130: Family Friends
Chapter 130: Family Friends
CROWN
I now knew that Orpheus would take a while to respond to my urgent question about the pillow. The delay wasn’t because she was busy, it was because time was literally flowing differently for her and the other Administrators. It was more puzzling to me why this was the case… it seemed intuitive to me that having a ‘fast time’ world would be more advantageous than not. Then again, there was still quite a lot that I didn’t understand, so perhaps it wasn’t something that could be easily adjusted. I’d certainly never adjusted any kind of slider to determine my universe being on a different time scale.
Which meant I had time to discuss the idea I’d gotten once Akasha had settled down.
One by one, the gods of Upside faded into my little space. I’d set it up like the last time: a little pocket of an afterlife, incomplete but technically a liminal space between my universe and my Sanctuary. I kept the scenery the same as last time – or to be more technical, it had been in stasis since then so I just didn’t change it.
“This is nice,” Eyssa murmured as she dropped onto a log around the fire. She wiggled herself into a comfortable spot, tail waving. “I can tell this is all ephemeral, but it’s nice to actually pretend to have a body again.”
I was in my Tastka body again, since everyone here was used to it. All four of the ensouled gods found a place to sit, with Kassara scooting in close to Solen. I noticed that Solen didn’t mind, and even placed a reassuring hand on the other goddesses shoulder. Protective big sister to the end.
Akasha popped into existence with a quick look around, but she dropped down beside me. This earned her a look from everyone else, and a slight twitch from Solen’s tail. That told me where to start, at least.
“You’ve all actually been here before, with the exception of Akasha,” I began. “You just don’t remember it. When you took on the mantle of the gods, you had to choose to do so, and this is where you made that decision. I’m using it now as a meeting place.”
Kelas lifted a hand. “Could we come here any time we want?”
I shook my head. “No, but if you actually want bodies to inhabit, I might be able to come up with something in a few more centuries, along with a place for you to exist away from mortals. But before we begin to cover what I called you all here for, introductions.”
With a tap to my chest, I first reintroduced myself. “I’m Tastka, or was. I’m something else as well, different from the rest of you. As you’ve all been told, I’m basically the one who decides who gets the offer to be a god… but it’s hard for me to notice those things. I noticed Kassara because of the intense surge of belief her death created, but the rest of you just happened to know me. I’m sure I’ve been missing plenty of other people with incredible achievements.”
Kassara’s tail flicked a few times, but she listened raptly. Solen’s ears dipped slightly, and I knew why. I’d bungled the way I’d said that.
“This isn’t to say what you did was commonplace, Kassara.” I quickly reassured her with a lift of my own ears. “It was significant enough to get my attention despite all the people that I normally miss. I just think that after this long, more people should have had the chance to be elevated. My daughter Akasha here might be the key to doing just that.”
All four pairs of ears flicked up sharply, and I continued before the interruptions could start.
“I use ‘daughter’ loosely. She’s the embodiment of the System, which is my creation. And I had a thought of how to make everything work more smoothly, but I wanted you all to be here when I proposed it. Then hopefully some time to relax together.” I chuckled. “It has been seven thousand years since we had a good chat.”
Solen cupped her chin in her palm. “About that. It doesn’t feel like seven thousand years, but when I look back it was. I don’t feel… nearly that old. Older than an elf should be, but not that old.”
Akasha sat up. “I can answer why that is!” Her tail flicked a few times, and I chuckled. She was ‘old enough’ to be an adult, but she often still acted like an exuberant teenager, or the elf equivalent of one.
“You aren’t fully aware and thinking the entire time,” she explained to the others. “When you aren’t doing something, you sort of… fall asleep. That way you don’t have a lot of time spent just watching the world go by, and the actual weight of the years doesn’t get to you. It’s sort of like how time passes differently for father, or even for me when I’m not being Akasha. You don’t feel the time passing unless you want to.”
I flinched as she said that and hoped nobody noticed the slip. Even as I thought that, I could see Eyssa and Solen both eying me, but the other two didn’t look to have picked up on it.
“My relationship with Akasha is complicated,” I hurriedly added. “In some ways she knows more about this sort of thing than I do, but that isn’t why I called us together.”
Once I had their attention, I breathed in to calm myself.
“I’ve hinted at it before, but it’s good for everyone when people explore and do difficult things.” I settled back on my log, splaying toes near the ever-burning fire as if warming them. “Now that the System has an arbiter of sorts, I was thinking of rewarding those who do something difficult. The first who does so gets the greatest achievement, and then a slightly less great one once it has been done before, until it is commonplace enough that it gives little to no achievement. Think of it like a class or ability that is given out, but not nearly as potent.”
