NOVEL NEXT WORLD book 4 chapter 16
“Have you been awake all night?” Amethyst groaned, rolling over in the bed to see Himari still sitting at the small table in their inn room, a terminal in her hands glowing a soft blue as a second red terminal floated beside her with a wall of text on it as if she had been reading it while working on the other one.
Himari sighed, dropping the terminal from her hands, and rubbing her eyes. “I....” She let her hands fall to the side, feeling exhausted as she looked out the window to see the morning sun filtering through the curtain, “I guess I have.”
Amethyst shook her head, laughing as she got out of the bed, “For someone who doesn’t need sleep you look… tired.” She quickly corrected herself as Himari looked at her with bloodshot eyes, “What have you been doing all night?"
“Reading.” Himari grumbled, Amethyst was right that Himari didn’t “need” to sleep anymore but after spending all night going over the protocols Eryl had just “whipped up” she felt like she was back in college. “I miss coffee.” Himari let her head fall to the table, “Just how did she do this all so fast?” She pushed the terminal aside as she lamented just how… overwhelming it was.
Himari had been the acting admin for 5 years, and though she hadn’t been trained or anything she had felt she was doing a decent enough job. But clearly, she was not only wrong but woefully unprepared. Each proposal not only had a detailed description of what the protocol would do and how it would be implemented in the system, but it also had a complex spell circle attached that would perform the protocol once it was implemented. Meaning Himari needed to not only check the description but double check the spell circle and be sure it was going to only do what it was supposed to and not interfere with anything else already in the system.
The first part was easy, Himari was used to reading over documents and checking them for errors as well as being sure they were clear and easily understood. The second part however was… something else entirely.
Spell craft, and by proxy enchanting, was… complicated, to say the very least. She knew the theory, the basic idea of how to create a spell but this was so far beyond her…
She glanced at the floating terminal that was still hovering above her head, the text describing spell formation blurring together in her vision as she closed her eyes. “I don’t know how she does it, or why she even wants me to look it over.” She sighed, not realizing Amethyst was making her way across the room until she felt the other woman’s hand on her shoulder.
“Why don’t you take a break,” Amethyst asked softly, the floating red terminal catching her eye as the text flashed, shifting to display something else for a brief moment; just long enough for her to get a glimpse of the text. “Divine “council” revision?” She muttered as the red screen suddenly flickered a light blue before turning off.
“Amethyst,” the terminal chimed, “I cannot allow you to…” the soft feminine voice clearly indicating it was Babylon speaking as Overseers voice was far more robotic and tinny.
“I understand,” she interrupted the terminal, having heard the same thing a dozen times before whenever she tried to peek at the world terminals while Eryl was helping Himari work. Though this time she had a nagging feeling in the back of her mind about what she saw. What did it mean divine council? Amethyst thought. As far as she knew there was no “divine council”, just the holy court…
I should look into how the divine actually work now that I’m technically part of the pantheon shouldn’t I? But it’s been months… Amethyst was technically half god half devil meaning… what? She hadn’t heard anything from any of the other divine, not including Siofra. And Hecatolite has been a Deity for years now, years that Amethyst knew there had been several holy court gatherings during. Yet she hadn’t received a message or a notification… or anything? How did they get anything done if they didn't include the whole pantheon in their meetings?
And if the gods have the holy court what do the devils have? Surely, they had meetings as well, being divine powers in the world they would need to do something to keep their influence in the world so they maintained their power… I should look into that a whole lot more. She bit her lip as she thought and somewhere high above them, sitting on a branch of the world tree Eryl rolled her eyes as a light blue Babylon terminal flickered angrily at a laughing red Overseer terminal; the world system chastising its counterpart for “leaking” sensitive system information.
“One of the protocols she tried to correct last night is how strict the terminals are with information,” Himari’s tired voice broke Amethyst out of her thoughts as she yawned, “But I haven’t gotten to that one yet. I think it's…” she went to tap on the terminal only for Amethyst to stop her.
It all may be important, but, “It can wait, at least till after breakfast.” She giggled, a sound that caused Himari to blush. The older woman quickly pulled her hand back as she shook her head to wake herself up. “Maybe Eryl and Hecatolite will actually come down from the world tree today.” She said summoning her own terminal to see if she received any messages. “Still no word from anyone,” she said, her eyes lingering on the flashing notification in the corner for prayers received, still not sure what to do with those yet. Sure, she knew how prayers worked from the mortals point of view, but she hadn’t had time to actually ask how they worked from the divine side of it all…
Himari gave a weak nod, “You're right, I need a break.” She said trying to compose herself, clearly, she was more tired than she thought if a simple giggle made her heart race like that… or maybe it was some side effects of Hecatolite’s power… or maybe I am just falling for a girl a century younger than myself.
