V2Ch11-Revelations

“Congratulations, James!” The voice was familiar, jovial—and grating, despite having a generally smooth and pleasant sound. James was immediately annoyed to hear from Anansi, since he was now certain the Spider God had put him through his recent ordeal.

Which meant that none of it was serious.

Some sort of game? An amusement for a bored god?

“Hello Anansi,” James said, trying to keep his voice neutral. He still couldn’t see the Spider God, so he simply spoke into the darkness.

A sudden flash of illumination in the distance showed James that he stood before a staircase. At the top of the stairs, there was a throne.

And seated in the throne, there was a giant figure. The light faded before James could make out any features, and the two were plunged back into darkness. Though apparently the Spider God could see through it.

“Don’t sulk, my friend,” Anansi admonished, accurately reading James’s emotions. “Are you upset about what happened on the savanna?”

“I am questioning the necessity of what happened on the savanna,” James corrected.

“Did my boys scare you?”

“A bit,” James admitted. Anansi seemed to have a good read on him anyway, so there was no point in lying.

“Good. I wanted to make sure you were actually fooled. It’s hard to be sure whether you’ll see through deception. You’re incredibly clever sometimes. When you’re not being incredibly foolish.”

“Why go to the trouble of fooling me? Some kind of game? Are you bored here?” He tried to keep the irritation out of his voice, but he had genuinely thought he might be eaten.

“Less of a game, more of a test. You were never in any real danger, but I had to see how you would behave if faced with an obstacle that you could not overcome. Yes, a test of your character.”

“Did you doubt my character when you invited me here?” James asked. “You had said something about me being your kind of warrior. Was that sincere?”

“If it wasn’t, you would not have made it here. You’ve finished the dungeon now, so you would’ve been given your prizes and escorted out.”

A pop-up obscured James’s vision as he was about to speak.

[Congratulations! You have cleared Dungeon: Anansi’s House!]

[First human of Earth-73 to clear Dungeon: Anansi’s House!]

[Politician leveled up!]

He swiped the text away a little angrily.

“Then why the tests at all?!” he asked with more heat than he’d intended.

My temper, James thought. It never used to be this bad. I need to calm down.

“Because your behavior after your battle with the Spider Queen made me doubt my initial judgment of you. At first, when you migrated toward the Moloch worshippers’ camp, I thought you were looking for the edge of the map. Looking for me. It was only when you returned there a second time that I realized you were going to do something so foolish as to pick a fight with that entire group. Alone. I started to think: maybe this fellow isn’t the clever warrior I thought he was. It could be my character assessment before was a bit off. Maybe he’s a reckless moron who would just get himself killed without my intervention. Perhaps it’s best if I look elsewhere to find a kindred spirit.”

James felt slightly stung by this, but it wasn’t as if these were completely alien thoughts. He’d been beating himself up about his decision making in the Moloch prisoners rescue ever since it became obvious the mission was a failure.

“Fair enough, then. So you put me in a situation where I would feel certain I was going to be killed to test my judgment.”

“Were you ever a Star Trek fan, James?”

“Which one? Well, actually, no. Just no.”

“Well, there’s a test in the Star Trek universe. The Kobayashi Maru. Essentially it tests how you react to an unwinnable situation. Do you fight? Do you lay down and die? Do you run?”

“And what would you have done if I somehow defeated your kids?”

“Bwahahaha!” Side-splitting laughter rolled uncontrollably from the Spider God. James could still only see a vague outline of where he sat, his eyes not having fully adjusted to the darkness. But he saw Anansi pound the armrests of his throne with one of his many limbs. “You’re a thousand years too early to ask that question! You would have to continue growing at your present rate for a millennium to beat any one of my sons in a fair fight.”

How long would I need to keep growing to beat one of them in an unfair fight? James couldn’t help but wonder.

“No, you’re missing the whole point,” Anansi continued. “You’re pretty strong for a warrior at your level. You’re not the only fighter on Earth with unfair advantages, though. Hundreds of thousands had similar or better natural abilities to yours. They’re only based on your life experiences, after all. Many of them will die in Orientation, just as you almost died several times. Most of the others will lag behind you even if they survive. Because they don’t all have your drive.

“But the key takeaway here is that no matter how strong you are, you will keep running into the occasional person who’s stronger than you for some time. You can’t fight them all head on, or you’ll wind up dead. Even more often, you’ll run into groups of people who you can’t solo on your own. In that situation, you need to either run or talk your way out. Running has gotten me out of some bad jams in the past. Believe me, it’s not pride that keeps a spider alive for thousands of years. So the purpose of my test was simple. If I was going to back you, I wanted to know I wasn’t backing a fool who’d only get himself killed the moment I took my eyes off of him.”

