Part 14 - In Service to Divinity

  Liz rapidly found herself very familiar with what it was like to walk through stone. It wasn’t anything like swimming. Instead it felt like being dragged along through a thick syrup.

  It was not a pleasant thing.

  Elizabeth was partially made from stone, so gliding through the earth was like a new fear for her. How would the prosthetic parts of her remain separate from the earth and stone she passed through while detained by Faythe? How did the skill function for her to breathe? Did the dirt and stone move around her as she passed, or did she simply phase through it?

  The entire experience raised a number of internal philosophical questions that really should’ve felt more terrifying to her. Truly, her emotional state was seeming more and more noticeably wrong lately. She wished she’d spent some of her boredom in the prior weeks reflecting on herself a bit, but she was still largely avoiding the entire introspective topic of losing her whole life before her accident. She was scared of even thinking about what were still very open wounds.

  Faythe dropped them off on the other side of the literal stone corridor, then looked at Liz with amused eyes as she struggled to get her bearings again.

  “You… couldn’t have made a normal secret passage?” Liz tried to settle the queasy feeling in her gut as she complained.

  “This place has been maintained as a bunker for thousands of years, and it will remain that way for a reason. Nobody enters without my approval, and it remains a secret. And let me make myself perfectly clear: it will remain a secret. This is a threat, I am threatening you, and if I find out the location was leaked, I will find out who is responsible.” Faythe had never had so much gravitas behind her before that moment.

  “U-understood. Although I find myself wondering, didn’t you say you’re here because of the vampire who turned you? And yet there is a place like this mysteriously close to where he vanished?” Liz gestured to the strange space she found herself in.

  The area was a bit like a massive cavern—though smaller than the training grounds—only it had to have been created by the work of dozens of skills by the most high level individuals Liz could imagine.

  The cavern was like a simulated clearing in the wilderness. The area had a fake sun suspended above, appearing to have been made from an orb of engraved arcanite, the stone that filled over time with mana like a sort of self-charging battery.

  There was no sky, at least, but the grassy lawn she stood on had to be done with Skills and likely a dedicated class. The full sized mansion in the center was a work of art, however. If Liz had to make a wager, then Faythe had a Mirage Divine class, an Earth class, and finally a Forest class. The mansion was made from sculpted wood and the grain of each section wove into a beautiful mural of animals in various poses in the wild.

  “This land is not far from where Nyx first protected human civilization over ten thousand years ago. To hear him tell it, humans and vampires protected each other at the dawn of creation, vampires to watch the night, and humans to watch the day. Those days created a bond between him and humanity, and he spent his many thousands of years protecting and guiding humans at their side. The first Immortal War was something of a shock to mortal races, and many places like this were created over the millennia. When I discover places like this one, I put down some roots. I personally sealed all the entrances to many areas, such that only I could reach them.” Faythe looked fondly at the occasional wildflowers growing in the grass, but had a deep sadness behind her expression.

  “Why did you bring me here?” Liz decided not to pry.

  “Let us not rush for now. Do you know the curse of vampirism?”

  Liz paused. She knew Earth stories, but Pallos had thrown everything she knew out of perspective.

  “Assume I don’t.”

  “Curious. I don’t know your history, but most from Pallos would know at least a bit.” The short woman cast a curious glance in her direction. “Vampires are cursed to lose System access during the day. We naturally don’t gain experience quickly, so our levels increase at a snail’s pace. The curse is quite the burden to bear, but at the time when it was offered to me, I wanted nothing more than to live forever. Being born a chosen of the major gods of Pallos meant I became influential at a young age, and received my offer after showing a talent for political manipulations. Eternal youth, yes? How could I refuse?” The melancholy seemed to drown the [Priestess]. She certainly didn’t seem like her usual self, and Liz had long realized the girl’s [Leader] tag was also a disguise.

  “That’s not quite like the stories of vampires where I come from.” The curious glance turned into a stare. Liz continued, “in those tales, vampires are monsters in the horror genre. They prey upon people in the night, drinking their blood until there is only a desiccated husk left behind. My mother loved horror stuff. All my memories of her are of things that terrify me, except one gift she gave me. A gift I want to get back, eventually.”

  “Now I am even more curious where you come from, shame it will have to wait for another conversation. Vampires from Nyx’s line have been protectors, and kept well in line under his guidance. With him gone, it has fallen to his wife to stabilize things. Susan is a cunning woman, so I don’t feel that has changed in his absence.” The vampire had a thoughtful expression after those words.

  “I guess you’re implying I should be leaving my biases behind?” The edge to Liz’s tone was fairly obvious.

  “The worst part of being a vampire is that I can no longer walk among the creatures of the forests. I have become a creature of the night, and lost something I did not realize was precious to me.”

  Liz wasn’t on board with feeling pity for the person who had manipulated her into joining an organization of assassins and spies.

  “Look, can we get on with why I’m here?”

  “I’ve changed one of my skills recently for you.”

