Altaea – 01

This world is too weird, Altaea thought as she watched Joram train. He was getting close, close enough to be on his own without dying right away anyway.

As much as she liked the life they’d made for themselves here, she had an itch in the back of her mind, constantly reminding her of what she’d lost, of what parts of her were missing.

It was very hard to put into words, as even saying that parts of her were missing was incorrect. It was more that she was… lesser? If what Joram had said was true about her Being having been somehow split apart after she’d been captured by Asmodeus, then that might explain how she was feeling.

She hadn’t been this weak in almost a thousand years, not since before the Test of the Star Stone where she’d grasped divinity through sheer grit and willpower. And a lot of hard work. And that elixir that Gally had made for her “just in case”…. Well, there were more than a few things that contributed to her success in the Test.

But now- again, just as Joram said it would happen!- she had been experiencing dreams of her “other” selves; thoughts, feelings, and knowledge flowing through those transient dreams. Things that she would have never thought possible without magic. Vast constructs flying through “space”, the void between planes- er, planets. But they could travel impossibly fast.

Then there were the warriors that put anything Altaea had known to shame, able to literally crack planets with their mighty blows as their mighty, golden, forms shrugged off the resulting explosions.

Then there were the Time Lords she’d witnessed… well, not quite “witnessed”. Not only had another one of her selves appeared in the same realm that Shepard would be born in, but it also seemed to be a realm/universe where Time Lords also existed. Quite frankly, it was such a mishmash of things that she’d thought were separate, but were somehow linked together, that she was having trouble accepting that it was real.

Then Joram had reluctantly taken out his mostly finished stories, and even the just-started ones.

The… accuracy of those stories was more than a little bit terrifying for her.

Her biggest question was: how? How did he know all that he knew? She, better than anyone else, knew just how mortal and frail he’d been before she’d transformed him into a High Elan. Heck, he’d been fighting a losing battle with his own immune system and had been at the early stages of what they called colon cancer. From what she now knew of various diseases (thanks to the crazy number of textbooks he used to collect), he had had only a year or so left of life before her arrival. He hadn’t even known.

Nor would she ever tell him. It wasn’t important anymore now that his body would never suffer such an ailment again, or even any ailment for that matter.

“Well done, Joram!” She called out as Joram finished Obstacle Course Version 1 for the first time.

The smile that he gave her was probably the brightest smile she’d seen in a century.

- - - - -

One good thing that remained of who she’d been was the simple attribute of not needing to sleep anymore.

Altaea sat up in an armchair, reading on a tablet as Joram slept in his room. Well, meditated to psionically rejuvenate his body and replenish his psionic reserves.

Tomay-to, tomah-to.

She was going over the story where her other self had landed in a galaxy far, far away in the far distant past, according to the vast majority of writings based on that galaxy anyway.

It was eerie.

The “dreams” were coming more frequently now, and if what Joram said was true, then that meant that at least one of her other selves had managed to find another one of her selves and… reunited. Literally.

From what Joram told her, once two of the separated Altaeas came into contact with each other, they would reintegrate into one being, their memories, experiences, and abilities, merging once again.

At the earliest stages, they’d begin to share memories of their experiences, then knowledge gained.

The second part was scarier than the first part, for the knowledge of new technologies was, at times, overwhelming. She’d begun creating Crystal Minds of what was coming through for fear of losing any of that valuable knowledge.

She wasn’t sure if it would happen any time soon, but eventually each of the remaining Altaeas would be able to access the personal realm that each of them had, that was part of their very being.

Altaea shook her head, wondering just how her life had become a story in another universe. Or had she been created by the collective imagination of Joram’s old gaming group?

She nearly laughed then, but stopped herself as she was loath to interrupt Joram’s rest.

Standing up, Altaea placed the tablet on the table where their laptops were located, then went outside.

The cool mountain air was a welcome change to the recycled air in their weird apartment. She would have recycled the entire structure and remade something more comfortable for themselves if it weren’t for Joram’s lingering attachment to the place. To where his daughters had visited with him before their passing.

No, it had only been a year since they’d met. She wouldn’t push.

Well, not that, anyway.

Smirk.

She really was impressed with how well he’d adapted to his physical, and mental, changes. Most newly created elans took years to adjust. It was usually quite the traumatic experience given the body dysmorphia, not to mention the way their brains changed in their basic functions.

Joram would have been considered a treasure back home, she thought as she stared out at the two moons in the sky. Not only had he done well with the Change, but he’d taken to his training with a vigour that surprised her even now. If she hadn’t known better, she’d have said that was a masochistic with he threw himself into his training over and over again.

But they were seeing amazing results because of it.

Altaea had only ever seen progress like his in times of war where people were thrown into one terrible situation after another; crucibles that would either remake the person into something stronger, or burn away those that couldn’t handle it. Or weren’t ready for the horrors they’d face….

Looking over at the obstacle course, version 2, she smiled. He’d soon be finishing this one and she was looking forward to his reaction upon seeing version 3.

Then her smile faded as she recalled why she was so urgently training Joram.

