They called themselves Garuda, that was the first thing Mar was the memories of Flkarblik the Tearmaker flowed into them. That had not been his name when he lived, and Mar was determined to find out more as he sought to delve into the memories of her contemporary. Knowledge was power and Mar lacked knowledge about her own nature, so studying the memories of another Conquest Seed would be the most expedient way available to learn more.

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"So they had magic."

Mar whispered to themselves as they watched the fragmented memories play out. A world dominated by cities built in tall trees, with inhabitants that looked like classical fantasy elves only with the addition of eagle wings on their backs. Rather than being highly technologically advanced like the home that Mar could dimly remember, this species used a kind of simplified ritual magic to do their work.

Blood circles and intricate carvings served to leverage the almost magically barren world to serve as the central work of their civilization. This Garuda in question had been some kind of ritualist in his past life, his primary work being calibrating the large warding rituals placed around the city he lived in.

The garuda feared great predators of both the land and the sky and that was reflected in the fortified nature of their dwellings. Rather than open air nests or similar homes, their homes seemed to be built almost akin to miniature fortresses. With hardened walls, escape tunnels, and blood magic protections.

"I can help you understand more."

Mar heard a gentle feminine voice speaking "behind" them. They had incarnated in their "divine shape" to examine the memory from within rather than simply reliving it, so Mar turned and saw a small pixie with purple hair and gentle amber eyes hover behind them.

"You're his-"

"I was his, yes. Now, I am part of you. A function of your interface system rather than your sole soul guidance system, but I still retain most of the functionality that I would normally have had."

Estiella explained gently and smiled with her almost shining porcelain white teeth.

"What can you do then?"

"Soul-Warden Pixies were said to be the guides of the Garuda in the afterlife. Well, we were just stories to them since their world never had enough magic to support an afterlife dimension, nor any other dimensions or subrealms for that matter. The magic of that world was deep, not plentiful. Anyway, I can provide you information, help you magics, and give you tasks that helps your growth. I have already examined your interface system to see what I can add beyond it, and while it gives you a lot of information it is not good at contextualizing said information is it?"

"We have been doing well before you."

Mar said almost defensively as the two examined one another in the frozen memory. Silence reigned for a time before Mar asked.

"Why do we not sense the mind of your progenitor in us. I have his memories, but great entities usually have to fight us for control. Yet his mind was seemingly completely assimilated with ease."

"Simple, he was a broken Conquest Seed. His body and soul was unstable to the point that he couldn't stay intact nor in spot for too long without leaking. You are a sprouted seed, so it is only natural that you absorbed him completely and repurposed his being to reinforce your own. Also is it not confusing to fluctuate between singular and plural pronouns like that?"

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"Our nature is such that I am one and we are also many. At any rate what can you tell us?"

"Many things, connected as I am with your interface it helps me increase the amount of information I can process. You have to be specific about what you want to know."

"What can you tell us about Conquest Seeds?"

"I see you go for a deep one as your first, well there are many details. The deeper part comes not from my ability to absorb information from the universe and more from experience. There is a hierarchy of worlds, some with higher concentrations of magical energies than others. People who die there usually go to some kind of afterlife or reincarnation structure, lower magic worlds can't support such structures so those who die have their souls pass into oblivion. He who forges Conquest Seeds exploits souls from low magic worlds like others do and use their soul potential combined with his own power to make them into reality destroying weapons."

Estiella took on a more academic tone as she launched into her long explanation of the topic before stopping to indicate Mar.

"Souls from low magic planes aren't as defined as those from high magic ones. They can be repurposed and grow more freely than those from worlds with more magic permeation. Humans from this world are on average stronger, more enduring, and less vulnerable to magic than those from yours. But people from your world are like an empty cup compared to their mostly filled one, drop one here and they can adapt and grow far more easily than the indigenous population."

Mar held up a hand to stop Estiella before it went into too obscure areas for the conversation.

"Tell me about he who remakes us. He who gave me this destiny, we must know his intentions."

"Oh...that, dunno. He is shielded from me learning about that and while he is one of the great powers in the wider worlds, he does not directly deal with worlds much. Conquest Seeds are his forte and his primary means for influencing events."

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"As you can see the garuda were experts in magical infrastructure and engineering. They had to be that considering the state of their world."

Estiella tapped against the memory of one of the large arrays of concentric circles and runes that the Tearmaker had once worked on. Mar looked down at the complex ritual circle before turning their attention back to the lecture.

"Tapping into the power of their blood and that of others to draw on the deep and dry wells of power in their world being their primary method. My suggestion is that you can use that to your advantage. Power is power and while their magic works on different principles than the one of this world. Blood has power here and you have blood to spare. You have a Collective dedicated to magical studies, if you allow me I can transfer the information contained in these memories to the relevant fragments within his network."

Mar didn't have eyes to blink, or rather they had millions that statement caused every being in the Swarm to blink in surprise as Estiella proposed her idea.

"We can do that? Collectives can look into memories, but only those contained in Fragments relevant to them. I was not aware that I could move information from one Fragment to another."

"I would also like to see that."

Logistics-Collective tried to chime in to Mar and they allowed them to request it, they were too big not to have their voice heard. Estiella smiled and Mar could feel her separate a sliver of herself to speak to Logistics-Collective.

"Shall we continue? I have many ideas for how we can increase the efficency of our Swarm and tasks to give to your various Subjects."

The pixie grinned with delight as she began to move through the memory with Mar to explain more of her ideas.