  Elizabeth felt herself tensing up in a cautious gut reaction at the non-sequitur.

  “My third class is related to plants. I can maintain them much easier than other things, even down in this fabricated wilderness. It was originally a class for making new and unique types of plants, but I reset a Skill to grab [Biological Diagnostics] to help with your future changes you mentioned. When you are ready, I will also acquire [Permanence] for you to complete your work. So please, try to get past your bigotry towards me. Losing a skill over level seven hundred is not a pleasant thing.”

  Elizabeth hadn’t experienced what losing a high level skill felt like, but she’d heard it was like having violent bouts of sea sickness. She shuddered at the thought.

  “Why go so far?”

  “I made a promise to help you. I’ve been training the skill for these weeks to assist you. Tonight, we shall also begin your dance lessons for your undercover work, and prepare your identity.” Faythe gave her a firm look and then turned and strode towards the mansion, where two deer inlaid on the wood pranced apart, dragging the wood behind them to reveal a doorway.

  “I’m really bad at dancing, I’m warning you in advance.”

  ~ ~ ~

  Liz had flatly refused to dance for an hour as Faythe instead went over her false identity for the mission.

  With her [Priestess] tag, as well as a low level for her age, Liz had the benefits of being able to masquerade as the daughter of a wealthy family, though the only issue would be which family she’d be a member of and how people wouldn’t recognize her. Simply being shy wasn’t going to be good enough.

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  And so it was decided that she would hide as a member of the foreign dignitaries from the distant Exterreri Empire, where vampires were most common. Faythe had excellent contacts there, and a community of vampires had cropped up not far away, either. Liz’s mind began to spiral off into character details for the role when Faythe shut her down by telling her she’d basically be pretending to be traveling food for the vampires. That sent plenty of shivers down her spine.

  “Now, enough, time for dance lessons to begin. We haven’t got all night.” Faythe stood from the tea table they’d been sitting at and held out her hand. “May I have this dance?”

  Liz shook her head again, reflexively recalling her horribly failed attempts in her movie career.

  “What has you so hesitant?”

  “I’ve tried dancing before, and I was awful at it.”

  “Liz,” a stern look was cast at her, “you are god-touched. By the Goddess of Order. How can you possibly not be capable of dancing?”

  “Meeting a Goddess can’t possibly fix all my problems!”

  “Why couldn’t you dance before?”

  “Even when I was offered the [Dancing] skill, it said I was hopelessly bad at keeping time and rhythm when dancing.”

  “Meaning,” Faythe gave her an imperious smile, eyes glinting with a sense of victory, “you are now quite capable of dancing. If you weren’t you’d never be offered the skill.”

  Liz’s face twisted into a grimace.

  She stood and dragged herself towards Faythe in the center of the room.

  The fox woman—apparently a Kitsune, Liz learned during their talk—pulled a short twig of wood inlaid with a few gemstones from her sleeve, activating a spell of some kind, which triggered a song to begin playing, mimicking a full classical orchestra through some unusual workings.

  Liz gave the wand and the song some strong side-eye, prompting Faythe to explain.

  “Jayce—my body-doubles—are always those gifted with Sound skills. Gemstones can be filled with Skills of the requisite element, so my doubles can store music with theirs.” The gemstone that lay upon the end of the wand appeared to be an agate. Liz couldn’t help but feel a tugging at her soul from seeing her first Skill-infused gemstone.

  More magic stuff in the magic world. Liz found she was well beyond surprise by that late date.

  As soon as they drew together into their first dancing position, where Liz would be learning to both lead and follow going forward, the [Dancing] skill popped up and she slotted it into one of the empty slots [Earth Shattering Arts] had created for her.

  ~ ~ ~

  Liz was surprised.

  She wasn’t awful.

  She could dance. Ballroom dancing, at least. Her old tutor would’ve been proud!

  Even with the skill so low level, Liz never had issues with the rhythm at all. It felt like she could harmonize and keep pace with the song without any real concentration at all. The entire lesson had gone fairly well, and served to power level the skill. She was beginning to see why the people of Pallos treated the system like it was a core part of living their lives.

  [*ding* [Dancing] has leveled up! 1 -> 14]

  Of course the skill leveled faster off from being taught by a vampire who apparently had the skill at her personal cap. Faythe seemed to leave her work to her Divine class and used everything else she had for hobbies and personal amusement.

  After dancing until Liz’s mana was spent—she was still keeping her habit of turning up her [Tenet] skill’s mana allotment, even if she wasn’t sleeping that night—Faythe brought up their last item for the night.

  “I’d like to use my body visualization skill on you. I assume you aren’t completely aware of how your body functions after the changes? Most healers—like those you’ve seen already—don’t get biomancy-oriented visualization skills, and your body is effectively heavily modified.”

  “What are the risks?”

  “There are none, I’m just going to take a peek and see what you’re working with. It won’t change anything. My other skills are all meant for plants.”

  Liz sighed, then nodded.

  Faythe laid a hand on Liz’s forehead and closed her eyes.

