Chương 34: Chapter 33 - Tea with an Eldritch Being from Beyond the Stars

Elias's POV" Well this is unexpected, where did you come from?" The voice washed through the river and thrummed through my body causing my form to ripple painfully." Oh well that won't do, can't have you falling apart on me." I flexed my form with all my might stoking the source of my inner flame to reinforce the membrane surrounding my form, straining with all I'm worth to press the cycling energy against it to support against the exterior force buffeting it.

The voice came again, but softer this time, "Is this better? It has been long since I had the pleasure of company! Where are my manners? You won't be able to converse like that." I felt the pressure build around my form encasing it in a thick cocoon of force and pull, and like stone plucked from a stream I could feel as the river rushed around me as with a final sucking squelch I drifted free. The warmth was gone!

I could still feel the pressure of whatever being was holding me, but I was finally free from the insidious pressure on my mind seeking to drown my soul in its suffocating warm embrace, the exhilarating sense of relief was akin to shackles with the mass of a mountain falling away from my mind.

With the pressure against me gone I was able to freely cycle my energy and I sent it through my form in a series of joyous pulses, exhausted and spent but so damn thrilled to finally be free from the torment of fighting that damn river.

"Well aren't you a lively one? I take it your trip along Samsara wasn't very agreeable for you. I can definitely understand, my little one, I doubt I would enjoy it much either." The voice rumbled in a mirthful tone, "I know I'm assuming things, but I would love a conversation, if you don't mind, and you look like you would enjoy a break."

With that statement I felt a sharp needle pressure pass through me, not painful, but without a hint of resistance it plunged through my form, gently tapped the ember at the center of my being and retreated again. The voice exclaimed, "Oh my! A human, and not only a human but a very, very ancient bloodline if I had to guess, and you have awakened your source as well!"" Color."" Me."" Curious!"" Just a moment."

What proceeded next was one of the strangest things that I have ever experienced, even given my recent adventures of being annihilated in atomic fire and drifting as a disembodied consciousness in an endless void, is really saying something. With a series of ripples starting at my core and flashing outward, my body was rebuilt in the briefest moment between one second and the next.

Without eyes I would be hard pressed to describe how I observed the process, but if I would have to hazard a guess the energy flowing through my form must have granted some internal sight or bodily proprioception that as bizarre as it was provided a fascinating insight into the process.

Starting at the tip of my head an internal skeleton appeared, beginning as a malleable white mass moving with the speed of a playdough extruder powered by an industrial strength hydraulic press only to shift into a familiar pattern and visibly harden into a more natural state. Following the structures appearance a whirling mass of flesh spiraled outward filling my thoracic cavity with organs, only to spill outwards coating the rest of the skeleton in muscle, cartilage, and fatty tissue.

In a flash similar to a laser engraving a bare metal sheet in a downward wave veins and arteries appeared and lanced through viscera and bone burrowing through to take their correct places in little splashes of gore that were quickly absorbed into the surrounding tissue. The nerves barely had time to cry out from exposure before they were buried in a comforting layer of muscle, fat, sinew, as they extruded down through the skull and spinal column out to the extremities and finally skin wrapping the whole.

While it was excruciatingly painful, the process was over in the blink of an eye, or rather before they could even blink once, and the joy I felt at being whole again rushed through my body. When I opened my eyes to thank my benefactor, I froze for a split second stunned. I was floating in a wide expansive starfield, with no ground in sight.

Before I could take in any more of the vista before me, while I thought my bodily reconstruction would be only the second the most painful experience I would ever have, I could not have been more wrong, as my vision went white and all my skin and organs descending into a searing heat and pain that I remember very clearly from my last moments on earth.

I was locked in what felt like an eternity of searing, blinding, and sadly familiar pain like my whole being was unraveling at the seams, I thankfully lost consciousness.

I came too in a shuddering gasp, panting, my throat hoarse and dry from screaming, to hear a wry voice rumbling through the void. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

"That looked indescribably painful! What kind of abyss spawned horror came upon you before arriving here?!"" Looks like you're coming around though, if I had known how damaged your body was I would have performed some repairs rather than just reverting you to your most recent state. Sorry about that little one." I opened my eyes and blearily took in my surroundings.

Same starscape, so I guess I didn't imagine that, stretching through it is a dense streak of pinpoints lights showing the expanse of some unknown galaxy, and as I turn to my left to see an expansive translucent flow of energy, dotted with small points of light, stretching into the distance as far as the eye can see.

"Yeah that's the rivulet of Samsara I pulled you from, a beautiful sight isn't it? Even after endless eons, it never fails to inspire the imagination." I turn towards my other side to see who the voice belongs to and feel my body coil with tension as I take in the being facing me. It seems a little contrite to say facing when the face belongs to a being made out of what appeared to be a clouded blue and purple nebula of lights in the rough shape of a human stretching through a massive expanse of space.

The being had to be larger than at least a planet or two, but without a frame of reference it is nearly impossible to tell other than being frankly massive. In fact its appearance was unexpectedly vague, and when I tried to focus on its face to pick out its features I received a series of vague impressions that were hard to pin down.

