Time Unknown | Risia Bastion / Grand Temple / Kovon's Bedroom
"Apprentice, awaken"
Suddenly, I jolt into full awareness of my surroundings. Just mere moments ago I was deep asleep. I think I was dreaming about a time when I was 9, something about Ray and I causing an explosion.
The feeling of being sucked into reality is very disorienting.
However, what is far more disorienting, is the girl that is currently casually laying in the middle of the air above my bed. Looking down upon me with curious eyes.
"Good morning, my oh so sleepy apprentice. Did you have a good rest? Not that I know what constitutes a good rest, I am unable to sleep."
"Good morning master. I could say that I had a good rest, although being forced awake is very disorienting. Do you truly never rest? That sounds both convenient but also very draining."
"I have truly never gone unconscious once in my life. It is in my nature, doing so would be fatal."
"How so, if you don't mind me asking?"
"Not at all, it has been so long since I have had a proper conversation! However, let us go to a place more suitable for speaking."
Initae then proceeds to palace her hand against my forehead. Moments later I am whisked away. When I reappear I am in a very strange place. It appears to be a platform encased in a glass dome. Outside the dome it is pitch black except for a few spots of light. Inside the dome there are two comfortable looking chairs (of human style), a table and several large bookshelves filled with books.
"Welcome to my sanctuary! Revel in honor, you are the first being aside from myself to be invited here in six hundred million years."
"It is a great honor. I must ask, are we in the void?"
"That we are, you sure have a keen eye, what a great apprentice you will grow to be!
This place is indeed located in the void, a space between spaces as it is also known. However, what is not understood by even the Order is that the void lacks time itself. Any time passed here will not pass either in the sanctum or universe."
"So you mean, we could stay here for millions of years and time outside would not pass? If that is true, then there must be more mysterious things about this void."
"Much shall be revealed in time, dear apprentice. But for now, sit down and enjoy some fine liquor with me and I shall answer your earlier question."
As she says this, a bottle of very old looking wine appears on the table, along with two wineglasses. I take a seat and pour myself a glass. The taste is absolutely divine, far better than even the Potaian wine.
"Woah, this wine is so good, where did you get it?"
"My my, my apprentice sure is an inquisitive one, I knew I was correct when I sensed you were special. As for the wine, it was originally created by a civilization that has been extinct for eons, they made some truly fine liquor. I have since learned the techniques from their records and have managed to replicate it in this bottle here."
"Woah, shouldn't this wine be some form of universal treasure, preserved in a museum?"
"I do keep various artifacts of the ages in a museum of sorts, located here in the void. However, I only permit those that I take as apprentices access. I shall be glad to take you to explore sometime!
Now, about your prior question regarding my nature. As you can clearly tell, even though I am in a human form, I am far from human. When I first heard whispers of your coming, I started to research humans and adopted this form that I found to my liking.
As for my specific nature, I think you would best understand if I simply said I was a spirit. A manifestation of the will of reality itself. A very, very, very long time ago, there used to be far more of those like myself. We had a beautiful civilization that spanned the entire universe.
However, unfortunately, greed and internal strife led to our essential extinction. As far as I am aware there is only me and one other of my kind that still exist in this plane.
Over the eons I have been referred to by many names, like goddess, or priest, o almighty one, or even on occasion, devil. In this current era I am known as the Transcendent, the one who defies boundaries. I have also taken to founding an order of sorts, as I wish to have a more direct impact in this era. Which coincidentally has led me to you, Kovon Ducker, son of Terra.
So as to answer your question, the only thing that holds myself to existence is my own will. So if I were to go unconscious, I would simply cease to be."
"That is a tale that both reeks of sadness, but also great pleasure and satisfaction. To imagine the horrors and wonders you must have seen.."
"Just that indeed, it is nice to know that you are one that can recognize both the negative and positive, a realist so to say."
"So, I get that you have made me your apprentice, which I assume means you will train me to wield Inae. But what exactly does that mean, or entail?"
"Well, very simply, I will give you access to power far beyond that of any normal wielder. However, do not expect to attain the power that I have. For instance, you will never be able to teleport, or voidshift without a voidlith, you are simply not nearly powerful enough."
"I cannot wait to study under you, master. If you will permit me to ask, you say that I cannot ever achieve your level of power, but how powerful are you exactly?"
