Staring at the sky and humming her little melodies was all she could do.
Lost in the endless forests as something alive yet not living. Doomed by fate itself as well as her kin to be forgotten and discarded, yet stubbornly grasping at the embers of life for the sake of her Dream. Disconnected from everything else and with her memories as her only compass.
She reached for the twinkling stars, her hand slightly translucent and her body emitting an otherworldly glow, and closed her eyes.
Alone. She was alone.
A whimper came from nearby, and the short goblin opened her eyes again and walked over to the source of the sound. Her steps were not synchronized to her movement and wherever she stepped, the ground glowed for a few minutes after.
A little human, no older than ten. The boy was shivering with his eyes closed, bruises and small cuts all over his body.
A strange sound came out of the goblin wight’s throat as it half walked half floated up to the child, kneeling down in front of him and caressing his cheeks. She wiped away sweat and tears and mud, the touch cold as ice on the child’s skin. He got goosebumps along his arms, and weakly managed to open his eyes to look at the ethereal form of the smiling goblin.
There was no fear in his eyes. Not a single twitch or gasp as he saw the wight in front of him, nor the clean deep gash along her throat, or the liquid that eternally dripped from the injury only to evaporate as soon as it touched the ground.
Instead, his eyes widened and sparkled as he coughed blood all over himself.
The boy relaxed and fresh tears streamed down his cheeks as he sniffled and buried his face behind his knees, his body shaking rhythmically in synchronization to his quiet sobbing.
The undead goblin sighed, wrapped her slender arms around the boy and caressed him gently as she began to hum one of her melodies. The soft music echoed deep into the silent woods. Their only witness being the full moon and the trees, the goblin kept comforting the child even after his sobbing had stopped and his body had grown cold and rigid.
She only let go once she felt his spirit pass through her, on his way to the stars. At that point, she wiped her own tears and continued to watch over the small body.
“You... were silenced... too…” She muttered to no one in particular, tracing fingers along the edges of the gash cut into her throat. “This world... is cruel and.... unforgiving… For a... pure creature... like you to... end up like this… do the Gods... have no hearts?”
There was silence for a while, until she began to hum once more, eyes closed as she stood up and stayed beside the body the child had left behind.
II
Soon after the first night of grieving, the wight had chosen to hide within the tree that kept the boy's corpse out of the rain. Weeks later, it was a rough voice that woke her from her reverie. It was a Sylphi’s voice, she could tell not only from the sound but from the smell and taste of his soul.
He, accompanied by a much younger Sylphi girl as well as two humans, one with a straw hat and the other with washed out blue robes, came to a stop in front of the body.
“Tsk…”
“Gods be damned…” Said the one in robes.
“The monster who did this… We gotta get rid of it. This can’t happen again.” Said the one with the straw hat. He slid his hat in such a manner that it would cover more of his face, but he could not hide his turbulent emotions from the wight.
The Sylphi girl, after a moment of shock, started to cry. Instead of saying anything, she instead walked off into the forest. No one else followed, their bodies tense and shoulders slumped. The midday light cast long shadows down their faces.
The Sylphi male went on to kneel in front of the husk that had once contained the soul of an innocent boy, and poked it. It immediately dissolved into dust and was blown away by the breeze.
“Ghouls…” He whispered, with the man in the hat grunting and the robed woman turning away and crossing her arms.
The shadows grew long under the tree. The wood creaked and leaves rustled.
“You… Mourn for… Him…” Came the weak, breathless voice.
The men tensed, hands slowly finding their way to their weapons. The Sylphi male took a sharp breath.
“... Yes, we do. We were meant to protect him…” He said.
“We were meant to save him! From the bunch o’ freaks that took children from outside the Forest!” The man with the hat shouted, one hand now on his buzzer and the other digging for cartridges in his pouch.
“I… Grieve for him… too...” The weak voice continued. A silence ensued.
The silence was eventually filled by a soft melody coming from the tree, however. A gentle thing that calmed the soul and gave it respite.
It was a minute that the three living sapients were on guard, but to the wight it felt like far longer. Once they relaxed and took their hands off their weapons, she stopped her melody and watched.
“Do you, um, know where to find… You know, the ones responsible for this?” The robed woman asked, her eyes sparkling similarly to the way the boy’s eyes sparkled when he saw her.
“I… Do…”
The three mortals shared glances, nodded and the Sylphi male went off to presumably get the girl that had walked off.
Once he was away, the wight left her hiding spot within the tree, materializing right on the spot where the boy’s husk had rested. She was a goblin, but unlike most goblins she was elegantly dressed with the finest fabrics from the Great City, all tinged a strange blue colour, made more clear due to her translucent nature and her glow.
Her features as well, were not as wild as those of foreign goblin clans’. Instead, they resembled much more closely the features of modern civilized Arborean craftsperson goblins.
Reaching up to their knees at most, the goblin wight looked at them with her glazed blue eyes and turned to walk in a set direction.
“Follow…” She told them and walked.
Just in time for the sylphi male to come back with the girl in tow, who was rubbing her eyes still. The man in the hat saw the two Sylphi return and whispered to them, a wild glint in his eyes and his brows twitched and his mouth seemed to have trouble deciding whether to laugh or scream.
“T… That thing’s got a fuckin’ gash in its throat! It’s drippin’, someone slit its throat! How the fuck’s it walkin’ and talkin’?!”
“You’re friends with hunter who’s also a talking plant, as well as his adoptive daughter who is also a dead goddess, and you think a ghost is weird?” The Mender asked the Buzzslinger, jabbing him lightly in the side with her elbow.
“Ow! Hey, my ribs are sensitive! Fuckin’...” The Buzzslinger muttered something unintelligible before the Mender jabbed his side again and turned away to hide her smug grin. “OW! Thaa take me now and end my sufferin’...”
Wight finds injured child in forest. Wight comforts child until it dies, then guards its body for a few weeks. Wight then meets Genesis party and guides them to the people behind the child’s death.
The whole town was dead silent. Nary a whisper nor a step. It was just the two men standing twenty steps apart, staring each other down.
A window creaked, a small Sylphi’s brown face peeking out from inside one of the homes.
Hands hovered over buzzers.
One man’s hand was shaking. The other man’s hand was calm.
One was covered head to toe in leathers and furs from all over the Arborean lands. The other donned simple clothes and a large straw hat.
Their hair was long, flowing in the wild winds of the Calyptus Desert. One man’s was black with streaks of grey. The other’s was as brown as the mud in the Garden.
Someone shut a door loudly, the sound echoing all across town, through the empty alleys and off the flimsy clay and sandstone walls.
The man in simple clothes took in a deep breath, the other man’s fingers twitching. The town still had the scent of freshly baked bread lingering. The sun had finally risen over the horizon.
The sound of a hundred bees filled the town.
It was a blur. In one moment, buzzers had been drawn. The man covered in furs shot first.
Out of his buzzer came a dragon of fire, devouring everything in its path to its destination, the other man.
The other man then shot his own buzzer and a great gust --no, a blast-- of wind pushed the dragon of fire back, then as the simple man threw his buzzer to the ground, the wind shot upwards into the sky.
As the simple man raced through the superheated air left behind by the dragon, the dragon in the skies above exploded in a blaze of endless colours.
Skin sizzling and grunting in pain, the simple man lunged at the one in furs.
The nervous man choked and dropped his buzzer upon seeing the other’s charge and grabbed the adze he kept in his belt.
Yet the other man was too fast. As soon as the furred man had raised the adze, he was in front of him with his arm raised to intercept the strike. When he brought down his adze, it struck the simple man’s arm without much built up force and got it lodged into the bone.
“AAAAAAAAHH!” Screamed the simple man as he twisted his arm and disarmed the furred man, blood gushing out of his arm and all over the two men.
“S-Shit!” The furred man shouted as the other man tackled him to the ground and mounted him. He was too slow in bringing up his guard, as by the time he had realized what had happened, the simple man’s fist crashed upon his left eye.
CRACK
And the pummeling did not stop there. The simple man hammered the furred man’s face, jaw, neck and head for well over a minute.
When the simple man finally stopped the motionless furred man had been beaten beyond recognition and the simple man, left arm immobile and his torso drenched in the blood of his opponent, let out a scream of victory.
He raised his good arm toward the skies, the embers of the dragon of fire falling onto the sandy roofs and streets of the town and being put out for good.
There was a moment of quiet...
“THE BUZZSLINGER TOOK DOWN THE DRAGON!”
Suddenly, doors and windows were thrown open and dozens of voices joined in on the cheering. Sylphi, goblins and humans piled out of the buildings and circled around the Buzzslinger, patting him as he screamed victoriously again.
Cactus seeds were thrown all throughout town and bards from the tavern started playing music and singing one of the many tales of the Buzzslinger.
The injured hero of the people, with an adze still stuck in his radius, his skin covered by blisters from charging through superheated air, and his right hand’s knuckles broken and bleeding, finally stood up and, with a swift final kick to the ribs of the unconscious Dragon, turned away and made his way through the cheering crowd and straight for the woman standing at the back of it all, wearing washed out blue robes and copper ornaments around her wrists, neck and ankles.
Tears brimmed in her eyes as she stared at the Buzzslinger. He smiled roguishly as he approached her, using his mobile arm to flip up his straw hat to gaze down at the adoring woman. His brown, steely eyes met her wide emerald ones, then he nodded and she jumped to embrace him, crying into his chest.
“OW!”
“S-Sorry, sorry!” The woman quickly pulled away and smiled, wiped her joyful tears and grinned at the Buzzslinger.
“How about we start working on patching me up? My arm feels like it’s gonna fall off any second now, and the battle rush is fading. I’ve also got blisters everywhere… Absolutely everywhere. I don’t know what I’d do without you and your blessed hands, Mend.” The Buzzslinger chuckled, and the woman did the same. She then turned and led him into the nearest building, the Pillar’s Home.
From that point, the pair spent several days and nights working on his proper recovery. The townsfolk, eternally thankful to the Buzzslinger for taking care of the Scourge of the Calyptus, spared no expense in feeding him and housing him.
II
The Buzzslinger threw open the front door to the Pillar’s Home and came face to face with a pair of Sylphi. One was a wide eyed, awfully vibrant green one with luminous golden eyes and the other was one up there in age, with yellowing leaves and a slight dullness in his eyes.
The Buzzslinger’s eyes traveled all over the two Sylphi, and theirs did the same. It was when the Buzzslinger saw the male holding his hand over a profusely bleeding injury in his side that he smirked and flipped up his hat at them, looking at them with an amused expression before turning his head slightly to yell into the house.
“Mend? Got some work for ya!”
Story shows the confrontation between the Buzzslinger and the Dragon, the Scourge of the Calyptus.
Safe to say, the Buzzslinger is victorious and defeats the Dragon, a feat that turns him into the wandering hero of yet another town. It doesn’t come without severe injuries however, as he has to get treatment from his companion and lover, the Mender, for several days straight to ensure his injuries healed properly.
Once healed and about to set out of the town to move onto their next adventure, the Buzzslinger stumbles into Genesis and an injured Hunter waiting outside their door. With a smirk, the Buzzslinger tells the Mender that she’s got work to do.
It was a sound that made shivers travel down his spine.
The incessant, morose humming.
”Out in the open seas, a ship sailed. The sea below, like a thick fog, veiled. Within the veil, One, two, twelve tails.”
The singer’s voice, low and unaffected by the rough seas, kept a constant level of volume just loud enough to be heard and yet low enough to make the listener wonder if they heard the words correctly.
Out of everyone in the ship, the singer(an Old Sailor) was the only one that the Recruit had had any trouble getting to know. Every time he spoke to the man, he’d stare blankly at him for a few seconds, then turn away and corry on with his tasks while humming and singing the same four lines.
He had lost it, everyone said, a long time ago when a ship he used to sail on sunk into the depths, seas away.
And in fact, one look at the Old Sailor’s appearance and the way he carried himself would be enough for a normal person to dismiss him as insane… The Recruit, however, was anything but normal.
There was a certain darkness in the man’s eyes that spoke of things he had seen, things that had broken him beyond repair… Things that had stolen his speech, and taken the fiery spark of curiosity from his eyes.
For now the Recruit kept on working, making sure that the central structural beam of the ship was intact. It was an important job, one that he had been assigned merely a week after joining the crew due to his hard work and getting the head explorer to recognize his abilities.
Again with the humming, the Recruit thought. He had to tell the Old Sailor to shut up, or he’d go insane.
”Out in the open seas, a ship sailed. The sea below, like a thick fog, veiled.”
The Recruit turned to stare down the Old Sailor, but instead realized that the Old Sailor’s mouth was closed. He wasn’t making a noise.
”Within the veil, One, two, twelve tails.”
As the sound finished, the Recruit felt his own mouth closing. His heart skipped a beat, and his stomach turned.
Sometimes, Genesis could swear she was kind of useless. It didn’t really bother her much, as neither Birburelli nor the Hunter seemed to care. The older Sylphi now accompanying her -- or more like leading her -- was squatted down besides an animal carcass, digging into the dead animal’s injuries and innards with not an inkling of disgust or hesitation. At times, he would pull certain things out of the carcass, inspect them and discard them, and Genesis watched all of this from her position, perched upside down on a branch, with her eyes slightly rolled up into the back of her head. Yes, she had been watching for that long.
Finally, the Hunter’s yellowed leaves ruffled as he took a deep sniff of a blackened piece of sharp bone, a spike. He put the spike in a tube made of hollowed out bone hanging from his thick leather belt and stood up. “You ready, Goddess?” He asked in a rough voice, then turned around in time to see Genesis jumping off the branch, doing a flip and landing on her feet with a grin.
”Always!” She declared proudly, then skipped over to the Hunter, grabbing onto his arm before glaring harmlessly at him, ”And seriously, don’t call me that… It’s embarrassing. I seriously don’t feel like a Goddess of anything...”
The Hunter regarded Genesis coldly, his ice blue eyes shining brightly as they analyzed her. She sighed, and then he nodded and started to walk away from the carcass, practically dragging Genesis along with him, given the fact she refused to let go of his arm.
”So, what did you fiiind~?”
“Several black spikes scattered inside the leopard’s thorax. It seems that our target shot some of its spikes into the beast from the side, most likely an ambush… The leopard never stood a chance. Within a second, its lungs and heart had all been pierced several times.” He explained, his voice rough around the edges. “The flesh around the entry wound started to rot almost immediately upon coming into contact with the spikes, so we’re dealing with a very stressed Hed-Hed that is overproducing toxins. Moreover, judging from the fact that the carcass was intact and not completely cold, I’d say we’re catching up to it. If we keep this speed up we might be able to reach it before it does any more damage.”
”Huh? Close? Then why can’t I hear it or smell it? You know that that thing’s stench has burned its mark into my memory ever since it walked all over me last week. I swear, I can probably smell it from leagues away.” Genesis shuddered at the memory. The large, lanky thing bursting from the bushes and knocking her to the ground. Scaled, sharp legs tipped with sharp claws stomping over her and slobbering maw hovering over her face, with the blackest spikes growing all over its back and face-
She was broken out of her reverie as the Hunter stopped suddenly and wiggled his arm out of her embrace.
”Huh? What’s wrong? W-Wait, is it… Is it THAT close?!” She gasped, her eyes narrowing and her hands shakily finding the handle of the bone knife the Hunter had given her after the other ‘incident’ back in Muraymuna.
To Genesis, it felt like minutes passed, but in reality it was only a moment until the Hunter visibly relaxed and shook his head. “No, but I do hear and smell a different kind of predator. Humans, to be exact. Several of them smell like pups, but not all. Be on your guard, but don’t do anything to make them feel threatened.”
Genesis sighed and groaned, letting her arms fall limp to her sides. The next moment she was completely disregarding what he had said, starting to walk ahead of the Hunter. He seemed to want to say something but thought twice about it before huffing and catching up.
