Neophyte World Builder

SARA (NETHYS)

Life on this world was tough, Nethys knew. Even though she’d migrated from the sticks to the city, the very nature of the vaskan culture meant that everyone had at least a little experience in the wilds. Almost everyone. Cores didn’t last long once extracted, but they lasted long enough—especially with magical preservation—that the very wealthy could get a great Totem for their kids without risking the little darlings. Or, for only slightly more risk, they could send them out with real professional hunters.

Nethys hadn’t been wealthy, but she’d had help on her Core Hunt. That was pretty common, for families and friends to band together and help the younger ones out. It was usually for a weaker core, but better than grabbing one from a domesticated monster. For some reason, those always ended up being very weak, almost to the point of uselessness. Nethys suspected Crown had purposely engineered it that way, but she hadn’t been able to ask.

Maybe that would change now.

“Why must we go so far out of the city?”

Nethys perked up an ear at Genev’s question. Idly, she wondered how she had ever lived without ears that could focus on a sound… it gave her much better positional hearing. She’d been thinking about her human life more often lately, and not just the useful parts. Maybe because of this situation.

“I’m not sure we have to,” Nethys answered. “But I think it might be polite. I’m going to call on an… um… acquaintance who doesn’t like to show her face very often. I’m not even sure what she’ll look like… she’s a little odd, and both times I saw her she didn’t look much like other vaskan. I met her once just after my first Core, and again briefly right before I returned to you.”

It had barely been more than a decade since she’d first met Akasha, actually… but as far as Genev knew, that was a good portion of the life Nethys had lived. At least the age gap had narrowed somewhat… Genev thought she was much older than Nethys, but in reality the avian vaskan had, until recently, been half the age of her “younger” wife.

Thankfully that same fitness Nethys had been pondering had been a part of Genev as well. She had been a ruthless businesswoman, but that had partially been because like Nethys, she came from a rural community when she was younger, and she’d hunted for her own Core. The mekkingaw Totem she sported was a dangerous creature… not hard to kill but potentially fatal if it got into a real fight. Nethys likened them to a cockatrice in Earth myth, though the landbound birdlike creature’s gaze wasn’t a sure kill nor did it petrify.

Or was that the basilisk that did that? Her memories of Earth weren’t always reliable, and she’d never been as big on accurate mythology as some of her friends. It was a bird that could kill with a look, that’s what was important. That and the fact that even at forty years old, Genev was in incredibly good shape and was adept at riding the horse-like beasts they’d taken out into the wilderness.

“You met them before your journey?” Genev asked quietly, pulling up next to Nethys to speak. For someone so delicate-looking, Genev was also very strong. A fact Nethys knew all too well, though she’d never really sparred with her.

Shrugging, Nethys answered, “Yeah… I met her twice, and her father twice. They’re the ones that told me I had potential or whatever. Maybe if they hadn’t talked to me, I’d never have left in the first place…”

Genev gave her an odd look, then smiled. Even through the shaded glasses she wore, Nethys was used to reading the expressions. “You came back. That’s even more valuable. It tells me more about you than any of the stories I hear.”

Damn bird keeps making me blush even months after the wedding.

Nethys sighed, “I’m still not sure if she’ll even show up if you’re here.” She looked to her side and flicked an ear again, adding a smile. “Don’t worry, if she doesn’t we’ll just call it off. I know this whole thing is making you uncomfortable.”

Her wife was not a jealous girl by nature… she’d been quite promiscuous before the marriage, after all, and was not hypocritical. Yet Genev had been much less thrilled when Nethys had been evasive about Akasha’s nature and who she was, just as she’d been unhappy that Nethys couldn’t tell her why she’d been willing to risk an apotheosis. Keeping secrets from competitors was one thing, but the avian woman had been extremely blunt about how she considered honesty between spouses to be important.

It wasn’t a vaskan trait, even. Their culture was strange, but they were closer to humans than not, even the ones with more bestial features. Genev was a catch, she had to admit. Though that also reminded her that she’d considered herself pretty straight on Earth… she’d have to ask Crown if sexuality could change between reincarnations, or if she’d just found out something about herself.

She pushed the thought away for later… like after she died. She had work to do now, and they were suitably far away. An old ruined house made of stone was in the hillside, barely recognizable, and the path meandered right past it. It was as good a place as any to dismount, stretch… and see if she couldn’t contact Akasha.

“How are you going to call your friend here? Is this where she lives?” Genev asked in a frustrated tone. “I still don’t understand you sometimes. What if the ground shakes again while we are out?”

“It won’t matter whether we’re there or not, then,” Nethys pointed out. “Besides, it seems pretty rare. I’m going to get to the bottom of this.”

Maybe. She’d been mentally calling out for Akasha for the past hour, to no avail. She needed a new approach… something else. The gods, perhaps?

“MUERVE!” she shouted to the sky. “My wife is kind of a bird, you should like her! If you’re hearing my prayer, please tell Akasha to talk to me! Or Crown, if he’s available!”

