Chapter 4: Creation and Creator
They were so small compared to the creature before them. Nivin vaguely noted that she should be scared, that she should run. But instead she was filled with a sense of awe and safety. A sharp inhale from behind her ripped her out of that state and she looked behind her only to see Mary, whose wide terrified eyes were fixed on the being towering over them. Daniel took a step forward and in front of her and took a protective stance. He looked determined to protect Mary while he seemed to feel the same things Nivin herself did judging by his body language. She stood besides him, shoulder to shoulder and reached back with a comforting hand. Screw that feeling, that place was messing with their heads. She wouldn't trust it. They have never seen this creature, their home was elsewhere.
But then why couldn't she shake off the feeling that they are right where they are supposed to be?
The being in front of them lowered their middle head, the eyeholes of the mask filled with nothingness. Nivin understood now what people meant by staring into the abyss. She blinked.
-WE APOLOGIZE FOR THE CIRCUMSTANCES THAT LEAD TO OUR MEETING. WE ARE AWARE THAT THIS WAS NOT THE BEST METHOD, BUT FATE GREW IMPATIENT, AND WE HAD TO GET TO YOU BEFORE THEY DECIDED THE RULES HAD BEEN BENT FOR LONG ENOUGH.-
The voice echoed from all around them. Nivin's thoughts came to a halt. The rumbling of stone echoed in her head for a second before she shoved it aside.
"No..." she took a step forward, staring at the monster, her eyes filled with fury, but her throat wouldn't allow her to speak and Daniel pulled her back before the creature could take any offense. His grip on her shoulder tightened in a clear warning.
But instead of being angry, it only moved its heads back a little and tilted them to the side as if it were ashamed. Or curious. The being before them was hard to read. T̶̪̎ẖ̶̏e̶̦͘y̷̥̕ ̷͓͋a̸̛͓l̵̤̑w̵̘͛a̷̝̍ỳ̶͖ş̷̿ ̷͖̃h̴͔̐à̸̖d̵̼̿ ̶̧̐b̷̺̅e̵̜͐e̶̘̽n̴̦̅.
-WE TAKE NO PLEASURE IN HURTING OUR AGNO. BUT WE HAD NO CHOICE.-
The words they used didn't make much sense to Nivin, but her fury calmed at the almost ashamed sounding words of the creature.
-WE TRIED TO LET YOU LIVE YOUR LIVES FAR BEYOND THEIR FATED ENDS BEFORE CALLING YOU TO US. WE... REGRET THE WAY IT ENDED, BUT THESE WERE THE CONSEQUENCES OF EVADING FATE FOR MANY, MANY YEARS.-
Nivin was confused. "...Far beyond their fated ends?" She didn't get it. Didn't understand it. She didn't want to comprehend these words. Daniel's grip on her shoulders became slack. He understood.
-SOULS ARE A FRAGILE THING, EASILY BROKEN AND SHATTERED ACROSS ALL THREE PLANES. -
The two other heads looked away.
-AND THAT IS ESPECIALLY TRUE WHEN IT COMES TO YOUNG SOULS. ÁIRITHE, OR FATE AS YOU CALL THEM, MARKED YOU FOR AN EARLY DEATH, BUT WE COULDN'T LET THIS HAPPEN. SOULS DO NOT GROW WHEN THEY REACH AETHER AND SO WE HAD TO KEEP YOU ALIVE IN ATLAS UNTIL YOUR SOULS WERE STABLE ENOUGH TO BE PULLED HERE AND OUT OF THE NATURAL CYCLE. -
She opened her mouth, ready to say something when Daniel brushed past her, his stance rigid and furious. He pointed at the creature, accusing as a garbled sound pushed past his lips. The meaning was lost to her, but not to the being it seemed.