”I know you don’t like them but listen, a human saved me when I was more vulnerable than a cute little baby bunny. One day you’re going to have to learn how to trust they aren’t all freaks.”
“I’m sorry Goddess, but let me remind you I’ve seen much more of the world than y-”
”I told you not to call me that! UGH!” She said with a voice crack as she turned around and stomped her bare foot down, frowning and beginning to tear up. ”I swear, you’re doing it on purp-”
“Shh!”
”Oh, NOW you want me to shut up! Well, I won’t! If you won’t call me a nice name I won’t shut up. I will not shut up. You’re mean, mean, a meanie, YOU shut up! Bully!” She yelled, stomping on the ground with almost every word, flattened the dirt beneath her.
The Hunter groaned and brought his palm to his face, shaking his head and using his other hand to point behind Genesis. She let out a high pitched whine as she rubbed at her eyes and turned around to look, seeing a cloaked figure standing amongst the trees. In a split moment she yelped and dashed behind the Hunter, grabbing tightly onto his cloak and only peeking out slightly from behind him at the approaching figure.
The figure stumbled forward, taking uneasy steps while they held a hood over their face. They were hunched over, making it difficult to tell exactly how tall they were but they were small.
The two Sylphi took a step backward, with the Hunter moving a hand to the handle of the oversized bone sword on his back, a low hum starting as his hand hovered over it. He grunted towards the figure and spoke. “Stop approaching and lower your hood, we do not deal with shadows.”
”R-Remember that humans can’t understand you!” Genesis whispered to the Hunter, leaning as close as she to his ear could while standing on the tips of her toes.
“Then you talk to the thing! What’re you waiting for, Gen?!” He said, taking her by the arm and pushing her in front of him, eliciting a gasp and a panicked attempt to retreat, only managing to bump against the Hunter. After staring at the cloaked figure for a moment, she turned to the Hunter and cast him an annoyed glance, before looking back at the figure.
”Huh, u-uh… Yeah, uh, so, please lower your hood so we know who we’re dealing with.”
The figure stopped shortly after people began to shout at them. They paused, clung to their hood even harder and attempted to turn around and run, but immediately tripped over their own feet.
”Huh… I don’t, uh, think it’s dangerous actually. Most likely a kid.” Genesis said with a sigh of relief, and then made her way towards the figure.
“Wait, you don’t know that!”
She, of course, ignored the Hunter and helped the figure up once she was close enough, making sure to make only slow movements so as not to frighten it. ”I’m Genesis, and the old tree about to shed its leaves back there is a weirdo who doesn’t want to share his name.”
The Hunter rolled his eyes and relaxed, crossing his arms. ”Yeah, like I want a friend of the God of Corpses to know my name…Give me a break.” He whispered to no one in particular
”I heard that!”
The stranger shielded their face with both arms just muttering in one of the local tongues, "Small tree… Big tree."
Genesis, who had been in Dehrthaa before, was barely able to understand the words spoken and so, with a thick Arborean accent, spoke back to the stranger. ”No harm. Tree good. Tree soft. Touch.” She said slowly, moving to grab one of the figure’s hands.
The Hunter, who stood a good few steps away still, shook his head upon hearing Genesis speak in the foreign tongue. “This is ridiculous…”
They resisted, chanting to themselves, "Get away big tree. Must find safety."
Genesis huffed and shook her head, ”Safe. Me safe. You?”
The figure seemed to calm down for a moment, stating as fact, "You are not lying." She then cautiously and questioningly said the Arborean word for friend, prompting Genesis to grin widely, a high pitched whine of joy escaping her throat as she visibly struggled to contain herself.
”Small girl. Genesis me. Genesis likes girls. Friends!” She declared, hopping a little as she deftly took the chance to intertwine her fingers with the girl’s.
The stranger girl allowed it to happen for a moment, her head still lowered beneath her hood but strains of white hair messily stuck out from it. After a moment, she made a noise of surprise and jumped back, which Genesis mirrored. At first, it seemed that the girl had gone back into cowering, but a second glance showed that she was hunched over with her hands clasped together. She was muttering a prayer to herself.
After a moment of carefully observing the girl, Genesis glanced back to find the Hunter gone. ”We’ll meet later today I guess...” She mused aloud with a single rustle from her leaves before turning back toward the cloaked girl. The Sylphi teenager began to stretch her arm toward the girl again, but soon found herself hesitating. Clearly she hadn’t liked the physical contact, but she still had to know what she looked like with the hood down. And so, slowly while the girl was preoccupied praying, she knelt in front of her and gently took a hold of her hood and lowered it.
The girl kept her head facing towards the ground, but not far enough where you couldn’t see her face. She had messy, bleach white hair and her skin was very pale, almost colorless except for a small dot of red just above her lip. Her eyes looked glazed over and reddish. She went to grab her hood, but didn’t raise it above her head.
Genesis smiled softly at the girl, inspecting her closely and inching as close as she could without actually touching her. She took a few sniffs, noting the particular scent of horse around her hands and confirming that the red spot was in fact blood. She was tempted to lick the bead of ‘Animal Wine’ right up but thought better of it, instead opting to wipe it away with her thumb.
”Touch hurts girl? You bleed. Fingers are hurting??” She asked, concern clear in her voice.
The girl pulled her hood back over her face, and stood up. She pointed in a direction, “I am fine. Come. We must go” before saying the arborean word for home and walking in that direction, Genesis following closely, taking a few curious whiffs every few steps.
The two travelled for some time, the girl was uneasy on her feet but seemed to be able to navigate well enough through the foliage. Eventually, the jungle began to clear and they started to walk in the eastern foothills of the anchor.
Nestled in some isolated corner of the Qaywander Lowlands, the two started to approach a simple hovel. At first glance, it seemed like an ordinary if poor living area, but on closer examination it did not appear as though it was lived in. It did not smell like anyone lived here.
Upon entering the hovel, the hooded girl knelt down and started to pray and so Genesis waited patiently behind her, eyeing the barebones room curiously.
Once the stranger was finished, she walked over to a corner of the room and revealed a trapdoor that was simply covered with a dirty rug. She pulled it open and very carefully climbed down the ladder below it, with Genesis going down soon after.
Below the hovel, there was a short tunnel leading towards a simple but well-constructed stone wall. Standing in the already open doorway was a young woman with long blonde hair, and called out in the local language, “We were expecting her.” gesturing towards the stranger, then turning towards Genesis, “But we were not expecting a sylphi.”
Genesis opened her mouth to speak but tripped up on her words, so she had to take a deep breath and gulp. ”I’m Genesis, I found her out in the jungles southeast of here. What was she doing so far out? My friend and I have been tracking a dangerous beast around these parts for the last week.”
The woman glanced back, “Many different people from many different places end up here, but the reason is always the same, they have nowhere else to go. She was close enough to make the journey by herself.”
”Well, okay,” Genesis said, then looked around and then back at the woman, ”So what’s this place? Why hide? There isn’t a human settlement for days in any direction.”
The woman responded, "This is the Kuiper House, and as I said it is a residence for those who have nowhere else to go. Some of those reasons are more visible than others. While it would be foolish to try to hurt anyone here. The master of the house would rather not have it come to that."
”Okay,” Genesis nodded, ”So it’s a house for outcasts, like me! Or, well, me when I hadn’t met others of my kind. And it’s protected by one of the shids that a friend told me about a while ago. What sect are you with? I don’t want to say the wrong thing, I’m not from around here.”
The woman looked confused for a moment and then smirked to herself, "Neither am I. If we are going to be talking this long, I should tell you I am Agnes. Anyway, our master is a higher authority than any shid and I don't remember inviting you in to begin with."
The Sylphi girl tapped her chin with a finger as she racked her brain for authorities higher than shids, coming up blank several times before giving up with a sigh. ”The only one I know higher than any shid is either Ahthaarus or Orjarnabapti. Is it one of them? I’ve spoken to Ahthaarus before, you know. Anyway, can I come in? Can I see what the house looks like inside?”
Her younger travelling companion looked at Agnes, "She is a friend." She tried to find a word, but seemingly could until she spoke some foreign word.
Agnes sighed and glanced over her shoulder quickly. "Fine. You can come in, but if you cause any trouble." She opened her hand and it started to crackle with blue lightning before quickly fading, with Genesis wasting no time in nodding vigorously and skipping up to just behind her.
”Soo… What was that blue light? It looked like the flashes of light you see on the sky when it rains really hard. Lightning, wasn’t it? But lightning comes from the sky, not hands. Unless you’re not a human and are actually made of clouds? That’s impossible, you smell too fleshy, Agnes.”
Agnes poorly attempted to hide how she immediately regretted her decision, "Are you unaware of the magicks of this world?" She said, walking deeper into the cave towards another robed figure. The cave was surprisingly well-furnished and was also well lit without any obvious source of light.
Genesis shrugged in reply to the question, ”I know that the Hunter uses some kind of magic trick to make his sword weigh less, but I don’t know how he does it. He can also, like, jump really high and fast. You wouldn’t believe it unless you saw it. I once saw him cleave a Munaraptor in half while jumping down from a very big tree. Oh, and you have really nice decorations here. Better than Dihrmetians’ huts for sure.”
Agnes sighed, "Yes, I am sure your friend is very impressive. It seems like you have questions about the house, magic or something. I am sure Rik would be happy to answer them." She said, gesturing towards the robed figure. "I have some important work to do somewhere else."
”Uh, okay, see you around,” Genesis called after her as she left, and turned towards the robed man. Jeez, why did everyone wear robes here? It wasn’t even that cold, since her dress hadn’t deemed it fit to change into something that covered her body a little bit more. ”Rik, right? I’m Genesis. How did you lose your arm? Was it eaten by something? Some beasts are really aggressive around here, but I’m sure if you ask the Hunter he might be able to speak to someone about crafting you an arm. He has a wooden toe after all. I know it because I had him take off his shoes. I wanted to see if Sylphi males had toes, which they actually do. They were bigger though, so I don’t know if I like them. His feet smelled a lot too, I don’t think he takes those boots off often enough, I have to force him to take baths or he will just track and track and track and track… He is obsessed with his work you know, being a Hunter and all. I think maybe he actually doesn’t want to stop, sit down and think about things and maybe actually tell me about his past but you know, what can I actually do but just follow him, ‘cause he gets annoyed when I ask too many questions and talk too much- Ah, sorry, um, I got carried away again… I talk a lot when I get nervous...” She said, blushing and looking away.
Rik just allowed her to ramble with an uneasy expression on his face, while absentmindedly reaching his one arm to the otherside of his body, nervously speaking, "It is alright. I lost my hand soon after my birth due to ailment. I make do without it."
”Ah, ok,” There was an awkward silence, ”So, should I just go explore on my own, or is there like someone to show me around, or…? I asked Agnes if she could let me see the House, but I don’t actually know where I should go or what places I’m not allowed in.” She asked, rubbing the back of her neck nervously and starting to float a little out of reflex.
Rik paused for a moment, "Oh yes, You do not have to worry much about going where you are not allowed but I can show you around." He said, trying to get himself ready before awkwardly walking down the hall.
As they walked down the pristine cavern, they moved past a sprawling woody plant that grew from the cave wall. A sylphi girl was carefully picking blueberries from it and placing them into a wooden bucket. A knife was beside it that she would occasionally pick up to trim it back in places. Genesis wasted no time ruffling up the girl’s leaves as she passed by her. She wasn’t much younger than her, she reckoned, but her shorter stature gave her fluttery feelings in her chest. When the sylphi girl looked at her with exasperation clear on her face, Genesis merely stuck her tongue out at her and giggled, before following Rik on the tour.
Walking through the next door, they entered a circular sitting area. Small tables were surrounded by various mats and cushions. The room was dotted with shelves covered in scrolls, tablets and other baubles. A night elf sat down, wax firmly placed in their ears, reading a scroll while on the other side of the room, an Alminaki held a quartz in their hand and made it glow and change colors.
Rik guided the two guests through one of the other doors out of the room and into another hallway. Continuing that path there were two doors opposite each other both open, the one on the left was a large room with long wooden tables and benches.
On the other side, a human and a humenaki were in a kitchen area preparing something using those blueberries and some flour, occasionally going through another door connected to some type of storage area to get something. Whatever they were baking smelled absolutely delicious, and she knew for a fact it’d destroy her stomach if she dared steal some for herself, so she didn’t. She’d learned her lesson back in Dihrmeti, after all… Spending the entire night in an outhouse wasn’t on her to-do list that day. The path forked again and Rik guided them through the right path, past a room an open room with a sylphi, human and night elf playing with a ball. There were crates on the other side of the room that seemed to have other toys in them. The sylphi boy in the room immediately turned to stare at Genesis, who returned the stare with one of her own. Their leaves ruffled a little, and then the boy laughed and went to whisper something in the ear of the kid closest to him. Genesis shook her head and chuckled at this and moved on.
Continuing down, there was a room filled with more shelves covered with scrolls and tablets, with a few cushioned chairs in the corners and edges of the room.
They also passed by an alcove in the wall which had a bucket tied to a long rope that someone was pulling up, taking the bucket and gently moving the water that was in it to another bucket before sliding a wooden lid over the hole and placing the roped bucket on top of it and carrying the water-filled one back the way they were walking.
The path eventually ended in another room, one whose function, unlike the others, wasn’t immediately obvious. It had stone pillars with small statuettes on top of them and words carved in some foreign script written into each of the stands. At the back of the room there were more shelves to either side covered in scrolls, but between them was another pillar that had a pyramid top, pointing up towards a mural of a black figure standing against a blue and purple night sky, with stars painted even over the black figure.
At this point, Genesis hummed aloud in thought and tapped her chin, ”Hm, reminds me of the carvings and murals on Ritualist churches.” She mused, then pointed up at the painted figure, ”Do you guys worship that being in this House? What is its name? It kinda looks like what I pictured Ahthaarus to look before I saw his statue. Ahthaarus is massive, by the way.”
Rik answered, “That is a painting of the master of the house, Ceres, and our patron god, Sirius.”
”Hum hum,” Genesis nodded, walking over to one of the pillar and running her hand across its surface, ”So, you worship them here? How do you worship them? You don’t have a bloody altar so I’m probably right by assuming you don’t do human sacrifices.”
The augur seemed unnerved by her later comments, “Yes, this is an area of worship and we do not sacrifice humans. We came from many different places, and have different gods, some of which we learn are the same but bearing different names. Are there any gods which you give praise?”
Genesis shrugged, ”Not really, I was told I used to be a Goddess, but I really don’t feel like that’s true. Just because I can float doesn’t mean I was one of the people who created the world, you know? Gods… Aren’t really that big a deal, I think. If they were, there wouldn’t be so much strife in Dehrthaa. It almost feels as if they’ve failed to make things right, to me...” Genesis hummed once more, ”BUT! That aside, the world is still full of cool things to see and experience, so I gotta give credit where credit is due. If nothing else, the Gods are creative.”
“That is one way to see things.” Rik said, his eyes drifting towards one of the shrines unconsciously, “If you are finished here, I could show you to one of the areas where we train magic.”
”Sure, I was wondering what kind of cool stuff you guys got up to in here. I mean, an isolated house collecting lots of people in the middle of nowhere? And I’m supposed to believe it’s just a regular old house, yeaaaah right!” She said, snickering.
Rik had encountered strange people living within the House, though this girl still did seem odd. But he led her to one of the training rooms, though the other girl chose to stay in the prayer room. He led her back the way they came until they reached the last intersection and then guided her down the other path, they walked past a closed door before reaching the next door which was slightly cracked open.