Himari sighed, rubbing her eyes; it had to be sleep deprivation mixed with the hormones of her younger body, that’s it. She was far too old to have some silly crush on a girl that much younger than herself, besides, Amethyst was what, sixteen? Himari was… also sixteen. Well in this world, but in reality, she was over a hundred years old! Sure, Amethyst was a very nice girl; she was kind, compassionate, intelligent, attractive… she could be my great granddaughter for god's sake! She nearly smacked herself as she pushed the thought of how attractive the young woman was out of her mind. What am I even thinking, when Amethyst is my age… That thought gave her pause.
Amethyst… was a deity, she was for all but immortal… Sure, her “body” would die someday but her soul would simply move to the divine realms after that, and she would continue living among the gods of this world. Himari was technically an admin… did that mean she was immortal too? What happened to Himari after she died in this world? Normally a summoned soul would be returned to their home world or, if Hecatolite was involved, added to this world's cycle of reincarnation if enough of it survived.
But she… she had a system key inside her soul, a direct link to this world’s system. Another thing to ask Eryl about. Himari let out another defeated sigh as she slowly rose from her seat. First things first, food. Then maybe a nap. Hopefully by the time I am done with all that Eryl will have untangled herself from Hecatolite long enough to climb down the world tree.
The two of them made their way down from their inn room only to be met by an entirely new challenge as they were met by the inn’s owner in the main room.
The tall elven man greeted them in… what they both hoped to be a jovial manner, though his bright smile could just as easily be an insult as the two stood dumbly in front of him. For the first time the two found themselves completely alone in the capital of Felnnor, with none of the elven chairmen or Eryl and Hecatolite, just… the two of them… who only spoke Solersol.
“Sooo…” Amethyst drew out the word as she looked to Himari with a concerned look. “You didn’t happen to learn Elvish last night, did you?”
Himari sighed, summoning a terminal to her hands to use as a translator only to spend the next twenty minutes standing there while the man gawked at the tiny “voice of the world” she held in her hands. The only saving grace was that the inn served food, saving them from having to go through another interaction like that; though everyone in the inn now stared at the two while they ate.
This is worse than yesterday. Himari thought as she ate, at least yesterday the elven people had only looked at them with thinly veiled animosity, now though there was a mixture of fear and uncertainty mixed in as Himari let the terminal float beside her just in case someone tried to speak to them.
“I wonder if the council will try to summon us today,” Amethyst broke the tense silence as she ripped off a piece of her bread and dipped it in the stew they had been served. “You know, for repayment for yesterday.” She added as she popped the bread into her mouth.
Himari glanced at the terminal beside her, thinking for a moment. She could use the world log to find out if she wanted too… But that didn’t feel right. “I don’t know. If they came to a decision last night they may, then again it’s also possible that they are waiting until today to meet given your sister's aura is back under control.”
Amethyst pursed her lips as Himari looked at the terminal floating beside her. She wanted to make small talk with the other woman to try and take her mind off the work she had been doing all night but… what did say?
Asking about the divine now would just lead to more system work, not to mention Amethyst figured Eryl would probably be the better person to ask or just asking Overseer when she had a chance; there was likely a book about it somewhere in the Babylon library she could read. So that left… what? what could she bring up that would be considered casual? Nothing pertaining to the system… or Algimar given the war, that would just add more stress… which cut out most of Himari’s life in this world. Did Himari have any hobbies? Amethyst thought for a moment realizing… She knew nothing about the woman across from her, sure she knew Himari was from a different world but aside from that she knew so little about the woman it was hard to believe they had been traveling together for months now. I’ve never seen her doing anything other than… working on the terminals with Eryl… “So… what do you do for fun?”
Himari raised an eyebrow, “For… fun?”
Amethyst couldn’t help but laugh at her reply. “Yeah, I mean like a hobby. You know, when you’re not working on the system, or keeping me and my sister alive. What do you do to relax?”
Himari paused for a moment as if thinking, “I drink tea to relax…” She furrowed her brow as if confused by her own answer. What do I do to relax? “In my old world I would do puzzles to unwind… I used to take hikes with my husband when we had time and were feeling up to it…” She was a doctor for crying out loud, she knew the value of downtime better than anyone… Well her husband had needed to constantly remind her to stop working, but now…
Himari bit her lip as she thought. since coming to this world what had she actually done? When she was in the “holy capital”, which was an arrogant name for a city if you asked her, she had been focused on training and learning about this world… Then all her time went to protecting Eryl while she was enslaved and keeping up with being a saint… and now… now what? Was her whole life really based around the system? She had even spent all night trying to learn how to create spells and enchantments… for the system.
