.
Opening my eyes to gaze upon the misty landscape of dark water and cypress forest, I realized that my Mortal World avatar had dozed off while soaking. She seemed to be growing less bashful, at least out of the presence of others. She chose a spot where she was seated only waist-deep, with her back resting on the exposed knee of a massive cypress, where her bosom would be fully displayed to the rusalka who seemed to have night vision every bit as good as her own, should that one show up for their planned meeting while she was still bathing.
Her growing confidence led to an odd emotion in me; I felt an almost maternal pride in the progress shown by this infant immortal. It was a very strange emotion to have about someone who was technically myself.
She had good reason not to bother immersing herself deeper. Unlike magical-element-deficient small tubs and baths where the volume is small, this wide expanse of water provided a rich, easy flow of Water mana which could fully supply her through coverage of her legs alone. And this shallow spot left her sword within reach.
I smiled with bitter humor as I realized that the reason she had prayed to be brought into this illusory space had been completely invalid. Sadly, she had not retained the correct knowledge to know that coming here wouldn’t yield the result she desired.
She had hoped that I, in this Higher Realm illusory space where I have the mental strength and knowledge of an immortal, could gain firmer access to the Sea of Knowledge than her mortal acquaintances could achieve. She was hiding it well, but anxiety over her precious foster sister’s safety was driving her to thin hopes like this, just as it had driven her to a hasty choice to aid the Amaga tribe. That choice might yet turn out correct, but she had made it with less careful thought than she would normally apply.
Coming to the upper realms, however, was not a thin hope, but a false one. I had clearer thoughts but possessed only her embryonic core to work with, which lent me insufficient spiritual strength to perform the magic as an upper realm denizen. And she had gathered insufficient blood for me to work the spell via blood magic, as I would do in the Mortal World. Thus, the Sea of Knowledge was unavailable to me by either method.
I cast out my senses slightly, in order to learn who had answered her prayer despite the futility. A familiar presence surprised me. The higher realm immortal that the Orestanians named ‘Eurybia’ had not been on the list of entities that Tiana had expected.
“Naturally, since she has never met me,” the Sea Goddess stated as she waded out from behind a nearby tree. She was not quite knee-deep in the water, and she was dressed in the fashion of the statue that Tiana saw in the ruins of ancient Oste. Topless, with a pareo-like white linen drape tied at one hip and falling to the opposite knee. The Ostish image of the goddess of the sea, the weather, sensuality and healing.
Although, of course, as an immortal of a realm far higher than this humble celestial maiden, the living goddess possessed beauty at a level no mortal sculptor had a prayer of capturing.
“I think it’s a reasonably good likeness, though? I sent that sculptor an inspirational dream, as I recall.”
“It has been a very long time, Lady Eurybia,” I stated as I climbed to my feet, then saluted her with a hand to my breast and bowed deeply.
“It has indeed, Little Senhion,” she agreed with a smile, which grew mischievous after she saw my thoughts and added, “Or whatever you eventually choose to name yourself. Please resume your seat.”
I settled back into the water as I admitted, “I feel as though using that name would deny the trials and successes of all the subsequent incarnations.”
“That is only because you have done things backward, child,” she told me as she took her own seat next to me. “Most immortals live through many thousands of years and many mortal lives before their first ascension. Being born in a higher realm before falling into mortal existence thousands of years later is a vanishingly rare circumstance. You are the same soul, regardless of the order in which you’ve lived your lives.”
“I apologize for having bothered you with this futile errand, Divine Lady,” I told her as I again lowered my head.
“It is not a wasted effort, child,” she said, waving her hand in dismissal. “This is a meeting I had planned to have eventually. Although, originally, the subject would have been very different, as it would have been a meeting with my great granddaughter rather than my fellow wife. But you, too, I planned to visit eventually.”
I gave a surprised burst of laughter. “I’m not actually qualified to call myself ‘fellow wife’.”
She smiled patiently. “You need not possess the same realm as us to be part of our family, child. The Twelve Supervisors have unequal realms themselves. So, regardless of whether you still consider yourself married to us, we keep you in our hearts.”
That was an unfair sneak attack. I wanted to protest as I felt a sting of tears threatening to well up. I blinked it away and averted my eyes.
She patted my shoulder. “And this concern about your incarnation being betrothed is irrelevant. None of us are monogamous, anyhow. We, the Twelve, have supervised this world far too long for that. We have survived countless millennia by treasuring every one of the relationships we have cultivated along the way, with each other and with those of lesser realm.”
After watching me continue to study my hands in the dim light of this moonless night without replying, she stated, “You probably don’t need to worry about the success of your colleague’s divination. She is no ordinary mage. She has lived seven lifetimes, gaining great spiritual strength from them. This is surely her last mortal incarnation. Her skills are truly remarkable for such an existence.”