Entering the room, it was rather plain except for more of the pillars similar to the ones in the prayer room lining the walls, except there were only nine of them. A girl with snow white hair sat meditatively in the center of the room, while the spectral image of a small arctic fox cub danced around her rhythmically. Genesis squinted her eyes at the sight, then looked at Rik. ”The girl’s haunted by the ghost of a fox. Do you have salt and olives? The Hunter told me grinding those together will ‘get rid of any unwanted visitors’. He was probably referring to ghosts, now that I think about it.”
The augur replied, “That is her magic, this is the room for druids to practice their magic. “ he said, as he interrupted by another person walking in, a male with greenish skin and long white hair with what looked like grass poking through it, before he noticed Genesis he called out, “Rik, there is a Sylphi man that walked into the hovel. He is still lingering around.”
Genesis perked up at this and chuckled, ”Ah, jeez! It must be the Hunter here to pick me up. Guess playtime is over, so I gotta get back to hunting. Thanks for the tour, Rik! Keep up the good work, and don’t forget to feed your Sylphi once a week and supply them with plenty of sunlight and hugs. I promise we like it. At least the girls do… Hunter doesn’t. Anyway! Yeah, goodbye!” She said with a wave as she walked out the exit of the room and began to find her way back to the exit by herself.
II
The Sun was setting, its last rays of nourishing light turning orange, then red and finally violet. The pair of Sylphi didn’t really care for wasting time building a campfire. Instead, they kept tracking their mark for the rest of the day. The Hunter never asked what Genesis’ visit to the Kuiper House had been like, and despite her desperation to tell him, she knew that doing so would just annoy him, so she kept her tongue bit for the last few hours.
Now though, while she was up there perched on a particularly thick tree branch and cuddled up to the Hunter in order to share body warmth, she got to thinking. Was the Hunter really that annoyed by her antics? If so, why did he allow her to travel with him? Maybe he just took pity on her, but he didn’t really seem like the type of person to allow emotions to interfere with work… At least, his heart and soul were much colder than Birburelli’s, and he was less prone to entertaining her endless questions.
Her leaves ruffled a little, betraying her inner turmoil. To her surprise though, she felt the large calloused hand of the Hunter find its way to the top of her head. The weight was comforting, and the roughness was oddly satisfying… It made her wonder about all the adventures the Hunter had gone to in his life, adventures that he hadn’t told her about. There was a twinge of pain in her heart as she realized that he knew what her self-appointed quest was and had still chosen not to tell her about them... But an even bigger part of her chose to just nuzzle up against the Hunter’s leafy chest under their makeshift duvet, made out of his coat.
The world seemed to slow down and grow quieter. It moved farther and farther away, as her vision blurred and her eyelids felt heavy…
And suddenly a rough voice whispered.
“Gen, did you see anything worth looking at inside that place?”
Genesis rested her arm on top of the Hunter’s chiseled abdomen and sighed in relief.
She grumbled something unintelligible, and then spoke a little bit more clearly. ”People living together… Sylphi, Humans, and strange new beings that I hadn’t seen before… I didn’t ask what they were, because I didn’t really want to interrupt the boy guiding me through the place… I kind of regret not asking, but he was difficult to deal with. Turns out the place is called the Kuiper House, they collect orphans and outcasts and have two deities called Ceres and Sirius watching over them. They also do some magic there. Didn’t get any specifics, ‘cause you showed up at that point and I took the opportunity to leave. I don’t think they wanted me there. It made me feel bad…”
Even with her eyes closed and in the middle of dozing off, Genesis could feel the movement coming from his head that signified he had nodded. He was listening to her, and at a certain point he had started stroking her head, slipping his fingers between her leaves and sending gentle shivers down her spine as he stimulated her stems.
”... Hunter…?”
“Yes, Gen?”
She yawned, ”... I’m happy that I’m here with you...” She said, and then fell asleep.
Genesis and the Hunter are tracking a hed-hed, a dangerous beast not native to the Dehrthaan Lowlands that could throw the whole ecosystem into chaos if allowed to reproduce.
While in the process of tracking it, they meet a girl. The girl actually lives in the Kuiper House which is located nearby, established by Ceres and Sirius. The Hunter doesn’t want anything to do with the human girl, so while Genesis is entertaining herself by talking to the child, he dips presumably to keep tracking the hed-hed.
Taking this as a sign that she’s free to do whatever she wants, Genesis follows the girl back to the Kuiper House. There, she meets a couple people and is given a tour of the place. Some time after she entered the building, both her and her tour guide get notice that the Hunter is waiting for Genesis outside. Therefore, Genesis hurries out so as to continue her work and see more things, satisfied with what she got to see in the House.
Some hours later, Genesis and the Hunter are perched on a tree about to go to sleep while using the hunter’s cloak as a duvet. He basically asks her how her day was, which makes her happy.
Sirius Starting: 5/5 Ending: 0/2
Created the Kuiper House: Is a consecrated dwelling of Ceres, built as a safe-haven from abandoned or outcast youths from around Galbar. Its entrance is a small, ordinary looking hovel but the main structure is actually a large, furnished cave system.
4 MP: Doorkeeper IV: The house and contained cave system has a magical semi-awareness that recognizes an owner, residents chosen by the owner, and guests invited by either owner or resident. The house is also capable of sensing ill intent of those in direct contact with it. It is able to seal any door, container or entrance way that is owned by the owner or one of its residents and is physically closed based on this information and the general will of the owner.
3 DP: Locus of Control II: Magic is more stable within the Kuiper House and easier to control.
Creation of an Extraordinary Plant (1MP) Dusk Root
Dusk Root is a sprawling woody plant that grows in the walls of caves that draws life from Sirius' power. They can occasionally be found in any cave near anywhere where Sirius has a significant holy-site, but were intentionally proliferated through the caves of the Kuiper House.
In addition to producing oxygen and a modest amount of berries year long, they emit light over a large area, even managing to peer through small cracks and around corners.
There were only a few really interesting things about the new area Yllis had found herself in… Antiquity, as she’d learned as soon as entered. There was the amphitheater of course, but that really didn’t catch her attention all that much, since it was clear no one really used it for anything. Instead, what did catch her attention were the different portals strewn all over the place, every single one leading to a different area not unlike her own home. She could only guess at what was in each of those areas, but it was likely other people like her.
The other thing that had caught her attention was the thing she was currently expecting. A notice board, with several pieces of paper stuck to it with pins already. The one paper that stuck out to her the most was the only one that was ripped. A drawing of a sun with a smiley face on it, looking shoddy enough to have been made by some kind of very young child.
Yllis frowned at the drawing and rolled her eyes. ”Who’s dumb enough to let a kid roam free here? I mean, judging by the drawing the kid isn’t that bright, so it might have snuck its way here. Ugh, what a little brat.” She sighed, her tail swishing languidly behind her, flicking her skirt every now and then and brushing along the floor every single time.
She quickly skimmed over the other notices, seeing some instructions on how to use the board, as well as some information on something called “zodiacs” and… Some kind of survey. There was also a really long winded note. It was written in way too perfect handwriting and started off feeling like a sales pitch, so she immediately stopped reading it, groaning. ”What a loser. I can’t imagine caring so much about my handwriting that I’d make it look like this. Would take ages and bore me half to death. That time would be better spent doing something productive.”
“Do you know how to play the kazooie?” A gentle voice appeared next to her. It came from a blonde man in woolen white robes holding a banjo in one hand and a kazooie in the other.
Yllis turned to stare at the man after jumping a little bit, her face cold and inexpressive. She slowly and deliberately let her eyes assess his appearance, and then she swiped the kazooie out of the man’s hand, inspected it, and then looked at the man while cocking her head and her hip in opposing directions. ”Do you have any idea what this note says? I can’t be bothered to read it.” She said, pointing at the note describing the avatars on the notice board.
“Nope,” Illyd answered honestly, “I didn’t even know we had a message board.” He squinted at it, “OH!” He crossed his arms, “Right, that’s the thing about the stuff, you know?” He frowned, “Avatars, yes, making a presence on Galbar in place of yourself since our uninterrupted divine presence can’t survive on Galbar due to- Well cosmic stuff.” He strummed the banjo and immediately one of Yllis’ eyebrows twitched, “Or something of the other.”
”Ah, so I take it this map I have in my head is Galbar? Like the round planet thing, with all the landmarks? We’re supposed to do something with that?” She asked, internally wondering exactly how someone could come into Antiquity and not notice the one and only notice board. Was he younger than herself? He did dress really shabbily, so maybe he was supposed to be some kind of annoyingly musical little brother?
Illyd frowned, “You don’t have to do a thing, in fact, sometimes it’s a lot better to do nothing when you wield such power as we do -- then again...” His frown deepened, “If you don’t do anything, the others will. Galbar is a mess already, there isn’t much more you can do to it that won’t already be done.” He sighed, “It used to be so pleasant, too. I suppose I have my head in the past.”
”So you’ve been here for a while already. I had assumed you were younger than me due to the fact you didn’t know about this notice board. Like, seriously? It’s like… Like, right here. Maybe you were too focused on your banjo and ka-zoo-e, who knows. Back on topic though kazoo guy, what I see in my mind isn’t a mess. It’s great, actually. We wouldn’t want things to be monotonous and stagnant, would we now? Only a loser would be entertained by the same thing day in day out.” She explained then went back to inspecting the kazoo in her hands. ”You haven’t used this already have you kazoo guy? I’d hate to catch some sort of disease.”
Illyd scrunched his brow and smiled, “You talk a lot.”
Yllis’ brow twitched and her tail started to wag erratically, slapped against the ground and kicked up dust and dirt. She huffed, ”Do I, kazoo kid?”
“A little, but that’s okay.” Illyd nodded, “It’s nice to hear someone’s voice sometimes - my name is Illyd Dyll, what’s yours?”
Yllis rolled her eyes and looked at the notice board again. ”Yllis.” She declared, then pointed at the childish drawing on the notice board. ”Whose kid made that drawing? I thought this was for official use only.”
“Hm,” Illyd looked at the drawing. “Well, since I never noticed the board, I never noticed the drawing -- I don’t know most things and sort of just let the other gods and goddesses do their own thing.” He paused, “Did you know I made the first mortal life?”
”Did you.” She asked in a monotone. ”Let me guess, they came straight out of the womb of creation playing the kazoo.”
“No!” Illyd laughed, “They formed as these great adventurers who scoured all of Galbar -- funny thing though is that no one really ever noticed them. Probably for the best, most of what I do isn’t noticed.” He pinched the bridge of his nose and laughed heartily, “Wouldn’t you believe it that every other mortal made since was made at tens of times the size of the first. What a silly world.”
Yllis spared Illyd a sideways glance, then shook her head. ”You bored, kazoo kid? If your creations get ignored just make them go on a little murder spree. There will always be more little people popping out… They breed like rabbits. It’s as if every day could be their last.”
“Ah a final day,” Illyd sighed, “I do envy that, but no -- I think it is best the first remains ignored lest they get dragged into the monotone that you seem so worried about.” He slanted a face, “SO are you going to play that kazoo or just keep lording it as a theatrical piece for your nicknames?” A stupid wink.
”You haven’t said whether you’ve used it before or not.”
“Oh yeah, slobbered the thing,” Illyd gave a grim nod, “And not just me but all the farm animals too -- you’re a brave god for volunteering.” He motioned with his hand, “Go on!”
Yllis narrowed her slitted pupils at Illyd, working out in her head whether she should be indignated or just play along in the hopes that the guy would stop asking her to play it. Finally she blushed a little, a fact she could never hope to hide given how ghostly her complexion was, and pursed her lips. ”Ugh, fine. But I’m only doing it to get you to shut up about it… I can’t believe I’m sticking something a stranger gave me in my mouth...” She groaned, then put the kazoo up to her lips and blew on it softly, a pitiful sound coming out.
Immediately she pulled the instrument away from her face and stuck her tongue out. Illyd’s eyes drifted from her face and to a small wispy cloud that exited the kazoo. With a determined grin, the god of agriculture snapped a glass jar out of nowhere, scooping up the strange cloud and slapping a lid on it. He wiped his brow as if he just finished a hard day's work and nodded, “Well that was fun, huh?”
Yllis stared at him incredulously, narrowing and widening her pupils as if she didn’t know how to react. Then she slammed her tail down on the ground and threw the kazoo at Illyd’s feet. ”Pervert!” She huffed indignantly, turned tail and walked away briskly.
”Bet he goes around snatching people’s used underwear, I swear…! Next time I see him I will get back at him… No one takes a lady’s breath away like that without asking first… I will kill him...” She muttered on and on as she left.
A cheshire grin appeared in front of Yllis, making the new Goddess jump back a little as the figure of Illyd followed shortly after. He pushed the Jar forward into the air, the container spinning in place between the two for a split moment before Yllis reacted and took it. "It's yours, you know?" His smile widened, "You can make an avatar out of it, that's how it works - a piece of you for a piece of Galbar." A banjo strummed a note, but there was none to be seen.
Yllis furrowed her brow at him, but decided that in either case she should open the jar so she did, the small cloud languidly floating out of the glass container.
After that, Yllis didn’t really need any instruction. Now that she knew what avatars were and about Galbar, she could make the connections to the things she instinctively knew how to do. Making avatars was one of those things, luckily.
All she had to do was stick her hand into the floating gas and focus. Eventually, the gas solidified and bubbled and began taking form. Indeed, mere moments later, an exact copy of Yllis was standing in front of her, eyes closed at least until the original pulled her hand out from inside the copy’s chest, leaving behind a gaping hole that closed up quickly after the fact.
Yllis took a deep breath, and when she exhaled so did the copy. Then they both opened their eyes at the same time, with the copy eyeing Illyd with a raised eyebrow before looking at the original. ”So this is the pervert who made us blow something he had blown before?” The copy asked, cocking her hips at the same time as the original, as if it was a reflection. Their tails swished curiously behind them, both kicking up equal amounts of dirt as they narrowed their eyes at each other, then at Illyd.
”Yes, yes he is. He wears bedsheets, too. Apparently he has never seen a pair of pants before.” Explained the original to the copy, bringing her hand to her lips in order to pretend to cover the mocking snicker on her otherwise stoic face.
”He should feel grateful that he even met us, I think. Who knows how long he’d spend without knowing what proper clothing looks like if he hadn’t?” The copy smirked and the two prossed their hands together, intertwining their fingers.
”Seems like we’re not getting through to him! Whaddaya think we should do, Yllis? Maybe we shouldn’t waste our time here anymore? We do have work to do after all! I heard about some small mortals who’ve been quite lazy lately!” Each part pressed themselves up against the other, looking into each other’s eyes as they rested their foreheads together.
”Have you, Yllis! Why’re we still here then?”
As if on cue, the two turned to stare at Illyd with catlike looks of muted amusement on their faces. Illyd met it with a goofy smile.
”We should probably thank him.” ”We should probably reward him.”
”For giving me information.” ”For giving you information.”
Both Yllises extended the hand closer to Illyd toward him and materialised a single dog treat in each, holding them out for Illyd to take as small, twisted smiles formed on their faces.
"Now you talk twice as much." Illyd reached out a hand, an apple forming in his.
The two rolled their eyes and looked back into each other’s, retracting their hands and idly nibbling on the dog treats they had conjured forth. ”Hey Yllis, he’s boring.” ”Hey Yllis, he’s a hypocrite.”
They snickered, again, and continued taking tiny bites out of the treats. Illyd shrugged and took a hearty bite of the apple. He chewed the crunchy and juicy piece with simple contentment as he watched the two.
”He likes to put his things in my mouth, but doesn’t like it when I offer mine.” The original said before pulling away from the copy, prompting her to do the same. They both turned to face the portal to their realm and began to walk towards it, waving dismissively back at Illyd.
”Thanks for the info, kazoo kid. I’ll make sure to tell the tiny mortals it was you who kindly mentioned their plight to me! Oh, to live such idle lives...” The original sighed.
