Me, My Spirit, And I [Book 1 Complete]

The day had finally arrived. It was time for Luca, Shada, and Lusha to finally undergo the Awakening Ceremony. Everyone in the city of Westlin that had turned thirteen in the past year since the last Ceremony would be Awakening today. Hundreds of young teenagers and their parents gathered in the courtyard surrounding the System Temple of Westlin. The Temple was located in the Branches, but there were people from the Roots, Branches, and Shelves. Lusha could tell the difference in two ways: their clothing, and their distance from the Temple. Those with more status and finer clothing stood closest to the Temple, and those in plainer cheaper clothes stood furthest away. Part of Lusha was surprised to see both rich and poor, common born and noble born, filling the square. While they had never seen the kind of abject poverty that people suffered in pre-industrial times or in underdeveloped nations, it was still obvious who had more resources.

As Shada, Lusha had wandered the streets of Westlin trying to get a grasp on how things worked. Magic, much like technology, redefined what poverty meant. Food, housing, and other basic necessities were relatively easy to produce. Starvation and homelessness were rare things. To be poor in Westlin meant that you didn't have the resources to Cultivate your Stats and Skills. From what Lusha knew from talking with traders and travelers, the conditions in Westlin were not universal. The Dungeon and Wyldwood created numerous opportunities to increase the number of Essence Crystals in circulation. This abundance more than anything kept the city afloat.

The System Temple was a larger version of the System Shrine that they had visited when Shada chose their Path. It sat at the center of a series of gardens and stone paths forming a pentacle, with the pentagonal Temple in the center. The Temple itself had multiple columned layers like cake topped with bright beacons at each corner, each a different color and representing a different Stat.

Lusha was nervous about the Ceremony. They were often more nervous as Lusha than as Luca and Shada. Of the three, Luca was a cheerful optimist, Shada was a cynical pragmatist, and this odd mix left Lusha in a near constant state of emotional flux. Their biggest fear at the moment was how the Abyssal parasite was going to react to their Awakening and whether or not they would have another Divine meeting. Had they known what they would actually face they would have been more scared than nervous.

High Keeper Saznek stood at the top of the Temple steps. His voice was augmented by some form of magic that allowed everyone in the crowd to hear him. "Welcome Aspirants to this year's Awakening Ceremony!" There was cheering from the various teens while the adults were more subdued. "We are lucky this year and there is more than enough room for everyone to Awaken at once. Before anyone asks, all private chambers have already been booked; some, thirteen years in advance. Everyone else will have to use the public chambers." Saznek gave a large toothy reptilian grin before launching into a well rehearsed series of instructions.

Once he was done, the High Keeper beckoned everyone inside. Just inside the large Temple doors was a lobby that had been set up with various tables. Each table was labeled according to census data the city gathered meticulously. Lusha, Shinobin, Westlin, and Mina walked to a table for those that lived outside of the city. There, they registered and were ushered up several flights of stairs by a harried Keeper to a private Awakening chamber. The higher up one went, the fewer beds each Awakening chamber had. The one they had reserved had two beds forming a V shape with a console for a Keeper to work.

The oddly futuristic room and beds were just as jarring for Lusha as they had been during the Path ceremony. Nothing else in Westlin looked like the System structures. To their Earthly sensibilities the two Awakening beds looked remarkably similar to stasis pods or medbays from science fiction movies.

"Alright, both of you know what to do. Take off all clothing, jewelry, or anything else you weren't born with," the Keeper said while clapping their hands to finalize their statement. They then proceeded to the console and began tapping out commands.

Lusha felt like they should be blushing at undressing in front of their mother, Mina, and the Keeper, but somehow found the strength not to. They were used to being naked around Westlin and nudity wasn't really taboo among the Wylderfolk, but part of them still held some sensibilities carried over from John; there was just something about being nude in front of a stranger that set off those old memories from John.

Westlin smirked at Lusha as they undressed. "It's a bit cold here isn't it?"

Lusha just glared in response before speaking up. "Seems warm enough. Not everyone is an early bloomer."

Shinobin and Mina just smiled as the two teens bantered back and forth as they took off their clothes.

The Keeper glanced up to confirm that the two were done before speaking again. "Alright, both of you onto the beds. Remember to lay flat on your backs. Make sure all of your parts are inside the bed. The lids won't close if anything is dangling out."

Lusha and Westlin complied with mixed emotions. Their hearts were pounding as the lids slid up and the light from the room faded to darkness. A small holographic display appeared above their faces.

With that the world went dark.

