Chapter 154: Book 4 Prologue

Soter’s entire body groaned as he felt another spell skim off his defenses, the impact pulling another hunk of his already dwindling aether pool and leaving him feeling even weaker as he sank into a chair.

Tinaka must be getting desperate. He ground his teeth as the pressure of the clash slowly left him. If past attempts to break into the shared realm were any indication, he had about an hour reprieve until the next attempt would be made, not that it would matter; He summoned a terminal to check on his prayers knowing he was stuck in a losing battle at this point, his aether pool would be unable to refill as fast as it was being burned off meaning it was only a matter of time now. 

The bound shroud spell was tied directly to his aether pool, to his own soul; designed as a last resort spell to buy time; it was never meant to be a long-term solution, nor was it ever meant to be used on this scale. No, it was supposed to be a single target spell, to shield a single person, not an entire realm and if he was honest, he was quite happy that it had managed to hold up for this long. But in the end, every spell has its price, and a channeled spell like this one on this scale had a steep price. 

If it was only himself, or even just his sister’s grove he could probably hold this spell up indefinitely even with people actively trying to break in; a safe little bubble they could have hid in until the primordial court came and dealt with Valor... then again, his sister had been a recluse when he designed the spell. How could he have guessed that she would join the shared realm?

No, if she had just stayed hidden away in her realm, he could have protected them when everything went to hell, hidden them away where Valor would never have been able to find them. It was planned out perfectly! He had carefully designed this spell with his aether pool in mind, how often he received prayers, formed to perfectly intertwine with his two domains; to silently protect someone else.

Siofra never understood Soter’s stance on his domain over secrets, why he would choose a sub domain of protection instead of becoming the god of thieves; but for the goddess of wisdom she had always been rather short sighted, she was never one to think outside the box.

A thief may hold many deep dark secrets, the workings of their organization and their targets. But a guard? A stalwart protector, always silently standing within earshot lest they are needed, always listening, filing away the deep dark secrets of their masters while they fulfill their duties. And those are the secrets Soter has always been after, the ones that could threaten an entire nation if they were ever spoken aloud. His followers were the embodiment of his ideals, defenders; protectors of information they will never use. After all, a shield is just a piece of metal, it doesn’t care what side the evil is coming from.

Though all of that didn’t matter now as he looked down at his shriveled form. Every time they attacked his barrier, he grew weaker and weaker, his soul shriveled; if something didn’t change soon he would be little more than a dried out husk, unable to defend even himself more less those important to him, though he can take some solstice that his spell may remain for a time after he is gone as it burns off what is left of his divine essence.  

They had, of course, attempted to supplement his power but that had led to… alarming conclusions. Things so long forgotten to this world that brought a sudden light to some things but shrouded others in deeper mystery. 

Their first attempt was simple, just have the others in the shared realm offer power to him as they saw Valor do in the last holy court. It… hadn’t worked, in fact, not only did it not work it suddenly became clear that the head of the holy court was far more than the ornamental position they had thought. Buried in a long forgotten part of the system was a contract Veritas only managed to find when they attempted to breach it, one that labeled the head of the court as a champion of the gods; the chosen one to represent them in the primordial court if the need ever arose which allows all the gods of a world to lend their power to a single god incase they required it. 

So, with that in mind, Veritas had attempted to recreate a form of that agreement for him only to find her domain may allow her control over contracts in the mortal realm, the divine realms were a completely different story. The system itself rebuffed her attempts to form the contract, even her attempts to force it fizzled against whatever had created the original agreement… well there was only one group who could impose a binding on the system itself. They may have been able to rig up a work around with the help of the admin, but they still had no way of contacting Eryl.

This led to their other alarming discovery, however, once it became clear there was no way to supplement Soter’s power, Siofra had attempted to give him a portion of her own power the only other way they had seen done. She attempted to bless him, and the results were… not great to say the least. They quickly learned why they had never heard of a god being blessed by another divine. 

Long story short, in order to bless a soul, one needs to be considered a higher being from the one being blessed. Given they are both gods however, to form a blessing would be… difficult, as the system had kindly informed them after nearly frying Siofra for her attempt to force the blessing.

The terminal that appeared kindly informed them that if Siofra had tried to bless Soter it would have caused his soul to drain itself as it attempted to defend itself against the attempt to alter it, that was of course if she managed to force her way past the system to do it. 

