Cheep!?

Cheep!?

Chapter 50

“Who are you a Chosen of?”

The question echoed through Niko’s mind, piercing deeply into his mind in such a way that he knew wasn’t natural. There was a kind of omnipresent power that charged the air with the inquiry, and Niko could feel parts of himself resonate with the power that gathered around him. Shimmers of visible essence wrapped around his body, and in spite of her proximity, Skye did not move more than to shift ever so slightly away from the phenomenon. Crowe’s expression tightened, and Niko didn’t miss the fact that the man’s body was currently flooded with essence. If he needed to, Niko had no doubt that Crowe could attack in the blink of an eye, perhaps faster.

But all of that was beneath Niko’s true contemplation, because he could feel deeper within him than he’d ever been able to before. It was like the ambient essence had formed a bridge into the very fabric and foundation of what made him him. The sensation was something esoteric that he couldn’t quite describe, lacking a comparison point.

Then things began to clear in his mind's eye, and he realized he was wrong. He had experienced something similar to this sensation, long ago, when he was suspended in between the boundary of two worlds, held in Alterra’s hands as he was reborn. ‘This is… my soul?’ He questioned himself, feeling the outer world drop away from his senses as he marveled at a shifting white marble, multifaceted and shimmering with layers of energy that drifted away from the core of his being, only to fragment and fall back inwards. He noticed then that there was more to it, and as he dove deeper into that awareness, he came to realize that his senses were drawing him down to this sensation.

He sat within what felt like a vast shell, the insides and inner-walls of which looked and felt like his life. Memories, sensations, all of the decisions he’d made all woven like a living tapestry of his story floated all around him. In the very core was the white marble he’d seen before, and it was then that he realized the ‘shell’ he’d seen earlier were more of his memories, emanations of who he was in that moment. Here, though, was a perfectly smooth and seemingly inert sphere.

‘No, not inert,’ he focused on it, feeling something flowing outwards, building blocks that kept building up, feeding outwards into the shell around it. Before he could study it more, though, his attention was dragged to two smaller spheres that had somehow escaped his immediate notice amidst all the ‘yolk’ that was himself. 

One orb was what he expected, the will of the world, Alterra, in all her subtle power and quiet planning. An effervescent, warm light pulsed like a heartbeat from it, in tune with a greater being than he was. It made him feel vibrant, a barely restrained enthusiasm for life, it had a purity of being that told him to lean into his instincts, to cut loose and be a part of the world. It was intoxicating in a way, but had a deft delivery, only providing so much of that sensation as to guide, not to control. Here, deep inside of himself, he could feel it interact with his soul, but he couldn’t parse what it was really doing to him. There was a sense of familiarity to it, though, a warmth that promised that it would help him, support him in his journey, asking for his aid in return. It was not a forceful call, but it was one bound by a promise, and Niko felt vaguely disturbed that he might not have as much of a choice in helping as he’d initially thought he did.

Yet, it was tame and kind in comparison to the ball of chaotic, perilously cascading energy next to it. Whereas Alterra’s orb felt kind, this one felt cruel, angry, and most surprisingly, hurt. Machinations upon machinations piled up in thoughts that were counter to one another, making everything fall apart in a heap of unreality that hurt Niko’s thought-sea to try to process. The area around it shuddered with the touch of the strange energy, but somehow he didn’t feel like it was a corrupting touch. Diluted as it was, it gave the feeling of a skeptic, a reasonable suspicion of all things around him. It was a planning schemer, but it was also a possibility, the promise for a better fate. 

‘I need to know more about what this is,’ Thought Niko as he grit his beak and dove deeper into the sensation. Like his own soul, this thing had layers, but it was anything but uniform. Some semblance of order existed, but it was a distorted, fractured thing with sharp edges and fraying strands. It whispered into his mind, telling him what it was, and Niko found himself taking pause at the words before he dove too deeply. It was change, chaos incarnate, but that was only on the surface, a window into everything else. Beneath that window was betrayed agony, turmoil, and the heart wrenching the loss of those closest to it. It was left to die alone, and as hurt as it was, a part of it longed for what had once been. It was a kindred soul to Niko, who remembered nights alone in a hospital, who remembered the shine of a needle that took his choice away from him.

