"That's just it. God's don't get an afterlife. We simply cease. Or rather . . we go back where we came from. Theoterminus, it's called."

The Death of Anna trotted forward, breaking the wintry illusion. The dark chamber was faintly lit, and seemingly infinite. "I'm the reflection you'll leave behind when you die. I'm the death of you - you'll live on in mirrors and raindrops. Children will summon you with little games, and only sometimes will you appear. That's about the only way we live on - our people survive us, as does our Realm, and occasionally, the Tree will keep us as a useful template for making another god later on."

"This place I had to make pretty quickly. I'm only a reflection, so I can't exactly affect the real world. But - those rocks are real. And they've got little marbles on them. I can't touch them, but maybe you can?"

"Then, I can take you, for a little while, to other afterlives, if there are dead beings you'd like to visit. For knowledge, I know me. Some linger a good while before they let go, or decide to spend their days eating their memories - remembering good times, replaying through their childhoods, that sort of thing."

Anna seats herself on a rock, listening to her other self lay out the situation. She hummed thoughtfully.

"That's... kind of sad, actually," she murmurs to herself. She looked down and contemplated this over the idle bouncing of her good foot. It reminded her of a story, half-forgotten from some past existence, where the gods were despite all their power mere one-dimensional beings. She knew she wasn't one of those; she didn't require mortal worship for her power, at least not directly. Still, an interesting parallel.

Hm? Little marbles? "Little marbles!" Anna repeated with girlish glee. It was very important that she not lose her marbles. She adjusts her position upon her rock to locate some of the rumored spheres for inspection.

In another partition of her mind a separate process went over whether there were deceased whose afterlives she'd like to crash. Laelana came to mind immediately. She was only partially cognizant of the events that led to her death, but knew her hand was responsible. That didn't seem a productive venture, however. An apology was an acknowledgement that wrong was done and that better efforts would be made going forward, but such would be no comfort for the dead.

Somehow, Anna felt Deekin would disagree. The necromancer god had a... unique perspective on death. He would be so jealous if he learned where Anna had been!

Was there anyone else?

Her father... but no, no afterlives for gods. That ruled out a lot of the most interesting candidates, really. No, she'd leave the dead to their peace.

There were two little marbles.

The first swirled with warm light and shades of brown. When you picked it up, you were taken to different place -

You were in Arthos, again. There was no danger; there was a great house, ornate and tasteful decor, Viese helpers, several walk-in closets of clothes organized by type, color, and texture, little garden parties, a research and development wing beneath, a fully stocked library that seemed to always have new books -

You returned to yourself.

This marble was a real afterlife, someday. A paradise of ceaseless engagement and activity, of comfort and beauty and friendship.

The other marble was purple, swirled with black, and had been on the rock behind you. It resembled a dragon's eye. It had a sweet smell and sort've .. powdery texture, that you were unable to rub off. It rippled with power, which you could draw from - a minor boon, an artifact, a structure -

- or, for the first time, something even greater was available. To either summon an ancient being, or become one. A great dragon, that had once defended the tree before the blight. All you had to do .  .  .  was eat the candy jewel.

Two little marbles! Anna wasn't sure what she was expecting when she picked up the first, and was so surprised that she probably would have dropped it if she had been present in her own body at the time.

Wow, this place sure was pleasant! A proper afterlife for sure, with almost everything she could conceivably want. What wasn't present was probably in one of the rooms she hadn't gotten to see before the vision faded. Everything she could want... except, of course, actually being alive and able to influence the world outside. All her knowledge and intellect were nice to have but all were ultimately a means to an end, and in death it would all be naught but philosophical masturbation. One supposed that her afterlife would provide her with even the illusion of influence, which raised all sorts of existential questions... that Anna promptly buried. She just wasn't equipped to begin answering those. She wasn't sure anyone was.

Anna put the brown marble down cautiously and stepped away, eager to put as many years as possible between herself and that so-relaxing world. It was nice to know that when it all ended she would be taken care of... but nothing was as good as being alive. Sorry, Deekin. Having a heartbeat is a lot of fun, honest!

She looks to her pale self. "I guess that's what the real afterlife looks like," she explains. "All the things we wanted out of life but couldn't ever find the time for. It's... nice." She chewed her lower lip a bit before turning about to find the second marble.

That left the other marble. It has a very different look to it. Anna picks it up gingerly, expecting another vision, but none comes. Frowning thoughtfully she turns it over in her metallic hands, inspecting it with eye and magic. Slowly, comprehension came.

"Well now, isn't this... special?" Anna looks around suspiciously, probing the darkness with her senses. Someone had left a hell of a thing just lying around, and if she were an unfathomably vast world tree she wasn't sure she'd trust such a thing to be overseen by a wee little reflection of a god. This thing was power, possibly the apex of power that a god could ever hope to achieve. But it also tied her more closely to the world tree, in a way that would likely destroy much of her previous identity. Some gods might have leapt at that opportunity, but Anna's individuality was paramount to her.

She could just harvest it... but given the location in which it was found, she was worried it might break something. She looks about again, skeptical.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:20, Thu 17 Jan 2019.

The Death of Anna shifted as Anna held the little candy. Anna saw herself - her circuitboard tattoos coming alive, expanding, resolving into fractals - fine blue tracerieries in a subtle pattern that resembled nothing more than dragon scales.

Her eyes changed, becoming rather like a cat's. And when the death of Anna smiled, her mouth was full of murder spikes - also rather like a cat's dentition.

A dragoness . . .

"When we destroyed the blight, Taeltresin was wounded - it had even begun to bleed, as the Blight finally made headway towards actually killing the tree's heart. This is that bit of Tree-sap - mixed with your essence.

Draw power from it. Make a Myth out of it. Consume it, though, and you'll become what I became - a god with the key to the inner secrets of the universe, a god with freedom. The price only comes after you die . . you won't come here, me. A Tree-Dragon that dies serves the tree for eternity as a servitor-wraith.

But hey, you're down to one life anyway. And living in paradise would be sure be boring. Why not go for the big shot, really get things done before your number is up? You can't take that thing out of here, though. Whatever you do it with it, you have to do now. That thing is catnip for the Mad - the raw power, the knowledge of the Tree. Even the Styx wouldn't be safe when the Big Bad comes crashing through to take it in raw form."
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:47, Fri 18 Jan 2019.

Anna frowned some at her death-reflection as she changes shapes to illustrate her points. Anna suspected that this image was drawing on her own memories to some extent, just as her real self communes with her own reflections. A little disconcerting that the relationship didn't seem to be two-way, but maybe that was for the best. The other-self certainly seemed benevolent though, so Anna continued to trust her.

Anna looked down at the fused tree-essence, gnawing thoughtfully on her bottom lip. All the power and the knowledge of the tree, hmm? Tempting... so very tempting... and her other self made a very persuasive argument. But a little nuance in the words of her other, mixed with what she had learned from living on Taeltresin so far, gave her pause. The universe. The tree. Certainly, for many, that was all there was. But Anna's aspirations extended beyond the canopy of Taeltresin, to the Beyond and maybe even realms past those. This may be power, but it was power that tied her here, ensured that when her time came she would be shackled here. It would make forging her own path more difficult.

Fuck. That.

But with a clue as to the nature of what she was holding, Anna knew what this power would be used for. She reached into the dragon-sap and began to work it into an artifact.

The artifact was silver, about the size of a small shield or perhaps a large buckler and worn in much the same way, and really quite heavy. It was an intricate clockwork of spinning cogs, flywheels, levers, and mirrors, machined with a precision no machine could achieve. Its mirrored depths recursed and reflected each other in ways too complex for even the goddess of reflections to fully understand. Two flawless purple diamonds by which prospective users would interact with the device lie on the front, responsible for input and output respectively, assuming users could master both optics and Anna's Deep Magic to understand the artifact's function.

Despite the complexity, its actual function was simple: to reveal ALL OF THE KNOWLEDGE!

Harvesting the dragon-sap to create the Multi-Analyzer; using a combination of the World Tree's own being, Deep Magic, and an optical-clockwork computational core, this device performs incredible feats of analysis to demystify the mysterious -- given enough time and dependent on the skill of the user. Garbage in, garbage out, after all!

Experimentally, just so as to confirm its function, Anna immediately spun the device up and fed a Deep Magic reading of her reflection into the input diamond, while projecting her reflection into the output.

The sap was harvested, the device created, and your reflection rippled, distorted - became something grander -

The answer came back, encoded in permutations of theoelectromagnetic waves that your knowledge of Deep Magic was able to interpret.

[Private to Anathema Viese: Your reflection was the end-you of an alternate timeline. The tree ran multiple timelines simultaneously - that was how it sustained time differences - and this resulted in strange artifacts (of the data variety) when choices of immense effect were made. This reflection of you was the Tree's own predictive algorithm at work, extrapolating from a deterministic analysis of 'free will'.

It had not predicted the choice had you made, and now your choices included activity that, in the future, was outside of the tree's purview.

The tree was . . . partly an actual tree, and partly a mechanistic metaphysical reality engine.]
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:01, Sat 19 Jan 2019.

And some mysteries were demystified, as intended. Anna smiled as so many of her personal theories were confirmed at once. Her long-term goals were possible... and she had but one life with which to realize them. She would have to be cautious, and carefully consider the ramifications of her actions more so than ever. She would have many enemies, given the forces she tended to play with... but at long as nothing too unexpected had occurred in the branches, she was confident she could keep the Pantheon at bay.

Anna stands, fluttering her wings some and adjusting the straps on her... Multi-Analyzer was such a drab name. All her artifacts were named after planetary phenomenon so... Resonance, perhaps? Perihelion? Apoapsis? ... she'd work on it.

Anyways! Anna stands and smiles to her other self. "You've been very helpful," she thanks herself. "More so than you know. Just out of curiosity, what killed this instance of... us? Or can you not tell me?"

Regardless of the answer, Anna would continue to make small talk with the death of herself for a time; it was refreshing to meet someone exactly as intelligent as herself, with the same sort of yet subtly different thought process. Before time can wear on too long however she bids herself well and makes to leave.

"Charon?" Anna speaks to the sky. "Time to break me outta this joint. Can you take me straight to Arthos?"

She whispered a name to you. It was known, but not very well.

Charon's response was a bit delayed, but then you were on the boat, rowing back out towards the Styx.

[Private to Anathema Viese: The one who killed that instance of you - the Tree-Dragon you - was Ophelia, the Great Beast, Daughter of Bezaleel . . . at your own request.]

Continue Posting in the River Styx

From the River Styx

Anna was drifting; she had yet to incarnate from death, caught up in the subtle streams of Arthos.

With her new knowledge, she saw Arthos for what it was - a confusion of dimensions and timelines, potentialities spilling for into the future. Arthos did have a sense of . . integrity and self-containment that other realms lacked, the result of it hard borders.

Her ability to see through reflections was vastly magnified; she was in every rain drop, on every surface. She saw the whole of Arthos through a cascade of views.

You had spent so long in the River Styx; half a century had passed without you, maybe more.

Arthos had been drastically changed.

The God-Touched Viese that found the first subtle beginnings of Deep Magic - and who had been God-Touched in their craft - eventually noted the strangeness of the Dome of Secrets and the effects it had on those that drew near. With Deep Magic, they probed at the effect, altering it, turning it away from the entrance. The Wirevine was difficult, but again, the probed at the divine energy that had animated the Wirevine, and convinced the Vine that it would be best to grow upwards. It took a few years before a Viese could scramble through, but it was done.

They entered - those god-touched few - and they studied the string of gibberish code carved into the rock. Bringing charocoal and paper, they took rubbings.

Their goddess was gone - had never been gone before. Something had happened to her. They would find her . . .  or at least continue her research.

Some studied in the Witches Hut, finding the isolation from Em Phenya aided in abstract thought and the pondering of Deep Magic.

Other made use of the research laboratory, attempting to process the strings of code as if they were instructions to build something.

It took a century, but the insane scribblings were partially decoded. What they spoke of - the void beyond emptiness, multiple universes, alien beings, the true nature of reality -

The Viese were powerful minds. When the knowledge became too much, they backed off, took time to bathe in the healing pools. Let their minds expand gently, rather than diving off the deep end.

It was about then that Anathema reincarnated within the Inner Garden. When she was discovered, there was great joy - after a century, nearly the life-span of a Viese, she was returned!

But still, she slept, and dreamt, and in dreaming, woke . . .

With Anathema's comatose form to study as practical example of symbiotic hybridization between the Outer and the Tree - a long-standing theory drawn from the samples available - they began their work at the 'soft spot' within the Witches' Hut.

It took a little careful demolition work, but planted a singular flower - drenched in Deep Magic - at that exact coordinates of the soft spot, pulling the essence of the void into the flower, while watering it only with the blight-countering water of the spring.

Slowly, slowly, the chrysanthemum bloomed - bloomed with alien starlight, sustained by the breath of the Void.

Xanalen and Alphos - a male researcher - conceived a child and planted their offspring in the Void Flower. The grand experiment was on.

The child that was born had skin like night sky and starlight, and cold blue eyes.

The Void Flower was recreated, its seeds sown, and more of these new beings - the Nyxies - came into being. They were geniuses with Deep Magic, and decoded the rest of Anathema's scribbling, their alien minds easily adapting to the eldritch knowledge contained therin.

The Nyxies were cold, and far less social than other Viese. Their only interest was in knowledge, and with the tools at hand, they sought to delve ever deeper . .

It was about then that the Nyxies turned their attention to the Ascended.

Since they Nyxies were not quantum beings, the Ascended listened. As the Nyxies chanted a strange language - one of machine code, warped by Deep Magic, called Trinary - and the Ascended halted, returned the language in a purer form. Carefully, an accord was struck - a collaborative research effort. After the Ascended were informed that Anathema was out of commission and had become a passive rather than active threat, the Ascended abruptly switched priorities to work with the helpful, order-speaking Nyxies. An small village came into being, which the Ascended called an "Installation".

It was about this time that the walls of the Vault began to glow red. Given their proficency with deep magic, it was trivial to repair the damage to the Concentrated Physics of the place. Several of the Ascended were brought there was well, establishing satellite Installation. The Concentrated Physics of the area strongly appealed to Ascended, and the Nyxies were eager to glean more knowledge from them. From the research wing of Em Phenya to the the laboratory of the Vault, the efforts of Anathema greatly assisted the Viese and Nyxies in their pursuit of advancing themselves.

That was about when the Giants came in. What the Viese lacked more than anything else was manual labor. The Ascended only worked to their own purposes and could not be persuaded to assist in this, and the Goddess has suggested the Giants could be used for manual labor.

The Giants were resistant to the idea of working for the Viese to gather materials in exchange for ample food. It was then that Nyxies showed a darker side. Using deep magic and their understanding of the properties of matter, they conducted a lengthy Deep Magic ritual to bend the native magic of the Giant's homeland just enough to convert a imperceptible amount of the soil into antimatter.

The result explosion vaporized half of the Giants, leaving a crater half a mile deep.

The Nyxies then again the approached the giants, offering a simple deal - comfortable servitude or death.

The remaining giants took the deal, and the Nyxies had their ready source of labor.

The last issue was young Eila, the budding shaman. Accustomed to speaking with the earth, she noted the earth's grave warning to never, ever do something like what they had done to the giants again. It was the first time the Earth had spoken in anger to Eila.

Traveling to speak with the Nyxies, she told them of what the Earth had said. Using Deep Magic, they ascertained that their ritual had indeed caused considerable damage to the bedrock of Arthos and could cause catastrophic earthquakes. They struck the use of antimatter from their repetoire, deciding they would need to develop safer offensive measures that were less crude.

As the Viese worked with the Nyxies to honor the pact with Earth while at the same time pursuing their research, the use of electricity - and then the means of producing it from solar energy, based on the model of photosynthesis - was developed.

Em Phenya became an electrical generator - as a magical tree, it was within the parameters of Deep Magic to adjust and alter it. A proposition was made: If the Viese could develop a means to grow another Em Phenya, and another, they could form a society with ready electrical power without disrupting the earth or becoming reliant on resources with a high labor cost.

In this, Deep Magic was joined with Shamanism - and a seed was grown from Em Phenya, and then another, and another . . .

Essence welled within Arthos, and it called to the sleeping Anathema. Would she take hold of it for her own ends, or release it to the realm to do what it would? And she knew that even asleep, she could still whisper her desires to up to five individuals.

Directing the Essence would come with a minor Bane, assuredly. Letting it ride would either produce a random Essence-strength boon, or a Realm-altering boon that would come with a moderate Bane, with her having no idea which. It was a coin toss.

Round 1 of Geogenesis!

Who do you whisper to, if anyone, and what do you do with the welling essence?
This message was last edited by the GM at 09:50, Sun 20 Jan 2019.

(( Listened to this song while writing most of this post! I think it suits Anna very well! https://loopvideos.com/p4vPW9HDhd0 ))

Ba-bump...

Had she made it? It felt like she'd made it. It hadn't been easy. The tree hadn't been made to accommodate her... condition.

... ba-bump...

But that sound was comforting. It was a sound of life; of comprehensible life. She was still herself, just... more.

She extended herself and felt nauseated. Her mind did cartwheels as it attempted to make sense of its input streams. She'd never felt so incredibly vast before. She could see the whole world from here! But where was here? She bounced about, tracing the web of perception back to her physical form. Eventually, she located herself, frozen in a fetal position within a sparkling iridescent amber on her archipelago.

She looked so... different.

... ba-bump... ba-bump...

Her thoughts were so sluggish. She wasn't ready yet. Still too scattered. But she was safe and accounted for, so she could turn her attention to all else in her realm. And ho, was there a lot of stuff to see! Her viese had been busy... seemed that, freed of the blight, Taeltresin had regained a lot of vitality. The world was positively brimming with power, and she could only assume the rest of the realms were enjoying a similar power-up. It was a shock to the system to be sure, but she would adapt.

She needed to return to trance... to heal her mind... but before she did, she reached out, touched minds with several influential figures. The first was, of course, the current Vice Chairlady of the Council of Mirrors.

"Greetings from dreamland, vice chairlady! I apologize I cannot speak to the council in person, but I am still recovering from a... grave ordeal, haha! Many things seem to have happened in my long absence, including some things I might've advised against had I been present. Despite my initial shock at the opening of the Dome, breaching of the world-scar, and adoption of the Ascended People, our people have acted with care and grace. I could not be more proud.

But we must talk about these Nyxies.

Their existence and abilities are remarkable, yes, but they pursue knowledge with such lack of regard to the beauty of existence! I know not whether it will happen tomorrow or an age from now, nor what form it might take, but they are a catastrophe waiting to happen. They have already done to the giants exactly what I was hoping to avoid before my unfortunate departure, inflicting on them exactly what they did to us. You must find some way to neutralize their threat before then. I am confident that it will be done with the same light, careful touch that the viese have shown so far.

Beyond this, I wish to see the viese multiply and spread throughout the World Tree. The Blight has gone, but its scars remain. I believe the viese are ready to do their part that they could not during the war. Go forth, heal the tree, and for the love of me keep Deep Magic in the hands of the viese where it belongs!

Perpetual Prettiness,
Anna"

Whew that was a thing. She didn't want to alarm the council, but these nyxies genuinely frightened her. They had totally lost touch with the beauty of the natural world that Anna had created the viese to live in admiration and respect of! Worse, she was worried they would spread Deep Magic to the hands of other being less-equipped to handle the responsibility of handling Taeltresin's power. She wasn't sure what she could do about it, though. Well... there was one way... but that seemed cruel, they had no choice in how they were made. It would be better if she could bring them around to her way of thinking, and to that end she whispered a short, cryptic message into the mind of a nyxie influential among her people:

"Have you ever looked at the stars without trying to calculate how far each one is?"

Anna was getting a little lightheaded now, as the seductive silence of trance pressed upon her. Some rather silly ideas were beginning to come to her, one so Awesome that she just had to share. Selecting a pretty, young viese with boundless enthusiasm and endless cheer, Anna planted a seed of an idea:

"Have you ever noticed the speaking-spheres in Em Phenya's council chamber, and all that empty room for an audience? Seems like a nice place to have a concert, doesn't it?" (Not sure if I can take any actual action in this state, but if I can I'm totally using one of my free units to make a god-touched... pop idol!)

With her words failing her, the next whisper Anna bestowed her people with was less a message and more of an image, delivered to a prominent clothesmaker -- maybe even one of her godly weavers, if any yet lived. The dress presented would be the most ambitious yet, especially for a being her size. https://i.postimg.cc/HxXD9XNT/...8d4fae4d76c65c47.png

Aaaaand Anna was pretty much out of it now, but she had one last thing to say. She selected an uptight, self-important viese and declared: "Butts! Butts, butts butts butts. Butts." She giggled to herself within her amber. Butts.

The peace of trance settled on her. Arthos had done well, left to its own devices. She would trust its judgement a bit longer...

The number of void-flowers that could be produced was extremely low; they lived on within the Outer Garden, where the magic of the place sustained the strange flora.

Rather unfortunately for the morality of the Viese, Nyxies were born from extremely rare flowers . . and were thus highly desirable as mates.

The Nyxie genome had peculiar effects when combined with ordinary Viese - the starlight coloring of the Nyxies became mottled gray spots again smooth black. These "Vixies" blended the traits of both sub-species - while they were as social as any Viese, they seemed to delight in elaborate pranks that took weeks to execute, their fanatical dedication to research turned towards the art of deception and sleight of hand.

They were also quite a bit larger, about half again bigger than Viese or Nyxies. The first few Vixies died before being born because their size burst their Viese fruit. Larger plants were sought out, and only the Glimmerglade was suitably large and hardy.

The essence of realm crashed into the Glimmerglade, and into the Vixies that grew from them. Glimmerglade itself seemed unchanged, but the Vixies were different.

The Vix were the size of Anathema, and bore wings similar to hers. Their skin was still a mottled gray-and-white, and structurally they appeared like a Viese, but there was some more to them - each of them was a being of animate bioglass, and bore a faint spark of divinity, marking them as demigods.

Within their bioglass bodies, cyan light flowed like blood.

=

It was about then that 50 souls flowed from Anathema, blessing the beautiful and charismatic Prosymna with a virtuoso singing voice and the idea of bringing joy to others. While at first she only sang for her family, and then for her village, she soon moved to Em Phenya and hit the big time, singing of Arthos, of the binary stars, and of obscure physics equations that were a hit even with the Nyxies. Combined with the efforts of the Vice Chairlady to communicate how important it was to Anathema to love knowledge for the fun of discovery and the marvels of nature, not for power or the ghost of 'progress', The Nyxies gradually adapted to being a little more social - expecially with the Vixies to help bridge the gap in understanding.

While the Viese just wanted to live naturally and make Anna happy, the Nyxies were born of study into Annathema's madness, and wanted to replace her  - by taking the forefront of research, they would spare anyone else from suffering as Anathema had.

There was still ice to break between the two peoples, but the cautions of the former Mistcallers to avoid getting wrapped up in anything that wasn't from Anna made sense to the Nyxies - they were smart enough to know how much they didn't know.

Further research into anti-reality was discontinued, in favor of focusing on quality-of-life improvements for all. An Em-Phenya sprout grew into a sapling, as time passed.

The matter of the enslaved giants was put to a vote - whether their worth as labor was more important than their worth as living creatures. This was a difficult question, since empathy for non-Viese was a strange concept, and many Viese tried to quantify the issue.

It was the fully adult Eila that settled the debate - the Giants were of Arthos, Anathema had spoken that she didn't want them to be treated like this, and the Viese were already happy so why did they need the materials? The materials were mostly used by the Ascended, anyhow.

The issue was settled, and the giants emancipated. They returned to their jungles, and perhaps in a few generations a friendly relationship could be attempted.

Essence was again welling up in Arthos . .

Round 1 complete. The nine Vix are born, which is both a strong boon and a minor bane.

Years passed in a blur to the entranced, fossilized Anna. Soon, however, she became aware of her heartbeat counting out the seconds once again.

Anna felt much better now; about herself, and about the nyxies. She didn't think they would ever be free from her scrutiny, but she no longer felt abject terror at what they might choose to do. She patted herself on the back (metaphorically) for averting the crisis. She wasn't even terribly worried about the nyxies' desire to replace her at the forefront of research; the logic seemed sound, and they did have her well-being in mind.

So instead, Anna turned to these new viese subspecies. The vixies were demonstrating quite a potent hybrid vigor effect that she was certain would disappear in a generation or two, and were definitely a lot closer to baseline than their exotic parent. She found she liked them, and would relish the opportunity to train her senses against their tricks. Then Arthos decided what it really needed was more Annas, and the vix happened. If the vixies had hybrid vigor, she'd need a whole new term to describe what had happened to them. She peered closely at each example and at times thought they might be peering back. They were quite statuesque; Anna could see how they could be regarded as demigods.

Vix... vix, Vix, vix... she wasn't sure whether that counted as a proper noun or not. There was more than one, but they were also Special. She'd have to ask them.

It was funny... Anna had conceived a quartet of Great Fey before the final foray against the Blight, and it seemed two of the four had naturally come about on their own. Dryad was represented by the vix, and Pixie by the nyxies. She wondered when Nymph and Ent would appear, and then wondered if she really wanted Ent to appear. She doubted a vix would actually stand a chance against a proper Dryad however...

She supposed she better let everyone know that she was very pleased with the current state of affairs. She let the V.C. know her thoughts, then brain-dialed Prosymna.

"Hey there little shooting star! Great job performing for the nyxies, even I wasn't sure it could be done! I'm soooo proud of youuuu~!" ... complete with a telepathic cheek-pinch!

Anna wasn't sure whether she could whisper to one of the giants, but if she could she apologizes to their king -- chieftain, council leader, whatever -- for what happened to their people. She hadn't meant for it to end that way; eye for an eye was a philosophy she saw no merit in. She hopes that they have seen how her people are not mere singing birdies to be kept in cages for their amusement that a more equal partnership could be achieved in the future.

Sensing more Essence welling up in her world, Anna considers whether she wants to direct its use. An idea did occur to her... it was ambitious and productive, giving her a steady stream of income and mythcrafting practice. But it was also entirely too early. It occurred to her that she didn't know how much time had passed outside her realm, or if the mechanics of mythcrafting had changed with the tree's revival, or or even if her tree-brothers were still alive. Setting up a workshop in her proverbial garage was too early, and if Bezaleel's first indication that she was still alive was an advertisement in the Tattered Valley then he would play her buttocks like the bongos.

As fun as the mental image was, Anna elected to keep her posterior intact. The essence was left free to do its own thing. She would prepare the land first, pop by the buoy, do some cursory mythcrafting, have the viese teach her the latest version of Deep Magic, make some gentle probes as to what the pantheon might think of her, see how her adorable innocent (step-?)niece is doing, oh and there was that tour of the realms she wanted to do.

... well, as long as the tree was safe there should be plenty of time. She better get started then! The amber shimmers as it begins to crack, freeing Anna from her protective stasis. She doesn't bother letting the viese know; one of the very first things Anna had learned about her people was that word travels fast!
This message was last edited by the player at 10:27, Mon 21 Jan 2019.

The essence returned to the realm, but the realm did not immediately act. Instead, the power remained pooled in the land, waiting for some kind of triggering event.

A Vix was studying your egg when it cracked; she let the egg crack the rest of the way, and then offered you a hand up.

"Hello, 1-Kingship. I am 3-Understanding. You've been gone a long time - the Viese missed you." Her voice had a pleasant harmonic quality. More interestingly, the Vix was wearing a beautiful red dress that flowed around her ankles. While she was your height, she retained the inhumanly slender build of all Viese.

She snapped her fingers, which clinked like a crystal wineglass. "Speaking of which, that dress you had ordered with the master-tailor has been ready for a decade, although I'm certain that 8-Splendor will be happy to assist you with your aesthetic pursuits in the future." She gestured to her own garment. "She believes there is metaphysical power in appearances. I'm not so sure."

Hmm. Curious realm behavior, that! She'd have to keep an eye on it.

Anna took her first breaths of Arthos' cool, moisture-laden, faintly floral-scented air. She didn't realize how much she liked it until it threatened to be taken from her forever. She wasn't unaware of the Vix hovering above her but for the time indulged in the simple rhythms of her body. Heartbeat, breath, touch, listen. She didn't care how inelegant she looked sprawled onto the loamy soil of the Inner Garden, it felt nice and peaty on her smooth silvery skin.

Okay, 3.14 seconds was enough of that!

Reach up to grasp the young vix's delicate hand, Anna pulled herself up onto her foot. She looked the creature up and down, thinking the vix looked like a funhouse mirror version of herself. Well, her old self. Her eyes kept being drawn to that vibrant, lacy red body sheathe she wore, a red more vibrant than most in Arthos. Not a style she would personally adorn herself with on most days, but stylish nonetheless. She smiled in approval, reaching over to brush those delicately sculpted bare shoulders with a feathery-light touch.

"The vix are even more beautiful through my real eyes," Anna muses aloud. Then, with a start, she pulls her hand away. "Ah! Sorry. Hello 3-Understanding!" The name was odd, but culturally appropriate given what she knew of their origins.

"I look forward to meeting all of the vix in person, once I am robed. I am mildly surprised that there are any viese who remember what it was like when I last walked Arthos. I reckon I will be drowning in their affections before long, haha... ah, I am still a little dizzy... could you lead me and help me dress while I regain my bearings, 3-Understanding?"

While the two of them traveled and Anna was adorned and laced into her outfit's corset in what was doubtlessly a breathlessly sensual experience, the vix was bombarded with a battery of low-key questions. Two of the most important were:

"Do you know whether any of the Infinites yet live?" Her heroes, those marked with the ¹/₀ symbol. She'd never used the term aloud; she had never needed to refer to them as a group before.

"Vix names are unusual. Are your designations arbitrary or descriptive?" Anna strikes a stereotypically cute thoughtful pose. "Is there a 0-Root?" This was partly a genuine question and partly a test; if any entity existed that could claim that lofty position it would be Taeltresin itself, and Anna was curious if viese research had progressed that far. [Private to The Empress: Or rather, if she viewed Taeltresin as a multi-user system, the people who managed it... if there were any such beings. Taeltresin's origins were something of a black box right now.]

There was much more she wanted to know about the state of the realm, but she thought the Council of Mirrors would be better-equipped to give her a broader overview. She would eventually also want to touch base with the nyxies to learn how they had recreated some of her miracles without the use of souls.

"Of course I will assist you!" she said, with a subtle gasp at your touch. So they did breathe, and had full sensation. Curious.

"Sinsra and Teltanin, you mean? Yes, those Viese are alive. Laelana died before our time, but she is remembered for her intellect by the Viese."

The Tailor's place was not so much a single master tailor, but a small village of Viese of the same family dedicated to crafting elegant clothing. The Vixies had a voracious hunger for ensembles, and the culture of Em Phenya had developed a slowly changing standard for courtly attire.

The Nyxies only wore tailored lab-coats as a nod to the Viese, and this had set forth the highest formal standard - white surcoats for gentlemen, black dresses for ladies, although already some ladies had decided to wear black surcoats, and so on and so forth.


With 3-Understanding's assistance - a strong hand cupping your waist and the curve of your hourglass, firm and sure cinching, a warm whisper in your ear asking if you could breathe - the outfitting was more enjoyable and efficient than ever before.

"Our names are descriptive, and there is no 0-Root. They describe our birth order, as well as the nature of our abilities. The earlier in the birth order, the stronger. 1-Crown has been missing since our birth. They are the mightiest of us. As you are their equal and our elder, we've granted you their rank and refer to 1-Crown as 10-Crown."

"I am roughly 70% of your strength, and 2-Wisdom is 85%. 7-Eternity comes in third at 65%, and the rest tend towards 50%, with 8-Splendor being 35% and 9-Foundation being 20%."

"You may refer to us by our number or our domain, or give us cute nicknames, whatever you like. We're not ornery, except for 5-Discipline."
This message was last edited by the GM at 09:56, Wed 23 Jan 2019.

"Eila and Xanalen, too," Anna reminds her.

Anna was so glad see the viese able to develop their culture and have whole families moved into specialized trades. In those early days they had to do everything they could to get by and hadn't much time for frivolities. The explosion in sophistication could only mean that no major threats had escaped her notice. It was so cool to see a reflection of each chaste in their fashions; more than once on the trip Anna had to stop to have someone do a little twirl for her. Adorable! For a second she almost wished that she hadn't made the viese so small since that severely diminished the number of frills they could have on one outfit. But then, she supposed that was why the vix existed!

Anna was a squirmy little fidget under 3-Understanding's firm ministrations, biting her lip with each pull of the laces, shivering at the warm breath on her ears. It was the first time she'd ever allowed another to work upon her body, and was surprised by how sensitive her metallic skin was. Her cheeks were hot with a bright cyan that she tries to brush away to no avail, but continually reassures the vix that she is fine and to please continue. She watches her reflection's flustered breathing for a time, particularly how her chest swells so perfectly with each constrained inhalation-

She shakes her head, putting the strange thoughts out of her mind. A brief trance restores her body to its proper rhythm, the only lingering indication of disorder being a faint warmth on her face.

Anna does a little twirl on her good foot, her draping sleeves flowing prettily around her. Her dress had no allowance for her wings, but they phased through regardless. They were, uh, magical wings. Yes! As she picked the Perihelion Multi-Analyzer up and tries to strap it back to her arm though, she realizes she had forgotten something. She elects to simply strap it over her shoulder and carry it under her arm like a big metal purse, at least for now.

Now that she is dressed, she goes with 3-Understanding to pick up that staff that was being woven for her way back when. She needed a walking stick and Sun-and-Moon was still sequestered away and prone to oozing the Blight even without the Blighted Heart. She would have to investigate how that was even possible... later. And also make that list of things she wants to investigate. She splits off a new subprocess specifically to that end.

... or give us cute nicknames. "Okay, Undies!" That probably wasn't what the vix had in mind! "I'm sure Disco will come around. No one can resist my light! Hee hee!"

"Wow, seventy percent!" Despite the light tone Anna can't help but bristle a little bit at that. She knew she wasn't a powerhouse compared to most gods of her rank but she didn't expect to be rivaled by anyone whose title started with demi-. She'd thought similar of the Furies, and was now doubly certain running was the right decision. "That's pretty impressive. But we gods are pretty tricky as well as strong. Then again, I suppose my version of Deep Magic is hopelessly antiquated by now, so perhaps that can be an equalizer..." She hums thoughtfully.

"I wonder where Crown went. I hope they aren't doing anything rash. But if he-she-they are as powerful as you imply, I am certain they'll turn up in the... Great Exploration!"

And so Anna lays out her timetable to 3-Understanding. After her tour of the town had concluded and her staff picked up, Anna wanted the vix to assemble the council for her; both to hear their own status update (Anna was particularly interested in the population count) and to put out a call for volunteers. Volunteers in tow she wanted to visit the four corners of Arthos and finish what she had begin in the Ravaged Lands: clearing and mapping the realm, reclaiming lost treasures, and meeting the viese of other provinces! Along the way she'd study the latest magical advances; she hoped to be at least a passable journeyman before embarking on her tour of the realms.

Anna flags down a passing viese who looks reasonably responsible and asks him to spread the word: Anathema has returned, and is looking for volunteers to explore the Floating Islands with her!

She'll need someone to study Deep Magic under, and for that no one seemed more equipped than the nyxies. Anna asks Undies for directions to their community and goes to introduce herself to them.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:39, Thu 24 Jan 2019.

"Well . . ." Undies began, after you comment about comparative power. "I'm not 70% of your total power. That's not easily measurable. My singular ability is 70% as strong as one of your stronger abilities. I'm capable of understanding all languages, including body languages of any species, as well as all written, signed, or seismic forms. I can't speak them with the fluency of a native, though, which is where I'm only 70% of you, if you had the same ability."

She blushed cyan. "You can see why I wanted to be the first to greet you, right? I've heard so much about you, your exploits and experiments. You're a scientific marvel, even among Gods. And your body is almost as beautiful as your mind."

The staff was collected, complete with the notched end for attaching charms or whatever Anathema wished. Undies produced from - somewhere (you immediately apprehended that she was accessing a 'coiled' higher dimension) a little necklace with a strange pendant. It was a V with a horizontal slash through it, with an upright triangle atop it, forming a kite composed of three similar triangles.

"Your personal glyph," She said. "I invented it! It's got geometry in it, AND the bottom part is like an upside-down A, which is funny because your name means 'opposite' and starts with 'A'." She smiled, obviously very pleased with herself. "Do you like it, Kingship?"

=

Next was seeing after the council. They gathered at your call, including Eila who replaced Ereal after his unfortunate misadventure with the giants a few years ago.

Sinsra delivered the summary - there about nine-thousand adult viese in good health, eight hundred elderly viese nearly the end of their years, and about twelve hundred young adult and child viese. Of the Nyxies, there were about eight hundred, with only sixty-eight children; the Nyxies didn't spend much time procreating.

While the seeds of Em Phenya didn't grow as large or exactly the same, each of the Phenyai trees did develop into a useful small town for Viese, including similar workspaces as had been created within Em Phenya. A small grove of them now surrounded Em Phenya, resembling a very natural form of urban sprawl.

There was a growing passion among the Viese for experimental botany; new strains of fruits and flowers were being developed, including many that were purely cosmetic in order to produce Viese of novel coloration. Seeds of rare and valuable plants were even used as currency, as they universally desirable.

Most Viese didn't like deep magic; they were far more taken with Eila's shamanism, as it directly impacted their ability to successfully hybridize plants for trading and personal use.

While they Viese were brilliant, their logical minds were also greatly creative when they were able to approach projects as puzzles to be solved. Genetic sequencing was the present big hurdle they were working on.

The word went out, and volunteers would be arriving to Em Phenya soon. As for the Nyxies, their own settlement was near the Vault.

"Ohhhh, that makes a lot more sense!" Anna laughed with relief. "So that's why you're Understanding! Haha, you'll have to forgive if I seemed concerned before. I have met other demigods and they were alarmingly powerful. I was beginning to fear I wasn't special!" She has no compunction against addressing the vix as demigods; they probably already knew. She doesn't have the heart to say that power is so universal among gods that she didn't even realize she had it until the battle at Noor.

"D'aww, you're gonna make me blush," Anna giggles and strikes a cute and demure pose. "Being unique is its own reward, but it is nice to get the recognition every now and then, haha!"

Anna takes the charm, holding it in the palm of her hand and considering its many angles from many angles. Wordlessly she threads the necklace chain around her staff so that it dangles and occasionally clinks against the bioglass portions. She gives Undies an aside glance and grins.

"Was that storage space created with Deep Magic?" Anna asks. "My early tests with space manipulation met with a lot of resistance. It's nice to see the secret cracked!"

--

[Private to GM: Actually I think Ereal volunteered to serve the Pantheon during their tithe. Speaking of the giants I believe their domain was mountainous, not a jungle. Also, if you look at the context clues there's a lot of indication the giants were just humans, who apparently kept pet cats.]

Anna was awed by the population growth; no wonder they'd needed to expand. "Oh goodness, eleven thousand?! That's amazing... I remember when a hundred-seventy was such a large portion of the population I defied the Pantheon of gods over it. Clearly my directive to multiply and spread was received with ardor!"

Looking back, she wasn't sure why she had thought the tithe-collectors would risk battle with her if she'd refused. All hands were needed back then, and the thought that the pantheon would risk alienating a god -- even a "mere babe" -- for less than two hundred mortals was hilariously and tragically self-centered of her. It stung to realize just how impulsive she was back when she had four whole lives. She'd started a fist fight with the creatures killing the world tree! How stupid was she?!

Cosmetic alteration of viese... she wasn't certain exactly why this bothered her, but it just as clearly did. She muses aloud to the council whether that constitutes an unfair imposition on the unborn and whether parents might be limiting their children's potential with their expectations no matter how subconscious. Ultimately though this seems like a viese-scale problem that Anna shouldn't get involved with. She makes it clear though that if viese start willingly cutting off body parts in favor of bio-sculpted augmentations she'll have some harsh words for everyone.

She was a little amused however that she seemed to be witnessing the beginnings of a cyberpunk utopia without the usual cyber- bit. Maybe biopunk? Yeah, a biopunk utopia! Anna subconsciously rubs at her circuitboard tattoos.

On being formed that most viese didn't practice Deep Magic, Anna frowns some. "While shamanistic tradition has clearly done wondrous things for the viese, that is strictly the magic of Arthos and nearly useless outside its borders, while Deep Magic is the language of Taeltresin itself. I would like to request every school integrate at least a rudimentary Deep Magic vocational training into the standard program. It's... very important to me on a personal level."

Anna asks for the three most up-and-coming viese to report to the Archipelago, much as she had when she had first arrived. That she was looking to create a new trio of Infinities was unstated but obvious. Sinsra and Teltanin were no doubt getting up there in years themselves, she really had no idea how old Xanalen was, and Eila... well, Eila would probably be fine for a while. Anna didn't want to leave divinely-inspired guidance to the vix no matter how much Undies seemed taken with her; she felt the demigods all seemed to have their own interests.

She wraps up the council meeting by thanking everyone for their continuing diligence; thanks to them she is able to make plans that'll take her out of Arthos with confidence.

--

Council meeting concluded, Anna goes to meet the nyxies. The Vault was a bit remote from the bulk of viese civilization, no doubt just as they and their Ascended cohorts liked it. Anna bows politely to the first few Ascended she passes, smiling reassuringly. If they ask, she simply says that the Ascended have integrated into Arthos in their own way and that she is content with the current state of affairs. She wasn't here to pick a fight.

She passively observes the nyxies' lives for a time, trying to get a bead on their personalities and how to best introduce herself. Not that she really needs to, she's certain they all know full well who and what she is.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:39, Sat 26 Jan 2019.

OOC: Ereal returned from the Army of the Tree during your time down below. He died in an unfortunate accident while on a diplomatic mission, supposedly.

"Oh! Yes. Mine is a little clumsier than others, but I only need a small hyperspace."

=

The council disagreed; it was long-standing tradition for Viese to seek out exotic flowers to produce impressive children and give them an edge when it came to attracting mates, and it helped diversify the growing population and lend a unique identity to each child. If issues arose, that would be the time to take measures to address the particular issue. The Council was for war and the defense of the Viese, per Anathema's repeated directive, not for policing cultural trends.

Eila bristled at your comment on shamanism. "Anna, shamanism is a magical language for contacting and contracting with the spirits of the land. Any land. Deep magic is dangerous; just look what the Nyxies did to the giants! I won't stand for you spreading misinformation at this council."

Sinsra spoke next. "We'll develop introduce elementary deep magic curricula; I'm sure we can convince the Nyxies to oblige, and the Vixies may be interested as well. Maths, music, literacy, and the natural sciences are the current focus of the educational programme."

The life of the Nyxies was quiet. They preferred traditional Viese dwellings, but every night they sat together, taking turns probing objects with Deep magic and discussing findings around outdoor hearths. Collectively, they seemed to be working discriminating the fine differences in the functioning of physics within the Vault and within Arthos. By repeating experiments under strict physics and under the influence of metaphysical variables, they were fine-tuning their understanding of those variables and how deep magic could control them.

Their ultimate goal was pretty simple: develop a sophisticated algorithm that would address and compensate for all metaphysical variables so that technology would function identically within the zone of concentrated physics and without, which would allow them potentially replicate the Ascended on a mechanical level, or something even more sophisticated.

For example, how did the realm go about creating Annathema? With her recent ressurection, they had seismic, meteorological, and metachronological data to work with. If they decode the means by which the realm incarnated a deity, they could create an artificial deity - or something like one. A machine-god.

That was just one of the more worrying lines of questioning they were following.

Oh, and the Nyxie named Coronei had a huge crush on the male Nyxie named Zhama and was going to ask him out, everyone knew it except for Zhama, and some Nyxies were trying to use Deep Magic to figure out if they'd work out base on the metaphysical variable tags attached to both of them.

Anna nods, now knowing precisely what the first practical effect of Deep Magic she will want to be taught is.

--

The council was also for disaster response! Anna agrees with her council that taking action on this matter is likely an overreach though; she was just musing aloud, don't mind her.

She visibly winced when Eila called her out. "Are you absolutely certain this is so, Eila?" At the now not-so-young viese's insistence, Anna relents. "It seems a tradition at this point for me to make a fool of myself with my assumptions once per council meeting. Clearly some of my models require updating. My apologies, it wasn't my intent to spread misinformation."

--

Anna isn't too worried about spending a night with the nyxies and not being around to address volunteers. Any viese who weren't alert or dedicated enough to figure out where to go on their own weren't going to be fun to explore with anyway.

In accordance to her new stress-free outlook on life Anna elects to join the nyxies in one of their quiet hearthfire forums, bouncing between a few groups to follow the various conversations. For the most part she listens, asks light questions on some of the more esoteric terms they throw around, offers the occasional insight on the realms, and generally tries to soak up knowledge. She is endlessly amused by the nyxie attempts to apply Deep Magic to romantic comparability. She takes notes of the various guesses being thrown around, curious whether any of them will actually verify.

Then she hears musings on the creation of a machine-god and Anna nearly loses it, her blood going cold.

"That is very important research," she tells the assembled nyxies, "but please don't ever try to make a machine-god in Arthos. If research advances that far I'll try to negotiate for ownership of an empty realm we can experiment in." She will then share what little she knows of her progenitor Axiom and how even the Pantheon seemed wary of his realm after whatever singularity struck it. Whatever had happened was clearly such a disaster that she, his own daughter, had grown up to completely forswear conventional technology whenever possible.

[Private to GM: Speaking of dangerous technology, were the nyxies aware they had built their entire community around an experimental nuclear bomb rigged to go off in the event of a containment breach? If so, she suggests renaming the settlement Megaton.]

Anna wraps up the night by asking if there any of the nyxies she had spoken with would like to bring her up to speed in the latest developments in deep magic. She has been out of the loop for some time and is looking to avoid any more unnecessarily destructive experimentation like what created the Magical Maelstrom.

One of the Nyxies volunteered to be your tutor. Her skin was dusky, but her eyes were a vivid blue.

"I am Liusna."

She sat across from you, studied you. "You were the tree's foremost expert on the blight. Your studies progressed far. You destroyed the Blight. Thank you."

She bowed forward from her cross-legged posture. "Thank you."

She was quiet again. "Your understanding of the nature and functioning of deep magic is nascent. Magic is reputed as a supernatural force. In truth, reality is an imposition upon magic, rather than the other way around. The natural law of Yggdrasil is magic. Physical laws are inconstant. The tools of observation that are inborn to living creatures are flawed and unreliable. Deep magic is first the ability to see and interact with the true underpinnings of phenenomena. Secondarily, it is the ability of using empathic sensitivity with a perceptible facet to exert influence through resonance. Observe."

She extended a small hand, and bid you to extend your knowledge of Deep magic to the space within her hand, as if a ball were there.

As you did so, you became aware of the ball. You knew precise dimensions, chemical composition, and the entirety of the ball's atomic lattice structure. It was pure quartz.

However, the ball was not there. Passing your hand through the space . . it simply wasn't there.

"The ball exists along the 3rd/4th/5th dimensional matrix, the one just above our own. You are able to perceive it with deep magic, but it is not physically present. It does, however, exist in the potentiality of time. Observe."

The Nyxie extended her own magic, and modified a few variables that were invisible to you until she modified them - the variable determining the dimensional matrix of the object.

The quartz stone appeared in her hand.

"Metaphysical dimensions are pretty safe. Subreal dimensions are incredibly dangerous, but that's where important cosmic laws are stored and maintained. The amount of resonance needed to move anything out of subreality is enormous. That's what we did when we detonated the antimatter to deal with the giants - conducted a massive ritual to alter the cosmic laws governing a few thousand atoms so that they would be inverted."

"Our calculations indicate there are at twelve total dimensions and nine dimensional matrices."

"A spell is an enduring phenomena that draws physical energies and matters from the metaphysical matrix into the real. Most magic is a simplification of complex metaphysical laws. Deep magic is the analysis and manipulation of the expression of those laws. Since you're interacting with a simpler level of metaphysical encoding, it's much lesser user-friendly, but you have a greater ability to impact nebulous concepts like space-time, and it's useful for gathering information and refining other magic."

It took some time and practice, but you got the knack for moving objects between the physical and metaphysical, tying them to your person, and perceiving objects via deep magic rather than your material senses.

+ Advance to Deep Magic 1.

Anna finds Liusna's appearance striking, particularly the floral tattoos. She wished her own arms could be painted with perfectly pretty petals.

She blushes a little in embarrassment at the repeated thanks. "Awww... I just happened to be in the right place at the right time, any of the new growth gods could have done it really... but, you're welcome!"

Liusna's initial introduction to the nature of nature isn't really new information; she had known or at least strongly suspected that the terms super- and regular-natural were largely shaped by mortal expectations. One could not hear tales of Erebus, step into the Realm Supernatural, or be twisted about in the Fallen Kingdoms without having their concept of nature shaken up. Mortal perceptions, and even the senses of the less-perceptive gods, were just not designed to perceive reality as it truly was because they only had to move and interact in three-maybe-four dimensions.

As the lesson proceeds to the practical Anna follows along with Liusna's instructions. While Anna's mastery of Deep Magic still left much to be desired, she was still a goddess and the amount of magical might she could bring to bear far exceeded any mortal's. She was careful not to put too much of herself into these early lessons.

The night wore on, and Anna begun to feel she has a solid grasp of the fundamentals. She thanks Liusna for the remedial lessons and asks if she would like to accompany Anna on her trip to the Floating Islands to continue the lessons, help study any anomalies that come up, and maybe even take a few readings of Anna's mythcraft. Their lesson together had given Anna a new appreciation for the complexities of time across the tree and the danger Deep Magic could pose in the hands of lesser minds, inspiring her with the idea for a new myth creature.

---

Anna heads back to her Archipelago, taking a tour of the grounds to determine how each of her facilities have been put to use in her absence. She checks on the Vic Viper, whose Repair Pad should have kept the mechanical menace in good working order all these years. She signals the Great Beacon to call Clarity, Leeda, the Earthroil Walker, and any unmastered mini-dragons to her side. She wants all hands on deck for the expedition, and is also simply curious about how her creations have done. Longevity was not a design priority for the first of the Flare Witches so she suspects Leeda may have burnt out by now but Debra was made of tougher stuff than her older sibling.

Once the facilities are given a once over, the starfighter gives its status check, and the signals to her more remote myths have been dispatched, it's time for Anna to add to the herd. She reaches into herself and exults in the rush of power, collecting it along with various cuttings from the plants in her Garden. Ingredients so assembled, she goes to the Inner Garden's mythcrafting field and gets to work.

She so missed doing this! (1000 souls to create a...)


This message was last edited by the player at 11:27, Tue 29 Jan 2019.

Sensation faded from Anathema as she called upon something higher. With her deep magic senses, she was better able to understand exactly what mythcrafting was. The spinning of a story, the paying of a toll, the birthing of a child, the mending of a hole.

The underworkings of reality were convinced that a Deepstalker should exist, and so it did. But creatures of myth were minds of craft, not origin, and they would never bear the meaning and grandiosity of a true soul.

As the Deepstalker appeared, it seized Anathema, lifted her, and examined her.

"You should not be, mother of me. And yet you make one whom your life it would take?"

The deepstalker returned Anna to the earth, then disappeared. With deep magic, you detected that it was still present, just drifting along a different dimensional matrix.

Had she made for herself a devious new foe? Why?

The Vic Viper was indeed in fine condition, and the summons went out to the more distant myths. It would take some time for them to arrive.

Meanwhile, 3-Understanding introduced Anna to the charming youngest Vix, 9-Foundation, who had the Archipelago his home. He looked just as feminine as the other vix, except for wearing work trousers and a sturdy vest rather than one of 8-Splendor's dresses. He was also smaller, standing a head shorter than Anna.

The masculine Vix was shy. "Hello, Anna. Are you doing well?" He rolled out from under Vic Viper on a wheeled dolly. "Vic is healthy as a mechanical horse, so to speak. If you'd like me to make you anything - anything at all - just let me know, alright?"

Anna coughed as her newly minted creature bodily lifted her. "Um, hello, my name's- hey!" And it was already gone! How rude!

She may have erred, herself, in how she had conceived the creature. The intent had been for the denizens of Arthos and their descendants across the realm to be the sole users of Deep Magic and for those who would have stolen or stumbled upon it to be the targets of the deepstalker's wrath. Their exchange, however short and one-sided, made her think that intent had not been properly imprinted. Or perhaps the creature was just having an existential crisis. Who knew what went on in the minds of dimension-sliding plant-creature magic-assassins.

Nothing for it. She reaches out with her Deep Magic and seizes the suspended instance in her garden just as Liusna had with a sphere of flawless quartz, bringing the myth right back to have a proper talk.

"Errant use of Deep Magic, my dear!" she promptly corrects the re-realized creature before it can get a word in edgewise. "We Arthosians are responsible practitioners, it is the accidental and the negligent you were brought into existence to hunt! My name is Anna; what is yours, deepstalker?"

---

Anna didn't mind relaxing for a bit and continuing to study under Liusna while her volunteers arrived. She would give them three days to arrive and be briefed. Given that the Archipelago was now claimed by the viese and their derivative forms -- including a boy vix now, apparently -- Anna wondered whether it would be socially appropriate to take the entire island chain with her to the Floaty Lands.

And the boy vix was a cute little thing! Anna suspected he'd look even cuter than the girls in a frilly miniskirt, maybe a scepter festooned with hearts, and a little foundation on his face to match his name...

Anna shakes her head as Undies introduces the two of them. She'd left the friendly demigod back at Em Phenya, but the girl vix had rejoined her the next day. Anna tries, but she can't come up with a nickname off the top her head. She folds her hands behind her back and leans forward so she is not towering over him as he lays on the ground.

"Hi Foundation! I'm Anna!" She looks up briefly to admire his handiwork on the mechanical myth before returning her gaze downward. "What's a horse? Oh, nevermind that. Vic Viper looks good in any event; I'm sure this landing pad can do the repairs itself but I'm sure it appreciates a living touch! I know I do!" She beams happily. Vic Viper doesn't actually feel much of anything, let alone appreciation, but anthropomorphizing things is fun.

"Anything at all, hmm?" Anna inquires. "There actually is something... you see, if I die again it'll be for realsies. I think I can foil magical assault well enough but I fear a blade in the back, or the front, or much of anywhere really. I need to procure myself some armor, or maybe a nice coat, something which won't interfere with my magic but can stand up to a god. Is that too tall an order? I feel like it might be a tall order."

Anna blinks and looks down a bit further. "Actually, maybe I'm thinking a little too grandiose when I'm still missing very simple features. A foot, for instance..."
This message was last edited by the player at 14:05, Wed 30 Jan 2019.