Side Story - Ferio 6: Memories of Distant Past

Seeing the ocean part itself at the behest of stone pillars was not something Ferio had ever expected to see, but the universe seemed to have decided differently. Well, Mother did, really. The reason for the phenomenon was caused by the very runes she had sent Candrial to research. Her priestess, accompanied by her husband, had figured out that the ruins of Ardynshaide contained a lot of them and that, apparently, a Lich had revived old priests that had served her mother. Sadly, the fact that these ruins contained those runes had not been new information. But, as it seemed to be the only place that would give her some insight, she still had to come here.

"Liches are always weird," she mumbled to herself as she crossed her arms in front of her chest and looked down into what were almost water-free ruins by this point. "Another mystery to solve. First, I will have a look down there."

Unlike the adventurers who had gathered in the area, who would surely explore the dungeon, she had no need for anything so crude as a boat. And none, aside from Candrial, knew she was even there, a tiny bit of magic all that was needed to make the other mortals believe there was nothing where the Goddess stood. Without another thought Ferio took a step forward, letting herself fall from the floating island.

Ferio let out a yawn as gravity pulled her down towards the dungeon. When she had been on Geshwen with her mother, this same action had somehow been exciting. Now it elicited essentially no reaction from her.

Probably because there was some guaranteed bloodshed then… It was true that walking through the dungeon would likely result in a fight at some point, but killing Soulless monsters just didn't have the same appeal as going up against uppity mortals. Some had a single-minded determination that was simply irreplaceable.

The stones of the ancient ruin offered little to no resistance to the falling Goddess who smashed through them, her fall only halted by the deeper rocks that had been enhanced by the dungeon's magic. She could probably break those too, if she tried, but in most cases it simply wasn't worth the effort. Having Mother here would be really handy right about now. The All-Mother did not care for the resilience of anything; if it was in her way, it would be destroyed. Guess family used to be an obstacle as well…

A wave of her hand brought forth a number of swords, each one glowing with a subtle red light as the Goddess of Life and Light let her mana flow into them. With a flick of her wrist, the blades formed a circle around her and began to cut into the stone beneath her feet. In this case, breaking through the dungeon-enhanced stone was well worth the mana cost. Not having to wait an extra day to enter the dungeon was a highly worthwhile trade, especially as it would allow her to circumvent all of the annoying mortals that thought themselves strong. Pathetic.

With a loud crack Ferio broke through the stone, stepping onto one of her swords to avoid falling down. The monsters below her hissed and roared at the damage she had done to their home but were quickly silenced by her floating armaments.

"Now all I have to find is the study Candrial told me about." The Goddess tapped her chin as she slowly floated through the dungeon, her swords clearing the way. "Where would I put my study if I was a priest who felt he was strong enough to get Mother's attention?" She turned a corner, grabbing hold of one of her swords to manually behead a monster. "With my luck, probably by the core."

Of course, it would be no trouble taking care of that — even if it would return after a while — but some of them had developed an… attitude. They were not quite alive, but they had gathered enough mana to form a semblance of consciousness. A little like the System, but even more obviously without a Soul.

She drove her sword through another monster, skewering it before lifting it up to her face. "You wouldn't be able to tell me where I can find the core, would you?"

Of course, the monster did not reply, simply gurgling its own blood as it slowly slid off the red glowing sword and fell to the ground with a thud. She stopped and regarded the corpse for a moment before shaking her head and moving on. "Obviously not."

Ferio let go of the sword she had held,letting it rejoin the swarm of blades that still circled around her. Another thought caused a book to appear in her hand, already opened on the page where she had left off. The shifting runes displayed within still gave her a bit of a headache, but it was nowhere near as bad as it used to be.

///

A yawn echoed through the arena that had just previously housed the final boss of the Ardynshaide dungeon. Ferio had never expected a dungeon monster to be a challenge for her, but she had thought that the fabled flooded dungeon might have a bit more to offer. The boss itself had looked an awful lot like an aquatic Dragonkin, something that assuredly did not exist on this world. Too bad it was so weak. "No matter," she mumbled to herself as she stepped through the final door. "Now to see what Mister Core has in store for me." Or is it Miss Core, as they're connected to Mother?

As the door fully opened, a floating crystal came into view. It did not deign to answer her question, and merely continued to spin. Perhaps a little faster than before. If the thing was able to feel anxious, it was likely feeling that way at this moment. Ferio had not only circumvented most of the floors it had made, but she had also made short work of every single boss it had thrown at her.

"Don't you worry," the Goddess of Life and Light said as she stepped into the room. "I am not interested in you, just what the people that built this place left behind."

The room was large and circular, the domed ceiling painted with a depiction of her looming Mother, surrounded by what Ferio assumed to be the story of how this place was built. While the painting itself was more than a bit over the top, the walls of the place were utterly lined with shelves. It was exactly what she had hoped to find.

