Carol POV:

I was living an easy life before Thomas showed up. I was the apex predator of this little town of horrors. I didn't do very much outside of making sure it didn't fall to the occasional attack from the north. The feral monsters in the southern jungle are loners, so the town defends itself against those incursions.

Thomas' arrival threw my way of life into disarray the moment he walked through my door. It's only been two weeks, give or take a day, but it feels like forever now that I have so many memories in my head.

I was boredly transcribing one of the few scrolls from the first floor into one of my enchanted books. It's such a hassle, but even if I read the scroll, the knowledge wouldn't populate into the book. I had to do all of this by hand so that I would have instant access to the stored information. Anyway, he walked in and I felt like a ball of mana burst inside my head.

The knowledge kept flowing in and I was incapacitated by the amount and variance in subject matter. I tried to absorb everything as quickly as possible and get my faculties under control. The more of Thomas' knowledge I absorbed, the more I understood that there was more to learn. It was like each minor lesson was just a step in the direction of more profound knowledge. At the same time as I had been picking up lessons on the sciences of a foreign world, I was constantly assaulted by random bits of trivia.

It was an unending flow of raw information. Atoms parts, elements, molecules, the laws that governed them and their movements. Histories of countries I'd never heard of. The concept that there were things beyond the sky above my hometown. Metals and machines became common knowledge to me, computers were combined with this knowledge and it became something more complex called an automaton. Sources of power; steam, electricity, combustion, fission, and fusion; filled my head.

Music and bright lights, famous poems and speeches, this knowledge was addictive and I struggled not to bite my tongue as I hungrily absorbed everything under the pain. A life story of a century old man filled my head through all of this. I saw him age and grow from childhood, I lived his every moment in high speed. I felt his joys and pains with him and lived through his sorrows just as he did.

In the thousand years that I had been constantly reincarnating and passing my soul into my only egg I had lived through less than this man of only a hundred years. I had learned so little in my centuries, by comparison, that I could claim to have learned nothing.

I was approaching the end of his life, I was scared. I wasn't scared of him, I was paralyzed by the thought that I would have to experience death. I was frightened at losing my newfound treasure trove of otherworldly knowledge. I understood that the memories and lessons given at this moment were but his surface thoughts. If these were the surface, then what must such a wise and well-learned keep to himself. I had to immediately banish the urge to torture it out of him, I saw methods of torture in his knowledge that I knew would break me in under an hour. I couldn't possibly break through such a person's mind in less than ten thousand years, but he was an old man and I wouldn't have more than a few months by my estimation.

The scene changed again as he was lowered into a black cocoon. I was beginning to think that my fear of his demise would be realized. I gulped my own nervous saliva as I awaited the inevitable end. I couldn't close my eyes even if I wanted to...

That's when I saw her, I saw The Goddess. She was speaking to him and I heard her voice. This man treated my diety, the one I hold most high, as one would treat a slightly unsavory meal. He spoke to her without any sense of awe, and even insulted her to her face. I fully expected this man who is named Thomas to be struck down and reduced to dust, but she deferred to him!

I trembled and fell from my web in my dome twisting one of my spider appendages in the process. The scene kept playing as I writhed in agony. The old man ordered The Goddess to create for him a body and then organize them to his whim. He selected a form he found fitting and The Goddess placed his soul into that form. He spoke a few more words to her in a way that would surely offend her, but SHE BLESSED HIM!?

I feebly tried to wrap my pain addled mind around the concept of a diety, no THE diety deferring to a feeble old man. I failed miserably at this, but I understood that if this man had that much power, to order around the greatest of this world's gods, offending him would be my greatest(and last) mistake.

I made my decision then, I won't serve him, but I'll give him what knowledge I have without fighting or trying to injure him. If I do well he may take me in as a confidant and bless me with even more of his otherworldly wisdom.

I pulled an opal dodecahedron from my satchel and healed my mangled leg. I sensed mana being used in my library and sped off to intercept him before he demolished my home.