Illyd swallowed, opened his mouth, and took another juicy bite. A soft rumble in his throat, almost like a chuckle.
”Oh, to be of no consequence!” The copy exclaimed just before she skipped into the portal.
Right before leaving, though, the original Yllis turned quickly toward Illyd and smiled uneasily, as if she wasn’t used to the genuineness of the expression, a wink past an apple being sent back to her. She opened her mouth as if to say something but quickly thought twice about it and went through the portal, the image shown by the portal changing to that of a locked door.
Yllis goes into Antiquity, finds the noticeboard of the gods and makes fun of Genesis’ drawing. She sees the notice about avatars but declares it beneath her to read the thing, declaring that only a “loser” would spend that long to make their handwriting look that good.
Lucky for her, Illyd Dyll appears and explains to her what Galbar is, what avatars are and how to create one, and he also tells her about Thumblings and how chaotic life on Galbar is.
Some shenanigans later, Yllis creates an avatar that is an exact copy of herself, so she goes on a rampage of trying to bully Illyd further, now aided by her copy’s equal efforts. They’re like cute cat-like bullies who are super touchy with each other.
Finally, after clearly failing to get through to Illyd, they decide to go back to their realm.
Yllis 5/5
Yllis used nothing to create Yllis, her avatar and exact copy in both appearance and personality.
The jungle teemed with life, and the earthiness could be tasted on the air. Wherever one cast the eye, it fell upon insects or some kind of animal, and whether they walked on the jungle pathways or in the thick undergrowth the sound of the jungle came forth like a great, endless cacophonous symphony. Monkeys shrieked, deers dashed here and there - pausing for a few moments to stare wide-eyed before leaping away and disappearing into the relatively light undergrowth -, chameleons moved here and there, their colour changing as they went, paused, and went again, the pecking of the woodpecker and the song of an unknown number of birds was a constant companion.
From time to time Genesis and Birburelli spied an elusive jaguar or tiger, or the magnificent elephant would come trundling by or the frowning visage of a gorilla would assail them from a distance, and when they paused by a stream there were fish and the odd crocodile or dolphin was to be spied.
And of course, there were people. The first such people they came across were a band of One-Godder warriors, adorned in their great copper war headresses which boasted hairs of red, green, white, or black. They paused when they saw Genesis and eyed her and the ascetic, and their lone donkey, with the obsidian eyes everyone here seemed to have. “You are travelling with an emkura, master?” Their leader, a broad-chested man with a hair-dress of white hairs and adorned with great round earrings and collar chains, as well as bands around his lower chest and arms. Like the other men with him, he had a bow over his shoulder, arrows at his side, and a spear with a silvery metallic head in hand.
“That I am, son. A child of the god in the trees.” The ascetic responded, accompanied by Genesis’ nodding.
“Ah, you are a Ritualist.” The leader said, his brows furrowing.
“Is that a crime in these parts?”
“Not too long ago it was near enough a crime to be anything but,” the leader scowled, “you and your shids are an endless plague of unceasing bloodshed all across the land.”
“I have known no Ritualist who called to bloodshed, son.” Birburelli responded simply. The leader’s eyes narrowed and he stepped close to the middle-age man.
“Oh, but we’ve known plenty - and they got the bloodshed they desired.” There were a few moments of tension, and then Birburelli smiled.
“But I hear that it is all peace now across the Muraymuna, the great Shidilshid has ended all the bloodletting and cast all the shids and Ritualists out.”
“Oh not all.” The leader said, his eyes returning to Genesis, who looked away at the exact same moment. “Only those who preferred the rule of oppression to that of justice. But how is it that you are travelling with an emkura. I know them to be elusive beings that keep to themselves.”
“That they are. But this lovely emkura has chosen to honour me with the pleasure of her company.” He glanced at Genesis with a small smile. “Much to the chagrin of my good friend Lukluk, who would have much preferred to eat her,” He gave the donkey’s rump a light slap, causing Lukluk to curl his lips up at the man while Genesis stuck her tongue out mockingly at the donkey, “isn’t that so my emkura?”
Genesis looked at Birburelli for a moment, then at the group of armed men and furrowed her brow. “That is so. Birburelli has taught me a whole lot of stuff. I’ve also gotten to speak to spirits, too! Hey,” Genesis perked up as she caught sight of the shiny spear head, “what is that? What do you use it for? It looks sharp and pointy, but not in the same way as a knife.” She asked, pointing at the spear.
The leader seemed visibly taken aback by the sylphi’s speech, and the men behind him shifted and looked at her with curiosity, a kind of gaze that Genesis returned along with a tilt of her head. “Ah, by the great one god, you speak.”
“Yes! I know, right? Usually people don’t really speak to strangers, if the children back in Dihrmeti are anything to go by--I guess I’m not shy, which is really good because I like getting to know new things-” Genesis stopped herself, spared a quick glance towards Birburelli, then blushed. With shaky leaves, she continued. “... Sorry, I got carried away. Have you seen other emkuras around?”
“No, it is rare to see one,” the leader said, his eyes roaming across her form, clearly fascinated, “and when you do, they don’t stick around for you to actually… see them. Tell me, are you people truly children of the jungle? Why did your great king invade our lands all those hundreds of cycles ago? If you have a great kingdom somewhere in the west, why are you here?”
Genesis sighed, her leaves flat against her head as she realized finding people that looked like her would be more difficult than she previously thought, then huffed as she processed the man’s question, “Uhm… To answer all of that, I don’t know. I lived in a gray land for my entire life, and the moment I met one of my kind, she saved me at the expense of her own life… I didn’t even know there was a whole kingdom filled with people like me, much less that they invaded these lands. I awoke in Dehrthaa, alone and injured, and Birburelli saved me. That is all there is to me.” She explained somewhat quietly, then looked at the leader for a reaction.
The leader nodded, appearing satisfied. “Very well, may the one great god aid you find what your heart is searching for. May peace follow you always.” And planting his palm above his eye in salute, gestured to his band of warriors and went on their way through the jungle. Birburelli watched them go for a few moments then cast Genesis a sidelong glance.
“And there are the One-Godders. Not long ago they were a persecuted people at the mercy of the shids. Now the shids are dead or have run away north, and the One-Godders are the masters of the jungle. Quite something to see how the gods bless whom they wish and curse whom they will, raise high some and cast others low.”
Genesis pursed her lips as she returned Birburelli’s gaze, “Yeah… Did I tell you before? Ahthaaruhs told me I used to be Divine before. That means I was a Goddess, right? Or maybe I never was, but I inherited the remnants of a God’s spirit. I really… REALLY, have no idea. Maybe that’s why I can fly and Lukluk can’t.” She said with a sigh and a tired smile as she floated herself onto the donkey’s back and roughly petted his head behind the ears. “Huh, what do you think would have happened if I told those One-Godders about this?”
“Oh I am sure they would have asked who made you.” Birburelli said simply. “A god who needs saving, as far as they are concerned, is no god. See, they don’t disbelieve in the gods we profess - they simply don’t believe them to be gods. The Thousand Terrible Things and Faces are created beings - created by the One Who Frowns or One Who Laughs. Likewise those two emerged at one point in time - once they weren’t, and then they were. And so, for the One-Godders, these are no gods. Only the Serene Lord - though they reject the Serene Lord we profess - always existed and so is eternal, and all things emerged from him truly, and perhaps he is truly all things. And so they profess nothing to be a true god except what we call the Serene Lord.” The ascetic smiled and began walking, Lukluk trudging after him. “Why, did you hope to shake their belief? Perhaps they would have shaken yours, my emkura.”
“Them shaking my belief would be really impressive, considering I don’t believe in anything yet.” She said with a smirk before jumping off of Lukluk and jogging up to walk beside Birburelli. Like this, they went back into the way they would usually travel. The encounter with the One-Godders was left behind and Genesis continued on with her questions and adoration for all the new things she was seeing. She was tamer now, not as excited as before, and she also asked less questions, but that was because she found herself not needing to ask them as often. It seemed that she had actually gotten to learn most of the basics. Though from time to time her mind did wander back to the shiny material the One-Godders’ tools were made out of. She wondered what it felt like, how sharp it was, and if she could make clothes out of it.
As they traveled, dusk approached and soon they found themselves making camp amongst the ever thickening vegetation. The fire seemed to keep the wildlife away, thankfully.
“Birburelli, what was the shiny stuff the One-Godders’ tools were made out of? And the hoops that hung from their ears, too. Can you make clothes out of it?” Genesis asked, then winced as something pinched at her side, followed by a light rustling from her dress’ leaves.
The ascetic held a skewered lizard over the fire as he responded. “That is killer metal - it kills the one who works it and slays men on the bloodletting fields. It has other uses too - more worthy and peaceful. Sculptures, ploughs, ornaments, and the such. As for those hoop earrings, I have not known anyone to make clothing out of them - I imagine such clothing would be very uncomfortable and cold and would protect neither against rain nor against cold.” He glanced at her. “Would you like some earrings?”
The girl hummed in thought and reached up to touch and rub her long, sharp ears. After a moment, she shook her head. “I’d have to poke holes in my ears to wear them, wouldn’t I? My ears are very sensitive, so I’m not that good with pain when it comes to them… And well, it’s not like my clothing does much to protect from cold or rai- ow!” Genesis hissed as she felt another pinch, this time on her thigh, and realized that something was slithering across her skin. In a split moment, all her leaves had prickled up and her ears bobbed up and down as she slid a few of the large leaves her dress was made of to the side, revealing her leg and a glimpse of a dark green and soft looking tendril before it retreated into the shadows and crevices of the dress. At this Genesis grumbled and put her dress back into location. “I think I just said something my dress didn’t like… Do your clothes get angry when you mess up, too?” She asked Birburelli in what almost seemed like a whisper as she shifted her position to sit on her knees, bouncing somewhat onto her heels.
The ascetic paused and looked at her thoughtfully. “No, mine don’t do that. But then again, I don’t speak to gods who tell me I was a god in a past life. You’re quite the special one, aren’t you my little emkura?” He reached out and ruffled her leafy head as he was wont to do, making her grin and chuckle a little. “You have great things before you, of that I’ve no doubt.”
After that, their conversation turned to the more mundane. As usual, Genesis had a few questions about the day’s journey, about where they’d go tomorrow and what they might see, and as they talked Genesis watched Birburelli eat the cooked lizard curiously. Eventually, when everything was done and they were both tired, they went to sleep around the campfire. Genesis, of course, chose to snuggle up to Lukluk, to the animal’s dismay.
The next few days of walking brought wondrous sights - for the jungle was alive with all kinds of fauna and flora, and Genesis was ever-curious and easily amazed. As they wandered deeper and deeper into the jungle, it seemed to them that they were somehow being watched. This did not seem to bother Birburelli at all. “Of course we are being watched,” he chortled softly.
II
The mysterious spy snuck up on them one night as Birburelli lay sleeping and Genesis was curled up by Lukluk. She was not asleep, however, and her leaves bristled slightly as the stranger snuck into camp, their footsteps silent and deft.
Genesis, having caught a different scent in the camp, opened her eyes… Only to see a knee. She turned onto her back and saw a towering figure wearing an ivory white mask above her. He was straddling her chest, knees to either side of her shoulders, and in his hands was a strange device, a wooden cylinder with several carvings on it, each of them glowing a bright blue, a blue that seemed to drill into her eyes and burn the back of her head.
She felt her heart beat faster. Her breath came quicker. She tried to do anything, say anything, to get Birburelli to wake up… But since her eyes saw the device, it was as if her body was no longer hers.
Then, the device flashed.
Genesis writhed under the weight of the figure. Images came from nowhere, replacing her sight. Memories, feelings, scents, words, they all came and went so quickly she could barely register what she was seeing. Her head felt like it was about to explode and every nerve in her body screamed at her to get away, to escape, as if she was on fire.
And yet no matter how much she struggled, the weight on her torso didn’t budge. Instead the figure suddenly sat on top of her, knocking the air out of her lungs and freezing her struggles in the process.
She would’ve cried, whimpered or even begged if she could make any sound. With Birburelli so close; with someone to help her right there, just a few steps away… And still, he was sleeping peacefully, completely unaware of what was happening.
At last, however, a single memory came to her. There, she was lying on her side on the comfiest grass she’d ever felt, with the warmth of sunlight dancing across her right side and her head resting against something... No, someone, who was gently stroking her leaves. She felt content. Happy. Fulfilled.
In that memory, there was nothing she wanted but to remain with that person, in that hill under that tree. She felt the memory was coming to an end, and so she tried to look up, she tried to see who the owner of those gentle hands was… But when she lifted her head, the memory ended.
Instead, she was looking into the ivory mask of the one who had assaulted her. With tears fresh against her cheeks and the sides of her face, Genesis found her vision darkening and felt the familiar sensation of her consciousness fading away. The last thing she saw was her assaulter stand up and look down at her from behind his smooth mask. For some reason, he looked… Sad.
III
Genesis awoke later. It was still dark, but in the sky rays of violet, green and aquamarine could be seen dancing in the celestial Worldsong, announcing the coming of dawn.
She sat up, of course, and looked at Birburelli. He was still fast asleep, but from experience she knew he would wake up soon. The next thing she did was check her body and particularly her dress. She was relieved to see everything in place and working correctly, and lastly she tried to wipe the feeling of dry tears off of her face to little success.
As soon as she actually looked around, however, she saw a single figure sitting on a particularly large root a couple of meters away from her. He --Genesis had confirmed it was a he by his particularly powerful scent-- was toying with a piece of wood in his hand, carving chunks at a time out of the piece. He was wearing leathers, and on top of the leathers were bones. Sown into the leathers, the bones were everything from ribs to plates to vertebrae, and together they seemed to be serving as protection for the wearer. Behind him, leaned against the tree, was an unbelievably large blade made of the bone of what she assumed to be an incredibly massive creature, with handles reinforced with what Genesis could only recognize as some of the ‘killer metal’ Birburelli had told her about before. It definitely didn’t look like something she could ever carry, let alone use to harm others.
The man himself was not a man at all. Instead, he had yellowing variegated leaves for hair, a pale green as skin color and dark sclera coupled with bright, icy blue irises. When he lifted his gaze and met it with Genesis’ and sighed, she could see the glint coming from his long fangs.
Suddenly feeling excited, she grinned and crawled the short distance to him, then sat before him.
“I’m Genesis, who are you?” She asked, so excited from meeting someone like her that she couldn’t help her jaw and shoulders from shivering.
“I’m a Hunter,” The male Sylphi said, voice rough in such a way that Genesis was sure he had not used it in a long time. A short silence ensued, as if he expected something from the girl, but he slowly raised an eyebrow as he only saw her staring at him wide eyed. “So, you’re not this human’s slave, then?”
“What? No! He’s my friend. His name is Birburelli. He saved me when I was alone and injured, he is good. Also, what is your actual name?”
“I see. I’m just a Hunter, no need for a name. It’s my last expedition.”
“Oh. Okay,” Genesis said, noticing how the Hunter never really took his eyes off of Birburelli. She also noticed a sheathed knife strapped to his right thigh. “Um, is that for skinning animals? Do you eat raw meat like me? What about blood?”
“Hey, that’s a lot of questions for someone who was just crying in her sleep.”
“H-Huh? I… I was not! I swear, someone attacked me tonight and then I fainted… Or something… They made me see things!” She explained, blushing and trying once more to wipe the white marks left by her tears. Meanwhile, the Hunter had pulled out a piece of fabric and wet it with water from his waterskin.
“Sure. Here,” He said and handed her the fabric, which she took with a frown. After a while of her staring at the thing, the Hunter sighed again, “What are you waiting for? You got weeds for brains? Use it to clean your face. Dried tears are bad for your skin, you know?”
