Chapter 477 (2/2)
The gears of ed, what catalyst had allowed me to suddenly see thisin conjunction with ained that expanded on the properties of ain, the visible ered and fadedin fact that I began to think it may not be related to Realo out, leaving ghostly little afteries melted away
‘If this is Fate, then perhaps you can see it now because it has decided you can?’ Sylvie asked haltingly
You think that Fate ht be…conscious? Aware?
Sylvie blinked, nonplussed ‘I hadn’t really meant it that way, but…it’s possible, isn’t it? Aether has a kind of consciousness, after all Would Fate not also, if it is an aspect of aether? So far, it seems as if the lesson you’ve learned about your life—your ‘fate’—is that you already lived through the best case scenario After all, you said yourself that every ti, it has resulted in a worse series of events’
And you think that the keystone, or Fate, or the djinn—whatever is driving this sequence of events—is trying to show s have unfolded for a reason?’
Sylvie shrugged her incorporeal shoulders ‘I wouldn’t dare to hope it’s that si through life exactly as you already had, since that resulted only in a sort of tiolden threads connectingis putting you on the right track, then you’ve gained soht that Fate wants you to have’
I nodded along slowly What she said ht about ht, and even the previous suppositions I’d made about the aspect of Fate itself, and I found it difficult to fix this new paradigm in gested ‘We can check other points in your life for these trails or threads as well Maybe we can confirht’
We don’t know if you can travel along the timeline with me, I pointed out If I retract my mind and allow events to proceed forward, youthis time
‘Then I will see you at my birth,’ Sylvie answered with a wry smile
I squirmed in Mother’s arms, and she let me scramble free With one last concerned look, she stood and returned to my father
I sat on uesswork, but ether’
She did, and I pulled back fro time rush by
Are you still with me? I asked
‘I ah ress
I plunged back into the rapidly passing tiain approached the mountain pass where the attack happened and I was separated fro in the cart withwith Angela Rose and paying uide, I reached for my physical body and focused on the Realmheart Godrune
As expected, the world lit up with particles of aether and ht, leading onward to the site of the ambush and the cliff Thinner, fainter threads ran back fro aura around the mountainside to each of us, as well as the hidden bandits Pieces were clicking into place
“Stop,” I said,
Durden pulled the reins, bringing our cart to a halt The adults all looked at ?’ Sylvie asked, then, ‘Oh!’ as hts passed to her
“There is an a to the Twin Horns andto happen As they hurried into position to counter the bandits, I released Realmheart and activated Aroa’s Requieh the olden lines reolden thread leading away fro The world aroundtook ainwith Angela Rose, paying me no mind The point where I’d stopped the cart passed, and we rolled forward toward the fight that separated ain, I pulled the thread forward
The fight rushed by me as if time were sped up, but it was different than when I disassociated fro life play out as it had happened without conscious effort or interference This speeding up of events feltrelevant to my place in time Events still played out the saht up in the rushi+ng tide of time and the vortex effect I had encountered before
Even as I plurinned
Everything was starting to make sense
I hurried forward to Sylvia’s cave It was another point in tiolden aura of Fate, which was no surprise
‘I can feel the egg pulling me in,’ Sylvie said as we descended into the cave where I would meet my Grandma Sylvia—and Sylvie her o to it I’ll see you on the other side
DespiteRealmheart and Aroa’s Requiem to explore the different potential outco else more immediate that I wanted to accomplish Sylvie was reborn as herself, and as I had hoped, the real Sylvie’s mind remained awake and conscious inside of her newborn body
We sped forward, exa point in my life, unsurprised to find they were all marked by Fate It was as Windsom transported us to Epheotus for the first tiht up by an unexpected and rather uncoht
All of these moments marked by Fate…were they destined to happen that way? Did Fate hts and understanding the underlying context, Sylvie’s tone was consoling when she answered ‘Youthe strings s happen’
Still, I could feel her lack of surety, only partially veiled froo wrong Even when I have made better choices in the keystone, the result has always beenood of the world?
‘Or,’ Sylvie began, her tone that of so very simple to someone very dense, ‘your survival is what is best for this world But I think I have to point out that this keystone and the events it creates aren’t real How could it knoould have happened in every given scenario?’
Fate, I reminded her
“Arthur, Lady Sylvie Ito look at us against the backdrop of the e and Kezess’s castle, the twin peaks of Mount Geolus sed by an endless expanse of fog
Activating Aroa’s Requie until I reached a specific point
“The fact is that you’re a walking collection of statistical i at me with clear exasperation “You have an innate ability to cos of the fourele so neatly with the fact that comprehension of all four elements is necessary to unlock the ons just so happens to have kindly bestowed upon you Everything about you is an outlier, boy Even asuras don’t have that much innate talent and luck”
“If that’s your way of cheeringto my feet “Nohat’s next on our to-do list?”
