Kernoel77
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Chapter 222: Benefactors
🕑 Added 2024-11-09 01:03:55 +0000 UTCChapter 222: Benefactors
A name had been granted, and now there was the price to pay. Mercury felt his focus being consumed like a wildfire burning against his consciousness. The darkness boiled, and somehow, he understood every inch, every movement, every moment.
Ciarski, ruler of Shadow, being of darkness born anew. An ancient shadow, reshaped and known once more. More than ever before, Mercury felt the realm around him breathe a sigh of relief. It was his third naming, sure. But when he had done it to Uldyrel, the realm had crumbled, and Siori was not a ruler at all.
Now, though? With this granted name, the entirety of the realm of Shadow changed. It had stagnated. Become circular, self-defining, stuck in old ways. But Ciarski was no longer just the ruler of Shadow. No longer amorphous and unsolid.
Finally, their will could influence the court again, too. That separation of the ruler of a court and the court itself also allowed each individual member of it to have a stronger impact. Their voices could finally be heard again, and the miasma of stagnation finally lifted.
Mercury could almost watch as the shadows darkened, becoming more vibrant in their own way. No longer were they there just to survive, they wanted to build and grow. Because that was what shadows were, too. Enveloping and cold.
An instant later, that cold flooded out from the building figure of Shadow’s ruler. They felt, as shadows so often did, cold and dark. Like the thought of starving to death in an abandoned, lightless glacial fold.
Then, it evaporated, and instead the darkness became comforting to Mercury. He had been declared a benefactor by Ciarski. That word had not yet been spoken, but the world rumbled and felt it anyway. The court of Shadow was being reforged, and something about that resonated within Mercury as well.
Seeing the darkness roiling, reforming, breaking down again. Cycles of heat and cold, of solidity and fluidity reminded him of the nails he so often hammered out. The days spent with Yasashiku, working away at metals. He felt close to that revelation, one he had been working towards for seasons now-
And then the darkness solidified, and the process finished, and the revelation slowly slipped through Mercury’s paws like shifting sand. Another day, then.
Quickly, Mercury dismissed the thought, and instead focused on Ciarski again.
“Haaaaah,” the ruler let out a long sigh. “What a feeling. Completeness.” The figure’s eyes drifted towards Mercury, and the ruler gave a nod of acknowledgement. “Mercury. You are a benefactor of Shadow. Let it be known. Our name has been deemed acceptable.”
The mopaaw smiled, feeling somewhat tired after witnessing it all. “It is good to see that it suits you.”
Ciarski took a deep breath. Their figure was taller, now, still far from human, though. Shadows swirled around them in an endless cloak, and their shape was difficult to discern. Mercury got the distinct feeling that they were larger than their physical shape, too, like this incarnation was only how he was being permitted to see them.
If he disregarded that permission, though…
Dozens, hundreds, thousands of eyes.
Large and small, red and blue and black and white. With different iridescent scleras and irises. In all colours Mercury knew and then some. There were ones with multiple pupils, some even seemingly having multiple eyeballs stacked underneath a single lid. Some were made of glass and some of darkness and some of nothing entirely.
Each and every single one looked at Mercury, and they were above and below and all around him and when he focused on the avatar again, their shapeless, cloaked figure resolved to be hundreds of thousands of eyes. They were layered, their entire figure made from them, darkness that watched.
He didn’t bother to count them, and simply acknowledged their existence.
The ruler chuckled. “Come now. Give a fae some privacy, will you?”
Politely, Mercury let that mantle of darkness fall over his vision again.
Luckily, the ruler seemed to take it in stride. Ciarski flashed what Mercury read as a bemused smile, though there were no facial features to indicate anything of the sort. “Much appreciated. Your sight is truly terrifying. Is there anything we could hope to hide from you?”
Now, that made Mercury snort. “So much,” he said. “So very much. I’ve barely begun seeing myself. I am just starting to pry back the layers, Ciarski. It feels like all I’ve done until now has barely gotten me to the starting line.”
