Exploration (Welcome to the Multiverse Book 10), page 18
“Jay,” Selena mumbled.
At Tad’s questioning look, I shook my head. “It would take too long to tell you all about Jay, and most of it would be wild speculation. Suffice it to say, he’s the most powerful being I’ve ever encountered. Even when a goddess tried to unmake me, I don’t believe she could have matched his power. I’m not even sure that any system could control him. More likely the other way around.
“But I’m getting lost in the weeds, as my grandmother used to say. You don’t need to know about Jay to know what I know about Psi. My source says that it’s exclusively meant for humans, but a few other races have learned to use it. Jay seemed to think that was his fault for some reason, but he didn’t explain much. He claims that humans are the only race who can master it.”
The table grew silent for a bit as we all seemed to consider the implications. Crynane, the dark elf, was the next to speak. “So you’re hypothesizing that this Psi energy somehow enabled the Lawgiver to break the limits of the Fey System and eventually become a god in his own right?”
I popped a bite of beef into my mouth, then nodded. “It fits. From what I know, Psi doesn’t belong to any system and isn’t created by any of them. Jay claimed to have originally come from a universe where there was no system.”
“But what is unique about humans that they can use Psi and other races can’t?” Fara asked. “And I thought that you said you had evolved to something beyond human.”
“Well, Jay had certainly evolved, too. But he started out as a human, and for that matter, I suppose the same is true about me. Trust me, I’ve asked myself the same questions about what makes humanity special. Generally speaking, we have less magical potential, are physically weaker, and areless intelligent than just about every other major race that I’ve met so far.
“The one thing that we have going for us is that we are highly adaptable. Maybe that’s what was essential for the relationship with Psi. But I’m only spitballing here.”
“Sometimes, I’ve heard humans compared to cosmic cockroaches,” Samvek said. “Some of the hybrid races have become jealous of the favoritism provided to those with the purest of bloodlines and have lashed out. Humans always survive.”
Selena sighed. “As fascinating as this is, the real question is, what does this mean? Does it change how we act in some way?”
Again, silence followed, and I wondered if Selena was bothered by the difference in our races. I certainly wasn’t. Finally, Tad spoke up. “Probably not, but I always like to know how something works, even if I have to take it apart. I feel a compulsion to understand the items I’m dealing with.”
“Great. Another one of you,” Selena said with a wink in my direction.
Tad and I smiled and shared a look. “I don’t think it changes anything,” I said. “We need to find a way home, or perhaps to the Divided Realms. But while we’re here, we want to help you as much as possible. May I touch the crystal? Actually, no, wait. I have something I’m supposed to tell you, but I keep forgetting.”
If the sudden change of subject caught Tad off-guard, he didn’t show it. “What is it?”
“Like I told you before, I have these visions when I become Unmoored in Time. Most of the time they are only related to my future, but once Jay stepped into one of them and we talked for a while. How that was possible, I don’t know. But it’s Jay we’re talking about, after all. Anyway, this most recent time, which happened while I was in your world, I had two visions regarding you. They felt like recordings, almost. Messages to pass on to you.”
He sat back in his chair like he was preparing for bad news.
“Uh, do you want me to tell you in front of everyone, or…”
“Maybe I should have this discussion in private, but I’d like my people to hear what you have to say from your own mouth, rather than through any filter I might put on it. I also wouldn’t ask you to keep secrets from your mentor or fiancée. I think we might become friends, although to be fair, I only really got my first friend within the last year. Maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about. But I guess the system is telling me I should trust you. I’m gonna go with that and my gut.”
I could respect that. Decision made, I told him of the two messages. At first, I considered giving the Winter Queen’s message first, followed by the more personal appeal from his mother, but ultimately, I didn’t know if there was a reason I was shown the visions in that particular order.
I did my best to describe the exact setting the first vision happened in. High Perception combined with a high Mind stat worked wonders for that, as I could still smell the scents, taste the tastes, and all of that. I shared the details as best I could, although I had to admit I quickly came to understand why some authors go for a less-is-more model when it comes to description.
Then I repeated the message word for word. “He’ll listen to you. Tell him to come home. A mother shouldn’t be robbed of her child. I see in you that you know what it is to lose family, but also that you have a deep love for your mother. Tell him. Tell Tad I love him.”
For a moment, Tad showed no reaction.
“For what it’s worth,” I said, “I am close to my mother, and that could bias me. That said, I believed her emotion was genuine. I’m a perceptive guy, you know.”
He nodded slowly. “Every glimpse I’ve caught of her in memories tells me the same thing. I still have all kinds of questions. How could she allow her child to vanish for over twenty years and not do anything about it? She’s supposed to be some super-powerful fey. Hopefully I’ll get to ask both of them someday...”
No issues there, I thought.
Tad quickly regained composure. “And the second message?”
When it came to that second message, as I went back over it, I realized that most of it had been directed to me, but I still felt like he needed to know she had a message for him.