This world was… wrong. She felt the imbalances in it, how even the moons looked all too lonely up in the vast sky.

The memories from her other selves, especially from Lady Altaea, stirred understanding in her here, but it was vastly incomplete. What did the vagaries to time have to do with anything here? Time hadn’t been one of her godly domains, so she was still doing her best to understand the flow of information and memories from Lady Altaea.

She’d learned long ago that there were no coincidences, there was only the Force….

Altaea blinked, then was taken in a vision.

The sky was dark and filled with smoked and heavy clouds. It seemed as though she was once again flying through the sky, her destination a smoking volcano of such ominous appearance that she nearly quailed to go near. But her flight inexorably brought her closer.

The caldera was a jagged thing of black rock, reflecting the lava pushing its was further and further, almost reaching the caldera where a tiny figure stood, shrouded in black.

Altaea couldn’t take her eyes of the figure, its robes whipping back and forth in the wind, yet the hood of their cloak never seemed to slip, always covering the figure’s face.

Then, slowly, as though they had all the time in the world, that person reached to their belt and retrieved two shining hilts, one now held in each hand. The feeling of dread now grew so strong that Altaea wished that she still had her divine protection against fear, for that was exactly what she was now feeling as she stared at that person.

As an understanding began to bud in her mind.

Then, as though the figure could tell what she was thinking, or maybe the winds, the hood of the figure’s cloak fell back in a gust of wind, revealing Altaea staring back at her. Though, instead of her usual sapphire blue eyes she was instead staring at shining, golden, eyes that were filled with such hate, malice, and rage that it took Altaea’s breath away as though she were hit in the gut.

Altaea stumbled then, falling to her knees as the vision ended, leaving her shakings in the cool mountain air.

“What the fu-“

- - - - -

Altaea smiled at Joram as he completed the third obstacle course, shattering records that he knew nothing about. She was incredibly impressed with his growth, in skill, ability, emotionally, and physically.

She’d watched many movies with Joram in the past year and a half, and always loved watching the one with that Arnold guy. With how well she read body language, it was a treat watching his films. That tangent aside, Joram was very much resembling Arnold in his youth. Sure, Joram was much cuter, and his muscles weren’t just there because he knew how to press iron, but….

Where had she been going with that?

Meh.

Joram’s training was fantastic. Another year or two would see him complete his training and become the second gestalt High Elan that she knew of. Herself being the first that is.

But then she was reminded of her own training, and of her own projects. She very nearly frowned.

Then Joram was there, chatting up a storm, so she set her [Schism] to responding to him while she worked through other problems.

She was getting close to completing her virtual intelligence, something to help them after they set out to explore the world. She was also working on a library to contain the staggering amount of knowledge that was now flowing through the almost constant connection she had with the other Altaeas.

Maybe there’s a way to improve [Schism] so that I can get extra minds to help with all this…? She mused, then got back on topic.

There had, apparently, been enough Altaeas rejoining that she now had shared access to their personal realm again, though it was still a bit odd. It was like two bubbles touching, though one was staggeringly larger than the other, hers. That said, she could now sense what was in that other realm, and she’d found some interesting things.

Not to deprive her other self of (possibly) needed resources, she’d tried copying them, but had only managed a partial success. Sure, the ezo hadn’t been too hard to duplicate, but she hadn’t had any luck with the bit of coral that was so infused with Time Principles that it veritably shone like the sun.

She didn’t need all of it, but she hadn’t quite figured out how to get a small piece off yet. She was sure that if she was able to integrate a small fragment of that coral that she’d be able to get a better understanding of the world she and Joram found themselves in. That maybe she’d be able to finally get to the bottom of why the world felt so wrong.

Coming back to the conversation with Joram, she was pleased that he’d suggested a celebratory pizza and Coke.

Yes, there wasn’t anywhere to go out and buy more soda in this world, but it wasn’t too hard to duplicate the molecular structure and make more with an augmented [Modify Matter]. From there, they’d also done some work to recreate some of the ingredients that he’d been missing, and voila! Pizza and Coke!

Now, she knew that neither of them needed to actually eat anything, but it was nice to indulge from time-to-time.

It also helped that pizza was practically a divine food.

- - - - -

Altaea smiled as she finally got a shard of coral off the larger piece in Lady Altaea’s realm.

She then checked where Joram was through her Network and found that he was in the smithy. With a quick check of her recent memories- [Schism] was so damn useful- she recalled that Joram had only just gone in. Meaning that she would have the better part of the day to herself.

She made her way to her favourite chair, walking instead of either flying or just teleporting there. It seemed more appropriate for what was to come, to actually walk.

Having sat down, Altaea summoned the shard of coral and stared at it for a moment before shrugging and absorbing it.

She’d done the same for various magical substances and items over the years, each one had been a different experience. And this one didn’t change that trend. Though it did blow all the rest of them out of the water.

She had, in her youth, experimented with many… mind expanding substances when she was trying to unlock her psionic potential… and for other reasons. That said, this was one of the trippiest experiences that she’d ever had, including fights where she had fought with monsters specialized in mental attacks.

