Mage Tank

Chapter 234: Dreamscape Ritual

Xim rarely got to dive deeply into theological matters with the full party. She and Nuralie had frequent discussions on the topic, and Etja got involved from time to time, but Varrin and I lacked the depth of knowledge they had and weren’t generally looking to attend any sermons.

Not to say that Xim was preachy–far from it–and the following discussion reflected that. She stuck to the concepts that related to our task, focusing on the practical aspects of the ritual and how it intersected with the other divine principles we were working with.

We began with some context, reviewing topics we were all familiar with while coming at the material from an unfamiliar angle.

Sam’lia was the Goddess of the Seven Organs, and as a deity, she was profoundly divisible. Not only was she one of an unknowable number of sisters, all of whom managed their own version of the Third Layer throughout reality, but her Arzian manifestation could be viewed in eight different ways.

The first was Sam’lia as an entire entity, the motherly blood goddess ruling over a realm of mind and dream, both loving and vengeful. Beyond that was each organ itself–the Eye, Brain, Ear, Nose, Tongue, Heart, and Stomach. Each organ represented different ideals and was in charge of different things within the Third Layer.

Sam’lian religious practices generally divided themselves among these eight categories and each of Sam’lia’s revelations was associated with one of the seven organs. Both of my revelations were of the Eye, for example. Xim’s beast mode came from a Revelation of the Heart, and her manipulation of Divine fire came from a Revelation of the Stomach. She also divulged during the lesson that she’d finally realized a Revelation of the Brain, and I expected she was going for the full set of seven, one from each organ. That was a feat that hadn’t happened in living memory, but that discussion was beyond the purview of her lesson.

Sam’lian worship was heavily focused on ritual, especially in the Xor’Drel tribe. These rituals were generally divided into the eight categories, depending on their purpose. The ritual used to adopt me into the tribe was classed as a general ritual, relating to Sam’lia as a whole and her general motherliness. Xim used the Ritual of the Eye to transition to and from the Third Layer since all of the Third Layer lies under the gaze of the Eye and everything under the gaze of the Eye lies within the Third Layer.

Going even deeper, each organ could be further broken down into three duties. While the Eye sees, reveals, and embraces, the Stomach hungers, consumes, and separates. The ritual Xim planned to use involved all three of the Stomach’s duties. She would also incorporate ritualistic elements from other organs to help guide the process, but that was getting into minutiae that–once again–went deeper than our crash course allowed.

The first stage of the ritual established a target for the Stomach’s hunger–a portion of the fragment’s Divine essence–which if successful would mark it for consumption since all that the Stomach hungered for could be consumed. Consumption was the process of bringing that which is hungered for into the desired vessel, which would guide the Divine essence across my connection with the fragment and into my soul. Separation dealt with breaking something down into essential elements, either physically or conceptually, so that the thing being consumed could be properly absorbed by the vessel. That was the trickiest part for me since I would need to focus the ritual on providing me with useful essence to stuff into my Soul-Sight, culled of any nasty Hysteria baggage.

Either way, that was only one part of Xim’s plan. The second part involved her fancy new revelation.

“When I sleep, I enter a realm created by Sam’lia where I can commune with her and other worshipers,” said Xim.

“That’s how you stopped Gharifon from forcing you to stay asleep while Tavio beat my ass,” I said.

“Do we believe Gharifon was a divine spawn at that time?” asked Varrin.

“Pretty sure that’s why I got avatar vibes after Xim set the man on fire,” I answered. “From what the Littans said after they outed him as a spy, he seems to have been the divine spawn of Hysteria.”

“And Xim still resisted him,” said Varrin. “I had not considered the implications of that.”

“Goddess beats avatar spawn,” said the cleric. “By intruding on the dream, Gharifon intruded on a space where Sam’lia–and even I–have greater dominion than we do in the First. My Revelation of the Brain allows me to summon that dreamscape into the world around me for a brief time.”

