Chapter 156: Book 4 chapter 2

Hecatolite grumbled as she led the group out of the council chambers, her bubbling annoyance clear the moment they were out of the ear shot of the council. “Stupid,” she hissed her tail, slapping the ground behind her as she walked.

“Hecatolite,” the soft hand on her shoulder caused Hecatolite to flinch. “What's wrong?” again Hecatolite winced at the sound of her sister’s voice. 

Damn it, Hecatolite grumbled in her mind as she turned to see her sister. “Nothing?” Hecatolite tried to give her sister a reassuring smile. 

Amethyst cocked an eyebrow as she looked down at Hecatolite’s traitorous tail that coiled defensively around her. Hecatolite sighed knowing what was coming next as her sister pressed her lips into a thin line, a tell tale sign she was thinking of how to broach the subject.

“Can we just,” Hecatolite put her head in her hand as she felt a dull throb behind her eyes. “Not?”

“Not what?” Amethyst asked as she tilted her head, her wide innocent eyes reaffirming Hecatolite's decision to not have this conversation yet. 

Hecatolite glanced back at the rest of their small group who all stood silently watching the two. Alagos was giving them a respectable distance as Himari stood next to him, her weight still supported on a cane despite Hecatolite fixing her damaged soul. The two of them very blatantly looked in different directions as they acted as if they had not been listening. 

Then again, at least they gave the sisters the courtesy of acting uninterested. Eryl, however, stood blatantly staring at the two, both her ears perked up in full attention as she eyed Hecatolite. 

“Is it about… what you called the elder?” Amethyst asked cautiously, drawing Hecatolite’s attention back to her. “About the Ferryman.”

The mention of the never-die caused Hecatolite’s annoyance to flare into full blown anger momentarily, her tail lashing out and slamming into the wall behind her splintering the wood as she ground her teeth. “No.” she lied, though it was obvious no one believed her, even the Alagos raising an eyebrow at her outburst.

Today… was a bad day. It had to be the stupid tree’s fault, nothing good ever came from being around a world tree this long, I should have just burned the damn thing down when we got here. She grumbled in her mind as this was all clearly Life’s essence fault. 

The damn never-dies always cause problems, it all started with that damn vision she had when she touched it, though Hecatolite could only remember bits and pieces of it she was positive of one thing. Life was coming, and if she was coming so were the others. 

That had been bad. But, Hecatolite could ignore it, the never dies were really far away, she knew that. It would take them forever to get here; which is why she decided not to tell anyone about it just yet.

After all, they still had so much to do. Amethyst was already dealing with her political games with the elves, and they still needed to get home! Besides, Amethyst is too nice for her own good, Hecatolite was sure her younger sister was going to get into a whole heap of trouble on the way home and eventually they will have to do something about this whole war thing; not that Hecatolite herself cared as long as they left her home alone, but Amethyst will.

And above all else, Amethyst isn’t ready. A voice echoed in Hecatolite's mind, and she couldn’t help but agree. Amethyst needs a whole lot of training and if she is worrying about the never-dies now, it will only stress her sister needlessly. After all, it will be years before they come, best let future Hecatolite deal with it then and enjoy her time with her sister while they can…

Or that’s what she thought before she got dragged into that boring meeting. It didn’t help that being by the world tree made Hecatolite’s skin prickle in annoyance; the only good thing about the whole endeavor was the fact that every time Hecatolite touched the world tree she couldn’t help but feel… amused by the tiny spark of power she felt. Hecatolite wasn’t sure why it amused her, but it was a welcome distraction as they sat through the meeting.

Some part of Hecatolite, buried deep in her mind, knew that every time she tapped the tree it reacted to her; just as Hecatolite could feel Life’s essence in the tree somewhere in the universe, Life would be able to feel her and it was likely driving the primordial mad.

So at least she had a way to amuse herself during the boring political stuff but then she saw him. It had been a flash of divine power that had drawn Hecatolite’s attention, and noticing it was the godly siblings had brightened Hecatolite’s mood considerably, after all she would never say no to seeing her favorite elven goddess but… him. The fake Ferryman. 

The elven man whose soul moved without his body. Hecatolite had nearly killed the man immediately when she saw his soul divide into several ghostly projections that moved around the room without his body, the emotions from the man becoming a jumbled mess as he suddenly felt what seemed like dozens of conflicting emotions. As if he were suddenly several people at once but all the same man… it made her head hurt.

She had tried to focus just on the man himself but the moment she did another ghostly projection of the man appeared and collapsed. The headless soul lay motionless at his feet, intriguing Hecatolite, but as she got closer to it the soul started to fade. Its entire body became more transparent as a few of the others seemed to become more… solid. Before finally they all vanished leaving just a single one standing before her. She hopped down and looked for the headless soul, grabbing the man's chair causing him to stand, his body aligning with his soul and suddenly it snapped into place; all the conflicting emotions vanished leaving only mild annoyance in their place as it clicked in her mind.

