Chapter: 638 – Endure or be Devoured

Tala looked up into the massive eye that regarded her from the Doman-Imithe.

No, that’s not quite right. She was having a bit of trouble getting her perception to properly interpret unexpected things in this pseudo-space.

The creature wasn’t… physical… It had a physical form, but just as Kit hadn’t really been a leather bag, this creature wasn’t really the amalgamation of darkness and cast-off matter that she appeared to be. The ‘eye’ that Tala was having trouble perceiving past was more an overwhelming sense of being watched so potent that her cognizance simply created the impression of an eye watching her to have somewhere to attach the feeling to.

Similarly, what had opened wasn’t really the Doman-Imithe. Instead, it was more accurately the space between the superficial and the Doman-Imithe. It was useless to talk about distances in the true void, but even so, Tala did get the impression that this being resided closer to the Doman-Imithe than Zeme, as such things were.

Regardless, the creature’s question hung in the pseudo-space in which Tala’s soul currently resided, untethered to anything save the vast working of power bent toward prepping her Reforging.

Tala manifested her will into words. “Your daughter? You are Kit’s mother?” She pulled her thoughts together and continued. “So, you are the Devourer?”

A sense of pleasure radiated through the cracks in existence itself. “So, you know her true nature then? I had wondered why my little Devourer of All hadn’t returned in so long. My daughters usually visit between incarnations, and this one has been long absent.”

Tala reeled a bit, confused at the verboseness of this entity, until she realized what had happened. She was sensing the spirit of the creature and taking the ideas that it sent her way and interpreting it as best she could. The actual impartment had been something like ‘good’ with all the shades of feeling and layers of understanding behind that single ‘word.’

Tala was about to respond, better ready to interact now that she understood the situation more fully, when she felt a part of her bubble up from within. Rather than sending words, she conveyed an impartment in return, and that came forth not specifically at her will, but definitely aligned with her. Even so, Tala’s mind still translated it from the simple ‘Peace’ that was sent. “Mother, we are already bound. We are the Ravenous, Jealous Devourer, the Iron Matriarch. I am as we all wish to be. I am ensouled and forever united. This is but the last step so that even death cannot take this from that which is me.”

There was a sense from the breach of uncertainty, followed by understanding, and finally joy. “The loss of the lesser separation for the greater whole and unity. Not all could choose this path, but to be devoured in order to devour in turn is as true to our nature as many other paths. I will not prevent this.”

Tala almost smiled, but she couldn’t. Again, the simplest way to take in the entity’s words would have been ‘acceptance’, but there was just so much more in the impartment than a single word. Because of that, her mind rebelled against the very idea of taking it at that simple level.

‘Parting Gift.’ Expanded and extrapolated to: “You are but true mother of one, yet you claim the title. I am true mother of uncounted. I give you an impartment, a weight to the title that you will truly earn.”

Tala’s metaphorical eyes widened as a weight of existence that she couldn’t properly quantify pressed down upon her very soul.

In that instant, she realized just how flawed her previous understanding was. If she had somehow reached this point with the mistaken certainty that she had to be utterly without ties to others in order to Reforge, this would have broken her.

A cord of reality larger than any she’d ever witnessed slammed into her, not trying to attach, but simply enfolding her and streaming past before withdrawing once more.

Tala was inundated with joy from literally millions of minor successes, each burst coming from watching a descendant who had succeeded in some task large or small. Close on the heels of that came a wave of sadness at the deaths and other minor troubles of so many as well, over and over as each was reborn, recreated, or reincarnated uncountable times all across Zeme and… elsewhere?

What Tala got wasn’t really visions or memories. Instead, it was the overwhelming combined emotional weight of having uncountable daughters, each a source of pleasure and pain as they made their way through existence.

Tala staggered, her gate groaning under the strain. Terry’s spirit, wrapped as he was around her gate, was able to help hold it all together, his will entirely bent toward keeping her intact.

After it passed—whether after a moment or a decade, Tala couldn’t tell—the cracks began to seal and a final impartment was sent. ‘Survived? Good. Thrive.’

Tala didn’t bother to expand that one, the meaning was clear enough. She sent back. ‘Gratitude. Endure or be Devoured.’

As the crack sealed, a last impression carried through on a tide of mirth. ‘Endure or be Devoured.’

* * *

Tala just floated there, disembodied, for a long time, simply processing the massive influx of experience that she’d just been granted.

That really was the best word for it. She hadn’t been given memories; she hadn’t been shown lives or events. Instead, she’d had the emotional growth and maturing of perspective that came from centuries of mothering reincarnating creatures.

Just as a baby often screamed as if the pain it experienced was the worst thing to ever happen to it because it literally was. This was the equivalent of a child growing up and then experiencing that same minor bump. They didn’t actively remember every scrape or injury they’d had along the way, but their experience confirmed to them that this one? This one wasn’t that bad.

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That was the gift she’d been given, and she really didn’t know what to make of it.

It wasn’t a bad thing. In fact, it addressed one of her greatest concerns in immortality by not only preemptively knocking the edges off potential heartache in the future, but she could also feel that she was prepped to take far greater joy in the little pleasures in life, at least pertaining to those she considered her progeny.

Eternity was a long time, and it would be more torture than a short life—however violently ended—without a proper appreciation of what came.

As she considered, she felt Rane’s presence, not physical, but with her nonetheless.

His soul bound to her through choice and action rather than an act of magic, was partnered with her in ways that she simply couldn’t fully wrap her mind around.

She felt his love and faith in her reflecting her own love and trust in him. He was excited for her and excited to see the results.

She had a moment’s concern that he was hoping for something from her change, that he wished she were different somehow.

In a way, she was right. He did want her to be different, but the manner of the wishing was at once utterly expected—based on her deep knowledge of him—and entirely beyond her expectations—based on what she’d been taught and seen in other relationships.

He wanted her to be different because she wanted that for herself. His soul radiated hope that whatever changes she wrought would satisfy her own internal discontent with herself. That in the end, the results would help her to see herself as he saw her: Loved and lovely, exactly as she was and chose to be.

With that reconfirmed anchor, and Terry’s presence contentedly holding her very gate together, Tala turned to one of the last components of her Reforging.

Her body.