by Azalea Ellis
She lowered her gaze to me. "Confident, for such a puny little thing. All right. I have decided not to kill you. You have gained my interest. Who are you?"
"My name is Eve. Who are you?" I decided I didn’t need to remind her again that we’d just beaten her. I didn’t know that we could do it again, so I didn’t want to start a fight.
"I am the Goddess. The one that came before, and was formed."
"I don't understand. What does that mean?"
"I am the formless mass, the void," she tilted her head, as if I should get what she meant.
I shook my head. "Also, you're a volcano." Time for another line of questioning.
She boomed again. "I have taken many forms, and I carry many now. This form is one of my branches, constrained to physical form. It pleases me, for now, though the order of it changes my power as it must channel through those constraints. But it allows me to easily cleanse some of the land."
"Cleanse it from what?"
"The sickness that is not my child. The abhorrent."
Yeah. Still not understanding. "What is this place?" I gestured around me. "I mean, obviously this is a mountain. But the whole thing? What is this planet?"
"The small ones call it Estreyer. Or they did, the last time I was among them."
"So it's not Earth, then." I'd suspected. I mean, two moons in the sky was kind of a dead giveaway.
"There is earth." She nodded. "Also sky and water and wood and much else."
"Right…" Was this the language barrier? I thought I could understand her words, the way you know what someone's saying in a dream by instinct even when they're making an unintelligible jumble of it, but something seemed to be getting lost in translation. "Okay, then. Are there other living beings, ones like me?"
"Yes, though they disappear along with the rest."
Perhaps she meant they disappeared when they teleported back to the real world. "Have you heard of NIX?"
"The night was born of me." She made a fist at my confused look. "You do not understand, even though you are the one asking me. And your deficient communication method confuses me, as well. What use have I for speech? Be done with your questions, tiny one, for I grow impatient with this."
"Do you know that the Trials are?" I tried.
"Your kind supplicates before us in hopes of gaining power. Most fail. Many die. You are the first to gain my interest in a long time. To come after me when I am weakened, you are bold."
"This power you speak of, it's the Seeds, right? I've never seen this black type before, but I've got something similar." I pulled out a Seed I'd reserved for an emergency and showed her.
She drew backward and sniffed in pointed offense, hard enough to make my hair flutter around my face. "My power is nothing like that flesh-power. Do you know nothing? Why is one so ignorant even here!" Heat started to radiate from her, and the water swirled faster along her body.
"I meant no offense. I just don't understand the ways of this world, or what's happening to me."
She settled as fast as she'd grown angry, giving me a wry smile. "Well, I cannot expect a head as small as yours to understand all that I do. The thing you hold, it is from a mixture of lower powers, focused on the physical. It is not a higher power, like me."
"Like this?" I held up my hand, where the dark substance swirled excitedly.
"You hold a part of my strength, condensed. Holding it here within me,” she pointed to her chest, “is what allows me to hold the physical form you see before you. It is not a power of the flesh."
"So what would happen if I…consumed it?"
"You seek to gain my patronage and ascend?"
"I don't know what that means. There are some people I need to fight back against, and I have to be strong. I don't know if you know who the Oracle is, but she gave me a gift, and the gift gave me a vision of this place. I think it might have been leading me to you."
"The Oracle? Hmm…perhaps…" she trailed off. "If you take that, it will likely kill you. At best it will change you. You have given power to your body. My power will do that, too, but it will also change the void of you, your center…ah, I have not the words for it. But you will probably die instead."
"And if I don't die?" I stared at the huge Seed, something in my abdomen tightening up.
"You will surely die. My heart is too much for a puny bug like you, amusing though you may be."
"What if I only took a little?"
She laughed again. "So greedy! I like it. Perhaps your body could contain a small amount. But as with all power, it likes to grow, and mine especially. Perhaps someday it would rip you apart."
I continued to stare at its shimmering blackness, reflecting the yellowing light of the setting sun. "How soon would it be?"
"Eventually,” she answered unhelpfully. “You would trade time for power?"
"Without power, I have no time, and neither do those who I care for. How much Seed can I take?"
"Not much. You are small."
I nodded, and sent a Window to the others. "I'm going to take a bit of a risk, now. If I die, please head back on your own. If you ask her nicely, the mountain might be willing to give you a hand getting out of here."
I ignored the Windows and shouts that came back at me. A couple motions and the thought of what I wanted made the black goop form a normal Seed-sized ball, which I popped off. I held it in my hand as it flattened itself to me and started swirling in little tendrils between my fingers.
Then I opened my mouth and let it run inside and down my throat. It tasted like…the taste of something beyond the sensory range of my tongue.
It hit my stomach, and started to spread outward from that pit inside me.
There was pain, and more pain, and then the expanse.
* * *
I knew formlessness and change, as the shore knows the endless ocean. I slipped in and out of fevered dreams my brain couldn't comprehend when it knew what I was, but fell into wholeheartedly when the burning chaos gained the upper hand. My body's fight was an ebb and flow of power as it struggled to maintain itself against the Seed, which tried to make me one with the sea.