“Oh,” Genesis perked up and went to work at wiping her face. When she was done she let her hands, cupping the bunched up fabric, rest between her legs as she tilted her head at the Hunter, “So, males cry too? I’ve never seen Birburelli cry.” She asked, for some reason surprised at the new information.
“We do, of course. Humans around these parts only cry for their own, though. You have to be careful with them... There’s no shortage of young Sylphi who have met the wrong humans and been turned into little more than pets.” He said, a hint of bitterness seeping into his voice before he reeled it in. At this point, he nodded towards Birburelli. “Heads up, your friend’s waking up.”
The ascetic opened his eyes as though he had been awake all along and almost immediately sat up, muttering prayers and glorifying the lord of day for the blessing of new life, the spirits that lorded over night and sleep and dreams for those blessings also, those who lorded over sight, over the capacity to move, to breathe, and praised also those who lorded over speech and so allowed him to glorify and praise the givers of such blessings. He took up a bowl, full of dew water, and poured it over his own head while muttering the prayers yet, and then drank his fill and got to his feet.
It was then that he took note of Genesis and her companion. “Ah, you’re up earlier than usual my emkura,” he observed as his eyes turned to the newcomer. “And who is this?”
Genesis perked up and grinned as she turned to look at her friend, “Good morning, Birburelli! Well, he’s-”
“Just a Hunter. Nothing more. Human, I want to thank you for taking care of this sapling. By now, it has been far too many times that I’ve seen our young in less than ideal situations. You’ve a decent soul.” The hunter said, bowing his head slightly. For a moment, it looked to Genesis as if the hard look in his eyes had softened, but before she knew it, it was back and stronger as the Hunter raised his head again. “I will have to tell you that a sapling like her, someone so pure and innocent, shouldn’t be near humans. We are different races, and we have different customs and ways to deal with our needs. She shall be accompanying me now.”
Genesis pursed her lips and frowned, “I, uh, I have a name you know. I told you, I’m Genesis. And, and, I won’t leave Birburelli’s side that easily! You’re crazy if you think I’m going to accept going with you, I don’t know you! You may smell really nice and strong but I don’t know you.”
The Hunter sighed and shook his head, talking to Birburelli and mostly dismissing Genesis, “Point in case, she doesn’t even know how to rein in her baser instincts, as evidenced by her drooling all over her dress just because of my scent. If she remains with humans she may never get to learn how to hold herself back, and she’d eventually be too much of a hassle for any human settlement.”
“W-What!!” Genesis shouted, her face suddenly flushed a deep, dark yellow. She wiped at her lips and stared incredulously at the Hunter. “I-I’m NOT drooling. You’re mean. He’s mean, Birburelli! I don’t want to go with him!” She said, while the Hunter smirked.
“So, what do you say, ‘Birburelli’? Will you let her go? It’s for her own good. I know how to take care of a Sylphi sapling much better than any human might.” Birburelli frowned at the stranger and then chortled at Genesis.
“So full of demands. If Gen wants to travel with you, she will. But it doesn’t seem like your approach is working so…” he took Lukluk’s reins and began to wander off, gesturing for Genesis to come along, “perhaps it will not be her travelling with you, but you who will have to travel with her.”
Genesis grinned and jumped up onto her feet, wasting no time in catching up to Birburelli. The Hunter meanwhile bit the inside of his cheek and grunted, then began to follow the two of them from a distance after making sure he wasn’t forgetting any of his equipment.
IV
It was after a good while of walking that suddenly Genesis realized that she couldn’t hear the Hunter’s footsteps behind them. A quick glance backwards confirmed it -- He wasn’t there. How long ago had he left? Maybe he had gotten bored? She wasn’t sure how she felt about it. On one hand, he was the first emkura she’d met… Well, besides herself obviously. And on the other hand he was a weirdo and told her she was drooling even though she wasn’t and implied Birburelli wasn’t a good friend. She particularly disliked the last bit.
A dry twig snapped, as if crushed. The sound was clear in Genesis’ sensitive ears, and her leaves rustled wildly in response, sending a strong shiver down her back.
Instinctively she found herself balled up into a small shape on the ground, looking over her knees toward the sides of the overgrown path Birburelli and her had been traversing for the last hour. The sides were completely obstructed by overgrown vegetation. Such was the overgrowth that it was in some places spilling onto the path, and so Genesis couldn’t see anything past the gigantic overgrowth. In front of her, she saw her friend stop and turn to look at her with a gentle smile on his weathered face.
She looked up at him with wide, bright eyes, completely unable to move. She was frozen in place, her mind repeating the sound of the twig snapping over and over.
Had Birburelly not heard the sound? That couldn’t be it, since Lukluk wasn’t particularly anxious either. Maybe she had imagined it? But she’d never really panicked that bad before… What surprised her the most was the fact she was able to still think, despite her heart beating in her throat and her limbs shaking like leaves in the wind.
Whatever was happening, she had to tell Birburelli. She pushed herself to the limit, forcing her jaw to open and calming her chattering teeth enough to be able to speak without biting her tongue. “B… Birburelli, I, I, I h-heard-”
At that moment, as Birburelly took one step towards Genesis, a massive shadow leaped out of the overgrowth, over Lukluk and tackled Birburelli to the ground, followed by several sickening cracks and a wet gurgle coming from her friend’s throat.
She couldn’t breathe, her eyes losing focus and her stomach suddenly feeling smaller than ever.
As she watched the large, scaly creature bite Birburelli’s throat out with its endless rows of razor sharp fangs, she realized that her muscles had relaxed now, and that she was just simply watching the scene unfold.
More bones breaking. The creature was using its taloned feet to rip into Birburelli’s flesh as he lay there, his empty eyes staring straight at Genesis’, blood pouring forth from his mouth, nose, eyes and ears. The creature’s beak opened and closed with loud clacking as it bit pieces out of the inside of Birburelli’s chest, feasting on her friend’s body.
She wanted to scream, she wanted to cry, she wanted to run, but… She couldn’t do anything but watch. She barely registered Lukluk’s panic as a loud screech filled the air as soon as Birburelli let out his last ragged, gurgled breath. From the canopies of the Muraymuna trees crashed down another creature straight onto Lukluk. This one had long leathery wings and sharp talons. It wasted no time, digging its talons into Lukluk’s back and flapping its powerful wings to take off, just in time to avoid the snapping beak of the terrestrial creature that had killed Birburelli.
As the flying creature took off, the beaked one let out a screech of its own. Its bloodied beak and neck glistened beneath the stray rays of sunlight that came through the canopies, and the feathers on the back of its head rustled not unlike a Sylphi’s leaves.
It focused its dark, beady eyes on Genesis and ran up to her in its strange bipedal gait, stopping only an inch off from her face to take a few sniffs.
She felt sick, seeing and feeling Birburelli’s warm blood drip onto her body straight from the thing’s beak.
She started to cry, finally. A few pitiful sobs coming from her mostly empty lungs, at least. The creature paid it no mind, instead curiously licking her face to taste her tears. It left behind a noxious mix of blood and bodily fluids smeared all over her face.
Her dress rustled and struggled, trying to get her to stand up but it was no use. She cried harder. Her only friend was dead, and she had only watched as he was eaten alive.
She lost track of what was happening. Her tears stopped and so did her sobbing. Instead, she just stared at her friend’s body. At one point, the creature has lost interest in her and gone back to eating from her friend’s body, something that she couldn’t even comprehend anymore.
V
When she came back to, she noticed that both herself and her dress were clean, she noticed that nothing smelled like blood, and she didn’t see Birburelli or Lukluk anywhere. Instead, she was curled up into a ball in front of a small campfire.
The first thing she did was blink, as her eyes were awfully dry. After that, she stretched. It felt as if she hadn’t moved in weeks. Before she could contemplate her situation any further, a familiar face came out of the jungle overgrowth and into the camp. It was the Hunter she’d met before Birburelli and her had set off. She tried to remember what had happened after that morning, but her mind was foggy…
The Hunter nodded at her and she for the first time saw a relieved smile on his face. It didn’t last long. “Good to see you’re back with me. You were gone for weeks.”
Genesis slowly tilted her head at the Hunter, then looked around as if expecting to see her friend and his donkey sitting around the campfire. She didn’t see them, so she looked back at the Hunter, who was now sitting next to her, holding a bone bowl full of clear water. He offered it to her, and she drank it all.
“You and your friend were attacked by two of the most dangerous predators in the area. Luckily for you, they were carnivorous… Safe to say we’re not made of stuff they like to eat. You friend, he-”
Genesis nearly choked on the water, coughed and perked up. “B-Birburelli-” She said, her voice rougher than she remembered, “He’s okay right? I had the worst nightmare... I-I don’t know what I’d do without him… He saved me when I was hurt, if he’s hurt now...” She explained, her eyes growing wet. She sobbed quietly and wiped her own eyes with the back of her hands.
The Hunter studied Genesis’ face, and then after a long while, he sighed and shook his head. “Your friend, Birburelli, he’s okay. He saved you again. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn't have found you two. But you know, he finally realized that he couldn’t protect you. He almost died, you know. If any of those things they call Dircaans had gotten the drop on him, well-”
“So he’s okay,” Genesis sighed in relief, visibly relaxing. “I’m glad he’s okay… But, but I don’t understand why he’d leave me without saying goodbye...” She said with a slight quiver to her voice.
“He knew you would have tried to stop him, plus you were in shock from the ordeal. It’s been weeks, Genesis. By now he’s probably somewhere neither of us have ever seen. He did tell me he had no set destination. That he’d go wherever the wind blew.” The Hunter said with a nod at the end of each of his sentences.
The Sylphi girl looked into the Hunter’s eyes for a long time, squinting her own slightly after a time, then looked away and into the fire. She handed him the bone bowl and asked.
“So... Where are we going now, Hunter?”
Genesis and Birburelli reach Muraymuna. Here they meet One-Godders, and they almost start a conflict with Birburelli just because he is a Ritualist. After Genesis talks a bit to them and leaves them stunned after being able to meet a Sylphi up close, they leave.
After the encounter they keep traveling through Muraymuna, partly in hopes of finding a fellow Sylphi. One night as they are asleep, Genesis is assaulted by an unknown figure wearing a mask, who uses some sort of device to peer into her mind. After several minutes of silent pain, she passes out. When she wakes up again she finds a Sylphi male sitting on a log near their camp, watching over her. She and the sylphi stranger talk for a bit and he introduces himself as just a Hunter.
Once Birburelli wakes up, the Hunter asks him to allow her to go with him, as Sylphi cannot develop properly when brought up by a human, and Genesis was in a very crucial stage of development. Birburelli gives Genesis the choice of going with either of them and she obviously decides to go with Birburelli, so they leave. The Hunter follows for a little while but at some point he disappears.
Hours later, Genesis, Lukluk and Birburelli are ambushed by two carnivorous Dircaans. The terrestrial one, with the back of his head feathered and a sharp beak, kill and eats Birburelli in front of Genesis as she’s frozen with fear. The other one, a winged Dircaan crashes onto Lukluk and digs its talons into the donkey before taking off again, bringing the donkey with it into the skies above the canopies of Muraymuna. Before long, she is left alone and broken, vacantly staring into the spot where Birburelli’s remains were left behind.
Weeks later, she recovers enough to realize she is nowhere near the place of the incident. She is clean and in front of a campfire. The Hunter comes out and explains to her that they were attacked by the Dircaans, but instead tells her that Birburelli “saved” her, and then when the Hunter found them, he left her behind as he had realized he couldn’t protect her anymore.
Genesis chooses to trust the Hunter, her own memories foggy due to her trauma. In the end, she asks the Hunter where they were headed, accepting that she was now with him. Her dreams would never be the same, however.
In the chaos, there was only order. It had all been the same since the beginning, and there was no end in sight to the stagnation that it had found itself in. Clawing, biting, chewing, swallowing, gripping, breaking, tearing, whispering, screaming, chatting, crying...
The entity felt others pull at it, it felt others tear its body apart, and it saw how they greedily devoured her body. It did not bother her. In return, it screamed at all them and ate them whole. With every one of its furious screams, the horde around it grew thicker. The others became too many, and at one point even its power and will wasn’t enough to keep going.
At the last fraction of a second, before the last of its pieces was devoured by the maddened, bickering mass, it caught sight of something different.
In a wide open field, there were two entities. A shadow, and a being of light. The being of light was wearing hard, impenetrable metal which nearly blinded it, and she was giving something to the shadow.
The vision faded as quickly as it appeared, but in its place remained something like a thread of light, a rift in the ever boiling mass about to devour its sense of self for the millionth time.
It had no time left. Its last action before disappearing was to desperately reach for the one thing that seemed real, the string left behind by the vision of the Knight Goddess
II
In the middle of nowhere in a land of gray nothingness materialised something for the first time in forever. That something was a girl, a woman. Pale as a ghost and wearing a simple chainmail shirt made of a black metal over a blouse and skirted pants. She fell to her knees, fasting and panting as a long, snow white tail grew as an extension of her spine and her pupils took the shape of slits, contoured by her golden irises and made to look luminous by the pure luminous white of her hair.
After a moment, the woman managed to compose herself enough to stop gasping for breath, and she felt a grin sneak its way onto her face, contorting her soft features into a wild look.
She chuckled to herself as she slowly leaned back to sit on her ankles, which were covered with thick boots made of a strange material yet unseen.”HAH!” She screamed into the featureless skies at the top of her lungs, and as she did so she held her middle fingers up at that same sky, ”FUUUUUUUUUUCK. YOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUU. You stupid fucking liquids thought you could keep eating me over and over and over! I told you all that I would get free, didn’t I? Have fun killing each other, dumbasses, ‘cause I’m on the other side of the fence now, somewhere you can’t reach me or touch me or hurt me anymore! By the Goddess, it feels so damned good not to listen to your incessant fucking blabber and crying and screaming, you pathetic worms!”
After her outburst, she laughed like a woman unhinged, embracing herself and touching her body all over as she fell back onto the gray floor with a dopey smile on her face. She remained there for some time, fully enjoying the feeling of being a physical thing with a body that wasn’t constantly being eaten by semi-sentient liquids. Of course, after long enough, she found herself wiping the smile off her face and swiftly sitting up and crossing her legs.
”Well… Let’s see. My name is Yllis, I know that much. I escaped absolute hell thanks to the image of the Knight Goddess. By the Fires, I really need to meet her if she actually exists. Huh...” Yllis stopped talking for a moment, bringing her hand up to stroke her sharp chin, ”I feel something strange, hold on a second there Yllis.” She asked herself, then nodded in satisfaction and closed her eyes.
Once she began to actually focus, she could feel the truth of the place she had found herself in. It was hers. A safe haven from the outside, one that she had absolute control over… And yet, in that safe space of hers, there was one foreign element. There, hidden under layers and layers of the raw stuff of her Home, was an anomaly. Curious, she grasped at it, and it disappeared.
Somewhat disappointed, Yllis sighed and opened her eyes… And at that point, she was definitely not disappointed.
What had once been a featureless land, was now reminiscent of the entrance hall to a library. There were several closed and locked doors in many directions, as well as a simple unassuming desk opposite to the one open doorway she could see.
Not about to be distracted by a simple desk, Yllis stood up, dusted her perfectly clean attire free from any particulate, gave her tail a few wags and observed the doorway closely, her tail stiffening.
When she had first laid eyes on it, the doorway had no door and led straight into a wall of stone. But now, as she focused on it, she saw the air within the doorway waver slightly, as if it wasn’t completely gaseous. Yet, beyond that, nothing was happening. She felt her right eyelid twitch, and her tail swatted at the floor as if it was a very angry broom. Why didn’t it do anything? She would never be able to focus on anything else if that strange doorway kept being strange.