“Terrifying,” the ruler said with a huff of amusement. “You peel aside my veil so easily, that of a fae ruler no less, and consider this your starting line? I am glad to call you a benefactor rather than an ally.”
“You flatter me,” Mercury said.
Giving a sly shrug, the ruler smirked again. “True. I do not deny such. But it is well-earned flattery. Enough banter now, though. You have more than earned my full support. Any of the rulers could see what this has done for my domain. I shall capitalize on this while I still have the advantage.”
A girly wooden doll stomped on the floor. “You will do no such thing!” Omoria demanded. “Crouch down for a moment.”
“What?”
“I said to lower yourself, you buffoon!” she chided.
Stunned, Mercury felt as though the ruler blinked a few times in surprise. They certainly had enough eyes to make that a possibility. But, after a moment of hesitation, Mercury saw them oblige.
Then, Omoria flung themself around the tall veiled one’s neck.
“Oomph!” Ciarski complained, hanging a little lower before raising themselves upright again, the girl still dangling from their neck, if one could call it that.
“Get hugged, idiot,” she said.
Awkwardly, a hand grew out of the darkness, four fingered and crooked, patting the wooden doll on her head. “Uhm… there, there?”
Ciarski’s reply didn’t exactly inspire confidence in Mercury, but it worked on Omoria, apparently. The girl sniffled, with sap slowly pooling underneath the eyes carved upon her wooden face. “You’re back.”
“I, uh… yeah, I guess I am?” Ciarski stammered somewhat awkwardly. “It’s good to see you again, too.”
“Stinky bozo,” she said, voice cracking.
Mercury snorted. Ciarski seemed entirely out of their element. “Uh… what?”
At that, Omoria lifted one hand, still easily hanging around the ruler’s neck, and smacked their head a few times. “I called you a dum-dum! A big goofball! You forgot me! How could you!”
With a pleading look, Ciarski turned to Mercury, but the mopaaw simply looked aside, ignoring the ruler’s plight. Orin seemed entirely frozen, and while Alice looked sympathetic, she was also terribly bemused.
Long suffering, they tried to find the words. “Well, that was… kinda my bad…”
“Apologize!” Omoria demanded.
“I- you know we’re fae. That’s… a little-”
“Apologize!!!” she demanded again, harmlessly and feebly whacking the creature of ethereal darkness.
Helplessly, Ciarski struggled. “Alright, alright,” they said. “I apologize. I’m sorry.”
The words slammed into reality like a deep covenant, incurring a debt and a promise.
“Apology accepted,” Omoria said haughtily, pouting at Ciarski. Instantly, the heaviness dissolved. “Now, let me sit on your shoulder for a little while and I’ll consider forgiving you.”
“... Right,” the ruler of Shadow said, and the clawed hand that had patted the girl’s head lifted her onto their shoulder. They had to grow one for that purpose, of course, their blocky shape turning somewhat more humanoid in the process.
With that dealt with, Omoria turned to Mercury. Realizing the way she looked, the girl hastily swiped her hands over her face, wiping the tears away. Of course, in reality, she just smeared orange sap all over herself.
“Oh, how dreadful,” she loathed. “To be seen this way, it makes me wanna cry again.” More tears of sap gathered.
“Well, crying is very human,” Mercury supplied.
For a moment, Omoria’s expression turned to surprise, then glee. She shot him a bright smile, face still smeared. “You’re right! Hehe. Right! You got them back, didn’t you, Mercury?”
“I did grant Ciarski a name, sure,” Mercury said.
Alice smirked. “Quite a casual way to say it.”
“For that, I must give you an expression of my gratitude," Omoria said. "Not in the fae way, but a very human one. I want to thank you, but you know what implications that carries here. Maybe, some day, I can bake you a cake or something,” she offered, smiling.
Mercury laughed slightly. “Yes. That would be lovely.”
