Chapter 1296 (1/2)
Randidly’s jaw worked soundlessly for several seconds as he tried to come to terms with the words he had just heard. “Your son… is the System…?”
Also, Randidly’s ears perked up naturally at the mention of the Pinnacle; in the nomenclature of the System, that term had a special significance. It was just a matter of figuring out what that significance was. Beyond even THAT Randidly couldn’t believe something else that he had heard: that Elhume was the Creature’s husband.
For a few seconds, Randidly’s emotions were suppressed from the sheer weight of the bewilderment that he felt. He finally became something approaching calm.
The Creature’s voice continued to speak like an intern reading through a meeting's minutes. “Now, despite our differences, I’m sure that got your attention. But I believe some contextual explanations are in order. Short ones, here in the letter, because as long as you figure out the object in the ivory bowl by my coffin… you will inherit my memories. Not just the ones I use to animate incarnations… but my true memories. Of who I was before I became the Creature.”
That was enough to bring his emotions back into play. Rather sourly, Randidly glanced sideways at the empty ivory bowl and then at the three remaining image traces around it that the Creature’s Aether continued to cling to, even as the rest of the Creature’s workings fell to pieces. But it seemed that the Creature wasn’t quite being as generous as she had claimed in the letter.
Can you unwind those now? Randidly asked Neveah.
Randidly could feel Neveah’s grimace. ...It will be difficult. But I can try.
Nodding, Randidly turned back to listen to the Creature’s voice.
“-the beginning,” The Creature spoke in a slow and even tone like she was lecturing. “Which brings me to the place I was born. Hallohm. A city populated entirely by beings of Aether. We possessed no actual bodies, but Aether was all we needed. We were aware of beings like you… but we existed amongst the great celestial bodies of the universe; we considered you little more than bugs. And we had the power to back it up.
“Before the System, there were no concrete definitions of how much power we Aether beings possessed. But it was significant; you’ve never encountered a true Aether being before, but it is enough to say that even at our weakest, we could overpower a Nether Gatekeeper. Those lesser beings are a much-neutered version of the beings that once roamed this universe.
“And you should also know that the current farce of a war you recently participated in is a reflection of the very real terror I grew up experiencing. I pulled the covers over my head when I couldn’t sleep after my mother told me stories about the Nether.
“So strange, in retrospect. I suspect the beings of Nether hated us just as surely as we hated them. And probably feared us just as badly too… But because we were of one mind, on the rare chance that beings of pure Aether and Nether met each other, they would always fight. Always.
“Sorry, I digress. You can learn more in the memories. But for you to understand, you must know that my people believed we were descended from the great Shallah, which were a race of pure energy beings. Our bodies were pure Aether, but both Aether and Nether are forms of energy that mimick other things. Memory, image, connection, emotion. But the Shallah… they truly were nothing but energy. They were perfection. The pinnacle of evolution.
Those Shallah lived in Eden, where anything was possible. Where energy could exist without diffusing in the great emptiness of space. But due to the actions of the Nether, both of the Aether and Nether were banished from this perfect place and punished by being forced back from the superior forms of the Shallah.
“Elhume was the historian of Hallohm, although the actual job was more like a religious proselytizer. He told stories to put fires in the bellies of the people in our small village. To keep them ready to raise blades if Nether forces were ever spotted. Which basically never happened; before the System started pulling everything together, space was incomparably vast…
“I fell for his passion. Just… in that small village, nothing changed. And he… he was bright and beautiful…”
There were a few seconds of silence, seemingly as the Creature was lost in her thoughts. Then, when she started speaking again, her cadence has risen sharply. “The details… you can see in my memories. Even now, the experience is painful to recall. Suffice to say, I married Elhume. Very quickly, I was disillusioned by the man I had bound myself to. He was bright, yes, monstrously so, but he also hated the Nether with more emotion than I had ever encountered in my life. It scared me. So much so that I… began to wander through space, seeking to find… something beyond my minuscule village.
“I was seeking anything to escape the truth of my existence. Because the only way that we beings of pure Aether can have children… is to sacrifice our own lives. Unlike creatures with physical bodies, our essence is finite; to have children we essentially pour ourselves into a different container. It is similar to reincarnation. But the fact that we were married meant that Elhume and I had both agreed to slowly pour our own life force into birthing the next generation of our people. And he always expected that I would go first.
“I didn’t want that at all. Despite my narrow view of the world, I wanted… I don’t know. I wanted to mean something. So I wandered to avoid the doom I had chosen for myself. And… I found a Nether King in the wide dark. He was wounded and-”
The Creature stopped speaking. She sighed. Even then, a few more seconds passed before she began to speak again. “Well, you will see eventually, I suppose. We were intimate. He left, fearful that his people would discover me as they searched for him. As he too was running. And I… I had a son, alone in the dark.
“He was incandescent. A being of pure energy. A genuine Shallah. I named him Pine. He smiled and my heart melted. Yet the intensity of his existence almost immediately began to fade.
“Not knowing what else to do, I raced back to Hallohm. Even then, Elhume was more powerful than me, and if there was anyone who could save Pine, it would be Elhume. I busted down my own door and presented Elhume with the bundle of radiant energy I was dragging behind me. He asked what happened and I said… ‘We had a son’.”
Again the Creature paused before speaking. “It is important to note that not all Aether children are made from one person. Oftentimes couples mix half of themselves and half of the other spouse to create their offspring. So when Elhume was confused, I made up a story about siphoning off some of his energy because I wanted my child to have some of him in it… and he believed it, even as his eyes went round and he looked at the being he immediately recognized as a genuine Shallah in front of him.”
The Creature began to laugh. “I was such a fool. I thought I was so clever. But what I missed while congratulating myself was that horrible darkness in Elhume, the part that had been waiting all his life for proof that he was something special. And now, clothed in a lie, I brought him a story that tasted close enough to truth. Elhume had given birth to the first Shallah in recorded history, due to the fact I had ‘used’ his essence in the formation of our son.