Jake's Story, Ch 9

I stayed up too late to write this.  Now that editing is done, I'm going back to reading Delvers. :)

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After turning on his borrowed phone and literally using it until the battery ran out, sending emails, and doing everything he could think of to help survivors or reach future movers and shakers, Jake knew it was time to get moving again.  He pulled himself out of his hole in the ground with a great deal of difficulty and frustration, but eventually made it out.  The barest hint of sunlight was slanting through the trees, and while Jake wasn’t exactly an undead gunslinger, at least not yet, he had the dexterity to manipulate his acquired weapons now.  Mostly.

All the weapons were in decent shape.  He had about a half mag left for all of them.  Jake wasn’t quite sure how to carry everything, though.  There’d been a sling on the rifle at one point, but it’d been nothing but a cheap, nylon strip and now it was broken.  The weapon had optics, but they were also cheap and had broken.  Jake examined the iron sights and frowned when he realized how shoddy they were.  He couldn’t use them anyway, his eyes still weren’t good enough--didn’t focus right--but he’d bet that the guy who’d owned this rifle before had never actually sighted in his irons.

He was standing at the top of a large hill, not far from where he’d hidden while cultivating, when the decision was suddenly made for him.  “Aren’t you an interesting one,” purred an unfamiliar voice.

Jake was dead, and even with his massive improvement over the last few hours, he couldn’t feel much, but the voice was enough to surprise him.  He forgot that his feet didn’t quite move how they used to, and as he turned, he fell.  Then he fell, and fell even more.  At the bottom of the huge hill, he realized he had a stick through his arm, one in his stomach, and one leg was obviously broken.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” he tried to say.  All he actually made was three clear moans, but at least it was three of them now.  He realized that no matter how many monster cores he consumed, he might not ever be able to talk as long as he stayed a zombie.

When he stood, after a quick check, the only weapon he had left was the Springfield he’d gotten from the gas station.  The others were likely up the hill somewhere, in a bush, or under leaves.  Jake slowly blinked, trying to wrap his mind around this new development when he heard the voice again.  “A bit high strung, aren’t you?  Well, I don’t blame you.”

Jake whirled.  One of the most beautiful women he’d ever seen in his life was standing with her hands on her hips, in the middle of the forest, and really wasn’t wearing much.  Her arms were covered, but the rest of her outfit looked sort of like a belly dancing costume.  When Jake noticed that she had horns, his hand crept back to his pocket where he’d stashed the .40.

“Stop that.  We need to talk.”  The woman pointed, and Jake’s hand snapped back down.  “Since we are having an official chat, I can do this for you, too.”  

All the branches popped out of Jake’s body, and the damage he’d just sustained instantly healed itself.  “What the hell is going on?” he tried to ask.

Apparently, the strange woman understood his groans and moans because she replied, “I’m about to make you an offer.”

“Who are you?”

She smiled, showing a set of abnormally long, pointed canines.  “Good job.  That was the question you needed to ask before we could go any further.”  Her eyes glowed, and she purred, “My name is Morrigan, The Morrigan.  I’m known by other names too, but you couldn’t pronounce them.”

Before the Purple Rain, none of that would have meant anything to Jake, but after becoming a mage in his first life, he’d gotten a cash course on mythology around the world--not least of which because so many myths had been coming to life and eating people.  “You are a goddess?” he asked.

“Based on your limited understanding of what that word means, yes.”

He believed her.  In the supernatural world, stolen identity just wasn’t usually a thing, both because of pride, and because an entity lying about who they were was such a taboo, it would incur consequences none of them would want.  So, she’s a goddess, huh?  Jake might have been more impressed if he hadn’t already met a god who had already tried to destroy him.  Of course, he wasn’t an idiot either, so he didn’t want to piss her off for no reason.  “I see.  How should I address you so as to not cause offense?”

Morrigan’s eyes smiled and she said, “I knew this would be an interesting meeting.  You are sly.  You may call me by my name, Morrigan, or Lady, if you’d like.”

“Yes, Lady.  And may I speak freely?”

“So long as your words are not unnecessarily harsh or disrespectful, yes.”

Jake blinked his foggy eyes and felt glad for the fact he could think a lot faster now than he could before.  “Lady, that seems highly...open to interpretation.  Can we have rules for our conversation that are a bit more...quantifiable?”

The Morrigan made a sour face and casually flicked a stick, severing it with the long, black claws she’d grown.  “There can be such a thing as too clever, but fine.  I understand why you are pushing this.  We can talk freely.”

“Thank you, Lady.”  Jake briefly regretted his lost weapons, but dismissed the thought.  The last time he’d met a god, he’d lost everything and been turned into a zombie.  He needed to be as sharp as he could be.  For a second time, he felt thankful that his brain was operating at almost normal levels now.

The goddess chose a nearby stump and gracefully sat.  It was slight, but the area around her grew noticeably darker.  Jake would have swallowed if he’d been alive.  Morrigan was stunning in a way he would have a hard time explaining to someone who hadn’t experienced supernatural beauty before.  Being a zombie was actually probably protecting him in some way, just like being dead, or not-dead had protected him while meeting Ahriman.