“I’m not really here. I don’t even understand how it is that you exist like this, but within the infinite, there is room for everything. So it has been decreed. But the Ways have a special connection to time, and spoke to me of this possibility. I still have some sway, after all.”
“I don’t know if you’re trying to talk to this image, but know that I can’t hear anything you might be saying. Think of this as a recording. I was told you would understand. I am speaking to you as a representative of the Fey System. I am Freydis, the Winter Queen. I would offer you a treaty and a connection, System Mediator. But, first, I need a chance to deliver my proposal to the Twin Prince. Can you make that happen?”
“And what was the proposal?” Tad asked with an expression that spoke of extreme interest.
“That’s just it. The vision ended there, so I don’t know what she wanted me to convey to you. I get the feeling that simply knowing she wants to talk to you is important. You told us there were three fey Courts, but your connections are to Summer and Void, not to the Winter Court.”
“Geminus already warned me that the nature of my existence would make the Winter Court uneasy. The Courts have never worked together, but he seems to think that I could change that. Not that I particularly want to. I certainly don’t want to be involved in politics. I just want to craft magical items and run a shop.”
Samvek laughed. “We’ve only just met you, and we already know your destiny is greater than that. Don’t feel alone though. My father shoved me into more than I wanted. The same for Selena and her uncle. And Silas was practically chosen by the system itself. He always says he just wants to be an explorer or an adventurer. Instead, he’s now the ruler of three different worlds.”
I glanced at him. “Three?”
“Earth and your new dungeon moon. And who do you think is going to be tasked with putting Galen back together?”
Both he and Selena were taking entirely too much pleasure in the fact that I was going to be saddled with yet another world. That’s what I get for trying to do a good deed. Oh, well. All the more reason to enjoy this little sabbatical. Fighting a war against a bunch of awakened troops under the command of an overzealous, sanctimonious bureaucrat with a god complex sounded like a cakewalk compared to everything else I had been through.
“Those worlds can wait,” I said. “We’re here on Aerth, now, and we’re ready to help in any way we can.”
Tad seemed pleased with my statement, but it was Lexa who spoke next. “I mean no offense by not knowing the proper title to call you by, as apparently you rule multiple worlds, but I am curious. What did Freydis mean when she called you ‘System Mediator’?”
That led to a discussion about my interactions with other systems that had led to that title. “My relationship with the Heavens System is rather unique, but for the purposes of this discussion, that is what I was talking about when I said that the system uses me to interact with other systems. In this case, I get the feeling that it is trying to build some type of alliance with the Fey System. Normally it butts heads with any other system that comes within a universe of it.”
As I said that, I thought about it. The Heavens were clearly openly hostile with the Hell System, and there was unmistakable tension with the Divided Realms, but it hadn’t ever acted hostile toward the Dragon System. It made me wonder what I was missing.
“Thank you for delivering those messages,” Tad said. “As far as I’m concerned, crafting together is as good a way to build a relationship as any. By tomorrow morning, Mirren will have found us a place. In the meantime, I feel like I owe my people an attempt at figuring out how to awaken them.”
With that, there was a sort of quiet dismissal. Rather than make things awkward, Samvek, Selena, and I left the table. We’d already had our dinner, and I could think of the perfect dessert.
Before he went into his own room, Samvek locked eyes with me. “Promise me tomorrow we’ll do some training. I can feel a degree of sloppiness slipping into my technique with the advance to legendary. I’m sure the same is true for you.”
“Crafting probably won’t start until afternoon, so I’ll be all yours for a morning training session.”
Selena sashayed toward me in an exaggerated manner till she was practically hanging on my hip. “I actually pulled it off. My tutors would be so proud.” Then she locked eyes with Samvek. “You can have him in the morning. Tonight, he’s all mine.”
Samvek rolled his eyes, which was likely the reaction she was going for. As for me, enthusiasm was an aphrodisiac unlike any other. My head was spinning when she pulled me into the room. She pushed me backward until I was sitting on the bed, probably with a grin on my stupid face.
Then, as if a switch had flipped, her expression got serious and she took a step back. “I’ve been waiting for you to bring this up, but you haven’t. I know I don’t come across as the most emotional of women, but even I know that you should be feeling something about what happened.”
I was completely lost, feeling like whatever I said would come out garbled because of the foot in my mouth. “Uh…”
“You really don’t feel anything about it, do you? How is that possible? You were almost unmade by Gallarosa. To my senses, you were gone, but then suddenly you were back. Trauma like that can’t be buried. So why isn’t it bothering you? It nearly tore me apart to think that I’d be a widow before I was even a wife.”
Chapter Twenty-Two: In the Shadow of Eternity
Well, this wasn’t how I pictured dessert.
Not even close. So I did what I do best in times like these. I talked.
“I mean, I know that it happened. I know that Gallarosa was trying to unmake me, and I fought with everything I had. People say that a lot. On Earth, people used to say they gave 110%, which only went to demonstrate a basic misunderstanding of mathematics. For most people it’s about how hard they worked, or what they tried. Maybe that’s what it means for me, but Gallarosa was different.