He pulled away before he could fall too deeply, and he sensed the strange sphere almost breathing a sigh of melancholy as he did so. Niko could feel, though, that there was an awareness on the other side of that orb, and knew it for the blessing it was supposed to be, in spite of the risks it carried. ‘Venris… I am Chosen of Venris,’ Niko’s mind reeled at the thought. How? When? What did that even mean for him? Was he destined to lose his mind if he accepted too much of this blessing, was that how that worked?
Niko froze as he remembered once more his entrance to this world. When Alterra had tried to reincarnate him as a human, and yet something had struck him in passage. Had that been Venris? Had he knocked him off course? If he had, why?

He put the thoughts away, feeling the force of the world around him requiring that he answer Crowe’s question. Niko knew instinctively that he had to answer honestly, that he could not claim to not be a Chosen. 

But he could half-lie, for he was not Chosen of one but instead two.

With a snap of vertigo, he came back to himself in a wooden room with light furnishings, sitting beside Skye and a waiting Crowe. Essence released from him in a cascade of imagery, a world around them, full of life, one that filled every facet of their day with subtle power. It was the birth of a faun, the hunting call of a pack of Greenwolves. There on the horizon was the twisting of a great serpent, churning in slumber even as it sent a tsunami a hundred meters high crashing into a cliffside that dwarfed imagination. High on a mountain, snow fell away in great sheets as the stone shifted under the attention of the world, hundreds of thousands of tons falling away in an avalanche, the frigid surge overtaking the scene. 

More visions flitted by, the blink of an eye each, but Niko could feel Crowe and Skye’s breathing slow to a stop on the first massive beast. Niko himself couldn’t help but feel his breath quicken, excitement rushing through him even when he thought he should feel fear, or some kind of sense of smallness before these titanic lives. Yet, he only felt a strange sense of pride in them, but also rivalry.

That was enough to snap him out of it. ‘The peck? Rivalry? With a feathering moving mountain? What?’ 

The images fell away all at once giving way to a silence that filled the room from wall to wall. Niko noted that Skye and Crowe were looking at the now empty air with surreal expressions, disbelief evident on their faces that they’d just seen what they had seen.

Then Crowe stood and moved to the door and, before Niko knew what was going on, the man had left.

“Uh…” Skye started, looking at the door in dismay, then back to Niko with confusion, “Maybe he had to use the bathroom?”

“I really don’t think so,” Niko squawked back with a little shrug before the door opened once more. Crowe had returned with three very tall glasses and many kinds of booze.

“I am too Samut’s cursed old for this.” The finely dressed man who now looked a touch manic, said, “That does not answer my question, but I need a drink before we try to figure that out further. Please, refrain from doing that again, I’m going to have enough nightmares as it is.”

Niko and Skye looked at eachother, and Niko prodded his companion’s side with a communicative head-tilt to demonstrate his question.

“Why are you going to have nightmares?” Skye asked, though she watched Niko from the corner of her eye, to which he nodded.

Crowe didn’t so much as pause while he poured the drinks, Niko idly looked forward to drinking himself, though he admitted it was quite early. “Because each of those monsters he showed us are probably real. I only knew about one of them, but there are more than ten.” Crowe stopped abruptly, looking up with a razor sharp glare, “And that’s just when he stopped. I have no idea how many… no. And, I beg you, please don’t tell me. I made a promise to keep things to myself, and this one is going to my grave. Camille might have to know, but…” Crowe picked up one of the three now made drinks and slammed it back. Followed by the second, and then half of the third before he stopped and swayed on his feet.

‘Actually, if it’s hitting him that hard, I’d probably die drinking that.’ Niko stared half-fearfully at the now empty cups, his essence sight informing him of the veritable brick of essence somehow sitting in the droplets of liquor. 

“If nothing else, I highly doubt you’re Venrisian at least, since if Venris has monsters like that, we’d have heard of them long ago. Still… Do you have another method of communication?” Crowe asked when he sat down. Niko nudged Skye once more, pantomiming writing with his claw.

