Chapter: 504 – An Interesting Thing to Test

Tala felt her own breath catch, and Rane’s immediate tension showed a similarly disbelieving, yet hopeful response within him.

“What?” Her voice was almost too quiet for a mundane to have heard as she tried to clarify, “Are you saying that we can somehow use endingtrees to fix the world?”

Anatalis shook his head. “You? I have no idea. The story goes that the human making the request of the god-tree first asked for the world to be fixed, which was beyond the god-tree to grant. Hopefully that was already evident. If a Sovereign could fix Zeme, it would have been done by this point.” He seemed to hesitate. “I will say that it is theoretically possible that a Sovereign could fix Zeme, if their authority was properly oriented.”

“Or if they sunk all their power into the task? Such as you and Great Vidarra consuming the world to repair it?”

Anatalis huffed. “First, that would be two Sovereign level beings repairing Zeme at our own expense, and to our own detriment, but, yes. If it was possible, it would likely tie up the being’s power for a long time to come. We are… the two of us are specifically oriented toward that type of work, and it would still take both of us giving more than was wise to give. Even then, it would likely not be a sure thing. There are others who might be better suited, but similar limitations would afflict them. Some who are powerful enough would be opposed by others, due to the changes that they’d have to make to enact a fix.” His predatory grin returned. “Such as my need to slay all of gated-humanity and other mobile sources of magic before undertaking an attempt.”

She grimaced. That had momentarily slipped her mind. “Right.”

“But we are following rabbit trails as vigorously as a pup. The god-tree could not repair the world on its own, so that boon could not be granted. The human then asked for the means to do it. Specifically, ‘we’ is usually assumed to mean humanity as a whole.”

“So, humanity is to be the savior of the world?”

The wolf chuffed. “You and your kind seemingly have the potential to be, but few beings truly live up to their potential.”

That brought a smile to Tala’s face.

Rane cleared his throat. “So… how could endingtrees possibly be used to repair Zeme?”

“I’ve no idea. The tale goes that the god-tree reluctantly agreed to the boon, then exploded in a wash of power that swept across the known world. One of the things discovered in the wake of that power—still bearing its hallmarks—were endingtrees. The god-tree’s final words were—at least according to legend—‘The broken must be worked free and separated, if a remaking is ever to be possible.’”

Tala waited, but the great wolf didn’t say anything further.

The watching crowd of humans began shuffling and muttering. She had honestly somewhat forgotten they were all there too. Well, I’m glad that we don’t need to try to keep this secret…

She turned to regard Rane. The big man shrugged. “I mean, the tree’s words are manifestly true, but it isn’t really clear instructions.”

Tala sighed. “Did no one ever follow up on this? Seek to work with the humans to bring about this fix?”

A deep laugh rumbled across the landscape, and Anatalis grunted in amusement. “Firstly, no one believes that Zeme can be fixed without great cost, and few are willing to pay that cost, whatever it is. Vanishingly few are even willing to discover what the cost would be for them.”

Tala frowned. Humanity pays great cost for small gain all the time… is that part of it?

–I mean… maybe? If you have a self-sacrificial fix for something, it makes sense to give it to people who might actually be willing to sacrifice themselves.-

Yeah, but humanity isn’t unique in our ability to be selfless…

-No? …Yeah, I have no idea then.-

“Second, humanity was rather unpopular in that time, even more than now, if in a different sort of way. It was around then that gated-humanity began to gain prevalence, and no one liked how much you all were harming Reality.”

Rane narrowed his eyes. “What do you mean ‘around then?’”

The lupine grin grew. “You have grasped one theory, yes. Human gates should have been beyond any but a Sovereign to have created, but none that I know of ever took credit for the act. Some such results have been achieved in other areas by the less advanced due to rigorous study, collaboration, or other similar methods—and that is what was claimed by the arcanes in general as to the origin of gates—but no person or group ever specifically took credit for the first gates either.”

That was… that was a lot to take in, even if it didn’t make perfect sense with things she’d learned before. He did say it was a theory. Theories can be wrong.

Another possible origin for humanity’s gates wasn’t really something that she was excited about, but she’d never heard the appearance of gated humanity potentially linked to endingtrees before, and that had interesting implications regardless of the truth of the underlying notion.

What would that even mean?

