A Jaded Life

Chapter 1330

“Why does the Mother share your appearance?” Jess asked, after we sat there in the cold for a bit, just relaxing quietly.

“Talk about a loaded question,” I chuckled, my mind racing to come up with a good explanation without giving away things I didn’t want to share. “And the explanation is a little odd, especially as I’m uncertain how exactly it has happened,” I shrugged, noticing the look of disbelief in her eyes.

“I mean, I have a good idea which events led to it, but I don’t know the mechanisms, or if there was some sort of trigger-point, for lack of a better word.” I paused, having made up my mind regarding what information I was willing to share. “What do you know about Legacies and the Road to Purgatory?” I asked, curious how much of that information had filtered through to the various layers of society. Jess was essentially a normal person, someone who may have been a student or something before the Change, and not one of those chosen to participate in the Road to Purgatory Beta. Maybe she had been a gamer and just unlucky, or her interests had been focused elsewhere.

“Nothing, really. I’d need some context,” she admitted, though the look of confusion had already given her ignorance away.

“About three years ago, there was a bit of excitement. A company called Pantheon Entertainment introduced a complete paradigm shift in video gaming, or so they said. They demonstrated a new technology, commonly called the Capsule, allowing the person lying within to experience a completely immersive virtual reality. It sounded like something out of science fiction, and, as you may expect, people were immediately interested. It was, after all, something completely new, something that promised the greatest escape from the usual, boring routine,” I explained, feeling somewhat nostalgic. Not that I would want to trade my current life for those monotonous days, but there had been some advantages and pleasures. I had managed to recreate a lot, but society as a whole was sorely lacking now.

“Then they showcased Road to Purgatory, and gave out invites to the Beta, making it sound like a promotion of their new technology,” I continued, and now, Jess started to snort with repressed laughter.

“Really?” she asked, her eyes wide with disbelief and shining with mirth, “The Pantheon invited people to walk the Road to Purgatory?”

“Hindsight is twenty/twenty here,” I returned her amusement with a sardonic grin, “But yes, I suspect they gave us some rather strong clues, though those clues only became obvious in hindsight. Maybe a few people suspected things, I think I recall somebody posting about that, but nobody believed them. I mean, it sounds crazy, even now, with everything that happened, it’s hard to believe, isn't it?”

“You mean that literal deities might have opened up a company called Pantheon Entertainment to, what? Prepare people for the apocalypse by having them play a game called Road to Purgatory?” She paused for a moment, shaking her head in disbelief at the absurdity, “Would that make this Purgatory?”

“I honestly have no idea, and it doesn’t matter too much, does it? I mean, we are in our current situation, whether we want to call it purgatory or just our new normal, it changes little. Especially as I don’t think we can get out of it easily,” I shrugged once more, getting a look of agreement.

“Doesn't matter,” I shook my head, returning to the original topic, “Road to Purgatory was more than a game, as you may expect. I never managed to investigate one of those capsules properly; somehow, there was always something else that needed to be done, or the capsules we managed to track down were already destroyed, but I believe that these capsules were somehow transferring, or maybe mirroring, the souls of those within to another world. The world of Mundus. There, those with access to the capsules were incarnated into the characters they created, like mine, a Firn Elf called Morgana.” I noticed her eyes going wide again as I said that. ”Sounds familiar?”

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“So, you, what? You get to play, believing it to be a game, gaining levels and everything, only to then become your character?” Her voice sounded rather annoyed at the idea, making me shake my head in denial.

“It sadly wasn’t that easy. We've ‘only’ received the Legacy of our characters, for good or ill. The Legacy of Morgana came with two divine complications, namely a Divine Curse from a deity you know quite well and a divine Blessing from Morgana. And that’s where the whole saga around the Mother starts.”

“So, you are saying that you, somehow, aroused Lady Hecate’s interest on Mundus and, in turn, She decided that you would make a good, what?” Jess asked, after I finished the initial explanation, about Lady Hecate herself, the relationship I initially had with her and the first few shrines I had set up.

“Honestly, it might sound a little arrogant, but I believe that the interest mainly stemmed from future potential. Given that she’s the Goddess of Magic, especially arcane magic, it might just be a case that she’s trying to make me live up to my potential so I can expand the overall state of arcane magic,” I shrugged, still uncertain what exactly motivated a deity to act the way she did. “Or I might be a lab rat, getting poked and prodded to see what happens under specific motivations and with certain incentives,” I paused for a second, before shaking my head, “I honestly don’t believe that that’s the case, but I suppose it’s not impossible.”

“And you are okay with that?” she asked, sounding honestly confused.

“Of course not,” I snorted, “But I can hardly walk up to a Goddess and insist that she explains her motivations to me. Mainly because I have no idea how to walk up to a Goddess, but even if I could, I have no doubt that a being with more experience than humans could gather in a hundred lifetimes would be able to deceive me, if they so wished. So, I simply accept the current state of affairs and keep pushing the boundaries of my own magical abilities. I don’t think I could sit back and just stagnate; it’s not in my nature. I’d turn insane in a few weeks if I tried to limit myself to just things I had already learned. I need to push myself and advance,” I admitted, noticing a slightly worried look on Jess’s face.

“You won’t stay here, will you?” she asked, likely having realised that the things I did here in the village were routine and boring, but necessary.

“Not in the long run, no,” I admitted, “Even if I wanted to, I don’t think performing my experiments here would be wise. Sometimes, I mess up, and things get quite interesting all of a sudden,” I gave her an amused grin. “Let’s just say, there’s a reason why the witches of old had their cabins in the woods, and sorcerers had their towers far from civilisation. Makes it easier when things get explosively interesting.”

She chuckled at that, but I could see that she wasn’t too happy with the idea.

“That sounds dangerous,” she grumbled, only to glare a little when I just laughed at the idea.

“Of course it is,” I was still laughing as I spoke, “But that’s the only thing you can advance. Try out different things, write down what works and what doesn’t, look for patterns in the outcome and try to draw general conclusions from that. Then, experiment some more to disprove your conclusions, until you either run out of ideas on how to disprove them, or you manage. If you manage, you start all over again or adapt your model. That’s just how progress works.”

“Fair,” she accepted after a few moments of consideration, “But you were about to explain how the Mother came to share your image,” she put the conversation back on track.

“Not much to say about it. Hecate has three aspects: the Maiden, the Mother and the Crone. All three are enshrined in the places I set up. However, their actual appearance wasn’t decided by me. That was, well, I’d call it divinely inspired, even if it sounds incredibly pretentious,” I admitted with a chuckle. “And no, I don’t know why Hecate decided to use my face as the face of the Mother,” I added, forestalling the obvious question. I had a few ideas, but nothing I’d consider concrete.

“I won’t claim anything along the lines of ‘I see’, or that I understand. But thank you for sharing that,” Jess told me, looking just as confused as I was regarding that topic.

“However, there was another question I wanted to ask you, when I first dragged you out here,” she started after a few seconds of silence, looking already somewhat defeated, “And I will, even if I think I know the answer already,” she paused once more, “Would you be willing to step up as my child’s Godmother?”