Forgotten

Caethya raised a brow at the floating mess of things she was seeing. It wasn't the first time she had glimpsed through reality to the mess of runes and unveiled lines of mana, but it was the first time the backdrop was something other than an endless expanse of black.

Instead of the usual abyss, the clusters of runes were set against an ever-shifting set of colours and shapes which seemed to react with them in ways that were, frankly, inscrutable. She couldn't quite tell what they were doing, but she could feel the connections the various shapes established with some of the runes and the mana that flowed between them.

"Is this like a branch of the System for Verenier?" Caethya asked, tearing her eyes away from the runes and setting them onto her love.

A small smile flashed across Aperio's lips. "It is. What you see here is a small part of the larger System that governs Verenier itself. Each world's System builds either on that of another world or, like Verenier, on the very fundamentals."

The world around them shifted, the mess of runes that had been in front of them a moment ago now surrounding them.

"And this is what Epemirial tried to mess with," Aperio continued. "At least I assume it was her, as bits and pieces of her mana remain as a sort of… unpleasant residue." Aperio snorted as she physically grabbed hold of a rune and crushed it. "She really thought that that measly bit of mana could change something?"

"What did she try to change?"

"Classes," Aperio replied, gesturing towards a specific rune Caethya happened to actually recognise from some of her more theoretical lessons. "She attempted to weave into it the very same runes used on slave collars."

Caethya blinked at the words. "She wanted to make it so a Class would make you a slave to her?"

"Seemingly. It did not work, however. Classes do not act on the Soul like she had apparently hoped. They are merely an intermediate between you and the vessel you are in; shaping the powers your Soul possesses to a form you can understand and then predict."

"Is that why there is so little overlap in Classes once you get to a higher level?" Caethya asked as she observed her love creating new runes to place into the —  for her — unrecognisable mess. "Because our Class is just what we think we should be?"

"It is a gross oversimplification, but essentially yes," Aperio replied. "You do have to fulfil certain criteria to be offered a Class.

"Take a mage. for example," she continued. "If they wish to become a [Fire Mage], they will have to understand fire. Whether they do this by studying physics or setting themselves alight is up to them, but they have to gather an understanding. Once that is done, the System will generate you a Class, starting with something relatively generic that will become ever more specialised to better reflect who you are and who you are becoming. Of course, you can still take direct action by shedding a Class, or picking something that diverges from the obvious path every time you evolve."

"I didn't get a choice for my Class," Caethya said with a raised brow. "Does that mean the System — or myself — was so sure that only one option was made?"

Aperio remained quiet for a moment, her eyes lowering to the ground. "That would be my fault. The blessing you have set you on the path of divinity, and the System recognised you as strong enough to create a Class fitting to your Domain."

"Nothing to be sorry about," Caethya said. "If anything, I should thank you for making this whole ascension easier for me. Feels like I'm cheating sometimes."

"I never said the world is fair." Aperio offered Caethya a wide smile. "If they have an issue, they are more than welcome to tell me."

"And hopefully get a fight out of it?"

"Mayhaps."

Her love's words were accompanied by a shudder that ran through the entire space they found themselves in. The runes shifted in response, rearranging themselves again and again until they finally came to rest once more, at which point Aperio pulled out another clump of them that was seemingly faulty. How the All-Mother told them apart was beyond Caethya, but she assumed it had to do with the mana of Epemirial Aperio had mentioned before.

"Why were they so obsessed with forcing people to follow them?" Aperio mumbled to herself as she plucked yet another piece from the construct. "It is not like they had much opposition on Verenier."

"Paranoia, maybe?" Caethya guessed. "Maybe they thought that if they could enforce unwavering belief in them, you would lose power?"

"A foolish assumption, but I can see how they might have come to that conclusion."

"Yeah, you don't exactly need belief to become stronger," Caethya guessed, her eyes lingering on Aperio's arms a little longer than they perhaps should. "You seem to just… do."

The All-Mother turned slightly to look at her love, her dress appearing to be just a tad tighter than it was a moment before. "My body does it to better accommodate me. It is annoyingly hard to contain myself in one place." She took a deep breath. "It does beat being some weird omnipotent cloud every time, however.

"Besides," she continued with a smile. "If I did not do it, I could not spend my time with you like this."

Aperio’s smile widened slightly before she disappeared from Caethya's vision. She did not have to wonder where her love had went, as she felt arms wrapping around her waist the same instant she had vanished from view. A moment later, Caethya was pulled backwards into the All-Mother and she found her vision briefly obscured by the black feathers of her love's wings as they wrapped themselves around the two of them.

"Nothing can beat this," her love mumbled, her voice muffled slightly by Caethya's hair.

The Demigoddess ran a hand over the arms of her love, smiling slightly as Aperio neither squirmed nor pulled back in the least. "It is enjoyable," she agreed. "But I think the System of Verenier is quite important, no?"

"Yes," Aperio grumbled. "But so are you."

"I'm not going anywhere. In fact, I find myself quite interested in understanding how all this works." Caethya gestured towards the ever-changing runes that surrounded them. Aperio did not move away, but she did resume fixing the System as smaller parts began to float towards her once more so they could be either destroyed or rearranged. "You could, for example, tell me what you are doing. Specifically, I mean."

"I am erasing any trace of the runes that Epemirial and her gaggle of idiots added to the System. In this case, it regards titles and their use in enslaving people. I want the possibility of my magic being involved in that to be zero, so I am removing all of it."

"So, no more titles?"

"No more titles like [Slave]."

