Post by Omega on Jul 27, 2022 3:48:01 GMT
I do not know why I am telling you this. Soon, I will forget but someday, I hope you might find me in a dream and tell me this story, as your father once told me his story in a dream.
I was dreaming, I did not know it then, but I know it now. I am the avatar of Dau’lush, his holy spirit, his voice, his body, his Aut’strii. I know all things of the World: every person, every blade of grass, and every cloud.
I was preaching at the mission of Darzee but had retreated to the mountain of Shiloh. I reflected on how my LORD the God Dau’lush taught me all things, I simply felt there was more. I thought of the reliquary, that one thing to which God forbade me. I thought of how if a farmer needed crop, he need appease God and his crop was. I though of a young girl in a drought and if she pleased Dau’lush, there was rain.
There was no wisdom in a soil to explain growth. Nor was there a reason to why it should rain. All things came through Dau’lush and were explained through him.
I was looking down at the plains and beheld a storm cloud which I had never seen. God always invoked me to spread his message for the good or ill of those who prayed. A thunder cloud signified wrath and I was curious as to my exclusion.
Flying down, I came to investigate with wings outstretched. I saw lightning flicker within the cloud’s walls but I heard no thunder. As I reached out with a tentacle, there was a rawness of the heat and a lightning both jettisoned. The cloud departed and the smoke blew weakly along the wet grass.
I came down and resumed mortal form, sniffing the smoke. Something odd I never smelt before that I only now associate with your father and may never smell again.
In that crater, I saw those same lightning forms glisten but this time in the form of a mortal man. His hair was a dirty blonde while his skin was the color of clay. There was something off about him as he stirred. His eyes searching, scanning, for meaning. The lightning patterns a beacon of his anxiety. The world was small, I knew every man, woman, and child. This man I did not know.
My eyes narrowed; nobody had ever addressed me so demandingly. It was always “Lady Lusca. Lusca avatar of the God. Lusca Aut’strii of Dau’lush,” filled with pleas, offers, and manners. To be spoken to with some manner of mediocrity was a blessing. Still, the fact he did not know where he was also a concern.
“What sphere, what nation, which world,” He demanded.
“Sphere? Nation? I am unfamiliar with these words,” I said, “But you are in the world.”
He gave me a confused look and sighed. He touched his index finger to his thumb where a sort of ring on the tip gave off a red light. “You’re right,” he said apologetically, “humes rarely get much exposure to the rest of the tree. I was lucky that I am good at numbers. Here, let me see your üpq.”
“Relax, I’m a professional assigner from the House of Quthlos Ra’ehp,” he said, “I do this all day.”
He tapped the base of his ‘ring’ and reached for my hand again. I allowed him to hold it as he inspected my wrist for the üpq. Again that confused look as he ran the red light up and down my arm before checking the back. His eyes widened as he grabbed my other arm and did the same. “No…no,” he grumbled, “This isn’t right! I shouldn’t be so far across the tree as to be in the sea of chaos!”
The next day, the LORD took me into the sky and showed me the world as tiny as a pinprick against the endless blackness. He told me how the darkness was him and would go on forever and ever. Dau’lush returned me to the world where he showed me the smallest of things calling them ‘atoms’, things the size of a pinprick and from which God fashioned the world.
“Are you one of the chimerafolk?” The man asked, “Is that why you do not have a üpq? Help me find a way home, we will set things right.”
I had seen bandits before saying similar things to one another before backstabbing. “I am not,” I said.
“Mohlug?” I asked, “The cyclops of Brack? I assure you I’m not him…”
What’s a Dylvar?”
“Daughters of the great God?” He said exasperatedly, “Optical oracles of the High Eye?”
“His avatars? The holy spirits?”
These last two caught me as two of my titles. “God only has one avatar,” I said with pride, “And I am she.”
His eyes ran me up and down but still refused to make contact with mine. “But the…” his voice trailed, “Lord and Bishop…they all said that…the Dylvar ordered the üpq. Helps the Eye to track.”
“And I know everyone and everything in the world,” I sighed, “But I do not know you nor of what you speak.”
That day, I wanted to ask God what my dreams meant, and he told me, “Beloved, dreams are your mind’s way of think of the reliquary. Therefore, I tell you, I dream not.”
His words echoed and I dare not tell him about the Man. “Lord, why does the reliquary exist?” I asked.
“The reliquary exists because the reliquary must exist. It is a test to you and to all things of the world,” God said.
“I tripped this morning,” I said, stumbling over my words lying, “Surely you saw.”
“You are my avatar,” Dau’lush chuckled, “You are not me.
And of course, I saw.”
I tried my best that night to not dream. But I did dream.
“I’m Ecstatica,” he said, extending a hand.
“Lusca,” I said, unsure of what to do as I never had to introduce myself before. Ecstatica grabbed my hand with his and shook it. “So, is this another dimension?” he mused.
“Right, right…” Ecstatica said, trying to gather his thoughts, “Are you hungry? I’m hungry. Which I shouldn’t be because I’m asleep right now.”
“I have a tent just downhill,” I said, pointing south.
I led him on as he continued study his surroundings. This time more with curiosity than fright. I poured him some tea which he drank with a sipping sound. “Do you have pen and paper?” he asked.
