Chapter 73 – Goddess

The first place I check for Elisora is the temporary office I have visited not long ago. It's rather reasonably my best bet for finding her, and I'm not let down when I scan the whole building, including its lower level where I casually bypass a lot of wards, and see the girl sitting in front of some desk and at first glance scribbling something.

After increasing the clarity I see the papers on her desk, but I don't pay attention to them as I notice the tension and anxiousness in her whole body. It's not exactly one feeling I can place, but everything from the slightly erratic way her mana moves to the twitches of her muscles tells me she is by no means relaxed.

...And I think I know at least a part of why, especially judging by the fact that the little communicator Letty gave her is nowhere in sight. I specifically search the whole building just in case I missed something, finding a lot of potential blackmail material on the way, but I don't see the thing anywhere.

Well, that's... not exactly concerning, because I don't think the Church has a way even to analyze the communicator properly, not to mention learn from it, but it's certainly nothing good.

So I teleport into the room Elisora is sitting in, casually leaning on the wall and muting all the sounds I make till I greet the girl.

"Hello, Elisora." I say with a mischievous smile and she jumps up from her seat with a quickly suppressed shriek, rotating the mana in her body and starting to prepare a spell before her eyes land on me and she freezes.

Her mouth moves up and down a couple of times in wordless shock before she finally relaxes just a bit and drops the spell. "Ah... h-hello." She says hesitantly with a small stutter, and I can't help but notice the dark bags under her eyes.

"Looks like you went through a couple unpleasant things." I tell her with a small smile as I push myself away from the wall. "I assume the Inquisition took the communicator with them?" Is she worried I'd hold it against her or something?

"Ah." Elisora lets out, her face visibly paling. "Y-yes."

"Don't worry, I've nothing against you. Just making sure." I make myself a seat out of harmless flames and sit down in front of her desk. "Xavier sure is stuck-up, isn't he?"

I watch with mild amusement, but also slowly bubbling anger at Xavier who at least indirectly put her through all that stress, as a multitude of various emotions rolls over Elisora's face in short time before she sighs deeply and slumps in her chair.

"I, uh. I want to make sure, am I clear... like, with you? With the communicator and... everything?" She asks carefully as she looks up at me and heaves another relieved sigh when I nod my head with a smile.

She stays like that for a few seconds, but collects herself quickly and starts speaking.

"I was pulled away form field work and locked here, all for, quote, harboring and refusing to turn in items and information endangering the country. Despite the fact I only told them the truth I judged I could share without endangering you two in any way. So mostly general info." She says initially in flat tone, but with more and more anger and even disgust spilling out as she continues. "So yes, forgive me for saying that I'd be very happy if the fucker went and died and I got some better supervisor that actually listens to what people are saying before assuming they are the worst traitorous scum he's had in his division." She lowers her voice slightly bt the end and looks at me tiredly, not even caring that her scant metal armor is digging into her skin.

Honestly, she paints an interesting image. A small, young girl cursing angrily while slumped in her chair. Kinda cute in a certain way.

"I'm not saying it's your fault, because it's not." She continues after a moment to cool down. "I've had my reservations about him, but after what happened I suspect he's even worse than I initially assumed. I didn't even get a chance to explain what the communicator was doing in my office before he used his fucking soul magic to make me go down here and lock me."

"He didn't get any information out of you?" I ask and she snorts derisively.

"I'm too strong for the fucker. But he tried," She spits out. "And if I wasn't thinking to kill him before, then I sure am now. Do you know how soul magic works?"

"Nope." I shake my head. "Had a little first-hand experience, but I'm almost immune to it as far as I know and I don't know any theory past what I can guess." I'm pretty sure that any soul magic that got past my already ridiculous resistance would be quickly neutralized by my Primordial Flame returning my soul to its proper state.

"Immune, huh?" Elisora chuckles, but in no way happily. More like resigned. "The simplest application of soul magic is reading souls. Emotions, at high level thoughts. Though it's only superficial things unless we go to invasive soul magic, which is something... I'm pretty sure all High Inquisitors know. What he was attempting to do was to twist a part of me that didn't want to share some information into something that would be happy sharing it, which is about as pleasant as it sounds." She grimaces in disgust and anger. "Fortunately I have strong soul and he isn't very good with soul magic, so he only managed to put me through five fucking hours of torture before he gave up."

"...Well." I mutter with a grimace. I found I'm repulsed and disgusted by various things much less frequently since all of VOW happened, but still... "That sure is fucked up. I'm not gonna comfort you because I don't even know where to start, but I can at least offer getting you out of here."

