The blue-tinted window still hung in the air in front of Arden. The woman responsible for it was sitting on the ground with her eyes closed, seemingly uncaring for her surroundings while Roland was still fussing over the old [Guide]'s apprentice. He shifted his attention back to the notification, still not quite believing what it said. Or understanding what it said for that matter.
You have received a blessing from A????p??e????r????i??????????o??????,?? ?????? ????s????????????????a??????k????????????i?????????????????????? ??????n??????j????????????????u????????????????????m????????????????n???????? ????????d??????????????????????i????????
Do not disappoint.
The blessing part was easy to figure out; from who it ca was harder. The only readable part of it was 'Aperio'. Not that it ant much to him, as he knew of no God or Goddess with that na. Whose na is it, then? Hers? Maybe she is a priestess of so kind.
But why does it say 'Do not disappoint'?
He glanced back at the woman who was still sitting on the ground, ignoring what was happening around her. Arden tried to recall what had happened but could only rember approaching her together with rius, and them talking in what he assud to be so Elven language. Then, the woman had turned to him, and...his mind went blank. The last thing he knew before he woke back up was that the air around her seed to be alive in so way.
Arden was taken from his thoughts by Perian. "You okay? Got so blood on your face." Despite the heavy breaths he took between the words, the Beastkin's rumbling voice sounded calm. In control. After he had received a nod from Arden he continued, "What did rius say to make her do that?"
"I don't know. They spoke in so language – sothing Elven, maybe – and once she turned to face
I… I passed out?"
"You did." Perian said, nodding. "She asked if you wanted to fight her, but I think she might have overestimated your strength as well as ours. I didn't know it was possible for a person to do sothing like this with only their voice."
"Yeah, I don't think I can fight her. Jayren would probably try though, if she really did do that with just her voice."
Perian only gave a grunt in response, as for so reason he did not approve of the other mage of their group. Arden wanted to tell him about the blessing but was stopped when the hairs on his neck stood up and an inexplicable feeling of dread washed over him. When he tried to find the source he only found the Elven woman looking at him with narrowed eyes. She held his gaze for a second longer before going back to what Arden assud to be a kind of ditation.
Do not disappoint. The ssage echoed through his mind. Arden did not know what was ant by that, but he was very sure that if he should sohow disappoint the God behind the blessing, the Elf would make short work of him. A thought surfaced on the fringes of his mind, almost lost in the swirl of contradictions it brought with it. What if she gave the blessing?
With a firm shake of his head, Arden dismissed the idea and the window that still hung in the air in front of him. "I need to talk to Roland."
"Sothing you want to tell ?" Perian asked.
"Once I know what it is, I will tell you."
The Beastkin simply grunted at that and moved back to rius and the old [Guide], making sure they had what they needed. Arden was happy they had brought him on – the knight had saved them more than once already, and his calm and caring personality was sothing they needed. Too bad Enrya and Jayren aren't here. The surprisingly knowledgeable thief and enigmatic mage would be a nice reassurance should that Elf – Is she even one? – decide to do more than violently dispense blessings.
Wiping the bit of blood off of his face, Arden stood up. His legs did not feel shaky and neither did his head swim like it usually would after getting knocked out. Maybe getting a blessing heals you? Now I just have to figure out what else it does, if anything. A few quick steps brought him past the exhausted looking mages and behind Roland. The monk was sticking his needles into the young man that lay unconscious on the ground. Roland had once explained what the needles did, but Arden had already forgotten. Sothing about allowing mana to flow better?
"Roland, you have a minute?"
"Yes. As the Lady has decided to no longer drown the poor boy in mana, I can spare a mont." The man's voice was just loud enough that the woman in question had to have heard it. The Elf showed no reaction, still sitting on the ground, not a thought spared to the rather expensive-looking dress she wore.
Arden lowered his voice to a whisper he was sure none could hear, and also hoped that the sitting Elf could not speak Common. "You, uh, know a lot about the Gods right?"
"That I do my friend!" A delighted smile spread on the monk’s face as he answered. "What can I help you with?" The volu of his reply attracted the attention of everyone around, though only the [Guide] looked like he had an understanding of what was said.
"Please! Quiet!" he urged the man in a raised whisper.
"Sothing personal then?"
Arden nodded to the monk’s thankfully quiet question. "When I woke up, I got a notification that said I received a blessing, but it was all ssed up and I could only make out a bit of the na."
The rhythm of needle-sticking abruptly ceased as Roland turned to face him more fully. "ssed up? How? And what could you make out?"
He scratched the back of his head. "Scattered and ssy. Like it tried to layer lots of different texts on top of each other," he finally said, unable to co up with a better explanation. "As for the na… the only part I could read properly seed to spell 'Aperio', but I have never heard of a God or Goddess with that na. Can it be that the na of the priest that officiated the blessing shows up?"
Roland shook his head. "No. The System always shows the na of the God that gave the blessing. As for the ssed up part... I cannot tell you much about it. I know that so [Appraisers Stones] can produce a garbled screen if they can't deal with the power of the person using them, but I have never heard of the System itself breaking in that way."
Arden turned to look at the woman he now assud to be Aperio. "I'm certain it ca from her. What is she? A Goddess that chose to co out of hiding?"
Roland followed his gaze and remained silent for a few breaths. "I don't know for sure, but I don't think that is the case. Word was given to all churches from their respective Gods the last ti the pantheon grew. Even Roots had announced it. It would also not explain why the notification broke."