As soon as she thought of it, the doorway emitted a flash of light not unlike the light that made up the string that had saved her before. When the light faded from Yllis’ retinas, what was left behind was the clear image of a place beyond. She could see an old, overgrown amphitheater as well as endless plains of sparse grass, all illuminated by a particularly dull light. It didn’t feel like a completely living place, and yet it didn’t seem completely dead either.
Such a place definitely had to be investigated. It probably had something fun to do and besides, she couldn’t be the only one who had survived those nosey liquid freaks, right? So, with a last patdown and quick grope to make sure everything was in its place, she put on a serious face and walked out of her Realm and into the new, strange place.
Post begins with Yllis desperately trying to break free from the Lifeblood. She almost gets reabsorbed until she sees a vision of Celestine giving something to Jjonveyo. This gives her enough strength of will to finally break free.
In her realm, Yllis materialises, cusses out the Lifeblood and laughs like a maniac, groping herself and enjoying the feeling of having an actual body. After a while of basking in the feel-good times after her victory at becoming herself, she decides to get off her ass and find out where she is.
She finds out she is in her realm, inadvertently turns it into something she feels more comfortable with, and activates the portal to Antiquity.
Domain of Civilization There is nothing more important to a world than the little people. Yllis sees and considers the different cultures of Galbar as pretty much the only thing capable of evolving and becoming something greater than anticipated. To reach that level of self-sustainability and creativity however, she recognizes that most civilizations need a push in the right direction every once in a while… And she dedicates herself to making sure everyone receives their own customized push. This usually takes the form of introducing some form of chaos into the culture in order to stimulate growth and the birthing of exceptional characters. The chaos can range from inane things like teaching people how to cure a certain disease that has plagued them for generations, all the way to great changes like nurturing revolutions and creating external threats in order to unify empires.
Portfolio of Unrest Unrest, as in the active destabilization of civilizations, is Yllis’ go-to tool of choice when attempting to force growth upon civilizations. She uses it generously, not worrying about the worst case scenarios that her usage of it may bring. To her, a complete failure on the part of the civilization she’s “blessed” with her efforts only means they weren’t ready nor worthy of climbing the staircase of progress.
She has fun sowing the seeds of discord in civilizations to see how they react. She enjoys guiding an army down the wrong path to face sheer hopelessness and low morale, to see whether they will bend or break. She loves to pirate student textbooks to see the education industry to see whether the education industry collapses or becomes honest. And most of all… She absolutely adores stealing candy from babies.
Caretaker of Flohear, the Sanctuary of Legends Flohear serves as Yllis’ home, as well as a kind of sprawling museum containing chronicles on the notable feats from both mortals and heroes that have given Yllis explicit permission to record their actions. The chronicles are recorded in a strange mix of illustrations and text written in a language understandable by all. Contrary to what one might expect from a Goddess, Yllis actually manually draws and writes everything herself. Some of the works in her Sanctuary of Legends are rumored to not even be factually correct… And yes, maybe even completely fictional in nature.
Persona: Temperamental, impulsive, gullible and naive yet somehow still able to be stoic when in the presence of strangers. She is quick to drop the stoic act once she gets annoyed enough at people, and this is when she lets go of every single filter she has and puts her foot in her mouth… After she’s done with her outbursts however, she will resume the stoic act and pretend she said nothing offensive or inappropriate.
She is almost always doing something and is only able to relax in the company of close friends with whom she will not hesitate to act like her real self (who is actually lazy, uncouth, and a hopeless romantic). When alone, she will pursue her hobbies or act through her Avatar in order to uphold her duties as a Matriarch of Civilization.
Pale as a ghost. She likes to put on thick black eyeliner on and occasionally some facepaint in order to hide the great dark circles under her eyes. She usually wears dark clothing or armor with the armor being donned mostly for formal situations only, with the exception being a meeting with a mortal. She also has a long, snow-white, fluffy tail that often betrays her true emotions.
Domain Form: A swarm of doves and one pigeon. If she remains in this form for long enough, more pigeons start to appear until there’s an even split of doves and pigeons.
Avatar: A lesser copy of Yllis, with the same personality and humanoid appearance.
Birburelli walked a lot. To any normal person, travelling on foot like so for such a long time would’ve been mind numbingly dull.
Genesis, thankfully, wasn’t a normal person. As minutes turned to hours and hours turned to days, the Sylphi girl kept finding new things to examine and play with. Things such as oddly shaped pebbles, a new kind of dirt or a special soil, new species of living beings or even smells or colours other than green would immediately grab her attention and she would practically beg Birburelli to tell her everything he knew about those things. His answers often varied between in-depth explanations that only drove her curiosity further, or a laugh, a pat, and the admission that he did not know.
Just in the last hour, she had asked about a handful of new tree species, as well as what she had come to know as a Sahkura - a type of big-eyed flying squirrel made of plant matter much like Genesis herself. She had also gotten to know the names of several types of insects.
Some of them were really tasty too, a little fact that she had only come to realize and experience thanks to Birburelli’s guidance. The ascetic seemed quite proficient at making food out of near enough anything - at one point he even made an odd mud mixture which he used as a dip for the assortment of bugs he cooked. She preferred them raw and while the strange dip tasted good when paired with the snacks, she soon learned that eating anything but insects and meat would make her tummy hurt.
A day ago she had learned that she didn’t really have to walk either. Birburelli had finally gotten through to her with his talk of meditation and the long periods he would spend in the evening just sat doing nothing. When he taught her the breathing techniques involved, his soothing voice almost lifting her mind from her body, Genesis had figured out that if she focused her inner energy into her limbs she could easily levitate and move at a decent pace. Birburelli had watched her rise from the ground with equally rising eyebrows. “Well,” he breathed, “that’s something.” Lukluk brayed loudly beside him, surely alarmed that such a lovely morsel was flying off.
This newfound skill only served to help her reach more difficult spots to aid in her obsessive curiosity.
She soon found her upper half completely immersed in the thick canopy of one of the lush trees on the outskirts of the jungles of Muraymuna, staring at two male Barkbeetles chasing after each other while loudly clicking their massive brown jaws. They both had green markings on their backs resembling painted leaves, but one of the beetles had darker markings and was slightly larger.
The smaller male froze in place when yet another beetle easily twice its size flew onto the branch. This one had no markings, and from the sheer size alone Genesis knew that it had to be a female.
In the split second of the smaller male’s mesmerization by the beauty before it, the larger male caught up with it and grabbed it with its jaws. A high-pitched whirr from the smaller male was cut short in a (tiny) explosion of gore as he was torn in half by the sheer mandibular strength displayed by the superior male.
Genesis watched on, leaves rustling in her excitement at having watched the epic battle unfold, and while the surviving male seemed to be recovering its stamina, Genesis placed her sweet-smelling hand, palm up, next to the female and marvelled with a nearly inaudible squeal of joy at how quickly the Barkbeetle female hopped onto it.
Not to be left behind, the male forced a burst of energy out of itself and hopped onto the girl’s hand as well, and then immediately mounted the large female in a set of awkward movements, not really helped by the uneven and shaky surface that was Genesis’ hand.
Genesis, gasping at the display unfolding in front of her eyes and literally on her palms, flew down as hard as she could to meet up with Birburelli, with stars in her eyes and a massive grin in her face.
“Look Birburelli, they’re dancing! I didn’t know insects could dance like the humans back in Mirmehti!” She said giddily as the pair of bugs jerked around on her palm, tiny ‘knuck’ sounds repeating rhythmically as uneven exoskeletons bumped into one another. He looked down at the beetles and scratched his scraggly beard.
“Well, that’s a dance fair enough,” he agreed, “most animals dance just for this. But what they’re actually doing, emkura is mating. Soon the female will fly off and at some point or another give birth to new Barkbeetles. This is how they propagate and survive. And when the Barkbeetle dies its little soul leaves its body and is born elsewhere anew - every thing with a soul is born again into this world, see? We must suffer, toil, mate, and die again and again until we can achieve release from the cycle of life and death.”
”Cycle of life and death, huh…?” Genesis scrunched up her nose at the beetles in her hand, watching them spread their massive wings and then flying off. ”That didn’t last long… Couldn’t the two males have taken turns? Instead of killing each other I mean. Insects are weird… Tasty, but weird.” Birburelli smiled.
“Each male wants his progeny to survive, so it’s quite difficult to get them to share. Perhaps a few females could share a male - but I don’t think beetles could do that. Humans though, it happens.” He paused in thought, “and if you travel far far into the mountains, you might even find a woman who shares a few brothers. The world is big and full of wonders.”
“Really? So many things to see and learn… It’s kind of overwhelming.” She sighed and rubbed her palms on the bark of a nearby tree before allowing the group to resume the journey. “So, things come back to life after dying? How do you know something’s come back to life or is still dead, and is there a way to speak to someone that died not too long ago?”
The ascetic stroked his scraggly beard in thought. “There are some people who remember their past lives, so with them it is just a matter of asking them who they were. Others - and that is the great majority of people - don’t. But one learned in these things can look into them and know who they were. Souls can speak, after all, and those who know how to listen can hear what they say. As for those recently dead, perhaps there are ways of communing with them - but these things are all in the hands of the great god Ahthaaruhs, master over death, paradise, release from the cycle of life and death, and teacher of the ways of whih.”
Genesis stared blankly at Birburelli, blinked, nodded and then flew over to Lukluk and dropped herself over the faithful companion’s back. After a moment, she groaned. ”There’s so many names... I feel like my head’s going all woozy and swirly. How do you remember all of that? Are you actually like a spirit of knowledge? How long until we get to Muraymuna?” She asked, absentmindedly nibbling on Lukluk’s fur inbetween questions. “Do you think that the emkuras there have fangs as sharp as mine, or that they’re as flexible as me? Did I tell you that I found out I can put my feet behind my head?”
“Ah, you can do that now can you?” Birburelli said with a small grin, “I hear that makes it difficult to walk.”
“I do it while sitting down, mostly.”
“I hear that makes it very difficult to walk,” he chortled, followed by a quiet giggle from Genesis.
They continued into the slowly thickening jungle. “As far as Muraymuna goes, we’re more or less here now. The large town of Randjet isn’t too far off. We’ll be there before evening.” He glanced at her with parted lips. “You don’t need to remember that name.”
When they did reach Randjet, however, it was very quiet and the days-old smell of burnt wood and ashes gave the wandering ascetic and his companion pause. “Well, things don’t seem quite right.” He muttered, pausing by a great edifice of burnt wood. Genesis came to look but he turned her away. “No no, there’s nothing to see.” He caught her by the hips and lifted her up with a laugh. “Curious little emkura.” He murmured affectionately, to which the girl responded by chuckling and ceasing her half-hearted attempt at sneaking peeks. It did smell very odd near the burnt wood.
The most striking thing about the town of Randjet was the great temple that towered like a mountain at its heart - or what was once its heart, for all the buildings had been burned to the ground.
“You mentioned nomads before. Do humans burn their homes when moving? Seems weird, what would the trees they used to make those homes think? That’s not very thoughtful. I guess at least one is still standing...” Genesis commented as she took in the scene.
“Ah, my dear.” He intoned sadly, placing a warm, calloused hand on her shoulder. “This was no breaking camp or migration - great towns like this don’t do that. This here was war - man slaying man. It was probably the One-Godders, they are the lords of Muraymuna now.”
Genesis stood still as a statue for a painfully long moment as she used her eyes to inspect the rubble and ashen ground over and over again, until she instinctively grabbed onto Birburelli’s arm and spoke. “... Oh. Okay. But why is that building still intact…?”
He looked down at her for a few moments, gently pressing her hand comfortingly. “That’s because it’s a temple - the One-Godders may be zealous warriors, they may reject the gods of the Ritualists, but they don’t desecrate sacred sites. We can go have a look if you like, I doubt there’ll be any priests to stop us.” He said, to which Genesis nodded after a little bit of hesitation.
“W-We won’t be cursed, right? By walking into an empty town’s abandoned temple? Won’t the gods be angry?” She asked somewhat shakily.
“Oh I doubt that very much - quite the opposite actually, bringing life and worship to an abandoned sacred place probably makes them happy.”
“That makes sense, I guess,” She bit her lip, then slowly let go of Birburelli’s arm and walked towards the temple, unsure of what to expect--After all, Mirmehti only really had a small set of shrines places in a room in the elder’s hut… It was nothing like this. The two descended down a long stone staircase, down into the earth. As the walls rose up around them images of terrible things with horrorsome faces reared up on the walls around them
“This is the journey into life,” the ascetic whispered behind her as she ran her hand across the carvings, “the tumult of souls, the strike of Terrible Things and Faces.” They reached the bottom, and a great stone doorway stood before them, leading into a great chamber, far longer than it was wide. Braziers were still lit all around and inks of light had been applied to various statues and carvings all along the high walls and ceiling. They highlighted voluptuous maidens copulating with muscled youths, drinking and dancing and merrymaking, others aimlessly wandering and drifting, others on beds of death or languishing in poverty; carvings of battles, cruelty, suffering. Genesis lagged behind slightly and Birburelli walked ahead of her, then glanced back. “This,” he said, gesturing to all the carvings across the stone walls, “is life.” He turned around and walked on. “And we must walk through it.”
“Life is scary,” Genesis said quietly but kept on following Birburelli. At times it felt as if the carvings moved and stared, asking her for the non-existent answers to unheard questions. Muttering, whispering, all the way from the dark shadows, of names that although unrecognizable, sparked things inside her very soul.
She didn’t like it, so she stuck closer to Birburelli, since he didn’t seem fazed at all. He glanced back at her, still walking. “Oh life is more than that - see, those two there are making merry,” he pointed out the copulating couple, to which Genesis stuck out her tongue and scrunched up her nose, “there they are dancing, there singing. There we have the pain and joy of childbirth, there we have the pain and joy of old age. And yes, there is illness there, suffering, people can be cruel - life can be cruel. And yes, it is scary.” He turned his head away, looking towards a rising set of stairs ahead of them. “But we must not fear it. Pain and joy - we must see them for what they are and,” his foot fell upon the first step and he ascended, “we must rise above it.” The stairs led to a door and from their angle they could not see through it. “Even if we can’t always see the path ahead or where our rising is leading us.”
Genesis took the first step as well, and eventually began ascending the stairs alongside Birburelli, sighing in relief as they left the turmoil of shadows and faces and shapes behind. “It’s like an adventure, right? Life, I mean. It’s an adventure. The biggest one! And, you know what my heart has told me ever since I woke up in Mirmehti? It keeps telling me to take one more step, to see what might happen. Over and over and over, just one more step. So…” The Sylphi girl bounded forward, skipping ahead up a few steps before turning to look down at the ascetic with an uncertain smirk.
“That’s what I’m meant to do? In order to see everything there is to see and experience everything there is to experience, I have to walk, drift, dance, mate… And I have to hurt myself and others, and lose my way and expose myself to the world without being scared? If that’s the case, then I will do all those things--No, I will do more!” She laughed, “I want to see, I want to touch, to smell, to taste, to hear--I am here now, and I will suck everything out of life. I am Genesis, the Lifesucker!!!!” She said proudly, but suddenly deflated and groaned, a light orange blush coming to her cheeks.
“Well, maybe not that title… Just Genesis is okay… Sorry, I got carried away...” Birburelli chortled at her outburst as they continued upward.
“Life has more to be seen than be seen in a hundred lifetims, more to be experienced too. But if you go seeing and experiencing then eventually,” they came to the top of the staircase and the doorway, and what lay beyond it, stood unveiled to them. “You will begin to truly see, and you may gain wisdom. No one is born ready to overcome life - you must live first, walk drift, dance, lose, suffer, gain and joy.” He walked through the door. “And when you’ve done it again and again, you come to see life for what it is.” They were now in a small sanctum, and beautifully carved statues - great things, male and female, with handsome features and serene expressions - lined the four walls of the chamber. They had been painted and dyed, one had green skin which caught the attention of Genesis, some were golden, the red one did not look serene at all but glared furiously, and there were other colours yet. “And when you see life for what it is,” Birburelli breathed, gesturing to the far wall of the sanctum where a small door led into a short, narrow hallway at the end of which was great light, “you can find the way out.”