For a mere human to possess between five and ten centuries of spiritual cultivation– or even more if any of those were elven or dwarven– it was no wonder Allia Destia had gained so much success as a mage and a combatant. On Earth, such an advanced soul stood a high chance to end up something along the lines of a self-made billionaire, a pre-eminent Nobel laureate, the pope…
Having nothing to say, I simply nodded and accepted the news.
“Anyway, I can give you something as good as divination without costing you a high entropic penalty, since it should be knowledge you already possess. I merely need to help you put together the clues.”
I looked up, tilting my head. She simply watched me, perhaps thinking that whatever it was, I might think of it on my own. I wound up thinking petulantly at her that I was far lower in realm than her, and couldn’t read her mind like she could read mine.
She tipped back her head and laughed brightly. “Sorry, child. But it’s a very small thing, really, that you might think of on your own, so I was giving you one last chance. I shall tell you now.”
After spooning water onto her shoulders with her hand, she said, “Think back to that space that your young incarnation encountered in Carael. Was it truly a place that might have been carved out by common gnomes? A sufficient number could manage it, but would a sufficient number ever organize themselves to do so? And if it wasn’t them, then what is the only other possible explanation for its existence?”
I frowned at her for a bit, wondering what this could possibly have to do with Amelia.Then I realized that, of course, it didn’t. She was guiding me to the ‘first question’, the divination about the entrance to the great space similar to Carael that the miners of Lisrau had discovered. Once she made me think about the two together, I immediately recognized them both from my past life.
“Ilim Below,” I breathed as the realization hit me. “It still exists?”
“A place as large as that could hardly vanish, after all,” she said with a teasing smile.
Tiana had imagined the space adjacent to the Carael Mines as a sort of donut-shaped tunnel, a toroid carved out below the mountains of Hamalgaar, at the northern end of the Dragonsbacks. She had invented the toroidal shape to explain how Jurmat could vanish in one direction, only to come back around to her from the other.
Of course, in her mind at that time, only Mother could disappear entirely from her senses, so it never occurred to her that Jurmat’s Cloak was simply more powerful than her spiritual strength, her so-called ‘fairy sense’, and he had simply sneaked back past her after their first encounter.
However, I knew that her cultivation was lower than many beings in the universe, and it was obvious what he had done.
The actual structure, Ilim Below, was a vast network of mighty caverns, underlying the length of the great continental mountain range of the Baris Continent, stretching from the northern end in Hamalgaar to the southern end in Lang Doria.
“And now,” Eurybia stated, “You can sit here and use your own memory to consider the potential locations for entrances. After ten thousand years, the landscape will have changed significantly, but the portals have not moved.”
I shook my head while gazing at her, and wondered, “Did you truly answer Tiana’s prayer just to come tell me such a simple thing?”
It was far beneath the notice of a planetary supervisor. It should have been a distant longshot that anyone in the upper realms would notice her prayer to be brought into an illusory space there briefly. She had thought that maybe the HR manager or one of her fellow celestial maidens might consider it. It seemed outlandish to have one of the Twelve respond to it.
Eurybia let out another bright laugh. “Normally that would be true. For this visit, you can thank ten thousand years of absence. Since I knew you were in our world once again, I left a bit of my spiritual strength posted to pay attention to your prayers. When I saw this one, I took the opportunity to say hello. The help you just received was a mere side benefit of my whim.”
Leaning close, she kissed me on the forehead. “Be alert, Little Senhion. Our old enemies remain present and fearsome. The only thing that has changed is that most of the mortals have returned to our side.”
It was probably intended as parting words, but they caused a few dark thoughts from Tiana’s worries to bubble up, so Eurybia paused and gave a troubled frown.
“You aren’t entirely wrong,” she responded in reference to those thoughts. “Oranos has indeed manipulated certain events. The very birth of your current body was the result of his maneuvering.”
Dark suspicion flared into indignation. “So it’s true?”
She held up a cautioning hand. “Not quite. You thought that he might have caused her birth with the intention of sacrificing her to make room for your soul. I can assure you, that isn’t correct.”
“But it’s too much of a coincidence, that she could almost be my twin sister!”
“There is a strong resemblance,” she admitted. “That is indeed Oranos’ doing. But he didn’t start out planning to supplant her. To support your soul properly, he needed an Elder body, and attempted to use your mother’s womb to create one for you. When a new fairy soul germinated within it before all necessary manipulation was complete, he switched to a plan of having you reborn into this world as Tiana’s child. Then, even that plan fell through.”
I blinked. It certainly was possible for him to pull off such a thing, although it required some extreme leverage over the Afterlife administrators. Of course, what he did end up doing would also require such extreme leverage. Oranos must be even higher in realm than I thought.
She chuckled. “I probably am, as well.”
That statement gave me pause, but I had to pursue the subject I was on, even with an exalted being of Eurybia’s level.
I demanded, “So what changed?”
