Solipsism: Chapter 5 (Patreon)

“You have a funny way of getting help from people, given how much of a bitch you were before.” I noted. 

“Stop talking before I punch you, you cowardly, lying sack of shit.” The woman shot back. I stopped talking. 

“The Irethani Pantheon will hear about their cyclopes’ failure soon enough.” She told me, fidgeting suddenly, uncertain, fearful. “They’ll want revenge. The original attack was just to smash up parts of the village, but after this…After this they might destroy it entirely, kill all of its people. They’ll make a lesson out of everyone.”

I eyed her at that.

“And you’re the one who brought someone in from another world to do the killing that’ll cause this.”

I might have punched her and not caused such a sudden, intense souring of her mood. 

“Yes.” She growled. “Yes, it was my fault. I panicked, I did something stupid. Now you’re here, and Old Uzthcpitoill will be coming for blood.”

“Uzthcpitoill?” I prodded. 

“The Irethani Pantheon’s chief.” She answered with a dismissive hand. “Not the point.”

I could agree with that, one pissed off deity was about as much of a problem for any other as far as I was concerned. I got the feeling that someone who barely won against cyclopes wouldn’t be too favourable in going up against that.

“So you want to leave?” I guessed. “Let the word go out that you’re responsible, and head off to draw the revenge away while the villagers flee in other directions?”

She paused at that, eying me. 

“You figured that out yourself?”

I didn’t bother to hide my glare, given that she didn’t care to hide her obvious surprise.

“Yes.”

She hummed. “I wasn’t expecting a coward to be so sharp.”

“I’m not a coward.” I snapped. 

“You ran from the cyclopes. What sort of warrior are you?”

“I’m not a fucking warrior.” I shot back. 

She stared at me as if I’d said something unusual or confusing. 

“You’re a man.”

Good god, I was going to pull my hair out if the rest of this world was like this. What the hell was wrong with me that I chose to imagine this of all things. It wasn’t like I had a scarcity of harem anime to use as inspiration for a better alternative. 

“So kind of you to notice-” I began, only for her to cut me off.

“You’re a powerful man.” She added. “Look at you, the size of that gut, all the fat on you, you’re the son of some Iclatyl back in your homeland right?”

I didn’t bother hiding my lack of comprehension at whatever she was saying, it made things quicker to just let her see it on my face and adjust. 

“You belong to…A high ranking household.” She explained. “Above commoners, made to rule and govern.”

She thought I was a noble? That…Made a fair amount of sense actually. Living off pizza and soft drinks had given me a fair amount of flab, I had to admit, and if this world was as technologically primitive as I thought then that would probably be associated with wealth and stature. The ability to make yourself fat was, itself, an accomplishment in a lot of time periods.

“That’s not exactly right.” I told her. “And my being a warrior is completely wrong.”

The woman studied me for a long moment after that, as if scrutinising me for deception. Fair enough, given the events of our first meeting. Eventually she seemed confident she’d found none. 

“Then I suppose your reaction was…Almost understandable.”

Almost, asshole. 

“What made you think you’d be getting some warrior by the way?” I asked, the question falling out of my mouth as soon as it occurred to me. “I’m guessing you did something particular to try and summon me, what do you know of it?”

She paused, then turned and headed for the door. “I’m having clothes and supplies sent your way, we leave in an hour. Meet me by the dead cyclopes.”

The woman was gone, and she didn’t take the time to answer beforehand. My irritation gnawed at me but I put it aside for now, I had other things to concern myself with. 

True to her word, the supplies arrived fast. Fresh clothes- all uncomfortable and poorly sized for me, but a bit more practical for travel than my pyjamas. A pack, too, or rather some simple leather approximation fastened rather than buckled and awfully cumbersome. 

Maybe I was ungrateful, it was probably a very respectable set of travelling gear for these people. I changed into it and found myself with a good forty minutes to spare before the agreed-upon meeting, so I turned them to my powers.

Energy or force. That was what I was convinced I’d used against the cyclopes, they were what made the most sense. I’d shoved them back, launched stones and shattered that club to splinters. Matter would’ve explained the latter but not the former two, and nothing else really made sense for any of it. So I’d already unconsciously used either energy or force. Figuring out specifically which seemed like a good step to getting a handle on my abilities.

The rocks. They’d had top speed almost right away, and I seemed to recall the cyclops moving back practically instantly as well. There’d been no acceleration, not that I could tell, the objects- living and inanimate both- had simply gotten a higher speed upon contact. That seemed like strong evidence for the energy theory to me, but I did a bit of testing before drawing any hard conclusions. 

Fortunately, I stumbled onto something that more or less confirmed my suspicions after a mere half hour of searching. 

I’d been experimenting on bits of grass from outside, seeing what, if anything, I could do to them besides launching them, and deciding to use something light to avoid putting any holes in walls. What I’d been expecting was a lot of fluttering, and I got that. But I was quite surprised when one of my attempts ended with a blade of grass sizzling up into a burst of flame. 