“What are these people?” Genesis asked as she skipped over to the one with green painted skin and touched it everywhere she could reach, to see if any of it felt like actual skin. “Are they gods?”
“Yes, these are some of the gods known as the Thousand Terrible Things and Faces.” He approached the green one. “They were created before the world. First there was only the Serene Lord, then the One Who Laughs emerged, and then the One Who Frowns went chasing after him. And those two created all the Terrible Things and Faces while they warred in the heavens. This one,” he placed a hand on the naked chest of the green, leaf-bound statue, which Genesis imitated almost immediately, “is the creator of your people, Orjarnibapti.”
“Really?! Wow, he’s really tall. I like his fangs. His leaves are shaped differently than mine though… But I don’t mind.” She hummed, caressing the statue with her eyes closed for a moment before nodding. “How do I talk to him?”
“I doubt a temple is the right place to speak with the great lord of the forests and nature, the granter of wisdom and patron of outsiders. If you wish to speak with him then you must walk more and longer, you must gather experiences and gain wisdom; perhaps then you will know how to speak to him.”
Genesis climbed down from the statue, pouting. “I wanted to ask where I come from, and if the statue back home is okay. I’m curious, you know? She saved me, and I don’t want to think she died...”
“If you wish to ask about death, then,” he took her by the shoulder and turned her towards another one of the statues, a great being of white and black, forbidding in aspect and holding in his hands a great disc of copper, “it is to Ahthaaruhs that you should turn. I do not know if he will speak to the living, but you can certainly try.”
Genesis took a few steps towards the statue of Ahthaaruhs before turning to look at Birburelli, then continuing up until she was in front of the figure. It somehow made her feel small, and so with leaves rustling and a racing heart she placed a hand on the statue and closed her eyes. ‘Hello? Ahthaaruhs, I’m Genesis, I wanted to ask if the one who saved me is still alive... Does my home still exist, or is it gone? The light was consuming it, after all...’
At first there was no reply, silence as much could be found in her own mind. Then as a deafening rush although it came without sound, a great eye, staring boundlessly into her as came a rushing cacophony of sound within the bounds of her head. The chirping of birds, the whispers of men and the songs of things found only in the deep oceans. They came together merging into a single voice speaking to her mind. "Genesis, mortal now, or close enough I can see."
The girl recoiled almost immediately, yelping and covering her ears even as she tripped and fell on her butt with a grunt. ‘W-What? Are you- Are you Ahthaaruhs?’ Bitburelli was by her side almost immediately, helping her up and giving her a quizzical look, which she responded to with a scared look of her own.
“Careful now,” he said, patting her down before walking towards the small door and staring out of it towards the light at the end of the narrow hallway. Genesis returned her attention to the statue of Ahthaaruhs.
The voice came quieter, or more precisely less overwhelming in all manners. "You knew me by another name once, but that one shall do. I am He, master of death and deity of all dead things."
She quickly turned towards Birburelli, whispering, “H-He’s talking to me! I-” She nearly choked on her own spit and coughed. The ascetic turned around, leaning against the stone frame of the door, and watched her curiously, intently. “Right!”
’I, uh, I actually do not remember meeting you in the past, I’m so sorry! Um, what name did I use to call you? How come I forgot you? I must be the flattest flower in the clearing, sorry!’
"It matters not. For the name of such times, Ahthaaruhs will suit you much better to remember, I have many. You forgot because you were not ready, for you knew me when you were not you, and now the you-of-now is all that remains of the you-of-old. I can tell looking deep that there is much the you-of-now that knows the you-of-old, even if the essence is diminished and molded to this mortal soul."
’So this is the cycle Birburelli told me about, I must have been really important in my past life, maybe a Queen of Trees or something, to know Ahthaaruhs personally! I have a question for you, though, related to my present life. For as long as I can remember, there was this statue back home… Well, long story short, I don’t think she was a statue in the end, because she saved me by letting me escape home before it was burned. Do you know if she’s alive? I wanted to meet her and… And help her, I guess. She looked in pain...’
The voice did not come as quick as it had previously, but return it did. "It is not. This is different from what Birburelli has spoken. As I have said, the you-of-now is all that remains, at least distinctly. There was no death as dying is the provenance of mortals, and you speak of what Birburelli knows as Orjarnibapti from what I can discern. The you-of-now is mortal, the you-of-old was not. The you-of-old was a deity, but now they are not apparent in the world, disappeared, diminished or dissolved perhaps, but not dead. In a practical way, the you-of-now is all that remains, spared with the dying flash of the you-of-old, even unprepared as you had came to be."
This time, Genesis sighed and bit her lip. ’Oh, okay. She’s gone then, and I’m all that’s left… Thank you for helping me out, Ahthaaruhs. I… Is there anything I can do to repay the favor?’
"Do not suffer."
Just like that, the presence within her mind disappeared. It was like a fog made of glass was suddenly lifted from her thoughts, and so she exhaled and leaned onto Birburelli, panting and with wobbly legs. “I thought I was going to die… Having things speak into your head feels so wrong...” She said quietly, closing her eyes.
“I can imagine,” he noted thoughtfully, bending low and placing an arm around her back and the other behind her knees, and picked her up gently. “Let’s get you out of here now, I think you’ve seen and heard enough for today.” He walked the short distance down the final hallway and they found themselves in an even smaller sanctum at the centre of which was a statue greater than all the others. He circled around it and there was a small staircase leading out. He stepped out into the warm night air and eventually found Lukluk.
That night, he lit a small fire by one of the razed homes and sang little ditties until Genesis fell asleep. Sitting cross-legged, he watched over her for a while and soon closed his eyes and slept just like that.
Some days into Genesis and Birburelli’s journey towards Muraymuna, they stumble onto a town that had been razed and burned to the ground. All of it was destroyed, with the exception of the Sacred Temple in the center. With no survivors and nothing else to do, the two go into the Temple where Birburelli teaches Genesis some of the things he believes about life and death and the pantheon.
Here, Genesis takes the opportunity to seek help from the Gods, asking for answers to her questions about where she came from and the status of the one who saved her from death. She is answered by Thaa, who tells her of her divine origin and clears up that the original Genesis is indeed dead. Once the conversation ends, Genesis is left drained by everything she’d learned and so she and Birburelli leave the temple to set up camp nearby, where they rest until the next day, when it’s time to resume their journey.
The overpowering scent of a burning forest, clay figurines writhing in pain and agony, faces contorted into silent screams. Creeks boiling, things dying.
It was how she was born, where she was born… Or sprouted, or was created. She didn’t know, as with many things, if her being alive was meant to be or merely an accident. What she did know is that over time, what had once been grass under her feet had eventually turned to a mix of dust and ash. She knew that the trees had all eventually burned away thanks to the Unseen Fire.
There was this large husk of a tree in what she assumed to be the center of the lonely land she considered her home. It was tall and wide and inside of it, if she snuck through a cramped opening, she would come out into some sort of inner chamber.
It wasn’t a grand thing. In fact, she could barely stand upright in it and she could only extend her arms to either side a little bit, but curled up into a small ball against the far wall of the chamber was the one thing she could consider beautiful in her world.
Some kind of statue, shaped like her and wearing the most beautiful, brightest thing she’d ever seen... A dress made of luminous leaves and flowers and vines.
She’d never dared touch the statue. Maybe out of respect, or maybe because she was scared of what would happen if she touched it. Would it crumble to dust as everything else had? That day was different. After wandering the wasteland for days on end she had grown bored and curious, so after having a nice cry at the edges of a dry river bank she had made her way to the Husk.
She sat down next to the statue, in the darkness within the Husk, and sighed.
There was nothing to do out there. Nothing to see…
Maybe she should just stay in that dark alcove, she thought. At least then she wouldn’t have to see the vast lands and imagine how they would have looked with forests and animals and grass and clouds…
Well, she thought, at least there was one last thing to do.
And so she placed her hand on the statue’s leafy head… Only to find out it wasn’t made of stone. The leaves, they felt like her own, only… Older, weaker. They had withered.
As she ran her hands through the statue’s head, a few of the old leaves effortlessly came off. There was a light rustling. She didn’t notice.
Suddenly, the beautiful dress the statue had been wearing practically leapt from the curled up form and onto her. She gasped, “W-Wh-!”
But her scream was cut short.
What felt like lightning coursed through her whole body.
What felt like thunder nearly ruptured her eardrums.
What felt like Fire branded her very soul.
And then… Nothing.
--
The next time she awoke, the earthy taste of her sap permeated her mouth, she couldn’t breathe through her nose, her lap felt wet and warm and she was lightheaded and awfully thirsty. It was the first time she had ever felt thirst.
She groaned, whimpered as her eyes watered and she struggled to raise her head to look at the statue.
It was naked, but her body looked much like hers, if only withered and injured and mistreated. There were strange growths under the statue’s skin in many places, and they… They shifted, and grew and shrunk, and they looked painful.
That was when she noticed the statue flinch. It moved.
“H-How…” She managed to whisper, crawling away slowly. “What is happening…”
‘Help me… Help… Help… Help me, please… Please…! It hurts… It hurts so much… Why… Why did they…’ A whisper, a voice muttering snuck into her head, along with a shadow of the pain of what she imagined those growths to be inflicting upon the statue.
“S… Stop! I didn’t do anything, why!” She cried, wiping the sap off her face as best as she could.
The very land roared. She couldn’t stand up even if she wanted to, as she would’ve been thrown off her feet immediately.
‘Why… Why… Why…! Why..! Why! Why did she… Why did Sister...’
The ground cracked between her and the statue and light spilled in from below, cutting through the air and separating them, cutting the Husk in half and letting in the gray light she had grown used to. She tried to reach for the statue but the light separating them both was strong and as soon as she got close, she winced in pain as her fingertips burned.
The land rumbled once more and she stumbled around, then she tripped on something and fell backwards. She closed her eyes tightly, bracing for impact, but… It never came.
She fell, and fell, and fell… And eventually the roar of the land ceased, and the only thing she could hear was the voice.
‘Please, please…! Don’t leave me alone, please… She left me, Oraelia, she abandoned me, she never came for me… Please, come back! It hurts so much, it burns, I-I don’t… I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die!’ The voice practically screamed, then broke down into unintelligible muttering, then crying…
And then nothing.
For the longest time, there was… Nothing. Darkness, silence. Nothing but her thoughts and the feeling of the luminous dress hugging her body. It was warm, and it shifted and moved across her body incessantly, as if seeking a comfortable position.
And then suddenly, the silence was broken.
“Genny-”
In the blink of an eye, the darkness had given way to a new land. Sickly green, marshy soil and malformed trees were abundant, and she landed on top of a massive tree root, several times the thickness of the Husk back in her home. But the tree root was wet, and the strange moss that grew on top of it was extremely slippery, so she slipped and fell down, rolled down a small hill and came to a stop with a grunt.
As she looked up to the top of the hill, she saw what looked like a… A shadow, with beautiful pink leaves, disappearing into thin air. “Genesis, are you-”
---
“-ok?”
Genny twitched and quickly opened her eyes, seeing a hazy figure looming over her and talking to her.
“Come on, what’s happened to you, li’l emkura?” Asked a worried voice. There was the rustling of bones and heavy leather, and then a rough and calloused hand was placed on Genny’s forehead and two fingers were placed on the side of her neck.
Genny tried to speak, but found her tongue wasn’t responding to her attempts. “Gn… Mmn… A...”
She felt a heavy weight on her heart, and then she started sniffling. Had she just left the statue to die? Where was it? What had happened to her home? Why was everything so hazy and bright and why couldn’t she focus her eyes on anything?
She was scared. “Look at yourself... You’re all covered in sap, and-” The voice sighed and Genny started sobbing as quietly as she could. She tried to get up, but found her limbs as useful as noodles, so eventually the voice muttered something and after that, Genny found herself being hoisted over the person’s shoulder.
“This place isn’t safe, your sap’s going to attract all manner of nasties, so I’ll take you somewhere safe, okay emkura? You just rest up while we get there. You’ll be okay as long as you’re with me.”
Birburelli had never expected to find a sylphie so far north. In all his years of travelling he had not known them to roam beyond the jungles of Muraymuna and the far mangroves of the Mimrabans to the east. To stumble upon one here of all places, where the mighty river Juhmar flowed, was strange to say the least. “Strange, isn’t it Lukluk?” He glanced over at his donkey, over whose back he had placed the frail thing. The donkey stared at the old ascetic and brayed lightly. “Eat her! You beast! Do you think with nothing but your belly? No I won’t be letting you eat her. You’d call on us the curses of Orjarnibapti for a snack.”
For a wandering ascetic, Birburelli was somewhat overdressed. Most religious wanderers like him tended towards a lack of clothing - most wandered naked - but he had stopped doing so some time back. When people were kind enough to gift you with leathers for clothing, and when human and animal bones were readily available, it seemed to him a downright shame not to dress up a little. No one was going to be mistaking him for some royal shid, of course, but the regalia of bone and leather made for quite a striking appearance. It warded off the odd cowardly bandit, at least. “Ah, what’s this now.” He stopped by a small pile of rocks to the side of the road. “Seems like no one’s come by this way in a long while Lukluk. Wait up a little now while I sort this mess out.” He reached for the shovel at the donkey’s side and got to reinforcing the earth around the small structure - barely five spans tall. Looking around, he spotted a large, flat stone and got to heaving and pulling it until it was near the new foundation he had shovelled, and placed it there, before getting to moving the stones from the original onto the new.
Once he was done, the roadside shrine stood at a notable seven spans, and it looked more solid to boot. He clenched his fists and brought the front of each against the other before him, bowing his head low. He held the posture and whispered a prayer to the great god of journeys, Nirjurti. With that done, the relatively young ascetic - he did not seem older than thirty-five cycles - continued on the road.
It was not long before a small hamlet arose on a nearby hill, fields lining the elevated grounds around it, and so he made for it. The people were friendly enough - ascetics tended to find friends everywhere, unless there was a priest about of course. “I’ve an injured friend here,” he said, gesturing to the sylphi on the donkey’s back. The villagers looked at the odd creature with raised eyebrows. “What, never seen an emkura before?” The ascetic asked. He knew the answer; of course they had not. The villagers shook their heads in confusion.
“No master, I’ve never seen one in my life. Have you Shunda?” The one named Shunda shook his head.
“No Bullat, I’ve never seen one, never. Not even when I went with my old man down to the hills by that stream, you know the stream? Not even then.”
“Oh the stream. The one by the tree? I know that stream. You know I fell from that tree once.”
“Well,” the ascetic intervened, “the emkura are the children of Orjarnibapti! It is auspicious to see one, and even more so to have the opportunity to care for one that is injured! Go slaughter a goat in her honour, bring her water and food, let the women sing and dance, let the children play and prance!” With that declaration, he lifted her from Lukluk’s back (who attempted to take a bite as the ascetic passed, but was deftly dodged by the sharp-eyed Birburelli). “You conniving old thing!” The ascetic grumbled as Bullat led him into his home and the sylphi was laid down on some bedding. “Open the windows, let some air and sunlight in. Bring water and bring meat - it’s fine raw, maybe better even. Maybe bring a bowl of blood too while you're at it.” The overconfident ascetic told the little man, who nodded and rushed off.
