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Aperio looked at her disciple for a few monts longer as the pleasant warmth that spread through her body was joined by a tingle that ran down her spine. What was that? She had not really felt anything like it before. There were things she knew of that could be the cause, but none really applied to this situation.
"Thank you, Caethya," Aperio said, smiling slightly. "That ant more to
than you might think." Even if I don't understand it myself.
Her disciple simply nodded her head, her ears and cheeks bright red. Aperio shifted her wing in response, making sure she was still securely held.
"Should I remove my wing?" the All-Mother asked, tilting her head slightly as Caethya's ears took on an even brighter shade of red and her breathing quickened. "It seems to affect you negatively." The idea that soone would blush so profusely simply because she touched them did not sit quite right with Aperio. Caethya's reaction seed a little excessive, but at the sa ti, she did not want to stop.
"It's fine," Caethya replied after a mont. "The softness of your feathers together with the mana that flows at your touch are not sothing I am used to." She paused for a mont, taking a deep breath. "Not to this degree at least."
Who else bathes their surroundings in mana? Aperio thought as she shifted herself to sit cross-legged. The mana still burning through her body had decided that her legs were in dire need of rather drastic enhancent, making her previous kneeling position quite uncomfortable.
"If you are fine, then so am I. I simply do not wish for you to feel uncomfortable." A small twitch of the branches above her caused the All-Mother to direct her attention towards the tree. "Do you have sothing to say, Roots?"
"I rely wished to inform you that the temple has almost finished regrowing its lost leaves." Its branches shook in chorus with the deep rumble of its voice, almost as if it wanted to underline its flowery speech. "Should you wish to, your followers could soon co here to plant new roots for themselves. They will not want for anything — your temple will provide."
"Your temple can make food?" Caethya asked as she slowly leaned herself back and into Aperio's wing, seemingly not trying to draw attention to her movent. "How does it do that?"
The All-Mother tilted her head at the question, spreading her senses into her temple. She did not know what her temple could do, nor had she assud it would be able to provide for her followers. It does make sense, though. Her old self was very much not the type to take ti out of her day to care for mortals and, despite allowing other deities to have slaves, Aperio doubted she had any that could take care of the temple.
"I do not know," she said as her mind inspected every detail of her ho. It did not take long for her to find a kitchen, one filled with more runes than most other rooms. "But I do have an idea."
A thought sent a minuscule wisp of her mana into a rune — one she could identify as 'Dawn' even though she had never before seen it in her life. A mont later, the entirety of her temple shone bright in her aura. The amount of mana that drained from her well gave the All-Mother pause.
"What was that?!" Caethya exclaid, moving herself a bit closer to Aperio as her head spun around, undoubtedly trying to figure out where the monstrous amount of mana was heading.
"I activated a ward in the kitchen. It is quite fascinating." As silly as her words might have sounded, watching her mana flow through her temple and the island it resided on was fascinating to her. Aperio could feel every detail of her ho, her mana almost eagerly letting her know what it was doing.
She knew a large portion was flowing to a field behind her temple, that it wanted to grow plants that her followers could eat. How exactly the runes accomplished that, however, remained a mystery to her. At least these don't break.
"How far does your aura reach?" her disciple asked, seemingly not as interested in kitchen runes as Aperio herself.
The All-Mother shrugged slightly, the shifting motion of her wings eliciting a small murmur from her disciple. "I have not yet found the end of its reach, nor do I plan on searching for it. Even without my aura, I already perceive more than I truly wish to know."
At least her mind was getting better at filtering out all the sounds the mortals made by simply existing, a fact Aperio greatly appreciated. Now if only I could do the sa for sll…
With very few exceptions, the world the mortals called their ho was rather offensive to her nose. Even the people that road it were little better. Caethya and Laelia both were exceptions to the rule, but both of them were probably more of a fledgling divine than a normal mortal.
"Is sothing wrong?" Caethya asked. "You don't usually frown for nothing."
Aperio waved her off. "Just a minor annoyance; nothing to worry about. I do, however, have a question for you."
Her disciple straightened herself a little at the words, her eyes focused on Aperio. "Yes?"
"If I hide my wings, is there any possible way I could pass as an Elder? I have been confused for an Elder of the Moons before and I do not wish to stand out as much as I currently do when I finally leave for Procul."
"Perhaps?" the Elf replied. "Could you show
again how you plan to look?"
Aperio gave a nod in reply, carefully removing her wing from behind her disciple before standing up and letting her feathered limbs vanish — her swordstaff settling comfortably in her hand at the sa ti.
A small touch of her magic straightened out the wrinkles in her dress, another adjusting the armour pieces to be slightly more comfortable to wear. The small weight they had previously carried had vanished, too, her body having beco stronger yet again thanks to the mana she had retrieved. Will I ever stop gaining strength?
Caethya looked her Goddess up and down, her eyes lingering briefly on her weapon and the pieces of armour that slowly shifted over her shoulders and chest.
Even without her wings, Aperio would attract attention. She stood at least two heads taller than Caethya herself, and, as an Elf, she was already taller than most other races. She probably has to duck through every door…
Her choice of weapon and fit physique was another thing that would draw attention. Most Elves chose to be mages or rogues of so kind, very few training themselves to beco warriors to the point that that it would show. The ones that did want to acquire more brawn usually did so through the System, hunting titles that would increase their strength.
Aperio shifted her weight from one leg to the other, her hair flowing behind her in a breeze that Caethya could not feel. The All-Mother also carried a subtle glow with her — a silver sheen that seed to flow just below her skin.
