Side Story - Ferio 5: A'Tmockno

AN: Now you know what Ferio did while Aperio was waiting for her on Solito!

Ferio tapped her fingers against her chin as she let her gaze sweep over the mortals that filled the plaza. Most of them were dealing with the events quite well, with only a few of them actually needing help from the [Guides] or their fellow ex-slaves. Now we wait for them to get Classes.

The Goddess of Life and Light could already feel the mana of the world — the System — dance around the mortals, just waiting for whatever restrictions her mother had given it to be lifted so it could set them on the never ending journey of power.

Why Aperio had made the System like she did was not something Ferio really cared to know. She had ideas, sure, but in the end her speculation did not mean much. All that mattered to her was that it worked and that she could make use of it. That it also helped the mortals do whatever they wanted with their little lives was a bonus, but ultimately unimportant.

A man wearing the red robe and stylised sun of her church stepped up beside her and bowed slightly. "We have dispatched the knights like you asked," he said. "The Church of the All-Mother has yet to officially reply to your inquiry but the Scion has already promised a few of her own order."

"That's nice," Ferio said. "I had not expected Laelia to manage to form a proper order so fast, let alone properly staffing it as well."

The man smiled. "I do not know much about the Scion, but a few members of my temple have heard rumours about her — some even knew her when she was a paladin of Vigil — and they all say that she is scarily competent once she has set her mind to something."

"I've heard something similar from a few other Gods," Ferio replied. "One of the reasons why Vigil wanted her. He pissed off quite a few Gods stronger than him with that."

Of course, in the end Vigil had been part of the Repens Nabu. With Epemirial, stronger than most, as the leader, Vigil rested easy under her protection. Thank Mother that is over. Now that the Repens Nabu was no longer mucking about, Ferio could move much more freely and, more importantly, kick the wanna-be Gods that had set up shop on some of her worlds out again. They had never properly joined the Repens Nabu and had not partaken in their acts so they had been spared her Mother's fury, but they were still bottom of the barrel as far as Ferio was concerned.

A thought and a rather generous amount of her mana was sacrificed to the System so it would enable a few of the... presents she had prepared on those worlds. The rabble would soon be kicked out.

"Did you prepare my chambers?" Ferio asked, looking at her priest. "I would like to talk with the [Guides] representative in private."

"Of course," he replied. "Everything is ready, he is already waiting inside."

The Goddess of Life and Light simply gave a nod in reply and began walking towards the local temple dedicated to her. Having a [High Priest] close to the ruins had been a stroke of good luck, the extent of which was revealed when he actually had the means to swiftly refurbish one of the broken buildings to be fit for a Goddess. She would have to pay the man a little extra for his diligence, though her talking to him was likely already enough payment for the mortal.

Ferio weaved her way through the mortals, a slight touch of her magic ensuring that they paid her no mind. Moments like these, she wished she could simply twist reality to her whim like her mother. That wasn't to say that she couldn't, but if she were to do that she would be using more mana than she was comfortable expending for what amounted to a convenience. In the past she would have simply asked Aperio to move her, but her mother was not only much more reserved towards her now, but she was also not as omnipresent.

Sure, she could still feel her mother’s mana on every bit of the world, but Aperio's looming presence, ready to change anything she did not like without hesitation, no longer accompanied it. That change was probably for the best. Waking up to find out that an entire world you had built suddenly no longer existed because your mother had taken a dislike to it was never a fun thing.

That had gotten especially bad after the whole debacle with Chellien. The Gods responsible for that were still paying for what they had done. Aperio had never told her that, but Ferio knew that she would not let Chellien's murderers go unpunished. She might have let everyone do as they pleased for the most part, but she still protected — or more often avenged — those she liked. I would still like to know what was going on between those two.

Chellien had been like a father to her for the most part, but she also knew that he and Aperio weren't together. Quite unlike now, her mother had been very aware of the fact that any relationship with another would never work and had never pursued one. None that Ferio knew of, at least. Still, she was really fond of him…

That he had a large part in making the Beastkin what they were today was probably a part of that, but if that were all, she should have had a better disposition to other deities like him. She had not. Being part of a race's creation did not mean all that much to the one who had made the foundation of everything. Aperio did always seem to be a little bit happier whenever Ferio had created something new, though. Sometimes the Goddess of Life and Light thought that her memories of those moments were tricks played by her own mind, but she nonetheless still wanted them to be true.

Ferio shook her head as she stepped past a few knights dressed in the red and gold armour of her church and into the makeshift church proper. The altar was lit by a large yellow orb that floated without any visible supports above it, the pews were immaculate, and even the red carpet that led between the two isles and up to the altar had been set up perfectly. If you did not know that this place had been built in just a day, you would not be able to tell.

A few mortal members of her church stopped and bowed as she passed them. They started to whisper as soon as they thought she was out of sight, obviously forgetting that she was a Goddess and that her hearing was a lot better than theirs would ever be. Still, they were simply excited; it had been a long while since she had been on Geshwen and even longer since she had mobilised her followers like she did on Verenier as a whole.