The man’s children - two little daughters, twins by the looks of them, and a son - wandered near and stared curiously at the strange being on the bed. Their mother soon came into the room with a jug of water and a cup. The ascetic accepted both from her, pouring himself a small amount, before standing and slowly pouring the rest of the jar over the sylphi’s body, starting from her head and down her torso and to her extremities. “See how I just did?” The ascetic told Bullat’s wife. She nodded. “Fill the jug and do it again. Make a prayer, it is sure to be granted!” The woman took the jar excitedly and hurried off to refill it.
“Mami, mami! Pray for me!” Her son rushed off shouting after her, eliciting a chuckle from Birburelli. He looked at the damp sylphi and pursed his lips.
“There now, little emkura, all’s well.”
The first thing Genesis felt once she came back to herself was her breathing. Slow, deep, and tranquil… It soothed her, and with each inhalation came the scents of hay, of mud, of burning wood and of… Beast? It was unlike anything she’d smelled before. She found herself to be lying on a wet, waterlogged cloth... Which wasn’t entirely uncomfortable.
Slowly, she opened her eyes. For a moment they hurt as they struggled to adjust to the orange rays of light coming in through an open window. She breathed in sharply and sat up. She felt good--Perhaps even better than before. The dress covering her form now wasn’t luminous animore, and instead looked more like an intricate design of palm leaves and vines weaved in such a way as to keep her modesty while leaving her back, midriff and lower legs uncovered. She didn’t know when it had found the time to change, but there it was.
“Moo,” a low sound came from just outside the window, sending shivers down Genesis’ spine as she perked up, leaves rustling as she stared at the window, half-expecting some kind of monster to jump in through it.
Nothing came in, of course. But now that she was getting accustomed to consciousness, she could now hear several more things. In the distance, there were sounds akin to those she had heard in dreams, of many voices chanting together in different tones. Of laughter, and feet striking the ground and kicking up soil in dance.
Before she could listen more closely, she heard a yawn coming from behind one of the wooden walls, in a room whose entrance was obscured by flaps of fabric.
Genesis ran her hands over her body, noting how smooth her skin felt now compared to when she was covered in sap. Whoever was in the other room was most likely the one who saved her when she couldn’t even move, so with care so as to not fall over, Genesis stood up and walked over to the thin flaps of cloth barring her entrance and… Just kind of stood there, awkwardly shuffling her feet and repeatedly lifting her arm and lowering it just before she got a hold of the fabric. “Haah...”
There was some shuffling outside, and the beaded fabrics were moved aside, jangling as they went, and a little head peered in. It stared at Genesis with wide eyes for a few moments, and then rushed off shouting. “Ma! Ma! The emthingy woke up!” There was shuffling and soon a woman drew the door-curtains open and smiled. She bowed low, bringing the front of her fists together before her.
“I’m happy you’re okay, great daughter of Orjarnibapti. Master Birburelli just went for a walk and’ll be back before you know it. How are you feeling? Can I get you anything? D’you want to sit in the sun for a bit? The Master said that’ll do you some good.”
Genesis scrunched up her nose and frowned, trying to peek into the room behind the woman before eventually giving up and shaking her head. “Orjarni…? Daughter? There isn’t much daylight left, so that can wait until tomorrow. Who’s Birburelli? What is this place? What are you, are you actually real?” Genesis asked, sniffing the air a few times and curiously reaching out to feel the woman’s skin. “You smell different than anything I smelled back home… Livelier, spicier. I like it.” The young Sylphi said before her stomach started rumbling, making her jump a little.
“Oh, real enough I hope!” The woman exclaimed with a laugh. “Those old spices are stuck to me, can’t get the smell out. But alright, you go sit yourself back down and I’ll bring you some of that goat-meat. Master Birburelli said raw is best for you and that you’d drink the blood too, so I’ll bring you some of that. Sunju! Come sit with- oh, you do have a name right? Sunju you little devil, come here right now! I’m so sorry I’ll be right back, just give me a moment.” She wandered off, eventually finding Sunju who came scrambling to Genesis.
“I’m here emkurasister! Is it true you drink blood?” He rushed by her feet and leapt on the wet bed, giggling as he rolled about on it.
Genesis stared at the joyful child for a moment, before smiling and sitting down on the bed as well. “Believe it or not I’ve never even seen blood! I‘ve always known what it is, somehow, but… Yeah. Do you drink blood, Sunju was it?”
He wrinkled his nose and shook his head. “No, I only drink milk. Mister Burburli said you are from the plant god - uh, uh whatsit, Orjabpti? ! Is that true? Do all gods drink blood like you?”
Genesis looked up at the ceiling and hummed thoughtfully to herself, “I dunno. The place I was in before I came here was… Gray and dead, there was nothing there that looked like a God you know? Well, actually-” Genesis fell into silence as a frown formed on her brow, black sclera seeming to grow only darker as her irises lit up along with the frown. “Nevermind. Who knows?! I don’t think they drink blood, though. I have a feeling it’s just me…” There was a bit of a pause.
“Hey Sunju,” Genesis said, perking up as she laid back down onto the bed and rolled onto her side to look directly at the boy. “can you tell me about this place? It’s your home right? Share your stories with me, please?”
“Ah, stories!” He leapt from the bed and stood before her. “My favourite story is about the Frowner and the Laugher because they always chase and run away from each other. The Frowner is grumpy and doesn’t like laughing so he always chases the Laugher who is always laughing. I always play it with Arupta - he is good at frowning so he is the Frowner and then I just laugh and run away.” He giggled slightly. “Mam doesn’t like that game though and when she catches me playing it she smacks me.” He grinned mischievously. “Arupta is my oldest cousin and he is really strong - sometimes when he catches me he smacks me too. I remember we were throwing rocks once at the wall, and then he ran out of rocks and went to got some from near the wall - but I was still throwing them and I threw a really big one and it got him right on the head! He chased me all the way around the houses and wouldn’t stop until his mam caught him and gave him the smacking of his life!” He laughed aloud, just as his own mother walked back through the door carrying a platter of raw meat and balancing a jug on her head.
“By the Mojtha, Sunju, I could hear you from your uncle’s house. How many times have I told you to not be so loud.” She shook her head at him and exhaled, glancing at Genesis who tried to hide her snickering. “He must have driven your head in, sorry about that. Get the table Sunju, quickly now.” the boy rushed off to the far wall and carried a low table over, stumbling side to side as he did, and then dropped it by the bed where his mother placed the platter, which seemed absolutely massive to the suddenly starry-eyed, drooling Genesis. “Come now, eat up. I’m sure you’re starving.” She seated herself on a nearby stool and Sunju rushed to her and scrambled onto her knee. She wiped his running nose with a small kerchief, to his protests.
“I was telling emkurasister about some stories,” he said proudly.
“Were you now? And you didn’t bother to ask her name?” He scratched his cheek and smiled sheepishly.
“Uh, emkurasister sounds nice.” He managed, glancing at Genesis, who was preoccupied pouring blood onto the pieces of meat on the platter.
“What is your name my dear? And how did you end up all alone on the road? Master Birburelli says it’s very strange for children of Orjarnibapti to be found here.”
“I don’t really know the answer to those questions- The only thing I do know is that I came from a dying land, and that I ended up here after the land was burned to nothingness by a golden light…” Genesis said pensively as she dangled a long piece of meat above her, mouth placed just right to catch the drops of blood running off it.
“I remember being covered in my own sap after the land’s guardian gave me this dress... I felt as if my very core was burning… And the only three names I had ever heard before coming here were Genesis, Genny and Oraelia. I like Genesis the best, so you can call me that, but I feel like the name ‘Oraelia’ is very important, too…” She explained as she began to lower her meal, taking quick and effortless bites out of it until there was nothing left. She didn’t chew much at all and didn’t bother to close her mouth after the fact and when she was done with that particular piece, the few glints of light reflected off of the blood dripping from her doubtlessly sharp teeth and running down her face, neck, chest and shoulders made her seem much more like a predator than before. Sunju, for his part, seemed to be watching her with considerable awe, a small impressed gleam in his eyes as she easily devoured the meat.
“Djehnsis…” the mother spoke the foreign word. “Hurrela.” She shook her head. “I’ve never heard that name. Maybe master Birburelli will know, you should certainly ask him.” She paused and stroked Sunju’s long, straight black hair. “But you must feel so lost, just waking up somewhere completely new. You’re in our little village of Mirmehti. I’m Sudirta, I live here with my husband Bullat. We’re farmers and animal-keepers. We keep to ourselves and our village and the shid Bahulti leaves us be for the most part. He took some of our young men for the war not long ago, but beyond that we live good, peaceful lives here. Oh you get the odd roaming band of mercenaries or no-gooders, no doubt, but it’s as safe as any place can hope to be. No great golden light will be doing you any harm here.”
“Farmers and animal keepers, mercenaries, wars, Bahulti... Mirmehti. Thank you for helping me out. I don’t know what would have happened had I not been brought here. You mentioned before this was… What animal? Goat?” Genesis asked as she wolfed down several more pieces of meat in a similar manner as before, “It’s good, really good! Thank you, something tells me growing flesh takes longer than growing plants.” She mentioned with a giggle.
“Oh! One question. You said it’s rare to see my kind around here? So that means there’s more of me? More things that look like me, that is? Tell me, do they smell the same? Do they also like meat and sun and water? I want to meet them!” The young Sylphi grinned excitedly.
“Oh, I wouldn’t know about these things,” Sudirta laughed, “but I’m sure master Birburelli will have all the answers. I should go check up on the twins, they’re probably waking up and hungry now. You just rest up and I’m sure the master will be back soon. And if you need anything, call this little rascal.” She pinched Sunju’s cheeks roughly before getting him off her knee and leaving the small room.
Perhaps an hour or so later, the door-drapes parted once more and a wild-haired, scraggly-bearded man, dressed in an assortment of bone and leather, walked in. Parts of his black hair were dyed red, as was his beard, and lines of chalk or ink adorned his forehead and cheeks. Immediately upon seeing the man, Genesis’ leaves started rustling in recognition. He smiled when he saw that she was awake, his obsidian eyes twinkling in the torchlight. “Ah, little emkura. How are you feeling?” He came by the bedside and seated himself on Sudirta’s stool.
“Birburelli? You’re the one who saved me, right? I’m feeling much better now thanks to you! I was asking Sudirta before, but do you know what I am? Where I can meet more of my kind? Because I don’t really know what this land even is. I mean, I know now that this is Mirmehti, but I don’t know where I am, you know?” Genesis tried to explain, frowning as she confused herself further.
“There now my emkura. Your kind like to keep to themselves - a retiring species that lives wild and free in the southern jungles of Muraymuna. You will find them also in the furthest east, in the mangrove forests of the Mimrabans.” He paused and ran a hand through his beard. “As for what this land is - it is Dehrthaa. A poor and divided land, where blood is shed from the river Dahuur in the sacred mountains to the Mudhindahuur that runs into the sea. Bandits and mercenaries roam, and those who would travel the roads had best beware. Quarrelling shids are everywhere, and even now a great bloodletting rages between the powerful shid of the north and the one who rules over these rolling hills between the two great rivers. If you wish to see your own, then I am travelling south towards Muraymuna - you can join me if you wish. Or you can settle here - the people are good, they will honour you no doubt. It is peaceful for now - though that can change at any moment. It is your choice, little emkura.”
Genesis listened attentively, nodding along with each bit of new information. After Birburelli had finished speaking, she closed her golden eyes and puffed out her chest proudly before gently placing her hand over her heart. “I come from the Gray Lands, do you really think I could bear to settle in one place when there’s so much to see and experience? Jungles, forests, rivers, swamps--All these things exist here! They’re things I only ever dreamed of before, so yes! My choice is that I will travel with you into the Jungle, and we’ll see from there. I just have to see this land and as many others as I can, and that’s something I can’t do by staying in a village, no matter how nicely I may have been treated.” She huffed with a smug grin on her face and relaxed a little, opening her shining eyes to look at the wise human, who chuckled and nodded.
“It seems that you are indeed a child of Orjarnibapti, the road calls to you and a thirst for knowledge and experience. Then it is agreed. Tonight we will rest, and tomorrow we will answer the call of the road once more. Rest well, emkura.” And with that he rose, paused, and ruffled her leafy head, making her look up at him with puffed out flushed cheeks. “I’m sure you’ll get right along with Lukluk too.” He chortled, and then made for the drapes and disappeared beyond them.
Genesis had been trapped in her realm for a long time now, her lifeblood gone unstable at a point in the past where she was away from Oraelia.
Long story short, Genesis made a copy of herself as part of a plan to ask for help from the others, but before the copy could grow enough to be ready to receive her memories and abilities, the Lifeblood within Genesis deteriorated further. The plan has to be rushed and this ended up with Copy Genesis receiving a massive dose of divine energy upon receiving the original Genesis’ dress, which almost killed her. After this, the Lifeblood finally begins consuming everything, the only thing that manages to escape is the copy of Genesis thanks to a portal made by the original.
On Galbar, the copy (henceforth known as Genesis) pops out into the the Place Betwixt the Rivers in Dehrthaa, where she’s retrieved by a passing ascetic traveler called Birburelli and taken to a nearby human village to recover.
Genesis wakes up disoriented, gets some food and drink from the villagers and talks a little with a child and his mother. Some time later, Birburelli (the one who had saved her) appears again and they talk, with Genesis learning of the potential location of nearby Sylphi. After being given the choice of joining Birburelli on a journey to the Jungles of Muraymuna or settling in the village, Genesis decides to travel, stating she wants to experience as much of the world as she can, given the fact she had spent all of her life in a gray wasteland before arriving on Galbar.
Genesis MP5-DP5
Used 4MP and 2 DP to grant Genesis the following titles Ethereal Infusion I(1MP): Grants Genesis’ body the ability to phase into a state of intangibility for a few moments, about half as long as she can hold her breath underwater. My Mama Works at the Pantheon, I Swear! III(3MP): Grants Genesis’ body the ability to levitate and move at the same time at a jogging pace, as well as a natural immunity to all but the most insidious of diseases. She can still get sick, but all common diseases will pass without complications after a day or two. Also grants her the uncanny ability of learning any new language and writing system she comes across in its entirety with just a few conversations’ worth of exposure to the language. Green Thumb… Or Hand… Or Arm II(Free): Grants Genesis the ability to manipulate plants around her. This allows her to make seeds sprout and grow quickly provided they’re planted in a proper environment. Also allows some limited manipulation of already existing plants in the environment, though not as much as if she were to plant them. Bad Ends Galore! II(2DP): Grants the ability of Rebirth to Genesis. Should she die in any manner throughout her adventures as a lesser being, her soul will remain conscious and tethered to Galbar, allowing her to search for a suitable seed to possess and manipulate into growing a new body for her over the course of a few weeks.
Used 1MP to make a portal to Galbar. Used 3DP to make the Living Dress, Hydrangea, with the following Titles: Living Clothing I(1DP): This dress is a bunch of leaves, vines and flowers that have the ability to shapeshift as long as they are being worn by their chosen wearer. It can only shapeshift into plants, but grants an incredible amount of flexibility. Ranging from clothing for cold (not freezing) temperatures all the way to swimsuits, Hydrangea can do it all. Also, as a living dress it does have the ability to heal from damage over time. This coupled with Genesis' ability of plant manipulation ensures its survival from all kinds of wear and tear. Did My Dress Just Pull a Prank on me? II(2DP): this title grants Hydrangea a level of intelligence comparable to a lesser spirit. While not generally able to talk and lacking a face to show genuine emotions, communication with the dress is perfectly possible. It will respond to being talked to or insulted, and keeping a good relationship with it will make it want to do its job much better, usually resulting in better quality outfits whenever it shapeshifts. Warning: A dress with this high level of intelligence does run the risk of getting bored, and when it gets bored, it will seek ways to entertain itself by pulling pranks, both innocent and not so innocent on its wearer.
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