She nodded, knowing that they didn’t have any other alternative at this point. “Do you have any ink?”

Crowe inclined an eyebrow before the epiphany hit him, “Ah, of course, Chosen. They can write, too. I’d not even considered it, as Venrisian don’t… Well, let’s see.”

He opened up a drawer at his desk and pulled out a small ink well. Crowe uncapped it and brought it over to Niko, no longer nearly as wary of him, but still clearly frazzled.

Niko actually felt a little bad for the man, in spite of the fact that he’d likely been ready to kill him. He couldn’t actually fault him too much for that, considering Venrisian monsters were, apparently, a major threat. 

“Once more, who are you a Chosen of?” The words, once they echoed through the air, began to do the same thing to Niko as last time. 

‘That’s so strange.’ Niko thought to himself before the urge to answer the question began to rise within him. He wrote ‘I am a Chosen of Alterra’, and stopped himself before he could continue. 

Crowe and Skye looked at the writing and the name, and both of them looked both confused and surprised.

“The world? Alterra is the world,” Crowe blinked in confusion before looking back up to Niko, now no longer on guard at all. “Then… No, hold on. I’m far too sober for this right now.”

This time when he poured the three glasses, two of the drinks were far more sedate. He gave those to Skye and Niko, who happily received them. “Right. I’ve been a Champion for a long time and I’ve seen a great deal more than, I dare say, most people ever will. This is the first time I’ve come across a Chosen of the World.”

“I’m surprised you’re not a Chosen of the Great Mother,” Skye hummed aloud, thoughtfully, “I’d thought for sure you must have been.”

“Great Mother?” Crowe turned his gaze on her, “What’s that one? I’ve not heard of them.”

Skye shrugged, “I think it’s somewhat of an open secret for Druids. Basically refers to nature as a whole, the Great Mother and–” she paused, before clicking her tongue “–actually, that would probably be Alterra, right?”

Crowe tapped the desk with a light drumbeat from his fingers, “Hmm… I know next to nothing about druids, I’ll confess. It could be that they’re one and the same, in which case…” He shook his head quickly, “Lets… not get into a discussion about the Pantheon and potentially blasphemous topics right now.”

Niko took this moment to write on the paper, ‘Can you tell me all of the Gods of the Pantheon?’

Skye took the paper and spoke it for Crowe’s benefit. The man still looked strangely at the sight of the two and a half meter tall bird writing better than most people could, but he answered the question in short order.

“In brief there’s Advarica, the Goddess of War and Justice. Samut, the God of Grudges and Vengeance. Mohrgrum, the God of Hearth, Home, and Trade. Tephone, the Goddess of Mercy, Health, and Protection. Bant, the God of Bloodshed and Dominion. Carmen, the Goddess of the Shadow and the Slim Draught. Saratasha, the Goddess of Knowledge and the Dream. And, finally, Venris, the God of Monsters and Chaos.” He then gestured with a somewhat wobbly hand, “Depending on who you ask in the Pantheon, they’ll selectively snub other gods from the list as their Patrons tend to be fairly competitive. Most dislike mentioning Venris as a god at all as he doesn’t appear to have much in the way of worshippers, outside of a few cults, but he doesn’t seem to be affected by that.”

Niko took a moment to consider all of that. Eight gods in all, and he technically had the blessings of the one that most of the others reviled. Was that a good thing or a bad thing for his mission? Surely, a god of monsters and chaos wouldn’t step in to interfere with his mission of hunting the other gods. Maybe he’d even help?

But, then, Niko realized, what if he already had?

‘Thank you. Can you tell me if there’s a better way to communicate with people?’ Niko wrote that out, and Skye translated the question with a bit of eagerness of her own.

Crowe paused and considered the pair before he straightened in his own seat and seemingly regained a great deal of his composure. “Yes, of course. There are a few methods that you can potentially use, with varying results. The first is, of course, to write things out, but that may be a little unsettling for people who know the distinction between aberrants and a potential Chosen. That’s not actually common,” he nodded to Skye then, “Also, if you run into someone who is much more acquainted with how beasts are supposed to be, that may be an issue. Then again, you can claim to have been taught how to write by Skye, and so long as you go along with it, I don’t see why that wouldn’t work. Afterall, almost no one will know how long you’ve been together, and you can falsify training together for a longer period of time if you’re worried about your team.”