Well, that ruled out force. Granted there wasn’t really much I could use to pin down what force was exactly- I wasn’t a physicist, and force on particular scales got very difficult to actually distinguish from energy. Also-

No, I was going to be optimistic. Mainly because, if nothing else, I’d discovered another application of my powers. Though I wasn’t given much chance to dwell on it, it was time to meet the bitch who thought she’d brought me to this world. Time to head off and throw my “life” into danger. 

She was waiting just where she’d promised, and though the walk wasn’t that long I actually got the chance to play around a little as I made it. The use of my powers- the applications I’d discovered at least- was starting to grow easier, more deliberate and conscious. Before I’d only been able to guarantee it in moments of frenzied instinct, but now the adrenaline was entirely optional. My ability to pace them was improving too. If I wanted I could launch a stone hard enough to disappear from sight in an instant, or to barely flow a few feet.. The latter was less consistent, which just gave me one more thing to focus on. 

That, and chewing on what Cortana had told me. But the thought of that was no thought at all, and I quickly buried the why before I could torture myself with that either.

“You took your time.” The woman grunted. 

“What’s your name?” I asked her, suddenly annoyed at not knowing and tired of thinking of her as just ‘the woman’, it was getting tedious. She hesitated a long moment, as if volunteering the information might in some way backfire on her.

“Aexilica.” She said at last. 

“Gordon.” I nodded. “Gordon Smith, but then you would’ve heard that when I told everyone else.”

She frowned, rather than smiled, though what struck me now was that she seemed more surprised and curious than annoyed.

“You have two names…?”

Right, it was an assumption to act like these people had even the same naming scheme as my own. I was fairly sure they spoke my language- either that or everything was just being translated well enough that idiomatic expressions were making the jump too- but that wouldn’t change bare cultural facts.

If they existed, of course, which they didn’t.

“It’s common where I’m from.” I shrugged. “My name, as in the name belonging to me in specific, is Gordon. Smith is the name that everyone in my family has.”

We were walking now, and I’d not noticed when that began. A momentary suspicion crossed my mind that Aexilica had deliberately used the question to get me moving without realising it. I dismissed that of course, given that I’d already agreed to come with her.

Not everything is a manipulation, Gordon. Not even with women.

I had to admit though, this one seemed more the type for that sort of thing than most. 

“Gordon is unique to you?” She asked. “There is nobody else of that name in your land?”

“Ah, no.” I corrected. “I’ve met a few other people with that name- first name, we call it- but among my family there aren’t others.”

She nodded along, seemingly committing everything I said to memory.

“Is it illegal to name two children from the same family the same thing?”

I couldn’t help but smile.

“No, it does happen sometimes too.”

“Then I don’t see much point in having two names at all.” She frowned again, back to confusion. I had to join in this time.

“I’m not sure there is much of a point, we just started doing that at some point in our history and never stopped.”

Clearly she found that answer unsatisfactory, but seemed to realise there’d be no better one from me. We walked in silence for a while.

I took that silence as my chance to study her, and though I didn’t find much new physically than I had the day before, I did figure something else out in the effort.

“You know something about my powers, don’t you?” I asked.

She looked at me sharply, eyes suddenly alert. The expression vanished almost instantaneously, but that almost gave me enough time to have my suspicions confirmed. She said nothing, so I tried prodding a response from her. 

“If we’re going to be travelling together, it’ll be best for both of our longevity if you’re open about as much as possible.” I offered. “Particularly when I’m still getting the hang of this myself.”

Her glare withered, relenting after only the briefest moment. It seemed personal dislike wasn’t much of a match for practicality in this one.

“I might know a thing or two.” She admitted. “How did you guess?”

“A few little things, one big thing. You didn’t ask me about it, at all. I figured that meant you knew at least enough to not want to know more. No matter how you slice it, that sort of apathy implies some level of knowledge.”

“And any level of knowledge would be up for you.” She finished, seeming mildly impressed. She looked a lot prettier when she was impressed. “Okay then, well, I don’t know much, so don’t expect a lesson here in…Whatever you do.”

“A name would’ve been nice.” I winced. “But alright, tell me.”

She paused, apparently gathering her thoughts. “From what I’ve heard, you are what my people refer to as a Worldsinger. You have the ability to alter creation itself, in a way not even the Irithani can mimic. The magic of primordial chaos.”

That sounded extremely cool, but not very useful. I listened patiently for more.

“So far, I’ve seen you do only one thing. Pushing objects. If the stories are true, there are a near-endless variety of abilities you can master. All stemming from a handful of basic tenets of your power. If I were you, I’d start experimenting with different ones. As I hear it, a Worldsinger could differentiate these tenets by instinct alone.”