“That’s an agreement then! Can’t call it a promise, sadly,” the girl added with a wink.
He shook his head at her human antics. Really, how had Alice been granted a fae-type evolution before Omoria got a human one? Or, maybe, she was already going in that direction. Mercury genuinely wished her the best with it.
If he ever got around to understand the truth behind being <Human>, maybe he could help her? Something to consider.
For now, he smiled and nodded. “My favourite kind is black forest cake.”
“My, how lucky. It just so happens that all the trees around here are black. Courtesy of being made from shadow.”
Mercury shook his head at her antics. “I am glad to have lifted your mood,” he told the avatar of the tree. “I suppose, though, that I was only invited to stay at your court until I solved this problem. So, this would mark the end of my stay.”
“Nonsense,” Ciarski replied. “As benefactor you’re welcome to stay for however long you wish.”
“You just want him to stay so that you gain an advantage over the other courts,” Alice noted, crossing her arms.
Ciarski shrugged their newly grown shoulders shamelessly. “What can I say? It’s in the nature of a shadow like me to be a little sneaky.”
“Feel free to stay or leave, Mercury,” Omoria said. “And feel free to come back whenever. Things might change a little- well, not too much, though.”
“Well…” Ciarski started.
“You’re not moving the furniture,” the girl cut them off.
“Dang. Oh well. I’ll live,” they said with a smirk. Without growing a face, still.
Mercury nodded slightly. “I’ve learned much in my time here. I would learn more. Weaving shadows is still somewhat new to me, after all.”
“Well, you’ve got plenty of space to practice. Ah, don’t do it to any of the sentient ones, though. Doubt I needed to tell you that, though,” they said.
“You didn’t, but I think setting that boundary is still always a good idea. Otherwise, I don’t think it’s as obvious in the fae realm as it generally is back on the mortal plane.”
Ciarski nodded. “Right. Well, I think I’ll be doing a round of my court. Things will change a little. For the better.”
“For the better,” Mercury nodded with a smile.
- - -
The day passed without further incident. Well, in the evening, there was something.
A knock on Mercury’s door. He looked at it, then tilted his head. “Come in, Titania.”
He’d seen her aura through the door. The faint presence pressing against his <Rainfall>. The rulers were remarkably bad at restraining their presence, amusingly. Fae were known to be so sneaky, probably because most people were abysmal at noticing these things. But to Mercury, they may as well be stomping down the hallways.
Such was the burden of power, he supposed.
Soon, the door shifted. He had his own room now, no longer sharing with Ciarski. Titania stepped inside, her eyes blazing much more faintly than usual. She looked almost normal. Well, if you ignored the warping of the air from her presence, and the power buzzing, and the glowing eyes and-
Okay, maybe not that normal. Mercury shook his head, discarding the thoughts. “What brings you here?” he asked.
She stood, looking as he laid on the bed. “Does it come easily to you?” she asked.
At that, Mercury noted it would be a longer conversation. “Grab a seat, please,” he invited her.
Titania gave him a long look, then obliged. There was a table in the room, and she pulled over one of the chairs, sitting down upon it. “So.”
He gave a small sigh. “No. It doesn’t come easy. It’s exhausting. It feels pointless sometimes. It feels like I’m wasting my time when I just follow people, and every time I worry it might go wrong. I don’t know what would happen if I picked a wrong name, but I highly doubt it would be as simple as a failure.”
The faerie queen simply stared, as if asking him to keep going.
“Every time I think I’m putting quite a bit of myself on the line. You remind me plenty that you could crush me like an ant. I’ve taken measures to ensure I’ll survive, but what do those mean when Oberon could blow my life out like a candle?” he shook his head. “Not to mention the backlash. Misnaming a ruler? Do you know what I’m placing on the line?
“I would rather never find out. But I doubt I’d enjoy it. I’ve cracked my mind before, you know. It’s not fun. Yet, here I am. So, no, it’s not easy. It takes me bravery and it takes focus and it takes openness and a willingness to learn.”