"You look… divine, even without your wings," Caethya said, a bit of heat flushing through her ears. "Not many of our kind are as… fit as you are either." I doubt a mortal could even accomplish that.
The longer she simply looked at Aperio, the more obvious it beca that she was sothing divine. At a glance it would be fine, just an outlier that had not perished like so many did. But people would notice, especially ones that could read auras better than Caethya could.
"Thank you?" Aperio replied, slightly tilting her head again. Her hair shifted, and Caethya's eyes were drawn to its blue sheen. "But, I assu that ans I cannot hide? The goal was to not stand out, after all."
"You will always stand out, but I don't think you would be recognised as a Goddess or the Creator like this. As for passing as an Elder…" Caethya's voice trailed off as she glanced over Aperio again.
The way she held herself, how she sohow seed to be in command despite not doing anything certainly fit with the few Elders Caethya herself had t. Aperio also had a certain feel to her, one that seed to be almost ancient in nature. The Elf was not quite sure if that was because she knew who her Goddess was, or if everyone would feel like that.
"I think it could work for short periods of ti," she said after a mont. "But, do you know what the Elders usually do? Have the proper identification if soone asks? …Do you even have any form of identification?"
The All-Mother sighed at her question, her swordstaff vanishing as she sat herself down. "I do not have anything I could use to identify myself with. Except perhaps my voice and the wisps, but that is not sothing truly unique."
"I forgot about those," Caethya quietly admitted. She had gotten used to the power in Aperio's voice and the wisps of her mana. It was not exactly a common occurrence — enough so that it would seem off to the average person — but she had seen quite a few adventurers that displayed their mana in physical form. She herself had done it a few tis, mostly to scare off so annoying patrons in a certain bar she used to frequent.
"You can hide the wisps," Caethya said, though the inflection was more that of a query. "While it is not that uncommon, it is usually only done as a show of strength. Condensing your mana into physical form like that is not exactly easy. As for your voice… It might actually help you sell yourself as an Elder."
Aperio tilted her head to the other side, the tick of her Goddess bringing a small smile to Caethya's face. "Oh? How would that help?"
"Well," Caethya began, her hands brushing over her dress as she tried to banish from her mind the idea that an Elder might sohow be listening in. "They like to play themselves up; intimidate people. Infusing your voice with mana is not that hard, but doing it every day for every word you speak? Not sothing the average person can do."
"So I will be seen as either an unusually strong Elder or an especially pretentious one? I assu the way I speak will lead people to the latter."
"Perhaps," Caethya said, nodding slightly. "But there are many noble houses that prefer your way of speaking. My parents do it too when there is soone not from the family present, and we are not even nobles per se."
Aperio paused for a mont at the ntion of her parents — or perhaps her status. "Have you told your parents about ?"
"I did," she replied imdiately, her heart beating faster as the aura of her Goddess changed almost imperceptibly. "Should I not have?"
"You are free to do as you please," the All-Mother replied. "I just realised that I might be keeping you from your family. If you wish to visit them, all you need to do is ask. …And tell
where I should bring you when you do."
"You have not been keeping
from anything. I chose to stay with you. Honestly, I never really thought I would find you, and never planned on going ho until many years from now. Vetus is huge, after all. It would have taken
centuries to explore it all."
Aperio's brows creased lightly at her words, the All-Mother perhaps aware of the workings of the universe that she herself would chalk up to Fate or Destiny. But then, she does not seem to be aware of the world at all sotis. Almost as if she had forgotten about it…
Caethya's thoughts were interrupted by a surge of mana washing over her — the tingling of Aperio's mana replaced a short mont later by the confused chatter of people. Laelia's voice rose over those of the crowd as she tried to get their attention, the sound reaching her ears despite the fact that the people were not close at all.
"I am sorry to cut our talk short," the All-Mother said, lowering her head slightly. "But Laelia asked if there was a space more suited for the freed slaves." A small sighed escaped Aperio as she looked in the direction in which Caethya assud she had teleported the group. "I have freed them, and now I have to care for them. I hope you understand that I have to do this, and that it is not sothing I do to get away.
"Spending ti with you is… calming to ," Aperio continued. "Enough that I would consider asking you to accompany
to Procul had we not made prior arrangents with Lord Terenyk."
Caethya averted her gaze at the potential option of travelling with Aperio. She would very much like to do that, but much like her Goddess, she had made a promise that she intended to keep. There was, however, an option that the All-Mother had not — or did not want to — consider.
"I think both Maria and Adam could use so actual experience in the world from ti to ti," Caethya said. "And who could protect them better than you?"
Aperio tilted her head slightly at the question. "They would be better protected if I did not put them in danger in the first place. I have no intention of letting any harm co to Maria, and I do not know what awaits
on Procul. Not truly, at least."
"Maria is stronger than you think and Adam will need to learn the ropes of this world. From what he told , where he ca from is… very different. Neither monsters nor magic, for example."
"I know," Aperio sighed, quietly mumbling her next few words. "Another thing that is broken and requires repair." With a shake of her head, the All-Mother stood up, extending her hand towards Caethya. "I will think about it."
The Elf took the offered hand, letting Aperio pull her upwards. "Do you wish to listen to the address?"
"Of course I want to join," Caethya replied with a smile, giving the All-Mother's hand a slight squeeze. Perhaps the gesture did not an much to Aperio, but it did to her.
The smile did not leave her face as she felt the warm touch of Aperio's mana wash over her entire being for a brief mont. Then, the magic of her Goddess ripped the both of them from the field of flowers. When they reappeared, Caethya could only describe her surroundings as a throne room.
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