Time went from being what one could call the normal flow, to goings slower than molasses in winter. She watched as what looked like a bee, though much more aggressive-looking with all those spiny protrusions on it, flew by. Well, that was an exaggeration. It almost looked like it was floating in place, its wings frozen in place. After what seemed like an Age, she noticed that the wings had moved a fraction of a millimetre.

Altaea closed her eyes.

Or tried to. Her eyelids moved even slower than the bee’s wings had, making glacial movement seem like a high-speed chase in comparison.

Once her eyes were closed though, Altaea then focussed on sensing anything unusual around her, anything that she could latch on to.

It took another Age or three for a memory to spring into her head, then a particular… flavour of mana made itself known to her. After that, her world veritably exploded with understanding.

Altaea opened her eyes again, this time taking the normal time to do so, but when she perceived her environment she found that everything was still in that slowed, almost paused, state. But that wasn’t all.

It seemed as though she was seeing everything through, what Joram would call, a “filter”. The new mana that she sensed- or maybe that wasn’t the right classification for it- was everywhere, interacting, emanating from, and working upon everything that she could sense.

Then another memory made itself known, and her jaw nearly dropped.

Joram had many of what people called “light novels”, mostly of the wuxia, xianxia, and isekai persuasions. In those, many people described various Laws of their universe. From fire to water, wood and metal. Things like sword intent, arrays, and formations.

What she was seeing, what she was experiencing, was the Law of Time; she was sure of it. And, much like the various spells and powers that dealt with time, she was currently the subject of this particular manifestation of the Law of Time.

With not an inconsiderable amount of trial and error, Altaea eventually managed to change her flow of time to more closely match that of “regular” time, if that were indeed a thing.

The “bee” buzzed past on its way to a patch of flowers Joram was tending. But before it could go too far, Altaea stretched out her… intent? Yeah, that worked. She stretched out her intent and “caught” the bee mid-air where it “stopped” as though caught in an invisible spiderweb.

She then spent the next while studying how the Law of Time moved and flowed around the insect, noticing that the external flows of Time were now hardly touching the thing, though the Time flowing out from it remained the same.

Did that mean that the bee was still aging while being “frozen” in time?

More testing required!

- - - - -

Altaea was pleased with the progress that both she and Joram had made over the last two years. Well, not quite two years, but very close.

He’d managed to finish his monastic training as well as his psionic training. Well, “finish” was a bit much. He was at a place where any improvements would have to come from himself, fortuitous encounters, or inspiration, as he was now firmly in the area of “I’ve finished what they’ve taught me in school, now I just need to experience life to further my understanding of the world!”.

He was also ready for the last step in his transformation to become like her: his personal realm.

It was hard needing to leave, especially after seeing how much love and effort he put into that statuette of the two of them, but she could no longer wait. There was a… pull. Something was calling to her. And something told her that it would be catastrophic to ignore that pull.

So, she needed to leave.

But before that, she needed to make sure that Joram had the help that he needed to survive out there without her to keep an eye on him.

So, she pocketed- stored away- the statuette and looked at Jeeves. He was remarkably well-made, with a sound underlying structure. He’d need to be a wee bit bigger though….

Altaea got to work, adding archive after archive to the psicrystal, all meant to be released at various points in Joram’s development and progress. In went everything that she’d learned from her Other Self that used the Force, while more went in that came from that weird universe that had both Time Lords and Mass Effect in it. Then there was the Asgardian Library that yet Another Self had managed to get a hold of before that “planet” blew up.

So on and so forth.

Was this a lot? Absolutely.

Was it necessary? Not really, but she was more than a little nervous about what called to her and what the outcome might entail.

And so, she dumped everything that she knew into the libraries being build into Jeeves. Well, it was being a bit over-written at the moment, so “Jeeves” was sent back to Joram’s psyche so that he wouldn’t lose that part of himself.

And that was how the Altaea V.I. was imprinted onto Joram’s psicrystal along with everything that every Altaea out there knew and had learned in their time apart. It was, quite frankly, a staggering amount of knowledge, schematics, blueprints, and anything else she could put in there.

Because….

Well, because she had high hopes that Joram, with everything that she was able to leave with him, would one day be able to follow her home.

She didn’t know what the future would hold, nor did she really want to know, but she’d hedge her bets as best she could in the hopes of seeing Joram again one day. That included leaving anything else along her way that she hoped he would be able to find.

Altaea shook her head, not wanting to have those sorts of expectations, but instead just hoping. Hoping that he would really follow after her. Hoping that he’d survive this very violent world. Hoping that his heart wouldn’t change too much over however-long it would take him to find her.

Deep breath in, long exhale.

Altaea closed her eyes, refocussing her thoughts on what she still needed to accomplish.

Joram needed his personal realm made and stabilized. He needed some resources to make sure that he’d have enough to get by with. And he needed that guide/companion/teacher/mentor/friend that she hoped Altaea V.I. would be for him.

She looked down at the crystal in her hand and smiled.

This was the best that she could do for him.

It would have to do.