She nodded. “I see,” she said. Then she turned silent again, clasping her hands together and frowning.
“And you know, Titania, it makes it even harder to be empathetic to you all when you’re sometimes so human. It lets me know that you can be awkward and embarrassed and all of that, yet still choose to be cruel,” he said. “I can see you struggling to say something. Just come out and say it already. It’s why you’re here, after all.”
The faerie queen looked at him for a long moment, and Mercury couldn’t help but see her as a regular person. She just sat there, staring blankly, fidgeting and scrambling for words. It was so incongruous to what he knew from the fae, the way they played their trickeries and shenanigans.
But whether it fit into the pattern didn’t matter. Mercury took a deep breath, Then dropped the preconceived notions he had about her because of her species. Frankly, he disliked it when people treated him as a beast, so treating fae as though they were all monsters was rather hypocritical of him.
And then he waited. Titania was wrangling with her words, but he didn’t want to take this away from her. So, he refused to see. He didn’t read her body language, and he didn’t use any of his Skills to understand what she wanted. Mercury wanted her to tell him, person to person.
For all that his supernatural Skills granted him, sometimes it mattered to remember how to not indulge any of them and act like any mortal would.
Eventually, the queen found the courage to open her mouth - then promptly closed it again, looking a little like a fish out of water. Eventually, she frowned, then let out a groan and placed her head into her hands.
“Why is this so difficult,” she moaned.
“Because you have little practice in being honest,” Mercury answered.
“I am physically unable to lie.”
Mercury shook his head. “You’re unable to say anything that isn’t technically true. Lies can be done by omission. Lies can be done by twisting words. Lies can be done because people remember things differently. Honesty is different from just saying true statements.”
She looked at him from a gap in between her slender fingers, letting out another pained groan. “You’re right,” she said. “Of course you are.”
He smiled. “It’s a matter of perspective. Being a mortal and all that helps.”
“I see how it would. You’ve rather admirably demonstrated how important those values are, haven’t you? The way it matters to treat things with respect and value, even if they’re temporary. How it’s important to grow and be understanding.” She took a deep breath and scoffed. “It feels like I’ve been walking around blindly until now, you know?
“This… the fae realm is, in a way, my realm. I am faerie queen. And yet, it is so ruined. And there you are. Within weeks, you restructure it all, you rebuild two courts. You ask no personal reward in exchange. Only that we change our ways to something that is beneficial to us, anyway.
“And I do not understand this. Our nature is selfish, Mercury. The way you ask for nothing except kindness to be passed on is entirely antithetical to how I understand favours. When you do something, you should expect a reward for yourself, should you not?” She tilted her head, scrunching her eyebrows in annoyance. “And yet… And yet you don’t.
“You ask for us to be better so that we deserve to receive help. In most ways, it is freely given, even if half the rulers are too ignorant to see that. So, tell me, what must I do to earn your help?”
Mercury held back a giggle, fighting to keep his face entirely neutral. His <Diplomacy> helped. Titania had genuinely tried her best to be open and genuine, even if it was in a kind of silly way, to him. “I’ve already told you. Just be kind to others.”
She frowned even more. “No,” she said. “That is not good enough. Too vague. It can’t just be the rules you already set; those are far too little to repay your favour. You know this, too. Sibori has declared xerself in debt to you. Ciarski has named you benefactor. I expect this to repeat.”
“It might.”
“So then. If the ones I consider my people see themselves as indebted to you, I dislike the thought of doing nothing,” the queen said.
Mercury smiled. “What do you want from me, then?”
She looked into his eyes for a long moment. “Name a price,” she said, seriously. “Tell me what you want from me. Make it adequate. If you ask too little I will want to give more. I despise debts.”
“You say you owe me favours. You wish for me to call them in immediately?” Mercury asked.
