另类小说人亚洲小说

Chapter 30

Guests

It is an advantage of using the Dreamtime often enough that you can tell the difference between your natural dreams and those caused by others.

So it was no surprise that my dream of being on a beach that ran from horizon to horizon save for a nearby lake set off my dream senses. I found myself walking into the shade of a pyramid, where a hawk with the body of a man was waiting for me.

“Shame what happened to you.” He said.

“Hrm?”

.....

“The skinning, the scarring.”

“I’m healing.” I said.

“Are you really?” He asked. “Isn’t there an empty spot carved into your soul? A spot that just feels wrong?”

“That sounds like something I’d suffer from. How do I check?”

“You’d know.” He said. “Look, do you want vengeance, or not?”

“Well, I guess. But unlike those kids, I’m going to survive this.”

“With what scars? Are you ever going to be able to show your face in public again?”

“Oh, with no scars. I’m a titan-spawn, tougher than I look.”

He opened his beak, clacked it shut. “Well, that answers that, then. Those kids are really going to get off without consequences?”

“Are they? I’ve spent about two weeks being insensate. I really don’t know.”

“Look, kid. Your Insight score is higher than that. You know what’s going on at that guild isn’t right.”

“I’ve found that worrying about things you can’t change only reduces your sanity and serenity scores.”

He snapped his fingers. “Exactly. And what if you had the power to avenge wrongs? Both for yourself and for others? Wouldn’t that be something you were interested in?”

“I mean, I suppose so.”

“Of course, you would.”

“What’s the cost of this power?”

“I’d like to tell you about a class called the Divine Avenger of Horus. It’s all about exactly that – righting wrongs, fighting the just battles, of making the world RIGHT.”

“Oooh... But this would close off other divine opportunities, wouldn’t it?”

“Not with any god you’d want. Do you want to form an eternal pact with Set? God of darkness?”

“Well, I do have a Shadow spirit as a familiar.”

“Ugh.” He rubbed his beak with the heels of his hands. “Kid, you’re talking about a spirit, and a small one at that. I’m talking about the powers granted by a GOD. You know what that is, a god?”

“I’m fairly certain I don’t. I think of them as powerful spirits.”

“Powerful... Well, yeah, in the sense that you’re a powerful sea tadpole. But you’re missing the point, part of that power can be yours.”

“In exchange for my immortal soul?”

“Kid, have you seen your soul? You’re all over the sin wheel, haven’t chosen a true path yet. If you die tomorrow, where do you want to spend your afterlife?” He waved his hands to indicate the oasis in front of us. “This isn’t a bad place to spend an eternity, and it’s a lot better than any hell I’ve ever heard of.”

“There are more than the seven?”

“Kid, there’s hells on hells on hells. And more than that in heavens. C’mon, why not make a choice, decide which afterlife your soul goes to?”

“And once I make this choice, how is it unmade, should the terms later prove worse than those I currently endure?”

He clacked his beak. “Okay, I can see this isn’t a decision that you’re going to make tonight. So just make an oath, that you won’t sign up to have any other power mark your soul without giving me a chance to talk to you again. Deal?”

“I thought a deal required something from both sides?”

“I’m giving you time to make up your mind, kid. Tonight’s going to be busy for you.”

“I swear by my status as Truthspeaker that I shall not accept the mark of another deity tonight without permitting you a second chance to speak with me.”

“I’m telling you, kid. Skinned alive makes for a good Divine Avenger origin story. It comes with power, and you should just accept it. You’re a natural.”

“May I guide him to his next appointment, then?” asked a small pale brownish yellow scorpion.

“Yeah, I made my pitch. Told the boss the kid wasn’t going to bite on the first go.”

“If you will follow me, please.”

“Do you also have an offer to make?” I asked.

“Who, me? Serquet is a minor goddess, and if you want to become one of her scorpions, you would ask directly for that. Now come along. It’s a busy busy night for you.”

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He led me to a structure that looked like a bunch of gigantic stone boxes, smaller ones stacked atop the larger. Near the top, two winged serpents danced about each other in the air.

“Okay, your next appointment is up these steps here. I’m sworn to a different pantheon, so I shouldn’t go closer than this.”

“Thank you for your service.”

“I exist to help. And to harm. Because, scorpion. And if you do decide you want to inject idiots with poison for making you mad, just ask for Manajuwejet the spirit guide.”

We waved, and got about our specific tasks.

Stairs, stairs, stairs... How long did I have to climb for it to count as Physical Training Regimen? Oh, right. Just a dream.

But there were less than an infinite number of stairs, and eventually I made it to the top, where there was a Jaguar with the body of a man, wearing his own jaguar skin as a cape.

“You are surprisingly calm for one who has had their skin flayed.”

“I have high expectations for a complete recovery.”

“Still, you have been wronged. Do you seek to slay your tormentors?”

“Do you seek to have your skin torn off, again and again?” asked a human skin I had mistaken for a macabre throw rug.

“Wait your turn!” the Jaguar insisted.

“But if both of you seek to mark my souls in ways that will forbid other gods, how can I possibly know now which god I desire to serve?”

The Jaguar spread his arms. “Why would you want a lesser god than the Night Sun? Who else will encourage you to torment and torture your enemies, and offer you power in exchange for their life blood once their pained whimpers no longer amuse you?”

“Actually, that sounds like something a lot of vengeance gods would do.”

He squinted at me. “Choose wisely before you deny a god of blood and vengeance.”