Elisora instantly brightens up at that, looking at me with hope. "Really? What's the price?"

I blink in surprise. Like, hello? "There isn't?" I half say and half ask in confusion. "Unless you want to pay me back, then I could use your help. But it was me and Letty who got you into this mess in the first place, even if indirectly, so I certainly won't be demanding any payment for getting you out of it."

The girl stays silent for a long while, but nods slowly soon enough.

"What do you want to do after getting outta here?" I tilt my head as I look at her conflicted face.

"I'm... not sure." She says quietly. "I was considering the offer Ave'A made, like I told you before? But I don't really want to do that. Becoming a hunter is... I don't know. Technically it's possible, but Hunter's Guild is supervised by the Inquisition, and I'm not sure if I want that."

"Say, why did you join the Inquisition in the first place?" I ask curiously. "You don't strike me as a person who would be stuck in a place like that."

Elisora drums her fingers on the table for a while, but then sighs and starts speaking with a resigned smile. "Long story short, I grew up in the Church, and because of my natural talent with magic I was invited to join the Inquisition. I didn't really want to do it at first, but everyone kept saying how good it is to be an Inquisitor and that I shouldn't waste the chance I got, so I eventually relented. It was two years ago."

"You were pretty young then, right?" Large part of it must have been the beliefs that were ingrained in her since she was very young, but it seems she got skeptical of them very quickly.

"Mmm, fourteen back then. I'm sixteen now. Everyone says I'm way too mature for my age..." She nods her head absently, but shakes her head after a moment and focuses on the story again. "Anyway, I got in and gave my all in training and field missions, because I thought I was working for the people." She pulls her lips into a thin line. "Then I watched Xavier break a person because he suspected he was a spy, and just casually put him back together and throw him out into the streets without checking if he's alright. When I asked why he did what he did, he said it was necessary for the safety of the country." She grimaces. "The question if the guy was alright, he turned out to be a normal civilian by the way, didn't even register properly. He said that we shouldn't worry about trivial things."

I look to the side and put a finger to my lips. "I can't tell you if you're right or wrong, but I've been through something similar once. Make sure... where the problem lies. In the idea, in the people, in the society, in the world, in you. Make sure not to arrive at the correct conclusion for wrong reasons."

"Huh? Alright..." Elisora nods her slowly, surprised a little by my words, and it's at this moment that the door opens abruptly, revealing a young man in white armor. Broad shoulders, handsome face disturbed by a dark frown, black hair trimmed short. And a massive soul on par with Demon Hunter, with a dark and yet strangely glowing, blinding feeling to it, like a lightbulb you're staring straight at.

"Who...?" The girl turns to the door in surprise and distinctly pales. "High Inquisitor... Mornn."

"Hey, boy." I turn to him with a smile. "What's up? Need something from me?"

I don't manage to say anything else before the man raises his hand and what looks like a dense dark laser cleaves my body in two from my right shoulder all the way to left hip and my legs I have raised since I'm sitting, making Elisora raise her legs in panic, apparently aware of the destructive power of the attack. Seen distinctly in the fact that the wall made out of reinforced and mana-infused stone starts to bubble where the spell hits.

I smile lightly and force my body to stay in place as I casually reconnect all its parts and stand up with a smile.

"I see." He says in low, collected voice. "You are indeed a Primordial. It seems I'll need to use my all."

Oh! That's interesting. "You've seen a Primordial other than me?" I ask curiously as he starts rotating all the mana in his body and preparing something massive, at the same time as I notice a multitude of barriers and constraints flashing to life all around me. "Ah, shucks. Well, I'll ask when you're less combative." I teleport me and Elisora to a random empty area in the forest, somewhere near Riverside, and conceal our presence.

I giggle when the girl stumbles and looks around in confusion before her eyes settle on me and she presses her hand to her forehead, staying like that with blank face for a while.

"Let's finish our talk, shall we?" I ask, jumping to a small stone and sitting on it, followed closely by Elisora, who chooses another more or less across me.

"Ah... Okay, yeah, let's do that." She nods a little absently.

"Mmm, before we get to that properly, could you just tell me who the guy was?" I ask, thinking back to the man and his very peculiar affinity. If had to describe it simply, I'd say it's dark light, but this doesn't exactly say anything about what it does.

"Um, High Inquisitor Mornn. One of the most powerful inquisitors, he would be one of two in high white rank. He has a seat in the Council, and he's the leader of Light Faction, which is... a little too zealous, is putting it lightly. If I had to guess, Xavier called him to extract information from me." Elisora outlines quickly and I nod my head. A bigshot then, though that much was pretty obvious. Also puts Lucief's strength into perspective.