“Where have I heard dominion used that way before?” I asked.

“Fortune asked for dominion over Anesis,” said Etja. “When he wanted to teleport her out of The Cage. Orexis surrendered it.”

“So it is a term of art,” said Varrin.

“It’s essentially absolute authority over something,” said Xim. “Either the thing itself or some aspect of it. Sam’lia has dominion over the Third Layer since she can control everything within it. She surrenders dominion to Third Layer denizens so we can shape the world.”

“Hmm,” I hummed. “That revelation sounds like it could be useful, but is that any different from just being in the Third?”

“The dream where I commune with Sam’lia is very personal,” she said. “My will is not in contest with other tribe members or the wilds themselves. It’s in harmony with Sam’lia, built around the things I seek guidance for, and grants me more dominion than I would have in the Third Layer directly. It also doesn’t affect anyone outside of it.”

“Unless you summon it into the world,” I said.

“Then it becomes either a contest or collaboration with whoever is brought into it,” said Xim. “We’ll be doing both. I spent much of my time in the Third developing a space that will empower the Stomach’s ritual, hopefully allowing us to contest the fragment’s dominion over itself while within the dreamscape. The collaborative part will be with you, Arlo. The dreamscape’s ultimate purpose is communion, so it should help you meditate more deeply on your revelations.”

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“Would it not be easier to simply go to the Third Layer?” asked Varrin. “If Sam’lia is guiding this process, there is nowhere her influence would be stronger.”

“No one wants an avatar fragment in the village,” Xim replied. “Right now we’re isolated, and there’s no reason to invite an avatar in, even a piece of one. Sam’lia would eject it immediately. Beyond that, Sam’lia isn’t guiding the ritual. Not in the way you’re talking about. Her influence will be strengthened, but Arlo’s revelations are his own. Doing it here, in the Closet and in the place that represents Arlo’s greatest concentration of strength, will be more impactful than taking him someplace where his authority is diminished.”

“Are you saying I have dominion over the Closet?” I asked.

“No,” said Xim. “Dominion is in the province of divinity. It’s not something a mortal can achieve without divine assistance, but your influence here is about as close as you can get to dominion without being a god. However, summoning the dreamscape might be enough to push you closer since Sam’lia and I will be lending you assistance.

“Basically, we’re going to try and combine your seat of power with the dreamscape to give us very limited dominion over the space within the ritual circle. At the very least, it should diminish any dominion that the fragment has. Hopefully, it will be enough for you to draw what you need from the fragment.”

There was a lull in the conversation, and I took a breath.

“Alright, guess I’m sold,” I said. “Let’s set everything up and get going.”

*****

Xim’s ritual supplies were simple. She laid out dark, squirming symbols painted in ink and blood, mixing in a touch of my top-tier dirt. The ritual circle had a twenty-foot diameter, but the sigils had plenty of space between them to breathe, which they did with enthusiasm. There was a sense of eagerness emanating from the scrawl.

We spent a week practicing the ritual so that I could get comfortable with the experience. Xim could summon it once and had to dream before she could use it again. It was an odd cooldown but that’s how revelations do. Each time she dreamed she had to reconstruct the dreamscape, which allowed her to fine-tune some things once she saw how it interacted with my presence. After the week, we both felt our efficiency gains were diminishing exponentially, so it was time to just go ahead and do the thing.

Xim sat at the center of a freshly inscribed and respirating ritual circle. Etja and I stood on either side of the cleric, facing one another. Varrin loomed behind me, soul-shredding scalpel in hand, ready to carve me up. Nuralie was positioned outside of the circle with potions ready in case of a catastrophic fuck up. Grotto monitored my vitals and observed our soul connection from within his control room.

The Core was not looking forward to whatever feedback this was about to send across our Shared Fate connection, but he was dedicated to making sure it was a success. It probably wouldn’t be the kind of thing we’d want to repeat.

