Chapter: 500 – Deeper in We Go

Tala and Rane shared a look before following after Anatalis. Terry didn’t leave Tala’s shoulder, but his eyes were flicking all around, despite them both maintaining their standard clouds of bloodstars, giving threefold sight and perception respectively.

The trees grew larger as the four continued, the place starting to feel more and more like the Leshkin woods to the south. One major difference, however, was that the trees were of mixed varieties, and the overall result was less uniform in appearance.

Where the Leshkin woods seemed almost like a great hall—immense beyond reason, made using a forest as its foundation and trees as its living pillars—this was simply an ancient forest, still in the primacy of its power.

Yet, despite the surrounding distractions, Tala couldn’t get her mind off of two things.

First, her three-fold sight was acting… oddly. She could still see just as well as ever—and through the physical to the same degree—but it somehow felt… off.

If she were relying on her mundane sight, she’d say that everything was color shifted.

Second, Kit was pulling at her soul… oddly.

For some reason, Kit seemed to be starward of her now, rather than stoneward, so it seemed like they’d been flipped around somehow?

Is this place upside down or something?

-I don’t know. Kit is acting really quiet, though. That’s probably due to Anatalis’ presence. She still has a lot of her basic instincts, and he is an apex predator.-

Yeah… I guess so.

Rane was the first to speak as they worked their way between the great trees. “Are we right in understanding that this is a sovereign domain?”

Anatalis glanced back their way. “Yes, and no. When the world was young and I hunted in the wild-magic storms of old—dipping between levels of existence—I was alone of my own kind. I gained power through means I will not share, and most of which are no longer available, even if I did. That left me with immortality and a fully realized soul.”

Tala was taken aback by the mini flood of information, most of which she had really no context for, but she was very careful not to interject.

“After years beyond my reckoning, I found another like me, though not of my kind. She and I were both alone in the vastness of existence, and we found comfort and companionship in one another. We grew in power together until we could grow no further. This form, here, is my most common form, but not my only one.”

She understood an instant before he said the next part, but let him continue uninterrupted.

“This domain is her most common form, but not her only one. Our descendants are the Pack, and we draw other wolves to us to aid them at need.”

As if a veil had been pulled back, Tala’s threefold sight suddenly saw the superficial… starward of where she was. Starward even of where Kit awaited her.

Well… rust. How did I miss that?

-Obscuring magics? Kit in the way? Dealing with Sovereign level entities, here, Tala. There are quite literally infinite possible explanations. But we’re missing the critical piece, here. …Anatalis’ mate is a voidling?-

Right, right. Focus. If she’s not a voidling, whatever voidlings grow into if they achieve advancement on their own at the very least… Tala felt through her connection to Kit, and found the voidling utterly still, as if trying not to draw attention to herself.

-And we’re now inside her.- Alat poked at Kit, getting no response.

Like being inside Kit, yeah. Alat poked again, and Tala mentally smacked the alternate interface. Stop that. Leave Kit alone.

-…fine. I’ll leave her be. But, will you please ask him if we are right? Could a sufficiently powerful voidling fix Zeme?-

Tala sighed, then nodded. I will, but after something else. She cleared her throat. “What may we call your mate, and how shall we address her?”

“Vidarra. Though, she hears all within our domain regardless of address.”

“Thank you for the introduction, and thank you, Vidarra, for hosting us.”

Anatalis huffed but didn’t respond elsewise. There was a slight uptick in the wind, causing the trees to sway a bit more noticeably for a moment.

It was lovely and relaxing, so Tala took that as a good sign. “Now, if I may ask, with so much power at your disposal, why did you not absorb the whole of Zeme and the Doman-Imithe and put it back as it should have been?”

Anatalis stopped then, turning to regard her. “You assume much, young one, and presume more.”

Tala felt a tension in the air.

Still, the wolf didn’t seem angry. “I will first state that in order to do so without risking my beloved, I would have to slay all such as you with gated souls. I would also have to destroy any similarly mobile sources of magic. Doing so—assuming such is possible, which is a large assumption—would radically change Zeme, and I fear in ways not entirely for the better. I quite like you humans, and a cleansing would be… distasteful.”

Tala felt herself pale. She hadn’t even considered that. Well, she had, but she’d assumed that a god-beast would have some way around the abrasion that gates and similar sources of magic created in their wake. “Well, thank you for that.”

Anatalis chuckled, the sound just as predatory as ever. “But of course.”

As he truly didn’t seem mad, she decided to press a bit further. “So, the main difficulty is the abrasion that the passages from the next world cause as they move about?”

The wolf tilted his head to the side. “That is like asking if the main reason you get wet in the ocean is all the water.”

“So… yes?”

“That is the primary hindrance, yes. But if you were swimming in the ocean and all the water vanished, you’d plummet quite a distance. Splattering on bedrock beside myriad other creatures causes a different sort of wetness, but wetness all the same.”

Tala frowned. “You’ve lost me with that analogy.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

The wolf sighed, and the trees swayed as if in the breeze from that sigh. “It wasn’t meant to be perfect, just to demonstrate that sometimes the paths we take to avoid a thing have unconsidered consequences.”

“I can understand that. I imagine that the Sovereigns and other god-beasts would object to someone gobbling up all of Zeme.”

Anatalis chuckled, and Tala and Rane shared another look, both shivering at the sensation that came along with the sound. “Yes, and no. Most do not have authority over any dimensionality, thus the reworking of the foundations of the world would affect them very little.” He regarded her for a long moment. “I will tell you one more reason, then the subject will be complete for the present time.”

After a moment’s silence, Tala realized that he was waiting for her to state her agreement. “Understood and agreed.”

He regarded her for a long moment before huffing once and continuing, “To do so would invest our power and authority into the very bedrock of Zeme. We wouldn’t be vulnerable, per se—not as even immortals consider such things—but we would not be able to do much else with our power while we maintained such. Our Pack would be vulnerable as never before.”

That tickled the back of Tala’s mind, and it only took a moment to figure out why. Master Grediv warned that if we made Kit too big, we’d likely stretch our control and our power thin.

-And to stretch it over a whole world…-

Exactly, yeah…Tala nodded slowly. “I think I understand. Thank you.”

Anatalis huffed, then turned and continued northward, maintaining a steady, ground-eating pace, Tala, Rane, and Terry just behind.

* * *