“Backing me,” James said. “That’s what this is about. Backing me how? And why? What’s in it for you?”

“The typical way a god backs a human is with a blessing,” Anansi said. “I believe you already know something about that.”

“Apophis,” James acknowledged. “But you’re not addressing the why of it.”

“Gods all want different things. Some of them sustain their existence through the faith of humans. Others feed on sacrifices to live. Some of us are strongly connected to a particular concept, and the connection to that concept is enough to keep us alive for as long as the thing itself continues to exist. In my case, I’m connected to the elemental concept of ‘story’ specifically. As long as sentient life forms continue to tell stories, I continue to exist.”

Nice work if you can get it, James thought. Push the ‘easy’ button to continue to exist.

“So you want humans to keep telling stories?” James asked. “That’s all?”

“Humans, elves, dwarves, any other sentient life forms that happen to exist. Though humans are the best storytellers, in my opinion. You lead such blessedly short lives. Many of you treat stories as a drug. A way of dealing with the pain of knowing you’ll die so soon.”

James winced slightly at that description.

“Not to say that description applies to you, of course,” Anansi added hurriedly. “Any part of it. You could live for a very long time! Forever, for all that I know.”

Why does he seem concerned about offending me? He’s a god, he has a massive power disparity in his favor here. Right? But then, he still hasn’t answered my question as to why he needs me. Why he wants to back me in particular.

“I think I’m still missing the ‘why’ of everything,” James said.

“Of course, of course. I want to bless you—no, I want to make you my Chosen One—so that you can protect humanity.”

What a sales pitch! A god with a hundred percent approval rating, folks! He just wants to protect humanity. What a guy!

“Honestly, that sounds very suspicious,” James said. “I guess I get that you want to protect humanity so that we can continue telling stories—” Anansi was nodding along at this. “—but why me?”

“Killing two birds with one stone, honestly,” Anansi said. “First of all, I believe humanity needs a clever warrior to lead it through the next phase of its existence. You are one such, or so I hope. Second, you can only be the Chosen One of one god at a time. You can have blessings from as many as you like, but you can only be the Chosen One for one.”

“Oh, I see. So, the real reason is that you have something against Apophis?”

“You ask some very sharp questions, James. I don’t mind the curiosity.” The god sounded slightly annoyed despite his words. “It reminds me of myself. But how would you feel if I started prying into your real reasons for going after the Moloch cultists alone and almost killing yourself?”

“That was for a constructive purpose, as you know,” James said. “To save as many people as I could and avoid unnecessarily risking human life.”

“I see. My mistake. You failed to rescue the prisoners, possibly endangered your own camp, and fell from a cliff to your likely death constructively.” There was a mocking edge to the Spider God’s tone that James hadn’t noticed before. He decided he didn’t much care for it.

“The spider, who has many children, might not understand, but we humans are quite fond of each other. We don’t necessarily take kind to others practicing human sacrifice in this day and age.”

“Oh, is that the whole reason? Or were you also hoping to recruit more troops for that little army you’re building? And by saving them alone, trying to look like a messiah figure?”

James remained silent, a shade of guilt showing on his face. That thought may have been in the back of my mind. Can he literally divine my intentions? Or am I that typical, that obvious, that he can read me so easily?

“Relax, my friend,” Anansi said. “You and I are alike. We do nothing without more than one motive in our hearts. We’re both studies in contradictions. A trickster god who wants to spread knowledge and wisdom through stories. And a shrewd warrior who goes into deadly fights alone. I’m not judging your motivations, only your execution. On the same token, please believe that a major part of my motivation is that I am a humanitarian.”

“Fine. What’s your problem with Apophis, then?”

“Must we focus on Apophis? I would rather discuss your many positive qualities that make you an ideal savior of humanity.”

James snorted. “I’m sure you would. Let’s not lie to each other more than necessary, though, alright? If you wanted to just deceive me, you could probably do it easily and be done with it. You’re a Trickster God as well as the God of Knowledge, Wisdom, and Stories. I’m sure you have some powers that make your lies irresistible.”

I myself have powers in that vein, though not irresistible ones, James thought.

“This situation doesn’t work that way. Not for me. If I trick you into being my Chosen One, it won’t fulfill my purpose. I would just turn you into an unpredictable variable. Possibly a future enemy of humanity.”

“It sounds like you have to be very careful,” James said.

“You have no idea,” Anansi said. “But since you understandably do not trust my honesty, why don’t I give you your prize for completing my dungeon first?”

