21 Correcting Oversights & Picking Quests (1/2)
I was still in my room when I received the notification. It came so early that I was actually in the same spot I had been hours ago when I first threw my mind into Mawby's dream. When it came I had only been out of Hagitha's dream a few minutes.
[Alert:
Mawby the goblin has uttered a prayer to your persona the entity named Cosecha. Would you like to hear it?]
The notification roused me from my bed, and I quietly informed the system that I would indeed like to hear the prayer. It entered my mind suddenly, and its contents were intriguing.
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[Good morning Cosecha. This is Mawby. I don't really know how to do this... This whole 'praying' thing I mean. How are you today? Are you doing well? I hope you are. Please provide me with some guidance about how to... pray good, I guess? I want to do it, I just genuinely don't know how.]
The prayer made me laugh, and revealed a mistake I had made: I assumed she knew how to pray, baselessly at that since I was the first god to exist in untold millennia and I doubted many other creatures asked for beings to send them prayers. I spent a moment chiding myself, and quickly prepared a response to the little goblin.
[Good morning Mawby. I am well. I hope you are too. I apologize for not properly explaining prayer to you. 'Prayer' to me means mentally conversing with me. As a god, though my identity as a god is a secret, I can hear messages that come from mortals and are addressed to me.] I began to explain, eager to educate the girl.
She must have been in a place where she could relax, perhaps she had just woken up because she replied to me almost immediately.
[Oh! What is the purpose of prayer? Or... what is it's purpose when you are the recipient of prayer?] She asked me, curiosity embedded in her voice. I chuckled at her curiosity and felt enthused by it.
[The purpose of prayer, when praying to me, is to ask for aid in healing someone, or inform me of creatures who are in danger of starving. That said I like conversing with creatures and if you just want to talk to me that'd make me quite happy.] I told her, continuing our unusual conversation.
[Oh! Well that's very nice of you.] She said, pleasantly surprised by the interaction we were having. I doubted that she had expected a god to be personable and friendly, so for a moment, I opted to ask her what she knew about deities.
[Had you ever heard of gods before you met... insofar as you could call our interaction us 'meeting' me?] I inquired, wondering about what she knew about my species.
[Yes! Goblins tell stories of a mythic age, an age wherein creatures that no longer exist roamed the worlds. Gods, angels, demons, creatures that since gone... exti... extint?] She mentally uttered, starting off nice and confident but finishing rather insecurely.
Her statement struck me as curious. And so far in my life, I had gotten far by being curious. I wasn't about to stop today. So my next statement wasn't directed towards her, but the system itself.
”So... I know gods aren't extinct. I can assume demons aren't, given the name of the condition that Troik is suffering from, but are 'angels' extinct? And also... what are angels?” I asked it, curiously. The response I got wasn't one I had to wait for.
[No. We don't know where she got the idea that demons and angels went extinct. Both have entire dimensions they live in and rule over. Demons are chaotic evil creatures who dwell in a dimension known as 'The Heart of Darkness', a place of infinite environments and equally infinite evil. They themselves are the physical manifestations of liberated evil and cruelty without order.] The system explained, briefly.
[Angels are neutral creatures who came into being at the whims of the gods. In the ancient past, they devotedly served the gods. The rules that godly communities made and lived by often prohibited deity-to-mortal contact aside from in dreams but the angels were not beholden to such rules and gods made use of them to enforce their wills.] My companion revealed.
[Angels haven't gone extinct, but there aren't any in this world. That explains why this goblin thinks that they've gone extinct... And the more overt and brutal demons are likely to eventually have been banished from this planet, though it's likely that the more subtle ones successfully escaped being expelled from this dimension.] The voice muttered, mulling over things that were out of its wheelhouse.
I allowed it to ponder the possibilities it was contemplating and turned my attention back to Mawby. [Do you mind telling me about the stories you mentioned? The ones that mentioned the gods.] I asked her, curiously.