Still hovering in the air above Thelvadore, I contemplated for a long while. I needed a plan of action, and soon. I had a thousand questions, none of which I would be able to get any answers to if I just sat on my ass all day. Additionally, some part of me wanted to rebuild Thelvadore. If only as a meager apology to Vuthe and all I had put her through.
I was, after all, the architect of her suffering, plain and simple. And even Thelvadore’s destruction could be laid plainly at my feet. I might not have actually considered continuing that version of the tale, but it had manifested, and that meant I was responsible.
Even if I were to disregard Abyss’ comment about fictional stories becoming real somewhere in the vast cosmos, and looked at this situation as an outlier, that didn’t mean that my current experience wasn’t real. And I felt bad for it, stupid as it may sound.
That said, rebuilding Thelvadore was a long term goal. Something that would require a lot more information, planning, and the help of others. Help I would have to work to secure. After all, Thelvadore’s fall signalled the loss of Vuthe and her friends. That means that the victors had likely written the history that was now taught to those that came after.
With no idea how long it’s been since Thelvadore’s destruction, it meant that it was quite possible that the name was now held in disdain. Of course, it could also be that the name had been forgotten entirely, but I found that unlikely. Thelvadore held far too much importance to just vanish in the eyes of magick. That said, it wasn’t impossible either. Even if magick remembered, people didn’t necessarily do so.
So, long term I wanted to rebuild Thelvadore. But what about the short term?
The most immediate thing would be to familiarise myself with Vuthe’s capabilities on a more personal level. I knew intellectually what she was supposed to be able to do, but that didn’t necessarily translate into this new reality. The whole shapeshifting debacle had shown that earlier.
Once I had done that, I would need to start gathering information. What had happened to Thelvadore and its Queen? What was the world outside of Thelvadore like these days? More importantly, had anyone from Thelvadore survived? Were her friends still out there?
Despite my insight into the lore, I found those questions hard to answer without any further input. And that meant information gathering was important.
Abyss had also mentioned a visitor coming in a month's time. I had absolutely no idea who that could be. She had referred to the visitor as ‘she’, which ruled out the only character I could even think of possibly having any reason to visit.
Well, unless he had been turned into a woman for some reason. Not entirely impossible, given what Abyss had told me about her own little tweaks she had made on the lore, but I found that unlikely. What really would be the point of that?
A small lump of dread formed in my stomach at the sudden thought that she might’ve taken a page out of teenage-me’s book and made everyone some oversexualised bimbo or something. That would be absolutely mortifying. But I dismissed that possibility almost immediately.
Mainly because I found it unlikely, since Vuthe was still the way I envisioned her, and also because I really didn’t want to think about it as a real option.
Yes, teenage-me had been an absolute horndog, and there had been some parts of the lore very much influenced by that, but I had cut out most, if not all, of that in the years since I had first come up with Satien.
Shaking my head, I focused back on the topic at hand. Regardless of who the person Abyss mentioned was, she found it worth warning me to not kill her. That meant that it was rather unlikely that she was a direct threat. She could, potentially, even be at least loosely affiliated with Abyss. Then again, all she had given me was that this newcomer was supposedly entertaining in her eyes. That didn’t mean that she was affiliated with Abyss in any way.
Abyss found a lot of beings entertaining. Most often if they upset the natural balance of things. That had, after all, been the reason she had even bothered to save Vuthe from certain death during the time Vuthe had laid waste to the guild.
Well, something to worry about later. A month was quite a long time, all things considered. Time perhaps best spent to train and learn. Given the body I inhabited, it was likely that I was far more powerful than most things I could run across out there. That said, I still wanted to have a better understanding of both my own capabilities and the place I found myself in, before I wandered off.
And who knew? Perhaps that newcomer could help me learn more about the world at large. Abyss had, after all, implied it was best if I met her. So it was probably better not to run off and avoid her.
I nodded to myself, then turned one last time, taking in this world I found myself in.
