151: Wanderer
CROWN
The afterlife, much like the land of dreams, was largely shaped by subconscious desires of its denizens. The major difference between the two was coherence. Dreams tended to make little sense… one could have a ship that shifted into a landmass with little regard for geography or cause and effect. In the afterlife, a ship might vanish eventually, but only if it had not been used for a time and was no longer needed.
I was thinking about this a lot, because we ended up on a large ship.
“Oh, I love it when they have a ship!” Eyssa hopped with glee as we materialized on the vessel. It was good to see she still got excited over things like this, especially when she immediately rushed to the bow of the ship, perching on the edge just behind where the jib sail was anchored.
It was normal to meet with other souls in the afterlife, and even encouraged. I had set it up so that souls would remember their past lives, up to a point, and after enough iterations old friends would start crossing paths again. This would sometimes take several periods in the afterlife, since not everyone got through in every life, and some spent more time there than others, but it was not uncommon to see familiar souls.
Someone who decided to be alone on a ship in the middle of the ocean was… not what I’d expected when I had created the afterlife.
“Lady Akasha, Lady Eyssa, Great Muerve! It has been some time, has it not?”
A rooken landed lightly between me and Eyssa, giving a spread of the wings and a nod to each of those present in turn. He hopped up onto the railing of the ship—which had perches built in just for rooken—and bobbed his head to me, repeating the flourish with his wings. “And who might this lovely goddess be? Surely not a mortal soul, to be keeping such company?”
Muerve, who was back to their rooken shape, just chuckled.
“Try not to flirt too much with my father, Wanderer,” Akasha laughed, causing the playful rooken to freeze in exactly the way I’d expected. “You look like you’re enjoying yourself. Taking an extended break from life this time?”
Wanderer shook himself free of his shock with remarkable speed. “Ah, not so much extended, but not ready to go back yet. I hope I do not disappoint in my desires… two gods, the System, and the Creator visiting me is hardly a normal day, is it? You have a request, I imagine.”
“Does everyone know this guy except me?” I complained with an irritable swish of my tail. “I don’t remember him being this talkative.”
Eyssa sat herself on the railing next to Wanderer, letting out a chuckle. “Well it has been many lifetimes since you were here. I didn’t realize you’d spoken to him at all.” She flicked her tail absently toward the rooken. “He’s called the Wanderer, and my domain is exploration. He crossed paths with my domain both times he was an elf. Of course I know him.”
“And I handled his request, which I just mentioned,” Muerve pointed out, waving a wing in my direction with feigned disinterest. I had this sneaking suspicion that my god of death liked to see me fidget, from how they were treating me.
“Good Creator, please tell me when we have spoken. I am afraid I do not remember! Perhaps it has been lost in the shuffle of my past lives? If so, forgive my failure to recall.”
The flamboyant rooken did sound earnestly apologetic, but I just had to laugh.
“I manage the dungeons, among other things. We spoke when you were choosing your reward.” My ears flicked upward. “You turned out very different from what I expected, but I like it.”
Wanderer chirped a laugh, then hopped down to do his flourish and head bob once more. “In that case, I do recall our brief conversation! I owe you much gratitude, and much to your daughter… while those days were unpleasant in many ways, they brought me to who I am now, and brought me close to the Lady Cayla. Your daughter has helpfully guided me toward Lady Cayla most of the times I have been born vaskan.”
It didn’t surprise me that those two remained close, but I twitched an ear as I looked toward Akasha. She spread her hands innocently, but I doubted she thought I was actually angry at her. And I wasn’t.
“Unpleasant? Sorry to hear that,” I sighed. “Though I suppose it makes sense. You seem very… relaxed?”
The rooken chirped another laugh, leaping to the other side of the ship to settle on the railing. This side was closer to the jib, and he lifted one foot to grasp hold and adjust the sail, letting the watercraft surge forward.
“Why would I not be?” Wanderer laughed again. “I can enjoy the freedom of the open sea as much as I want! And when I am bored in a few years, I start over with no memory, explore the world with wonder, and return here with the satisfaction of having seen more of this bountiful world!”
It was in that moment that I realized I wasn’t immune to flattery… especially as he didn’t seem to realize I was the one who had created the world of which he sang praises, despite calling me Creator. My ears lifted with a pleasant satisfaction, but Wanderer soon brought me back down.
“Now, why don’t you all tell me why so many are here?” The sailing bird laughed, taking a tight hold on the rope and playing with the ship’s speed through small adjustments. “Not bad news, I hope? Cayla should have a few more centuries in her, I hope.”
“No no, nothing like that,” Akasha quickly reassured, holding her hands up. “Just an offer for your next life. Father would be the one to discuss it, though.”
Wanderer turned to me again. “Oh, is that so? Hmm, well I am not courting your daughter, right now, but you have my attention nonetheless, good Lady!”