—

Lusha felt light and floaty. They were familiar with this sensation. Being a disembodied consciousness wasn't new to the personality gestalt that was Lusha, but only the part of them that was Shada had ever experienced it. To say it was strange to experience it as Lusha would be an understatement.

"Hello again," said a voice like a wind through tall trees. "Give me a moment and I will make you more comfortable," Asonia, Lord of the Forests, said.

Lusha found themselves embodied once more and sitting in a familiar chair they hadn't seen in 13 years. The distinguished looking Asonia sat opposite of them; tea and cookies were present as well. Their disguise had been stripped as they appeared as their true self, Lusha the Half-Elven Precursor.

"I can't say I am surprised to see you, but I didn't know if we would meet again like this." Lusha had expected at least a message from their Divine patrons, but a meeting hadn't been ruled out.

"Sadly, this meeting wasn't exactly planned. I am afraid there have been some complications since we last spoke." Asonia's sigh was like a warm summer breeze; comforting and peaceful, but there was melancholy in that same sigh that Lusha picked up on.

Before Lusha could ask any further questions their attention was caught by a light in the distance. A figure was approaching. They weren't carrying a light, but were made of light in every color of the rainbow and a few that humans couldn't even see. The being grew larger as it got closer. Their presence was stronger than even Sierra's and completely overshadowed Asonia's.

[Greetings] a voice boomed into the silence. It shook the very foundations of the reality Asonia had crafted for them and the scene wavered before Asonia got it back under control. [Lusha Aseralis, also known as Shada Aseralis, Lucanarius Interious Aseralis, and Mr. Shadow you are hereby charged with the impersonation of a Precursor race. How do you plead?]

It took Lusha a few moments to gather themselves as that larger than life voice boomed throughout the void where they sat. "What? Charges? Am I under arrest? By who? Under what laws?"

[Do you deny accepting Precursor Traits from the Goddess Sierra, Sovereign Goddess of the planet Sierrallas?]

"Of course not, but I didn't know there was something wrong with that. It was an offer from a Goddess! What else was I supposed to do, but accept? Wait, where is Sierra?" Lusha was off balance and couldn't quite understand how their Awakening Ceremony had turned into some sort of interrogation.

[Ignorance of System Law is not grounds for breaking them. You are also charged with creating an unregulated Essence Bomb on a low tier planet. How do you plead?]

"That was an accident! I was testing an Essence Motor and something went wrong. I was very much not trying to create a bomb!" Lusha said in exasperation.

[Intent and action matter in equal measure under System Law. While your intentions were benign, the result was not. You are also charged with cross-cultural contamination of an Awakened world. How do you plead?]

This charge confused Lusha only for a moment. "Does the System have some sort of Prime Directive that prevents the sharing of knowledge between worlds?"

The glowing beings somehow conveyed the impression of reading something while having no obvious eyes or other features. [The System Laws that regulate the transfer of information between worlds are similar to the Prime Directive from Earth's fiction. They exist to prevent societal collapse, cultural homogenization, and subjugation of worlds by stronger powers.]

"Again, I had no knowledge of these laws and I was never told to keep anything to myself." Lusha glared at Asonia. "Who and what are you to try to enforce laws on me that I had no knowledge of?"

[I am the Adjudicar, a Transcendent of the Precursor race you have masqueraded as. I am here to pass judgement on you, Asonia, and Sierra.]

"Wait, if you are a Precursor, does that mean you can fix the local System? What about the Abyssal Entity that is feeding off it?"

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Once more the Adjudicar's featureless face seemed to be reading information only they could see. Their form began to shrink and the world around them changed.

Lusha found themselves in a beautiful hall filled with light and carved white marble. It bore remarkable similarities to a courtroom, and the Precursor sat in place of the judge. Lusha, Sierra, and Asonia sat on one side of the courtroom and a nebulous, black, tarry mass writhed on the other side.

The Precursor's features shifted and they took on a form similar to Lusha, but larger and brighter. When they spoke their voice was more mundane and they clearly looked annoyed.

"This is a real mess." Contrary to their previous demeanor their words had a more casual air and their mannerisms were more like an annoyed bureaucrat that some omnipotent judge from on high.

"!$#!@%!%$& you stand accused of breaching Dimensional Barriers, violating a local System Instance, and interfering with the natural progression of an Awakened world."

Gurgling, screeching, nonsense came from the black being on the other side of the courtroom. Everyone on Lusha's side winced and cringed from the assault on their senses. The Abyssal entities' voice and language were not only alien, but antithetical to this side of reality. Neither Divines nor mortals were meant to hear something from the Abyss speak.