For all the worries I had regarding its inhabitants' reaction to my existence, both as the creator of this world and the identity of the woman whose body I inhabited, I had to admit that I wasn’t entirely unhappy about being brought here.
Granted, I was a bit anxious about the nature of my arrival. Had I passed before, and Abyss had yoinked my soul? Or had she transported me here while I was still alive? Would my family notice my disappearance?
I couldn’t recall anything about my previous life, past my creative efforts. That itself was rather strange, although what worried me more was the sheer lack of care I seemed to display in regards to that factoid. But the worry was simply intellectual, not an actual emotion.
I was almost certain that Abyss had done something to me and my memories. Had it been for my benefit? Or to further her own goals? I had no way of knowing. And I doubted that she would tell me, even if I found her again to ask.
Whatever the case, that was a thing to think about in the future. For now I had a plan of action in the immediacy. Everything else I would have to tackle as it came.
My observation of the surrounding area complete, I slowly let myself drift down, idly surprised by how little I seemed to react to the sheer height from which I descended. As far as I could recall I had never suffered a direct fear of heights, but I would imagine anyone would be uneasy to see no ground underneath their feet for a couple hundred meters.
When I finally touched down, I let my wings dissolve. It was an instinctual reaction, to the point that it took me a moment to realise I had even decided on it. Well, given how easy it was to return them, it wasn’t like I had to worry much even in an emergency.
Since I found myself in an open area, I decided that this was as good a time as any to investigate my own capabilities. Thinking about those, I started to pace, trying to come up with a good way of starting in that regard.
For all intents and purposes, Vuthe’s skillset was made up of four major pillars. And I decided that it would be a good idea to go over those before I decided where I wanted to start.
The first pillar was her shapeshifting capabilities. That was the one aspect I had so far confirmed to be different from what I had expected. Because of that, I decided to push it aside for the time being until I had a better understanding of what my hybrid form was capable of.
The second was her magick. Ever since she had been indoctrinated by the guild, she had spent a good chunk of her life learning magick. Specifically, shadow magick. Even with the new and reworked lore for draconic beings, their magical capabilities should still remain the same. Which in essence meant that they were limited to the type of magick their nature aligns with.
Flame dragons would never learn water magick, the same way a light dragon would never learn shadow magick. That meant that Vuthe, as a trueblooded shadow dragon, was best with shadow and dark magick. She was an Arch-Umbramancer, although one that had probably more knowledge about Necromancy than you’d expect of someone with that title.
The reason for that was one of her titles, the Living Nightmare. It allowed her to summon forth shadow clones of those that she killed by drawing upon their intent from the afterlife. It wasn’t true necromancy, as she didn’t raise the dead, more so a combination between necromancy and shadow magick.
I snickered to myself at the thought. Necromancy had always been one of my favourite types of magic, and I tried to add it to just about every story I wrote in whatever capacity I could. Even if it sometimes wasn’t fitting.
“I truly am nothing more than some wanna-be edgelord, huh?”
Shaking my head, I returned to my pacing and focused back on my previous train of thought.
So far I have been able to work her magick without any trouble. Of course, I would have to experiment further, but I didn’t expect much trouble, so for the time being I decided to wait with that as well. Part of the reason was also that casting some proper spells could quickly end in disaster, given the sheer power and mana she had available to her. Best ensure I was physically fit first.
Talking about physical capabilities, that was the third pillar. During her long life she had never stopped training, and, as a result, was at least competent with just about every weapon Satien has on offer; something I had already learned earlier to translate to my current self as well.
Out of all of them, the kusarigama was by far her best weapon. Of course, with magick being a thing, these didn’t necessarily follow the same design as the ninja’s of old would’ve used. But the general shape and fighting style was at least similar.
Truth be told, I was kind of looking forward to seeing what I could do in that regard. Being able to ghost a battlefield just like Vuthe could was quite the thrilling proposition.