-WE HAVE HAD MANY NAMES OVER THE MILLENIA. NO MATTER WHICH WORLD THE SOULS INHABIT, NOR HOW MUCH THEY REMEMBER FROM THEIR FIRST OR SECOND LIFE, THEY ALWAYS HAD A NAME FOR US. IN THE END IT DOES NOT MATTER WHAT THEY NAMED US. THESE NAMES HOLD LITTLE POWER. YOU MAY CALL US DEIWO.-
For some reason the name rang a bell, it sounded weirdly familiar, even in the all-encompassing voice of the being. They felt as though they should remember it, as if it were buried in their minds under layers of the same static that surrounded them, waiting to be dug up, but just one step, one arm's length out of reach.
Daniel took a step back again, black and white scales flashing across his exposed skin.
"Deiwo." The name tasted weird on her tongue. Familiar in a way it shouldn't be. She shook her head to clear her thoughts. One step at a time. They could deal with everything later, but first she had to get any information she could out of Deiwo. Mary was frozen behind her, brown fur flashing across her skin. She blinked and it was gone. This place was starting to give her a headache.
"With fated end you mean the first car accident, don't you? Why interfere then and save us, only to kill us later once 'our souls are grown'?" Okay, maybe finger quoting at something that might as well be a god wasn't her brightest move, but she had had a really long day and was beginning to feel fed up with everything.
Neither of the three ever forgot the incident back then. It took them a long time to find the courage to enter a car again, and out of all of them, Daniel was the only one strong enough to decide to go and get a license. They were young, 11 or 12 maybe? Nivin wasn't sure anymore. A lot of it was blurry, but she remembered the moment. A friend of Mary's parents was driving them somewhere and the girls were having a blast trying to get Daniel to wear a plastic tiara, which he vehemently refused. There was a crash and suddenly the car was weightless for what felt like an eternity, before the car crashed into a body of water. Nivin vaguely remembers the feeling of water before she passed out. They never found out how they survived. The police found them washed up on the riverside with no clue as to how they managed to get out of the car. The family friend wasn't so lucky.
Nivin was ripped out of her memories by an unexpected whisper.
"Why are we here?" Mary seemed to have found her courage again. And she was starting to build up steam as she pushed past Daniel. "What is sooo important about us that you kept us alive until the time was right before brutally bringing us here?!" Mary threw her hands up, and for a second Nivin saw flashes of two leathery wings extending from her back before they were swallowed up by static again.
The flashes were starting to last longer and longer.
"Why the fuck are you so invested in us? It doesn't make sense. We are dead, we can't fucking help you if we are dead!" Nivin saw Daniel's eyes widen as the smaller girl became more and more angry. Normally Mary was the calm and reasonable one, but once she got mad then it was usually the time to pray for the poor and unfortunate soul that angered her. This time Nivin doubted that they should do that. Daniel stepped in front of Mary again. Nivin stood besides Mary and leaned towards her ear. "I know you are angry, hell, I know I am, but angering a creature the size of a skyscraper isn't the best idea Mary! Please calm down a lit-" Deiwo's voice rang out around them, cutting her off before she could finish what she wanted to say.
-YOU ARE HERE BECAUSE WE MOVED YOUR SOULS OUT OF THE NATURAL ORDER OF THE WORLD SYSTEM AND INTO THIS INBETWEEN LAND SO WE CAN REBUILD YOUR FIRST BODIES IN AXIS. RIGHT NOW YOU MIGHT BE WHAT MANY SOULS CONSIDER DEAD, BUT YOU WILL NOT BE FOR LONG. DEATH IS A CONCEPT MADE UP BY THE SOULS WHO ARE UNAWARE OF THE TRUTH.-
The massive heads rose up high and looked towards the sky. When Nivin followed their gaze, they saw the same white static that covered the rest of the world lift by a fraction. A shape became visible in the fog.
It looked like an hourglass.
