Chapter 112: Revelations – Chapter 109: A Class Act

GamingWolf

Caethya's hand blindly reached for the covers, pulling the feathery blanket further up as soon as she had found it. A moment later she opened her eyes, and her vision was filled with black feathers that shimmered blue in the dim light of the room. She wanted to turn, but two arms wrapped around her waist kept her securely in place.

"Aperio?" she asked quietly, unsure if the slow, rhythmic breathing of the All-Mother was a sign of sleeping or relaxation. No answer came; Aperio only held on a little tighter as her breathing quickened.

Caethya did not need her eyes to know that Aperio was not having a good night. The temperature of the room was steadily dropping, and the light that came from the chandelier and crystals along the wall was being pushed back by a darkness that was most assuredly not normal.

That she could also feel a mixture of fear, anger, and sadness from her Goddess was not a good sign. Even if she were to only dislike the idea of the one she loved having a bad night, Caethya was well aware that Aperio only needed a thought to make something reality and she dreaded what the All-Mother could dream up.

She wriggled in Aperio's hold, slowly turning around until she was face to face with her Goddess. Eyes flicked back and forth behind closed eyelids in a face that twisted in what Caethya could only describe as pain. Slowly but surely, the Elf freed one of her hands and gently brushed it against Aperio's cheek.

The All-Mother moved away slightly from her touch, mumbling something as she held on a little tighter. Caethya removed her hand but otherwise ignored the contradicting actions of Aperio, instead trying to reach her with a prayer.

Aperio's eyes flew open not a breath later, the bed breaking below her as she removed herself from it without the help of magic. Caethya herself had been left unharmed, a thin barrier of mana protecting her from the splinters and keeping her perfectly still in the air.

The All-Mother had her wings flared and stood in a low crouch as arcs danced across her skin. For a long, dreadful moment, Caethya thought Aperio would attack her. Instead, she could feel the temperature of the room climb again and the light slowly take on its usual warm glow. She could sense the bed beneath her repairing itself, the wooden splinters slotting back where they had been as if time was reversed.

"I apologise," Aperio mumbled, appearing at the foot of the bed. Caethya found herself gently deposited on the heavenly soft creation. "I did not mean to scare you."

"You did not scare me," Caethya said, inviting the All-Mother to join her on the bed by patting it lightly. "Not in the way I think you mean, at least. I am concerned for your well-being."

Aperio obliged, appearing next to her with her face buried in the pillows. Her wings were splayed out to the sides, brushing over Caethya's knees and hanging off of each side of the large bed. The Elf ran her hands across the feathered limbs, smiling slightly at the mumbles that came from her Goddess in response. "Do you wish to talk about it?"

"No," Aperio replied with a shake of her head that caused her hair to shimmer blue as it caught the light in the chamber. "Just a bad dream." She sighed, turning onto her back, her wings simply moving through the bed. "It was not even a memory. Not really, at least."

"Dreams rarely make sense," Caethya said, gently placing her hand on Aperio's. "But I had assumed that you were used to dreams like this; that this was the reason you did not sleep."

"I did not sleep because I haven't been tired since I returned." She directed her gaze at Caethya for a moment before she sighed and lowered it again. "I just thought it would be nice to…"

"It would be nice to, what?" the Elf asked after a moment of silence, raising an eyebrow. "Sleep?"

"Be with you," Aperio said quietly. "Hold you. Not worry about the world."

"We can still do that," Caethya said, laying herself next to Aperio and trying to pull her into her arms. That failed of course, but before she could do anything more the All-Mother had wrapped her arms and wings around Caethya and held her tightly against herself.

"Thank you," Aperio mumbled, her voice muffled by Caethya's hair hanging in front of her face.

The Elf smiled slightly, wriggling her arm free of Aperio's hug so she could run her hand over her Goddess' wings. "You shouldn't feel bad for wanting contact," she said. "You also don't need to thank me for spending time with me, I enjoy this as much as you do."

There was no reply, the All-Mother only holding on a little tighter with her arms and wings. Caethya did not mind, as she would rather wait for Aperio to move things along than push her and ruin what they already had. Time does not matter anymore.

The Demigoddess of Creation closed her eyes, placing her hands on Aperio's own and gently stroking them. She knew that the All-Mother would not sleep again for a while, but she would still make their time together here as relaxing for her as she could.

It was plain as day to Caethya that her love did not show her affection through words but actions. In hindsight, she should have noticed it earlier. Every time they were together, Aperio went out of her way to be in contact with her — be it with physical touch or the warm embrace of her magic.

When did she realize how she felt? Caethya wondered as she shifted a little in Aperio's embrace. She doubted the All-Mother knew how she had felt until recently, perhaps believing it to be a coping mechanism that would only show her weakness.

She wanted to talk with the All-Mother about her past, help her work it out, but she knew that Aperio did not wish to speak about it. In time, Caethya thought to herself as the first bits of tiredness clawed at the edges of her consciousness again.

Aperio's ears twitched slightly as one of the machines that inhabited her temple scurried past, clearing the last bits of dust and debris her violent exit from the bed had created.

