NOVEL NEXT Aeternae – Chapter 251: A Question of Fae-t
"Sometimes you really confuse me," Caethya said, looking at Aperio. "But I am intrigued how you intend to annoy a species that seems to have been made with the sole purpose of being annoying."
"By subjecting them to their own antics," her love replied, tapping a hand on her chest. "Enhanced by me for optimal results." She gave a nod and flared her wings slightly in what Caethya assumed to be a mixture of eagerness and happiness. "I am expecting Teg to be wholly annoyed, and perhaps even confused at the inner workings of the dungeon."
"Can Teg see more than I do?" Caethya asked. "Cause to me this seems to be pretty normal. Well, normal for Verenier standards."
"The outside is finished enough that most anyone that is not me will not be able to notice much that is amiss," Aperio said. "But the inside is a different matter. You will see soon enough."
The Demigoddess raised a brow at her love's words but did not question them. She had seen what Aperio could do often enough to know that whatever was inside the dungeon probably was beyond comprehension. Signs of what was to come could already be seen, as Caethya could see a few loose leaves from the surrounding fields slowly creeping towards the dungeon entrance. A few were even seeking out the All-Mother instead, but were swiftly redirected by an all-but-invisible nudge of her love's mana.
Narrowing her eyes, Caethya stepped over so she could wrap an arm around Aperio's waist as best as she could. An experimental squeeze to see if the woman had turned into a walking brick wall, or perhaps a black hole, proved negative as her arm was instead able to press gently into warm flesh. How does that even work?
One of these days she would have to sit down and get Aperio to explain to her how she could be the densest and most indestructible being in existence while also still feeling like any other mortal. Despite what her own mind always told her, her love was not, in fact, made from unforgiving metal.
"Something wrong?" Aperio asked, a wing wrapping itself around Caethya and pulling her close. "You feel… unsettled?"
"I wouldn't say unsettled, more confused," she replied. "But that is an issue for later. Not something I feel comfortable pursuing out here."
Caethya felt her love tense for a moment, her muscles shifting beneath her hands. It would seem that Aperio had perhaps misinterpreted things somewhat, but she had also not spoken out against it. The Demigoddess allowed herself a small smile as she rested her head on the All-Mother's arm. "So, what are your Fae doing to annoy Teg?"
"At the moment? Nothing." Aperio gave a small laugh, the ethereal whisper easily filling the empty field. "It is upsetting the little Fae greatly."
"Of course it would," Caethya said with a sigh. Her next words were swept away as Aperio opened the door barring their way with a gentle push and a wave of magic quite unlike anything she had felt before washed over the Demigoddess. "What was that?" she asked, her quip about the Fae forgotten. "It felt… untamed. Primal."
"Reality unbound by the constraints Earth demands it follows," her love replied. "It is closer to my own mana but infused with… with my will to create." Aperio tilted her head slightly to the side before a thought reached Caethya's mind. "Words yet again fail to convey what I wish to express."
Caethya found herself agreeing with the sentiment as she let her love show her what she meant. The fabric of reality was eagerly wrapping itself around every strand of Aperio's mana that flowed into the dungeon; rushing out towards her as soon as she had opened the door. She could feel how the mana wished to serve the All-Mother. How it reshaped reality again and again until it reached a final form that Aperio would approve of.
The thing that made all of this a bit weird was the fact that the mana that so eagerly served her love also belonged to her. The mana that guided and the mana that acted were one and the same, and yet they were wholly separate and never interfered with one another.
"How do you even begin to keep track of where… you are and where the rest of… you? Is?" Caethya asked, her voice trailing off as the question twisted itself into a knot in her mind.
Aperio offered a small shrug in reply. "I do not know. To me mana is just that; mana. It is not me. I am me." She glanced at Caethya. "You are not your mana either, or are you?"
"Probably not? It is most definitely a part of me, though."
No matter how she looked at it, however, her love was much closer to her mana than anyone else she had seen. And it made sense. In the end, Aperio was the source of all mana. It was part of her and with the System being a tiny bit of the All-Mother's subconsciousness, it stood to reason that all the mana not controlled by someone else was still subject to her will in one way or another.
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Aperio looked at her love for a moment longer. Seeing Caethya wrack her brain over the nature of her being was somehow adorable and annoying at the same time. On the one hand, she did not like the implication that the Demigoddess did not accept her for who she was, but on the other, it showed that her love cared about her and tried to understand how she fit into her very own creation.
The All-Mother, of course, knew that Caethya was perfectly fine with who and what she was, and yet the doubt lingered at the back of her mind. Annoying. Sure, she could probably rid herself of it by force, but that would just replace one problem with another. Ignoring the issue was much safer, and easier. After all, she already knew that Caethya loved her as she was.
"Mana is part of everything," she eventually said. "But I like to think of it more like water. Everyone is a river or a lake and I am the source it all comes from. Mana is as much me — or you, for that matter — as the clothes we wear."
"Didn't you make these from your mana?" Caethya asked, brushing her free hand over Aperio's stomach.
Aperio squinted at her love, her ears twitching slightly. "You know what I mean."
"I do," Caethya replied with a laugh. "But I couldn't not point it out."
"In any case," Aperio said and swept her free wing through the first dungeon room to draw her love's attention to it. "What do you think?"
Caethya removed her arm from Aperio's waist, her hand lingering on the All-Mother's hip for a moment before she stepped away. She looked around for a moment before she teleported herself to one of the many rune-covered walls.