“Yes.”
“I suppose I could use more Skill points,” he said, thinking.
Without hesitation, Titania nodded. “Consider it done. What else?”
“Hmmm. Books, I suppose. Or lessons. I am still looking to learn more runecraft. And smithing, too. Are there metals that only exist in the fae realm?” he asked.
“Some,” Titania hummed. “I will look into it. The court of Rust is best to approach when asking for this. I will make sure to back your request. As for runes… yes, that is something I can look into. If it is knowledge you seek, we have much. The faerie library is the domain of Truth, though, which is still broken. More tomes are spread across the courts. I will see about getting you some copies. What else?”
Mercury tilted his head. “Do you have ways to increase someone’s affinities?”
A smile placed itself on Titania’s face, and the personhood Mercury had been trying hard to attribute to her slipped away for a moment. It seemed predatory, yet pleased. “Yes. This is a good request. We do. I will see about arranging it. With that, I believe I can consider my debt more equal than before.”
“Acceptable,” Mercury agreed.
“Now. Give me your paw,” Titania said, extending her own hand.
“Why?”
“So I can give you Skill points, of course,” she said with a faint smirk. “The system has inbuilt trading capabilities.”
Right. It did. He had used it, all those years ago, back when Cherry had offered him a few points for saving her from the bear. They were a pittance compared to his pools now, but he still cherished them. Every point mattered, after all.
Mercury touched his paw against Titania’s hand.
[Faerie Queen Titania has offered to trade. Accept?]
He confirmed it. Mentally, that trading menu sprung up. There were slots for items he could give her, and little menus for points he wanted to trade. Mercury even found more than that. He could hand over pieces of understanding or memories, maybe because he was so apt at manipulating his own mind and perception of the world.
But he pressed none of those options. Instead, he waited for Titania to lock in hers. A few seconds passed, then the menu updated with a ding. Now, the fae was offering him a thousand Skill points.
Then, another moment passed, and within the little slots denoting the items she was offering, two lit up. One had a book in it. The other, a letter.
Titania confirmed the trade. When Mercury did so too, a few more seconds passed until the box dinged, and it went through. The items were safely deposited into Mercury’s inventory, and the points allocated to him.
Going from a hundred to a thousand and one hundred. He smiled faintly. “Your efforts in making things even are appreciated.”
“No need,” Titania said, shaking her head. “I am doing this selfishly. Because I could not stand myself if I did not.”
Mercury smiled. “Yeah. Sometimes you just gotta do things because they matter to you, not because they matter to someone else.”
She gave him a long stare. “I see what you are expressing, yet I will have you know that I will choose to ignore it.”
At that, Mercury gave a snort. “Alright, faerie queen. Is there anything else you wish to discuss?”
“Yes. I hereby formally express my appreciation for your efforts. And I wish to make it clear that faerie king Oberon’s attitude does not match my own,” she said. Then, she got up. “Now then. I shall take my leave. It has been pleasant speaking with you. You are free to choose for yourself which court you would like to visit next.”
“I see. Until then, Titania.”
She smirked. “You may speak casually with me, Mercury. I give this permission now for our previous exchanges, too. May we see some more of your mortal ways in the future.”
Then, the queen stepped into the air… and vanished, leaving Mercury alone in the room.
For a few more seconds, the smell of flowers and honey lingered, until that, too, was gone. Mercury took a few deep breaths, centering himself. That had gone remarkably well, all things considered.
Fae were selfish creatures. They sought fun and entertainment above anything else, usually. Titania seemed to have a rather nuanced perspective in that one. She seemed more grounded than some of the others he had interacted with.
Of course, she was still selfish in her own way. She would not let him turn down gifts. Well, Mercury supposed there were worse things than being forced into making a request off her. Now, he had enough Skill points for an outstanding project…
[<Dreamwalking> has met the necessary qualifications for evolution. Evolve? (500 Skill points)]
Mercury accepted the prompts, seeing his points drop back down to 600.
