Chapter 31: The Transition
The universe was so much larger, deeper, and more grand than ever she could have imagined when first she imagined the curious task of exploring alternate realities. So many strange, and terrible shapes of thought that would have never entered her mind the same way that it had curiously appeared within the slumbering minds of pedantic humanity. She gazed back on her life as it were a mere handful of months before, and marveled.
How small her world was, then. To imagine the face of her shining goddess was enough to sate her hunger for countless centuries. Hope for Elektra's favor stayed her ambition to wander from even the shores of her little prison archipelago.
Now she dreamed of harnessing powers potent enough to even challenge the gods themselves in their own resident aspects. She would call down fire from the heavens, and part oceans aside with but a whisper. Not even the figment of Olympus could contain her renewed ambition.
But to what end was the accumulation of this great power? Where did this path of accumulation finally result? Not even she knew.
She simply had to know more.
For so long, all the truths of this world were kept from her—By the matriarchs, by gods, by the fates themselves, or by the men who designed the hands that wove the strings of fate beholden.—She was cast aside on some featureless rock and given an impossible task only to keep her occupied in hopeless aspiration, for all of natural history; until the end of time.
She was contented, sure, but like a lamb awaiting the slaughter—knowing nothing of its life but of full troughs of forbs and comely caretakers with soft hands—she too was ignorant of the true nature of her reality. Just like all the other sheep in her flock of blind, dumb animals... she was forespoken by the shepherds with their unconscionable, unknowable motives and galaxy-and-eon-spanning machinations.
No more. She would know the entirety of the true face of God, and the foundation of all reality would know her name. Then, she would hold Them accountable for what They had done to her.
As these thoughts manifested within her conscious mind, she imagined a blank void of starlight in the shape of a man, off to her very left for a split second. It was just out of the corner of her eye, but it was there, wasn't it? She quickly turned her head to look directly at the thing, but it vanished just as soon as it appeared.
"What? Huh?!" She blanched, searching the skies to the space where she was certain that something interesting had existed, only moments ago. "What in the name of..?"
"What is it?" Thrall asked, a little perturbed that she cut off his explanation so callously. Was she even listening?
"Did you see that?!" Xantheaa turned to him with eyes gleaming with a renewed passion of a new mystery to uncover. "What was that strange man?"
"What man?" He narrowed his eyes at her, quizzically. "There is no one up in these skies at the moment, excepting the two of us."
"What? No! How could you have missed it?! There was this creepy, dark figure with no face, hanging over my shoulder for only a fraction of a second. It was right between us!" Could she have imagined it, after all?
"If that was true, then I would have surely noticed something like that, I can assure you. I see with more than eyes, you know." he assured her, calmly. "I'm not boring you, am I?"
"I'm sorry? No, nononononononono. Worry not, Thrall. I was not day dreaming, I am sure! ...I think. But you had my full undivided attention, I promise!" She persisted to be wholly unconvinced, but had little time to ponder such occurrences. Now was learning time. "I apologize. Please, continue."
Thrall sighed, and wore a morose expression. "Well, there's not much more to say. I've explained to you the basics. In the dream you will always have much more difficulty than in real life, because Rest is another one of the Word's names. It is the natural state of all creation. The true words cannot reach you within his influence, because nothing here is true to begin with."
She nodded, and smiled to herself. "Not much more to say, indeed."
"What was that?"
"Nothing!" She forgot how keen his hearing was, at times. She would have to be more careful, thinking jabs at him in future reference. "Please, do go on."
"Sure." and again, he sighed. This was still quite challenging for someone like him. "It's like talking to someone through an echo. You can hear their voice, but they're not really there. The words I summon are like half-transparent reflections of their actual selves. They are a lot more stubborn in this state, because they want to rest just like everything else."
"So... You're suggesting that I practice the words when I'm awake?" Xantheaa guessed. Was that even possible?
"If my assumptions are correct, and they usually are, then the words will exist everywhere that is. Like I said, all of creation is built on top of the foundation of the Word, and even imagination cannot have crowded that out."
"But you can summon even the Word itself! Should that not be impossible, since we are effectively inside of its stomach?"
"Well, two things; first, the Word cannot technically be summoned. It simply already is everywhere already. It's baked into reality on its most basic level, so literally everywhere you look, all you ever see are different expressions of the Word. Secondly, I have a key node of power under my waistband, which heavily augments my capacity for bartering with the words. If I had the Lahat Chereb in reality, I might be able to even rival Lucifer with his control of Fire. I'm not sure about Light, though. It is his namesake, after all."
"I understand. So, this bronze snake we are seeking—?"
"Correct," Thrall continued. "The fact that Mudaut sent us here means that there was another node of power hidden somewhere in Egypt. Odds are that the Dendera Light was the mystery that we were sent here to solve."
"I actually meant to ask you if this one might be able to give me the same aptitude that your sword does... Assuming I was able to master even a single word, by then, of course."
"Oh! I, well, it depends!"
"What do you mean?" she pressed.
"Well, If you are unfamiliar with type of power, you may find yourself unable to even harness the staff entirely. The odds of it happening to align with any words you pick up by the time we find it are so astronomically small that it approaches nothing, altogether. You have an innate aptitude with Ruach, which can be thought of as either 'wind,' or 'breath.' I would have you begin your experimentation with that term first. Frankly, I am not sure what type of magic the staff has, but the way it is described it likely has very little to do with either of those concepts."
She thought back to the warm breath in her chest. The wind underneath her wings did indeed have a similar feeling between them, but it was so much more than that. The energy circulating throughout her body, and the crisp sharpness of a morning fog. The whispers of intent every time a breeze or a strong gust was about to blow, and the radiant arms of glowing heat that carried her aloft within a thermal, on a particularly sunny day—All of them told a very different story than something just as simple as "wind."
"Oh." She gasped. It was always right there in front of her face, the entire time! She felt a little silly for not having noticed until it was so clearly pointed out to her.
"Hm?" Thrall was still blissfully unaware of the awakening that had just occurred.
"I get it."
"Excuse me?!" Thrall frowned. That wasn't possible. Not so soon, at least. "What are you saying? You couldn't mean that the word clicked for you right away, could you?!"
"No, no, no... Nothing like that. I just—I finally understood what you meant by the full scale of the meaning in a single word before. I heard you say 'ruach,' many, many times, but it wasn't until I really listened with all my heart and soul to the sound of the name that I actually heard you say it. All its depth and complexity... it's a little overwhelming, to be honest!"
"Oh, wow! That's incredible! You must surely love him in your heart and soul, to be so adept in its actuation."
"You know, it is almost like... like hearing my own name for the first time."
Thrall nodded. "That makes sense. You have more control over the winds than any creature I have ever seen. Like I said, it was baked into your very essence by the gods that formed you. In a way, it IS your name."
This was an incredible gift. She had indeed much love for Ruach. Her whole life, she was under the impression that is was a blessing granted to her by the nymph named Elektra, and she praised her goddess every time it lifted her into the skies. She had no idea that it was her own power that she was wielding all those years. She felt more complete, now, than she ever had in her entire life.
She couldn't wait to wake up, and try this out, for real.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone