“It seems like you’re familiar with the god who created my body. Do you have anything you’d like to share?” I asked because the more info I had about my situation, the better. I had a feeling that knowing a little bit about divine politics would go a long way in explaining a few things. It feels like somebody had a plan when my species was slipped into the roster of selectable choices, but I don’t know what they want from me.“What Plane are we on right now?” asked Autumn, ignoring my question.“Uhh, a newly built one created by… I think his name was Kaelzar? Designed as a way to avoid eternal torment.” I said, carefully watching Autumn’s response. There was a flash of pity in its eyes that vanished the moment it appeared. “You still haven’t explained anything about Eryx.”Autumn didn’t say anything for a while. They just stared into space in their usual fashion. I took that as a sign that I should let them think and tried to think back to what happened when I was… Possessed? That’s probably the best descriptor.
It feels like if I could just get a glimpse of how it felt to be that other being, it would improve my comprehension of Mana immensely. I tried focusing on the feeling, trying to find inconsistencies that would allow me to push my way through, like I did with the man taking care of the young Herald of the Verdant Growth. Wait, what, how do I know what she’s called? I realized at that moment that I was thinking in Rootspeech. That language is derived from Nature Mana, and the only reason I can speak and understand it is from some kind of knowledge embedded in the concept of Nature. That knowledge being exactly what I’m trying to figure out how to access.
I let out a long sigh. Is this going to be one of those things where I can’t force it, and instead have to reach some kind of epiphany to unlock it naturally?Maybe I need to meditate on the concept or something. Unfortunately, this place doesn’t exactly evoke the right feelings. I’d need a jungle, a grove, somewhere the Nature Mana is thick enough to drown in. But that’s all contingent on solving the problem with the Maleficarum incursion. I wasn’t leaving here until they were gone. I just hoped I could recover in time. We only had one day.
I sighed and nestled into Autumn a bit. They didn’t seem to mind because they were either having an existential crisis or just being a plant.
I saw that a system notification was blinking away in the corner of my vision. After checking it, I realized it was just the kill notification for the Hurnathi.
[Hurnathi Spatial Manipulator Lvl 99]
[Error No Eidos Collected: Soul Typing Invalid]
Well that made sense, even if I didn’t get any experience, or I guess eidos as the system calls it, which sucks. I don’t want to know what Soul Typing Invalid means. So I decided to work away at my puzzle ring as a distraction. I felt like I was getting near the end of it, and it costs no Mana to use. While doing that, I split my focus and tried to catch Autumn’s attention.
“Hey, you don’t have to answer the questions about Eryx if you don’t want to. I just realized I haven’t told you my name. It’s probably unpronounceable for you, but I'm Ellie. You can call me.” I made the sound of a wind whistling through a forest in the middle of winter, which meant something along the lines of ‘Winter’s breath,’ using my last name as inspiration. “If that makes it easier for you.”
Autumn took a few seconds to register the fact that I was speaking and blinked at me.
“Now that I speak your tongue, what's your name again? It’s no longer unpronounceable to me.” I said a little quieter.“My full name is The-One-Who-Sits–Beneath-The-Autumn-Canopy, but you can continue calling me Autumn, you were close enough with your guess.” Autumn said with a sly smile on their face, “And I don’t mind answering questions if I know the answer, Ellie.” They said using the courtesy name I gave them, then their expression shifted, “I just…It’s complicated. I think there was a binding root placed on knowledge about The Weaver because I know his name, and I keep getting flashes of something while around you, but I can’t tell what it is. It’s like every time I try to focus on it, something snaps the stem of thought.
“But that’s not the problem here, the problem is you’re wrong about the main motivations behind this Plane. Of course, it is potentially possible to do what you said. The Sovereign does not make promises he won’t keep, because doing so would go against his Mythos. It’s just that he twists the vines so the fruit falls his way. What do you think is the main reason he created a system of eternal torment in the first place?”