Kelas raised his hand again to draw my attention. I wondered where he’d gotten that from… it isn’t an elven custom. Maybe it developed recently and he picked it up from his followers.
“What part do we play in this, then?”
I shrugged. It was a reasonable question. “Akasha will be the one handling most of them, but you can request specific achievements attached to your followers if you want. Our journey to the Duskwall likely would have given us all a high-rarity achievement when we did it anyway, but Eyssa may, for example, want to give out a special award for the first of her worshippers to reach the Dawnwall.”
Kassara perked up, her ears and tail lifting and startling Solen beside her. “Oh! I could suggest one for the first person to farm a certain crop or something!”
“Maybe.” I held up a hand to caution them all. “Make sure it is something difficult. If that crop grows just by tossing it in the ground with no effort, it might not be worth an achievement anyway.”
Solen gently pushed Kassara back down from where the more petite goddess was bouncing upward. Kassara really reminded me of Akasha… how was she still so childlike? She’d died of old age!
“What sort of reward do these achievements give to the people who gain them?” Solen’s question broke into my thoughts, and I shook my head clear.
“I was getting to that, but it’s a good question.” I curled my tail into my lap and idly played with the tip while I spoke, unwittingly bringing a lift to Solen’s ears. I’d naturally repeated Tastka’s old habit without realizing.
“Uh…” Pushing aside that distracting thought, I went back to answering. “Even the strongest ones are pretty minor. Bonuses to an attribute, or faster leveling when doing a specific thing. Lower-tier achievements won’t give anything by themselves, but collecting enough should give a bonus. I’ll leave that to Akasha, because she knows the limits of what a person can take.”
The four deities showed a few twitches of confusion, so Akasha hopped up and swayed her tail.
“Nice to finally talk to all of you! I can explain that!” She gestured at herself. “The System only guides and enhances what the body is doing. Try to push too much of it before it’s ready, and the body breaks down. It’s like making a child lift a heavy rock. Maybe they’ll grow strong enough to do it as an adult, but as a child they could break something.”
Kelas folded his ears back, then looked to me. “I always wondered about that, when I was alive. Who was Akasha when she was alive? I didn’t realize the System could have a god.”
“I’m right here, you know,” Akasha grumbled. “And I’m not a god. Wryna or Tastka or whatever is one of my parents, I’m a direct creation of her. I didn’t exist as a person, I’m just figuring that part out now. That’s why you can’t see me unless I let you.”
“As she said, the System doesn’t have a god.” I impulsively ruffled Akasha’s head… and got a strange satisfaction from the squirm away from me that she reacted with, and the pout. I could see her tail wiggling though… she was bad at hiding her glee at the playful action.
“It could have a god,” I continued to the others. “But with Akasha being what she is, that’s a little redundant and I’m not sure what the god would do.”
Kelas folded his hands together thoughtfully. “This idea of yours will give rise to more intelligent deities, is that the plan? I know many elves worship a weather god, but they don’t react like us.”
“Exactly.” I gave an approving ear flick to him. “It would also help out once the other races start finding their own gods. Once they believe they have their own, we may make more. If they ever do. Downside never did.”
“They’re starting to, finally.” Akasha sat up straight again. “Downside’s weird though.”
The curious looks the others gave me reminded me that I hadn’t fully explained that. I simplified it to a basic explanation. “The other side of the Duskwall. Don’t worry about it for now.”
“How are we supposed to get in touch with you to talk about this?” Eyssa asked suddenly. Unlike Kelas, she addressed Akasha directly.
My daughter perked up at the attention. “Oh, I can chat with you like you do with one another. And with the dungeons too, if you need me to, but I don’t recommend that. Unlike Tastka, I should be available all the time, I just didn’t want to start talking before I met you.”
“You shouldn’t rush into things, we’ll be implementing this slowly.” I stretched arms over my head. “Just think about it. I could have asked through the chat but… I wanted to see all of you again and catch up, and Akasha’s been wanting to meet you. She’s shy about telling people she exists.”
“NO I AM NOT!”
Yes, just like a teenager.
I chuckled, but didn’t point out how she’d been acting before. It was good to see her more relaxed about me. It hurt a little that she’d ever been terrified of me.
“Now, that’s enough business…” I leaned forward.
“How are you all feeling?”