  The immediate gasp was enough to make her worried out of her mind.

  The vampire had a look of intense concentration on her face as she remained silent for a while.

  “Your body is completely rewired. Many things are simplified, or streamlined. Blood vessels that have been moved around the stone replacements, organs completely moved elsewhere, and even some removed entirely. I believe you were aware already, but you won’t be able to ever have children, my condolences. As for the stone, I can visualize it with the skill, but it’s just a solid mass of an unusual rock I haven’t seen before.”

  Liz wasn’t sure how to take the news right away. In many ways, she’d known about all of it already. A hole the size of a golf ball going through a place where an artery should be would be fatal, and she couldn’t just live without that. Instead, Seira had routed things around those areas.

  If she had to describe her reaction, it was mostly relief.

  “Honestly, I’m not sure if I should be feeling more distressed about this or not. I’ve known my body is really weird for a while now. I just try to revel in the power and forget the tradeoffs.”

  “You mean like how you have a dozen coins stashed in your stomach?”

  Liz turned a tomato shade of red, stiffening.

  Faythe gave a little chuckle, but moved on. “Look, being god-touched is a little different for everyone, but some theorize that, in Seira’s case, her influence seems to make us a bit more orderly and composed. Less chaotic emotions included. Though, you were never going to have a full panic attack over shocking news.”

  Liz looked at the vampire with an expression of abject horror.

  “You mean the reason I feel nothing about killing people, the reason I barely grieved for Sylvestre’s death, or the reason I… but that doesn’t make sense, since I still got really angry in some of the fights I’ve been in.” Her mind flashed back to the impulsive reaction to being stabbed by the smuggler, and how she’d lobotomized the criminal.

  “Oh no, you should still feel remorse for taking a life. If you don’t, then that’s on you. I wasn’t aware Sylvestre had died, though. He was a devoted man, and I respected that. As for anger, it’s just not a disorderly emotion. Panic, desperation and fear lead to chaos, but anger leads to fixation and a targeted goal. Your being inclined towards those particular emotional responses can be part of what draws you and Lady Seira towards one another. You pick a goal and fixate on it with a single-minded focus. It’s the same for me.”

  “Is that really all there is to it?”

  “You’ve been through a lot, but haven’t broken down, which speaks to a very strong will.”

  “I just haven’t thought about any of it. I stick to what’s in front of me to keep from letting anything distract me.”

  “Like I said, a strong will. You will have to think about things eventually, but it isn’t a bad thing to remain focused on the kids for now.”

  “So does that mean that following a god or goddess influences the emotions of the person?”

  “In my experience, of course not. No system skills allow one to directly attack the mind of another person, and even gods cannot change your emotional state. But you’ve received a divine class from Seira. It means you’re compatible. Young Elina? She covers up her emotions with a focus on the memory of her father. She works for my organization because she sees that what we do is a benefit to the world, even if she has to do cruel things. You’d be unwilling to do what she does for us, so I have no intention to force you to do so. What she does is efficient for leveling quickly, though. She may surpass my level one day, despite her mortal lifespan.”

  Liz considered the bubbly Decay [Priestess] for a minute, and felt her skin crawl at the thought of the infectious flesh she used.

  “What about you? [Equivalent Exchange] has always gone to those who seek and achieve divinity. Your odds of accomplishing that in a human lifespan are slim, and I can personally confirm you’ll age and die like one despite your unique situation, so are you aiming for immortality? Have you considered the curses involved?”

  Liz nodded. This was one topic she’d found fascinating since she’d heard of it from Sylvestre.

  “I’ve done some asking around. Certain details have caught my eye. For example, why don’t phoenixes get a curse? It speaks to me of a loophole in the curse subject somewhere. Biomancy can change your race, right? And give you the curse of the immortal race you become? I had wondered how it would work if there was a way to convert more of my body to stone, or my hopeful future in Gemstone. I don’t see how I can avoid the fact that I’ll need a heart and functional body to keep my brain working.”

  Faythe gave her a smile as she gushed over the subject.

  “Phoenixes don’t have a curse, as far as I understand, because they still die. They are simply reborn each time. Good luck dying but coming back without returning to samsara.”

  “Samsara is actually partially the realm of Order though. I can understand why White Dove/Black Crow curses immortals for breaking the cycle. They’re in defiance of the [Equivalent Exchange] of life for death. My own [Tenet] resonates with the same anger White Dove must feel, though not for the same reasons. Were I to find my own immortality, it would have to be an offering of my death for a new life. I’ve sworn to shape my own fate with the second life Seira has given me, so I’ll figure out a way to achieve that, too. I won’t feel like I’ve accomplished enough with this life until I stand as a goddess at her side myself.”

  “In that case,” Faythe stood from the tea table again, “let’s get you back to dancing. The skill can help you a lot, but you should train to dance without the skill anyway, so we’ll practice again even if you’re out of mana.”

  Liz let out a groan of exhaustion. She clearly wouldn’t be getting any sleep that night.