Jeral was still frozen in shock at how much had happened in such a short period of time. He had yet to leave the room once since the labour had begun and even after an hour he couldn't muster any strength, this room had become his prison. In his arms was his daughter, she was calmer than you would expect of a newborn and she had an intelligence in her eyes that could be seen by how she was looking at the world around her. She was only slightly smaller than two of his hands put together, she smiled up at him. "At the very least I can keep you happy heh?" Stroking her soft head he returned the smile. Unknown to Jeral the baby was thinking the same thing about him. Jeral felt slightly renewed and of his own accord he managed to leave the room that had come his prison. Jeral walked straight towards the front door that was still slightly open and he took a couple steps outsite while still holding his daughter.
The baby turned to look away from Jeral with the little strength it's current body allowed it. 'So bright, much better than that last room. I wonder how big this village is, the houses that I see all look like cottages, stone frame and thatched roof along with a wooden door. What a nice little place, I could enjoy growing up here. So much information to process though, my mother died before I even saw her and what was all that business about demons? My status said human but demon too, it must be some sort of curse I guess.' Full of thought the young child parsed all the information she could gather about the lands in her immediate vicinity, there was much to learn.
After breathing some much needed fresh air Jeral moved back into his home, bringing the child to a small room with little in it except a small table, a low crib and an open window with light curtains fluttering from the breeze. 'I guess this is my room then, I like it.' "My precious little bundle of joy, I'll have to leave for now. I'll be back soon, don't run away while I'm gone." Jeral said lovingly to his daughter as he put her down in the crib kissing her forehead. He left the room with much more morbid matters flooding his mind, if he had it his way he would have just stayed in that room with his daughter forever.
'So I guess this is it now, I can't believe how quickly this just happend. Yesterday I was an old man living by himself and tired of life and now this! This is seriously one of the most extreme life developments I've ever heard of. This world has magic it seems, although I haven't seen any magic the status message before did have something about that. Not just that but I'm a girl now, I don't know how I feel about it but I guess it's sort of fine, what's the worst that could happen? Nothing I can do for a while, I suppose I'll just try to sleep.'
----------
In the center of the village a festival had begun, most of the folk who were not otherwise occupied were there, adding up to a crowd of nearly two hundred. Men and women of all ages were there and ale was plentiful, most of the commotion was centered near a large house built out of stone with intricate wooden frames as decoration and support. The evening was slowly coming into view as a myriad of torches, oil lamps and candles were lit. The twilight of the night was decending on the crowd and the moment they had all gathered for was about to come.
A middle aged man approached a hastily put together stand in front of the manor followed by a much younger woman holding a young child, still an infant. "Thank you all for coming to the naming ceremony of my first daughter! I'm sure you've all being counting this day by each time you were woken up in the middle of the night by our little troublemaker!" a chuckle could be heard in several places in the crowd. "Well then, onto it!" He took the child from his wife and held her to be in view of the crowd. "I decided on the name this morning and with the first sundown of her first year of life I proclaim her name to be Joan!" The man on stage was beaming as a thunderous cheer resounded through the village, it was the sort of noise that could only be made by a crowd consisting half of drunken men and half of women angry at their drunken partners.
----------
In a world of white stood a series of large marble pillars which seemed to be touching the infinitely high light blue sky. They formed a path between two figuires, one of a very young baby which floated in the air and the other of an everchanging cloud of colours, the appearance of the cloud changed shape so often that it never had a real form, it was an incomprehensible mess to the mind.
"Hello little one, I am Kaw'Keth. I have blessed you because I took interest in your unsual soul and mind. It is not common to find a fully functional consciousness trapped within the body of an infant and for it to have a soul torn in twain is another mystery to me. Not many things have caught my interest in the eons little one, you have accomplished that much. We are currently connected telepathically and I have a question for you, what are you?"
'What am I? I guess that depends on who is asking, does it not? I don't know what you want with me but the only experience I have had with gods is that they give me what I want, but always at a cost it seems. For now I think I'll be me, an infant with a wanderlust, that is unless you have something to offer me.'
"Well I guess the times will tell who you will become then, little one. I'm glad I managed to stake first claim on you before the other gods noticed you though. The amount of curiosities that surround you are very numerous little one. The most distinctive of them is that you seem to have an open soul, something like that only happens once in the lifespan of an entire empire and normally the individual in question would have had to have gone through events so traumatic that their own soul divided in two. I've never seen anyone survive the process for long. Here you are though, an infant born like you should not have happend naturally, I am sure that there has been a lot of divine influence in your conception. That rises even further questions about why none of the other gods took interest in you though, so I'm awfully curious. I'll ask you another question since you seem to want something little one, what do you want?"
'I want my mother back, this guilt is killing me. I never wanted anyone to die, but now she is and I can only think that it is my fault. I never even knew her but it still hurts me so much.' The feeling of loss was strong, even though she and her mother never knew each other she still felt empty as if she had lost someone dear. "Sorry little one, that is something I cannot do. Life and death are outside of my domain, if I were to meddle in those affairs I would be stopped by the others. With that said there are many things I can do that they can't and because you have just increased my interest in you further I think I will aid you regardless. Is there anything else specific you desire child?
She took her time thinking about her current situation and what was ahead of her, it would simply be idiotic to let an offer of this magnitude go so she did not take the decision lightly. There were many things she could ask for but they all came from the same idea, the need for power. Becuase of her labours in her last life she had become adept at developing and using magic and short of asking if the magic in this world was similar to magic in zagon, which would reveal her origin, she decided to ask simply for magic. 'I want to be able to use magic, in my current state I know little of how to do so in this body or even if I can. I saw in that status window that there was something about it, I currently know nothing more than it likely exists here.'