"Being hungry is no excuse for breaking System Law! You are hereby banished from Sierrallas and all connected Planes!" The Precursor waved their hand and the black tarry being vanished, as if they had never existed.

"Now, as for you three. It seems my initial information was lacking for the same reason that you three attempted to hack the System. That being was interfering in normal protocols. I spent a few subjective years reviewing everything I could scrape from the local System records." The being grimaced. "What has occurred on Sierrallas should not have happened. It should have not taken local centuries for there to be an appropriate response. It appears that this region of the universe is particularly remote and the local overseer was on vacation."

The Precursor wiped a hand through their hair in a strangely human gesture before looking directly at Sierra before continuing. "You are young as planetary Goddesses go, your world has been Awakened for only a few thousand years, and it appears that you sent in all the proper reports and requests for help before attempting this." They gestured at Lusha. "I must admit to being rather impressed. Finding a way to get around the Quarantine Protocols and creating a pseudo-Precursor is not a small feat."

"Thank you, your eminence?" Sierra said in a tentative voice. It was down right bizarre to see a Goddess cowed by someone.

The being waved their hand dismissively. "Praise is given where it is due. The strange circumstances allow me flexibility in how this whole mess is handled."

"Does that mean we are off the hook?" Lusha asked hopefully. This was not how they expected to spend their Awakening Ceremony.

"Of course not; the charges are all valid, but I have much greater discretion when meting out punishments." The being cleared their throat dramatically. "Sierra, Asonia, and Lusha: in accordance with System Law and the evidence I have gathered, I declare all three of you guilty on all charges." Everyone was tense. The air seemed to still and the light dimmed. "However, due to the mitigating circumstances and the failure on the part of the local System Overseer, your punishments will all be light."

The scene shifted again and Lusha found themselves sitting across from the Precursor who currently looked like they could have been Lusha's dad or older brother due to the similarities of their appearance. "I am sure you are confused at the moment, but you have nothing to fear. As I said in the courtroom your punishment will be light." The Precursor said in a reassuring manner.

"Where are Sierra and Asonia?" Lusha asked with nervous curiosity.

"Talking to my other selves about their own cases. I thought it best to switch to a more personalized meeting due to the uniqueness of your case." The being shook their head. "That Goddess of yours is actually really clever. I am genuinely impressed with her hack job, but I have to fix things."

"Am I going to lose my Precursor Traits?"

"No; I did a deep scan of your soul, reviewed your past lives and everything. It turns out that one of those criteria your soul fit, the ones Asonia mentioned when you were first given the offer of reincarnation on Sierrallas, was to have lived at least one life time as a Precursor."

"Wait, one of my past lives was as a Precursor? How does that work?"

"When my people Ascended, we created many new soul seeds from our own Essence. One of those seeds happened to find its way to Earth to be reincarnated as part of that world's cycle over the course of eons. You are that seed you were granted traits that were already part of your heritage." The Precursor was smiling now.

Lusha took a while to process that bit of information and couldn't come to any conclusions about how this knowledge changed anything about their current life. "So what will my punishment be? How can I be guilty of impersonating a Precursor if I have Precursor heritage?"

"Just because your soul-line intersected with a Precursor doesn't mean you are in fact a Precursor; but again, the details are all very technical and far beyond what a mortal should be told, as well." The Precursor's face took on a more serious look. "I will be honest with you. You should be dead. The Traits you have are too powerful for the form you currently hold."

"So I am going to lose my Traits, aren't I?" Lusha said in defeat.

"No, I said your current form couldn't hold them. You must become a Precursor in truth or at least what we were before we Transcended."

"And what were you before Transcendence? By the way, what is Transcendence?"

The being laughed and smiled at Lusha's continued questions. "You are certainly a curious one, but I will do my best to answer." A far away look came on the Precursor's face, and with a wave of their hand, an illusion of a strange humanoid being appeared between them. The being resembled a more solid version of how the Precursor had first appeared to Lusha, but with a few notable differences. The illusion had translucent bioluminescent skin that reminded Lusha of some of the deep sea creatures from Earth. They had no nose nor ears, three large, luminous pearlescent eyes arranged like the upper three spokes of an eight armed star. There were small holes where nostrils would be, and two holes where ears would be. Their faces were otherwise smooth except for a thin slit of a mouth. The being was beautiful in an otherworldly and alien way. Its limbs were long and ended in six digits each. The inner and outer fingers appeared to be opposable thumbs. The creature's feet had toes arranged with two facing back and four forward. When combined with the digitigrade legs, the feet were as alien as the face, but reminded Lusha of how bird legs were arranged. The translucent glowing wings added to the effect, but they were neither the membranous wings of a bat nor the feathered wings of a bird. These wings made Lusha think of a jellyfish for some reason.

