With a shuddering breath, I took in my surroundings. Sybil laid next to me, her tail still curled around my own, stirring at my own movement. Some members of the swarm were beginning to wake, a comforting chorus of hissing, shrieking reptiles. I looked over, around, verifying that the swarm hadn’t diminished in number overnight, that my companions were still in my vicinity, that my dream was just that, a dream.

Finally calmed enough to begin to think consciously, I thought about the dream that had so forcefully roused me. Was it a dream? Was it prophetic? I wondered if it was actually just some sort of symptom of the stresses of the last months, and if it was, after all, just a nightmare. Before, in my past life, there had been some Speakers who could foretell weather or certain catastrophic events like earthquakes or hurricanes, I’d heard of some who understood how to foresee other things, but that was always a working brought about by certain, highly complex Phrases, never a dream. That said, though, there wasn’t any harm in trying to understand the warnings given at the end.

“Beware the forked tongue. The incredulous are the eternal foe of the progressive.” Forked tongue, a liar, a deceiver. In my dream I’d been less lucid, but now that I was awake, I clearly remembered Sybil’s words from last night: “a fork-tongued menace”. Could Farahlia be the forked tongue that my dream was warning about? Or would it be another, maybe a Moonchild had been lying to us, like Ana or the Allmother? And who is this incredulous one? Though it may have been egotistical of me to think so, I considered myself the progressive in this equation, so who was my eternal foe? I mulled it over for a moment, but came to no conclusion and moved to the next.

“Beware the primordial adversary. The prey return to the ancient hunting grounds.” I figured this would be a longstanding enemy of the keelish, or maybe the Keel. Would that be an enslaved race that rose up against the ancient empire? Or could it be something else entirely, something I knew nothing about? But since these two phrases were grouped, does that mean that the prey has something to do with this “primordial adversary”? What was the prey? Could it be… the keelish? While we were troublesome and dangerous while still not being apex predators, we were far from prey, even when considering things whose evolutionary traits were tailored towards direct superiority over keelish. If that was the case, what kind of thing actively “preyed” on us? Again, the thought stumped me before too long, and I moved to the final phrase and warning.

“Beware the gods. They are inconstant and have been since their inception.” If these warning were, in fact, prophetic in some way, then this warning was the most troubling, before betrayal, eternal foes, and ancient enemies. I’d never much concerned myself with the gods, at least not directly. The Veushten way was simply to think that the gods existed, fulfilled their roles, and didn’t much care for the creatures that inhabited the worlds they had created, and I’d largely adopted that same mentality in this new life, using the gods’ names only to curse others. But, if my dream was to be trusted, then the gods were real, powerful, and, worst of all, flighty. I didn’t worry much about the last section of the warning, hinting at the beginning of the gods, but instead the realization that the way that the world currently worked was potentially subject to change at the will of omnipotent, opinionated beings.

[System], you have anything to add or help me with on this?

[The Administrator states that you have sufficient information at present to make educated decisions according to your own thought process and the information that is available to you. They express their regret at being unable to bestow greater clarity upon you, but are happy that you have earned the [Title]: Chosen of Nievtala, since that will allow you to develop a greater understanding of the world at large in the coming days and years.]

Wait, the [Title]--!

[Title: Chosen of Nievtala acquired. Status updated.]

… Well, that answers that question.

[Status:

Name: Ashlani

Race: Sonic Khatif Swarm Alpha

Titles: Killer of Redael

Fahvalo of the Moonchildren

NEW: Chosen of Nievtala

Current quests:

–Destroy or subjugate a non-keelish people. Must have a population of at least 1000 individuals and person-level intelligence. Rewards: Constitution, Strength +10, Agility +15, Intelligence, Magic +8.

--Speak the Keel Words of Power. Rewards: Constitution, Strength, Agility +10, Intelligence, Magic +7. Hidden Rewards also available.

—Hunt, kill, and devour 5 new species. Rewards: Varies by evolutionary level of prey. Progress:2/5

Stats:

-Constitution: 98+20=118

-Strength: 111+20=131

-Agility: 117+20=137

-Intelligence: 125+20=145

-Magic: 107+20=127

Skills:

Innate Leadership—cannot evolve

Innervating Address–cannot evolve

Debilitating Diatribe–cannot evolve

Pack Tactics—current evolutionary progress: 7/10

Combatant's Bloodlust—current evolutionary progress: Hidden

True Dominance—current evolutionary progress: 2/10

Raptor’s Eyes--cannot evolve

Improved Sonilphon—current evolutionary progress: Hidden

Evolutionary foresight

-Sonic Keel Alpha—Requirements: Acquire the Keel Words of Power, Receive the Blessing of Nievtala (Acquired)

-Khatif Heretic–Requirements: learn how to bend the governing laws to your will.

Other evolutions possible, but not currently foreseen.]

I softly gasped as I looked at the benefit given by my newest [Title]. Was there anything else that it offered?

[Effects of Title: “Chosen of Nievtala are: +20 to all stats, and the ability to receive divinely guided inspiration.]

So… was that dream “divinely guided inspiration”?

No answer. There might have been a subtle one that appeared some time after that, because I was suddenly distracted by a searing not-quite pain in my chest.

I reared back, trying to see what was causing me this discomfort, and could barely see something emblazoning itself on my chest. It tingled and burned in the way that standing too close to a fire did–uncomfortable, unpleasant, but nowhere near approaching the scorching, all-consuming agony from the day before. At my disconcerted movements and noises, Sybil roused and looked up at me, her eyes quickly going wide.

“What is happening to you?”

I responded, still patting at my chest confusedly, “I wish I knew. Can you see something?” I worried about the discomfort escalating into pain and agony, but I was happy to realize that there was no increase in the sensation and in fact, it was slowly decreasing.

“There… A spear shaped marking just appeared on your chest.”

“What?”

Looking down as best as I could, I recognized the head of a spear pointing up at my head upon my chest.