Chapter 1296

Randidly’s jaw worked soundlessly for several seconds as he tried to come to terms with the words he had just heard. “Your son… is the System…?”

Also, Randidly’s ears perked up naturally at the mention of the Pinnacle; in the nomenclature of the System, that term had a special significance. It was just a matter of figuring out what that significance was. Beyond even THAT Randidly couldn’t believe something else that he had heard: that Elhume was the Creature’s husband.

For a few seconds, Randidly’s emotions were suppressed from the sheer weight of the bewilderment that he felt. He finally became something approaching calm.

The Creature’s voice continued to speak like an intern reading through a meeting's minutes. “Now, despite our differences, I’m sure that got your attention. But I believe some contextual explanations are in order. Short ones, here in the letter, because as long as you figure out the object in the ivory bowl by my coffin… you will inherit my memories. Not just the ones I use to animate incarnations… but my true memories. Of who I was before I became the Creature.”

That was enough to bring his emotions back into play. Rather sourly, Randidly glanced sideways at the empty ivory bowl and then at the three remaining image traces around it that the Creature’s Aether continued to cling to, even as the rest of the Creature’s workings fell to pieces. But it seemed that the Creature wasn’t quite being as generous as she had claimed in the letter.

Can you unwind those now? Randidly asked Neveah.

Randidly could feel Neveah’s grimace. ...It will be difficult. But I can try.

Nodding, Randidly turned back to listen to the Creature’s voice.

“-the beginning,” The Creature spoke in a slow and even tone like she was lecturing. “Which brings me to the place I was born. Hallohm. A city populated entirely by beings of Aether. We possessed no actual bodies, but Aether was all we needed. We were aware of beings like you… but we existed amongst the great celestial bodies of the universe; we considered you little more than bugs. And we had the power to back it up.

“Before the System, there were no concrete definitions of how much power we Aether beings possessed. But it was significant; you’ve never encountered a true Aether being before, but it is enough to say that even at our weakest, we could overpower a Nether Gatekeeper. Those lesser beings are a much-neutered version of the beings that once roamed this universe.

“And you should also know that the current farce of a war you recently participated in is a reflection of the very real terror I grew up experiencing. I pulled the covers over my head when I couldn’t sleep after my mother told me stories about the Nether.

“So strange, in retrospect. I suspect the beings of Nether hated us just as surely as we hated them. And probably feared us just as badly too… But because we were of one mind, on the rare chance that beings of pure Aether and Nether met each other, they would always fight. Always.

“Sorry, I digress. You can learn more in the memories. But for you to understand, you must know that my people believed we were descended from the great Shallah, which were a race of pure energy beings. Our bodies were pure Aether, but both Aether and Nether are forms of energy that mimick other things. Memory, image, connection, emotion. But the Shallah… they truly were nothing but energy. They were perfection. The pinnacle of evolution.

Those Shallah lived in Eden, where anything was possible. Where energy could exist without diffusing in the great emptiness of space. But due to the actions of the Nether, both of the Aether and Nether were banished from this perfect place and punished by being forced back from the superior forms of the Shallah.

“Elhume was the historian of Hallohm, although the actual job was more like a religious proselytizer. He told stories to put fires in the bellies of the people in our small village. To keep them ready to raise blades if Nether forces were ever spotted. Which basically never happened; before the System started pulling everything together, space was incomparably vast…

“I fell for his passion. Just… in that small village, nothing changed. And he… he was bright and beautiful…”

There were a few seconds of silence, seemingly as the Creature was lost in her thoughts. Then, when she started speaking again, her cadence has risen sharply. “The details… you can see in my memories. Even now, the experience is painful to recall. Suffice to say, I married Elhume. Very quickly, I was disillusioned by the man I had bound myself to. He was bright, yes, monstrously so, but he also hated the Nether with more emotion than I had ever encountered in my life. It scared me. So much so that I… began to wander through space, seeking to find… something beyond my minuscule village.