I was not myself for a while, and then I started to draw back, folding and squishing in on my body in an agony of pain. The endless ocean that I'd been part of slipped away from me, but I was left with a portion of it folded in the back of my mind.
When I woke, it was full night, and I did not know where I was, or who I was. This did not bother me until my mind started to gather together, and I realized that it should. Then I was frightened, and scrambled to regain my memories and control of my body.
Then I saw the stars shining bright and as thick as if a child had dumped out a bucket of glitter on the canvas of the sky, and it snapped together.
"So you are awake."
The sound blew through me, shaking me even from the inside. It hurt, as if I was one big bruise.
"Yes." My voice felt strange, but I couldn't remember why.
"I am glad. Though it is curious that I should be worried for one so small and fleeting."
The rest of the black Seed was gone from my right hand, once again floating within her chest. I probably should have been at least slightly worried by that, but the notion never crossed my mind. "I feel strange."
"Of course. You are different than you were before."
That made perfect sense to me, vague as it was. "I lived. Am I powerful now?"
"What is your name?"
"Eve. Eve Redding. Don't tell me you forgot so easily."
She leaned forward and touched my chest with the tip of her huge stone finger. "You are my progeny. I welcome you to the existence of power, child god Eve-Redding. May you go without chief or ruler, free and wild."
I could hear in the way she said it that she'd missed the concept of a first and last name, but that was fine. "May the waters without light flow unfettered," I replied, the words coming unbidden from that space in the back of my mind. It seemed like a good idea to respond in turn to her
formal blessing.
She smiled and let out a deep humming sound, which was slightly more pleasant and easy on the ears than her usual repertoire of avalanches, exploding bombs, and earthquakes. "I go by many names, and my real name cannot be spoken with a tongue, or heard with ears. But in this form, you may call me Behelaino. Now go to your subjects. They have been mewling for you, and step on my patience. In the morning, you will begin your training."
"Training?" My ears perked up.
"Yes. You must train your puny body to contain and channel the drop of Khaos, if you are to live. Now, go." She pronounced the “K” and “H” separately, but I was pretty sure I understood what she meant.
Chaos? Is that what I’d swallowed? When she put it like that, it didn’t sound so good. Right dangerous, in fact.
* * *
I turned away from Behelaino to go check on the others, and was surprised by a Window popping up. Blaine and Adam had done some complicated things with “double encryption and spiked firewalls” that I didn’t understand, but which allowed the VR chips to work, and the team to use them amongst each other, but blocked NIX from any access. Not that they would have been able to reach us here, in the Trial world. Estreyer, I reminded myself.
YOU HAVE GAINED THE SKILL “—NAME UNKNOWN—”
WOULD YOU LIKE TO NAME THIS SKILL?
YESNO
I chose “Yes,” and named the Skill “Chaos.”
SKILL “CHAOS” HAS UNKNOWN CLASS.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO ASSIGN A CLASS?
On a whim, I dubbed it “Godling” Class. Then I pulled up my Attribute Window, out of curiosity. I knew I’d been getting a lot of spontaneous level ups lately, but I hadn’t checked my stats.
PLAYER NAME: EVE REDDING
TITLE: TEAM LEADER(3)CHARACTERISTIC SKILL: SPIRIT OF THE HUNTRESS, TUMBLING FEATHER
LEVEL: 38UNPLANTED SEEDS: 2
SKILLS: COMMAND, CHAOS
STRENGTH: 13
LIFE: 20
AGILITY: 19
GRACE: 17
INTELLIGENCE: 16
FOCUS: 15
BEAUTY: 10
PHYSIQUE: 11
MANUAL DEXTERITY: 9
MENTAL ACUITY: 18
RESILIENCE: 12
STAMINA: 18
PERCEPTION: 17
My Attribute levels were much higher than the level I held might suggest, due to all the hard work my team and I had been putting in. But it still wasn’t enough. Hopefully the new Skill would be helpful. “Display Skill Window,” I murmured.
Characteristic Skills
Tumbled Feather:
Kinetic Class
Increases Grace and Agility. Improved sense of balance and motion. Skill effects will expand and strengthen with Player improvement.
Spirit of the Huntress:
Spirit Class
Increased Grace, Agility, Perception, Focus, Physique, and Stamina. Nails extend and sharpen on command. Greater chance to land on feet after a fall. Aggressive tendencies increase. Skill effects will expand and strengthen with Player improvement.
Skills
Command:
Mundane Class
Allows leader access to the Team Management Window. Leader can communicate with team members through Game Windows, see location of team members on team management map, and is able to access basic Game Information of team members. May add additional team members at higher levels of command.
Chaos:
Godling Class
Unknown—Player use data will be gathered to supplement lack of information.
“Oh, that’s useful.” I shook my head and continued on, slowly. My team was already out and waiting beside the small niche where I’d left them. There'd be no sleeping with Behelaino's voice assaulting their eardrums.
Sam stood on his own two feet, though a bit the worse for wear.
Adam was the first to hug me, wrapping his arms so tightly I literally felt my painful ribs creak, despite my body's Seed-enhanced fortitude. He smelled like sweat. Hell, we all probably did at this point. "I'm really glad you're okay." But his relief quickly turned to outrage. "How could you do something so stupid!"