"Can you at least tell
what the blessing does?"
All he got in response to his question was a short laugh. "You'd have to ask her."
While it was nowhere near perfect, Aperio's control over her aura got better by the minute. At first she had always tried to think of a logical way to make things work, but it turned out that all she needed was to will the mana to do what she wanted. A simple flex of her ntal muscles and it obeyed. No complicated formulas needed; to an extent, at least. She could not make it disappear, only move it, and neither could she figure out where it ca from. Another thing of note was that, much like how the mana consistently changed her body, her aura was expanding ever so slowly with her as so kind of beacon at its centre.
The Human she had healed had caught her attention a couple of tis. He had talked to the Beastkin, ntioning soone nad Jayren that would potentially want to fight her. Please do. Her attention had been drawn again by her own mana, which was buzzing around the Human like a swarm of angry insects. She had tried to figure out the cause of such a reaction, but had co up short for the mont.
Then, when he had spoken to the needle-man, the delighted outburst was impossible to ignore. He was rather loud when expressing his eagerness. Better hearing is not always a blessing it seems. Not that it had hurt, but it was annoying nonetheless.
She tried to listen to their conversation, but they had switched back to the incomprehensible gibberish they called their language and the only thing she could understand was her own na. How does he know my na? Did I miss Ira telling him that? She had not been the best at paying attention recently, so it was a plausible enough answer for her liking. Who knows how long they talked before I noticed we had stopped.
Focusing back on her aura, she tried sothing she should have already done in the ruins. At the ti she had not thought of it as she had thought herself limited to creating magic in close proximity to her own self, but with her new knowledge of her ever-expanding aura it was sothing she simply had to try. A small fla ca into existence further down the road, out of sight of any living being that would care to notice. It wasn't as effortless as the tis she had summoned one near her, but still easy enough that it required nothing more than a thought. Aperio had the urge to try sothing bigger, but the last ti she had set sothing on fire she had not felt a thing while her clothes smouldered away. Probably not the best idea.
Snuffing out the small fire, Aperio returned her attention to the people surrounding her. Observing them through the aura and not her eyes was a fun exercise, though whenever she tried to focus on a person they would tense up and look around, as though they were trying to find sothing. Maybe they can feel it but don't know what it is? She had assud the mage-looking people would be able to figure it out, but only the Human she had healed had looked directly at her.
Though, admittedly, at that ti she was not personally focused on him. It was her mana that had tingled around the man like an alert of so sort, almost as if it was not pleased with whatever he had done. Is it alive? Aperio hoped that was not the case, as she had no desire to beco what she had hated for her entire life. She nudged her mana closer to him in an effort to figure out what had caused it to behave like that before.
The man himself showed no reaction to her attempts and, instead of the wild buzzing she had observed before, she saw no change in the mana itself. What she did feel was a faint itch, located at the back of her mind. It clearly wanted to be grasped, to be understood, but it lingered out of reach, her mind only managing to brush past it without gleaning any information from the encounter. Aperio tried again and again, but did not manage to hold onto it.
With a sigh, she eased her ntal grasp of her aura, letting the connection dim until it would only alert her if soone ca too close. Coming to grips with all the information at her disposal was more ntally exhausting than she expected, and for now she needed a break. Even in this subdued state, the amount and detail of information coming her way was still sothing she needed to adjust to.
Aperio directed her attention inwards instead, trying to see how the purer mana enhanced her. Feeling her own body, even in a way she had not known to be possible in her days before the sacrifice, did not require anything close to the ntal effort the aura needed. She instinctively understood what was going on. What was changing. What the outco would be.
Not only was her body changing faster than before, but it was also more pronounced. If this continues for as long as I live, won't I break everything by simply touching it? Her concerns were allayed when she realized that the Pantheon was always on the watch. Why would the world make sothing that would break their creation?
Instead of worrying about the potential harm of her re existence, she tried to focus on sothing else, and landed on the river that flowed as calmly as ever through her body. It was, indeed, a soothing thing to concentrate on, and as she observed the movents of her own mana sothing occurred to her. Is there more than before? She felt like there was, though apparently the increase had not affected her aura much. At least things did not look any worse than before. Is that why I could control it so easily?
Her thoughts were interrupted when she felt sothing enter her aura, farther away than she thought she would have noticed with the little control she had kept over it. It was rapidly approaching their group, pushing her mana aside as it moved. The displacent did not hurt, nor was it annoying; it simply told her that sothing was moving through it. Almost like the bubble.
Reasserting her control, she tried to figure out what it was. Laelia? No, wrong direction. Whatever it was, it was difficult to perceive clearly. Throwing her previous caution about her aura to the wind, Aperio focused, giving the approaching form her undivided attention.
She could feel stones breaking with every step they took. Their mana flowed through their body, reinforcing it as much as it could. Possibly due to her own inspection, she sensed the being slowing down for a mont before continuing on with newfound vigour. Aperio could not see much more, unable to detect anything past whatever the approaching person wore. It was not a matter of a lack of power – she was sure she could force her way in – but she did not know what the person's intent was. For all she knew, they could be a high-speed delivery service. Not that she saw any letters or parcels.
Standing up, she very lightly brushed a bit of dirt from her dress before turning to face in the direction of the newcor. Ira was about to speak when he was cut off by Aperio's voice. "Soone is coming."
Reviews
All reviews (0)