"Alright." I pause for a moment, looking at her and biting my lip lightly. "Say, what would you have done if we two hadn't butted into your life?" I ask cautiously, since I want to make an offer and I'd rather make sure she isn't resentful, or anything close to that.

"...No idea." She shakes her head with a sigh. "I was... considering getting out of the place sooner or later, since I was constrained there. And it completely conflicts with my ideals. Now I guess I can't go back even if I wanted." She chuckles.

"How do you feel about it?" I ask with a smirk, wanting to nudge her in the right direction, and she hesitates.

"I'm... thankful." She finally says in quiet voice. "It was very abrupt and I was completely unprepared, but I realize I've been just postponing my decision. If not for you, I might have never got the courage to leave." She smiles lightly as she looks up at me for the first time in good five minutes.

Honestly... right, she's way too mature for her age. I wouldn't expect this level of self-reflection from most proper adults, and she's barely sixteen.

"Mmm, I'm glad to hear that." I grin. "I've two things to tell you then."

"Yes?" She looks at me with interest.

"First of all, there's a massive horde of monsters in the forest near Aver's Crossing. I don't know who is controlling them, but they are affected by pheromones, so I doubt it's the person you told us to find." I say and watch as Elisora's eyes get progressively bigger with each new piece of information till she raises her hand to her forehead in worry.

"Do you know how large the horde is?" She asks quickly, her priorities instantly set straight.

"Not sure, but well over a thousand. I wouldn't be surprised if it was more than five." I explain.

"They will starve if they stay in one place for long. They will be attacking soon." Elisora says to herself. "If it's near Aver's Crossing, it should be at the villages between it and Riverside... Or on the other side of the chasm. They need to be warned." She looks up at me and frowns. "Could you do that?"

I shrug in response. "I could, but I don't think it would change anything. It would be a stampede strong enough to wipe out a town, so even a warning wouldn't save some small villages."

"...Right." She concedes, looking down in somber mood.

"Say, that assassin that attacked me? You know anything about him?" I ask curiously, partly to change the topic and partly because of my interest.

"Oh! Yeah, I do!" Elisora's face lights up immediately. "I didn't get to interrogate him or anything, but I saw the report from Hunter's Guild. He was apparently an individual assassin, commissioned by a man whose identity he didn't know. We didn't learn much, but one thing that's for sure is that it's very unlikely that anyone important is targeting you with the intention of killing."

"Yeah, right." I nod with a smile. "It was more of a warning, I guess? That assassin would have trouble killing an ordinary gold hunter." Not to mention that he was stupid, but let's leave that aside.

"Yes, I believe so." The... former Inquisitor Captain nods her head. "Though the problem is that we don't know anything apart from that. Apparently the guy killed himself before they considered to request an inquisitor, which is arguably really stupid coming from Hunter's Guild, but it's not like we can do anything about it."

...Unless it was the Guild's job. Which... actually sounds much more likely now that I think about it. Even ignoring the very basic mistake of letting the prisoner kill himself - which for all I know might not have happened at all - fact is that the assassin knew where we would be. And I very much doubt he followed us all the way from Black Harbor.

Though it's also possible it was some random personal vendetta and that there was no organization involved, so let's not get ahead of ourselves. I'll keep an eye out for any suspicious things from the Guild, but I don't intend to act first with what vague leads I have.

"Um, Helia?" Elisora asks and I focus back on her. "I believe you said you have to things to tell me?"

"Mmm, yeah." I nod my head and look at her seriously. "To put it simply, I want you to... work for me, I guess."

"You guess?" The girl asks with a twitching smile.

"I guess." I nod my head. "That's the best word I can come up with... but it might invite misconceptions so forget about it for now. I'll give you a little of context in a moment, but I won't be explaining everything for now. Instead I wanna make you an offer."

I take a breath to collect my thoughts and start explaining the idea I have vaguely developed in last couple of hours. "You have probably heard that Wayfarers come to this world to train, right?" She nods. "That's true, but there's much more to that. Right now they see this world as a... game, sort of. For them, this world is not real in a way it is for you and every other local."

"How is that supposed to work?" Elisora skeptically quirks an eyebrow at me.

"It's... hard to explain." I mutter. "Imagine you're sitting in your home somewhere, and you're controlling an illusion of a person somewhere far away? That's about the closest analogy I can make, though it works completely differently. The Wayfareres essentially don't see this world as real, but more like one massive illusion, where each person is controlled from a safe place." I see the girl sitting with a heavy frown and I shake my head lightly. "Don't think too hard on it. It's an analogy I use to make it understandable, because you don't have the knowledge to understand it without explaining a hundred other small things."