“I can hold the dreamscape and guide the ritual for three minutes,” said Xim. She’d mentioned it several times already, but she was erring on the side of redundancy. We’d done a few dry runs with everyone present during our practice, working every aspect of the process that we could without burning through any of our limited resources.

This was the most complex intersection of magic and skill we’d ever tried, and the only way to really test it was to make a full-fledged attempt. I found myself growing anxious in a way I seldom did anymore. Even when our lives were on the line in the midst of a battle, I drew confidence from our strategies and preparation. Our ability to adapt in a fight had been well-tested, and we had plans on top of plans for when we might need to pivot.

Here, we were pushing the envelope of several abilities, all of which had to operate flawlessly for us to succeed, with no good way to practice the entire procedure beforehand.

I quelled my nerves and centered myself. I took a deep breath, let it out through my nose, and signaled Xim to start.

Xim began chanting, waving her scepter in patterns that mirrored the sigils on the ground. Her hand adjusted to the subtle wiggling of the runes, even as she held her eyes tightly shut. The sounds of her whispers were like creeping centipedes crawling into my ear canal. All other noises were cowed by her words, the world a silent stage for her disquieting call.

Xim’s body grew, a phantom image of her presence washing out to the edges of the ritual circle. I felt her revelation pull me in, and I fought against the instinct to stumble forward. The pull was a hallucination of my mind as it failed to process the journey into her dreamscape.

An organic material grew from the floor, surrounding us in a pulsating wall of flesh filled with ruby light. Although the substance appeared solid, the world beyond it was still visible. We occupied two spaces, one spiritual and one physical. I fell back on processing Xim’s summoning with my soul, as I had learned to do with my Sight. Etja and Varrin struggled with the dual inputs while they relied on their physical brains to process the information, but they could adapt well enough to do what they needed.

The pulsing grew louder, falling into rhythm with a powerful thudding from above. We were wrapped in the Stomach, guided by the Heart, and shown the path by the Brain. Everything was in place.

Etja opened her soul and held me in it, a second layer of spiritual presence further cocooning me into the embrace of my allies. She brought forth the fragment, pulled from its separate partition, and I shuddered as it confronted me with its mania.

I focused on the ritual, drawing comfort from the Closet’s environment, the work we’d done, and the presence of Xim and Etja helping to guide me. I pushed back against the fragment, seizing its assault on my mind and arresting it in place.

A soft giggle escaped me, although I found no humor in what we were doing. Someone else was chuckling into my lips. I opened my Sight fully to the fragment, awash in its rainbow hues as I confronted it. I peeled back layer after layer, the speck of avatar endlessly dense. It was a shadow of infinity, but I’d confronted true infinity on more than one occasion. This was a pretense. It felt small.

The fragment dimmed and rested, uninterested in fighting my gaze. My cheeks burned from the force of my grin, and I wiped the stranger’s smile from my face.

I connected to the fragment with Reveal. It pushed back, but it was a token struggle. It let the connection take hold, as though it were eager to meld with me. I pushed my thoughts into it, fervently believing in the control I had over my realm. We’d struggled and prevailed against Hysteria, their full self, and this was an infinitesimal shard of that being. It held no sway here.

The fragment and I sighed. The shard melted to reshape itself to my whim.

I felt Grotto in my head, adjusting my neurochemicals. A feverish excitement dulled in my chest. I became aware of the fragment’s essence crossing over into my soul.

Xim’s voice rose in volume, her whispers becoming a sonorous ringing, pulsing in time with the Heart. A growl erupted from the Stomach as it found its prey, the weight of its desire falling upon the fragment’s thread like a pack of malnourished lampreys. The fragment glimmered and a torrent of power poured into me, being drawn by a carnal lust, willing and insatiable.

I saw an opportunity. Something I hadn’t expected. My control was much greater than I’d anticipated. The fragment was meek, subservient, bowing to my tyrant’s will.

I could take more of it.

I could draw from it until it was a dried-out husk.

I saw another piece of divinity that I could command for myself.