A dark red smoke twirled from the tip of the brass brazier in front of Annifer. The palm-size brazier's top was intricately laid out in a geometric pattern of crossing branches, making two triangles. Her incense burned inside, and the smoke danced around her as she closed her eyes. Annifer sat on the floor of her hut, with the brazier on a crudely carved side table in front of her. The sound of soft snores emanated from behind her as her pack all lay on top of each other in a pseudo ball.
She closed her eyes and concentrated on her breathing, in through her nose and out through her mouth. Slow and steady, she began to feel the rhythm of the world around her, the vibrations of the ground beneath her feet, and the soft rhythmic hum of the forest surrounding her. Slowly, she felt herself drift; her mind was riding the waves of smoke that trailed between her and the brazier. She felt as light as a falling feather from a Cliff Diver as she was carried away.
We are with you, young Mother of the Woods.
The voice sang through her head with a cadence of a long-lost song. Fading in and then fading out but leaving a lasting ring to the edges of Annifer's mind.
"Thank you, ancestors, for speaking with me again. I am humbled in your presence." She spoke in a whisper.
She felt a shift in the breeze through her and knew she was in the presence of a more significant ancestor than before. Without seeing, she could feel its heavy presence weighing down around her.
"With whom do I have the pleasure of being in the presence of?" Annifer asked.
She hadn't known this ancestor, hadn't felt this weight, or heard that voice before. She was curious who had answered her call because every other time she had connected with the spirits of the world, it had never given her a feeling of being weighed down.
"I don't recognize you. Are you a newer spirit of the world?"
She was fishing, and perhaps whoever this was knew it as the silence continued. She risked peeking through slotted eyes and saw that she was enveloped in the smoke and that a hulking figure shrouded in the same smoke sat across from her. She held a gasp in, trying not to let the spirit know she had seen it.
"I am the protector, the wounded soldier, the one who gives and the one who sacrifices." The smoke enshrouded figure said.
Its voice wasn't in Annifer's mind anymore; it was coming from directly in front of her. This was much more than she had anticipated or even knew could happen. Every time she communicated with the spirits of the world, they always spoke to her through her mind. They had never manifested themselves into a tangible form that she could see.
"The protector? The wounded soldier? I don't recognize those spirit names. Are you new to this realm, ancient one?" Annifer asked after a long pause.
A warm, soft breeze shifted and spun around her, "I am an ancient one. One of the first, an ideal of both Cor and Shathari, manifested into being. I am Protessa."
Annifer's eyes sprang open as she registered the smoke form again. One of the first Gods was speaking to her, was actually in her hut with her right now and having a conversation!
"Do I startle you, young one?"
Annifer shook her head and cleared her throat, "Yes! Balls, yes. You are a God. Almost one of the two-"
Her words were cut short by Protessa's, "I am closest to the two, yes. I am part of the two, the wounded soldier. The giving and the sacrifice. One could say I am part of the three, for I am the first of their mingling."
Annifer bowed her head in respect and softly replied, "I meant no disrespect. You say first of their mingling, what does this mean?"
The smoke form shifted and began walking around her, waking Biscuit, who sat up on Big Girl's back and cocked her head in curiosity.
"When the two Gods first met, their essence mingled, as is apt to happen with everything in this world. Everything is mingled with all the things they interact with. Without their knowing, I was created from their sheer presence of being in the same world." The smoke form replied as it circled Annifer.
"How could they have not known that you were formed? A God of their own essence?" She asked as she watched the smoke form continue to walk around her and the hut.
It stopped at Annifer's pack and leaned down to inspect Biscuit with a formless face. It cocked its head to mimic Biscuit, then turned back to Annifer.
"They were too wrapped up in their own battle to realize they were leaving parts of themselves everywhere in this world. For everywhere we go, we leave bits of ourselves. Energy, essence, if you will. Since we are Gods, our essence is much more pronounced. Many Gods were created through their mixing of essence and even more when Cor sacrificed her physical self to trap Shathari beneath the mantle of this planet."
Annifer raised her eyebrows, "Beneath the mantle of this planet? What does that even mean?"
The smoke form returned to its original position and sat down, "The mantle is the ground you walk on, only thousands of feet deeper. The planet is what this world is."
"How, though? How did Cor sacrifice her physical self to trap Shathari under the ground, and why?" She blurted out.
"I do not pretend to know the wills of others, only mine. If I were to guess, she did it to keep a watch on the Great Eater. Keeping your enemies close lets you always watch their every move."
Annifer was sitting directly across from a God; every question she had ever wanted to know ran through her mind. Questions like what was the meaning of life, what is the other side like, are there more realms besides the ones of life and death? The possibilities of knowing everything that could ever be known or questioned.
"The spirits said Cor and Shathari were being reborn, and they showed me Cor and somewhat Shathari. They were just a little girl and a muscular man. How were they reborn in those two?" Annifer spit out in a rush.
Protessa chuckled, "Your mind races. I see it in your eyes. Yes, reborn. Cor's physical body was sacrificed to entomb Shathari. Her spiritual body remained in the Spirit Realm."
