Mana Mutation Menace (Journey to Chaos Book 3) (53 page)

Close to the center, but a large enough distance away to
allow for a possible inner shrine, were two more for Light and Darkness. These
represented cosmic existence; the give-and-take between emptiness and the stars
that illuminated it.

On this occasion, Annala visited the shrine to the Earth
Goddess and her avatar. This was the one she believed would help her succeed in
her plan to understand her aunt. It was a giant stone in the middle of four
brown arches, which were also made of stone. A pink rope was tied about its
middle. At its base were faded Evening Tide flowers and a pedestal carrying
burnt out incense sticks.

 She placed her fresh flowers on top of their
predecessors. Then she removed the old sticks and placed her own in its place. With
the flint available, she lit it and waited for the cloud to lift above the
stone before she began her prayer.

“Holy Eaol, I ask for your aid to push the boundaries of
my knowledge and increase my understanding. Only you, with your encompassing
gaze and sturdy mantle, can lead me beyond the horizon. Please hear my prayer
and answer my wish.”

Eric tapped his feet.

“Nothing’s happening.”

Annala dropped her hands and raised her head. “Of course
nothing’s happening. Eaol is a busy guy. Besides the natural processes of the
world, he has a formal religion and clergy. As an elf, I worship the Ultimate Cosmic
Force of Chaos instead of the Grand Elemental Sentience of Earth. Third, he’s
the patron god of a lot of things besides farmers or miners, like students, and
some schools are still in their finals week, so he likely has a lot of prayers
to keep up with and-”

BOOM!

The ground exploded. Shrapnel flew everywhere and dust
filled the area. Eric pushed Annala behind himself on instinct and took all the
kinetic force and rock bits on his own body. It stung like a dozen bee stings
on his grendel hide. Some of them pierced it and drew blood, but his Seed of Chaos
healed him just as quickly.

"Greetings!"

 The force of it knocked Eric off his feet. He spun in
midair so that Annala landed on him instead of the other way around. Then he
cast a simple wind spell to dispel the dust around the shrine. The sight before
him was a living god.

 At first glance, he appeared to be an orc. He was big and
muscular enough and his facial features matched, but his skin was rocky like a
golem. He wore an enormous tunic and baggy pants in varying shades of dirt
brown. His hairless head was a multitude of colors from limestone green and
quartz purple to granite grey. His feet were bare and dusty. Crossed behind his
back were a miner’s axe and a farmer’s scythe.

"No fear, young man!" the god bellowed. "I’m
always careful with my Divine Presence when I appear before mortals. Ain't that
right, sis?!"

The ground beneath him trembled and swelled upwards,
propelling him higher and higher into the sky. At last, the mound was as tall
as Dnnac itself. No creature emerged from this mountain of dirt, for it
was
the creature. The orc-like man stood on the forehead of a larger-than-life
earth mole. Its fur was crust, its skin was mantle, and its eyes were shining
diamonds.  

"Inside voice, Big Brother.” Her voice was surprisingly
gentle for something so big.

"But I'm not inside; I'm
OUTSIDE!
"

His voice created a shockwave that made the ground
vibrate, rattled trees, and buffeted flying elves. It made Eric, still in
partial grendel form, fall over again. His above-human hearing amplified the
shout further and overwhelmed him. Annala was quick to help him.

"Eric! Are you okay!?” Annala shouted.

"I can't hear you!" Eric shouted back. "I
think Eaol deafened me!"

"What was that? I think Eaol deafened me!"

"I can’t hear you! Eaol deafened me!"

The giant mole sighed. "This is why you use your
inside voice."

The orc man laughed. Their Seeds of Chaos would repair the
damage and, in the meantime, he wanted to show off for his local fans. Just
because elves had chaos in their blood didn’t mean they never venerated other
deities, and a number of them entered his shrine when they heard his big
entrance. For them, he demonstrated his avatar power, made grand pronouncements,
and lapped up their amazement.

The giant mole shook her head, which resulted in Eaol losing
his footing and tumbling head over heels down her front and crashing into the
ground.

