I was in Seclusion for so long that everyone forgot about me

At the top of the Tower of Ichor, on the edge of the roof, sat a little girl with a doll in her hands. She simply sat there, observing several kids playing with each other in indifferent ennui. As unkempt as her appearance was, her clothes had it worse—torn, passed down and ill-fitting.

Only the doll had still some of her original beauty left, even if it was slowly fading. Her broken smile complemented the empty eyes of the girl who was holding it.

As the childish chatter of the kids below grew louder, a person appeared behind the girl, silent as a whisper. Walking out of the rift, Calypso first glanced down to her own children and then at the girl.

“Bored?” Calypso asked.

“I am—always. What do you want, witch? I am not in the mood to talk,” answered the girl.

Calypso eyed her. “But you’re in the mood for watching my children while sitting on my tower, my home?”

Silence.

The Witch of the End sighed, “So, what is your current play? Judging from your… attire, I dare to say you’re currently playing an orphaned girl. Any success?”

“Mhrm, no. I ended up destroying the whole kingdom. I got sold eight consecutive times from different childcare institutions. So I decided that the country had to restart. And now, I am taking a break,” the girl explained as she hugged her doll tight.

“Ah, so that’s why some of my contacts suddenly vanished. I doubt the others will be happy about it, though.”

The girl’s head turned to Calypso, her milky eyes looking right at her, as if she could actually see. “The others do not concern me yet. I didn’t agree with these so-called rules they try to enforce.”

The witch shook her head, “Youngsters. I agreed, though.”

“Why?”

"Curiosity. Out of every new being so far, they seem the most promising in a long, long while. What’s it to you anyways? If you’re bored enough to play an orphan, you can also be bored enough to indulge them.”

The young girl turned her head away, back to the children. On the tips of her fingers blackened cracks started to form, slowly working their way down her arms. Without a worry in the world, she started to hum—a melody void of rhythm and emotion.

With a flick of her finger, the doll flew into the air and fell downward to the playing children. But before the doll could hit the ground, a barrier stopped it.

With a loud magic explosion, the doll got ripped into smithereens. Like a cascade, every piece that collided and bounced caused yet another, bigger explosion. But the barrier withstood the impact with ease, it didn’t even shake.

“You protect them?”

“I protect my tower,” hissed Calypso. “How much work do you think I put into this place? Even the rune carving alone was painstaking work. Also, why are you carrying something like this with you in the first place?”

“Testing,” came the dry answer .

The Witch of the End pinched her nose. “Could you at least do your testing not in my home? Please?”

Smiling, the girl stood up. “What do I get for that?”

“You…” the witch sighed with the exhausted attitude of a parent. “What do you want?”

“A rift core?”

“No. I am not testing my luck with you figuring out how to leave this plane and unsettle the neighbourhood. Choose something else.”

The girl huffed, “How about a core similar to what your tower here is running on?”

Calypso thought for a moment before she answered, “I can do that, but it might take a while. So I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t try to destroy my tower in the meantime.”

“Deal!” grinned the girl who had suddenly vanished and was now standing behind Calypso, trying to grab her.

The witch dodged by entering a rift; appearing instantly behind the girl who, in response, half-pirouetted—her frizzy hair giving that motion a rather clumsy touch. For a moment, there was silence. Each of them observed, waiting for an opening, until the orphan girl eventually yawned, exposing more black cracks and veins that were spreading rapidly.

“My time’s up. Until next time.”

“See ya~.”

And then the girl was gone.

Calypso smiled, if only for a moment. Then she looked down to her children. They were safe and sound.

For now.

I was sitting in one of many comfortable chairs in the library. I’d been reading all morning, trying to close the knowledge gaps of what happened during the time I was gone. So far, most of the things I’d figured out were rather unsurprising and extremely uninteresting.

Currently, I was more busy with the fact that I had no idea which books would help me and which would not. Whoever had managed this place before did a terrible job; there was neither a register nor alist. It wasn’t even properly sorted. Yet, I had to admit that this collection was quite something and probably one of the reasons this place was so expensive.

Luckily, the new maids had done a great job by cleaning this place in the short time they had. Sure, most of the mansion was still in a condition that left much to be desired, but it was a start. Managing this much in only two days was an impressive feat; I had to admit that Deidre knew pretty well how to handle a place like this. Which made me wonder again about her origin, but I didn’t want to push. Not that it actually mattered.

The dark elf Drask was also a good addition. Together, I had no doubt that this mansion would be ready for guests by the end of the week. Not that it was my goal, but the image alone made this place much less suspicious. Based on what was written in Irmgarde’s letter, the church had no jurisdiction around here (something with being closely located to the academy) and would actually need a special royal degree to raid this place. She also mentioned that my friend pissed off a lot of nobles and especially the church due to them being a heavy investor in the casino. What I did caused such a commotion that the Emperor had no other choice but to start an investigation, which triggered a cascade of arrests and a lot of the illegal trade was now in shambles.

So, by accident, I made this town a better place.