Damn, it's only after I started explaining that I properly realized how different the two worlds are. Elisora wouldn't even understand even the simpler technology from ancient Earth, much less all the advancements made after the Mechanical War.

"...Alright." She nods slowly. "But you said that's how they see it? So it's differnt in reality?"

"Yep, exactly. In reality one Wayfarer has two bodies, one natural and one given by... a goddess, let's say for simplicity, and they can switch between the two. The difference is that this body here is compressed into a Spirit Mark once they leave it, while their... real body, though that's not a good word, works normally."

"Um, sorry to interrupt, but what does that have to do with having me work for you?" Elisora asks a little impatiently.

"I'm getting to it. There's a lot I've to explain before that though, so please be patient." I smile lightly. It's funnily similar to my talk with Shiva. "What I just said will hold true for some time, but it will change. Wayfarers' bodies will be changed according to the bodies they have here, and they will probably realize that this world is just as real as their own."

"Wait. Wait, wait." She interrupts me in the small pause I make, confusion more than distinct on her face. "You're saying their bodies here and in their world are different?"

"Yep, they are all humans. Although it might be good to differentiate the human here and the human there, if only because in their world there is no magic. It will only be introduced." I grin at her dumbfounded expression.

"...But... why?" She finally asks quietly, visibly disturbed and hiding a bit of anger. "I mean... it's the work of a goddess, you said? Why is she doing all that?"

I shake my head. "My guess is as good as yours. I might be a Primordial, but there are things I don't understand..." I trail off and giggle. "Even if they are my mom."

"What!?" Elisora yelps. "Your... what?"

"Yeah. She's my mom, though not exactly in the way that... humans have mothers." I smile lightly. "But the point is, I completely don't understand some of her actions, and I can't even give you a good guess." I look at her slightly pale face as she rubs her forehead absently. "Oh, but I guess I should say one thing. A goddess can mean a lot of things. The definition of goddess you use for Handrangea and the definition of goddess I use for my mom are completely different."

"How?" Elisora asks with a frown. "And how do you know that, if we're on that?"

"My mom essentially created this world. Long, long ago. Handrangea... she's vastly more powerful than any human I've seen, but I doubt she has the power to create a single island, at least in a reasonable amount of time. That's the kind of difference I'm talking about." I say and Elisora flops onto her back.

"You're shitting me."

"I assure you I'm not." I reply with a grin.

"...Are you aware that what you just said would completely invalidate around three quarters of the Scripture?"

"Now I am." I shrug as Elisora looks up at me briefly and lays back down with a sigh. I guess the Scripture is an equivalent of the Bible for them? "Mind you, I don't want to belittle Handrangea or anything. What I'm saying is that the Church tends to colorize things to look better, but the goddess they worship is the same as the one people worship. She is still the same goddess of fertility and prosperity, and you can believe in her all the same, just that from wider perspective she's not as great as small people tend to believe. She's a goddess is all. One of many."

"...You know it's impossible to believe in her in the same way if what you say is true." Elisora grumbles unhappily.

"My point stands." I reply with a grin. "And that's most of what I wanted to tell you, now for my offer. I want you to work for me after the Wayfarers get their bodies changed, and in exchange I'll get you all the help you need to survive without problems till then and all reasonable help after that."

"But... I don't think I can help you much with my current strength." Elisora asks with a frown.

"I can change that." I look at her with narrowed eyes. "Do you want power? Because if you do, I can give it to you."

Elisora more or less loses her voice at that, opening her mouth a couple times and closing it soon after without saying anything, before finally hiding her face in her hands and rubbing her eyes like one would after too long of staring at something.

"You... What kind of power are we talking about?" She finally asks quietly and I shrug.

"I would speed up the natural deveopment of your soul. So technically it would all be your own power. If it works as I intend, because I haven't tested it extensively, you would eventually get at least as much raw power as Handrangea." I giggle when she sucks in a deep breath.

"You're shitting me." She says blankly. "Wait, I already told you that. How the fuck...?"

"I'm a Primordial. And I'm apparently pretty special among them." I giggle again when Elisora gives me a flat stare. "My power is similar to my mom's, just that I'm much, much younger." Arguably not even a month old, which says a lot, but she doesn't need to know that much.

"...Yeah, let's say that makes sense." The girl concedes. "And what kind of work would I be doing?"

