Into the Stars

Chapter Eight

It's my own personal artwork, don't repost it

A few days pass of saving people, closing rifts, and trying not to destroy ruins like the good tomb raiders we aren't, we're back at the hold for the night before we melt the protective ice tomorrow.

Everyone has gone to bed already, Decius and Solas curled around each other.

I slipped out after I was sure they were asleep. I'm looking out towards the water, seeing the aurora borealis dance across the sky, speaking into nothingness, "imagine, this time tomorrow I'll be fighting a god. It feels impossible. I thought this world was empty. I wasn't prepared for this."

A few strands of my hair wave across my vision. "I should probably cut this. Decius probably needs one too." I hold my hand out in front of me. It's shaking. "I really am losing it. Scrape me dry until I bleed and scream, I suppose. "

A voice floats around me, "not as crazy as the other one, I would say."

"Hm." I put my hand down. "Are you going to appear, or am I speaking to myself tonight?"

"You're right. We wouldn't want my dear Chosen to seem out of her mind." A slightly transparent male figure forms next to me. He's wearing a hood with jackal ears on top.

I raise an eyebrow at the sight, "this is new." I look closer, those might be real ears.

"Spirits look how they want, no? But, on to the reason I'm here. You don't really think that thing is a god, do you?" He speaks of Hakkon with disgust.

"It's not exactly killable. All I'm doing is destroying the mortal body."

"That's exactly why that thing isn't a god. It needs to be bound here to influence the material."

"And you don't?"

"No, I choose to appear this way because it is more comfortable for you to speak to me like this. This—thing—you're about to fight, it can't choose to make itself incorporeal like I am currently. It can't change how it looks. It thinks itself a god because there is nothing here to prove it wrong,"

"Is that what you want me to do for you?"

He laughs, "my dear, I know what I am. I don't need you to boost my ego. You two are doing more than enough. I know how much this is affecting you."

"I thought this world was empty. I didn't think this would happen. I'm happy to help but I don't—"

"I know. I felt that way when I was young, too."

I scoff, "yeah, ten thousand years ago. Or more."

"Or more, yes. I came to exist well before it was a desert. Unfortunate business, that."

"The megafauna and flora must have been something. Moose were the only ones I knew of."

"They were. If you thought those were big, well, it's a shame what happened."

"We don't know how it became a desert."

"You don't, that's true."

I turn my head away from the water and try to look under His hood. "You caused it to become a desert?!"

He holds his hands up defensively, "not me, personally."

"I swear to—"

"—yes? I admit, in hindsight, it could have been prevented. But you wouldn't have gotten those glorious pyramids out of it."

"Other places had them. I want giant plants."

"Are there not any here? Are nuggalopes not megafauna?"

I stand back up, "I guess they technically could be. I don't think they call things 'mega' here."

"True, I don't think they do. Everything is large here."

"Also true."

"At any rate, have no fear, I am the superior being in this world. I highly doubt this 'Maker' ever existed. Much like the capital-g, God, you were all so familiar with before. The city in the fade, most likely created to house the Blight, or the archdemons before your favorite Magister broke in."

"He gives good monologues. 'Beg that I succeed, for I have seen the throne of the gods, and it was empty' and all that. Fantastic. Almost as good as Flemeth."

"She does have good quotes. Do you think your fen will absorb her soul?"

"I'm not sure. I did say I would help destroy this flimsy veil."

"It would be good for you, to taste magic."

My eyebrows twitch. "Taste magic? What do you mean?"

"This world has an abundance of magic, the likes of which that you have never lived with, even being separated as it is with the veil, you are around enough mages who pull from the fade to cast, you're bound to become... marinated."

I raise my eyebrows, "I've marinated in magic now, have I?" As much as I might want to, I can't stop myself from chuckling.

He laughs, "I'll admit, not my best choice of words. But, if you thought you had magic before, from me, a gift essentially, you are developing natural talents and Decius's own are growing. You know, marination. You might need to bake a little longer though. You two could grow to hold a lot of power."

"Are you hungry? What is with all the cooking analogies?" We already do.

"That is the most important thing to you? From what I just said, the analogies are the problem?" He's amused.

"Yeah. Solas has been pushing us to dredge the depths recently. Things have happened. You must have missed it, from the Fade."

"Must have. I look away for one second— I will be more dutiful from now on."

"And what is one second in immortal terms?"

"A few weeks probably. I'm keeping busy bringing order. You are not wrong. This place is utterly devoid of beings such as I. Just, literally, glorified ghosts. It's crazy. Earth was, well, not older by any means, the amount of technically destroyed written history here goes back farther. I suppose they didn't really need beings such as myself to keep order. Everything was one. The planes weren't separate like they naturally were on Terra. Thedas. How odd. I'm glad I brought you here, and I'm finding myself glad to be here, too."

"Well, I'm mostly glad you brought me here. You should have brought Ma'at with you. Really could have sped up the order process."

"Perhaps it could have. Ma'at went elsewhere. Not like one celestial body dying is much trouble for us."

"Lucky you."