A blessing is designed for aether to travel one way and mana the other, with strict limiters in place to keep someone from completely draining a lesser soul though the bond. With two gods however, aether could potentially flow freely through the bond and completely exhaust one of the two souls making it very dangerous in the systems opinion, as such, it is banned to do so. 

 Which leads to the question of what exactly was Hecatolite that she was able to bless not only mortals but other divine beings without the system attempting to stop her? Or had it and it simply couldn’t stop her? Well, Soter had a guess, but he wasn’t exactly ready to admit it just yet. 

After all, Hecatolite continues to do things with absolutely no regard for what anyone thinks is possible… But could that really be what she is? Soter was far from an expert on the primes but… all the pieces fit even that strange title that his domain shows him whenever it displays her name. “Me, the endless abyss”. 

The terminal in his hands flickered as he thought of the strange title he had seen, as it had done whenever he attempted to decipher the mystery that was Hecatolite Lapidary. The terminal always reacted, a flash of incomprehensible gibberish before returning to normal any time he tried to place the girl. That was always followed by an interruption, like the world itself didn’t want him to figure it out…

Soter did know a little about each of the primes, as any god of his age did, and she didn’t exactly fit in what he knew of the four primordials. 

Light was a god among gods, the very definition of integrity as he tried to guide others on the path of righteousness. He would never destroy a soul as Hecatolite has. 

Life was also definitely out, she would never have caused the destruction Hecatolite had as far as Soter knew.

Darkness… sure but from all he knew of her, she ruled with an iron fist but as long as everyone around her followed orders she was rather benevolent if a little sadistic in her treatment of those who crossed her. But he couldn’t see her trotting around on the mortal realm for half the time Hecatolite had for any reason…

That left Death… Could Hecatolite be Death in disguise… no, it didn’t fit. Death was the most likely prime to destroy a soul but from what Soter knew death always appeared as a one-armed man alongside Life. He never moved alone throughout the universe.

Is it possible she was... 

The trees around him shifted as Siofra burst into the grove. “Brother.” She nodded to him before rushing to the middle of the grove. “I may have a solution to one of our problems.” 

Every time. “Oh?” He asked as he filed his thoughts away, as he had done every time before when thinking about Hecatolite. 

His sister nodded as she summoned her own terminal, “Jaki and Veritas, please come to my grove if you have questions for Eryl.” She dismissed it before turning to him. “Remember that scrying spell I put on the sister, the one tied to my blessing?”

“I recall, though as the goddess of wisdom you may wish to remember the names of your followers.” He deadpanned as she called forth a table made of vines, the low table had a large indentation in the middle as if it were a bowl.

Siofra rolled her eyes, “Yes well if she were actually one of my followers then I may remember her name. She bares my blessing along with all the necessary skills and she still refuses to pray to me once Hecatolite isn’t around.” She paused to fill the bowl with water, “Though I guess I can cut her some slack, after all even if she doesn’t pray to me regularly, she still calls on my power when she needs it. And she is contributing greatly to the knowledge of this world…”

“Alexandrite Lapidary.” Soter provided the girl's name, “the twins call her Alexa.” 

Siofra snapped her fingers, “Yes, her. So, as I was saying, I incorporated a scrying spell into her blessing that allows me to watch the world through her eyes. I had actually gotten that idea from Veritas since she does that with all of her chosen so she can act as a witness to contracts on the mortal realm, given that I can view the world through nature, I never saw a need to incorporate that was until Hecatolite came along.”

Soter nodded along as Siofra started drawing a crude spell circle on the table, “Since Hecatolite has the propensity to just vanish when eyes aren’t on her, did you know they lost her in the great forest? You would think with two admins, Amethyst, and an army of elves they could have had at least one person watching her but nope, she just wandered off. I even had a hard time finding her in the middle of a forest of all places, no idea why but scrying spells refuse to work on her. Completely invisible even inside of a forest, it’s actually very alarming.”

“The point sister?” Soter knew if he didn’t cut her off, she would ramble on as she tried to dissect how and why spells didn’t work on Hecatolite and that was a rabbit hole he didn’t want to go down. His sister had always been obsessive when something caught her eye, a trait that helped her greatly when she became the goddess of wisdom since she would dissect everything about a topic before moving on. Though he thinks that’s why Siofra likes the twins so much, they were… different. An oddity in a world she had learned nearly everything about. 

It was… nice to see her like this again, Siofra had long since gotten bored of this world and it had shown in her actions as a goddess in the last thousand or so years. “I am getting to it,” she rolled her eyes, “As I was saying. Hecatolite seems to be immune to scrying and given her displeasure with the divine tampering with Amethyst I didn’t want to risk altering my blessing on her to include scrying as I had with the elder sister. But, the twins are meeting with the elven council right now, and it just so happens that the head of the council is none other than one of my very own chosen.” 