“But doesn’t choosing you mean I offend every other god of vengeance? I think I ought to hear the others before choosing.”

“Nonsense. You will be back, for I am the one most like what you feel inside.”

“And now,” said the man-rug, “it is my turn. Will you not suffer more often than cause suffering? Why not turn that suffering into the source of your power? If misery is your fate anyway, why not at least enjoy some form of benefit from it?”

“So those who swear themselves to your path seek to increase their own misery?”

“Only the good ones.”

“I think I’ll pass on that, for now.”

“Proceed on your journey.” Jaguar said. “Your path will lead you back here.”

The path he indicated was a mountain, covered in green. When I turned to look the way I had come, there was a series of steep cliffs and the ocean. Dream logic.

I turned back toward the mountain, and set my feet on the trail. Some drunken satyr beckoned me off the trail, but I could see the darkness moving about in his fur. I kept my feet on the path.

It was a wolverine, or a badger, or – it kept changing. “Why are you here?” it asked me.

“I seem to be on some manner of spirit quest.” I told it.

“Do you seek vengeance?”

“Honestly, I’m going to make a full recovery, I’m not sure there’s a lot to avenge.”

“GET OFF MY MOUNTAIN!” It became a ram, and butted me direct to my groin.

I flew off the mountain, and landed on an oddly soft cloud. I made whimpering noises as the cloud descended.

She came into view as the cloud slowed. Her hair was orange, her skin red, and her eyes golden with vertical slits of black. She folded two of her arms across her bare breasts, while making rude gestures with the other two.

“You aren’t a woman.”

.....

“I’m not sure that gender applies to Protean creatures.”

“Hm. And have you been wronged by men?”

“By a woman, actually.”

“Bah! When you are a woman, and wronged by men, and seek to decapitate them, then come back here.” She kicked my cloud, and it began to ascend.

It paused near a bald man, who seemed to be made all of copper. He sat, lotus-style, on a cloud similar to mine.

“You could forego vengeance entirely. Dedicate your life to peace, and find inner harmony.”

“Uh, the serenity sounds nice, but I don’t think that’s where my life is going right now.”

“If you do not control the direction of your life, then your life’s direction will control you. When you see the wisdom of life’s harmony, we will meet again.”

My cloud ascended.

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There was a period of shade, and a gentle rain began washing me clean. “Perhaps you desire life, rather than death?” a blue female asked. “Why not choose fertility and plenty, rather than a life of destruction?”

“You mean other than the fact that I obviously need to defend myself?”

“Why would you need to defend yourself when you can heal faster than they can wound you?”

Well that sounded NICE! “Tell me more.”

And she did, but ultimately I decided to swear the same oath as to the hawk, and proceed onward. I may not be filled with the desire for vengeance, but neither was I willing to entirely swear it off.

My cloud merged with the side of a larger one, and deposited me among a herd of golden sheep. A woman dusk of skin and dark of eye stood watching the sky, ignoring the sheep and their shepherd.

“So you’re who all this fuss is about?”

“I guess so.”

“And what do you know of the process you are undergoing?”

“It seems to be some manner of spirit quest, but I’m speaking to a lot of beings claiming to be gods.”

“Ah. Well, I only claim to be the representative of one. You know of the twelve Achean gods, but never once have you offered prayer, nor sacrificed an animal to any of us. Honestly, you are born of the Titan’s blood, our sworn enemies.”

“And? Is any being only what they are born to be?”

She shook her head. “You can write your own destiny, but you can never avoid your fate. My two sons desire to speak with you, if you will make time this night. Follow the sounds of the hammer, or go onward across that rainbow. I offer you nothing, as you have never offered anything to me.”

“That seems fair. Thank you.”

She turned her face to the sky, and waved me on.

The both of them were in the forge, the twisted smith and the brutish warrior. The warrior came over, and looked at me. He wiped his nose on the back of his hand, and that on my shirt. “I thought you’d be more ferocious, more powerful. Don’t come to me until you’ve tasted war. The sight of you makes me sick.”

He turned, and walked away. I turned my gaze to the smith, who was working on what appeared to be a horseshoe carved from pure sunlight. After a time, he set it into a barrel crafted from fire. “I hear you might be needing a Scientific class soon. But if I help you with that, then I want your help, too.”

“Would I have to accept your mark on my soul, closing it to other gods?”

His smile was sad. “I can see you’re too young for that. But, if I could set your path onto one who would not close off your soul, would you acknowledge a favor?”

I foolishly touched my chin, forgetting there was no skin there. The smith laughed at me.

“I ... might. It would depend on the favor.”

“I cannot name it, but I can tell you that you will need to save a life from one who would take it, and then protect that life until she and her children can escape to a distant land. I’d tell you it is a short task, compared to your lifespan, but it is also longer than you have lived.”

“Who or what would I be protecting them from?”

“From something far stronger than you will be. It will require politics and cunning, not strength.”

“I’m not known for politics or cunning. You would entrust me with this task, even if I could not swear to complete it?”

“I would. Do you accept?”

“I will attempt this task. How will I recognize this woman?”

“Be mindful of a black bird in a red sky, bearing crossed spears in its talons. You’ll know.”

We spat into our hands, and shook on the deal.

[You have accepted a quest to save the life of a woman marked with the sigil of a black bird bearing crossed spears on a red background and her family. You have not discovered this woman. Quest on hold.]

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