Aperio could not help but smile at the action. She spread her wings to their full length for a moment, letting out a satisfied sigh before she followed the Demigoddess.
"Are you sure they will be able to understand this?" she asked, her eyes darting back and forth. "Most of these runes are quite out there. Especially when you consider that you need to be able to perceive them with your aura and not your eyes. If you only look at them, you would just see a mess of lines that perpetually flow over one another."
"They will see enough to start learning," Aperio replied, "but these are not meant to be deciphered by them. Most of the runes here serve to define this space as a dungeon and prevent Earth’s usual interpretation of reality from taking hold. I had thought it prudent to not have this dungeon rely on me to work like the first I created."
It was not a burden to take care of the dungeon — in fact, she did not even spare it a conscious thought — but it was probably still better to have them be as independent as possible. Would be bad if they stopped working if I decide to go to sleep for a few millennia. Simply floating in her Void with Caethya in her arms was still fairly high up on the list of what the All-Mother wished to do. She would have to do quite a few things before she allowed herself to do that, however. Still need to go back to Verenier and clean the mess the Elder Gods made…
She dreaded the task. Mainly because she did not know what, exactly, she should do, but also because no matter what she did to fix the chaos left behind by the Elder Gods, it wouldn't end how she wanted it to. Of course, Aperio could always brute force the issue and impose her vision of how things should be on the world, but that defeated the purpose of giving anyone free will in the first place.
"I see," her love replied absentmindedly, reaching out towards the wall. She touched the runes, parts of the mana that powered them flowing into the Demigoddess. "Feels funny," she mumbled as she pulled her hand back. "Vaguely similar to your touch, but still so different."
"I do hope I am better than a rune."
"Much better," Caethya replied as she spun around to face Aperio. "But I can still tell that you made this. Your mana is rather unique." She went quiet for a moment. "At least for me. I get the feeling that others will not find the similarity to be obvious."
"Does ambient mana also feel like mine?" Aperio asked. "It is essentially what powers these enchantments."
"Normal mana does not, no, but what you made here is quite… extensive, and will undoubtedly change how it feels. You are altering reality with it, after all."
The All-Mother offered a shrug. Her love was correct that the mana did change, but it was a minuscule one so she had never thought that anyone would ever notice it.
"But, as you can see, it is already fulfilling its duty."
"Well yes," Caethya replied. "But I am not sure how much of this the mortals of Earth will ever decipher. It is quite a leap from understanding runes to seeing how they alter the world around you.
"I can only perceive it because I have your blessing and have observed you do what the dungeon does numerous times by now. A normal mortal would just be confused. Possibly stricken with a headache."
"That is likely, yes," Aperio said as she starting walking deeper into the dungeon, a wing gently swooping around Caethya to nudge her along. "But there is more to see. More to build." She smiled. "Perhaps you could try creating a floor of your own?"
"I can try," the Demigoddess replied. "I doubt I will be able to do much, though."
"You may surprise yourself."
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Caethya let herself be pushed along by Aperio's wing. She didn't really feel capable of making a meaningful contribution to the creation of her love's dungeon, but she would still give it a shot.
The way reality twisted and turned around the runes the All-Mother had made was simply not something she could replicate. Caethya was neither able to create the impossibly high ceilings, nor the moon which not only looked a bit too real but also somehow hung within the depths of the surface above their heads; embedded inside the stone but still floating perfectly free in the night’s sky.
The same went for the Fae that floated around Teg. They all looked perfectly real, but something about them was off. It wasn’t her skills that told her that, but a more primal knowledge from her very essence. Teg had a Soul she could feel; the Fae Aperio had made for dungeon did not. They were mere apparitions of mana guided by her will, not something actually alive.
Teg seemed to have noticed that for themself and was seemingly trying to get away from them, but all the Fake-Fae did was float in a circle around them no matter where they went. The attempts at communication also went ignored, likely because Aperio had not given the constructs the ability to speak.
"Poor thing," she mumbled, her voice still seemingly loud enough for the Fae to notice and turn towards her.
Teg lifted its four arms in apparent joy and rushed towards her, impacting her face a moment later. She was immediately beset by a flurry of words and emotions about the constructs that now circled her head. Teg seemingly did not quite understand why these Fae were not behaving like other Fae or even feeling like their brethren.
"I think you have to redo your approach," Caethya said, looking at her love. "This doesn't annoy Teg as much as it horrifies and drives them insane."
"Oh…" was all that Aperio said before the Faen constructs vanished. "That was not the intention." She eyed Teg, the wing that had been wrapped around Caethya folding behind her back again. "Though I would argue that it still fulfils the purpose of the dungeon."
The All-Mother extended a hand towards Teg, the Fae squinting at it for a moment before they carefully floated onto it. "I do have an idea however," her love continued, her eyes fixed on Teg. "This dungeon is supposed to teach the mortals. Annoy them into taking action and explore facets of their life they otherwise ignore." A broad smile spread across her face, revealing a few teeth. "A Fae would be the perfect being to take care of it. Would you not agree?"
Caethya blinked at the words, not quite sure how Aperio went from finding Teg distraught to offering them control over the dungeon. She was about to question it, but the Fae jumped up and hugged the All-Mother's face, the dread it had shown her mere moments ago already forgotten.
The Demigoddess let out a laugh. "Maybe they weren't so wrong about you being a Fae."