“Wait, if Hecatolite is immune to scrying, and you can't scry on Amethyst how do you know they are meeting with the council?”

“I received a prayer just now asking for guidance on a proposed alliance with the twins' home nation.” She didn’t seem to see anything odd about the coincidence of it all but to the god of secrets it seemed just a little… coincidental that she received a prayer the moment he was focusing on thinking about Hecatolite? 

It… has to be just a coincidence, right? He looked down at the terminal still in his hands, even a primordial couldn’t alter someone’s prayers… it flickered again as if mocking him before Ashmit appeared holding a very shaken Jaki.

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“I happened to be talking to our fearless leader when a little birdy told her you may have a way to contact our beloved admin?”

Soter glared at the terminal as Siofra explained her plan to the two, and again as Veritas arrived. Ashmit being there wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. With Ashmit, who is the acting representative of the devils in the shared realm, in this impromptu meeting so no one could say they weren’t being inclusive. Or Soter thought so at least; Jaki was the elected leader along with the three elder gods, they made up the loose ruling party of the shared realm. They were the ones everyone else seemed to look to for answers at the very least. 

“So, in the end you plan on just scrying on the mortal realm?” Veritas asked skeptically, “I don’t see how this will help us contact Eryl.”

“Wouldn’t…. it be better to just send your follower a premonition?” Jaki asked nervously.

Siofra for her part looked a bit sheepish as she answered, “I… could.” She didn’t want to admit that she wasn’t very good at premonitions, the one she had sent Alexa was the first she had sent in… well, ages. And Soter had to help her plan it out. How would she relay the concept of changing a setting she didn’t even know existed in the terminals? To a mortal who didn't have the skill it would likely all come out as complete gibberish. She wasn’t even sure how the twins managed to turn off part of their system, right now she was just assuming Eryl or the other admin had helped them.

Ashmit laughed, “You both are thinking too much.” He leaned over the pool of water, the medium Siofra planned to use so they could all view the spell. “I for one am looking forward to seeing our little Deities.”

Soter leaned forward in his chair. He wouldn’t agree outwardly with the devil, but he was curious. The last time he had seen Hecatolite or Amethyst they were souls in their shared soul space, now they were in their own bodies. “I have the creeping suspicion one of them will notice the spell and this will work out.” He didn’t dismiss his terminal, instead setting it beside the pool of water just in case. 

With that Siofra began casting the spell, chanting as the pool gradually started glowing. Slowly an image began to form in the still glass like water.

A large circular white room with large intertwining roots running along the walls, vanishing into the stone floor that looked as if it had been made to accommodate them. Their vantage point was clearly from the head of a large semicircular table that covered half the room as if made so all those seated would be facing the center. 

In the middle of the room stood two people. One was what could only be a tiny human girl with long black hair and bright purple eyes that snapped to them the moment the image came into focus. 

Though he couldn’t be bothered to look at the human girl as standing beside her, dwarfing the small girl, was a gorgeous elven woman. She was… familiar though he was positive he had never met her before. 

Soter was transfixed on the woman as she snapped her attention to the man who Siofra had used for this spell. None of them noticed the strange shimmer, the image shifting as if something had passed in front of it, as Siofra spoke.

“That must be Eryl.” Siofra commented as she looked into the pool, none of them noticing that the other side had gone strangely… still. 

“Really?” He couldn’t look away as the woman’s large blue eyes seemed to scan the person at the head of the table, her ears folding down as the tiny human seemed to tense.

“She used me as the base for her homunculus, so I am pretty sure. Not many high elves are running around nowadays.” Siofra added as they all turned their attention to the small girl beside her, “That’s probably Amethyst, if the purple eyes are any indication…”

“Why are they all…” Jaki leaned closer to the pool, the tiny woman needing to stand on her tiptoes to see unlike the other four. “Just standing there. Isn’t this a scrying spell, shouldn’t they…”

“Hi.” The breathy voice sounded as if it had been spoken directly into all their ears as the room on the other side of the image seemed to shift.

“Please everyone, be calm.” An elderly man's voice sounded from the pool as they could all see a shriveled hand appear as the man tried to placate the surrounding guards who had all stepped forward. “She means me no harm.” The elderly voice continued as they all watched the strange scene unfold.

