Lavi called over another devil who looked very similar to her, and had him show me to the dorms. The mute boy introduced himself as Favi with telepathy, and brought me down a series of tunnels to a large, multi-floored building. Showing me a room on the second floor, he told me that was where I would be staying for the duration of the rest of spring, if I so chose. I then followed him to a different building, this one almost the size of the imperial ballroom, which he told me was where the welcome ceremony would be held. Along the way, he pointed out a few other facilities and handed me a map I could use for future reference.
[I suggest you take the next few hours to familiarize yourself with the area and the facilities you think you might use. However, keep an eye on the time, and be back here at noon. If there’re no other questions... I’ll go back to my sister]
“No questions, thanks Favi”
Without a goodbye, he raced away, and I went to my room to think. Snek decided to ask a question, since she was relatively new to the group.
[Fives said that a lot has happened, a lot has changed. How did this all ssstart?]
“It started with the unexpected loss of something dear”
[That sssomething being?]
“My life as a normal person, and the relationships I’d built up. It was fun, I’d go back there if I could. Maybe I’ll do so in a few years, or a few decades”
[I sssee]
“And in its place there’s nothing, just an endless empty hole]
[That can’t be right, you’ve got us, you’ve got Snek and Leon, and you’ve got Tilly and Yuri. We’re not nothing, right?]
“Yeah... thanks Fives. You’re right, I shouldn’t be acting so gloomy and lonely”
[Yeah, you’re not alone. But, uh... you also didn’t answer my question. What was your life like before you met me? I’ve heard a few ssstories, but not much]
“Ah, sorry. We’ve got time, I’ll tell you about my time with Master, how I got... oh wait... someone might be eavesdropping”
I had a feeling these rooms might not be very private, that there might be a silent shadow listening in on what the new shadows might let slip in the 'privacy' of their own rooms, especially new shadows as mysterious as me. So, I switched to telepathy, which within the confines of my own spirit realm, are impossible to listen in on.
[I’ll then tell you how I became immortal, how I met Leon and Fives, and what I did as an alchemist]
[Sssounds exciting]
[Not really. The most exciting bit is probably when I fled into the sewers to evade the blood shadows trying to kill me]
I spent the next few hours narrating my life up until the point Snek was born, finishing just in time to go to the welcome ceremony. When I arrived, the room was filled with about 40 or 50 people in the middle with wooden plaques hanging from their waists, necks, or wrists, and a hundred or so people around the edges and up on the stage, openly wearing emblems made of silver, gold, and obsidian, depicting blood drops, folded batlike wings, or a crown gripped by talons.
A few minutes after I arrived, one of the people on the stage, a dryad substantially larger than most, showing the mark of three obsidian blood drops on his massive belt buckle, stepped forward and spoke in a booming voice that echoed off the walls.
“Welcome, new recruits. I am Feyuel, a black gold blood shadow who’s been working with the Shadows’ Guild for 276 years now. We’ve gathered you all, not only to congratulate you on becoming official members of the Shadows’ Guild, but also to have you get to know each other and your seniors. Our hope is to foster a...”
The man spoke for the better part of an hour, and the key points were as follows:
- New blood shadows should mingle with one another and veteran blood shadows.
- This is to have the different batches and individual members not be isolated groups, and so the veterans could teach the newbies how things work if we’re unsure about anything.
- We should also learn to work with the other types of shadows.
- And now, some words from a few of the aforementioned seniors. The first will be Reymir, an outstanding member in several ways.
Seriously, that’s not even a hundred words, just four points. Maybe two minutes to say, at most. Why spend so long saying so little?
Regardless, after that came a short and stout dwarf woman with a long red beard, held together by a golden crown gripped by talons, the mark of one of the twisting shadows. Her accent was thicker than any I'd heard before, and hanging from her belt and the various pockets and loops on her apron were a wide assortment of tools, marking her as a craftsman.