"Sis! You're not supposed to embarrass me in front of
mortals!"

"They're not mortal," the giant mole said. "Besides,
you were making an ass of yourself."

“I was serving the spiritual needs of my follow—”

Aside from the original two, the elves were laughing at
him. Three of them were discussing how they could develop spells that would
perform similarly to Eaol’s avatar powers. He hung his head in disappointment.

“You have godly duties to attend to.”

“Right.”

Once the couple's ears stopped ringing, he properly
introduced himself as Eaol, Earth's Tool and the Mover of Mountains. He spoke
of how he heard her heartfelt prayer and deemed her worthy of divine
intervention. However, he included a warning.

 “This isn’t something you can wash off. It will not be a movie
that is separate from you, nor will it be like your virtual reality library
room. It is permanent. You will carry these experiences with you for the rest
of your eternal life. Your older relatives fought in that war so their
descendants wouldn’t have to endure what you are asking me to inflict upon
you.”

“I understand, or rather, I don’t, and that’s why I want
to,” Annala explained. “I’ve lived in an elven village and a human city. The
humans were kind to me. Even Norej and his father, who hate elves in general,
accepted me once we grew to know each other. We found common ground and became
friends. If I can understand the root of the conflict, I can better resolve
it.”

 “If that is your decision, then I will hold you to it.”

“Wait a second, Patron of Chivalry!”

Eric pulled his staff out and brandished it. The fire and
water lights swirled around the spirit light at its center. Then he struck the
ground with the butt and said,

“Avatar of Earth and Guardian of Flowers, I seek your
divine power because my own mortal strength is dust in the wind. I need your
help to defend my lady’s life and honor. Give me an impossible task and I will
prove that I am worthy of it.”

Eaol waved his stony hands. “No need for the ritual stuff.
Tasio already asked me to do that. Both of you, your quest for power and
understanding will begin right now!"

A surge of earth launched the two elves into the sky and
the giant mole ate them. They bumped into marble teeth and a pumice tongue
conveyed them to the back of her mouth. Her head tilted up and the couple
tumbled down through her basalt throat.

When Eric regained consciousness, he was sitting in a
stadium. The roaring crowd; he could hear it. The sweat, food, and blood; he
could smell them. The seats, bodies, and chalk of the ring; he could not only
see, but
feel
them. Two pairs of feet thudded heavily. Two contenders grappling,
kicking, and head butting; one fell.   

"Winner!" said a man in a language Eric didn't
know and yet understood.

At another place and yet not another place, two girls
sparred. It was a mountain grove, clear of any buildings; isolated and yet it wasn't
to him. He could feel the exact distance away from the stadium down to the last
inch and yet he was still there. He felt both the light steps of the martial
artists and the heavy stomping of the sumo.

"Don't over-extend or that'll happen again," said
the victor of the spar at the same time the sumo were shaking hands and talking
in a different language.

More grass. Hills instead of mountains. Statues of a
different style from before and yet he still saw them. Wrestlers that were
thinner and lighter than the huge topknots and yet he could watch both at once.
He heard their grunts as they struggled and the laughs of the sumo as they
drank sake and the chatter of the martial artists all at once.

Then, somewhere very quiet; dark and wet and cold. Small
pockets of heat separated the zones of oppressing cold. He vaguely heard sounds
above him; explosions and fires and crashing and yelling. Suddenly, he was
there on top of the waves and also deep beneath, flying through the air and
crashing into a wooden beam. Even while he was on the ship, he was still in the
stadium and the wrestling ring and the martial art grove and the chamber of an
elite girl getting her ears pierced and screaming when the needle punctured her
cartilage.

Eric screamed with her.

This and a thousand more places streamed through his mind,
simultaneous and endless. A thousand scholars debated across time and space and
all of them proclaimed themselves correct. Competing truths in every age and
discipline; enough blood to fill a thousand rivers. All of this was only a
fraction of the information rushing through his consciousness and competing for
attention. Each crowded out all the others and reduced everything to maddening
white noise.

