-53-
[https://i.imgur.com/LoYByv0.png]
The break of consciousness between passing out and coming to was disorienting, as always. At least this time I knew right away I’d been caught up in a psychometric episode.
I was staring down at, well… there was no great way to put this—my own dead body.
A gaping hole in my stomach from where I’d been eviscerated by the Archdemon, Asteryith, burned itself into my mind and I knew I’d never quite forget this terrible sight for the rest of time.
This was unmistakably Hailey’s memory. No doubt triggered by my current state in the non-psycho-memory-world.
Things played out as expected.
Hailey never stopped crying, which made me feel awful.
The remnants of our attack force sorted out the bodies of the dead and laid them out for accountability while the surviving leaders tried to rationalize a plan that didn’t involve me.
It was all terrible.
And when the scene finally came to an end, I was fully ready to be jolted awake and go through the normal, ‘Airis, you’ve been asleep for two whole days!’ shtick.
Buuuuuut… why am I not waking up?
I IMAGINE IT’S BECAUSE THIS TIME WE DIDN’T USE CAPRICORN’S MAGICKA FONT. WE WERE ONE-HUNDRED PERCENT AU NATUREL CASTING THAT GLORIA SPELL.
Oh, good. I’m still hearing voices. I was beginning to worry that I hadn’t actually gone crazy.
I shook my head in an attempt to dispel the voice in my head, but it didn’t seem to help.
VOICES? THAT HARDLY SEEMS FAIR. I THOUGHT WE HAMMERED THIS OUT ALREADY.
“I’m pretty sure we didn’t.” I said, “So, who are you, really?”
ME? WELL, LIKE I SAID BEFORE, I’M YOU—WELL, WE’RE ALL YOU.
A multitude of shadowy doppelgängers popped into existence and, just as quickly, suddenly coalesced back into a single entity.
WE COULDN’T POSSIBLY BE CALLED THE SAME NAME, NOW COULD WE? THAT WOULD BE WAY TOO CONFUSING, OBVIOUSLY. HMMM…
Shadow-me tilted her head and placed a finger on her cheek in an exaggerated imitation of thought.
Her voice sang inside my mind in a whimsical tone.
OH THERE ARE JUST SO MANY NAMES THAT I LIKE! YOU CAN CALL ME ATË. OR NEFAS. IF YOU’RE FEELING REAL FROGGY, RUIN.
“Okay then, Atë, why am I still,” I waved my hand around, motioning at the seemingly frozen world, “stuck here?”
OH, GREAT QUESTION.
Atë’s wispy form flickered and solidified, taking on color. The dark shadows coalesced into strands of black hair, and framed a face identical to mine.
In the blink of an eye, Atë had taken on a human guise—looking just like me, but with dark inky-black hair.
“Such a great question.” she repeated, in a voice that mimicked my own.
“And the answer?” I prodded.
She looked at me with a serious expression, and placed a hand on my shoulder, “I dunno!”
I choked.
“What do you mean, you don’t know?”
She shrugged.
“I only know what you know. I’m you. Gotta get that one up there!” She rapped a finger against my forehead, “Quit forgetting!”
I batted her hand away, “I got it. What in the Aether is the point in having a dual personality if we both just know the same stuff?”
“Plenty of people have the same knowledge, but they don’t tend to consider it the same way.” she countered, “Also, there are way more than just two of us. Whatever Goddess made us, really screwed up—”
Atë paused.
“You, uh, okay?” I asked.
I felt a strange draw to my dark-haired mirror image. My concern was genuine.
“Yeah,” she replied, “Neikea is complaining that our powers are too weak to manifest us all.”
“Neikea?”
“Another of us.”
“Is it bad that I kinda hate this?” I grimaced.
Atë smirked, “Existence is pain—well, that’s what Ponos is thinking, anyway.”
“Ponos…? Another of us?”
“Yep!”
I sighed, “I’m starting to think I’m not a Goddess of anything good.”
“Common consensus agrees. We’re real messed up, huh? Doesn’t matter though! The Celestials can’t walk the mortal plane, but we can. We’ve already got the title. No matter what kind of Goddess we are, we’re the Goddess of Vanixia.”
Atë placed her hands on her hips in a showy manner and beamed a toothy grin at me.