"What now? There's a Spiritual Realm?" Annifer asked.
"There are many realms; when a physical body dies in the realm of Vale, the spiritual body manifests in the spiritual realm to either pass on or be reborn. The Spiritual Realm is Cor's. Unable to be broken by the Greater Eater. This is, actually, the first time this rebirth has happened. When we sacrificed our bodies, we thought the bonds would last much longer. That's why some of us still sleep." The smoke figure stood up again, towering over Annifer.
"You said when we sacrificed...you sacrificed yourself too? Along with other Gods?"
"Yes, we couldn't defeat the forces of the Great Void. They were undying, and how do you kill something that was made from death? You can't; you trap it, and that's what we did. The first of Vale and the Gods of Cor, we gave ourselves to trap Shathari and his army for thousands of years, but when I look at the passing time, it is only a blink of an eye. Less than four hundred years since we ended the war."
Annifer stood up in shock, "Four hundred years? What would be my great-great-grandmother was a first of Vale?"
"You are correct. I am unsure how the rebirth works; perhaps it is a bonding of souls. I know that the Deceiver has bonded with a man named Minnow. Y'sa-Y'la was Shathari's hound. Sent to sow chaos and confusion, The Twins will fight just for the thrill. The gluttonous one, Symbar, has bonded as well with a Master of Coins. Poe, I believe, is the name of the man. Shathari and Cor have been reborn, Cor to a little girl named Pela and Shathari to a warrior named Rikart." Protessa said while walking back and forth in front of the table.
Annifer reached a finger out and trailed it through the smoke that made up the hulking figure of Protessa, "Are you here, then, for me?"
Protessa watched Annifer's finger pass through and then copied the movement against Annifer's arm. "No, I have chosen another, and they are not yet ready. You have been claimed by another, besides."
Annifer stepped back and brought her hand to her chest, "I've been chosen? By who?"
"I cannot say, your spirit is marked. The bond is close but not yet right. There are many others like you, waiting for the right moment to be reborn."
Annifer looked down in thought and then said, "How many? How many others are there? How many Gods are coming back?"
Protessa walked around the table and stopped beside Annifer; still taller by two heads, the God dwarfed the Druid. "Hundreds of Gods exist, and hundreds fought. I see, but only a fraction of them awake; we were to sleep for thousands of years, but something went wrong. I can't say for sure how many will wake or how many will sleep."
Annifer stared at the ground, thinking, "What would you choose to do? Find Cor or Shathari?"
The smoke figure began to fade at the edges of itself, wisps trailing into the soft breeze that blew through Annifer's tiny house. It raised a pointer finger to its chin, "I would find my mother. Father is not...right. His aggression and ideals are extreme."
There it was, the answer to the question she really had. Where was she supposed to go? Which God was she to find? She watched the smoke figure as it blew away, "Thank you, Protessa. Your guidance was what I was seeking; where can I find the girl?"
The whole of the figure was a vague transparent tracing of smoke, but as the God spoke, it faded on the wind around her, "Where the war begins."
Protessa faded away to nothing as the incense burned out. Annifer took a deep breath and turned behind her to look at her companions. Biscuit sat on the back of Big Girl, who splayed out like a starfish on the soft, mossy hut floor. She cocked her head and watched the last remnants of smoke, then squeaked at Annifer.
"That thing seemed real nice, not mean at all. I think it say we go where war is? Does it mean Biscuit fight now? I only play fight before, never a real fight, seems scary to real fight. How do you real fight? Is it same as play fight?" Biscuit blurted in Annifer's mind.
She smiled at her small monkey friend and reached a
hand out. Biscuit jumped onto her open palm and up her arm before stopping on her shoulder and sitting. Annifer regarded the spindly, black companion with a side eye and smile. "I don't know that we'll be fighting, but you'll know if the time comes."
Big Girl snorted, "She will run behind me and say, Big Girl, you make bad men go bye-bye. Then I do."
There was a slow growl from the corner as Muffin did a slow swipe with his enormous paws, "And I slice and make tiny pieces of bad men."
Annifer couldn't help but laugh; her companions had never even left the forests of Amdesse, yet here they were, talking about how they would take down the evil men. They were absolutely precious to her, and Annifer knew they felt the same about her. She was scared, no doubt about it, but some things just needed doing in this world. Protessa had even told her she was close to being...what? Overtaken? Conjoined? By a God!
She had learned more than she honestly expected to in this latest communication with the spirits; somehow, she had contacted a God. They had answered her question about where to go and who to look for, and now she had a plan. She was to head towards the war and find her reborn God there. The little girl with blonde hair and too-big eyes. She had learned her name, and she knew exactly what she looked like. Surely that would help her? How many little girls named Pela, could there be?
She regarded Muffin and then each of her companions with a warm smile. This was her lot, her cast, and she would protect them to the death just as she knew they would do with her. The universe had big plans for all of them, and the Mother of the Woods would not fail humanity.