“So you don’t think I should tell them?” Skye asked, though Niko noted that the way she asked made it clear that she wasn’t planning on doing so either.

The man shook his head, “I am… uncertain. On the one hand, you are a team and hiding things from one another may be harmful. On the other hand… this is a very sensitive issue and the fewer who know of Niko’s status, the better.”

Niko wrote out, ‘I would prefer to keep this quiet. I don’t need the attention.’ 

The other two nodded in understanding at that, “That’s sensible. You’re already going to be a target, but that might make things far worse for you. It… may also make your experience on the pilgrimage very interesting, though.” Crow spoke while he nursed the drink he’d made himself, seemingly having managed to calm down.

“Will it make it harder?” Skye asked with a frown.

“It… may,” Crowe answered carefully, “To my knowledge, the pilgrimage is something that is derived in no small part from the world itself. It could be that it’ll be easier, or it could be much harder. Surely, given Niko’s status, you’ll benefit from it even more than normal. However, that does complicate things somewhat.”

“Because of the others?” Skye crossed her arms in front of her chest, “They might not be happy about this being even harder if that’s how Niko’s influence affects it.”

Crowe nodded, but then shrugged, “It’ll be manageable, regardless. The pilgrimage challenges you, but it won’t make something impossible, so long as you make the right choices, anyway. In any case, that’s off topic for your question, Niko. Your other methods of communication aren’t much better at the moment. You can potentially learn to control your essence well enough that you can eventually speak through it, but that… is generally at least a tier four level of control for beasts. Perhaps you’ll manage it earlier, but you’ll have to exercise your control a great deal to get there. You’ll likely be doing that anyways, though, so it’ll be something to look forward to, eventually.”

“Establishing a bond is an easy way to communicate with one person, but that would be inadvisable for many reasons now. Not the least of which is that as a Chosen you may be asked to take on tasks far greater than what a normal person may be able to keep up with, depending on what is expected of you. It could be that you could select anyone, and it would be fine, or it could result in whomever you chose getting swept up into things far beyond their capability.” Crowe continued to put to words what Niko had been concerned about previously. With a nod, Niko indicated he was following along.

“You could potentially purchase a magical item that allows for telepathy, or perhaps some version that changes your thoughts into sound waves, but they’ll no doubt be expensive. You’d be best suited to purchasing that on your own during your pilgrimage. Any help you receive now will make your hardships worse in the future, to an extent. Regardless, Skye and yourself are going to need to get better at reading each other’s essence intents. It’s not something you can do with someone you aren’t very familiar with, but plenty of higher tier teams use this method to communicate with their fellows without words. It’s useful because it’s much faster than talking, silent, and displays very little indication of it happening at all. The downside is that it’s somewhat short range, but it’ll be plenty good for when you’re on the field.” He finished, looking between the two.

Skye took her cue from Niko, “The last one would probably be best for the long term, but we’ll look out for something that’ll let him talk to others himself, too.” Skye then asked Crowe, “How do we even start the process of better reading each other’s essence intent, though?”

He gestured between the two, “You’ve already begun the process. The longer you spend around someone, the more your essence passively interacts. What you’ll want to do, however, is to try to extend your essence in a short thread, as though you’re trying to connect to them. Granted, this will only allow for a surface level connection.” Crowe then gestured to Niko, “If it would make you more comfortable, you could initiate the connection with Skye. One thing to note is that a connection of this type will allow some general thoughts to flow over, but you will be heavily limited in clarity and distance right now.”

Niko listened closely to Crowe’s instructions and contemplated what he wanted to do. On the one hand, he did want to make his thoughts more well known, but this sounded a great deal similar to the tame connection. Yet, at the same time, he’d be the one initiating contact, so… ‘I should be more in control. At worst, I can disconnect and push it away like I did before.’ 

