Finn stood in silence, his Hallowed Domain pulsing softly as his mind processed the options with cold calculation.
Imdiate power versus earned strength. Both paths involved the Moon Mother’s influence. Both bound him to her in different ways. And both avoided answering what he truly needed to know.
But one thing was clear in his mind already.
He would never accept the first option. Never.
The promise of instant ascension to Rank 2, of power handed to him on a silver platter, reeked of dependency. Of surrendering control over his own developnt. Of becoming sothing shaped by the Moon Mother’s will rather than his own.
Claiming control over authority that belonged to Her, and using that as a base to build an interpretation of his Error concept? It sounded like he’d be doing the bulk of the work with his Error and simply using the divine authorities Luna spoke of to have a vastly higher floor for starting out, but Finn knew better.
What happened when he wanted an interpretation that wasn’t dependent on so aspect of the Moon Mother? His Error would evolve into sothing tied to those aspects of the Moon Mother, stifling the free kind of magic Finn had developed with.
Even without having indepth knowledge of the divine he could understand this fact. He’d seen what happened to those who took shortcuts like this — Arcanists back at the academy who hit walls and plateaued, simply because they lacked creativity with their magic.
Going with the first option would limit his creativity to only certain aspects of Error.
Beyond that, accepting such direct aid would make him the Moon Mother’s creature. Whatever "it" was that She wanted, She’d have positioned Finn exactly where She needed him to be. Molded him into the perfect tool for claiming "it".
No. If he was going to beco a God, it would be on his own terms.
"I choose the second path," Finn said without hesitation. "I’ll climb on my own. One year of protection and guidance is enough."
Luna’s smile widened, and she nodded with what looked like genuine approval. "Worth a try," she murmured under her breath.
She opened her mouth to continue speaking, but Finn raised one hand, stopping her.
"I was only saying that’s what I’d pick if I were to choose," he said carefully. "I haven’t agreed to anything yet."
Luna paused, one eyebrow raised.
"You said I could confirm the truth of your words with the Mnemosyne," Finn continued. "That I could verify your sincerity. So I’ll do that first before making any binding agreents."
Luna’s expression shifted to sothing between amusent and respect. "You are right, of course. Caution serves you well." She gestured casually toward the cave entrance. "But you won’t have to think too hard or go too far."
Finn frowned slightly, trying to parse what she ant, when sothing entered his range of perception.
Two presences. At the cave entrance. Moving through the shrubbery he’d used to block it.
His body tensed instantly, divine essence flaring just beneath the surface, ready to ignite. Every instinct scread potential threat.
But then recognition cut through his instinctive, fight-ready response.
One of the presences felt familiar. Thalia’s aura, distinctive in its ordered structure.
But the other...
"You won’t have to go far," Luna continued calmly, "because the Mnemosyne has co to you herself."
The two figures pushed past the shrubbery and entered the cave. Faint traces of azure moonlight spilled in behind them before the foliage fell back into place.
Thalia stepped in first, very cautiously, observing the surroundings with the tactical calmness she usually had. And behind her, the second figure stepped in...
Finn stared.
Ailin stood there, fully healed. The saggy, stretched skin that had made her look like a grotesque parody of humanity was gone. She appeared youthful again, beautiful even, with firm skin and color in her cheeks. She looked better than before the Great One’s gaze had touched her. Vigorous. Alive.
But that was what threw Finn off completely.
Where she looked vibrant and youthful, her eyes, her deanor, her aura were the total opposite.
He’d never witnessed such extre contrast in his entire life.
If he closed his eyes and relied purely on his senses, he wouldn’t be able to identify her as Ailin at all. What he sensed was sothing ancient. Sothing utterly, certainly not human. Not even close.
His visual perception and his other senses warred violently with each other. What he saw and what he felt were entirely different entities occupying the sa space.
His Error Vision, still passively active at low intensity, struggled to reconcile the contradiction. Reality around Ailin distorted weirdly into multiple overlapping states. She was simultaneously young and ancient, human and sothing else entirely, physical and conceptual.
The glitch patterns his vision normally detected in flawed systems were present here too, but inverted. Instead of errors in a functional reality, he was seeing functionality imposed on sothing that shouldn’t be able to exist in a stable form at all.
Though entirely different, it reminded him uncomfortably of himself. An error made manifest. A walking contradiction that reality had to constantly accommodate. But compared to him, who was still figuring out himself and his divinity, whatever Ailin had beco was vast and fully realized.
The mark of a Great One, Luna had said.
Ailin was why he’d gone into fight-ready mode initially. Only Finn knew about this cave’s location. Thalia herself didn’t know about it. So when he’d sensed the two presences approaching, confusion had struck first. Then, when the second presence — the one that felt impossibly ancient — registered alongside Thalia’s familiar aura, his instincts had scread danger before logic caught up and suggested it must be Ailin.
Transford. Changed. Evolved into sothing else entirely.
When his eyes finally locked onto her, he knew without needing any explanation how they’d found him.
It was her. The Mnemosyne.
Ailin’s eyes were fixed on him. Silent. Unblinking. And Finn could have sworn her pupils looked blacker than they’d been before, like abysses, like staring into the depths of ti itself. Like she knew him inside and out. Every secret. Every hidden thought. Every carefully guarded truth.
Those eyes knew.
Finn’s brows furrowed behind his mask for just a beat as Ailin continued to stare.
Thalia, anwhile, was observing the situation with tactical precision. Her natural decision-making instincts were showing again despite the emotional lull she’d been stuck in since the betrayal. She analyzed Finn first, taking in his divine mask and the distorted air of his Hallowed Domain. Then she shifted her attention to Luna, studying the Goddess with careful wariness.
The fact that Thalia stood there fully sane and sound of mind, showing no reaction to Luna’s natural beguiling appearance or passive divine aura, didn’t escape Finn’s notice even as his own eyes remained on Ailin.
He could still feel his Hallowed Domain protecting him from that aura, so he knew it was still active. The Goddess hadn’t consciously suppressed it for Thalia’s benefit. Which ant...
Perhaps it didn’t affect won the sa way it affected n? Or maybe Thalia’s Order concept provided so inherent resistance? Though that seed unlikely, seeing how his Error fared against the Goddess.
Finn filed the thoughts away just as Ailin — no, the Mnemosyne — spoke.
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