Chapter 2: Voices after Death
Forewarning!
"Yo!" means a character is talking
*Yo!* means a character is thinking
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Stella felt like she was swimming in honey, she felt like she couldn't breathe and she started to panic, reaching out at nothing to try to find something to allow her to breathe. Then out of nowhere she suddenly could breathe but a deep static voice spoke to her.
"Child of warp, you have found yourself in quite the predicament, you used the origin node to wish for life, yet you were already dead."
" Who are you? Where am I? What is an origin node? What do you mean I'm dead?"Stella asked
"Child calm yourself we have all the time to talk for your first question, I am the place that magic in your world comes from."
Stella:" What do you mean the place that magic comes from?"
"You are aware of magic, correct?"
"Yes, it's what allows my space bag to work."
"Yes if you keep it short it does allow for stuff like that, but magic is far more complex than that."
"Magic comes from objects called nodes and there are different forms of nodes and they all behave in different manners but nodes are simply holes in space that leak into my domain."
"My domain is the source of magic so it is most concentrated here. Essentia is the liquid form of magic it leaks out through the nodes into the wider world often influencing objects around them."
"For example, Normal nodes often have the lowest concentration of essentia which is why they often don't affect the world, at most they disrupt the fabric of space to a minor degree which gives them their look, but Normal nodes have the highest concentration of primal aspects and are very stable."
"Dark nodes have much higher essentia, because Dark nodes have a higher concentration of death-related aspects, but that comes at a price for one they affect the outside world, which leads to the existence of undead. There are other effects like wildlife steering away from them and plant life dying while near one, but other than undead these nodes are also stable."
"There are Pure nodes that can only form inside of Silverwood trees and are the reason that these trees have that healing and purification properties, this leads them to have aspects leaning towards life, unfortunately, because the trees reliance on the node, the node often has some of the smallest essentia values."
"Now we get to the most dangerous node types."
"First of the dangerous ones are Unstable nodes these nodes are as stated unstable and often undergo changes in essentia often, it could be ignis one moment and the next an aqua, however, what makes them dangerous is the fact is these changes have pretty drastic effects on the surrounding area, depending on the essentia the node is currently made of."
"Tainted nodes are man-made nodes and never appear naturally, these nodes are the opposite of Pure nodes and infect things with taint, other than the problem of taint these nodes are not all that dangerous."
"Lastly, we have Hungry nodes, they are as stated hungry consuming any and all material including living beings adding their essentia and aspects to its mass, these can get out of hand really quickly and can cause huge problems, fortunately, these nodes can be tainted, which removes their hungry feature, this often happens when the node gets too big or consumes tainted material in large quantities."
"It's a good thing to note that all nodes can come in 3 varieties, those being Bright, Pale, or Fading."
"Bright nodes have a bigger hole leading here meaning they can gain essentia faster if it's lost."
"Pale nodes have smaller holes causing essentia gain to be slower than normal."
"Fading nodes no longer have the hole meaning they can not gain any new essentia. "
" You said I had an origin node. What type of node is that?"Stella asked
"Ah yes, the node you have in your possession is a different type of node, it would be known as a Full Node these nodes are functional just huge holes into this realm, and as such cause a vacuum where essentia from here rushes to the hole in an attempt to fill the hole. These types of nodes should be impossible but everything happens at least once."
" Wait, that means that I'm in the plane of magic?"Stella asked wondering why this voice talked so much
"Yes, my child this does mean you are currently in the place that magic in this world comes from."
"To answer your last question you did in fact die, just as you made your wish using the origin node, you hit the ground so the origin node did the next best thing it took what was left of your body and your soul and put them here so that I could fix you. This however does come with some downsides."
" Downsides? What will happen to me?"Stella worriedly asked
"You are awfully calm for someone who died recently. But for the downsides, because of your body's condition, losing that origin node will kill you and before you died you were infected by one of the taint spawns so you are currently tainted."
" I'm tainted? Does that mean that my wish is useless? Will I just end up becoming like those monsters in the tower?"Stella asked with apparent panic
"Luckily no it does not, with the origin node in your possession it will stop the taint from growing, that is, of course, if you don't use its power."
" Use the taint? You mean like as a weapon? Why would people do that?"Stella didn't know that taint could be used.
"Stupid people do it, it normally ends with them dying a very painful death."
"By using the power of the taint, you gain monstrous power at the cost of it spreading. Yours won't naturally spread so you would live much longer, but using that power will cause it to spread up your arm."
Stella:" Why would I need to use it if I'm here? What about my other stuff? Why is it here anyway?"
"Oh child of warp you cannot stay here, I might have saved you from death but staying here means becoming essentia, I am truly surprised that you lasted as long as you have, the origin node is more powerful than I expected."
" Where would I go, back to the tower I died at?"Stella didn't want to die a second time.
"Unfortunately no, the stingy other-worlders would not allow me to let you exist in that world anymore but with the origin node inside of this realm, I can open a portal to a different world. This might have unexpected consequences but I won't be the one to deal with them."
" So when will I leave?"Stella asked
"Right now."
Stella's vision blurred, the world she saw faded and she could feel herself being sucked through something, but just before she left the origin of magic she heard the static-y voice say one last thing.
Child, I have replaced your right eye with the origin node, although you will not be able to see out of it like normal, you will see vis and essentia for its base components. Do not let the taint reach the origin node. Good luck child. I hope to talk to you again when you become a true thaumaturge.
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Word count:1232
Woah! would you look at that, we finally get the main story started! Remember to give me advice and power stones!
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Apothoesis
Apothoesis Once again, if you want to see more stuff integrated into the story do comment!
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