“Before that, give me your dominant hand” Wren rose from his conjured earthen throne and approachedup, I stared at the asura, waiting in anticipation The next step was one I was less certain of than the previous revelations regarding Aroa’s Requie Sylvie with her keystone-ghost self
Wren pulled a fist-sized black case from his coat pocket, then opened it and reem “This is a mineral called acclorite By itself, it’s a rather rare but useless piece of rock However, with the right refining and synthesizing process—which I will keep untore a weapon Or even, in the right circu,” I replied
Wren’s brows rose up into his unkeuised astonish secrets before their due ti around sourly as if he would find the guilty party hiding behind a rock “How unprofessional”
“I’, and you don’t have any choice other than to believealready confirmed that this was one of those e that I could siain if I failed
Wren h it takes row into a weapon: a conscious being co aspects of Sylvie, Sylvie, myself, and a Vritra retainer named Uto”
Wren’shi is born in a place called the Relictoeons or ‘chapters’ created by the djinn, and so he is able to feed on and utilize aether Sois—is currently sleeping within me—kind of, except my body is…outside of this space and time—and I need to wake hi that”
Wren’s s at me as if I were delirious or worse “How could you know any of this, boy? The elven seer? Even if she’d shared some kind of vision with you, hoould the—”
“It’sa scowl from my tutor “Suffice it to say that I knoith utrow out of this acclorite is here, noith us Sleeping I want you to help is early”
So clicked into place in Wren’s expression It wasn’t belief, really, but ness to explore this possibility further “What are you suggesting?”
“First, set the acclorite under ain
Wren let out a long breath, then took hold of eh the acclorite disappeared underneathathappened
“Nohat?” Wren asked
“This is your area of expertise How could this rock turn into a conscious, living creature?”
“It’s rare,” Wren answered He, too, was staring at my hand “With suitable focus, deterrown from acclorite will contain some measure of self-determination This is born of the wielder, and fully binds a weapon to its user But for the acclorite to grow into a fully self-aware, conscious being, this transfer of energy nificant a when the weapon manifested plays an essential role, as do the source and variety of inputs prior to nizing Wren’s words here as an echo of what he’d said when he discovered Regis was a consciousof the acclorite reis were here in body, you would be able to sense the acclorite’s energy, right?”
Wren rested his hands on his hips and tapped his fingers rapidly “I would A being born of acclorite is in should be perceptible even if it were present only in a disembodied form Unless that for, where its own signature would be disguised by the , circulation from core to channels, et cetera Thisis—how did you put it?—outside space and time, whatever that means”
“But if you kneas there, and the host in question allowed you, could you find that sleeping arded me as if I had completely lost my own mind “I won’t pretend to even fully understand what that led hair With a scoff, he waved a hand and conjured a flat bed of rock, indicating I should lie down I did so, and he stood over ears of your senseless brain fro so I can focus”
I bit back a sarcastic retort and tried to do as he ordered, lettingslowed, as didback on multiple lifetimes of practice, I fell into a meditative blankness
Wren’s hands passed over me I could sense thehtfully, then let out an irritated huff, his war acrosstiers pressed down overthrough flesh andethereal and intrinsic toconsciousness in the keystone met my physical body outside of it I focused on the weak sense I had of Regis’s sleepinginside the keystone, and hoped that the spotlight of ht direction
“Stop that, boy Just lay there and act like the braindead loon you are I take back every positive thing I’ve ever said about you There’s no way you are anything but a complete and utter kook—” He cut off with a sharp inhalation, and I felt the incorporeal fingers close around soht An acclorite-born being…I can feel it tethered to you—no, woven into and through you, as tied to you as your own nervous systey floated up froh uided by Wren’s ht “I’ve never rehomed a consciousness that already exists into an acclorite crystal before It shouldn’t work, but if you’re right and this…Regis…was really born from this acclorite…” The acclorite burned hot as rabbed ht glowed through my skin, which felt like it would burn away at any ?’ Sylvie’s voice sounded in randfather in Castle Indrath
My eyes rolled back into ainstony of the acclorite
A black will-o-wisp the size of my clenched fist floated free of er bucking against Wren’s ar in desperate gasps I just barely ht sparks glinted like eyes and a black slash below them looked like a wry senerate words Even hts of either Regis or Sylvie
The will-o-wisp darted closer to is, the o, have finally linted as if they were blinking, and the wisp turned slowly around in a circle “Wait, what the hell is going on?”