“Oh,” she said, “I think we’re getting kicked out.”
Pieces of the psycho-memory world began to fade away, and Atë turned back into a shadowy imitation.
TRY NOT TO GET TOO CAUGHT UP IN OUR OWN THOUGHTS. IT WAS FUN TO CHAT, BUT WE’D ALL RATHER JUST FULLY BE YOU.
Her words were back in my mind.
My vision blurred for a moment, the world shifted, and then I was looking up at the sky.
I was still in the commons of Axio. The remains of the Renaultian gatehouse were just ahead of us—a void of white between the inner walls and adjacent towers.
My guard knights were facing away from me, weapons drawn—but they weren’t engaged with any enemies.
My head was resting on something soft and when I titled my head back to get a better look above me, Hailey’s face came into view.
“You’re… awake already?” she asked, confused.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“I guess? How long was I out for?”
“Only a few minutes. I was dreading it’d be another few days.”
I rolled to my side and realized the soft things my head was lying on were Hailey’s thighs.
Ah, sweet bliss.
I let my head fall back onto her legs and wrapped my arms around her awkwardly.
“A-Airis!”
“Awh, just lemme have this, Hails, I’m exhausted.”
I snuggled against her thighs for a few minutes in silence before bringing up what I was dreading, “How’s everyone else? I… I tried to save Pearson, but…”
“Everyone else will make it,” she reassured me, “Viktor took a beating. So did Julius, actually, but he activated that bulwark spell of his and managed to stick through it until you did whatever you did.”
“I saw the gates disintegrate before I passed out. What happened to the Roses?”
Hailey paused.
“Hails?”
“Hikita disappeared after your spell blasted the gatehouse out of existence. So, we don’t know about her. But the other three were knocked out by the rainbow colored light you washed the city in. Julius is transporting them to the holding cells under the forward base now.”
“Oh. That’s something then. Beno should have some anti-magick bracelets. I’m sure Hanna can have someone from the main camp grab them from him. At the very least, we need to keep Victoria from using teleportation magick.”
“We’ll handle it, just rest for now. Are you feeling alright?”
I mulled her question over before answering—I almost auto-responded with a ‘Yeah, I’m fine’, but was I?
“Not really,” I said, “I’m pretty sure Virgo alluded to Hikita—who can use permanent death murder-magick, by the way—being the one who killed my dad. Pearson is dead. I’m either going insane or being a Goddess is super weird in ways no human has ever considered.”
Hailey tilted her head, “Can we double back to that first part? Virgo was here?”
“I summoned her when I couldn’t figure out what to do about Pearson.” I replied flatly.
“Of course you did,” she sighed, “Seeing as she didn’t smite us all for blasphemy, am I right in guessing she wasn’t surprised at you being all goddessy now?”
“Yep. All part of my ‘glorious purpose’. Then, after weirdly consoling me, she was forced to portal away. I really wish we’d brought Tamirayth with us to ask more questions.”
“Well, we’re still in the middle of a war. It’d be wrong to drag civilians around just because someone is going through a slight identity crisis.”
“Slight, huh?” I gave her a stink-eye.
“There are only a few wrinkles to iron out.” Hailey giggled, then, after a moment, looked down at me with a serious look, “Did Virgo at least tell you what to do about the death magick?”
“Kill or capture her.”
Hailey’s head drooped.
“What good are the Gods if they can’t actually do anything down here?” she bemoaned. “How does that make any sense…”
“Heeeey now! Don’t blaspheme right in front of me.”
She placed a hand over my eyes, “Does it count if you can’t see it?”
I lifted her hand off and caught her smiling.
“I’ll let it pass this time, o’ little priestess.” I joked.
Hailey called the request for Beno’s anti-magick bracelets in to Hanna and I took a moment to review the series of notifications awaiting me.
The orange glow that I had gotten used to was now a bright jarring silver with a hint of iridescent glimmer.