“Zank’ye, Feyuel, fer zat vlattering introduction. As he zaid, I’m Reymir, a retired tvisted gold shadow, viz o’er 300 years of experience under my belt. I now run a smizy, vere y’all can commission vepons, armor, and inzignia, fer a price. Don’ vorry, I give ze newbies a discount on ze good stuff. Can’t have y’all dying as ze wee little fledglings ye are ri’ now! After all, vere vould I find meself any new customers from if zat happens?”
From there, we had a few more introductions and small speeches, and one of them, given by a man who introduced himself as a twice-gilded silent blood shadow, stuck out to me.
“While I do generally agree that the different shadows should get along, that doesn’t mean you should blindly trust your seniors. In my centuries of experience, I’ve learned that enemies surround me, but the worst appear as friends. This is especially true of the twisting shadows. Those liars and pretenders only seek to reach their ends. They provide a valuable service, don’t get me wrong... but remember that they’re probably not telling you the full plan, or perhaps not even the real plan at all. You might think you’re helping them in one way, when in reality they’ve set you up to die in exchange for a different goal”
That speech received near-unanimous cheers from the other blood shadows and silent shadows, while the few twisting shadows all booed the man, which if anything lended a bit more credibility to his advice.
I would, of course, later verify that he, if anything, understated just how treacherous the twisting shadows could be. I’ve died more times to their schemes than I have to all of the blood shadows that went after the numerous bounties that were put on the heads of my various identities.
Once all the seniors had introduced themselves, the newbies were asked to share as much or as little as they wanted to. Most shared a fair bit, I shared just that I had already completed enough requests to promote to silver, and that I used poison and stealth as my main means of assassination.
After that was done, orientation was over, we dispersed, and I returned to my room once more, taking off my mask and clothes to take my first hot bath in several months under the amber light of the setting sun.
“Huh. Looking in the mirror, I see someone that I don’t recognize”
[Makes sense, right? You’ve never been in this form without wearing a mask prior to this. Of course you wouldn’t recognize yourself]
“True. My transformation is quite good, I look nothing like I did bef- what the fuck is going on... oh no, I’m gonna throw up...”
[The realm is... what is this... the author isn’t explaining this well]
[Sssomething feels wrong... very wrong...]
[An ascension? Here? It can’t be, the scale... no...]
Just then, I felt a tremor. The ground wasn’t shaking, it wasn’t an earthquake. It was every bit of the spirit that permeates the realm that began trembling. As my current form is partially made of that spirit, I was also made to vibrate, in such a way that I felt extremely nauseous.
I also heard vomiting from next door, and through the open windows I heard a cacophony of people exclaiming in shock, dogs howling, birds crying out in surprise as they took flight and flew into walls or even dropped to the ground. It wasn’t just me who was disoriented and discomforted by the sudden change, everything that could feel or make use of spirit felt it.
But the strangest thing was, I also felt like there was some emotion coming from the realm itself, joy and relief, sharply contrasting with my own feelings at the moment. I didn’t even know that realms could experience emotions, but evidently I was wrong.
The beginnings of the man who transcended time, part 7
As I wandered the world, I learned of what had transpired in the centuries I lay on my deathbed, and how few records remained from the millennia I lived as a hermit. But at dusk on the 4th of Minorspring, 623 years after the end of the upheaval now called The Dusk of Ages, as I listened to an imperial palace panicking over that morning’s discovery of the assassination of the sleeping Imperial Grand Treasurer, something changed within me.
My spirit realm once again advanced, my Spirit Storms merged to become a Spirit Cyclone, and I broke through to level 91, the start of tier 10. When that happened, my Path of Reversal finally fully took hold. Prior to that, the only way I’d know if I was actually immortal was if I survived death, at which point my path would also fully take hold.
That day, the Major Realm of Time itself shook to welcome a new immortal, and throughout the Nine Realms, everyone with any form of Timeseed felt the resonance of an elemental Pathholder’s birth. On that day, the story of the mysterious immortal known only as The Butler began, and so did the questions about his unnamed master.
Yooooo, cookie
.
Nice.
Looking forward to moar.
Thanks for the chapter.
🍪