-THERE ARE RULES IN PLACE THAT DICTATE ALL LIFE IN THIS SYSTEM. A SOUL IS BORN IN AXIS, THEY LIVE, THEY GROW AND THEY LEAVE THIS WORLD. THEIR BODY STAYS BEHIND AND THEIR SOUL IS STRIPPED OF THEIR MEMORIES UNTIL ONLY THE CORE REMAINS AND IS MOVED TO ATLAS, A PLACE YOU CALL EARTH. THERE SOULS LIVE FOR A MUCH SHORTER TIME UNTIL THEIR SECOND JOURNEY AND THEY COME TO REST IN AETHER.
EVERYTHING EXISTS IN A STATE OF BALANCE. IT HAS TO BE. WERE THE SCALES TO BE TIPPED IT COULD SPELL A CATASTROPHE THAT WOULD THREATEN ALL THREE PLANES OF EXISTENCE.-
Nivin began to understand. At least she thought she did.
"That balance is tipping isn't it?"
The heads lowered themselves to the floor, looking at her.
-THIS BALANCE HAS BEEN BROKEN THRICE BEFORE. WE STITCHED TOGETHER ITS BROKEN REMAINS AFTER THE FIRST AND SECOND TIME AND THE CONSEQUENCES OF THESE EVENTS DAMAGED NOT ONLY AXIS AND ITS MAGIC, IT DRAINED ANY AND ALL MAGIC ON ATLAS AND AETHER LIKE A WOUND WEEPING BLOOD. EVEN NOW, MAGIC IS BLEEDING OUT OF THE SYSTEM AND IS LOST IN THE VOID. WE ARE UNABLE TO FIX IT OURSELVES, WE ARE ONLY ABLE TO PLACE THE THREAD AND NEEDLE IN THE RIGHT PLACE.-
"The thread and needle being us I presume?" Oh god, how they fuck were they supoosed to fix the world, why in the world did they do to make this creature think they are the ones capable of the job? She herself was a socially anxious mess half of the time, Mary wasn't far behind in that regard and Daniel spoke sarcasm and smartass to deflect from the fact that he wasn't the best people-person either. For fucks sake, Nivin couldn't even make a doctors appointment when she was in actual pain. "Uhm…are you sure we are the best choice for that?"
-YES, WE HAVE TRUST IN YOU. WE ALSO WANT TO GIVE EACH OF YOU A GIFT TO AID YOU IN YOUR ENDEAVORS.-
Deiwo was looking at her before, but now their gaze was focused on her with an intensity that took the breath from her lungs. The static all around her increased.
-MY AGNO.-
A hand broke the mirror surface, each of its three claws bigger than her entire body. Grey leathery skin was pulled taunt around the almost skeletal claws with far too many joints.
Deiwo moved it slowly and carefully towards her, until one of the claws stopped right above her heart, just scratching her skin. She didn't dare to breathe, fearing that one wrong move could mean her death. She absentmindedly noted ropes of light wrapped around each claw. A red and a blue one, disappearing off into the floor and out of her sight, the third, purple one, broken and dim, uselessly dangling.
-MANY OBSTACLES WILL LAY IN YOUR WAY, SOME EVEN INVISIBLE TO THE NAKED EYE AND HIDDEN IN THE CODE THAT WRITES THE LAWS OF THIS WORLD. WE HEREBY GIFT YOU THE POWER OF MAGE SIGHT, TO REVEAL TO YOU WHAT IS HIDDEN FROM OTHERS.-
Violet light pulsed through Deiwo, lighting up strange symbols under the scales of their neck and along the masks. The light condensed at the finger tapping Nivin and the previously broken rope grew, wrapping itself around her neck. She didn't feel it, even though she knew it was there.
A second hand broke through and came close to Daniel. She saw him square his shoulders as he braced himself for whatever was coming. This hand sported similar colored ropes, although they were much more frayed and dim. The purple one was broken.
