Amdirlain's PoV - Outlands

Alone again, Amdirlain's mind churned until she twitched at a nearby monster's yell. Freshly emerged from the Plane's landscape, it seemed intent on drawing foes to it to slake its hunger.

Billions of orcs died. How many trillions will die now that you've given effective weapons against the nests to the orcs and elves?

Amdirlain mentally sighed and countered her own mental chastisement.

You didn't cause it, and how many more billions of orcs would have died every decade in those miserable conditions? Now, billions are safe, getting healed, and will receive new homes; and the nests will be stopped from their endless xenocidal march. Don't get on a guilt trip now.

A Gate opened to the Material Plane, and Amdirlain stepped through to float in the void of space. As she floated, she considered the possibilities arising from the conflicts between the Formithian nests.

"I've given the hormonal methods to the orcs and shared all the methods with Danu. Though the memories from the plinth are gone, I need to see if I can improve the way I've handled the melding of my various lifetimes," Amdirlain projected to Sarah.

"Enjoy your closed-door meditation. Where are you going to hole up?"

"Out beyond the stars."

"Alright, see you when you resurface, sweetie. I'll yell hard if there are problems we can't handle on Qil Tris."

Amdirlain pulled her form back to the remembered framework, looking at the wires and nodes with a grimace.

Should I write a song about it? Working through what Jal'krin composed helped me put some things into perspective.

She created a bubble and atmosphere to hear at the normal octave ranges. Once done, she tapped on the wires stretched between the nodes in her arm and listened to their tone and pitch.

If my flesh already has boundaries and limits, isn't it already telling me all that I might be? What can follow that?

"If my flesh already has boundaries and limits, isn't it already telling me all that I might be?"

"But what if the soul writes in infinite symbols, carving out meaning where matter can't see?"

"I chase through the silence for something unspoken, a whisper of freedom beneath every scar."

"Maybe the body is only the token, not the whole journey, but just where we start."

"Even if my flesh already has boundaries and limits, isn't it gently revealing my beginnings, not my end?"

"A shape not to trap, but to trace what can grow. A map of where I start—not how far I can go."

"What will I be as I rise through the changes, leaving behind all the fear and the blame?"

"If the soul sings in colours the body can't capture, then maybe I'm more than this moment can name."

"The past is a shadow that's fading behind—I'm chasing the light with a wide-open mind."

"Even if my flesh already has boundaries and limits, isn't it gently revealing my beginnings, not my end?"

"A shape not to trap, but to trace what can grow. A map of where I start—not how far I can go."

Something simpler? The symbolism of boundaries defining my limits seems the wrong approach.

"If my flesh has edges, lines I see, maybe it's shaping the best of me." "Not a cage, not the end—just where I start again."

"I'm more than this skin, more than this frame, learning to love it, just the same."

"These limits don't define me—they just hint at all I might be."

"So let me grow, let me breathe, I'm only starting to believe…"

"All that I might be."

Amdirlain relaxed and tried different deliveries of the words, playing with the tempo and beat. Shifting them from questioning, she played around, oblivious to showcasing her masterful voice. Caught up in the song, she didn't notice the exact moment that the reinforced Ki of the sigil in her essence loosened. The wires came free and dissolved into her essence; the surrounding void grew bright as Ki joined essence spinning in harmony.

With her focus on accepting all the faces she'd carried, the limits she'd placed on lifetimes didn't shatter; instead, they dissolved.

The essence and Ki continued to spin, the volumes of each shifting in intensity as the Ki thickened and rejoined its source, the process refining both as it went on. The process progressed at a glacial pace at first, mere scraps in the vast mass of accumulated energy.

Life needed sustenance and growth just as souls grew wiser and transformed through the activities they took part in. The alienness within so many of them led her to isolate the memories in old lifetimes to avoid conflict. Now, as she drew the Ki inward, it bridged the disconnects. The constants in life, regardless of their form, provided anchor points. Birth, the first moments of self-awareness, the need for sustenance—irrespective of its form—and finally death, were just some fundamentals in all her lifetimes, scaffolding and bridges that hinted at further potential for growth. Eventually, she surfaced from the meditative state with a heightened understanding of herself.

[Refined shards:

Transformation: +10

Life: +11

Soul: +14

Ki pool refined to essence:

Essence: +3,963,921]

I was looking for inspiration from outside, yet it's my various natures that need refinement, not what's around me. The world lets me see what is inside me, for better or worse, so that I can improve upon it. I'm getting out of balance at this rate. I'll need to find insight into why I enjoy creation.

"How long was I out of it?"

"Eight months of closed-door meditation, sweetie."

Amdirlain swallowed hard. "It didn't seem that long."

"You took the time you needed. How are you feeling?"

"Better. I refined my Ki into essence successfully and forged connections between my assorted lifetimes. They're less isolated from me than they used to be."

Sarah appeared beside her, wrapping her in a fierce hug. "I missed you."

Amdirlain leaned into her, holding her close. "I didn't expect so much time to pass."

"You were floating in your own little atmospheric bubble," Sarah said, waving at the surrounding void.

"I was singing while meditating," Amdirlain replied sheepishly. "There is something impactful about hearing the words."

"Whatever helps you relax."

"How have things been going?"

"Qil Tris has stabilised, no sign of silvery scales having worshippers yet. The dwarven cities took the position that they'd consider attacks on any faith as an attack upon the dwarves."

"Isn't that risky for them?"

"They're in a lot better state than when we went there. The dwarven Pantheon sent dwarves from various worlds to teach them and bolster their genetic diversity. Coupled with the trials you gave them access to for resources, the enchantments in their cities are on par with the Catfolk now."

"I might take another trip back there."

"True, you haven't had your ride in a spaceship yet. One thing to be aware of, you stirred up a lot of folks on Qil Tris and grew all our churches."

"That still feels odd even thinking about," Amdirlain admitted.

"Yeah, it certainly is odd for me as well."

Amdirlain touched her forehead to Sarah's. "Mind if we go back to that first barren world again? I've got a better feeling about refining shards now that I've got a better foundation."

"I can handle everything I need from there." Sarah squeezed her reassuringly.

The pair appeared on the same barren hillside they'd dwelt on after Amdirlain's return. The microorganisms that Amdirlain had worked to create had spread far and wide throughout the sea, and already showed signs of mutation from solar radiation. Sarah released her house, which swivelled back and forth before taking up a position on the ridgeline, deploying only its basic weapons but full shields.

Amdirlain moved to the front porch and sat on the swing seat with her feet tucked beneath her.

Sarah curled up beside her, looping an arm across her shoulders. "How have you got your past lives under control?"

"I've not controlled them so much as recognised some initial common ground between lives," Amdirlain created a line of microbes among the water now teeming with life, her mind pondering on the thin connections all her lives now shared.

In the months that followed, the changes in her essence proved their worth, delicate insights that had previously slipped away instead gained a meaningful weight. By creating simple life forms and preparing the world to host more complex organisms, Amdirlain balanced out the progression of her natures and moved each through in order. As a fresh idea tickled at the back of her thoughts, Amdirlain held her mind drifting in the moment. The stream of newly made souls that left her hands vanished before they reached the wood grain of the ceiling panels. With her gaze lingering on the pattern, the concept scratching at her snapped into focus — comparing her various lives to the rings of a tree. The fresh starts she'd believed she'd experienced in each of her lives had all formed atop what had come before, with the seeds of wisdom and scars left behind.

[Refined Shards

- Soul: +1

Nature: Creation, Soul levelled up!

Soul Seed [S](49->50)

Note: Are you sure you still want me to count them off?]

Amdirlain almost laughed.

Yes, I want you to announce it each time. You haven't told me how many levels are within a tier.

"If you wanted to know, you could have used Analysis." Gideon projected.

She sniffed sadly; the noise echoed in the living room's stillness. "Gideon doesn't want to talk to me."

Her antics drew Sarah's gaze from an enchantment diagram. "I'm glad the two of you can joke again."

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"Since you need more clarification, sulky girl. The number of levels varies; some progress to the next tier after twenty levels in their natures, while others never crystallise the significant insights needed to move onwards and continue to accumulate levels. The advancement of levels through insights becomes steadily more challenging and something entirely controlled by an individual's self-identity and the natures selected."

"You mentioned part of that before, but is there a point where it's best to resist the advancement, Gideon?" Amdirlain asked.

"It is a balancing act, but if you resist acting on the insight too long, or reject all the ones that offer the merging of natures for the next tier, you might find yourself stuck."

"Conversely, if I take the first one, it might lead me into a dead end."

"Yes, you had a significant advantage in your first life with being in the higher tiers from birth."

Sarah put her stylus and diagram aside. "The purpose of the Jade Court's Dao system is to clear distractions from one's advancement. If it falls outside their Dao, they ignore it."

