NOVEL NEXT Aeternae – Chapter 246: A Step in the Right Direction
Aperio could not help but laugh at what seemed to be her daughter's plan. That little flame she had snuffed out had been a part of her power, and had supplied more than a fair chunk of the world with magic. If her guess was correct, Ferio was counting on the mortals begging either of them for help in order to prove her point.
She was probably right. A good number of them would, but the All-Mother was certain that most would recognise this as a sort of test. Or, perhaps, they will figure out that there is a family dispute going on.
Just as she had thought, the priest of her daughter slowly lowered his hands; the shock was quite clearly visible on his face. Aperio would be lying if she said she wasn’t finding all of this a bit amusing, but none of that showed, of course. She would be the cold uncaring universe her daughter seemed to think she was.
"My Lady?" the priest asked, still not facing Ferio.
"Consider it a test," her daughter replied. "You have relied on my gift for centuries. Now it is time to see what you will do without it. Devotion is fleeting, after all."
Without a word more, Ferio vanished. Aperio raised a brow at the disappearance and glanced at her love. Caethya only offered a shrug before the All-Mother teleported the two of them — and the Fae — to the new location of her daughter.
Aperio could not help but raise a brow at Ferio when she arrived with Caethya and the Fae. The location her daughter had picked was quite… poetic. It also raised the question of why her followers had an entire pristine cathedral on a picturesque mountain that was simply left empty. Not that I should question that… She had, after all, hidden her own temple — including the island it was on — in another dimension.
"And now we wait," Ferio said, her gaze firmly settled on the city on the horizon. "The first prayers asking for forgiveness and to return the flame are already coming. Pathetic."
"Is it, though?" Caethya asked. "You just took away a cornerstone of their faith. A direct connection they had to you." Her love hesitated for a moment. "They must think they did something to upset you, so of course they will ask for forgiveness.
"If Aperio just left me and took away my blessing," she continued, "I would also pray to her to ask what I did wrong."
"You wouldn't ask for it back though, would you?"
"Probably not, no. If I did something bad enough for Aperio to leave me and take the blessing, I must have overstepped more than a few boundaries."
"You would have to do things I am most certain you would never do," Aperio said. "But you would also know what you did wrong and would probably have to face me in battle. There are only a few things I would consider over the line, and most of them are the same things that made it necessary to erase most of the Elder Gods from existence."
"Good thing I'm not that dumb, then," Caethya replied with a smile. "I'm still not sure why they thought their plans would work."
"Because mother let it work in the past," Ferio said. "And then she played along with their little assassination plot to make them think they actually managed to kill her. It is beyond me how they could ever think they succeeded. Her presence never left the universe as she is creation." Her daughter sighed and shook her head. "Without Aperio, there is nothing. All of this exists because at one point or another, she decided that she did not wish to be alone."
The All-Mother shifted her weight from one leg to another, her wings flaring a little with a mixture of annoyance and anxiety. Her first instinct was to simply ask the Fae what it was doing here, redirecting the conversation to something that did not question her very being. But she was aware that she always did that. She would eventually have to fully accept what she was.
Most would assume that infinite power also came without limitations, but that was wrong. Aperio wished to live a life like any other, but even the most basic aspects of herself made that impossible. The way she perceived the world was already so far removed from even the strongest of the Gods that the average mortal would not even be able to comprehend it.
Sure, she could see like anyone else — and most of the time she did — but her aura was always there; showing her more than any mortal would ever think. And more than I need. Most of the time, Aperio had no need to know how every quark around the world moved, but unless she quite specifically pushed that knowledge from her mind she would still know of it. Why did I even make something that small?
"And is that wrong?" Aperio asked, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "Would you prefer that everything ceases to be and I simply exist as the nothing I used to be?
""What? No!" Ferio almost yelled in reply as she took a step towards her mother. "Of course not," she continued, her voice subdued. Her daughter took another, more hesitant, step forwards, her gaze glued to the floor for a moment longer before she managed to look into Aperio's eyes. "Why would you think I would want that?"
The All-Mother regarded her daughter for an instant. A part of her did not like the weakness Ferio was showing; the same part that had been calling for violence and her own superiority ever since she had returned to the world. Aperio ignored it as she had always done.
"Because it always seems like you do not care about me," Aperio replied. "The current me, that is. That for some reason, I am too weak for you; too soft on mortals."
Aperio could feel Caethya shift slightly behind her, seemingly wanting to say something but holding back. She did not prompt her to speak. As much as she would like her love to intervene, she needed to talk to her daughter at some point, and this was as good a chance as any to perhaps take care of a few of their grievances.
The Fae, too, seemed to want to interject, pouting a little harder as its eyes flicked back and forth between Ferio and Aperio. The All-Mother chose to ignore the tiny trickster.
"Too weak?" Ferio asked, raising a brow as she looked at the All-Mother. "No. You are anything but. But you are too soft on the mortals. You say they should struggle, but you give them an easy path to power. You don't want them to worship, but give them every reason to ask us for boons and gifts.
"You were cruel to them in the past, yes," she continued, finding the courage to continue advancing towards her mother. "But at least you were honest with yourself and everyone else. Now you say one thing and do another, and then reprimand me for doing as you taught me."
"Did I truly teach you to treat other living beings as nothing more than playthings?" Aperio tilted her head slightly to the right. A "The only things that separate you from a mortal are your power and your lineage. And your power comes from the very fact that you are my daughter. A very mortal view on things — judging one another by who their parents are."
