Chapter 58 A Catastrophe Of Apocalyptic Proportions.

  Shamesh sat with one eye functional and the other being scratched from the inside by a small wire brush. It felt positively awful. With every scrape he felt his bones vibrate to the clawing screech of steel bristles against bone. Catastrophe had long since finished off all of the undead and had even cooled the area where Lenna’s things had ended up. Clark was waiting patiently for Jane to be ready to leave. Lenna was resting on the ground nearby, awake but mentally not present in a place between meditation and disassociation. Isaac was staring intently at the pile of ash covered things, which Jane had just cooled, like he could stare it into retrieving itself.

  “Would you like my assistance?” Shamesh asked his master.

  “If you can see well enough to help, yes.” Isaac replied.

  “I can see where you are staring.” Shamesh stated. “I cannot make out much more than that.” His exclusively Soul Sight vision was coming back to be a detriment once again. He really wished that he could see like everyone else but his body was made from death, forged of death, and powered by death. There was little room for anything else. He knew that he should be glad that he could even hear at all, though that was probably because his bones still absorbed sound.

  “Do you think that you can just move the whole area and bring it here?” Isaac wondered.

  Shamesh shook his head. That was not how Telekinesis worked. It could only grab or push. “I can try to grab some of it, but only those things that are sticking up. The rest will require a better equipped mage than I.”

  “Good enough.” Isaac replied. “Most of it is replaceable. I just need the Compass and Lantern that I got from Zei. The rest of it is replaceable, even the Dragonslayer slate.”

  “I’ll do my best.” Shamesh stated and got to work. In the end, Shamesh was only able to get the lantern. Everything else was too encased in ash or too hard for him to see in order to get a mental lock. By the time Shamesh had given up, Jane was ready to leave with Clark.

  Jane sighed. “You said you just needed the compass?” She asked Isaac with resignation.

  Isaac tried to keep his face from lighting up but with little success. “Yes.” He told her instantly. “There are two compasses, one looks like this:” He pulled out his own compass that was a part of a matched pair that both he and Lenna kept on them. “But the other one is one of a kind.”

  Jane nodded. “I’ll get it, and whatever else is within easy reach, as long as you tell me why the lantern and that compass are so special.” She offered and lifted up off of the ground under the power of a Flight spell.

  “Deal, but it stays between you and me.” He told her and glanced towards Clark.

  “Sure.” Jane agreed and floated over to where the objects in question were. It only took her a minute or so to retrieve both compasses, a warming stone, and the dragonslayer slate. She did so by specifically mentioning the items and calling them towards her through the ash, one by one. Once she had the four items hovering in the air in front of her, she flew back over to Isaac and sat them and herself gracefully onto the ground. “Now, I believe you owe me an explanation.”

  Isaac nodded and held out a hand to her. “Come with me into my own little world and I’ll give you the exposition you so desire.” He spoke with a twinkle in his eye.

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  Isaac’s act was enough to make Jane hesitate for a moment but she eventually just said: “Fuck it.” And took his hand.

  Isaac covered them both in shadows and they vanished from Clark’s perception. Shamesh could obviously still see them and Lenna knew where Isaac was, but Clark had no way to perceive them. To him it was as if they had traveled to another plane of existence. “Welcome to the shadows of the world.” Isaac bid her. “Once I let go, of both you and the shadows, you will return to normal.” He informed her. “But for now, few can even perceive us and the world is cast in dull greys.”

  Jane looked around and sure enough, the rest of the world looked like it had become an overcast day instead of the bright and clear one that she knew to be there. “Neat trick.” She told him.

  “It is, isn’t it?” He said with a smirk. “It is one of my oldest.” He then sighed and looked down at the lantern and compass from Zei. “I died once, well, I’ve died more than once but it’s the first one that matters in this instance.” He began. “After I died, I was brought before a pair of divinities. The Twin Divinities of Reincarnation as a matter of fact. They are the ones that gave me this body, and granted me the beginning of this power, its potential. When I first awoke on Primatia, one of them left me with a box that contained some money, food, water, and that compass that always points towards civilization. It was all lit by that lantern. The note and box are kept safe at home since they have outlived their practical uses, the money is long spent and the rations are long devoured, but the lantern has proven itself to be very useful time and again while the compass is never a bad thing to have on hand.” He finished. “So, there you have it, any questions?”

  “You mentioned one of them by name, ‘Zei’.” Jane stated. “Simply because I have never heard that name before, I take it that it is a name that I shouldn’t know.”

  “The name is less important than who it belongs to. Zei is a Human Divinity of Reincarnation. For humans who have the highest rate of suicide among the mortal races. For humans, who many of us would willingly hang themselves if it meant that they would get to live a different and hopefully better life.” Isaac explained. “The simple fact that Reincarnation has been proven, as there are two divinities in charge of it, is what really must be kept a secret.”

  Jane nodded in understanding. “I’ll keep it a secret. Thanks for telling me, are you sure that was even a good idea?” She questioned him.

  “Jane, I trust that the only time you will be overly reckless and throw both caution and your intelligence to the wind is if there is an explosion to be had.” Isaac told her. “That is the feeling that I get from you. I know that you’ll keep it a secret as it doesn’t benefit you to share it.”

  Jane sighed and shook her head. “That’s where you are wrong, the man who would be Darkness, you aren’t understanding godhood properly. Telling every human across all of Primatia and handing them a noose to hang themselves at the same time would, in fact, be exactly something that would lead to a Catastrophe of Apocalyptic proportions.” She explained with a tight jaw. “I actually would have preferred if you didn’t tell me anything over having to fight the urge to unleash more death across the total population of humanity than maybe even a dragon surge.”

  Isaac paled. She was right, he hadn’t thought it through completely, he hadn’t understood her properly. When she had told him that he couldn’t let his domain control him, if he ever became a real demigod in the future, she was alluding to situations like the one that he had just put her in. “I, I’m sorry, Jane, you are right, I didn’t understand properly before.” He told her with a frown and a weight in his chest. If she did something obscene with the information that he had given her, then it was entirely on his head. ‘Demigods are the most limited as well as the most powerful’ after all.

  Jane took a deep breath and sighed. “I should have been more clear, you are still so very young, and very much still mortal. It isn’t something a child like you should need to worry about. How old are you?”

  “Twenty, maybe thirty, I’m not sure. I lost pretty much all of my memories from my first life.” He didn’t bother to tell her that he had sold them for power, that wasn’t what she was asking anyway.

  “So how long have you been here, on Primatia?” Jane questioned further.

  “It’ll be a year on the twenty first.” He answered.

  “Not even a year old…” Jane sighed again and shook her head. “Yes, Isaac, put this from your mind. You are still far too young to worry about such things.”

  “O-okay.” Isaac wasn’t sure exactly what he was supposed to say at that moment. Jane felt like the kind of person who could be trusted, and even now he felt that way, he just also now had the knowledge that he had accidentally rested an explosive capable of obliterating half of the human populations in her hands with the knowledge that if it ever touched the ground then it would go off, whether she truly wanted it to or not.

  “Alright, I reckon it’ll be a while before we see each other again, so, take care kiddo. I’ll see you around, and remember, if the world ever shakes and you can’t see the source, it was me.” She told him with a wide smile.

  Isaac took that as his cue to let go of his shadows and her hand. The shadows dispersed which revealed the pair to Clark once again. “I will, see you around, Jane.”

  “Bye, Tea Man. See ya around, Dark Torch.” She said to Shamesh and Lenna respectively.

  “Thank you for the assistance, do take care, Jane.” Shamesh bid his farewell with a bow.

  Lenna forced herself up onto her elbows. “Thanks. It was awesome working with you.”

  Jane gave Lenna a wink and then spoke the command to activate her preprepared spell: “Return.” Her word rippled out from her and yanked both herself and Clark away in the westerly direction.