“I was seeking anything to escape the truth of my existence. Because the only way that we beings of pure Aether can have children… is to sacrifice our own lives. Unlike creatures with physical bodies, our essence is finite; to have children we essentially pour ourselves into a different container. It is similar to reincarnation. But the fact that we were married meant that Elhume and I had both agreed to slowly pour our own life force into birthing the next generation of our people. And he always expected that I would go first.

“I didn’t want that at all. Despite my narrow view of the world, I wanted… I don’t know. I wanted to mean something. So I wandered to avoid the doom I had chosen for myself. And… I found a Nether King in the wide dark. He was wounded and-”

The Creature stopped speaking. She sighed. Even then, a few more seconds passed before she began to speak again. “Well, you will see eventually, I suppose. We were intimate. He left, fearful that his people would discover me as they searched for him. As he too was running. And I… I had a son, alone in the dark.

“He was incandescent. A being of pure energy. A genuine Shallah. I named him Pine. He smiled and my heart melted. Yet the intensity of his existence almost immediately began to fade.

“Not knowing what else to do, I raced back to Hallohm. Even then, Elhume was more powerful than me, and if there was anyone who could save Pine, it would be Elhume. I busted down my own door and presented Elhume with the bundle of radiant energy I was dragging behind me. He asked what happened and I said… ‘We had a son’.”

Again the Creature paused before speaking. “It is important to note that not all Aether children are made from one person. Oftentimes couples mix half of themselves and half of the other spouse to create their offspring. So when Elhume was confused, I made up a story about siphoning off some of his energy because I wanted my child to have some of him in it… and he believed it, even as his eyes went round and he looked at the being he immediately recognized as a genuine Shallah in front of him.”

The Creature began to laugh. “I was such a fool. I thought I was so clever. But what I missed while congratulating myself was that horrible darkness in Elhume, the part that had been waiting all his life for proof that he was something special. And now, clothed in a lie, I brought him a story that tasted close enough to truth. Elhume had given birth to the first Shallah in recorded history, due to the fact I had ‘used’ his essence in the formation of our son.

“That dark desire to be special began to grow. Perhaps… my husband and I had more in common than I had thought.

“The danger of that tiny lie I wouldn’t understand until much, much later. At the time, I simply looked into Elhume’s eyes and assumed he loved Pine dearly, and when he asked me to trust him, I did. I donated much of my essence to him to increase his power.

“True to his word, Elhume used my power to create an array of Aether that stabilized Pine. His energy body was still dispersing, but much more slowly. And what followed was years and years of experiments… all to try and figure out how Elhume could keep Pine alive. Circles and circles of warding and engraving to keep the growing child stable… A growing yet paradoxically waning body as we fought against the entropy that sought to claim him… and we both came to the conclusion that Pine, as a Shallah… was pure in a way that we weren’t. He didn’t have a personality, not really. He was just… energy.

“So Elhume… had an idea.

“Or rather, he remembered the original idea. Because as Historian, he knew that the Shallah lived in Eden, where anything was possible. So to save our son, he either needed to make the impossible possible and resist the natural pull of the universe… or locate the primordial Eden where beings of pure energy could live freely.

“He even had the gall to ask me for more of my essence as he began to plan. At that point, I had already seen the madness in him. But I thought… I thought perhaps his emotions were high because his son was dying right before his eyes. So… I caved. I set aside my own thoughts and desires and hoped. I gave my power to another, trusting my husband.

“It took Elhume a month from that day to design and create the System. A grand scheme of Aether that compressed space and energy, simultaneously searching the surrounding area while building up a store of image strengthened Aether in case there were… defenses to Eden when he inevitably found it. He was so filled with the surety of his own success. A year after that, right before Elhume welcomed the first Cohort to the System, he told me it was unavoidable that he had begun using the ambient energy that Pine produced to run the System. He assured me that it would only last until the System became self-sufficient. Besides, he pointed out that Pine seemed most joyful when his energy radiated outward...