This time, she had gone so far as to bring some orders from distant worlds to bolster her forces. None of the mortals she had brought knew where Verenier was, most of them probably thinking it was simply a far away continent instead of a different world. That was another reason why Ferio wanted to have a few more… undeveloped worlds. Some of those produced strong — and loyal — knights that did not really think too much about how they got to the thing they were supposed to hit. A prime quality for a knight, if you asked Ferio.

Ferio opened the door to her makeshift office with a wave of her hand and stepped inside, a man wearing the leather armour common for [Guides] that were out and about already waiting inside.

"Greetings," she said and motioned towards one of the chairs that had been placed opposite her own desk. "Please, have a seat."

The man gave a curt nod and sat himself down. Like most of the higher ups in his organisation, he seemed to be at ease despite the fact that a literal Goddess wanted to talk to him. Whatever the [Grandmaster] did with them was obviously working. Guess she wants to prepare them so they don't go nuts if they ever meet Mother?

Despite not officially being the All-Mother's church — or even a part of it — the [Guides] behaved as though they were. It made sense of course; they shared nearly all of the values her mother had come to like strongly enough to want to push forward in the world. At this point, Ferio would not be surprised if the [Guides] simply joined her church and the [Grandmaster] also became a [High Priestess].

"You move fast," Ferio said as she took a seat in her own chair and an eclectic assortment of statues and other small items appeared on the desk. "I had not thought the [Guides] would be ready so soon."

"We had gotten word from the [Grandmaster] that we should prepare for something like this," he replied. "Finding the location the Creator would choose was also fairly trivial. There are only a few places that would be able to house the amount of people that would be affected."

"While that might be true, moving the amount of people you do is no small feat. Especially when they did not wish to be moved."

The man offered a small smile. "The people that were freed do wish to move, they simply do not know where, or how. We merely lend them a hand and some guidance."

"And I want to offer you some help," the Goddess of Life and Light said. "The amount of people that will want to leave or start something new here will skyrocket before long and I know the [Guides] are not equipped to handle that. I have already brought some of my knights and priests to help out, but more are on the way. My mother's church has also already promised to send people here to help.

"The problem is," Ferio continued, "that none of us know how to deal with this. I am loath to admit that I have little experience in helping with such situations. Usually the slaves would have all been killed before one faction took over another's land, after all."

The man lowered his head slightly at her words. Ferio did not have to convince him to know that it was true. If a nation — or even just a noble house — had slaves, most of them would be used as the first line of defence and those that did not fall there would be killed before whoever owned them tried to escape. Most slaves would not be able to tell any secrets they knew, but a dead one could never do that, and the people that owned them valued their secrets highly. Higher than the lives of a few slaves, at least.

She could understand where they were coming from — a mortal life meant little to her and most other deities — but she still found the entire thing more than a little wrong. Perhaps it was because her mother had always valued personal agency or, more likely, it was the fact that she had become friends with more than a few mortals and nearly all of them were very much against slavery.

"We welcome any help you can offer," he said, hesitating for a moment before continuing. "But I feel like this is not the only reason you have asked me to come here."

"It was not, no," Ferio confirmed. "There are a few more things I wished to talk about." She gestured towards the array of items she had summoned onto her desk. "We retrieved these from various nobles in Ebenlowe and here on Geshwen and had hoped that you — or another [Guide] — could help in figuring out what they are."

The man lowered his gaze towards the objects in question, reaching out to one before he paused. "May I?"

"Of course," Ferio replied.

He picked up one of the small statues and turned it around to inspect every side of it. It depicted some kind of tentacled being that Ferio did not recognise and featured a script running along its base that none she had talked to had yet been able to translate. Even the [Veil Walkers] with their [Translation] skill could not make sense of them. Her last resort would be to her mother, as the symbols did resemble the ones she had seen whenever Aperio had shown her some inner parts of her System, but if she could somehow get answers without her, she would.

"I do not know what it is supposed to depict or say," the man eventually replied, "but I recognise the script. I believe it to be 'A'Tmockno', The First Language." He placed the statue back on the desk. "It does not look exactly like the runes we found of that, but they are similar enough to at least be related if not just a different way of writing it."

He looked at Ferio for a moment, obviously wanting to speak but not doing so. The Goddess of Life and Light motioned for him to continue. "Go on."

"While languages are my forté, I do not know much of this one," he said. "Ira Heramel would know more, but what I can tell you now is that this language is… potent. None of the writings we have found had been complete, and once we tried to restore them, they reacted to the effort.

"The closer one gets to the form the rune is supposed to have, the harder it becomes to not only finish it but even be in its presence. Almost like the script itself does not want to be written."

"I see," Ferio said, looking at the [Guide] for a moment longer before turning her gaze back to the assortment of items on her desk. "You have been of great help, Mister Penbrooks. I will be sure to convey your greetings to your brother when I see him."

The [Guide] offered a smile and nodded at her words. "You have my thanks. I did not know my brother had become a part of your church, but that is most certainly a better occupation than he had before."

"He isn't a part of my church," Ferio replied. "He owns a House of Healing in Ebenlowe, one that my Mother has taken an interest in."

The man only let out a sigh as he joined Ferio in standing up. "I guess neither of us can manage to stay away from your kind."

"Indeed," Ferio agreed, a wave of her hand opening the door that led out of her makeshift office. "Have a good day, Mister Penbrooks."