I sighed, and if this wasn’t enough, it also resulted in me getting an official invitation into the royal ball that was held the night before the highlight of the festival. I knew Irmgarde was the reason I got invited, but couldn’t she find a different way to let me meet the hero? I hated playing stuck-up noble, no matter the race. Getting all dolled up, wearing a nice dress… on the other hand, it was a perfect opportunity to stir some trouble. I had already some ideas, may—

‘Maera, I’m off to the academy; meeting the others. Might become late, don’t wait for me,’ interrupted Aska, cutting off my train of thought.

I didn’t respond. Since we left the Crypt, Aska kept avoiding me. I decided to give her the space, not necessarily interested in the reason. She met Lyra, and whatever Lyra told her probably gave her some stuff to think about. Still, what slowly riled me up was the way she kept avoiding me. Leaving the room when I was entering, breaking off conversations with others mid-sentence, refusing to look me in the eyes.

What was so great about her so-called friends that she didn’t have time to chit-chat with me anymore? I frowned, took a deep breath and put the frustration where it belonged—deep deep down. No reason to get riled up over something like this. I really shouldn’t care, but this nagging feeling in my mind was plain annoying at this point.

Trying to get my mind off things, I opened a book to find more about another question that was plaguing me: What happened that this continent isn’t as advanced as it should’ve been? I mean, I was gone for a long time, but the world wasn’t starting from zero when I went into seclusion. So what happened?

One of the things I was aware of that had a big impact was the Witch Hunt. Witches were extremely powerful, but with the implementation of the System, they became weakened. They also became a scapegoat the divine used—even if they were never officially prosecuted by them. Their not saying they were the perpetrators was proof enough to the masses.

Something that happened simultaneously with this was the eradication and proselytizing of heretics and pagans. Be it their followers or the deities they worshipped. The books so far didn’t really give me insights. The Old Ones were a topic handled with utmost care. A passage here, a passage there, but nothing ever with substance. But thanks to the Crypt I was pretty sure about one thing—they became divines.

I was about to breathe fire and brimstone at that thought, but I swallowed my anger and pushed it as far down as I could—again. I only waited for the voices trying to rile me up even more; there were none. At least something positive about this day so far. Making an effort to get my mind onto other things, I stood up and went up the spiral staircase to sections I hadn't visited yet.

A sigh escaped my lips. This might take a while.

- - - - - - - - - - -

After I closed the tenth book I had now skimmed through, one thing was certain—I fucked up. Or rather, I had forgotten that I’d fucked up. Well, maybe it simply didn’t cross my mind back then, but that was beside the point right now.

The real problem was that it never occurred to me to check what the Endless Library did to everyone else. Sure, it was mine, but the witches had perfected its use for the general public in a way that somewhat left me speechless.

The Endless Library wasn’t only a place where all knowledge in the world was stored, but also one that distributed a lot of it directly into the souls of living beings of the continent. It was a reliable centered tool, a marble of magic and a lexicon you could access basically everywhere a transmitter core was stationed. Back then, at least every major hub town had one of those. They made those places flourish, and created even more new input that got stored inside the Endless Library.

So when I took it from the world, it collapsed. It didn’t help that every copy of the books that existed simply ceased to exist. Everything was connected to my creation and when I took it from them, a dark age of lost knowledge and hatred erupted. The hatred was targeted against the witches, of course. They handled the library; and in the minds of the people, they wanted to retaliate for what happened to Eternal.

But even without the Endless Library, the witches were too powerful to go against… that was until the System reorganized how the world worked. It was the big equalizer and only beings close to godhood, namely, the Old Ones, had an unfair advantage.

From what I understood, the takeover of the divine wasn’t a peaceful one. There weren’t a lot of details, but so many things got destroyed; even more knowledge got lost. Most things were pure speculation, though.

Still, even factoring in my screw-ups and all the fallout that came with it, nothing could explain how ten thousand years of rebuilding had still left the world stuck in what amounted to a magical medieval standstill.

Or so I thought.

In one of the later books, there was a talk about something called Anomalies of the System. Anomalies were things that existed inside of the System that distorted it and—for the lack of a better word—bugged it. Those anomalies could be a lot of things, but most of the time they were dangerous. They exploited the System in ways the divine didn’t intend and had no access to. They couldn’t even discern where those things were half of the time until it was too late. If one might become too strong, they might rival the divine themself.

The book called it ‘The Sprouting’—a creature that began slowly poisoning the world and managed single-handedly to cause another age of destruction. Virtually setting the technological progress back a few couple of eons. It even triggered a System-change.

Funnily enough, everything I just read was depicted in a way that those were all lies, written by heretics to stray weak-willed from the will of the divine. Most things that depicted the past were actually done in a way that it was ostracized as lies.

I smiled, if someone was so desperate as to go to such lengths then there must be truth behind. I couldn’t tell how much or how authentic everything in here was, but my conclusion was that a couple of different things happened which caused the progress of the world to slow down. I myself did so several times to keep my garden orderly, so the divine could have done the same. With my name being basically erased, they also could have done the same to keep themselves in power.

