NOVEL NEXT Aeternae – Chapter 247: A House of Cards Must Always Crumble
Aperio flared her wings slightly before she draped one of them over her love. While she was the only person in the city she could find who had wings, nobody seemed to care all that much. For a brief moment, the All-Mother considered simply looking at the entire world, but decided against it. As long as she was not drawing any more attention than necessary, it would be enough.
"Should we go and pay our respects to the Red Sun?" Aperio asked, using her free wing to point at the huge cathedral that was visible from anywhere in town. "I would think that is our best bet to observe what her most devout followers are doing, no?"
"Nothing is stopping you from seeing this entire world, Mother," Ferio snapped. "Why do we have to actually go there? So Caethya can see?"
"I'm perfectly capable of observing them from a distance," her love replied. "But wouldn't you agree that actually seeing them with your own two eyes is a bit different?"
Aperio nodded at the words. Her love was quite correct. Even for her it made a difference, though it was most likely just a mental one she had talked herself into. A small downside of how her every thought would influence reality in one way or another. At least I was smart enough to make the System early on…
The All-Mother did not want to imagine a universe in which every passing thought would permanently alter all of her creation. She cared about too many things for that to go over well.
"Fine," Ferio mumbled, taking Aperio from her thoughts. "But I can tell you what we will find. Grovelling mortals that are begging to get their power back."
"So far, most mortals seem to be just going about their days like normal."
Aperio nodded towards the various shops that dotted the sides of the road. Most of them had customers coming and out, chatting about all manner of things. Of course, a hot topic was what they were calling the 'Trial of the Red Sun', but quite a few of the mortals were also simply going about their day as if nothing changed. Almost like on Verenier after I killed the Elder Gods.
For whatever reason, mortals seemed to either fail to grasp the scope of the changes that Gods brought about, or fail to care about the entire situation as a whole. Aperio had a sneaking suspicion that it was more of the latter than the former. She couldn't fault them, either. Why should they care for something they had no real way to change? Which is exactly the opposite of what Ferio claims.
"And yet, more and more of them are pestering me to give them back the flame," Ferio snorted. "They are also offering more and more ridiculous bargains. Sometimes it's their families, and other times money or other frivolous things."
"Why do they think you need money?" Caethya asked, waving at a child that was tugging at his mother's arm and pointing in their direction. "The sacrifices I can understand. If you kill something, you do take part of its mana to strengthen yourself, after all. But gold — or whatever else they use here — seems a bit wasted on a Goddess who can just make whatever she needs."
"Because the mortal mind is limited and has a hard time using the full extent of its mental faculties," Ferio replied. "They chose to just follow whatever I tell them, and stopped questioning it after only a few boons. Like obedient little pets."
Aperio could only shake her head at the words. Her eyes wandered to the Fae on her shoulder, the small being kicking its legs as it hummed a silent tune to itself. She had wanted to tell it to hide itself, but it had already done that. The being offered a small wave when it noticed her gaze; a quiet giggle following the motion.
"But they still make a choice, and that is all that matters," the All-Mother replied, wiggling her ear as the Fae reached for it. "If you do not like them asking you for help, why keep giving in? Unlike other Gods, you do not depend on their worship. You are free to grow stronger on your own; without the help of mortals. All you need to do is find something suitably strong to fight."
"And how am I supposed to do that?" her daughter asked as they stepped into a large, open street. "Fighting other deities was forbidden, and has a hard time using the full extent of its mental faculties.. Monsters pose no challenge, unless you’ve hidden some truly powerful things somewhere I haven't discovered yet."
"Monsters hide!" the Fae chimed in. "Scared of Winged Death."
"And I assume that is me?" Aperio asked, flaring her wings slightly. "Perhaps I made a sport out of hunting them at one point." She shrugged. "No matter, as it still answers your question, Ferio. You can hunt those monsters to your heart's content. All you have to do is to find them, but that should be no problem for a being as superior as you."
Ferio balled her hands into fists and turned away from her mother. "It doesn't matter," she hissed. "You won't understand me anyway. Ever. Just go and look at these mortals grovel and beg for help. They won't get anything and you can see them fall deeper and deeper into despair. Watch them devolve into nothing more than degenerate monsters. Their truest form."
The All-Mother did her best to suppress a sigh and waved her hand. The steps of the mortals around them slowed and the noises of the city grew muted. A moment later their group vanished from the world of Kuslo and reappeared in her Void.
Aperio pinched her nose as everyone else was still moving rather slowly, not even having reacted to their change in scenery yet. She had tried to understand Ferio, but her daughter kept moving the goalposts. Sure, her little snide remarks probably didn't help, but she had considered it to be a way to, perhaps, bond with Ferio. Since she liked to nag people like that, there should have been a good chance that she figured out that her mother was simply mimicking her. Apparently, that was not the case.
A touch of her magic held the Fae aloft as the All-Mother stepped forward. In her Void she did not have to worry about moving too fast and breaking reality. She could relinquish her grip on her more mortal perception of the world and the limits that came with that. She still would usually, avoid unshackling herself like this, as it brought her a bit too close to being a formless cloud again, but for now she needed some time to think. Not like they will notice.