Her voice didn’t echo… the forest around this little hill was light, but plenty thick enough to keep her shouts from bouncing anywhere. Right away she felt foolish, though. Muerve wasn’t even a god known by the vaskans… they worshipped other deities for death, like Volkoss. Maybe she should have done her “prayer” to that one…

Something caught her eye, and Nethys jerked her head to the side… only to catch a spirit fading away into the spirit realm. It had approached, and then wandered off without issuing a quest… that was odd. She’d never liked the things, their quests were always stupid anyway, but they usually poked around longer.

“Muerve says they aren’t your messenger,” a girlish voice complained from nearby. “If you’re going to call me like this, maybe I should add a button to your status screen. But then you’d probably pester me, huh?”

Genev stared up the hill, and Nethys followed her gaze to where a dark-skinned, demonic-looking girl perched on the crumbling stone wall. The clawed feet, the tail, the eyes… she looked like a younger version of the Sena woman that Nethys had met before her reincarnation. The voice was unmistakably Akasha’s.

“I didn’t know how else to call you, sorry,” Nethys apologized. “I thought you wouldn’t want to just show up in the city though. You said earlier you preferred not to show yourself.”

“A tier eight achievement?” Genev sputtered at last. “Where did you come from? Are you a spirit?” She glanced around suspiciously. The spirits could sometimes play games with low level Umbral magic, but they rarely had this level of sophistication in their pranks.

Akasha hopped down from her perch. “You must be Genev, her wife. Excuse me… business partner,” she corrected, flashing a leering grin toward Nethys. “Nice to finally meet you. I took a peek at your status sheet back when I dropped her off at your home. Lucky girl~”

Nethys could hear the tilde in that.

“How… you can see my status?” Genev twitched, suddenly looking more guarded. Being open about things was one thing, but sharing actual status was a deep intimacy. Genev was the only mortal who knew about Nethys getting the [World Walker] class a few years ago.

Akasha hopped up in a flash, faster than even Genev could react, and tapped her on the nose. An instant later she was back to leaning against the crumbling wall of the ruin, smiling. She shook her head lightly.

“I can do a lot of things, I’m not a vaskan. No, I’m not a god either… that’s why Muerve is grumpy. Then again Muerve is grumpy a lot. If they weren’t so good at their job…” she chuckled as she trailed off, then turned to address Nethys. “Anyway, if you’re calling me you must have a real problem. You don’t like to talk to us, I remember that. You’re always so cranky around father, don’t think I didn’t notice.”

The look that Genev gave her had a tilt of the head and a curious twitch in the cheek, and Nethys sighed at the girl’s antics. Last two times, Akasha had been relatively calm… now the System was behaving like a flamboyant child. It was far from the kind of discussion she’d wanted.

“Look, the people here don’t feel earth shakes a lot,” Nethys complained. She was pretty sure there was a word for earthquake, but since she’d already heard that the only place where they occurred was unstable and powerful nodes, it was probably a specialist term. She didn’t know it. “Between me being brought here, this happening, and whatever Cayla was talking about, I just want to know if it’s something to worry about or anything I can… do something about.”

The impish girl grinned back at her, flashing sharp fangs that would be intimidating if they didn’t come with a giggle. “Oh, so now you’re ready to become a legend? Nethys the Mathemancer, savior of Regalia, who stilled the violent earth beneath her very feet!”

After another giggle, the smile faded and Akasha shook her head. “Nothing you can do about it. Actually it’s a few hundred years overdue… you’ll just have to weather it. The shaking will get a little worse, then it should subside… things may be a little different for everyone afterward. If you want to help, your network should be the way to do it. You can help people who are hurt by the shaking with your communications, but they might lose some range.”

Nethys really didn’t like the sound of that.

“So what we felt was… natural?” Genev asked, a faint shrillness and quiver in her voice. Nethys winced, remembering how the normally playful and confident woman had become a trembling wreck after the tremor. No doubt others had been terrified, but for some reason Genev herself seemed particularly sensitive to the quakes.

“Natural, yes,” Akasha replied, finger in the air… then she squinted at Genev. Her voice softened to a gentler tone as she continued, “Common, no. It will happen again, over the next… few years I think? Where you live it should not happen often, but be prepared for it. Then the ground will calm again for well beyond your life. The last time we had a cycle that did this was well before the Age of Silence even began.”

All at once, Nethys felt like a weight she hadn’t realized she’d carried had been lifted from her shoulders. “So this isn’t why I was put here. That’s… a relief.” She sighed, shuffling to the side as her riding beast suddenly decided to nip at one ear.

Akasha giggled, “Of course not! I told you all the way back when you got your first core! You’re here to live a life! You’re strong enough to do what you like… walk the world like your newest class, or even farther if you want. You didn’t pass the barrier, but that was your choice… and instead you’ve made this part of the world able to speak to one another in ways they never could before. That’s just as valuable, and lets you stay in one place.”

She winked at Nethys, smiled at Genev, and then added softly, “Or be captured, it would seem.”

Genev blinked at the System, and Nethys scowled and sputtered as the girl vanished, her laughter still lingering in the air.