He leaned forward from his throne, and James got his first real look at Anansi’s head. It looked to have the shape of a human head, but with spider-like fangs sticking out of the side. Then James realized, with a sudden flash of lightning, that the head that he saw was a mask. He couldn’t discern the true shape of Anansi’s features at all.

He looked down from Anansi’s head and realized Anansi had extended one of his long legs to James. On the end of it, two stone rings hung: one white and one gray.

James reached forward and grasped them. Anansi let them slide off of his limb and leaned backward into his throne.

Identify. I hate to look a gift horse in the mouth, but I have to know what these are.

He Identified the white ring first.

[Ring of Truth: Extremely durable ring. Allows the wearer to reliably distinguish true statements from false ones. Only effective for oral statements. Only effective where the speaker is communicating in real time. Additionally amplifies the persuasiveness of true statements by the wearer. Effectiveness of ring functions are unreliable against beings above mortal tier.]

Holy shit! That’s a definite game changer. I’ll always know who to trust from now on. I could literally just ask, ‘Can I trust you?’ and I’d have the correct answer. Not to mention a million other, probably more practical, uses. Remind me never to take this off.

He slipped the white ring onto his left pinky finger, right next to his wedding ring. The new ring seemed to slightly shrink to better fit his finger. Neat.

Then he Identified the gray ring. Up close, he saw that it was actually gray with red bands running diagonal along the band.

[Ring of Lies: Durable ring. Allows the wearer to more reliably deceive others with false oral statements. Only effective where the speaker is communicating in real time. Additionally amplifies the effectiveness of Skills where they are used to deceive others. Effectiveness unreliable against beings above mortal tier.]

And this is the counterpart, of course. If anything, it’s even better. But Anansi’s about to turn me into a big fat liar. He knows that, right?

He slipped this ring into his pocket. The temptation to use it was something he would try to grapple with later. Better not to just have it sitting on his finger.

“Alright, you’ve given me the prizes,” James said, looking back up at the black outline of Anansi on his throne. “I’m slightly more equipped for this conversation we’re having, although I doubt either ring would have any effect on a conversation with a Trickster God such as yourself. Go ahead and make your arguments about Apophis and why I should go with you instead.”

“Have it your way. Apophis is an eldritch entity, not a normal god. The rest of the gods, including the evil ones, all agreed to the existence of the System as a way of preserving the multiverse. Even some evil gods, like Moloch, want humanity to persist, because they need sacrifices. The people who have discovered Apophis throughout the ages have named him many things: Apep and Jörmungandr are the most popular examples from your universe. But wherever they have worshiped him, he has never answered prayers or provided aid of any kind. All Apophis wants is to unravel the universe. He is barely sentient at all. The god consists only of a semi-conscious desire for destruction, joined to a terrible power.

“Apophis didn’t even choose you. You may be the Chosen One of Apophis, as I gathered from the power you displayed in Orientation, but that Title is assigned randomly whenever the former Chosen One dies. Somehow, he got lucky this time, and the Chosen One Title landed on someone who was genuinely dangerous enough to achieve his ends. Even though, unlike several other gods, Apophis almost certainly was not watching you personally. He does not cultivate talented individuals; he merely grants power and the temptation towards destruction. Have you not wondered why Apophis doesn’t speak to you? Other gods communicate with their Chosens. They grant boons. Assistance. Powers. Advice. If you were my Chosen—or even if you were Loki’s Chosen, as he’d prefer—we would have already aided you in overcoming the challenges you’ve faced. Perhaps you wouldn’t have made your ill-fated decision about fighting the cultists.”

Anansi seemed to James capable of perhaps continuing this indefinitely, but James had heard enough. He raised a hand, and Anansi stopped.

“I get it,” James said. “Evil destruction god. You’re better. What would this proposed switch do in terms of my destructive capabilities, though?”

Even though James could only see the outline of Anansi, it was visible to him how the Spider God deflated at this question. He seemed to sink back into his chair, as if he wanted to become invisible.

“You will have to be much more creative,” Anansi said at long last. “No more getting into fights that you’re only sure you can win with a ten times power multiplier. That’s not in my repertoire. On the other hand—have you heard the expression, ‘The pen is mightier than the sword’?”

James nodded reluctantly. Anansi was, it seemed to him, being honest and direct, in defiance of his own nature. James found that he wanted to give the Spider God a chance.

“Well, the power of story is even mightier than the power of the pen. Taken to a high enough level, you redefine reality. Story and real life intersect in a number of ways that will surprise you when you fully grasp all the connections. If you’re willing to consider my offer, I’ll show you one of your new abilities right now, on a trial basis—” He extended a limb toward James. And almost reflexively, James found himself reaching back.

“Dreamwalk with me.”