-MY AGNO,-
they said while repairing the purple rope,
-SOMETIMES NOT EVEN MAGIC IS ABLE TO LIGHT THE WAY OR HIDE YOU FROM THE DANGERS THAT AWAIT YOU. WE HEREBY GIFT YOU THE POWER OF DARK LIGHT, SO THAT YOU SHALL SEE ALL THAT YOU WANT TO SEE AND SHALL BE HIDDEN WHEN YOU ARE SEARCHED FOR.-
Once more, light pulsed through Deiwo, strange runes appeared for a second and a broken rope reformed and slung itself around his neck and antlers. Wait what?
-MY CRUTHACHADH,-
Nivin saw all all of Mary's bravado and anger vanish in an instant, as the heavy gaze of the being settled itself on her. She saw how her friend was gearing up to run but it was Daniel who held her arm. Nivin hated it, Mary was scared, she didn't have the same feeling of familiarity that she and Daniel had, but where would she run? They were surrounded by nothingness and static, trapped with an all-powerful creature capable of defying the natural order.
Nivin wanted to say something to comfort her, but what could she say. 'Hey, they won't hurt us?' Yeah, no, not the right thing to say considering how they brought them here.
Faced with Mary's fear of them, the air around Deiwo grew… almost sad?
-WE ARE SORRY THAT WE CAUSE YOU SO MUCH FEAR, MY CRUTHACHADH. WE HOPED THAT IT WOULD DISAPPEAR WHEN YOU REACHED ATLAS BUT WE DID NOT THINK THAT IT WOULD BE SO DEEPLY INGRAINED INTO YOUR VERY BEING. JUST KNOW THAT WE HAD NO CHOICE. IF THERE WAS ANOTHER WAY WE WOULD HAVE TAKEN IT AND CHANGED THEIR FATE. BUT SHE HAD TO BE ST--
Deiwo flinched. All three heads snapped to the side in a sudden motion that even the being themself seemingly hadn't expected.
The static grew louder, more visible.
The three took a collective step back. Something was wrong, the aura of the whole place had grown from heavy but familiar, to oppressive in an instant. The air was thinner and Nivin struggled to breathe. Something had changed. And it was wrong.
Something… was watching them from beyond the static.
Deiwo recovered from whatever happened but didn't continue talking, they just repeated the same thing they did earlier with the other two, if just a slightly bit faster than before, the claws that were touching Daniel moving towards Mary.
-YOU WERE RESTRICTED AND BOUND, NOW WE GRANT YOU THE POWER TO VENTURE WHERE YOU PREVIOUSLY COULD NOT. WE HEREBY GIFT TO YOU THE POWER OF TRUE SHAPESHIFTING.-
Again, a rope appeared, this time a white-bluish one, connecting to the same claw that already held a frayed darker blue rope.
Still, Deiwo seemed stressed, and... was she imagining it, or was the static of the void growing darker?
-NOW WE WILL SEND YOU BACK TO YOUR HOME ON AXIS WITH ONE FINAL GIFT TO ALL OF YOU.-
Again they lifted their hands, and the ropes around their necks pulled taunt before growing infinitely long. It only took them one swift, fluid motion to braid them together, making them intertwine. Their movement was hurried, almost clumsy.
-FIND THE RUSTED KING AND THE MONARCH!-
Their voice was tinged with stress and their words came out faster than before, as the void around them grew darker and darker and the static started to overtake their sight. They made complicated hand gestures and suddenly Mary was falling as the ground under her opened up. She didn't even have time to scream before the other was gone. Deiwo turned to Nivin and restarted the gestures before they flinched again, their huge heads disappearing in the static before reappearing just a second later and turning to Daniel, whose fate was the same as Mary's. They made the same gestures again towards Nivin while talking, all pretense of calm gone.
-WE ARE SORRY WE CANNOT HELP YOU, BUT S--
They were cut off, as out of the now black void three golden ropes shot, similar to the ones that connected them to Deiwo. Their heads were yanked back and his hand signs interrupted as they were pulled into the fog and out of her sight with a scream emitting from all three heads before suddenly she was falling as well. The last thing she saw was a yellow eye watching her from the static where Deiwo once was.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone