Cosmic secrets — Ferris

Maribelle gapes at me for several seconds, then she closes her eyes and takes a deep breath.

“I see, so that’s why Solus picked her,” she says.

As expected, she knows something. At the very least, she probably knows more than me.

I should just ask.

“What do you know about all this?”

She sighs, her expression deathly serious.

“Everyone but Ferris and Ellie, get out of the room. Anyone other than them who hears what I am about to say will undoubtedly be smote by the gods,” she says.

The gathered people nervously but efficiently leave the room, leaving the three of us alone.

“What do you two know of the calamity’s promise?” Maribelle asks.

“I think Solus mentioned it, but I don’t know anything about it,” Ferris says,

“Never heard of it,” Ellie says.

Maribelle nods.

“Well, the calamity is the most powerful being in existence. He is sleeping right now, and has been for millions of years.”

Millions of years? Suddenly the prospect of dying when he wakes up is a lot less frightening.

“Anyway, The calamity’s promise is one of the calamity’s manifestations. It automatically activates repeatedly as he sleeps. The cooldown is a little over two thousand years.”

That explains the cycle Zack was talking about.

“What does it do?” I ask.

“It starts a war, though it’s almost like a game. The rules are simple. All the beings that the calamity considers human, which includes the dragons, will receive a sort of spiritual token. These tokens can be willingly discarded, and they are beacons for divination magic. If you have a token, you can’t hide from those who wish to find you. The winner of the war is decided when only one token remains, when all but one human either discarded theirs or is dead.”

“I see. That’s why the gods make heroes. They want us to participate in this war,” Ellie says.

Maribelle nods.

“What happens to the winner?” I ask.

“If they are not a divine hero, they receive a personal universe in which they are omnipotent, but from which they can never leave.”

Wow. That is just ridiculous.

“What if they are divine heroes?” Ellie asks.

“The seeds of power have a secret secondary effect, beyond just granting strength. They are designed to destroy the prize when it is received, transforming it into raw spiritual power that the god can absorb. A winning hero’s god doesn’t get a personal universe, but they get the next best thing, an enormous increase to their personal power.”

I frown.

“What is the point of it all?” I ask.

“It’s bait,” Maribelle says.

“Bait?” Ellie asks.

“The calamity does not fear the primordials. They have been around for long enough that if they were ever going to surpass him in power, they would have already done it. The only thing the calamity fears is people like himself, like me.”

“I see, it’s a peace offering,” Ellie says.

Maribelle nods.

“Exactly. Those who seek omnipotence would obviously be tempted by the prize. He even made it so that the victor can take a few friends with them into their personal universe. The calamity’s promise exists for no other reason than to rid the world of anyone who could ever pose a threat to the calamity’s supremacy.”

“Are you tempted?” I ask her.

“Of course not. I hate being manipulated. I plan to discard my token as soon as I get it.”

“So you’re not participating in the war then?” I ask.

“No, I am. I promised Bezvillia that I would set her free and help her find a hero candidate.”

“Why do you want to kill me then? Just because you want this Bezvillia to win?” Ellie asks.

“No. It’s because I expect Solus to order you to kill me or my friends eventually. Sorry, Ellie, but I refuse to underestimate the threat you pose to me. Solus is a heavenly godking, one of the ten most powerful beings in existence, and you have access to a part of that power. It will only be a few years before you’re capable of killing century-old dragons with a flick of your fingers.”

Ellie furrows her brow in confusion.

“Why would Solus order me to kill you if you’re discarding your token anyway?”

“The war isn’t what’s important. To the gods, spiritual power is almost like currency. Think of them as participating in the war just because it’s a chance at a windfall. It’s not a life or death matter to them. Me though, I will eventually be a threat to their very existence. When I discard my token, the gods will see it as proof that I truly do intend to stay in this universe and surpass the calamity. That is when they will seriously start to do everything they possibly can to kill me.”

“What if I just make a spirit declaration to never betray you?” Ellie asks.

Maribelle frowns, thinking quietly for several seconds.

“Fine. If you do that, then for the time being, I will not kill you.”

Ellie nods. She closes her eyes and her aura surges.

‘I will never betray Maribelle.’

“Thank you,” Maribelle says.

“Of course. It’s really no big deal,” Ellie says.

Finally, some of the tension leaves the room. I let out the breath that I had been holding in.

A long silence fills the air. There is a question on my mind. I am worried about what Maribelle will think of me if I ask it, but my curiosity has reached a breaking point.

“Maribelle, do you know if the calamity will consider me human? Will I receive a token?”

“Just to be sure, the phoenix primogen is reincarnating through you?” She asks, shaking her head with an unreadable expression on her face.

“Yes, I think so.”

“You won’t receive a token.”

I nod. Solus had not treated me like a human, so I had expected this. Still, I cannot help but feel a strange twinge of disappointment.

“Though, like all primordials, you can make a hero,” Maribelle says.

Huh, I wasn’t expecting that.

Hold on. All primordials?

“Do the krakens and nemata make heroes too?” I ask.

“The nemata don’t do anything, pretty much ever. The krakens though, they do participate in the war. They place their seeds of power inside undead beings of their own creation, which just barely manage to count as human under the calamity’s rules.”

Ellie gulps.

“So when this war happens, the gods will walk the earth, krakens will emerge from the seas with their undead monstrosities, and dragons will start flying around killing any humans who didn’t discard their tokens?” Ellie asks.

“Yeah, that pretty much sums it up,” Maribelle says.

I feel sick.

“It will be the end of the world as we know it,” I say.

“Oh, yes, definitely. Enjoy the next five years,” Maribelle says.

“Only five years?!” Ellie exclaims.

“Yup. It’s not a lot of time. There’s so much to do.”

I take a deep breath, trying and failing to remain calm. This is just too much.

Hold on, I still haven’t learned what the sun god was talking to me about!

“Maribelle, what do you know about the history between the phoenix primogen and Solus?”

“Uh, yeah. He has a thing for you. Think of him like a clingy ex-girlfriend.”

Ellie snorts with laughter.

“Seriously?” She asks.

Maribelle shrugs.

I shake my head, not having any idea what to do with this information.

“So, yeah. Any more questions?” Maribelle asks.

“Can you tell me more about the phoenix primogen?” I ask.

“Creator of all life on earth, former most powerful being in existence, reincarnates every once in a while, returning to power, only to get utterly curb-stomped, tortured, and humiliated by the calamity practically as soon as he wakes up. That’s about it.”

“But that won’t be for millions of years, right?”

“Who knows? He could wake up tomorrow for all we know. Don’t say his name.”

“What’s his name?” I stupidly ask.

“Never mind,” I say a moment later.

“So if that’s all, I’m going to pick these chunks of the ceiling out of our food and invite everyone back in. I still want my feast,” Maribelle says.

“I guess if I have any more questions I can ask you later,” I say.

“Great,” Maribelle says.

True to her word, she starts carefully picking the chunks of ceiling out of the food. It messes up the presentation of the dishes, but she doesn’t seem to care. Ellie and I get up and help.

“Uh, Maribelle?” Ellie says.

“Yeah?”

“If we tell anyone about the coming apocalypse, the gods will smite them, right?”

“Probably.”

Ellie frowns, looking down.

“Ugh, I’m really terrible at keeping secrets,” she says.

“Me too. I almost told Cynthia about it by accident once. Just try your best,” Maribelle says.

“That’s not how she died, right?” Ellie asks.

“No. Theonius killed her with his hammer manifestation.”

“Oh.”

Maribelle places her hand on Ellie’s shoulder.

“I’m sorry,” she says.

“It’s okay. We weren’t really the best of friends. I think she secretly despised me.” Ellie says.

Maribelle snorts with laughter.

“It wasn’t a secret. After that lunch with you, she spent the whole afternoon complaining about how you enchanted the toilets at the academy.”

“Yeah, I got her good, didn’t I?” Ellie says.

“You did,” Maribelle says.

Gods, I don’t even want to remember that story. It’s just too gross to even think about.

“I’m looking forward to going to school. It seems like it will be fun,” Maribelle says.

“Why are you going to school?” Ellie asks.

“To set Bez free, I need to find and destroy an artifact called the Grey Talisman. I’m hoping that the archeology department at Salsvale academy may have some leads on it. Cynthia did say that they have some eldritch artifacts and stuff, so it’s worth checking out.”

“You only have a few years though,” I say.

“Yeah. If I get bored there or decide it’s not worth my time, I’ll go look elsewhere.”

“You should probably talk to headmaster Gladrius. Just keep in mind that he’s one of the most irritating people on the planet,” Ellie says.

“Yeah, I’ll do that.”

“Looks like we’re pretty much done cleaning up,” I say, picking out the last piece of ceiling from a bowl of assorted fruit.

“I’ll go let everyone know it’s safe to come back in,” Maribelle says.

She teleports away.

Ellie lets out a breath and collapses into her chair.

“Your sister is fucking terrifying. How did she get so much stronger in just a week?”

“I have no idea, honestly.”

“I swear, I was less frightened talking to Solus than when she said she might kill me.”

“Her voice is like the demon’s,” I say.

Ellie swallows.

Throughout the whole week of travel from Telluria to Salsvale, the topic of the demon or what happened to us in its lair never came up once. We only talked about trivial things, or stories from our past. There was an unspoken agreement that nobody was ready to talk about it.

“When she asked me if I was a hero, there was this pressure. She made me answer her question, just like how the demon made Talia…” She trails off.

“We probably should have asked her about that,” I say.

“Probably.”

Suddenly, the door opens up and Maribelle comes bursting in, leading a procession of people. There’s Joseph Valbeck, Samuel Silverleaf, a few other High Lords, the Butler formerly known as Willow, and several scantily clad maids.

“Let’s eat!” Maribelle exclaims enthusiastically.

She sits down and starts digging in to the food. The others regard Ellie and I nervously, but they sit down as well and begin to dine. Nobody is talking, though.

“Oh, I almost forgot, Mom said to tell you you’re terrible,” Maribelle says.

“What? You talked to Natalia?”

“Yeah, she’s pissed because you forgot to send her a letter and I fell into the bottomless rift.”

“I should just go visit her. I could regrow her finger now.”

“I can teleport us there after dinner if you want. It only took me two days to run back.”

“If you can teleport there, why do you have to run back?”

“I can only teleport long distances to places that I’m really familiar with, so Mom’s inn, and maybe Bezvillia’s prison, but I’m obviously a little hesitant to try teleporting across dimensions into a spatial pocket designed to trap a god. I only learned spatiomancy a few days ago.”

Samuel Silverleaf coughs, choking on a piece of food for a couple seconds before he manages to swallow it.

“I could probably get you a teleportation talisman keyed to Salsvale,” Ellie says.

“Really? That would be great.” Maribelle says.

“I guess we’re visiting Natalia tonight,” I say.

The dinner continues, mostly in awkward silence. After we are all full, Ellie runs off, coming back a half hour later with a small circular clay talisman.

“Break this, and it will take you straight to Salsvale’s teleportation trap,” she says.

“Oh right, the teleportation trap. I’m gonna have that thing dismantled. Bad memories,” Maribelle says.

“Well, are you ready to go, Maribelle?” I ask, taking the talisman from Ellie.

“Yup,” she says.

“See you later,” Ellie says, waving goodbye.

Maribelle grabs my wrist and space warps around us.

Suddenly I smell Natalia’s curry again.

I missed it so much.

“Hi Mom! I’m home!” Maribelle shouts.

Natalia comes crashing around the corner as she runs over, a worried look on her face. She is holding a large leek.

Then, she sees me and her face turns into a scowl.

“You!”

She stomps over to me, and smacks me on the head with the leek.

“Are! Terrible! Terrible! Terrible!”

Each word is punctuated by another smack from the leek.

“Yes, I heard,” I say.

“Say sorry, Ferry,” Maribelle says.

I can’t help but cringe a little, both because of the fact that I have to apologize, and because Maribelle’s words give me a compulsion to act on them, just like the demon’s did.

“Sorry, Natalia, for letting Maribelle fall into the bottomless rift, and for not sending a letter.”

Natalia hugs me. She starts crying into my shoulder. I feel a little bit awkward.

“Why do you never call me Mom?”

I stop breathing. Did she consider herself my mother this whole time?

I have been clinging to my past so desperately, to the future that my mother wanted for me, but now I know that the world is ending in five years.

I can let go just a little, right?

I grab her hand, golden flames taking just a moment to regrow her missing finger.

“Because I was scared, Mom.”

Book 1, END.