I shot him the look to tell him stop saying foreign words. He nodded and grabbed a stick from the firepit. Then he opened the tent flap so we could go outside. He drew a large circle in the dirt. “This is my dimension, Yggdrasilia, which is divided into 36 worlds.”
He drew some smaller circles but realized he couldn’t fit 36 circles inside. “There are 12 elemental worlds and 24 worlds of simplicity,” he said, “I do not know why but it how the Eye has fashioned Yggdrasilia.”
Ecstatica paused and thought. “I’m good at counting things, I’m not good at physics,” he blinked, “Each of the 12 types of atoms that makes up Yggdrasilia, we call them elements. In simplistic worlds, these atoms are held in balance to one another.”
“What that is that like,” Ecstatica asked sipping his tea, “Talking to God, I mean.”
“He doesn’t say much,” Lusca said, “He usually just asks for my loyalty and to obey him without question.”
“So when you say God do you mean like the Eye god, or God-God,” Ecstatica asked.
“He’s not an eye if that’s what you mean,” Lusca said.
“No I mean…er…hmm…” Ecstatica pondered, “So there are schisms within Yggdrasilian society. Our priestly class, the Squids, argue with one another about the true meaning of things. ‘Do humes have souls?’ ‘Do other dimensions exist?’ ‘Is God the Eye or is God-God?’ ‘Where did the Dylvar go?’ Takes a greater mind than any hume.”
“Right,” Ecstatica said, “They say there was texts in some of the other nations. Saying the Eye was simply an agent of God given permission to create Yggdrasilia.”
Lusca tried to come up with a response but could not. “Honestly, I think I’m doing a good job so far,” Ecstatica grinned, “Nations are a part of the world which act mostly autonomous from other nations.”
“We do not have those either,” Lusca said, “So just what are you suggesting? That my God is this…Eye?”
“No, not at all,” Ecstatica said, “See the Eye was just one thing created by God and that Yggdrasilia was a reward for the Eye’s service.”
“Right, mortals serve God for their reward in the hereafter,” Lusca said.
“Yes. Most of the squids tell the humes that their reward is land in the afterlife for their service. But most humes can’t read, I can. I’m honestly surprised I’m remembering all of this,” Ecstatica said, “However, the Eye is to give obedience to God. Like a hume gives glory to the Morhogue who owns the land he lives on. Its only by permission that the hume can be there.”
“So…God didn’t give glory to himself?” Lusca asked.
“I’m not sure that’s the case,” Ecstatica said, “I mean your God just said, and you’ll pardon my paraphrasing, that he is the be all end all and this world is it? There’s no deeper meaning to things, no ways to help predict and cultivate land?”
“Seems accurate,” Lusca said.
“Humes aren’t taught a lot compared to the other classes BUT a hume who understands the land and predict its needs are held in high regard,” Ecstatica said, “its how my father was able to persuade them to let me into the assigner corps.”
“I am sure he does,” Ecstatica said, “A squid will use prayer or vision, a snake buys his help, but a hume, a farmer, will make the most of his land. All of them have different beginnings but we have the same end.”
“I don’t see why he shouldn’t,” Ecstatica said, “Its better live with hope than without. Anyhow, I was getting that God likes those who act not just those who sit by idly waiting for his action.”
“So why does my God enforce us to be reliant upon him?” Lusca said, almost accusingly, “Why does my God say this world is the only world? Why does my God say he is God?”
This is really good tea by the way, I know I’m dreaming but this is good.”
“You said before,” Lusca noted, “That you’re dreaming.”
“And so are you,” Ecstatica chuckled, “The dimensions, Yggdrasilia, this place you call the World, and countless others all exist in an infinite series known as the dimensional stream. Travelling between dimensions only happens during dreams, or so the old texts say, unless you die asleep then you wake up wherever…wherever you are.”
“You’re dreaming too,” Ecstatica said.
“I am not,” Lusca protested.
“I’ve woken up at least five times during our palaver,” Ecstatica said, “Think about it.”
Lusca thought back to the start of her meditation that morning. That morning…she actually hadn’t ascended all of the mountain of Shiloh yet but she was thinking about it before she went to bed that night. Then she met Ecstatica, then she had gone up the mountain and talked with God about pinpricks and abysses. She and Ecstatica continued to talk, then she went up the mountain again to talk to God about the forbidden nature of dreams. Ecstatica had then begun his discussion of physics.
“It won’t here, let’s try this,” Ecstatica said, placing down his cup in the middle of the circles he drew. He then placed his drawing stick on top of the cup so it would not blow away. “Even if you do wake up time will still pass here and this conversation will continue,” Ecstatica said.
“Well they, however they are, say that travel between dimensions can be either voluntary or involuntary,” he said thinking out loud, “But it always requires a particular place. Most people seem like they just kind of mindlessly dream about dimensions but if you know which dimension and which place then boom!
Ecstatica continued to ramble while Lusca raised an eyebrow, “You’re right,” she interrupted, “that cup is still on my table when I’m awake. But if that’s different here, shouldn’t everything be different when I dream?”
“Well that’s actually a really good point,” Ecstatica observed, “You said nobody here dreams and I appear to be the first visitor. So why would this dimension look any different in a dream than it is when you’re awake? Nobody has been here to change it.”
“It really is,” Ecstatica said.