I felt an overwhelming sense of vertigo as the image altered and flickered from a massive human silhouette made of stars, to a being of blinding light bearing hundreds of feathery wings in an endless array of colors, to a bewildering construct of fleshly tentacles contorted in impossible non euclidean angles that were covered in what initially looked like hair, but I soon realized were an wide array of startlingly human arms clutching exposed weeping eyes that all pointed in my direction, flashing to a tesseract of metal and crystal made twisting through similarly impossible angles, with inverted pits falling in on themselves only to rise into twisted towering constructs whose shape hinted at a greater meaning, and as it shifted through more and more impossible forms I felt a trickle of blood flow from my nose followed by a searing pain through my mind.

I blinked aching eyes and as I wiped my nose and cracked my eyelids open with a wince the terrifying sight was replaced by a simple bipedal form of an androgynous human floating in space in a simple set of white linen slacks and tunic who tutted at me." I know you spent quite a bit of time in the void, but some things you're just not ready to handle quite yet. Curiosity is a virtue, but you really should be careful to not look so deeply until you are certain your soul can take the strain of what you might find."

They waved their hand and a set of comfortable leather couches appeared facing each other in the void across from each other split by a coffee table." It appears you've been through a lot, I imagine you have some questions. Let's chat." The being smiled as they strode over and took a seat facing me. After the chairs appeared I felt a pressure on my back as if I was laying on a flat surface and was pulled towards it by gravity.

"Well that's convenient." I rasped through my dry and cracked throat, as I picked myself up and shuffled over to the seat nearest me and collapsed into it. I glanced down to see myself clothed in the same white linen pants and tunic, it feels a little culty to be honest, but it's better than meeting an unspeakable eldritch horror in my birthday suit I guess. The being across from me chuckled a bit, " Yeah I imagined you wouldn't exactly be an expert at flying through space and could use a break.

You sound a little parched and I imagine you have a lot of questions, tea?" They snapped their fingers and a pot and two cups appeared on the table, and they reached down, filled both cups before settling back cradling one of their own.

I studied the entity, while they appeared human on the surface everything was just off, their skin was too smooth and clear, their silvery platinum hair looked like it was out of a shampoo commercial, their matching shimmering iridescent eyes seemed to shift through a myriad of colors, including several that I have never seen before and defied description. To top it off their ears had a well defined point to them where they poked through their hair.

Oh yeah, and we were also sitting on a set of, admittedly very comfortable, office furniture while floating through the void of space. I glanced at the contents of the cup, around at our surroundings, and back at the being, and rasped out.

"As much as I appreciate the gesture, this is a lot to take in, and frankly, while I'm very thankful for your assistance, I'm not so sure what's going on." Gesturing at the cup before me, " It makes me a little disinclined to drink the tea, gifts from mysterious strangers rarely come without strings attached." The being arched an elegant brow at me, and then uttered a rather unelegant snort."

I pulled you from Samsara and recreated your body from the aether, if I wanted to hurt you I wouldn't need to poison the tea." With a sigh they reach forward and take a dramatic sip from the cup on the table before topping it off and settling back in place with their own cup." Understandable though, if a little hurtful, where would you like to begin?" My face heated up with a blush, and feeling like a bit of an ass, I grab my cup and mumble, " Fair enough" before downing it and pouring myself another.

Honestly, it might have been the best tea I've ever had in my life. I don't even like tea, perfectly brewed with a hint of sweet fruit I couldn't place. The being cracked a grin at my surprised expression as I helped myself to a third cup before settling back, " Bet you're glad you didn't pass on the tea?" My lips quirk upwards a bit at the corners as I nod and with a large gulp down the half the third cup before debating if pouring a fourth would be rude, I mean it was conjured into existence right?"

How about we start with introductions? I'm Elias Mercer" I look around at the starspace we're in and add "and I'm a human from Earth I guess." The entity spits out their tea with a half suppressed laugh, and when they recover a bit, they wipe a tear from the corner of their eye before proclaiming.

"Your people named your planet dirt?!? I'm hoping that's true and not a mistake of the translation spell, because if so that's hilarious and this just keeps getting better." They wipe their face and smile a bit at my look of chagrin, " Don't worry it's not the most ridiculous one I've heard, for example Grundle is a wonderful place, and the locals definitely don't know what it translates to everywhere else yet, but I can't wait for the day that they do.""

You can call me Vael of the Aetherion Expanse, since I don't necessarily stay in one place, although I do have a few favorite haunts." I nodded, "Okay Vael, I'll have to take you word on it since I have no idea where any of that is, also please don't take offense to this, but what are you?" Vael's smile deepens, "Well I'm not a fan of labels, they always feel like they box me in.

Let's just say that I'm pretty far up the food chain around here, and I like to help out every now and then, especially since I have a particular soft spot for those far from home." Vael leans in as his smile grows unnaturally wide, practically splitting their face in two as the edge of their mouth crept towards their ears, "And you are oh so very far from home aren't you?"