He tried to recall what he knew about The Morrigan.  She was generally associated with battle, death, but was not necessarily “evil,” per se.  She was a complicated sort of deity, tied to animals, warfare, fate, birth, and death.  Some myth even had her split into three people.  One thing Jake definitely remembered was that she was known as a great queen, or maybe THE great queen.

Nothing Jake could remember gave him any clue at all to why a Celtic goddess had appeared to him in the Georgia forest.

She stared at him uncomfortably long before finally saying, “I am sure you are wondering why I’m here, especially given your tricky questions from before.  Getting right to the point has its merits, but I am actually allowed to talk to you for a while, and I plan to use this time.  This is, after all, a job interview.”

If Jake were more green, he might have asked, “What?” or some other stupid question.  Instead, he merely nodded and waited for the goddess to explain herself.  After all, she had appeared to him, so logically, the job interview might go both directions.

She seemed to wait for him to say something, and when he didn’t, equal parts irritation and respect crossed her face.  “If you understand what is going on with your world, understanding what I have to propose will be much easier.”

Jake doubted that, or at least thought it was more likely that giving him information was a show of good faith.  She must really want him to do something, maybe something he would really not want to do.  He nodded again.

“What you call the Purple Rain event was your world reentering the collection status it should have been in to begin with.  A powerful god of light had been protecting your world, hiding it for a very, very long time.  Finally, your species made enough mistakes as stewards of this planet to allow us to find it again.  It’s actually a bit more complex than that, but this is a quick overview.”

Jake asked, “Who is, ‘Us?’”

“Dark gods.  This collection world should have been part of our domain if not for the the light’s meddling.”

“So there are collection worlds that are controlled by the light?”

“Yes.”

“And what is a collection world?” Jake asked.

Morrigan smiled and said, “If I tell you this information, you will be forever caught up in the Eternal Struggle, and likely will be the only mortal soul on this entire world to know the truth, at least for now.  Do you wish for me to continue?  It is your choice.”

“I’ve already told Ahriman to go fuck himself, and he’s obviously out to get me.  I don’t think it gets much more ‘caught up’ than that.  Go ahead.”

“So be it.”  Morrigan uncrossed and recrossed her legs.  “This is actually interesting.  I’m glad I chose to have this conversation.”

Jake wasn’t sure how to reply to that.  He defaulted to a safe, “Thank you, Lady.”

“The gods are part of a collective that maintains balance by investing in lower beings to clash with one another.  If the gods were to fight directly, over time, it would threaten continued life on most worlds.”

“That doesn’t sound like balance, it sounds like war by proxy.”

Morrigan waved a hand.  “That is part of it, obviously.  We still fight, but there are limits to how directly we can affect lower worlds, like limiters.  Some circumstances can lift them, but in general, this will help you explain our motivation.  Even a relatively weak god can rule a lower plan with the right champions.  

“But in order to play, we all need to make ourselves vulnerable to our own rules.  Those of us who are involved are bound by our own power.  The system protects us too, though--which is another advantage of playing.  And this way we can also have champions that we watch, that we support, and who can humiliate our enemies.”

“Ah.  Then I have a feeling there is betting involved too.  Is there betting involved?” asked Jake.

“Yes, but I do not participate.”  Morrigan shrugged.

“Then what to do you get out of this?”

“Power. Influence. Prestige.  And I also enjoy inconveniencing and enraging my enemies.”  This time when she smiled, the shadows around her grew, and the air surrounding her body shimmered.  Her eyes glowed brighter, and Jake knew if he’d still been alive, he might have pissed himself.  The forest around them was entirely, deathly silent.

He made a quick guess.  “So I take it you are not best friends with Mr. Ahriman.”

“Hardly.  There are others, too.  They have plans, and I want to ruin them.”  Her eyes twinkled.  “Just like some powers among the light wish to destroy each other, the same is true for those of us who live in the dark. In truth, there are many among the light I have no quarrel with.”

“I think I am starting to understand what is going on better now.  But why are you telling me all of this?  I’m assuming it has something to do with the Purple Rain, and all the monsters, and everything being terrible now, right?”

“More or less, yes.  As you have probably already learned, “evil” is a matter of perspective, but some gods are pretty much evil from any definition.  A few of the evil gods were responsible for what you call the Purple Rain.  It was the most efficient way to begin your world’s Trials.”

“What are trials?” Jake asked, but already had some suspicions.

“Trials are the troubles meant to reveal the greatest in your world, or to forge them.  

“So my planet, my world is a collection world.  And the purpose of a collection world is to create...geniuses?  Fighters?”

“Exactly.  And you are not on the very lowest plane right now, but we are not far from the bottom.  What you are experiencing while talking to me right now is as if I were dipping a finger into a puddle.  It is all I am allowed to do with the current rules.  I have come here to talk to you to make a deal.  You see, I want you to be my champion if and when you earn your right to be recognized as a hero.”