“When it came time for the Second Cohort to be introduced, Elhume built the Nexus directly on top of the body of my son. He didn’t bother to tell me until it had been done, locking Pine in a cage and plugging him directly into the System. From using just the ambient energy, Elhume took the entire body of my son and encased it in the System. That was the day, despite knowing that my child was locked away, I ran.”

This time when Yystrix fell silent, Randidly was very aware of the pounding of his heart inside his chest. The things that she was talking about… even the pissed and suspicious Randidly had literally no idea how to respond. This was certainly not what he had been expecting from the letter that she left for him.

Every word dripped with regret and frustration. Despite trying to remain suspicious, the obvious vulnerability in the image that spoke the words swayed Randidly.

Perhaps a minute went by before Yystrix spoke again. “...Eventually, however, problems began to crop up within the System’s operations. I do not truly know what happens in the deepest portion of the Nexus, but I could piece some things together through years of observing the movements of the System. Pine seemed for a while to be stabilizing due to the growth of the System; honestly, it was something of a relief. But that peaked around the Fifth Cohort and have been going downhill ever since. If anything, Pine’s body… The weight of it all is beginning to crush him. The System has grown too large for his energy to support it. Too many Cohorts, too many secret stockpiles of images.

“It was around that same time that the gradual degradation of Pine was happening that Elhume began searching for me. His wife, gone for two thousand years, and only when something was wrong did he seek me out… I believe… I believe he realized that perhaps the specialness that gave birth to Pine was not related to him at all.

“I almost wish I would have been able to see his face as he confronted that truth.”

Randidly stood and lightly rubbed his right hand against his jaw. Some of what Yystrix was saying made sense, as Randidly had already had his own dealings with how there was an overlay System placed atop the true System. But truly, Randidly was also wondering why-

“You’re probably wondering why I told you all of this.” The Creature said, and from just the voice, Randidly could see the tight smile she would be wearing. “And honestly, it probably won’t work. But one last time… I want you to consider running away, Randidly Ghosthound. Think about the scale of what you are facing. You have faced his touch in the past, I believe. And Elhume is becoming increasingly desperate.

“His goals now… I am not sure. But it is clear that he is not willing to let this System and Nexus he has so carefully built fall to pieces. And you… your accomplishments demonstrate the possibility of progress. He will come for you if you continue to behave exceptionally.”

At that, Randidly couldn’t help but wince. The memory of that being that came out of the vast continent of crystalized Aether and broke his Class with a glance was still quite fresh in his memory.

“...But, it’s no real use, is it? I truly despise you… because you will stand alone where I folded. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want you to win against it all

“And also… this is a good time to confirm that you indeed tipped off Elhume… and he came and found me. He ripped the memories he wanted from me and then took what remained of my Aether essence. That’s why I’m dying. That’s why…

“Maybe that’s why I wrote this letter. If not as an argument to run away, as a warning. Elhume is certainly not all-powerful, but he definitely is the most dangerous monster inside of the Nexus. Yet he is also bound by the rules of the System. Of us all, Pine is the most powerful by far. He, truly, is the special one…”

The light around the letter began to fade. The Creature spoke her last lines in a quiet voice. “If you look at the ground… you’ll see I left one last gift for you. I hope that in exchange, you might someday overcome all of this… and free my son. And also… I wonder… will you miss me? My husband won’t and my son… is more instinct than intelligence. So perhaps… so perhaps. I wrote this letter just so you’d be able to write me an epitaph.

“If you wanted to. I hate how weak I feel right now. I don’t want to die. But At least… I know you will never forget me. Will you, Randidly Ghosthound?”

The light completely winked out. Neveah cursed mentally and surged forward, but the bindings on the image traces snapped in her delicate mental touch and annihilated the remains. The floor began to glow, illuminated by spiraling Aether Engravings. But Randidly sighed deeply and couldn’t find any urge to care about the trail leading to the Creature’s- to Yystrix’s memories going cold.

He simply looked around at the vast space and admitted to himself that this tomb seemed to get under his skin in a way he couldn’t stop. He was crying and he couldn’t for the life of him figure out why.