"A clarity of purpose helps, but the wrong purpose is crippling." The sense of Gideon's presence vanished from their minds.

"Can you express the purpose behind your choice of natures yet?" Sarah asked.

Amdirlain smiled shyly. "The realm. Its creation provides a place for life, which harbours souls transforming the Far-Chaos energies through their life's challenges and experiences."

"For such a big purpose, you managed not to waffle on."

Standing, Amdirlain gave a grandiose bow. "I thought it sounded a bit pretentious in my head."

"You can look at it that we're gears in a machine we don't understand, or that everyone's efforts allow the next generation a safe refuge," Sarah responded. "The Jade Court would say that your Dao is your own. To change the topic, the anniversary of your visit to Qil Tris has already passed. Are you planning to put on another show?"

"No, but I never got my space trip, so maybe I'll see if Tulne will let me play pretend."

"I could make you one, so we could go menacing the space lanes together."

"Can you see me ambushing travellers from behind asteroids?"

Sarah shrugged noncommittally. "That depends on the vessel, since you were ambushing caravans in the Abyss."

Rolling her eyes, Amdirlain focused on a particular faith link and considered the contentment within it. "Tulne."

Using her name caused Tulne to start upright and look around in confusion. "Amdirlain?"

"I'm just whispering in your mind from across the planes."

"You were serious about not interfering in people's lives often, weren't you? You've been so quiet."

"Absolutely. Yet I never got to go on that space jaunt. Do you think I could borrow your identity for a few days and catch a tour?"

A delighted purr rumbled through Tulne. "Of course you can."

"You know you're talking aloud to an empty room?"

"Yes. Unlike you, I'm not used to talking to people in my mind. When should I expect you so I can organise tickets and my 'time off'?"

"I'll stop teasing. I've got some things to create and check on but, say, a week?"

"That would be fine, Amdirlain. Things have been busy, so it would be good to put my feet up and hide out for more than a few days."

Amdirlain grinned at the reply, since she's spent most of two years hiding out. "How have things been since the concert?"

"Besides the excessively overloaded people, the aftermath has been calm among the faithful."

"What do you mean by overloaded?"

"Am, Jal'krin composed enough music for a few sets, so you could pick what you liked best, and you performed all of them."

Amdirlain huffed playfully. "I liked them all."

"It was hours of new material, plus the old pieces; you had people swooning with joy. How else am I supposed to put it but you overloaded them?"

"I get your point, though I just took it as ecstatic fandom. Anything else I should know about?"

"The dwarven cities imposed trade embargoes on the cities that tried to attack you. Being able to jump straight to their trial is a massive trade advantage for the faithful."

"Try not to destroy the dwarven economies."

"No, we've been behaving for them; it's the unfriendly city patrons who are losing out. We all hop to the dwarves' trial with the gathered goods, pay the local taxes, and then sell. They've been happy to have the extra materials. Aside from that, we've continued to pass on your messages. I assumed there wouldn't be a repeat of the concert."

"Correct, that was one show only. People can ‌use the stadium for other shows."

"Amdirlain, they treat it as a shrine. The memory crystals that recorded the show are the only things that get airtime in the stadium. We don't plan to let anyone present a different story of the day."

"Okay, that's it from me. Unless there is something else, I'll be by in a week."

"Nothing from me. Take care, Amdirlain."

"You too, Tulne. Have fun beating up monsters."

"Alright, I'm going on a trip in a week," Amdirlain hummed thoughtfully as she considered her profile. "Let's see if I can get my essence levels back down to the pre-refinement stage."

"Yeah, you don't want to be under too much pressure getting through a rift."

Amdirlain dropped back onto the seat and sat with the back of her hands resting on her knees. A fresh stream of souls rose from her palms as she pushed her essence into Soul Seed.

♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫

With the creation of millions of souls over the week, Amdirlain had reduced her reserves to what she considered a minimum. The reduced pressure in her form made crossing onto the Material Plane a smooth occurrence, not stirring even a natural-sized ripple through the ley lines. Tulne had made all the preparations for going on holiday, though she'd booked an extended jaunt, not just the plain moon trip Amdirlain had expected. When Amdirlain reached out, Tulne had passed her the ticket details and shifted straight to a haven in one of the sealed demi-planes, allowing Amdirlain to step into her proverbial shoes smoothly.