Amethyst and Eryl hadn’t moved from their spots, Eryl looking as stoic as ever as Amethyst just smiled towards the head of the table. From where they were all watching it looked as if she was smiling directly at them, was she thankful to the elderly man they were using as a focus of the spell? 

Before they could contemplate any more, the entire spell flashed. The glowing pool flashing bright white for a moment as a pair of blood red eyes materialized in the pool as if they were inches in front of the man. 

Jaki would have screamed as they all recoiled from the sudden shift, if the accompanying pressure hadn’t caused the small goddess to go completely rigid. Her body locked in place as a wide toothy smile appeared next below the eyes, “You have tiny people in your eyes.” 

The eyes shifted closer until the entirety of the pool was just two red orbs that seemed to scan each of them. Soter was the only one to see the terminal beside the pool flash a crimson red, as a single message appeared on its screen.

I̷̭̺̻͕̮̋̇͒̒ ̵̝̍̾͘͠s̵̮̄ẻ̶̪̑̑͊͒̚ḙ̴̝͕̠̓̌̈̕ ̷̙̱̘̮͍̌̊̀̃y̸̡̛̮͙͖̫̭̆o̶̠̤͙͛̈́̋u̸̢̱̩̟͎͂̀̕.̸̼͈͑̍̐̓̾̚

 “Oh! It’s Siofra and her pervy brother!” And as quickly as it came the pressure vanished, Jaki collapsing backwards as they all finally saw her.

Squatting on the table before the elder elf was a small, disheveled woman with wild white hair and bright red eyes. Her face split into an inhuman smile as she waved a clawed hand at the table of gods inside the man’s eyes, “Hi, it’s rude to just go peeping at people while they’re in a meeting you know? If you guys wanted in, you should have just asked… Hey wait a minute… that purple guy with a horn.”

Ashmit, just as confused as the others, pointed at himself as he leaned over the pool. “Yea you, have I seen you before… yea, you’re the cult guy, with the cookies! You guys have the best cookies, you wouldn’t happen to have any?” Hecatolite leaned closer to the man’s face, the pool again filling with only her as she whispered into what Soter could only assume is the man’s eyes, “This meeting is super boring, they have been talking forever and I’m like really hungry. Don’t tell Amethyst but I was hoping you guys were going to be like bad guys trying to spy on us so I could nibble on you.” She leaned back and flashed them a wide toothy grin that sent a shiver down Soter’s back. If the way Veritas’s wings ruffled he wasn’t the only one. “But now I’m happy you’re not. I haven’t seen Siofra and Soter in forever! How have you been? You never call, never write, I was worried you guys were avoiding me or something.” Hecatolite pouted.

Over her shoulder however, Soter could see something… strange. The room was now a flurry of motion as people rushed around, and standing in the middle of the room Eryl and Amethyst were joined by another small woman who was animatedly gesturing to Hecatolite as two more elves approached them.

As Hecatolite pouted the new woman’s face suddenly went completely slack as her bright green eyes went wide in shock and a terminal appeared in her hands and Soter labeled her as Himari, the second admin.

Mere moments later Siofra and Soter both received a message from Amethyst.

“Message from Amethyst Lapidary, The all faiths saint.” The terminals appeared beside them both, displaying her “mortal” name as it normally does when others are around. “I am so sorry! We shut off the incoming messages so the terminals wouldn’t just appear when we got to Felnnor and forgot to turn them back on!”  

Soter looked at the terminal briefly as the message was read aloud, “And just like that, problem solved.” Siofra dusted her hands like she had planned the whole thing, Veritas looking at her in pure astonishment as Ashmit laughed.

Jaki for her part was all but hiding under the table now, muttering about how impossible that all is, a sentiment Soter could understand. After all she wasn’t wrong… mostly. One could counter scry a scrying spell, in theory. If they were skilled enough to trace its point of origin, but that would require someone of unmatched skill in the art. To locate a scrying spell, identify it and trace it back to its caster then cast a scrying spell along the tendreal of energy that linked the two areas would be… difficult. Impossible most would say. 

But Hecatolite had just… well did it. So clearly it wasn’t impossible, who am I trying to kid? Siofra could only scry on the mortal realm because she's a goddess. Looking back through someone else’s spell like that should be impossible, more less scrying on the divine planes from the mortal realm is a big no no in the system but Hecatolite could cleary see them. The fact she asked Ashmit for cookies was clear enough on that front.

For the three divine who had never met her, Hecatolite was everything they thought she was, and more!