Everyone else was still standing in her Void as if frozen in time. Aperio's eyes lingered on her love, briefly considering the idea of finding a way to get her to share this moment with her, but she decided against it. Caethya would have to grow quite a bit stronger before she would even attempt such a thing. No matter how much she loved her, there was only so much she could do to alter the still-mortal nature of her girlfriend. And most of the steps towards full divinity were ones Caethya would have to take on her own. Helping her with those more than she already was would only hinder her love in the future, and that was not something the All-Mother wanted to happen.
"Not the issue right now, however," Aperio mumbled to herself, her voice echoing through every non-existent corner of her Void. She set her eyes on her daughter, ignoring the slight push from the mana in her well that seemingly saw this as the perfect opportunity to ask her to be used. "Why do you think mortals are so bad? And why do you not see that the points you are trying to make are mostly meaningless?"
Ferio, of course, did not reply. The words Aperio had spoken would never reach her, after all.
A step brought her in front of Ferio. The All-Mother reached out, her fingers just barely hovering above the cheek of her daughter, her thumb tracing the air below Ferio's eyes. She knew so little about her, and yet she felt a certain sense of… anguish that her own daughter viewed the people of her creation with such disdain. What had she done wrong? Probably everything.
Her old self had been… something. Caring was most definitely not part of that. If she was honest with herself, she didn't even know why she had made Ferio to begin with. The only memories she could find on the matter held nothing more than a slight curiosity. Just a whim… That had seemingly been the reason for everything she had done before. Even the act of creating existence itself was only spurred by the desire to no longer be alone with the nothing that she was.
Aperio pulled her hand back, looking at her palm as she stood to her full height. She formed a fist, each finger moving in slow deliberation, before she opened her hand again. At the moment, she was acting like her old self would have. Just going along with what was happening and reacting on a whim. Her time as a mortal also came through, as she still avoided the actual problem of the matter despite the fact that she had told herself she would not.
"Perhaps that is what she dislikes about them," Aperio mused to herself and lowered her arm. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "But your dislike for them is not why we went on this adventure, now is it, Ferio?"
It should have been obvious to her ages ago, but she had been blind. It was such a simple answer. So simple, in fact, that a large part of her believed it to be wrong. It had to be; nothing could come from something that had been a constant for countless millennia before. But it was also the only thing that the All-Mother could come up with that made any amount of sense to her. Mayhaps I told her something before I went, something that made her think I would come back changed, but not like this…
"No matter," the All-Mother said, tensing up slightly as she pushed most of her perception away again. It was time to equalise the flow of time and ask her daughter a very simple question.
Caethya took a single step forwards before she realised where they were and looked at Aperio with a raised brow. The Fae — still held aloft by the All-Mother's magic — flapped its wings as soon as it noticed that its seating arrangement had ended. It pouted and crossed its arms for a moment before Aperio released it and it flew towards her shoulder again.
Ferio was the slowest to react. Her daughter had no visible shifts in her demeanour, simply staring at her, seemingly unbothered by the fact that they were now in the Void.
"What do you want me to do?" Aperio asked, her gaze fixed on her daughter. Her voice echoed through her Void as she did not see the need to restrain it at all. Nobody here would get hurt by it, after all. "And do not start again with the whole mortal thing, we both know that is just an excuse."
Her daughter didn't reply immediately and simply held her unwavering gaze. Aperio narrowed her eyes slightly and crossed her arms in front of her chest. She had an idea about what Ferio wanted, but she also wanted to hear her daughter say it
"I want someone that cares," the Goddess of Life and Light eventually said, lowering her head slightly. "I had hoped you would after you came back — and you do, but not for me. Only for the stupid mortals."
Aperio shifted her weight from one leg to the other, her wings twitching slightly as she tried to figure out a way to tell her daughter how she felt. She knew the words, words she wanted to say, but could not manage to speak them. No matter how she tried to turn the problem around in her mind to come at it from a different angle, Aperio could not bring herself to say that she did, in fact, care. That she wanted Ferio to be a part of her life.
A small portion of her attention flicked over to Caethya. Standing where her daughter could not see, she was making a small motion that Aperio could not quite figure out. Only after the arrival of a small mental message did the All-Mother finally understand.
The All-Mother took a step forwards, the Void twisting beneath her feet as she did not bother to keep reality intact. She wrapped her arms and wings around her daughter, holding her as tight as she dared. At the same time, she gently started to show facets of her emotions to Ferio's mind.
Her confusion at her own existence. Her love for Caethya. The feeling of responsibility she had for the entirety of her creation. The sharp pang of sadness caused by Ferio's reaction to her, and the ever-present note of love she felt for her daughter.
Though her old self might simply have made Ferio in order to know what it was like to have a family, to the person she currently was it meant so much more. Even if she could not yet speak the words, she did care. More so than her daughter seemed to be able to imagine.