"I don't know yet." I tell her, making her eyebrows float up, figuratively, to her hairline. "But I assure you it would be nothing that would go against your principles. I don't want to force you to work, but simply do things for me that I don't have either time or desire to do. With the final say on your side."

Elisora leans back on the stone she's sitting on and stays silent for a while. "...Fuck it, I'm doing it." She finally blurts out and loks at me with a grin and a twinkle in her eyes. "I've been putting things off long enough, so I might as well take the opportunity. I'll regret it sooner or later, but I'm doing it. And I want power."

"Sure." I smile lightly. "Any preferences?"

"No." She shakes her head. "Gimme whatever you got for me."

"Sure." I stand up with a grin.

Now let's test if I'm right about my power. During the recent visit on Tau Ceti f I had a little of a light bulb moment and realized something I should have known much earlier. My transformation is something entirely conceptual - it's not like I'm transforming my body in real time, and it's not even like creating a preset, but more like saving a concept of a transormation in general, not of my body.

And if that's a concept, then I don't see a reason why other parts of my power wouldn't work conceptually and intuitively instead of being a hard system like magic spells used by Daria are. And they do work this way, just that I didn't realize it properly before, for instance when I was sharpening my hearing or eyesight - it's not like I know how I made then more sensitive.

And the point of all this talk is that when I think about what Shiva said about my power, it suddenly makes sense why I didn't find any proper limits. And it makes me realize I've been going in a roundabout way with just about everything.

I've read a fair number of books in my life and bulk of them belonged to fantasy genre, with magic and all. Magic - across novels it was generally divided into hard magic systems and soft magic systems, with the difference between them analogous to the difference between law and social norms. One is strict and works on absolute rules, the other is loose and can often be slightly bent because the rules are not set in stone.

What about my magic then?

Reality manipulation.

If I want to see Elisora's soul, who is to say my perception field doesn't see it?

If I want to alter her soul, who is to say I can't?

If I manipulate reality into one where I can, then I can. As far as I understand, it is that simple. There is no system, there is no law, no rules, nothing that would set a limit on my power... apart from my mind and presence, as Shiva described them. Because, well, I can't do what my mind and my existence itself can't understand and can't handle.

I wonder why it took me so long to realize it.

An ethereal giggle slams into my mind, amusement, pride, acknowledgement, approval somehow clear within Shiva's voice, within my mom's voice despite the fact that all I hear - if I can even use that word - is a happy laugh.

One of the higher Rings, if I had to guess.

I smile lightly as I think of her, but focus on what I've got to do now.

I guide Primordial Energy to my horns, with the intent to know, to understand, and focus it on Elisora's soul, and I see it, I understand it.

I see each tiny part of it, the little details in the lattice of each of the uncountable layers bent and shaped into a segmented orb. There is a part housing her mind, there is her lava manipulation splayed on her soul, encompassing it in a beautiful, and yet so... imperfect mosaic. There is a little seed of another ability she could have, there are the circuits weaved through her soul carrying mana though them, supplying and sustaining it, connected to the Mana Core housing a little more than fifty two units of mana and tethered to her body and rest of her soul like a chained prisoner hanging in vast void.

I understand it. I understand how it works, why it works, how it grows, how it develops, that it's not natural, and that it's not how normal human souls are in an indescripable rush of simple... being. It's not understanding like I would understand how its shape looks or how the mana flows through it, it's not knowledge that suddenly appears in my mind. It just... is. How beautiful it is... how much of a waste it would be to just make it grow, would it not?

So I wish it... to

"Bloom." I whisper, the quiet sound carrying meaning that cracks Elisora's... Eli's soul and lets the flower grow from its seed, spreading its petals slowly like a rose opening up to the sunlight... to the starlight.

The layers of her soul unfold, the lattice of each unravels into a marvelous, intricate, fractal pattern reaching down to the very core of her being, and the Mana Core, up to now resting there, shines unchained and reaches outwards with its tendrils, working its way through the petals, filling them up, completing them and taking root in their very base, becoming one like it was always supposed to be.

I pull away from the soul, in the back of my mind realizing I did something completely different than I initially planned, and withdraw the energy from my horns, almost stumbling back as I return to reality in the dark, gloomy forest. I see Eli, likely unconscious, stumbling and falling over, and I catch her absently, thinking about that experience. It still lingers in my mind, not forgotten, but hidden behind a veil of nothingness to protect my little mortal mind - the same one I've always had, but only now felt a hint of how much more it is if I only allow it to be.

Oh... dear. It's so... beautiful. Why do I only see it now? A pointless question, I know, but a part of me truly wishes I understood it sooner.

Understood my own mind, who I am... what I am.