Maybe the System also hard-limits what was allowed and what was not. Keeping a society in a certain technological standard to use them and ensure your control over them stays steady was probably another reason. I also couldn’t rule out the connection between the divine using the belief in them to become more powerful.

Thinking about it, my mood soured. Thinking back, Anansi wasn’t known to the world as a god; no, he was known as an institution for technical development to save humanity from the SAIs. Yeah, there were stories about Anansi, but the name itself only became a global phenomenon after I rose to power.

…

…

This motherfucker.

He used me to gain belief, to make himself stronger. I was certain there wasn’t a system on Earth in effect, but I was certain that my thought was correct. He manufactured a scenario in which humanity had to believe in him.

…he ignored the SAIs.

But why? What limited him to humanity alone? Knowing his character, he would have tried to get them onto his side.

Was it me? Even if I was nothing more than a tale to scare children for a long time, I was still believed in.

Frustrated, I closed the book.

There were so many things I still had no idea about how they worked and I didn’t know if I ever wanted to. I loathed the divine, Lyra becoming one of them was already insulting enough. But the idea that I harbored similarities to them, or worse, part of them filled me with—

—wait, what did it fill me with?

There was something, I could feel it and I knew what it meant. The Crypt gave me a taste of what was to come; them being silent so far, only made it even more obvious.

“Isn’t that right, Pheles?”

A giggle echoed through the room but no one appeared, which got me very annoyed. Pheles was the type who lay low, who harbored grudges that could rival a dragon’s greed. You could laugh with them after a fight, weeks and months may have passed and you thought everything was fine—boom, your entire family line got poisoned and killed in freak accidents. There was nothing that was holy, or rather in this case, too unholy for Pheles. Her anger simmered. It never boiled over, but it kept bubbling away until it finally hit you.

She was a maniac, narcissistic, someone who could never have done anything wrong in her entire life, no matter how hard the facts spoke against her. The only thing she held dear was her brother who was as bad as her.

I liked her a lot when she was alive—such an entertaining little critter. That was until I ripped out her brother's soul. By the void, she did not like that. She swore eternal revenge on me; a few seconds later her innards decorated the room. Spontaneous combustion.

Anyway, wasn’t that funny, As—

I stopped.

Right, Aska wasn’t here. She had also refused to hold our connection open or listen in to my ramblings like before.

How dare she.

…

How dare she…

I really wished I’d feel sadness right now. But there was nothing, no matter how hard I tried to act on it. And unlike before, this state wasn’t satisfying. I had robbed myself for such a long time that the short time I was allowed to catch a glimpse of them had felt like torture. The oppressive feeling that—even after all this time—I failed.

Failed my revenge, failed to leave, failed to find a way to control what made me: me.

The more I thought about it, the more I was aware just how important it was to me to get into the System. A chance given freely is one you should take. No matter how dirty and brutal the way to achieve that was.

I wanted it, Anansi’s warm beating heart in my hands. But no, I wouldn’t grant him a simple death. He ought to suffer, for a long long time. Maybe I’d toy with him, make him believe he had the upper hand, might win, only to crush his hope. If he had beings dear to him, they’d suffer and die first and oh void, I would force him to watch, to feel the pain.

My soul stilled.

I shouldn’t—

—but the itch was too strong.

Because I knew I wouldn’t stop there, I would rip them open, pluck every bone one by one, crush their spines and disembowel their very souls until their screams echoing hollow, not even hoping for the pleasurable relief of death they had hoped for an eternity.

They didn’t know anything else.

They weren’t anything else.

They were tormented.

And oh, my sweet sweet vengeance will be the last kiss of hope at the end.

AND EVEN THAT I WILL TAKE FROM EVERYONE ANANSI KNOWS.

I WILL—

‘Welcome Wrath’.

‘WeLCoMe.‘

‘WHICH HALF‘

‘HaLF!‘

‘Wrath?‘

‘WrATh!‘

‘ThE sIlEnT oNe.‘

‘tHe CoLd OnE.‘

‘One that thou wilt never see.‘

‘One that thou shouldest always fear.‘

‘Hahaha‘

‘hAhAHA‘

…

The echoing laughter of voices filled my mind, taunting me. Those bastards had set me up. I had expected them to try to break another seal, but not so soon. I’d let myself go, I even knew that Pheles was there and still walked right into the trap. Had they anticipated this? Me drawing conclusions and ending up with Anansi?

A gurgly laugh escaped my mouth, joining in with the voices. I maintained those freaking seals for eons, and not even three weeks after leaving my domain, nearly two of them got broken. It was ridiculous.

A farce, I tell you!

A farce, Aska!

But it was useless, you detestable voices. You insurgents!

You really thought mere books and stories would let me run wild? Pshaw, you know me, yet you try to make a fool out of me.

There was no place here fo—

A tremor went through the building and snapped me out of the depths my mind had kept sinking. I smelled blood. Intruders? Here?! Attacking what was mine?!

WHAT.

THE.

FUCK?!

My fin thrashed furiously back and forth, knocking the chairs and books aside as I leaped up and fog began to spread.

I took a deep breath,

“Time to greet those unwelcome visitors.”