“Sit and rest, Klaus,” Methol went on, pulling away.
“Fuck you,” I countered. “Leave me alone.”
“There’s no reason to be quite so hostile. The weakness will pass. Your body’s taking some time to adjust to relying only on its own resources.”
Or lack thereof. I was unpleasantly reminded of all the ways in which I’d abused myself for the past few days. Barely ate anything. Barely slept. Been battered, stabbed, flung around. The realisation and its aftershocks crushed me down with the force of a hammer to the skull.
Methol reached into her pack and produced something wrapped in a kind of paper. She unravelled it to reveal a jagged piece of dried meat. The smell of strong spices almost made my eyes water.
She tore off a piece and extended it to me. “Eat,” she said, the smile never leaving her lips. “It tastes a bit strong, but I know it’s fitting for humans.”
I almost wanted to flip her off, but the smell sent my stomach growling and my mouth watering. Against my pride’s protestations, I took the morsel.
Even my teeth hurt for some reason. When I bit into the jerky, it felt as if I’d just chomped down on a rock. It was almost like hard candy and I struggled to take a small bite out of it. Chewing was its own grand challenge.
But it was delicious! Like a bomb of flavour exploding in my mouth. Tears stung the corners of my eyes.
“Eat at your own pace,” Methol said. “There’s no rush.”
“Your assessment does seem to be on the pessimistic side,” Ever said from her lap, the rabbit-thing looking at me with the same unfocused expression.
“It was correct before he headed down into the node.” I almost choked at how defensive Eternity sounded all of a sudden. “His performance shows much improvement in a very short window of time. The end result was predicted, but it comes ahead of schedule.”
“You thought I’d get myself killed?” I asked, more than a little hurt.
The food was doing wonders with my temper, but not enough to blunt a sting like that.
“I cannot say. But I also cannot predict what you may find within a node. I can say, however, that your results are surprising, given what you’ve faced.” Eternity raised its wings and wrapped them around itself. “You have done very well, based on what we can gleam off your status. I am… impressed, Klaus. Congratulations.”
I took another bite and chewed slowly, deliberately not processing what Eternity just said. I could already feel strength returning to me, the earlier brain fog lifting. The fatigue did not ease off, but neither did it get any worse. My body demanded what it was owed, and that meant a lot of rest to catch up on.
But first—
“What’s going on with Melenith?” I asked, my voice no longer shaking, the question aimed at Methol. “You didn’t explain anything. She’s a manifestation. What’s that mean? How can I free her?”
Methol puffed out her cheeks and let out a long sigh, her smile grown forced and brittle. “I don’t recommend you free her, Klaus,” she said. “She looks like an aspect of War, so her nature will be one of aggression.”
“That’s not relevant,” Ever protested.
“True.” Methol nodded and set about caressing the weird critter. “Her people are gone. All that knew her are gone. Free her from the node, and she will wither away and disappear too. Or worse, she may linger on Oresstria and slowly lose herself, feeling it happen day by day until nothing remains but scattered memories. Leave her be, and she may become like the corruption you’ve already faced. It’s best to leave sleeping gods lie. For everyone’s sake.”
That made me slow my chewing.
“She said she chose that. Seemed to have expected something different from Eternity and was really upset about being woken up.”
“That’s something we can’t get into, I’m afraid.” She threw just the tiniest glance at Ever. “Your insight is far too low for it.”
Got it. Can’t discuss Eternity’s nature without knowing more about Eternity first.
“What can I do for her then?”
Methol shrugged. “Lull her back to sleep. Let her drift away into the dream and continue her function as guardian of the node. With some luck, she won’t ever be called upon again.”
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
“She wasn’t doing much guarding when I got there. Was a statue.”
“Yes, because the node was corrupted before her role could be triggered. This is a shallow node. It only operates over a few square kilometres, and its memories are furnar in origin. It’s still developing. It most likely hadn’t noticed the intrusion until you got in.”
For all that, the vines had destroyed the crystals.
I tried to rise, but still felt too weak. It was getting better. Nothing for it but to keep on eating. Without even thinking, I finished the piece of jerky and Methol handed me a second.
“She can’t sleep forever.” I turned the problem over in my head. “At some point she’ll need to wake.”
Methol shrugged again, and made a soft “Mhm” sound.
“You can’t say, I take it?”
“Exactly. But I can promise you it’s what’s best for her.”
I chewed and thought. The idea of living gods sank a bit deeper beneath my skin and I found it more digestible now. Whatever I’d just lost, my body was growing accustomed to its absence. Slowly. Somehow, I expected the weakness to haunt me for a few days, which sucked.
The thirty hour timer would probably behave very similarly as it had in Carmill Hill. So I’d have a whole invasion of monsters to fight in less than a day.
With nothing to add to that conversation, I said, “So… I’ve been running around on easy mode so far?” May as well make light of my situation a little.
Methol wobbled her head, “I wouldn’t say that.”
“What would you say, then?” I swallowed and accepted another piece of jerky, and her canteen of water. It felt like the sweetest nectar going down.
“Are you an easily offended person, Klaus?”
“I’d like to think I’m not.”
“He is,” Eternity countered.
“I’m offended that you think that of me.” I was smiling by now, feeling so much better. Whatever was in the jerky, it worked wonders on my disposition. “But I think you can answer as honestly as you’d like.”
Methol drew in a breath, smiled, then laid into me with the grace of a sack of obsidian shards to the kidneys.
“Were you, perhaps, considered a bit dim back on your world? Because I’m looking at your stats and I have to wonder what you could have been thinking to leave your arrival area barely four days in, with no real supplies, no map, no plan, and generally untrained. Eternity does not note you as suicidal, and also not mentally impaired in any way. So you’re either some garden variety of stupid, or terribly unimaginative about the dangers a new world may pose for you. Not only that, but you’ve leapt into a node twice, with no protection, no information, and at a base level where a reasonably strong gust of wind may topple you.”
My jaw dropped and I almost spat out the meat. Methol leaned over and firmly pushed my chin up with the tips of her fingers.
“Sorry,” she said, voice lowered. “I’ve spent a long time with Tiamat and he’s… direct.”
“But… you said…” I mumbled and pulled away from her. “You said Eternity’s estimation was wrong.”
It had sounded a good thing. The last thing I expected was a dressing down this severe.
“Yes, it was. I stand by that. Because you’ve earned yourself a reasonably powerful unique skill at an impressively low level. I see the requirements for that skill and you shouldn’t have been able to achieve its condition, much less activate it even once after the first time. Which shows promise… but you need to take a very critical look at your path to here. You’re only alive because of sheer luck. Eternity does not fight your battles for you, so you were not having an easy time. But from all I can gather, you are your own worst enemy and biggest danger.”
That stung. Oh, that stung in a way that I hadn’t been stung for years. I actually choked on the food and felt the taste rot away in that instant. It took an effort of will not to react as I felt.
Instead, I defaulted to my usual flippancy. “If I had said I do get offended easily, would you have laid into me this hard? Didn’t expect an ass kicking worse than what the furnars down there have managed.”
Methol didn’t smile this time. “I would’ve, perhaps, used gentler words. But the meaning would’ve been the same.”
Well, I appreciated the honesty. Still, being berated by a complete stranger felt odd and my pride was trying to mount a rescue.
At the same time, I couldn’t help but feel at least a bit ashamed of my cavalier attitude towards my own mortality. If there was one thing I’d learned about myself through this whole mess, it was that I didn’t want to die. It’s one thing to generally want to keep on living, and quite another to reach the edge, have one foot out over the abyss, and desperately, desperately refuse taking the plunge.
I’ve seen the abyss. Heard its call. Felt its fingers on my neck. Expected the fatal plunge.
And I did not want them.
It humbled me to know I’d been helped along by Eternity, even when I kept thinking of it—her?—as somewhat of a pain in the ass. All Methol said reframed my relationship to the entity, and my expectations and suspicions of it.
“Eternity, what are your preferred pronouns?” I asked.
“I do not have gender,” the dragon answered. “If you worry I might be offended by you using it to refer to myself, then you can rest easy.”
“Why do you keep calling it a she?” I turned to Methol. “Melenith did the same. She called Eternity She who Hungers.”
“Why are you trying to change the subject?” Methol frowned at me and offered me the whole piece of jerky and the rest of the water. “Klaus, this is important. You don’t know me, but I know you and what you’re going through. You won’t survive long if you keep acting as you have.”
“I got the point.” It was easier to eat now that my strength was returning. “I’ve had plot armour so far and that’s going away. Got the idea. Believe it or not, I was actually considered rather bright back home. I do learn.”
Eternity scoffed and let out a puff of smoke. “He does learn, he says,” it complained. “The next time you wander into some dangerous warren, I’ll be sure to remind you of this statement.” And, as if to make the sting worse, it imitated my voice exactly, adding just a cruel little twist to the words, “I do learn.”
“Are you becoming mean to me or is that my imagination?” I asked.
“Your little dragon there is beginning to separate from the main consciousness as it bonds to you. Its personality will reflect yours.” Methol let out a small chuckle. “I suggest you be nice to one another.”
I leaned forward a bit and frowned at her. Eternity did the same on my shoulder. Then we, as one, turned our gazes to Ever, stared at the sullen rabbit-thing for a few seconds, then returned to Methol’s eyes.
“Right,” we chorused.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year... in advance. Because I'm taking the rest of December off from both stories. I'm exhausted and I honestly can't deal with maintaining the schedule right now.