"Perhaps they are right and you did create them in your image," Ferio snapped back, a thought from the All-Mother stopping the surge of mana that rolled off her daughter before it reached anyone else. The Goddess of Life and Light huffed. "I am not a mortal."
"But you are mortal," Aperio replied, trying her best to keep the annoyance out of her voice. "Whether you like it or not, you are. Everyone but me is. What you are is beyond the reach of anyone but myself, but that does not make you truly immortal." I exist, so nothing can be.
No matter how she considered things, the only true constant of her own creation was herself. A point she would rather not dwell on for too long.
"To you, yes," Ferio said with a long sigh. "But I am still not like them. I don't run around begging for help from you or anyone else. I make my own fate, like everyone should."
"And asking others for aid is not making their own fate?" Aperio asked. "They went out of their way to ask, after all. That you find that a sign of weakness is another matter; one I do not see much reason to discuss." She shrugged, her wings moving with the motion. "The issue I have is that you seem to regard them as chattel to be herded how you please. A narrative you seem to pick up and drop at a whim.
"First you say mortals are not worthy of your attention at all, but you have a church you interact with. Then you say that them asking for boons and bargains is pathetic, and yet you fulfil them all the same." Aperio looked at her daughter with a raised brow. "
I am trying to understand the point you are trying to make, but all I can see so far is a hatred for mortals that does not make sense to me.""I don't think you ever will," Ferio replied with a defeated sigh. Her daughter set herself down on the red grass, facing the distant city. "But just look at them." She gestured towards the rising smoke on the horizon. "They are already at each other's throats over something they have not even used in decades."
"That smoke is from fires they are lighting, presumably in your honour. I would have thought you could see that."
"I could, but what's the point? Everything I say to you is wrong anyway."
"Her not understanding your point doesn't make it wrong," Caethya said, seemingly no longer able to watch the neverending circle that was Aperio's and Ferio's discussion. "And you not even considering her argument and simply going back to your own isn't helping either."
"And you have all the answers?" the Goddess of Life and Light asked, tearing her gaze away from the rising smoke and towards the Demigoddess. "A mortal that has just begun her ascension?"
"I don't have all the answers," her love replied. "Nobody has. But I do know that you two are only going in circles and that won't help anyone. I suggest we go to the city and observe what the people are doing a bit more closely. We can even talk to them! A shocking idea, I know. But that should show us if they behave like you seem to think, right?"
The Fae beat its little wings in what, to Aperio, seemed like annoyance, but it still did not speak of its own accord. For a moment the All-Mother considered asking for its input but decided against it. From what she knew of the Fae, they would likely try to turn her daughter against her even more.
"Sure," Ferio replied as she stood up. Her hair grew a little longer and changed from its usual fiery red to a deep blue. The dress she wore was also exchanged for a set of non-descript leather armour that any odd adventurer might wear. "Should be good enough."
Aperio tilted her head at the change, unwilling to do any modification to her own appearance. "If everyone is ready, I will bring us there."
"You're not gonna change anything?" Ferio asked as she gave her mother a glance. "I guess the description I gave them is no longer all that accurate. Hair and eyes are correct, but that's about it."
"I enjoy how I look and see no reason to change it for something as trivial as observing mortals. Besides, it was you who told me that a mortal would always figure out what I am with enough time, so why bother giving myself a body I do not enjoy being in?"
"I guess." Ferio shrugged. "I'm ready whenever. But, mother, do try to restrain your voice a little. There is nobody on this world that has that much mana in their voice alone; the people in this city, especially, would know if such a person existed."
"I will do what I can," the All-Mother replied. She wasn't lying, but her daughter had to know that it was a mostly futile endeavour to keep her mana out of her voice. Imbuing her voice with her power was simply a fact of life for her. Like a mortal needs to breathe.
A thought was all it took for the three of them — and a reluctant Fae — to appear in an empty alleyway. The small being pointed at Aperio's shoulder again and with a sigh Aperio teleported it to where it most wanted to be in the entirety of the universe. Her shoulder.
“Let’s go and look at a fire,” Caethya said and simply grabbed Aperio’s arm before she started to walk out of the alley. “Maybe we can also get some Ferio-themed souvenirs!!”
“I could just make those?” the Goddess of Life and Light half-stated, half-asked as she followed the over eager Demigoddess.
Aperio let herself be dragged by her love, a small smile flashing across her face before she caught sight of Ferio from the corner of her eye. She did not want to see her daughter walking around with a hanging head and sullen face, but neither was she willing to simply acknowledge her idiotic ideas. There had to be a way to get her to acknowledge that respect should not be dependent on power alone. The only problem was that everything Ferio was had come as a result of the All-Mother’s power. And in the past, I was also more focused on that…
She still valued strength highly, very much so, but the meaning had expanded to encompass strength of character and will alongside physical and magical ability. Aperio would figure something out. She had to.
“I think Caethya wants a genuine article from this world,” the All-Mother said, tearing herself from her ponderings and trying to distract her daughter a little. “And I am pretty sure that can be arranged.”
“Very good,” her love replied with a big grin on her face. “We’ll learn a bit about the people here and also blend in a little more. A win-win in my book.”
Ferio only gave Caethya’s back a confused look before she shook her head and shrugged. “Sure.”
The Fae on Aperio’s shoulder gave a small clap in reply and giggled as the All-Mother’s ear twitched. Perhaps it had come here for something other than chaos, after all.