She took a deep breath, her aura flaring as she drew on the mana that lingered in all the worlds that worshipped her. The spin of the dungeon's core slowed as the sounds of the world began to stretch themselves before holding at a constant low note. Time might not be of the essence here, but Ferio preferred working without the interference of anyone else. By the time anyone else would reach this place, she would be long gone. Probably on Solito to see what Mother does with the Beastkin.

There was a slight hope she would punish them for their continued idiocy, but she doubted that. As things stood, Moria would ascend to Godhood and replace what remained of Chellien's might. The idea that the Beastkin still worshipped him had never sat right with her, and the only reason she had not done anything to forcibly change it was the fact that Aperio had told her that belief would not keep him alive in agony, like she had first assumed. Chellien had died that day; had refused to be saved by Aperio.

Ferio shook her head as she tried to dismiss the memory from her mind. She did not need to remind herself of the first time she had seen her mother have an utterly mortal reaction to anything; first crying, then flying into a rage so vast it had destroyed the realm they were staying in at the time. It was just so… unlike her.

A flick of her wrist caused one of the books to fly from one of the shelves and into her waiting hand. She flipped through it, hoping to find something useful as it was labelled as a diary. Sadly, that was not the case. The book only contained anecdotes about how the writer had been tasked with building a dungeon for their Goddess so that mortals might test their might and be granted a boon. How very fitting for Mother.

And so, as the dungeon core spun slowly, time went on as Ferio used her magic to increase her own perception of it, letting her go through every single book the room had to offer as quickly as possible. If she could find nothing in them, she would have to turn to the crystal itself and figure out how to get at the memories she had learned were stored within. That would be a very last resort, however, as Aperio would undoubtedly dislike it greatly if she did.

Book upon book yielded no further insight into the language Ferio so desperately wanted to understand. For her plans to work, she would need these runes. Her ability to influence reality was severely limited on Verenier, and she had to use the runes to make her vision a reality. Or ask Mother…

Aperio would probably do it, but something within the Goddess of Life and Light did not want to ask for help. It just seemed wrong; a sign of weakness the old Aperio would have frowned upon. The dissonance between the All-Mother she knew and the person she had become was still not something Ferio had come to terms with, especially the unfounded respect Aperio had seemingly developed for the mortals. How bad can living as one have been that she turned out this way?

She was an existence whose very nature was beyond the understanding of both mortal and divine. The All-Mother should do many things, but mingling with mortals as if they were her equal was not one of them. Nothing was ever an equal to Aperio, nor would ever be, no matter how hard she might try to make that happen.

"Why must everything always be gone when I need it?" Ferio mumbled to herself, the words inaudible should anyone have been present. "I should have talked to these people before they went under the first time…"

The people of Ardynshaide — or, as they were known before, 'The Shades of Ardyn' — had always been clever, but had been equally wrought by disaster. Aperio might not have given them much of anything, even her attention, but at the behest of their founder Ardyn Derian they had devoted themselves to the All-Mother and had somehow flourished.

Ferio could not help but smile at the memory of the rather boastful human. He certainly thought of himself more highly than he should have, but in the end, he had managed to at least impress both herself and Aperio a little. That was the entire reason why the city had been allowed to exist in the first place. And why Mother taught them this stupid language.

She had offered to teach her as well at the time, but Ferio had foolishly declined, thinking herself better than that. She knew now that it had been a stupid decision, but asking her mother to rectify the mistake was not something she wanted to do. And I don't even know if she can teach me anymore, either…

///

Ferio tapped her fingers against the crystal in the center of the room. The mana in the dungeon core shuddered slightly at her touch, trying its best to reside on the opposite side of her hand.

"I might not have found what I came for," Ferio said as she tapped at the glass-like surface again. "But I did learn something else." She gave a small laugh. "Who knew that the very first dungeon core was actually made by mortals, then bestowed by mother with a blessing?"

The Goddess of Life and Light circled around the core, her hand never leaving its jagged surface. "Well, you did of course, Mister Derian, right?"

Just like always, the crystal remained silent. Not that Ferio had expected otherwise. As far as she knew, there was little of the man left in the core, perhaps only a tiny sliver; a flickering memory of what he once was. "Not your Soul, however. Mother would have not allowed that even back then."

The Goddess of Life and Light let out a sigh as she removed her hand from the dungeon core. “I will have to speak with you another time, crystal. If I delay much longer, Mother might come looking.”

With those words, Ferio vanished from the dungeon, leaving behind a circle of runes engraved into the stone. Teleportation for her was costly — and the [Point of Return] she had created even more so —  but the knowledge she could gain was more than worth the price.