Hecatolite couldn’t help but hiss, “He is just like the Ferryman.”

That single sentence had caught Eryl’s attention, the elven woman taking a step forward without realizing as she asked. “What makes you say that?”

Eryl’s entire focus was on Hecatolite as she felt a pressure building in her mind. Eryl had adamantly denied Hecatolite’s connection to the primordials, but something was… strange. A small part of her mind pushed against her logic. Hecatolite is a strange, powerful soul. It isn’t… impossible that she could know something about Death's power…

Hecatoltie shook her head, her face contorting in disgust as she replied. “His soul was all wonky. It’s like… like it wasn’t completely there yet. Just like the Ferryman. He moves without moving, always knows where things are going to be.” Hecatolite grabbed her head as if in pain, “People like that are hard to be around. They know what they are going to do before they know. Like… they know everything they could do but they don’t know what they are going to do yet…” 

Hecatolite looked up at Eryl, the elven woman’s confused gaze not helping her headache as she bit her lip. How could she explain something she didn’t understand to them? Hecatolite hated people like the elder, it’s not just his soul moving in weird ways; whenever she was by someone like him the whispers got… strange. They distorted, like they were skipping. She could hear whispers she hadn’t heard yet then she had to hear them again. It was… disorientating. Sure, the elven elder was nothing compared to the Ferryman, the never-dies power causing Hecatolite’s head to throb just thinking about it.

Amethyst, clearly sensing her sister's distress, took Hecatolite’s hand. “Lets… not.” She tugged her sister along as she repeated her sister's words. “I am sure Alagos has a lot of things to do so let's not keep him for too long.”

Hecatolite relaxed at her sister's touch, it was subtle but she could feel a slight warmth from the contact. Just a tiny little spark that caused the tension in her body to ease slightly as she nodded. She let out a small hum before snapping her head to the side and looking at the elven man with wide eyes, “All-goose!” Hecatolite nearly lunged at the man as if just noticing him. “You have a son!”

“I… do.” The man stepped back, clearly confused by the sudden shift in emotions. 

“That means you have…” Hecatolites eyes narrowed as she inspected the man. “a… lady? Do elves get married like humans do?”

“I have two wives.” Alagos tentatively replied.

“Really!?” Her tail snapped out and patted the man on the arm, “Two wives, I never would have guessed! You seem like the stick in the mud type of guy, but I clearly misjudged you All-goose. Good on you.” She beamed at the confused man, “Now!” Her tail wrapped around his arm, “I need gifts! Like good ones, not that cliche tourist junk you hear me. You have to know a good place to get proper wife gifts, and we need souvenirs too! And clothes!” She tugged the man along as she continued to rattle off things she wanted to get, maybe today wouldn’t be so bad after all. After all, if All-goose has two wives, maybe he could help her pick out a good gift for Saffron… maybe… “Tell me about your wives? I want to know everything, like what do they do? Are they strong like you? Please tell me you’re the boring one in the relationship, I’ll be really disappointed if they are all stiff like you are.”

 

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Following behind the now excited twins Eryl and Himari both chewed on the new information they had just learned.

Something inside Eryl’s mind bent as she thought about Hecatolite. Part of her rejected Hecatolite, denied what she had said about the Death's power. After all, for as long as Eryl had been alive no one has known what Death's true domain was, and anyone who could have found out was… well dead. No one has faced the primordial of death and lived to tell the tale.

Yet part of her… believed Hecatolite. It was strange to think but Eryl trusted the strange creature. And that was causing a seed of doubt in her mind, maybe she had been wrong about Hecatolite. She identified a World tree on sight and has a strange insight on the most elusive of the primes…

Sure, it wasn’t unheard of for someone to learn about trees, but outside of an admin no one should be able to identify one from a single glance. The knowledge wasn’t exactly forbidden, just on a very strict need to know basis, as in no one needed to know given the dangers of tampering with them.

But Hecatolite knew. She identified it the moment she saw it… Eryl had been afraid of Hecatolite interacting with the tree but outside of constantly prodding the roots with her tail the young woman seems uninterested in the world tree. 

She has knowledge no average soul would have. She had an entire system inside of her capable of overriding my system. She causes errors wherever she goes, simply brute forcing her way through all the defenses in place… She didn’t have a soul page in the universal system despite the protocol made to try and destroy her… no, not destroy. It was designed to contain her… almost like destroying the very world itself wouldn’t kill her… 

A sudden uncomfortable anxiety filled her mind as a shiver ran down her spine… 

Eryl could feel a cold sweat on the back of her neck before something inside of her mind… bent. She could feel something inside of her pulse and just as suddenly as the emotions came they were washed away with a cold indifference. 