“So you’re scouting.  But why do you think that will happen?”

Morrigan’s eyes flicked around for a second, like she was looking for something.  “When mortals begin to awaken, they create titles for themselves.  What titles a mortal has attached to their soul can influence what sort of hero they may eventually become.  The more titles, the more directions their growth could lead.  Bigger titles mean more potential.  This world has only just been rediscovered, brought back into the fold.  Others, like me, will be attracted due to the temporal reset that just happened.”

“You mean going back in time.”

“Just so.  And others are focusing on other things, like the living, but I have always...thought outside the box.  It is lucky for both of us that I had the urge to examine interesting new non-human creatures as well.  You have some very intriguing titles.  The combination of life experiences and skills you possess are also quite rare, even unlikely.  You may be the first of your kind, ever.  This is quite unusual.”

“I have titles?”

“Oh yes,” the goddess cooed.  “First immortal practitioner of your world.  Eater of demons.  Defier of gods. Undead prince.  Savior of millions.  This list goes on.  I have looked into your past, and what happened to your planet before you died in your original timeline.  It all seemed suspicious.  There was not nearly enough advancement in your first timeline.”

“Suspicious?” asked Jake.  Despite his earlier calm, the way the goddess was casually talking about looking back in time was beginning to unnerve him.

“Indeed.  Then I realized why not enough heroes from your world had ascended.  There are powers that are trying to destroy this planet, to take it out of the running, prevent new heroes from joining the Eternal Struggle.  I am not sure why, but it may be for many reasons, and may help explain why the powers of light protected this world for so long.  None of this likely to be revealed anytime soon, but it is painfully obvious after reviewing your history that your people were treated harshly.”

“Too many monsters?”

Morrigan shook her head.  “No, not enough.  Too few trainers or relics were seeded, and too few deadly challenges and trials were introduced in the proper areas to stimulate growth!”

“Oh.”  Jake almost regretted having asked the question.  If the world had had too few trials, what would Morrigan want for the planet instead?

“The various ways your people had been tested would have slowed a great deal after enough viable candidates were discovered who could go to the next realm.”

“Realms, like planes of existence?”

“That is correct.”

Jake suddenly had a horrible thought.  “So all the calamities that happened in my first lifetime, like the disaster in Mexico, they could have been stopped?”

“If your people had been stronger, yes.  But that is part of why I have come.”

“I have a feeling I am not going to like this.”

“Maybe, maybe not.  I do not know your mind or your heart.  But the original Event that happened during your lifetime in Mexico will not happen there this time around.  Events will not play out exactly the same.  Among other changes, your existence is like a pebble thrown in a pond, creating ripples.  Now the Event will happen near where you were born.”

“But how…”

“That was your last free piece of information.”  The goddess held up a single finger and gave a sinister look.  “You have been clever so far.  Now think; what question should you ask?”

Jake looked The Morrigan right in the eyes despite the risk, and finally said, “What do you want from me?”

“Excellent.  Even in zombie form, you are sharper than many others.”  She stood and stretched sensually before placing her hands on her hips.  “I believe that you are destined to be recognized as a Hero Candidate.  If enough Candidates are recognized from your world, you will be sent to a higher plane to represent the Earth, and the powers of darkness.  The trials on this planet will slow, which will result in less chaos, but another group will also eventually be chosen to follow you, and so on and so forth.  If you are part of the first group, many eyes will be on you, many of the divine will want you as their tool, but you will choose me.”  Her eyes glowed.

“Why?”

The goddess made a significant look at the trail through the undergrowth that Jake had made when he’d fallen.  “It seems you have lost some weapons as you rolled down that hill, correct?  Since we are not connected in any way, not indebted to each other, I could not aid you without breaking many rules.  However, the weapons you have lost were powerful and crucial to your survival, right?”

“Yes.”

“It seems fair, using the law of divine exchange, that I pay for your loss since I caused it.  I can give you tools in the form of knowledge that will help you greatly.”

The goddess was dangling a carrot.  Jake thought about it for a while.  The deal didn’t sound bad, but as the Morrigan had framed it, he couldn’t just agree to it.  It was too one sided, and he had a feeling his words would be binding.  He said, “How about this instead.  I will give you the first audience if that day comes, and we can negotiate our final terms there and then.”

The Morrigan narrowed her eyes, but before she could speak, Jake help up one hand.  I promise to consider your terms and your offer at that time very seriously.”

“I have your word?”

“Yes.”

She paused, then sighed.  “I agree, this should be good enough for now.  My time remaining for this audience is almost expired, so your haggling worked well, Jacob Mazzariello.”  She walked over to him, and before he could even register what she was doing, the goddess pushed a thumb into his forehead before turning to walk away.  She began to fade, and over her shoulder she said, “I hope we meet again.”

Then something happened that shouldn’t have been possible as a zombie; Jake begin to feel terrible, blinding pain.