The last pillar was her divine authority, and the thought made me grimace. It was something I had already decided I would not touch with a ten foot pole until I had a far better understanding of my situation and the world at large. For multiple reasons, really, only one of which being the sheer chaos I’d be able to create if I wasn’t careful with what I was doing.
Divinity wasn’t something anyone was born with. Well, outside of the ten Celestials, which kind of served as administrators for the multiverse, but they were an exception to the rule, not the norm. Each of them was a physical representation of a concept and therefore didn’t quite follow the same rules as everyone else did.
Outside of them, however, divinity wasn’t something you were just handed. You had to work for it. And people had to believe in you as well. It wasn’t as easy as telling people to treat you as a god. They had to truly believe that you were from the bottom of their soul. And that wasn’t something anyone could just decide.
In Vuthe’s case, she had been granted divine authority as the Goddess of the Shadow Armory, after she had used just about every smidge of power she had available to her to protect and equip her people at the beginning of the war. That was before Thelvadore had been officially founded, during the first rebellion wars when she and her friends were freeing any slaves they could find.
Over time that trust that those former slaves had in her had turned into belief, which in turn slowly earned her the divine title as the Goddess of Shadow Armory, and all the authority and responsibility that came with it. What many didn’t realise was that the title marked her as a Goddess of War, despite the fact that she seldom drew upon her divine authority during battle.
Granted, even I was a bit unsure what that actually meant. The classification system had been something I introduced at some point, but never actually worked through, mostly because it hadn’t been relevant at the time. It made me wonder if that had been translated into this world as well, and if so, how it would impact things.
“Another thing to touch upon another day,” I mused, dismissing the thought for the time being.
Regardless, divine authority kind of worked both ways. People believed in a god, and they could feel if their god was active, even if they kept themselves hidden, since the god directly drew upon their belief for power. In effect that meant that the moment I drew upon Vuthe’s divine authority, if I even could, I would alert anyone who was a follower of hers.
And even if, by some miracle, her worshippers didn’t notice, other deities calling Satien their home certainly would.
There was also the possibility that she might have been forgotten by the people, but I doubted that there was nobody that worshipped the Goddess of the Shadow Armory in one way or another, given that once upon a time she had been one of the most popular gods out there. Unlike most beings with divine authority, Vuthe hadn’t cared about the prestige and offerings that had come with it. She had kept the price for her help reasonable on purpose.
No god would offer divine intervention for free. But the cost that was associated with it was something they could freely choose. And she had chosen to be as helpful as she could. It wasn’t like she needed money or influence.
So even if nobody remembered the name Vuthe de Thal, or even the title ‘Goddess of the Shadow Armory’, I was almost certain that there were at least a few people who were still worshipping her. And that meant that any time I drew on said title, I would expose myself.
Best to keep that on the down low.
With my decision made, I nodded to myself. Out of all the options, physical training seemed to be the least dangerous to me and my surroundings. Magic would certainly be next on the list, but the other two I could ignore for the time being.
I finally stopped my idle pacing, stretching this way and that. Some part of me couldn’t help but be giddy at the opportunity to move around a little, and I couldn’t quite suppress a smile of anticipation.
Drawing upon my magick, I summoned up the kusarigama from my shadow storage. The weapons that appeared in my hands were a work of art, yet undoubtedly dangerous.
“The Twin Reaper…” I muttered. The name was probably a bit edgy, but to be honest, compared to the appearance it seemed normal.
Black crystal glimmered in defiance to the laws of physics and the lack of light, like a silent warning. I somehow knew that I would be able to suppress the effect if I wanted to, but I refrained from doing that right now. It just looked way too cool.
As with the other weapon I had picked up earlier, the moment I held them in my hand, I got an instinctive understanding of how to use them, how they had been crafted, what material they were out of, and when she had first received them.
Nodding to myself, and using that knowledge for guidance, I took a stance that felt like slipping into old, familiar, and comfortable slippers.
A small grin started growing on my lips. This was going to be awesome!
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