217 Dimensionality II (1/2)
”Does that form not encumber you within these boundaries?” said his copy, extending a cordial hand to Li to sit on the stool opposite of it. ”Sit in comfort, for whatever form you choose, it is all the same.”
Li paused for a moment, gathering his thoughts, then decided to entertain this thing, for he still had the gut feeling that all he wished to have and know lay here. He shifted back to his human form, and as he sat on the stool, he began to realize that he had never once stepped foot into the cottage in his true form.
”So, what are you?” asked Li.
”What am I?” repeated the clone, and it was then that Li realized it was exceedingly difficult to get a read on his copy's facial expressions. They were wreathed in flickering, ever moving shadows, almost rendering him coldly faceless. ”I am you. And you are me.”
”I've heard that before, and I'm beginning to want a clearer answer than that.”
The copy sat up straighter. ”Of course, you would. You have never liked being in the dark. Not when you were little, and not now when it comes to matters of knowledge.
Then let my words flow simply: I am your eldritch being manifested.”
”And why do you have to exist?” said Li as he peered at the clone, feeling strangely disembodied talking to someone that he realized at an instinctive level was equally himself as he was now. ”I know I have several sides to my power. My power as a forest guardian and, of course, my eldritch powers, but my guardian powers have never had to manifest another being like this.”
”Why do I exist?” repeated the clone. ”Because you wish me to.”
”No, if anything, it's just an inconvenience,” said Li. ”I can sense it. You have the power that I want. Control over the power around us. If you are me, then you can yield that power to me.”
”You do not desire that.”
”I'm pretty sure I do.”
”If you truly did, then I would not exist.” The clone crossed its dark legs together and peered keenly at Li. ”Let me elucidate. You believe you have a sense of self. That is your humanity. You wish to retain it because you know that others rely upon it.
The old man, and now, your newfound daughter. Family.”
”The same was said to me about my forest divinity. But gradual exposure and experience with it has granted me far more control over my divine powers without having me lose any of my humanity. The same can be done here.”
The same has been done by spirits and divinities many times in this world.”
”Then I see no issues here. I do not need all this power now. Only a piece of it to shape to my will.”
”That, I can do for you.”
Li paused. ”You will do that for me? If this is my power, should I not be doing this for myself?”
”Is that not what you have created me for?”
”I don't recall ever creating you.”
”Recollection is ephemeral. In flux. Particularly within the confines of human comprehension and interpretation. But it will be sufficient for me to explain.
Think, and remember, the times you have used powers you deem 'eldritch'.”
”I've been using my eldritch powers ever since I came to this new world,” said Li. ”And I haven't used them to the point I've been losing my humanity just yet. I can afford to use a little more.”
”Yet the times you did use them, did you not feel a sensation? A creeping, foreign sensation icily crawling through your being? The thrill of destruction, of enforcing the ultimatum of chaos upon matter – an ultimatum that you interpreted as bloodlust? As cruelty?”
”And that bloodlust and cruelty passed because I knew to moderate my usage of those spells,” countered Li. ”I never let it fundamentally change who I am.”
”No, you did not. By creating me.” The clone tapped the back of its head. ”All that which you thought was cruelty, bloodlust, coldness, your human sense of self understood was foreign, and thus instinctively and subconsciously rejected, shunting it all away here.