The space launch site was located in the north, between several cities near the equator. Its layout was a series of concentric rings; the outermost hosted berths for the biggest vessels. A central concourse that ran for twenty kilometres through the centre of the site, the central hub rose in a spire—from its sides extended various projections that had infused gravitational enchantments for emergency responses.

Within the hundreds of landing sites were wildly varied craft; some possessed sleekly detailed lines with artistic patterns, but many were purely functional, scarred metal bulk haul boxes with sensor domes protruding from their hulls. Along the southern arc of the outermost circle were check-in counters and security screenings that blocked access to the central concourse.

The roads servicing the site were awash with a mix of vehicles, from light passenger cars to heavy trucks hauling refined materials from sites around the system. However, land transport wasn't the only option; at strategic locations, they'd set up secure arrival points for those able to teleport. Amdirlain had borrowed Tulne's trace unit to book and receive the image of a closed booth with a complex geometric pattern on the wall, which would serve as a teleport focus. Rather than raise questions, Amdirlain used a Greater Teleport Spell for her arrival, tweaking its energy pattern to match Tulne's casting.

From inside, her door clicked open at a mere touch, only to close back into a seamless cubicle with no external handle once she'd stepped clear.

♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫

Aogruco's PoV - Utopia.

The Formithian deity of nests, growth and purity hummed with fury. Within her domain, billions of souls arrived bearing scars of intense battles, not with the lesser species, but each other. A surge of billions arrived in a rush, with nests having levelled each other with massive ritual magics. A glimpse of a foe at one location stirred Aogruco into action. She opened a Gate to a forest glade where a naked fey female sat with her back resting against a tree.

"You're not welcome here," Danu declared.

"We had accords that you have violated."

"You've frequently broken those. And I promised you the first time that one day I would see you pay. Do you remember what you told me?"

"The Songbird graced us above all. How dare you corrupt my nests?!" Aogruco snarled. She slammed harder against the Gate's threshold, but it didn't budge.

Danu spat. "You corrupted them long ago. I had no reason to continue pretending adherence to our treaties once it no longer suited me to wait for an open opportunity. Now, it's time to fulfil my oldest promise to you. While the Songbird perhaps doesn't want you dead, I'm not her. Everything has a place in the forest."

"I will raze your forests on every world if you continue with this," screamed Aogruco.

Danu's mouth split into a ravenous smile, and the surrounding forest rang with wild howls. "Now your children's place is that of the forest's prey."

"How dare you claim such a thing!"

"How dare I? You forget yourself, bug. I met the Songbird, I dined with her, I swung a blade by her side, bled with her as the Autumn Court rampaged on the changing of a season, and I saw that none survived her blade. I know her far better than you in your delirium of superiority. You had a head start and trillions more on your side, along with a unity that I couldn't crack." Danu rose, and a rough bark armour formed across her flesh. "Until now. Yet the forest's roots can break even the mightiest stones when they're given enough years. It's time for your precious nests to be graves."

"We will destroy you."

"None of you are primordials. When I'm done with you, the only formithians who will remain are those who have forsworn you and all the rest of your diseased Pantheon."

"You think the elves have the numbers to go to war with us?"

"We are not at war. Bugs aren't something you go to war against, you blind wretch. We hunt!"

"You call us oath-breakers; what of you if you do this?"

"In every accord, there is a line: all promises between parties shall be fulfilled. My promise of vengeance supersedes all current accords thanks to your actions, and so in no treaty am I an Oath-breaker."

Images came to Aogruco of high priests witnessing gates opening on millions of worlds at once, elves rushing through to drive oddly shaped staves into the packed soil atop nests. Even as the elves perished under the defenders' spells, the staves grew into trees, and one tree turned into a grove in the blink of an eye. Sheltered by their branches, flowers ripe with pollen bloomed, and the senses of her high priests showed abominations all around them. As hunting horns split the air, nest mates turned on each other in blind fury, driven into rage by the apparent intruders within their territory.

"The huntsman calls his pack, and all who act in anger within the range of his horn join his hounds. Ways have been developed to divide your people's unity, and while others sought to turn nests against each other, such is not my desire. In return for all the forests you have consumed, all the beings you've killed, I will turn your people into a mulch that will renew the lands and help the forest regrow."

Packs of hounds followed by riders trotted out of each grove. The Avatar in the lead of each pack wore an antler-crested helm that concealed their features except for glowing red eyes. On each world, their hunting horns lifted to shadowed mouths and blew a hunting refrain that sent the pack leaping forward. Caught in their bloodlust, many formithians responded to that primal call. They merged with the pack, sweeping across the giant mounds and bringing down the unaffected kin even as the pollen swept outward.