» YOU HAVE GAINED [10] DEVOUT FOLLOWERS AND ASCENDED IN YOUR RANK OF RULER:
» FIRST TIER: DEMIGODDESS
» YOU HAVE BEEN GRANTED A NEW TITLE:
» DEMIGODDESS {RULER} [UNNAMED FAITH]
» REQUESTING RULER SYSTEM AUTHORITIES
» SENDING REQUEST TO LOCAL RULER ARCHIVAL FRAME
» RULER STATUS VERIFIED
» SOVEREIGN ITERIA VERIFIED
» REQUEST ACKNOWLEDGED
» INITIALIZING RULER SYSTEM AUTHORITIES
» INITIALIZING – STANDBY
» INITIALIZING – STANDBY
» INITIALIZING – STANDBY
» PROCESS SUCCESSFUL: RULER SYSTEM AUTHORITY IMPLEMENTED
» YOU HAVE GAINED PALADIN SLOTS [1 / 1 FILLED]
» PALADIN: JULIUS ADAEMUS — OATH INTACT
» YOU HAVE LEARNED NEW ABILITIES:
» NEW PASSIVE SKILL, SENSE FOLLOWER
» NEW PASSIVE SKILL, NEGATIVE STATUS IMMUNITY
» REQUESTING DOMAIN AUTHORITIES
» SENDING REQUEST TO LOCAL RULER ARCHIVAL FRAME
» REQUEST ACKNOWLEDGED
» CRITERIA MET FOR ARCHDEITY DOMAIN ASSIGNMENT
» INITIALIZING DOMAIN AUTHORITIES
» INITIALIZING – STANDBY
» INITIALIZING – STANDBY
» INITIALIZING – STANDBY
» PROCESS SUCCESSFUL: DOMAIN AUTHORITY IMPLEMENTED
» YOU HAVE BEEN ASSIGNED AN ARCHDEITY DOMAIN:
» GODDESS OF S■■■■■ AND D■■■■■■
» NOTICE: YOUR RULER RANK IS NOT QUALIFIED TO MANIFEST THIS DOMAIN. CONTACT ORIGINATOR.
» NOTICE: RULER IS ADVISED TO RAISE TIER IMMEDIATELY AND ASSUME DUTIES. RULER ARCHIVAL FRAME IS IN STATE OF EXTREME DISREPAIR. CONTACT ORIGINATOR.
» YOU HAVE EXPERIENCED A PSYCHOMETRIC EPISODE
Huh.
While all of that seems real important…
“Regal-One to Assault-One.” I called Julius.
“Happy to hear you’re awake already, go for Assault-One.” he replied, relief tinging his voice.
“I’ve got an updated status interface here that says you’ve become my paladin.”
He was silent for a while.
“Sounds about right, Regal-One.”
----------------------------------------
When we regrouped at the forward base, I was the target of many stares. Some people just seemed surprised I was awake, as they’d already been told I cast another crazy magick spell.
Others, though, looked at me like they weren’t quite sure what to do.
It was the same look Rias got when she helped Ikuye and Sara obliterate the watchtower on the Axio side of the Larian river.
Awe. Reverence. Terror.
We dispatched teams of sentinels to investigate the newly opened Renaultian district
My war council of Julius, Aisling, Luke, Hanna, and Sara were busy drafting up assault plans as those reports came in.
I was comfortably cuddling up on a couch with Hailey.
At some point Ikuye’s team returned, much earlier than planned. The wave of divine energy that washed over Axio had a few unintended side-effects such as freeing the interned Vanixian citizens.
The guards who’d been using their void-aligned powers to keep our people in check were vaporized, and the remaining Renaultian gendarmes surrendered to Ikuye and the assault divisions.
Now, Ikuye and Tomin were…
I’m not sure what they’re doing. Flirting? I can’t tell if Tomin looks happy or not.
Zophiel and Tamirayth seemed awfully certain the Alaetüs despised mortals, but that doesn’t seem to be entirely true for Ikuye.
Well, for certain mortals at least. She still has issues referring to most of my soldiers as pests.
Good for her, either way.
I dismissed the stray thought and leaned into Hailey, whispering in her ear, “You know, the bed we had this morning was awfully soft.”
She returned my advance with a knowing look, “Are you suggesting we sneak away?”
“We can get away from the noise and de-stress for a few minutes. Yeah.”
“Only a few minutes?” she harrumphed, “I wanna keep you busy for an hour, minimum.”
“Oh, what a coincidence.” I mused, “I think they’ll be deliberating for at least an hour.”