“Entertainment? I’m pretty sure that’s what an Imp told me.” I replied, “Gambling as well, apparently.” As I tried to say the last part, my throat closed up, and all I made was an odd choking noise. Autumn gave me a weird look as I composed myself “Sorry I forgot that fucking imp put a restriction on what I could say.”“That’s part of it, but not the main reason. It’s actually much simpler than that: souls generate Mana, souls under stress generate even more Mana. This Plane was designed so that The Sovereign can let his fruit ripen before the harvest. Those who are lucky enough to gain a certain level of power or become a unique asset will be given the opportunity to either serve a deity in Kaelzar’s Pantheon or be sold off to another. He has been advertising this for at least a century, and it’s practically common knowledge to those who reside within a Sphere. As the owner of your universe, he owns your soul and can use it as he sees fit.” Autumn paused, probably to gather their thoughts. I didn’t mind because I was busy processing what they just told me. That I don’t even own my soul, it’s the property of some entity of likely unimaginable power, just because it owns the space I grew up in.
“There’s something more, but I think that truth’s been root-bound because it’s similar to the knowledge of The Weaver,” Autumn said. In response to that, they sighed like a tree slowly creaking under pressure.“So what, I’m either going to die and be turned into an endlessly tortured Mana generator or if I’m extremely lucky, I get to live as a slave to a god?” I asked shakily, my voice felt like it was coming from somewhere behind me. I felt sick to my stomach, even though that didn’t make any sense since I didn’t really have one. I could hear someone hyperventilating. Was that me?
Someone placed a hand on my head and gently released Nature Mana into me. A calming sensation washed through my body, not as forceful as what Ledger did. It was far more subtle, and something told me I could have resisted if I wanted to, but I didn’t.
“Little sapling, there is no use worrying about things that you have no control over,” Autumn said, sounding way older than I would have thought their age was from the initial meeting with them. I wonder how old they actually are. Also, wait a moment!This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Don’t refer to me as a plant, please. I am not one.” I said, and Autumn just gave me an odd look in response, then gestured at me broadly as if pointing out an obvious fact. I rubbed my eyes in an attempt to clear my head, but my new eyes were completely flat surfaces, so it wasn’t nearly as calming. “Okay, I think I need to show you something. But I can’t do it right now, pulling it out of my shell and rearranging everything so that I can still move would take more Mana than I have right now. Please give me a little bit. My Mana regeneration rate was absolutely abysmal when I woke up. It doesn’t help that I still feel like a tree fell on me, and I can’t stop thinking about things that I really don’t want to be."
Autumn looked down at me, my head already resting on their lap, and nodded. One of their hands ran through my hair, and I shivered at the feeling. The sense of touch through the shell was shockingly realistic. I hadn't expected my sensing circuits to take into account pleasurable sensations, given that I couldn't feel pain, but the ones on my head were part of the ones that weren't wrecked when my species was nerfed.
“Why don’t you tell me about the soil you came from. Get your mind off distressing subjects.” They said while rubbing my head.
“I can do that, sure. Home. Pleasant thoughts…” I said petering off as an uncomfortable feeling welled up inside me. That feeling kept growing until I had to let it out, “You know, back in my world, there was this genre of stories centred around the main character unwittingly experiencing Planar travel. Oftentimes, these novels have protagonists who make it their goal to return home, but that has never made sense to me.
“When I think back to the world I used to live in, I don't have any positive affiliations with it. All in all, I think nearly my entire life there I was bored and lonely. I never felt particularly close to my family. They were just people who took care of me. Nothing more, nothing less, I don’t even care that I’ll likely never see them again. The only people I genuinely cared about always ended up hurting me in the end, for some stupid reason or another.
“Of course, there were times I was happy, but they were always fleeting moments before the boredom returned. I felt as if I were just drifting through life, doing what everyone was expected to do but finding no joy in the process.” I sighed. I hadn’t really put all those feelings into words before, but it felt nice to let them out. “That didn’t really answer what you asked, though.”
“It accomplished what I was trying to do by asking, though,” Autumn replied, which was a fair point. We drifted into silence again as I fiddled with my ring.
I was stuck on puzzle number forty-nine, which involved Space Mana. For some reason, I could not figure out how to get it to do what I wanted. It seemed almost resistant to being put through an array. The only result I achieved by doing that was warping space so thoroughly that my target was destroyed. Unfortunately, the puzzle’s goal was to teleport an object out of a sealed container without damaging it. Destroying everything, including the artifact holding Space Mana itself, by introducing non-Euclidean geometry to realspace was rather unconducive to my goal.
I felt like there was something I should know that would make this easier, but I couldn’t figure it out for the life of me.