He looked to Skye inquisitively then, who nodded approvingly at the unspoken request. With a breath, Niko began to push his essence outwards, honing a strand of intent and will that formed with shocking ease. Experimentally, he waved outwards with the growing strand, surprised when it quickly reached a meter, then two, then began to slow and strain as it reached four. Focusing, he managed to extend it just a bit further, but it felt like using a well trained muscle in a way he’d never done before, it wanted to resist the motions, to keep his essence cycling in his own body. 

“Good, it looks like you’ve got the hang of the pseudopod technique,” Crowe nodded approvingly, “Now, look to attach it to Skye’s natural essence field. It’ll become much more apparent the closer your senses are to her, but I imagine you can detect it fairly easily already.”

Niko turned his gaze searchingly to Skye, and found that after a short scan he could indeed see some kind of transparent sheen of essence that settled just beneath her skin. It was difficult to parse anything out, but he didn’t think he needed to. Instead, he pushed the invisible tendril of essence and intent towards her, touching on her forehead. As he did, he felt that he could go no further with the light touch, and Niko adamantly refused to push. Regardless of if it was possible or not, he didn’t want to force such a connection through to someone. 

He didn’t need to, though, as Skye allowed the connection through after a second passed.

“I feel it,” Skye said aloud, wondrously, “Can you… hear what I’m going to say next?”

Through the connection, Niko felt something odd. A gestalt sensation of not-quite-words and intent that he couldn’t quite parse. He allowed it to flow over him, and thought he felt something like a forest, and song.

‘Oh! It’s when I was singing on the way back to town!’ He jolted, realizing what he was feeling. It was bizarre to an extreme for him, that he couldn’t really understand what it was he was hearing from her directly, but instead had to work off of what it activated. In return, he experimented with sending her his memories of eating breakfast, sitting around the table and appreciating the morning.

She frowned for several seconds before her expression loosened and she just listened. “Breakfast? That was a nice breakfast, huh?” She smiled, and then opened her eyes wide, “Alright, that’s pretty useful. Rough, but useful.”

Niko nodded, “Very. I’ll still have to write things out, I think, but it’s much better than nothing.”

Skye clicked her tongue at that one, “Hmm, that didn’t work very well. Some kind of impressions, but very foggy.”

This time, Niko sent as concrete an image of writing across as he could, and then tried to put focus on the entire sentence. This time he felt his awareness strain against their connection, almost overloading it. 

But, Skye seemed to get it this time, “Writing… you’ll still have to write? Is that what you mean?”

Niko warbled and nodded, happy that his message was somewhat received. Skye nodded, “Yeah, definitely, for more complicated stuff, but at least this will help for now.”

“It’ll get better passively over time. Some people use this method to teach intelligent constructs and beasts. The more intelligent, the quicker it goes.” Crowe rose from his desk, “Now… I’ll quickly go over the types of taming that exist in the world, then we’ll get you into combat training with Camille and the rest of your team. I would suggest talking to them and letting them know that you’re teaching him how to write, and that you’re mentally able to connect to each other. If nothing changes that much, they may never even realize that he’s a Chosen until he’s much more powerful.”

Skye nodded, “Thank you, Crowe. I–” Niko sent a pulse through their mind-bridge then, “–We appreciate it, a lot.”

The man smiled slightly, “You’re quite welcome. Now! An overview of the continent for Niko and the other forms of taming. You’ll also need to learn mathematics, and other sciences over the week. It’ll be grueling, but I expect both of you to be up to the task.”

The two looked to each other with dread, “Math? Did you say math? Why?” Skye echoed Niko’s words.

The man grinned evilly, “Why, because you’ll almost definitely need to be responsible for a great deal more money than most people. On top of that, you’ll most definitely need to be able to confirm your own maps–maybe even make them, depending on if you’re going to be venturing out past known borders. Don’t even get me started on trying to get safely onto a floating mountain without factoring distance and velocity.” Crowe held a brief long-suffering expression at that, “The others will get some courses, too, but the two of you need to know even more.”

One bird and one elf silently bemoaned their fate as they were taught a great deal more about the geopolitical landscape of the Continent of Detra. Niko silently hoped they would be excused for combat sooner, rather than later. 

He did not look forward to algebra, trigonometry, or calculus again.

 

 

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