The Weight of Legacy

We have it!

Seeing as the Deity of Fragile Eternities had shouted in the middle of nothingness, Their joy was lost, with not even the endless ones that made up the greater whole offering a response. Eylo danced in place, still wearing the form of the oldest full appearance any of Them remembered. Their lesser offshoot—oh-so-creatively dubbed Eilo, gifted the name of the very girl whose appearance They remembered—had learned much more than expected, and her travels were far from over.

Sáinz would be glad to hear of this, of course… Assuming Eylo’s conclusions were correct.

Not that they would not be—the Deity was nothing if not thorough. Research took time, especially when it came to the matters of Splinters. Even now, Their understanding was so woefully limited that They would be remiss to believe They could implement anything as complex as the system’s true resurrection, let alone the true heartless Eternity of Existence itself, but this was progress no being would dare dream of.

The fabric of consciousness and Existence was too taboo for most to dare.

We should perhaps revise the numbers… no, no. They are correct. Splinters are countless, all part of the whole. Not unlike Us. Very unlike Us. Existence is not something We can quantify, but it is splintered. Endlessly so.

It was deceptively simple, so much that Eylo could not help but wonder if Their reasoning was flawed. To be so vast, yet feel so small—truly a humbling experience, to confirm for a fact just how utterly outmatched They were when compared to a force of reality itself.

Yet it gave Them something to aspire to learn from. Something concrete, beyond vague glimpses of that which all Eternal beings wished to touch upon. Understanding, of what it truly meant to be.

I—We imagine it could be done, the Deity slipped only briefly, the thoughts of Eylo and Eilo a blur. But it was no matter. Sáinz, You were a fool to ever doubt Us. EVER. They relished the thought, imagining the Aureate Mistress’s inevitable reaction. They were likely still far off the mark, at least when it came to bringing him back, but Eylo understood one thing now.

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This was why it worked—the system and its obits, that genius design. Oh, truly genius.

Eylo was positively giddy. If Existence was an endless expanse betrayed only by awareness, then its Splinters were like threads, or perhaps instances, each a taut cord connected to a life, each individual yet too many at once.

…Fine, fine, perhaps the Deity of Fragile Eternities had only come to understand a small fraction of the whole.

But that was it! A working theory for what it meant to have a soul! There was, after all, no true difference between a mortal being born within the system and one beyond it. Not humans, at least. They were the same, yet no amount of power within the system could salvage a life lost outside its bounds. The problem were souls!

They had yet to grasp the intricacies of it, and perhaps They never would, but all They had to figure out was just how the system stepped in. How it interfered, when a Splinter of Existence cut itself loose from the life it had lived. It somehow kept that taut cord from snapping back as it should, from taking with it the soul, without actually preventing death. That was the key.

This was the mystery They needed to unravel if they wanted to understand how to reverse the final end. Eylo had… oh, Eylo had come close, especially so during Their latest attempt, when so many freshly deceased humans fell within Their domain. But that had been… flawed. They had always known that. Not resurrection, not true continuation. Flawed. Fragile work from the least Eternal kind of being, the sort that was not even one, just many.

Eylo summoned a slab made of starlight and began writing. Descending upon that place was not dangerous by itself, but the stronger one of Their kind who all but ruled the world might not take it too kindly if They kept popping up unannounced, not that Eylo could announce Themselves to It, when It did not have a mind to think with.

The idea of intruding still disturbed them, oh-so-much.

Grinning, They examined Their writings one last time. They had been ready to send them off to Their friend almost immediately, but Their smile faltered.

…Oh, dear. We sound like a madman, do We not?

It would… it would perhaps be wiser to continue researching before making any decisions or… statements. When They put it like this, comparing Their own experiment to what they had learned of Splinters since then…

Eylo really, really hoped They had not just accidentally figured out how to copy people instead of resurrecting them. That would have unfortunate implications, especially…

…Especially with how far They had taken things.