I drew back. "It wasn't stupid. It worked. Which means it was genius! I took a new type of Seed from her, the thing that was powering her physical body. I'm probably going to be strong enough now to take on NIX. We got what we came here for, essentially." I turned to the others. "It worked."
"Probably? Is that worth endangering your life, and ours too, for that matter? What if it hadn't worked?"
"It did work. And yes, it is worth it. We don't have a lot of options, Adam." I forced my surprisingly instantaneous anger back. "That's why we're here in the first place. We grow strong, or we die. When you think about it like that, I made a pretty simple decision."
He took a deep breath and let it out again. "You're right. I was just…tense." He stepped back and moved to the little niche in the rock wall, setting out food.
Jacky grinned hugely and moved to hug me next.
I held up a hand. "Don't crush me, okay? I'm feeling a little tender."
She laughed and crushed me anyway. "You’re awake. I didn’t know when you’d get up, and that crazy creature wouldn’t let us go to you! I was getting ready to go over there and kick its ass again. But now you’re here, so you spared me the trouble." Despite her bravado, the slight tremble in her voice let me know how worried she'd been.
I refused to feel bad, though. I'd done what needed to be done, and if feelings would be the sacrifice for power, so be it.
Sam threw his arm around me, and walked with me toward the small camp area. "They told me what happened when I woke up. I couldn't believe you'd done something so crazy. Eve…" he murmured, "you can't go dying on us. We need you. The last three days, it hasn't been fun."
"Three days?" I gasped. "Wow. No wonder you guys were so worried. But I was just sleeping it off. I'm fine, and believe me, I'm not going to give up my hold on life voluntarily."
Only when we sat down to eat from a smorgasbord of strange foods, which apparently Behelaino had supplied them with while they waited, did I realize how absolutely starving I was.
I gorged myself until my stomach was literally distended, and then had just a little bit more.
Adam brought out the tailos egg. "Figured you might want to see to this thing." He placed it tenderly in my lap. "It's been making sounds for the last couple days. I think it might be close to hatching."
I laid my ear on the dark, pocked surface. "Or maybe it’s just hungry. Unless one of you fed it, it hasn't eaten in a couple days." I fumbled in my pack for one of the syringes Blaine had given me, and quickly drew some blood from my arm.
The egg sucked up the blood as I gave squirts into a few of the pockmarks. But then it started squeaking even louder, and after a few minutes, the baby tailos moved inside its egg with enough force to rock back and forth in my lap.
The other three gathered around, watching with avid curiosity.
When the first crack appeared in the surface, Adam gave a hiss and bit down on a knuckle, maybe the most excited I'd ever seen him. "It's hatching. I told you, it's hatching!" He nudged Sam and Jacky, as if to make sure they knew, even though they were watching just as wide-eyed as him.
The first piece of shell broke off, clattering to the ground. After that, the rest was short work.
A creature small enough to be cradled in two of my hands struggled out into my lap, pieces of shell sticking to its back. It let out a croak, coughed, and then let out louder, scratchy mewl.
"A baby tailos," I whispered in awe.
It had the body of a baby wildcat, except for the fragile little wings covered in matted fuzz attached to its back.
It mewled again, and Adam reached out to clean the pieces of shell off its sticky body.
It snapped at his fingers with sharp teeth, and gave a hilariously pitiful attempt at a growl.
Adam gripped his bleeding finger, which Sam reached over to heal without c
onscious thought. "Wow. Vicious little creature." Adam scowled at it, and licked the blood off his already healed digit.
Jacky laughed delightedly and clapped her hands.
The tailos cub looked up and met my gaze. Its eyes still had the blue sheen of a baby, but I thought they might be green when it grew up. It licked its chops and mewled at me, louder.
"Aww, he's just hungry," I said. "Do we have anything tender for him to eat?"
While Sam moved to get food, Adam raised an eyebrow. "That thing doesn't need something tender. Have you seen its teeth? I thought babies weren't supposed to have teeth right away. And how do you know it’s a boy?"
"He's a warrior cub. Of course he'd have teeth," I said approvingly, scratching at the cub's head. "And he just kinda seems like a boy. That's the impression I got from his mother when she gave him to me."
Sam handed me some chunks of meat, careful to keep his finger out of reach of the tailos cub, which sniffed pointedly at his food-filled hands.
I took it, and fed the cub bite after bite, which it didn't bother to chew at all.
A glimpse of its mouth showed primarily canines, so that made sense.
When it had finished one handful, it licked at my empty hand with a rough tongue and mewled at me pointedly.
“Hungry. That’s good, means he’s strong,” Jacky nodded approval.
“What should I call you?” I said to the creature. “Hmm? Do you have a name? Can you do that telepathic thing like your mother?” I touched a finger to the tip of its nose, and it jerked back in surprise, and then let out a large burp, which seemed to surprise it even more.
We all laughed at its comically wide-eyed, slightly alarmed expression.
The cub looked around at us for a moment, and then mewled in affront.