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
"Quite a good choice little one, although someone who had a different set of morals to me might think you had ulterior motives. You are right though, magic is present in this world but normally someone would have to train atleast several years to be able to chant the basic spells, only a small percentage in this world ever end up learning it. Since your body is incapable of the complex speech that would be needed to chant the spells it would normally be completely out the question for one of your age to learn how to use magic. With your unique soul though I think I could patch your mana flow to your open soul and allow it to have direct access to your mind, this would allow you to cast without chanting at all, the downside being you would have to learn magic from the ground up, instead of relying on chants to guide you through the motions you would have to use imagination and logic."
'You think you could? I don't know if I should let a jumble of multicoloured gas mess around with my soul and my mind on a theory.' "Heh, little one have some trust, I am a deity afterall. What do you say, want to use magic sooner than later? I have to admit that the thought makes me excited to get the chance to watch you from time to time, you might make the next few centuries a little less boring." 'Alright I'll do it, what could possibly go wrong?' "Good choice, just a heads up, this is going to hurt a lot and I might need to make some adjustments to your body, nothing major. I think it'll look quite fashionable in the right light, bye for now then". 'wait what... paaa?'
'PAIN! SO MUCH PAIN! ARGH! MY BODY IS BURNING FROM THE INSIDE AND SWORDS ARE STABBING MY MIND! ARGH AHHHH! ~internal screams~' The newly born child awoke crying up a storm, outside the windows a crowd could be heard cheering. It was dark inside the infants room and the moonlight was starting to shine through a still open window, the curtains were softly swaying in the air, ignorant to the noise level in the room.
Jeral heard the cries of his baby from the kitchen where he was sitting down with his face twisted by sombre thoughts. Rising from his chair he walked over to the room opposite to his current and gazed into the crib to see a squirming infant, eyes sore from tears. "Scared in your new room huh? I guess that makes two of us. Maybe you're hungry too." The rejuvenated Jeral gently picked up his screaming daughter and tried to comfort her by humming and rocking her in his arms. After a while he walked towards the kitchen and retrieved a bottle he had recently procured from a travelling alchemist. He placed the bottle on the side and put a soft cloth on the kitchen table, laying the bundled child on top of it.
'Oh thank the fates it stopped, Kaw'Keth you asshole! You could have warned me earlier that it would hurt more than being pushed through a set a rusted serrated hot knives while drowning in a vaccum that made your skin boil'. The childs mind continued to go through strangely exact scenarios of painful encounters for a little while before she realised she had been moved.
'Huh I guess Jeral must have brought me here when I was crying. Is this the kitchen? Now that I think about it I am actually quite hungry.' Now that a smile had been achieved on his daughters face he proceeded to change the cloth that had surrounded her with the one he had placed underneath her. After unraveling the cloth he stepped back, his mouth was agape and his eyes were shaking. Jeral had expected to see the start of a small tail and nothing more, no this was wrong. So wrong.
Her hands each had a black gem rooted into their palms, the tops of her feet were the same and a large crimson gem was dug deep into her chest, they all seemed to have fused seamlessly with her skin and flesh and each had a thin line of twisting black and white which connected them to the gem in her chest. The tail was also present, it was only the length of her tiny hand but it was there, it ended with an arrowhead shape. All of this contrasted with her soft tanned supple skin and smiling face.
Jeral knocked over the bottle he had placed in the table as he stumbled back, it shattered into many small glass fragments and a milky residue spread across the stone floor, the noise snapped him back into reality. "What is this?! Status Check".
TITLE : N/A NAME N/A LEVEL 1 RACE Human SUBRACE Demon HEALTH 110/110 MANA 100/100 ----------------------------------------------------- INTELLIGENCE 1 STRENGTH 1 WISDOM 2 AGILITY 1 DEXTERITY 1 CONSTITUTION 2 CHARISMA 1 ENDURANCE 1 ----------------------------------------------------- MAGICAL AFFINITY FIRE 0% WATER 0% EARTH 0% AIR 5% LIGHT 5% DARK 0% ORDER 0% CHAOS 15% ----------------------------------------------------- STATUS EFFECTS
Curse of the Split Soul : Born with a soul torn, allowing for multiple primary magical affinities. The mother of a child born with a torn soul will always die during the birth of the child.
Greater Blessing of Kaw'Keth : The God of chaos has blessed this one with a great boon, the soul of this one has been fused with Kaw'Keth's energy.
"What is this? I never heard of this god before yesterday and now this. What does it want with my daughter? Is this its sick idea of a blessing, warping her body with freakish additions?! This day just keeps getting worse. Wait how has an infant managed to raise two stats? Is that even possible?"
'hoho, look at that. A new wisdom and constitution point, my health went up too, I guess that must relate to my constitution level. I'm going to have to get used to these over the top things eventually, I better start now I think. I just hope I haven't broken my dad's mind already.'
Jarel grabbed his hair and pulled, this day was just about to make him go mad, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "I have to clean up this mess..." As he went about picking up the shards and mopping the floor his daughter stayed still staring at her status window, excited beyond words. After ten or so minutes past Jeral got back to the task of feeding his daughter with a second bottle, she drank it but her first taste in this new world was the last thing on her mind.