"Well, it is quite hard to quantify power past a certain point. But using metrics defined by the order, namely the measuring orb. If I were to place my hands on it, it would somehow not break. The identification orbs for each of my affinities would likely be larger than the entire planet of Risia."
"That is truly an unimaginable amount of power. I hope that you will teach me to wield my own power well and responsibly."
"Why of course Ko! Why else do you think I made you my apprentice?"
"I mean, I assume part of your reason might be that you grew lonely and simply wanted a good drinking companion."
At this comment, she bursts out into a massive fit of laughter. I find myself joining her as we laugh. Yet again, we have created a strange scene.
Two beings, one of power similar to what would expect of a divine being, and one human. Sipping wine that was produced by a long dead civilization. Sitting inside a glass dome inside of a space between spaces filled with infinite darkness.
"While that may be in some way a part of it. Do not doubt your talents, you are worthy of becoming my apprentice. Under my tutelage you shall become great. Surpassing even the current sages of the Order.
There is one thing that I ask in return however."
"What might that one thing be?"
"Why, allow me to be your friend and accompany you upon your journey of course! I will obviously be hiding my identity, perhaps you could think of me as an older sister and mentor."
"Hmm, unimaginable power and a wonderful friend? I don't see any downsides, are you sure you don't want anything else? Like my eternal servitude or my soul?"
"Hah, how silly you are. Those things are meaningless to me. If I wanted you to serve me, I must simply command it so. If I wanted to take possession of your very being, I could also do so without much difficulty."
These words, said by this girl that is actually a spirit of countless age, are both frightening and reassuring. Reassuring because it means that she doesn't actually want to take control of me and genuinely wants a friend. But frightening because I know that she definitely has the ability to back up her statement.
"Well in that case, I, Kovon Ducker, do cheerfully swear to be your friend until the end of time, or my death, whatever should come first. I look forward to traveling the universe alongside you, Initae."
"I, Initae, in turn swear to be your friend until the end of time or your death. I can't wait to see all the fun places you will guide me in your journey.
I propose a toast to new friends!"
"To new friends!"
"To new friends!", *glasses clink together*
"Now, on to another note. Dear friend, I regret to inform you that it is probably time we leave this place. While I am able to stay here for infinity, your mortal mind can only tolerate so much time in the void. More questions will have to be asked at a later date.
Don't forget, you still have your upcoming vowing ceremony. Technically I have told you many things that you should not be privy to already. But I kinda run the order, so I should be able to break a few rules, right?"
"Im sure they won't mind. But I agree, I am starting to feel somewhat fatigued, and that vowing ritual is probably kinda important. Plus, it's probably going to go down in the history books, it can be very often that someone takes vows while already being an ascendant."
"Oops, silly me, casually creating major historical events.. I really should think things through more.
"I think there is value in impulsiveness. Especially for someone as powerful as you, if you tried to contemplate every effect of every action on a scale of billions of years, you would never do anything."
"True, your words couldn't have been said better by anyone other than myself. This is why you are my apprentice. Now, without further delay, let us depart."
Initae then places her hand upon my arm and we get teleported away. It is still extremely disorienting and strange to be shifted in such a manner.
We arrive back in the Sanctum, it appears she has taken us to the central chamber of the Grand Temple. Ahead of me stands the Sage Qualtrak.
"Hello there Sage, I think Ko is now ready for his avowing ritual. I shall be the one performing the rites this time. I suggest you warn the other attendees.. I may have accidentally killed some with my sudden appearance during his trial.."
"Transcendent! Oh how nice it is to see you. Certainly, I will make the arrangements post-haste."
Qualtrak then proceeds to scurry off at a rapid rate, presumably to quickly prepare the avowing ritual.
"They sure seem to respect you a lot, Initae."
"Well, you are about the only one that doesn't show me that level of respect. Not that I want you to, we are friends! Equals in all but power. Do keep in mind that to them I am essentially both their God and boss, so respect is to be expected."
"Fair enough, I guess it is only I who is immune to your transcendent charms. A friend I shall be!"
We wait in the main chamber for about an hour. Then Sage Qualtrack comes rushing back in.
"Transcendent, Ascendant Kovon, the preparations are complete. Please follow me and we will start the ritual."
Qualtrack seems to be extremely nervous. Probably because their boss/god just gave them a direct order to prepare a ritual. I think any normal person would be nervous if their boss were to give such an order, it's not even required that your boss be the most powerful being in the universe.