“So far, I’ve gone up against monsters that were far beyond my level and ability, Forerunners who murdered their entire race, forces that tried to twist my mind, legendary threats, ascendant matriarchs, dragons, primordial forces, and hell-spawned insect queens. I’ve even fought against the system itself, bending it to my will when I needed to.
“Throughout all of that, no matter how impossible the odds, I made it work. My all was good enough, again and again. I was always enough. By luck, by the benefit of connections, by wit, or more often by grit, I have always managed to defeat or at least survive the challenges that should have been so far beyond me as to be laughable.
“We’ve talked about it before. I have classes from two different systems and a weird misshapen cultivator’s core, not to mention the spatial mana core and my idea about creating a temporal core. My potentiality is so high that not even Abel seems to know what to do with it, and through it all, fate itself has shifted to meet my needs.
“If my life were an anime, I’d call it plot armor, but in reality, my life would only make a good story for as long as I survived.
“Yet, against Gallarosa, this one time, nothing I did was enough. I tapped into everything I had at my disposal. Primordial, human, Architect—none of it was enough. I felt hollow. At least I think I did. I can only remember the confrontation as a concept now, not even really a full memory. More like a memory you have because people have told you about something that happened when you were young so many times that you feel like you can remember it.
“I should be incensed. I should be irate. Perhaps, I should be terrified. She was so strong, and I couldn’t stop her. Had she tried to kill you or Cece, or the entire Earth, there wouldn’t have been a single thing I could have done to prevent it. Recalling that level of helplessness should make me feel something.”
She grabbed both my hands and locked eyes with me. “I’m here. You can let it all out with me.”
Her tone and touch were more calming than I’d anticipated. But there was still a separation between what I thought I should be feeling and what I actually felt. I squeezed her hands back. “I probably set myself up for this because I stopped appreciating the advantages I had, the good fortune. I came to expect it. The only area where I didn’t feel like that was with the whole marriage proposal thing. I’ve never felt worthy of you, Lana, or even Asta.”
“That’s a different problem, and we will talk about it, but I’m not going to let you get distracted right now. I’ll only say that I understand. It’s like how I can’t shake a random thought I had that there was a survey happening somewhere out in the multiverse, and people were voting about who you should end up with.” She stood up and stared into the distance for a moment. “I bet Lana got the most votes.”
“Survey? What are you—”
“But none of that matters. I won the prize and I’m not letting go. For now, focus on what you were feeling. The fact that your emotions are cut off about this concerns me. Show me the notification you got at the time.”
I projected it for her. I couldn’t bring myself to read it.
You were temporarily severed from the system, but have been restored to full functionality. Analysis is incomplete, but initial investigation reveals that you have maintained full access to all abilities, spells, traits, titles, and your class core. Your occupation remains intact, and access has been increased in response to the actions of another Architect.
Strive to show yourself worthy of this investment.
As soon as I did, I got another notification, making me blink in surprise. There was no pressure behind it. Most of the time, notifications could be ignored, but there was always some pressure trying to grab my attention. This one felt different.
Selena must have noticed. “Did something happen?”
“Yes, I’ve got a new notification. Give me a second.”
Instead of a visual presentation or knowledge beingpumped directly into my brain, this felt like a whisper.
“Power is perfected in weakness. All of the trauma you experienced, both in body and mind, has been erased.
Too many of Eternity’s children are confused about their place in it. Don’t be too critical of the Heavens. They aren’t aware of this interaction, nor about the way you were altered to protect you from what happened.
What you do with this is up to you.”
As much as the words were a whisper, they carried more weight than any system message I’d ever experienced. Even stranger, there was no way for me to project the words to Selena. It wasn’t a notification in any of the traditional senses. This had truly felt like words whispered into my ear, although I was certain nobody else could hear it.
I repeated the message verbatim, and the moment I finished speaking, Selena warped reality around us in the strongest way I’d ever experienced. Time, space, light—all of it was cut off.
She gasped from the strain of whatever she’d just done, and her words came out like she’d just finished running a marathon. “This is the best I can do, but I don’t know if it will keep out… whatever it was. I can’t maintain this for long.”
It was my turn to put my hands on her arms and pull her close. Somehow, she settled into my lap, and it felt like the most perfect thing possible. “What’s got you so spooked?” I had my own thoughts, but wanted her insights first.
“You mean beyond the fact that something was able to completely undo your emotional and physical trauma so thoroughly that they don’t even register with you? Nor do you seem particularly concerned by the fact it was erased. On top of that, there’s my suspicion about who or what sent you this message.”
Realization dawned on me. “Oh, I get it. It makes sense, given what I have in storage here.” I tapped my finger against the collar around my neck.
“Right. If you were anyone else, I’d probably call you a liar. But you’re Silas. Like you said, your experience has been different from everyone else’s. We still need to talk about that, but for now, I think we should forget about that message you got. Maybe bring it up with Priest Bahran, but I’m not sure if even that is...”
Her words trailed off and her eyes got wider. Her heart was pounding, and she shivered as I held her tighter. There was only one way to describe what I was sensing from her.