---

Aperio tightened her grip on her love. The mere idea of any of this having been possible in her world was not something she enjoyed. Many of the other parts of the System also needed to be fixed in one way or another, but what Epemirial and her fellow idiots had done to Verenier's section was despicable.

"How do titles work anyway? Unlike Classes, they can apparently act on your Soul?" Caethya asked, leaning into Aperio as she looked up at her.

"They could," Aperio corrected. "I have removed that ability as I do not see a need for that. I am not sure why I had given it that ability in the first place."

She could think of a few reasons why, but none of them made all that much sense, especially when she considered that she would never need the System to do any of it. Perhaps her old self had wanted to be able to influence people with a title. After all, she had also made Epemirial, Vigil, and Inanis into deities herself, so she quite obviously had not been against mind control or anything of the like.

"Maybe one of the Elder Gods asked you for it?" Caethya asked, her eyes fixed on the set of runes Aperio had just summoned. "It's not like you cared for mortals much before you lived as one."

"I cared for a few," Aperio corrected, her voice a little more subdued. "But in general, yes, I did not care for mortals. But neither do I really care now. Just like they do not care for people that are not close to them.

"That does not mean I am still fine with them being enslaved, however," Aperio added before Caethya had a chance to speak.

"I would say you are violently opposed to the mere idea."

Aperio nodded in reply before she dismissed yet another rune that had been haphazardly tacked on to her creation. There were so many of them, built up over the long millennia she had been gone, that the All-Mother briefly considered simply erasing it all and starting from scratch. The only reason she had not done so was because she was not sure if she could actually remake the System in the way she wanted. Better to fix this one and then think about a new one…

Mortals depended on it, and she would rather not cause too much of a disturbance. There was already enough chaos on Verenier as it was; the System changing would only make matters worse. Would probably make them think their dead Gods are coming back to fight me…

"How do the evolutions work?" Caethya asked, taking the All-Mother a little by surprise. "You said that it's a point where a mortal can influence what the System gives them, but how does it know what they would want?"

"It does not," Aperio replied, pushing the current set of tainted runes aside to highlight the actual section of the System that governed evolution on Verenier. "Like I have said before, it simply creates a Class based upon your actions thus far. You will not be offered a Class for something you have never done before, but what you can choose will always be stronger than what you have now. Significantly so." I want them to be strong, after all.

It may be selfish of her, but the All-Mother wished that more mortals were strong enough to at least offer her the tiniest sliver of a challenge.

She looked down at her love, smiling at Caethya's continued draw on the mana that surrounded them. That was perhaps something else that she should not like, but the idea of having a proper fight with Caethya — even if Aperio would limit herself to only what her physical body was capable of — filled her with more joy and anticipation than was reasonable.

"While I appreciate that look," Caethya began, reaching up with a hand to brush over Aperio's cheek, "I am quite certain I am far from offering you any sort of appreciable challenge."

"For now," Aperio replied. "But your next evolution might."

"We shall see," her love said. "I do have another question, however. Does the extra mana you get during an evolution come from you or do you have like, keep track of how much mana someone didn't manage to absorb with each kill and just give them that."

Aperio tilted her head, leaning into the hand of her love that still rested on her face as a part of her mind scoured the complex of instructions that made up this part of the System.

"I am not sure," she said as she narrowed her eyes at yet more incorrect runes that marred her otherwise elegant solution. "It is not like I would notice a difference in giving a mortal some more mana. I use more of it in a second to further my body than I would need to make a few more Vereniers, and even that does not register."

Caethya removed her hand as Aperio righted her head again. "I guess omnipotence comes with some upsides."

"Omnipotence does not exist," Aperio replied. "I cannot make something that I cannot lift, as my strength is infinite if I wish it to be."

"Is it hard to hold back enough to not injure me?"

"As hard as it is for you to hold back and not injure a weaker mortal," Aperio replied with a shrug of her wings. "I honestly do not even think about it all that much anymore."

"Do you have to be careful with the System?" Caethya asked. "Or is it sturdier than it appears because it's kind of a part of you?"

Aperio cocked her head to the side. The System did require more than its fair share of mana to work, but she wasn't particularly rough with it — except when crushing stains left behind by idiot Gods.

"I guess?" Aperio replied. "But does it matter?"

"Nope." Caethya shook her head. "I was just intrigued."

Her love wriggled a little in her grasp, causing Aperio to loosen it a little. Caethya reached out and gestured towards the piece of the System currently floating in front of them. "That gives mortals more mana when they evolve, right?"

"It does," Aperio replied.

"Is there a reason why it takes a part of it away again?" the Demigoddess asked, pointing towards a tiny rune that was nestled perfectly into the ever-shifting formation. "Seems counterintuitive."

Aperio narrowed her eyes slightly and tugged at the strand of mana that connected this segment of the System to the rest. "It sure does."

It was not an issue, per se, but she would like to know why she had set it up this way. She had no need to reclaim the mana she had just given to a mortal, but where else would it be going? Not to Epemirial and her people… That was definitely something I placed there.

The All-Mother let out a long sigh. Why had her past self not taken the time to write down what she had done? Now she would have to either decode its purpose through careful observation of the System, or once again dive into memories she would rather not touch.

"I guess we're going to figure that one out now?" Caethya asked as Aperio let go of her and reality around them shifted multiple times in quick succession.

The All-Mother gave a quick nod, most of her mind occupied with following the countless connections linking this section of the System to all the others. Of course I had to put something dumb near the foundation of it all…