[Evolution confirmed. Engaging. Please pick an option to evolve the Skill into. The price will be the same (500 Skill points), no matter which you choose.]
[1. <Riftwalker>
2. <Voidwalker>
3. <Pathlayer>]
Once again, there seemed to be a bit of a theme with these evolutions. He smirked faintly, then looked at the first one.
[<Riftwalker>: Similarly to the <Realmwalker> Skill, this is granted to individuals rather adept at exploring worlds. You are granted the ability to open rifts, allowing you to use them for minor teleportation or for travelling through realms. It also makes you more sensitive for where the boundaries between worlds are thin, and open them safely.]
An appealing Skill that would certainly make future travels far easier. Did Zyl have something like this? Or did he tear open dimensions with brute force? … Mercury suspected it was the second.
[<Voidwalker>: This Skill is granted to an individual who has seen, understood, and interacted with the void and survived. It is the bare minimum to survive excursions outside of reality, granting yourself enhanced stability and resistance. Forsaking stability and safety, you walk head-first into danger.]
Mercury swallowed dryly. By now, he knew that the void was no joke in the slightest. This was the first inclination of a Skill that interacted favourably with it. He could tell that it would still allow him to open portals in much the same way Riftwalker would, but they would be qualitatively different.
Less consistent, more random. He would be worse at targeting specific locations, and more liable to be torn apart by forces far beyond his current comprehension… but he’d also be able to go more places. This was something that promised raw power over finesse.
Before choosing, Mercury decided to look at the third Skill.
[<Pathlayer>: Once more, you stride between worlds. You survive, safely out the other side, and you change the gateway you passed through. You lay down a path for those who follow you, safely bringing your allies along. This Skill focuses on letting you take others with you, making travel safer and more repeatable as you lay your own network of paths inaccessible to anyone except who you permit.]
That one, too, was appealing. Mercury liked that last bit especially. It sounded like he would be able to create a teleportation network. Who didn’t want to make a teleportation network?
But it also sounded terribly limited. Laying down roads would take time, walking the same path over and over… Was that something he did often?
Mercury shook his head slightly. No, there was only one choice for him here. He could learn how to keep the paths open himself. He could learn how to take people along. He could walk between realms himself to some degree.
[Evolution selected.]
[The individual has acquired the Skill <Voidwalker> through Skill evolution!]
With a palpable shift, the Skill settled down into Mercury’s status. It felt like there was a distinct weight to it, a certain defiance of the natural order. The void wasn’t meant for living beings, and yet there that Skill stood. A testament to Mercury’s desire for exploration. Like a taunt.
This must be what people meant when they said “Curiosity killed the cat.”
He smirked. <Voidwalker> suited him nicely, and that was the <Truth>. Hopefully it’d be some time yet before he used it.
Until then, he decided to take a look at what else Titania had sent him. Withdrawing into his log, Mercury looked at the book. The cover said “Faerie Runecraft”, which was pretty explanatory, so he filed it away for the moment.
Then, he cracked open the letter. It read:
“Dear Mercury,
I cannot say these words out loud, for the world has ears. I suspect there will be a larger shift soon.
Some fae will die, Mercury. And you will be at the centre of it.”
Comments
Purpleninja
Y'know, one of the Fae set to die... I can't see Truth doing anything except it's best to kill Mercury for having [Truth]
Kernoel77
spoilerspoilerspoiler xD I can say that i have some plans, yes. But the main idea is more in a dnd way, where mercury will never fully just go back to earth, or into other settings. It'll still very much stick to similar fantasy things. The other worlds will operate probably mostly like the dreams he's already been engaging in, or like the fae realm as effectively another, stranger place to visit ^^
Lump-93
Bit of a Chekov's gun with voidwalker. Any hints on the kinds of world's you're thinking of including? Random dimensional travel is incredibly broad in scope. Especially with the in story rifts already established.