Initae and I are led into a chamber, not dissimilar to that of my trial. However, this time in the center sits an altar similar to the one outside the Risia Voidlith. As soon as we enter the room. I notice that the seats are packed. It looks as though around six times the amount of Itokin have shown up. Likely aiming to get a look at both the Transcendent and her new human apprentice.
As soon as Initae comes into sight, all the Itokin fall into deep bows, almost as if being puppeted by strings. Initae quickly leads me over to the altar and begins a speech. Once her speech starts, the Itokin move to a kneeling position, all of their eyes glued onto the scene before them.
"Ascendant Kovon, it is with the power invested in me as Transcendent of the Order of Convergence that I offer you these vows.
Do you, Kovon Ducker, solemnly swear to uphold the Order's teachings and maintain absolute secrecy about what you have learned?
If you do, show your dedication."
The message is quite similar to the one from before. Already knowing what is to come, I quickly do as Is asked and insert my hand into the altar. The altar quickly sinks its prongs into my hand and fills the bowl up with my blood.
"Your dedication has been heard and accepted."
Once she is finished saying this, the blood in the altar begins to glow with raw inae. It then begins to float around my forehead. After a few moments of floating there, the raw inane intensifies significantly. I can tell that something is different. No doubt Initae is changing the process in some way.
The inane infused blood then rushes into and gets absorbed into my forehead. I can feel an intense burning and notice that my markings are changing.
After the process stops, I start to feel the shape of my markings. They have changed significantly, they are far different than those on the other Itokin.
Rather than the pure black, they are now black on the edges with white strips running down the middle. I also notice that my insignia has changed. It seems the design from the Contestants induction ritual has been completely overwritten.
Now on my forehead lies a design consisting of a half white/half black star with a purple crescent moon symbol inside of it. There is also a ring of interwoven white, black and purple bands. I also notice that it seems my senses have been even further enhanced.
"Let this insignia mark you as one of my apprentices, Ascendant of The Transcendent Kovon Ducker. Let all present acknowledge your authority and power, second only to my own."
With this proclamation, the Itokin cheer, loudly.
If I am understanding Initae's words correctly. Not only has she formally announced my position as ascendant of her branch. But It also appears that I am second in command of the entire order!?
"If those assembled here shall excuse us, we shall now depart."
Moments after saying these words, Initae grabs me and teleports away. This time, it appears we are on Risia. To be specific, the mountain where Ray and I recently had a picnic.
"I hope I didn't go overboard, I kinda broke several rules and changed the insignia to something that should fit your tastes. I notice that both you and Rayleigh Inan like to wear that moon symbol, I expect it has some important meaning to the both of you."
"You didn't go too overboard, in fact it seems like they loved it. Also, you are correct about the moon symbol. It is a representation of a pact we made long ago. One not dissimilar to the one between you and me."
"I see, I shall endeavor to meet this Rayleigh soon. After all, it seems she will be something of a little sister to me!"
"I'm sure she will be ecstatic to meet you! You will get along swimmingly, I'm sure."
"That is great to hear, I can't wait to travel with you, I'm super duper excited to meet tons of people in person!"
"Thats great to hear, I will do my best as your friend to ensure you fulfill your goals. Now, about returning to my ship. Now that I have completed my trial and vows and whatnot, there is no reason why I cannot return correct, with you in tow even?"
"Of course, in fact, I shall make preparations to return to your ship right now. If I could, I would teleport us straight there. But unfortunately, it is very dangerous for me to attempt to shift somewhere with such a low margin of error near space. I could very well miscalculate a tiny bit and you end up in the cold vacuum of space.
As a solution to this, I shall procure us a cruiser to use! Please wait here for a few minutes while I go find one I can use."
With that statement, she vanishes.
It is now just myself. Alone. On this mountain of Risia. I can see for many kilometers all around. The beautiful forests, deserts and plains are sure a nice sight. I think I can even see one of those bison-elephant herds in the distance.
With nothing to do but wait, I sit down and contemplate all that I have learned.
I suppose the only thing to do is to sit here and relax. Whatever should come next, there is only one valid response. Bring it on.
End of Chapter 19
A/N: Hiya dear reader. Author here once again to ramble. I hope you are enjoying the developments with Itokin, Inae and the introduction of Initae, a brand new character! There are plenty more interesting developments to come, this is only the start! So stay tuned.
As always, if you are enjoying it, be sure to follow/favourite/review/leave a nice joke, it is always appreciated. Until next time, dear reader.
Cathrix