"Until dawn on each world where I summoned the huntsman's avatars, they will hunt and kill. When the huntsman returns from those worlds with his enlarged pack and their kills—predator and prey—their souls will be mine. Such is the fate of those who worship oath-breakers."

"When did we break our oath?"

Danu sneered. "You don't even understand your multiple betrayals. I see no point explaining to those who won't see or hear."

She waved a hand, and the partial Gate slammed shut.

Aogruco saw through her priests' eyes as on a hundred worlds, armoured avatars of Danu appeared. Wherever she turned up, forests rushed out across orderly fields, crushing food crops into mush. Pollen clouds swept ahead of the expanding forests, causing nests to massacre themselves. Feathered sylphs, a Mortal species she'd see on hundreds of worlds, stirred the air current with spells that washed the pollen out further, and they weren't the only mortals that joined the action. Treants and their giant kin strode through millions of open gates, their roots shooting forward as they shuffled their plant-like bodies from side to side. Their erratic, ambling gait further churned up the ground, destroying roadways and finishing the destruction of crops and seeding the ground for shrubs to bloom in their wake.

Millions of lean whisperwoods came next, their wooden bodies vibrating as their secondary limbs beat out their battle songs. Their bodies possessed nearly the same proportions as wood elves, but the plant species were a highly desired target for the formithians. The resin in their bodies provided an excellent fertiliser for the moss beds, and the formithians' harvesters had long ago learnt techniques to keep them alive and bleeding for decades.

Their thin limbs and gnarled skin belied the taunt strength that smoothly readied and discharged heavy crossbows. Their frond-like hair waved, tasting the air and reading heat signatures as their jagged maws tightened into a thin line barely between cracks in their bark-like skin. Each grin possessed the same viciousness Danu had shown. With the immediate battlefield under control, half sank into the earth, swimming away into the nearest nest's tunnels. The rest strode forward; the treants lowered branches and scooped up their distant kin, allowing them to ride in their canopies, crossbows at the ready for any opposition.

When those who had sunk into the ground emerged into the nest's ventilation tunnels, they opened wounds on their bodies. The once rich, intoxicating odour of resin caused all those who caught even a speck to lash out in berserk, agonised rage, tearing at their own bodies and anyone who sought to restrain them. Aogruco's priests who smelled it experienced what seemed to be plants blooming out of their chitin, root systems cracking at joints, and digging through their veins, driving tendrils towards their hearts. Though Aogruco knew it was a drug-fueled effect, those exposed didn't have time to cast protective blessings. If such would even work, for the scent wasn't a poison but an enhancement, and the exposed formithians could feel every filament, straining ligament, the slightest shift of blood magnified a million times over. Their nervous systems and minds burned up as they struggled to comprehend the onslaught of information, causing them to lash out in a frenzy, which only exacerbated the effect, for every contact against chitin provided amplified sensations.

As nests imploded, the whisperwoods stepped back into the soil and swam away. Nest after nest fell to them, and blessings and spells meant to seal locations proved fruitless; the odour of the resin propagated in the same fashion as the nests' pheromones.

In mere hours, forests covered worlds that the Formithian nests had once subjugated and domesticated. As the first was utterly overwhelmed, Aogruco's awareness of the world—her divine link to it—burst apart.

More soon followed, peeling away at her strength.

Though she had mustered her kin, before she could strike at Danu's holdings, other pantheons on their shared worlds launched their own attacks. Their mortals utilised tools that turned her children's perfect forms against them. Worse yet, waves of abominations surged into being on worlds where Danu had never been worshipped. Aogruco ordered the nests to be scoured from the face of their planets before the corruption spread. As the uncorrupted nests completed their first flanking maneuvers, hordes of foul green-skinned orcs erupted from gates at their rear and plunged into the assembled hosts.

As bloodthirsty rage filled Aogruco's mind, an earthquake, the beginning tremors of a planar slip, rocked the mammoth nest around her. Trillions of celestials regarded each other with confused concern.

Did Danu provide the orcs with the means to corrupt my nests? How long has she been working on these weapons? They have never worked together before now, so what changed? They're too similar. Did someone provide them, or did they research them together?

Aogruco snorted at the very thought of orcs and elves working together, let alone cooperating in such a fashion.

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