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She used her left wing to gently stroke Caethya's side while her arms held the sleeping Elf close. Her disciple’s hair tickled her nose whenever she moved in her sleep, something that would have likely annoyed her in the past but was strangely welcome now.

The All-Mother closed her eyes, enjoying the warmth of Caethya in her arms and the soothing sound of her slow breaths as her mind drifted towards the memories she had gained.

A thought brought her mind's eye into the System's space. She did not want to delve further into the details of her dream, nor did she want to try to ponder what Moria might have actually thought of her. Trying to learn more about the System with her newfound understanding of runes, all the while being in the comforting presence of Caethya, was a good distraction.

She brought up the part of the System that handled Classes, looking it over to see if she was able to better understand what exactly it was supposed to do. Upon first glance, it was immediately obvious that she still lacked knowledge on simple runes, as a good few of the archaic symbols continued to escape her grasp.

Still, the runes for Soul, Potential, Measure, and Grant gave her enough of an idea as to what this part was supposed to do. Looking deeper into it also showed various runes that combined disparate elements of magic together and attached something the System — or more likely, her old self — called an 'Emblematic Identifier' to a soul.

This identifier, while seemingly important, seemed to do nothing more than instruct another part of the System to grant something to the soul upon meeting a set of conditions she could not determine, as the part of the System that should handle that was all but absent. How did it just… disappear?

A bit of digging and a set of scrunched eyebrows revealed that it had not, as she had originally thought, disappeared. It was merely broken beyond belief, as the strands of mana that usually connected the runes together had snapped. Over what was surely a long stretch of time, the entire section lost cohesion and simply drifted apart. How exactly a rune — a letter, for lack of a better term — could even exist in a physical space to begin with was not something Aperio wanted to think about at the moment; the mere idea was already giving her a headache.

Her hands absentmindedly brushed gently over Caethya's stomach as she used a touch of her magic to form new runes. These she tied to the rest of the Class section of the System with a few fresh strands of Mana. She was not exactly sure if she had picked the right ones, but it looked — and more importantly felt — correct.

A Class, in her mind, would be something tailored to a mortal depending on what they had achieved in their life. Her old self had seemingly had a similar idea, as the Class part of the System was connected to a variety of other things, most of which were labelled along the lines of 'Feats' and 'Achievements'.

The presence of Mayeia outside her temple gave Aperio an idea. A thought created a piece of paper with a message asking the Goddess of Magic for any information she might have on 'Classes'. Her small note would have gone missing in the haphazard outdoor office the Goddess had made for herself if she had not created it directly in front of her.

Mayeia's eyes flew over the small piece of All-Mother-made paper; her eagerness practically palpable. In short order a stack of notebooks appeared on the desk she had gotten for herself from somewhere unknown, quickly followed by a mental whisper asking why she did not use telepathy.

Aperio would have tilted her head if she had not been lying down, but she could have sworn she had already told the other Goddess why she refrained from mental communications. With a shrug of her mind, she directed her thanks at Mayeia, teleporting the books into her chambers at the same time. It didn't hurt that Dragon too much, maybe she'll be fine.

The Goddess of Magic winced slightly as the All-Mother's message reached her, a note of understanding following it quickly thereafter. Mayeia did ask her to use telepathy nonetheless, as training for both Aperio and herself. The All-Mother distractedly conveyed her ambivalence on the issue and returned her focus on the Elf in her arms and the broken System.

Her disciple shifted in her arms, trying to turn over, and a touch of magic gently turned Caethya and herself to the other side. Aperio took a deep breath and closed her eyes, her brain silent for a moment.

She had never felt this calm — at peace — in her life. There was no anger or doubt at the moment, just the silent contentedness that the Elf in her arms brought with her. Aperio wanted to hold Caethya tighter and never let go, but that was sadly not an option. She would only hurt her, and she still had places to be. But not now.

Another thought both brought her back to the System and opened the notebooks Mayeia had given her. They were filled with sketches of what the Goddess had previously postulated to be the System's functioning parts. Runes intertwined with one another, building complex shapes that made no sense to Aperio and were most definitely not present in actuality.

She had to leaf pretty far through the books until she found what she had been looking for — descriptions of previous Classes and what they could do. There was a seemingly infinite amount of them, something Aperio had already guessed based on the way the System made a class for a mortal. Can two mortals even have the same one?

According to Mayeia's notes, the answer was yes. Mortals had gained one of a variety of fairly basic Classes in the past, either granted by a deity or through training and study. Some were born with one, but those had been rare and their Classes exceedingly powerful. But why did I make all of this?

Her question went unanswered as she read through more of Mayeia's notes. She did find more information on the way mortals used to acquire Classes. Those who had gained Classes had been the cornerstone of many empires and kingdoms, and when she had disappeared the presence of Classes had dwindled to simply Titles.

A Title did not provide the same bonuses as a Class but it was better than having none, at least according to the notes. How did I get Titles, then? Did I just give them to myself without knowing?

Both her [Demiurge] and [Forgotten] titles were self-explanatory, but it did not tell her how she had gotten them. Will I get a Class when I fix this? …Probably not.

With a silent sigh Aperio directed her attention back to the incoherent mess of runes that was her System, trying her best to fix something she had no memory or knowledge of making.

GamingWolf

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