-grandson’s hair. He explained what he had witnessed, and what Little Bug claimed the newest child in their house to be. A world personified.

“Do you know what this means?” Di Ram asked.

“No, what?” Tonilla asked.

“I don’t know, that’s why I was asking you,” he said. “I am still reeling from the visit of the other Xian lords, and I don’t know anything about cultivating planets. Do you know if this is a good thing or a bad thing?”

“Little bug seemed very happy when it happened,” Hien Ro confided, “So I can’t imagine that it’s a bad thing. But perhaps we should ask him to explain before we begin plotting and scheming behind his back.”

“We do nothing behind his back,” Tonilla said. As his step mother, she was fully committed to his ascension to further heights of power, as her own flag was hoisted beneath his. “We seek to understand the situation so that we might assist him. That is all.”

Hien Ro shrugged. “So let’s go ask while the child is still distracted by Sana,” he suggested, and they went to do that.

Little Bug met them in the hallway and smiled. “I know you have questions. Yes this is a good thing. But it is also a danger. If the other Xian lords found out that Atla could manifest an Eidolon, they might attempt to subsume it to claim the wold-bond from me. But they would have to defeat me in battle in order to succeed, and they will be increasingly nervous of doing so as Atla learns to manifest himself more fully and potently.”

“So it is a blessing and a curse,” Tonilla clarified.

“I prefer to focus on the blessing, but yes, it has a drawback. I will ask Atla not to reveal himself when the other Xian lords next come to visit, and in the mean time I am perfectly happy with claiming that he is my son of flesh and blood.”

The others turned to look at each other.

“Okay,” Hien Ro said. “But who do we say is the mother?”

That took some of the wind out of Little Bug’s sails. “Okay, so I might need your help finding a woman willing to play that role,” he admitted sheepishly.

“I don’t think we’ll have to look very far,” Tonilla said, a smile on her face.

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