Even in her last life it had been the same, hadn’t it? When she was younger she put all her energy into school, neglecting everything else in her life for her goals… then it was her career until she had children, and even after that her husband had to constantly remind her to take breaks… then once she was older and retired she focused solely on her family. Anything Himari had done in her last life for “fun” had been brought up by her husband or someone else.
And now, here she was a young and healthy body in a completely new and magical world and… she had fallen right back into that routine, hadn’t she? Throwing herself completely into “work”, leaving no time to “do” anything else unless someone else suggested it. When was the last time she did something completely for herself, something that was… meaningless in the grand scheme of things but she just wanted to do?
Himari opened her mouth to answer only to be cut off by a terminal appearing before Amethyst, Overseer's robotic voice ringing out as several people around them flinched away from the sound.
“Message from Hecatolite Lapidary. Hey sis, how was your day, mine was great! Sorry about ditching you yesterday or was it the day before… doesn’t matter, I need your help! You see me and Eryl were… wrestling… Yes, I’m going to go with wrestling… No I’m not going to tell my sister I spent all day having sex in a tree… what do you mean she probably already knows? Can you just let me send this message please? It’s your fault we are in this situation… Well if you weren’t so damn attractive, I wouldn’t have… What do you mean it's still recording! Hey, don’t write all that, delete, backspace! Clear? Remove text? Eryl! your stupid boxes are being dumb again!... What do you mean it’s not dumb? Look at it, all square and stupid… If it’s so smart why is it still recording everything huh? I know it knows I don’t want to record everything! What do you mean “plan out” what I am going to say first? Who has time for that; just tell me how to delete this message and I’ll start over… Why isn’t it working! Stupid box I’ll show you!... let me go… I promise not to… Yes, even my claws… No, I won’t eat it…” The message cut off as the terminal flashed an annoyed yellow as a second message arrived.
“Message from Mother Eryl. Sorry about that Amethyst… Hey knock that off, your tail still counts as part…” The terminal played what sounded like a scuffling noise before continuing, “Don’t give me that… We both know you have full control of your tail when you want to... You expect me to believe it had a mind of its own last night… If I liked it or not isn’t the point here… Fine, yes I enjoyed it but that doesn’t mean you can go smashing my terminals with your tail… Don’t think I will give in just because you're pouting… No, no matter how cute you think it looks…” There was a long pause followed by a deep sighing sound, “Amethyst can you bring us some clothes please.” Eryl finished the message abruptly and Amethyst had a creeping suspicion by the sound of that last part Hecatolite had somehow won whatever small argument played out on the other side of the terminals.
Himari closed her mouth, somewhat thankful for the interruption as it saved her from the awkward realization that… work was her life, in her old world as a doctor and now this one as… a temporary admin… For the first time Himari realized that her role as admin was technically over. Eryl had been reconnected with the system… so… what did that mean for her? Sure, Eryl had her checking over system changes all night but… did she really need me to do that? couldn’t she just take the entire system back now and… and… Himari’s stomach sank a little as she stared at the terminal between the two of them.
If she wasn’t an admin… then what? She was still a saint if all else failed… a saint of a non-existent religion, to a deity who didn’t actually need followers… leaning back in her chair Himari blinked several times, as everything seemed to hit her at once.
Himari, the saintess of the Singularity, the temporary admin of the world system, a woman who had lived an entire life and was transported to another world… Now had no goals, nothing to work towards… And when asked what she did for fun her only answer was drinking tea to relax…
“Hey, are you ok?” Amethyst asked, shoving the terminal aside, “You look kind of pale?”
Himari stared at Amethyst for a moment, her dark purple eyes filled with a caring warmth that, despite her best efforts, calmed Himari’s nerves slightly. “Yeah…” She said slowly standing up from her seat, her right leg wobbling a little reminding her she had neglected to work out the weakened appendage the night before. “Let's go rescue the lovebirds from their nest.”
Amethyst chuckled at the joke as she rose from her seat as well, “Ok, but…” Amethyst paused, thinking of just how badly her last attempt to calm the older woman had gone, decided against pressing the matter. Biting her lip she quickly pulled Himari’s cane from her spatial storage ring and handed it to her, “Here, in case you need it.” She said hoping it wasn’t too obvious that wasn’t what she was going to say.
Nodding Himari took the cane, “Thank you.” she said with a small bow before turning and heading out of the inn only to nearly walk head first into a tired looking Alagos walking in front of a nervous looking Cemi.