-Well, maybe that a human with a gate and the use of endingtrees in someway can fix Zeme?-

Anatalis huffed again. “I can see it in your faces. You’re thinking that maybe the two together, gates and endingtrees are the solution. If so, I cannot fathom it. The more popular theory is that the endingtrees were given to gateless humanity so that they could overcome and slay gated humanity, thus allowing Zeme to heal more readily. My memory—as well as records of the day—seem to indicate that Zeme was healing before gates came about. Whether it would have ever been truly ‘fixed’ is up for debate, though.”

It was Tala’s turn to grunt. “That’s possible, I suppose.”

She had her mind filled with memories of Reality healing itself naturally as she considered the possibility.

-We need to keep in mind that it never seems to get ‘better’ than Zeme standard now. It doesn’t continue to move toward this.- Alat indicated how the true fragment felt to them. -We can’t even make it feel like this… at least we never have before.-

We should try some more experiments within Kit.

-That would probably be good, yeah.-

Tala took another moment to consider before nodding. “All this to say, my attack is too powerful for use within the Lunar Hunt?”

“No, the attack is of a kind that is annoying to my mate, and so it will not be allowed within the Lunar Hunt.” There was a slight edge to his voice, like the crinkling-crack of ice that suddenly seemed a lot thinner than she’d have thought it was.

“Understood. Thank you.” She gave a deeper than usual bow.

A feminine voice echoed around her, once again seeming to come from Vidarra, “Be at ease, child. We have sworn peace upon you. Unless you purposely reject our hospitality, your safety is all but boon-ensured.”

She sounded… not winded but at least weary. Tala bowed out toward the open drop over the cliff, toward the Hunt in general. “Thank you.”

Anatalis sighed. “But I grow weary of… this. The hunt calls to me.” He glanced toward Terry. “Avian. You have earned a hunt by my side. I shall forge a vessel worthy of your capacities, and we will hunt.”

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Terry looked to Tala and when she smiled and nodded, he trilled in obvious excitement.

Please emphasize to him how much he could and should learn, hunting beside a god-beast.

-Already done. He conveyed that you are a cute hatchling to fret and worry so.-

Tala snorted internally, barely keeping the reaction from her features.

A moment later, Anatalis’ body morphed, reshaping itself until it was just larger than Rane’s, mass wise.

It would be a truly massive mundane wolf, but it was very small from the perspective of the Pack and in comparison to those around them.

A moment later, Tala watched in awe as Anatalis’ aura suddenly became visible, blazing a painfully hard to see purple. As she watched, however, the color became a more regular violet, then indigo.

It continued to shift through the colors, arriving at blue, fading down through green before stopping, precisely matching her own—and therefore Terry’s—aura color.

It was far more green than yellow, a spitting distance from true green and Paragon.

Still, there was something about Anatalis’ aura that was… deeper than hers and Terry’s.

It was like the adding of red to yellow pulled it down the color spectrum to orange, rather than like adding red to blue, which pushed the result up to purple.

She frowned. That was a horrible metaphor, but she couldn’t immediately think of a better.

Somehow, Anatalis had added something in order to appear weaker. It seemed like he would actually be functionally weaker as well, even if he kept the same underlying power… under whatever it was that he’d added to himself.

It was probably something beyond her understanding in the moment.

Anatalis shook himself, now seeming like a normal—if diminutive—member of the Pack. “Before we depart, do you have any final questions? I warn you to make them quick, as the hunt calls to me.”

Tala nodded. “Just two: May citizens of my Ironhold come into the Lunar Hunt, or are there restrictions? And, what do you have for Rane and me?”

Anatalis looked longingly out over the terrain below before turning back to regard her. “Your citizens may wander as they wish, but I will not promise nor guarantee their safety. The Pack will not harm them, but there are other dangers about. They are not to kill any creature they find—though they may defend themselves in the unlikely event that such is required—and they are not to harvest from or unnecessarily harm the plant-life. They may talk with any member of the Pack who wishes to engage with them. As for you two, I have already arranged teachers for you. They will find you after I depart, at the appropriate time.”

Tala considered for a moment—doing so quickly in consideration for his desire to leave—but nothing further came to mind. She bowed low once more. “Thank you, Great Anatalis. That is all I can think of at the moment.”

She glanced to Rane, but he shook his head. He had no questions.

Anatalis bobbed his head once, then he and Terry were gone, departed without the slightest evidence of magic or power of any kind.

Lupin stood up to tower over the humans present, projecting his voice to be easily heard, “The feast is concluded. Welcome to the Lunar Hunt. The Pack may disperse or stay at their leisure.”