"What kind of world produced something that looked like that? Will I look like that?" Lusha had stood and walked around the illusion studying the strange creature.

"A very Essence rich world, with a dense atmosphere. Once, we swam through the skies of our homeworld." The Precursor sounded wistful. "Our homeworld is long dead, only memories of it remain." After a moment to collect themselves from their memories, the Precursor dismissed the illusion. "That is what we looked like. Unfortunately for you, depending on how you look at it. That particular form is not suited to the environment on Sierrallas." Once more with a gesture, an illusion appeared. It bore similarities to the previous being, but Lusha could see their own Half-Elven features mixed in.

"This is the form I can give you to allow your body to better support your traits without potentially killing you."

Lusha looked at their new self and began carefully examining the form before them. This version of Lusha had no hair, and had a smooth rounded skull. It had the three eyes of the previous figure, but these looked more humanoid and less alien. They were still a silvery pearlescent white, but set in a more natural setting with normal eyelids. The illusion's ears were large and pointed like an elf's, but were translucent and bioluminescent, as was the rest of the skin. There was a clear resemblance to Lusha's face in the three eyed face of the illusion, but it had been blended seamlessly with the Precursor's. The wings were more rigid than those of the Precursor's with the translucent and bioluminescent skin stretched from a bone structure that resembled a more smoothly shaped pterosaur.

"I look like some sort of deep sea half elven angel," Lusha finally said after studying the illusion.

"Like much in life, it is a compromise between the form you have now and the form we had long ago."

"Will I look like this all the time? I am not sure I can blend into regular society like this." Lusha said while gesturing at the illusion.

"You will still have the Trait that grants you the ability to Shapeshift. So you may choose to appear as you wish, but you will find that your Traits work better in this form. The third eye aids Essence Perception greatly. You won't be able to use it fully except in this form or spirit form."

"Will being in this form help with my other Traits as well?" Lusha couldn't really imagine how the changes would affect Polyglotism for example.

"There is more to this form than just its appearance. The vocal apparatus is far more advanced than most humanoids, so your vocal range will be much greater." The Precursor pointed to the eyes again. "Three eyes will make you far better at targeting things with weapons or spells. You will find that your hands and feet are far more dexterous as well. There are many other advantages."

"What about the skin? My glowing white skin was already strange? This is beautiful, but very very strange."

"I admit that is actually an aesthetic choice and like the wings and extra digits, are there to make your default form more inline with our original form."

With a gesture the illusion flew at Lusha and Lusha took on their new default form. Lusha stood and marveled at the strange new features of their body. They could move in a near boneless manner, their hands with four fingers and two thumbs could move in ways that should be impossible, and having extra appendages in the form of wings was just weird.

Lusha thought about using their Skills to return to a more normal form only to realize that not only could they not use them in this odd realm, but they were completely cut off from the System. This led to them remembering that they were supposed to be going through the Awakening Ceremony.

"What happens now? Today was supposed to be my Awakening Ceremony."

"Ah, I wondered when you would remember." The Precursor sighed. "There is also still the matter of your punishment."

Lusha sat down heavily as they considered the possibilities of the two things being related. "Am I not going to Awaken fully? Will I remain half locked out of the System?"

"Again no, your entire status is a hack job!" The Precursor looked personally offended with that statement. "You had access to far more information than you should have had; I don't even know how you were able to Cultivate in spirit form while your physical form was still gestating, or how you developed some of these Skills. You don't even use most of your Skills! You do most things manually, so having them is redundant. Honestly, the whole thing is just a mess. Part of your punishment will be to have all this reset."

Lusha's eyes nearly bugged out of their head, which was extra dramatic with three of them. "Everything will be reset?" they said in a near whisper.

"The entire System on Sierrallas has to be reset to fix the damage done by the Abyssal entity and patch the holes that Sierra exploited. You will be able to explore the changes once you wake up."

"Is that all of my punishment?"

The smile the Precursor gave Lusha was a mix of mischievous and malevalent. "The rest you will learn in time. Time to wake up Lusha!"

With that Lusha's consciousness faded and they woke up in the Awakening chamber with everyone staring at them in surprise and confusion.