He pushed it away, but it didn't budge. It all came in faster,
pushing! Closing in; getting smaller! Dying of thirst in the desert and mad
with sunstroke, while relaxing in a pool of mud with cucumber eye covers. Felt,
saw, smelled, and heard a large force leave Canne victorious and a precious few
fleeing in defeat at the same time. For a thousand years, he watched the
tectonic plates shift and collide with each other.

All he could see was everything at once and thus he saw
nothing because he understood nothing. Sitting on bleachers and a tree stump
and a cushion and a throne; forest, mountain, sea, swamp, home; high and low
and all the cardinal directions; he could see
everything
. All of earthly
creation was present before him and overwhelmed him. He was lost in the endless
stream of information until one voice in the din reached him. It was an elven
mage conducting research in isolation. During a meditation session, he realized
a fundamental truth of the world. Eric recognized it intuitively and recited
along with him.

This is the world and the world is mana because it is
born of chaos. I am a mage and I control mana. Therefore, I control this world.
Therefore, I control what I see!

At once, everything froze.

All of creation is nothing more than a river of mana
flowing to and from the Sea of Chaos. A river is nothing more than a collection
of water droplets. I divide the droplets just as I separate mana for spells.
This is called the Eyes of Earth Viewed through Water.
 

He picked one drop at random and focused on it. In doing
so, he excluded the other drops, which diminished the distractions and enabled
him to focus more on that one drop. Instead of looking at the planet as a
whole, he focused on one country; instead of one country, one city; instead of
one city, one building; instead of one building; one room. Only with the
greatest strength of will was he able to narrow his focus from omniscience to a
single object. He spent another thousand years studying, practicing, and
experimenting with his new skill.

One century, while looking in on a war, he focused too hard
and created a mound for one of the armies to camp on, thus providing a crucial
advantage. Intrigued, he opened a ditch to spare a sapient fleeing a monster.
Humming with curiosity and achievement, he tweaked his latest skill by
encouraging plant growth. The places streaming through his mind were bathed in
a new light. Things were changing and staying the same; he and Annala and Tiza
and Nolien and Basilard; all of them changed and yet they stayed the same.

This is present day. I could spy on any place in the
world from this vantage point. The Earth sees all, but does it remember all?
How far back does the memory of the planet go?

He willed one year and the earth spun counter-clockwise.
He spied on the Rose Forest and saw himself drop out of a Golden Gate.

Interesting, but I have no time for reminiscing. Let’s
go back further.

He willed himself back four hundred and thirteen years; 1587
AA, to be specific. He stood in the palace of Lios, where the Treaty of Lios
was signed by humans, orcs, and elves. This was the formal end for the last
stage of The Conversion War. He rewound history further still and the scenery
changed again.

A valley formed by mountains surrounded him on three
sides. Grass carpeted the floor and was broken only by streams. Eric followed
their source with his eyes and he could see snow at the mountain peaks. He took
his shoes off and dug his toes into the grass and soil; it felt great. He was
there and not there at the same time and it didn't pain him. He was aware of
everything in perfect detail but capable of blocking everything else out. The
cave fifty miles out in front was so clear he could count the lichens on the
back wall while staring at the fish in the stream behind him, and all the fleas
hiding in the hair of the human camped there.

Maps spread across the ground around him and a sextant
measured the distance between her location and a human castle. He carried an
axe on her back and numerous shackles in one bag. In her hands, he re-read a
letter about an elven village supposedly hidden nearby.

Odd. Why can’t I tell what their gender is?

He circled the human invisibly but couldn’t tell if it was
male or female. If anything, the creature was both and neither at the same
time.

Is it shifting?

“If you can find that village, you will be set for life.
Famous, wealthy, and a couple of those eternal beauties to pleasure you. All
you have to do is flush them out into the open.”

Outside the cave, an elf approached and grinned at what
she saw. A snap of his fingers created a gentle illuminate aura and then a
levitation spell to lift her feet a few inches above the ground. He stamped her
staff on the cave floor to gain attention. This startled the human to full
alertness and she stared at the elf, whose gender Eric had similar success in
pinning down.