Kings Game

Chapter 86 - Godspells

Nul tapped on their chin, crossing and uncrossing their legs as their brain worked. Roran sat up and closed his eyes, trying to recall more information about his mother's life.

"She was an adventurer first and foremost," Roran continued. "She was a terrible swordsman, which is why she recruited my father to travel with her, but she carried a beautiful blade that had been gifted to her by a prince. She called it Pathfinder. It has three different designs etched into it. One to make it lighter, one to make it heavier, and one that I don't fully understand. It moves the sword about at random. According to my father, she would raise the sword up high, let it run wild, and wherever the sword was pointing when it stopped was where they would travel next."

Nul shuffled through a stack of journals and pulled out a notebook. They flipped through it, searching for a blank page, before grabbing a pen and jotting down notes.

"Interesting," they said. "Do you have a diagram of the etchings on the sword?"

Roran shook his head. "No, my father has it. He said I could have it if I land a strike on him while sparring."

"When are you going to spar him?"

"We've been sparring off and on since we met," said Roran.

Nul looked up from the journal. "Your father is missing an eye and an arm, have you honestly not landed a single strike on him?"

"No, I haven't...don't look at me like that!" said Roran, embarrassed. "He's a good swordsman."

"Don't let Kell know."

"That he's a good swordsman?"

"That you couldn't land a single hit on a half blind man that's missing an arm. She'll never let you live it down."

"Right, so, my mother's etching?" asked Roran, desperate to change the subject.

"I'm not sure. The sword sounds interesting, though those are all effects I can recreate without using godspells, your mother's butterfly, not so much."

"Are you sure it's a godspell?" Roran asked. "Could it be something else? Could my mother even use a godspell?"

Nul nodded. "Anyone can use a godspell, you just have to reach the activation threshold. It's not easy, but it's certainly doable with a little practice. The key aspect of godspells isn't the how, or even the what, it's the why. Godspells can completely remake our reality, understanding the purpose of a godspell is the first step to understanding how to make it. Ahndor's are obvious, they make her body indestructible. I don't understand the how yet, but the why is obvious and the extraneous designs become obvious when you know what the design is supposed to do. The same can't be said for your mother's etchings."

"I don't know if this helps, but she called it Fatebreaker."

Nul drummed their fingers along their desk. "That doesn't make sense either. What fate is it breaking? That particular godspell only lasts while the user is actively supplying it with energy, you'd have to activate it, perform whatever task you were going to perform, then the effect would fade. The average person would get a few minutes at most..."

Nul trailed off, their eyes losing focus and their pen falling from their fingers.

"Pathfinder," they said, slowly. "Pathfinder picks a random direction..."

"Yes?" said Roran, confused. "That's how she chose where to go for her next adventure. My father said she liked going in random directions, even off the road and into the bush."

"But what if it wasn't random!" Nul said. They began clawing through their books until they found one and cracked it open. The writing was all foreign to Roran, but it appeared to have what Nul was looking for. "Something that breaks and reinforces reality, something that turns chaos into order and back again, something that eliminates random chance!"