She is far from the first odd soul I have ever encountered. I just need to be wary about how she interacts with the world and keep her from causing too much destruction while she is here. Eryl forced herself to look past all the oddities about Hecatolite and focus on keeping the strange soul from destabilizing her world. The pulse of power forced her emotions into check as the pressure in her mind was erased.

 

Himari however, didn’t have the same hang ups Eryl did as she chose the more… direct approach.

Overseer, she called in her mind. Why is a Primordial on this world? Himari no longer bothered asking what Hecatolite was since the system would just dodge the question anyway. No, Hecatolite was Thought, there was no longer a doubt in Himari’s mind about that. She even had a guess on what Death's power was now given her reaction to the elven elder, but that only left her with more questions as Babylon answered before Overseer had the chance.

Mother Himari, Mother Eryl has already explained to you that such things are impossible. Hecatolite is a powerful, and likely very old, soul; but she is far from a primordial level of power. Please…

Also, she ignored Babylon as she continued. Why was she able to escape without Death noticing?

Overseer made a strange sound, almost like clicking its tongue before she heard it reply. Her tie with the system is stronger than I thought… Overseer muttered not noticing Himari had contacted it. With a sigh it finally answered her. Mother Himari, just like Hecatolite, all of the primordials keep their power… dampened, to protect themselves from overflowing their minds with information. None of them risk fracturing as Hecatolite has, but the strain of seeing all time and space at once is… uncomfortable to say the least. There is also the simple fact that the future is not a set thing, precognition only shows one the most likely outcomes and Hecatolites escape was far from likely. It is likely he assumed it an acceptable risk and turned his attention elsewhere, as for your next question, time is a fickle thing. It is constantly flowing but only in one direction, it can be tampered with; slowed down or accelerated but never reversed. I believe Death himself once said, “The future is unknown, but the past is set in stone”. 

Himari nodded as Overseer spoke, though Babylon’s sudden silence was strange she ignored it. So, he can’t just… erase her then?

No, Hecatolite exists now and that cannot be changed. His domain can also not affect her since unlike most things, Hecatolite will not succumb to the passage of time like most souls. That doesn’t mean Death cannot fight Hecatolite. After all, being near the primordial of time causes Me a lot of discomfort. She cannot process events that haven’t happened yet, Death's ability to peer into the paradoxical future overloads Me’s mind. It also doesn’t help that he can see her every move before she makes it and she knows his every reaction to her movements. Battles between the two are surprisingly uneventful, a lot of just glaring at one another until Me gets annoyed and attacks or runs away.

So that’s why she doesn’t like the elven elder. He can see the future and that confuses her ability to peer into people’s minds. 

In a nutshell. Yes. 

Ok, I think I understand. Himari watched as Hecatolite happily interrogated Alagos about his family. You still haven’t answered my question though. Why is Hecatolite here?

Overseer was quiet for a long moment as Hecatolite’s tail jerked suddenly, slapping the ground with an audible thump as Hecatolite glanced over her shoulder at Himari. Their eyes meeting as a mischievous grin appeared on her face.

Himari watched as Hecatolite leaned close to her sister and whispered something, Amethyst instantly turning red before looking back at Himari just as her cane caught on something pulling it from her grasp. 

The sudden snag caused Himari to lose her balance, her weakened leg not quite up to supporting her weight as she tumbled forward and… 

Himari closed her eyes as she flailed her arms, cursing her lack of balance as she prepared to hit the ground.

There was a popping noise followed by the faint smell of ozone as she found herself wrapped in a soft embrace. “Are you alright?” Amethyst asked as she held onto a stunned Himari.

“Yea…” Himari managed to say as she held onto the surprisingly sturdy young woman. “Thank you.”

Amethyst smiled at her, “It’s the roots.” Amethyst replied as she released the now steady Himari, a faint blush on her cheeks as she quickly continued. “I mean, they make the floor uneven, I think.”

“Yes, that would… make sense.” Himari coughed as Amethyst retired her cane. She was only mildly distracted as Amethyst bent down to pick it up, a warmth filling her as the young woman smiled brightly at her.

The single cracked board where Hecatolite’s tail impacted the floor went unnoticed by everyone as they continued. Though Alagos noticed the strange bands flashing a deep pink, the elven swordsman didn’t comment as Hecatolite went back to questioning him about his wives. 

Overseer for its part let out a relieved sigh, eventually the “throw Amethyst at her and hope she stops thinking about it” approach will stop working. Hopefully after the two of them bond a little more. All in due time. It sighed as it unmuted a very annoyed Babylon.