After an hour or so of making no progress, I checked my Mana. I was up to twenty percent, and my regeneration rate was slowly returning to normal. I let out a sigh in relief that I didn’t permanently damage my soul or something. I was still going to try to avoid straining myself until I was back to normal anyway.
“Hey Autumn, you know how I mentioned I’m not a plant?” I asked, receiving a nod in response. “Before I show you what I am, I just want to say I’m very delicate. Please be careful.” I said while manipulating my chest open and pulling out my Core wrapped in Ashenflare, slowly so as not to damage it. Autumn leaned in as if intrigued by what I was doing, then their hands were held out so that they could hold me. Once it was out of my body, I decided to humour Autumn by placing the Core in their hands. A bundle of wires hung connected to my chest to ensure my shell still worked. Finally, I removed the Ashenflare coating around it.Autumn stared at my Core, absolutely still, even the usual slow movements of the leaves on their body or occasional twitching of their vines had stopped as if locked in time. I wasn’t sure what was happening, so I snapped my fingers in front of their face a couple of times, garnering no response.
“Hey, is anybody in there?” I asked, starting to become concerned. Autumn hadn’t acted like this before. Usually, when they space out, I can still get a response if I try. I sat up and shook them a bit while being careful not to knock my Core out of their hands, but still nothing.
I didn’t know what was going on, but it felt nice to be held without being manhandled. Sitting down next to them, I rested my head on their shoulder. Before, it felt like we were spending time alone together. Now, it felt like Autumn had crashed to the bluescreen and wasn’t coming back. An aching feeling in my Core that I didn't realize had been there or had been gone started coming back.
“Please? I don’t want to be alone.” I whispered almost to myself after an hour had passed.
Autumn twitched in response. As I felt them move, I lifted my head and met their eyes, which had turned to look at me.
“You’re back?” I asked, still unsure what was going on. A notification signalled itself in the corner of my vision, but I ignored it for the moment. “Are you okay? What happened?”
“It seems that the binding root placed on my memory was just partially unwoven," they said, looking me over. They seemed to notice something about me, perhaps my expression, and continued, “Maybe I should be asking you if you’re okay.”
“I’m fine,” I said while wiping dampness out of my eyes. “Damn circuit is leaking or something. What did you remember?”
“It seems there is a standing order from my Patron, The Lady in the Garden, to protect you. Whoever you turned out to be.” Autumn said, wearing a complicated expression while wrapping themselves protectively around my Core, “There was cooperation between The Weaver and The Lady to create the body you are inhabiting. Something went wrong, and contingencies are in play if the memory was released.”
“The Lady in the Garden? What went wrong? What am I meant to do?” I had so many questions. I hadn’t realized there would be so much going on behind the scenes when I picked this species. “Also, do you know what the steps are?”
Autumn sighed, “I hate doing this. " Then they cleared their throat like a wood chipper going off and spoke, putting Authority into their words. “Syladine, The Lady in the Garden,” the world seemed to resonate with those words, and it felt like the Nature Mana inside me was humming gently to a tune I couldn’t hear. The melody of that tune felt sad, almost grieving.
Autumn looked tired after doing that. “The Lady does not like her name being pronounced in any way except for how it is meant to be.”
I realized just then that Autumn had spoken using human pronounceable sounds for the first time, which meant their Patron, god, whatever, was likely humanoid. This was unexpected news for me. I would have assumed the gods to have ascended from the inhabitants of a world, which for The Verdant Veil is mostly sentient plant life and beasts, not an anthropod.
My revelation went unbeknownst to Autumn who continued answering the questions I asked, “An Iteration of Authority is what went wrong, The Lady and The Weaver were both purged. As for what you’re meant to do I have no idea, and I’ve never heard of any steps.”
“Then why am I being protected?” I asked, confused. Games were being played at levels I didn’t understand and for some fucking reason they were revolving around me. I felt like a tiny piece on a massive board.
Autumn shrugged, “The only other thing I know is you’re supposed to complete the ring. Whatever that means, I have no…” They trailed off as their attention drifted to me.
I pulled my ring out of my Inventory and put it into my hand the moment I heard the word. I examined it for any kind of marking, but it was just a plain wooden ring with a connection socket for input and output. It looked like I needed to increase the priority of completing puzzles if I wanted any more answers.
“It feels nice being held tightly by you, but could you let go of me so I can go back into my shell?” I asked.
“Oh, yes, sorry,” Autumn said, handing over my body.