I was relieved that Wanderer seemed aware enough of how things worked here that he didn’t question my appearance. His disarmingly friendly chatter was throwing me off balance, though. I hadn’t had a mortal so thoroughly take control of a conversation since Sena.
Then I twitched. “Wait… right now?” I quickly glanced at Akasha, only to find that somehow, even in the afterlife, she was blushing right to the tips of her ears.
“He did… flirt with me once,” she mumbled. “I don’t think he was serious.”
Wanderer trilled a laugh and hopped forward to the prow, where an amused Eyssa swung to the side to make room for him. The rooken grasped with one of his wing-thumbs to steady himself, using the other to make a grand gesture.
“Oh, but I was serious at the time! Little did I know what troubles I was stirring!” The playful bird-creature let out another shrill laugh. “My soul yearns to be as free as my bodies are now, when living. There are but three that I would truly give myself to. Alas, two have already given away their hearts, and the third is lost to me.”
His head tilted, and Wanderer wiggled his tailfeathers playfully. “Aside that, as it was revealed when I met her true love, I am perhaps the wrong persuasion. Too wild and free of restraint to catch the lovely Akasha’s eye, with either passion or plumage. I cannot be the unshaken rock she desires.”
I mentally added “unsettlingly perceptive” to this soul’s list of traits.
At the same time, I could easily see how he could be such a disruptive influence anywhere he walked or flew. Wanderer’s personality was like a wave roaring down a tiny river, sweeping up everything in both his energy and direction. I myself had given his soul the boons to make it an even messier situation… not that I minded.
Wanderer’s boons were simple, and surprising. He’d had no desire to keep previous memories from lives, only to keep his desires. A complete immunity to magical or physical control kept him from ever being a slave to anyone again, and for good measure this extended to the failure of physical bonds. Manacles would open and fall away, nets would slide off his body instead of tangling… even an attempt to grasp his arm without his consent would find him gliding through the person’s grasp.
It was a little more powerful than boons I normally granted for dungeon service, but I had found the request both emotional and deeply interesting, so I’d let him have it. Apparently he’d been wandering my world for fifteen hundred years or so since, just enjoying life.
I couldn’t really blame someone for that.
Stepping forward, I made a polite coughing noise. “I’m not here to discuss your love life nor my daughter’s, though I hope you haven’t been flirting with gods as well.”
Eyssa snickered, and I cast her a quick look, but she shook her head. Whatever weird performance Wanderer was on about didn’t extend to the gods, thankfully. I’d sworn long ago to do whatever I could to avoid a full Greek pantheon situation. Or maybe Eyssa just didn’t want to talk about it.
“Wanderer has such a zest for life, I truly don’t know what to think,” Muerve murmured from beside me. “Perhaps if I were an older god, I might know how to approach him better.”
I was reminded suddenly that almost every god was much, much older than me in actual years experienced. As I experienced time, it had only been a few hundred years since I’d first laid down the foundations of the universe. It sounded like a lot to a mortal, but most of that time had been monitoring events of interest and designing any adjustments or changes.
A few hundred years should have been a lot. Yet… I still felt young and inexperienced.
Wanderer probably had more actual “lived” experience than I did.
The rooken was listening intently, at least. I forged ahead with my offer.
“I’m not asking you to do this just as a favor,” I reassured. “I’m offering something unique. Would you like your next life to be a species you’ve never encountered before?”
Wanderer stopped his lazy sway and tilted his head at me. The bird released the line he was holding and hopped down to the deck, looking up at me slightly with a critical eye. The way his tail lifted and fanned out, I knew I’d hooked him.
“Tempting… but rarely am I asked what creature I would like to be.” The rooken chirped and clacked his beak at me. “I mean no offense, yet I sense there is some detail you have yet to divulge that could complicate my life.”
I glanced at Akasha, who flicked her tail back.
Eyssa hopped down to the deck as well. “You would need to wander farther away from your home than ever before, and I won’t be able to help you… at least, not at first.”
“Indeed,” Muerve confirmed. “The one you will inhabit has no concept of a god. You will be unknowing even of myself, in any form. Although that is not the most… concerning detail, is it, Crown?”
I briefly wondered if I should have insisted on more formality with my gods. They were far too casual about their creator. Perhaps I hadn’t given them the right impression of just how important I was. Did I even want that, though?
I sighed.
“You made a request to always be male from now on, I hear.” I paused for a moment, trying to put this delicately. “If you accept, you will be something very, very rare… but will have no gender. You won’t be flirting with anyone, I’m afraid.”
Wanderer peered at me before letting out a little cackling caw of humor, and then saying something that by pure coincidence reminded me of an ancient life I’d long left behind.
“Challenge… accepted.”