The Mimic Becomes a Merchant King

In the days that followed the start of his voyage, Coin took up fishing to pass the time whenever he wasn't keeping an eye on the steamboat's sensitive instruments. He did not do so in the conventional way.

Catching fish was no more difficult than catching any other animal. The only difference was the terrain. Or, lack thereof.

All he had to do was elongate an arm and cast it into the sea, unleashing barbs to skewer anything in the area. Or, if he was so inclined, he kicked up a spiral updraft of magic to draw fishes from the water. He ate them raw and wriggling.

Nice as cooked food was, he liked to eat living meat from time to time. Helped to keep him close to his roots, as it were. But it also had a practical purpose. He could not derive any mass or abilities from cooked meat, for whatever reason. If his ship were to go down, by accident or sabotage, being able to grow gills on command would be a handy ability to have.

Occasionally, at night, Colony would reach out to him. They would talk about their pasts, sometimes sharing memories. Colony would learn about people like Elijah, Coin's battles with the Brotherhood, the friends and connections he had made.

Colony, in turn, showed Coin about the vast expanses of time it spent eating and growing. Smart enough to know it was beyond the scope of a normal mimic, but lacking the means to act as much else. Through the wizard it had eaten, it had access to a promethium ring that allowed it to access the vast magic the wizard's blood had bestowed upon him.

So, as it grew, it occasionally focused on cultivating and understanding this wellspring of power it could draw upon. Some of the creatures in the sea, according to Colony, had traces of magic at their disposal too. Eating them, in turn, gave Colony more and more power.

But, for as massive and strong as Colony had become, Coin could fully sense how lonely the elder mimic was. That much was obvious from the cloying regularity of their night time chats.

One morning, as the sun had risen high into the air, Coin emerged deckside and found himself staring at a great shape silhouetted on the horizon. The only landmass in this stretch of the sea. Or, at least, something that could pass as landmass.

There you are, Colony said.

"Yeah. Here I am," Coin admitted, managing a small smile. "You seem... even bigger up close." As the light faded, and he was able to take in Colony in greater detail. It seemed very familiar now, that great white mountain at the heart of the island immediately drawing his eye.

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Yes... he'd definitely been here before. In a dream, at least.

He dropped anchor a considerable distance from the shore, and waited on the boat until the engine had largely cooled. Satisfied that the steamboat could be left alone, Coin made his way along the deck and summoned a whirlwind at his feet.

The great gust carried Coin a few dozen meters into the air, currents holding him aloft as he crossed the lapping waves of the sea. The island drew closer, loomed larger. All was silent, save for the sounds of the sea and wind whistling around him. But he could feel Colony watching him. That presence in his mind loomed over him.

He touched down on the sands, which shifted gently under the soles of his boots. The sea breeze wafted through the leaves of the palm trees and rustled the grass just beyond the beach. Everything around him looked and seemed normal, and a regular person would have been none the wiser if they came upon Colony's shore.

For however long they survived doing so, at least.

Coin moved further inland. All around him gradually fell silent, as if the world was holding a breath. Then, as he neared the treeline, a chunk of the earth began to bubble and surge. A great mass that shifted in texture, until it became an eyeball protruding from a fleshy stalk. It stared at Coin, the intensity of the gaze enough to make him freeze in place.

"Finally," a voice said, softer and more human than the booming roar that had previously filled his head. "Family."

Coin breathed a small sigh of relief, managing a smile. Well, for now at least, it seemed he didn't need to fear Colony's company. "Yeah. Family." But standing here, atop what must have been the largest and oldest mimic to have ever lived, Coin felt it may have been generous to compare himself to such a being.

"You do not need to hide your true face from me, Coin. You can expose your natural state."

Coin looked himself over, letting out a small laugh. "It's fine, I don't mind staying like this for now. Although, this..." he motioned to the eye, "is a little odd."

"It has been some time since I spoke to anybody who was not food. I am... unused to interactions like this. But..." The eyeball twisted and morphed, and in the span of seconds it had changed into a treasure chest scuttling about on four lanky limbs. "Is this more familiar to you, perhaps?"

Coin smiled despite himself. A demigod, by most conventional standards, was being awkward around him. The thought alone made him chuckle. "It's nostalgic," he admitted.

Colony nodded it's chest toward him. "Well, come along. Explore my grounds while you are here. And, perhaps, you can tell me more of your life as we go along."

"Oh?" Coin watched the treasure chest in motion. It seemed that this 'avatar' Colony had chosen could move about freely without being directly attached to the main landmass. The thought alone was stunning to Coin. He couldn't even imagine parting a portion from his body and have it retain any sort of cohesion or control.

Ordinarily, discharged biomass would likely melt into inedible sludge, or harden into a calcified crust. This tended to be what happened when he was injured too, damaged biomass dissolving away as it was stripped from his main body.

But he was willing to bet that Colony probably couldn't control a second part of its body from a large distance away. Or, he assumed that to be the case.

"You're rather interested in my life, huh?" Coin asked.

"It has been an intriguing thing to learn about. I did not realise the human world had changed so much while I was out to sea. It has left me..." The treasure chest paused, as if searching for the right word. "... fascinated."