Chapter Four-Hundred Twelve (Patreon)

Ah, stage fright.  Still applicable, even when I’m literally the stage.  I don’t have it as bad as some people do.  There’s no panicking, no hyperventilating… even if I still had lungs.  Just the butterflies in the pit of my not-stomach as I watch the cathedral slowly fill.

“No last ditch plans to delay?” asks Teemo, my rat scions and Voice sitting on my core and acting like he’s not nervous, too.

Nah, that ship sailed a couple days ago.  I really do want to unveil my core, the nervous part is how many people are going to be here for it.  And a bit of nervousness about maybe everyone going catatonic for a few minutes with a vision, but we’ve done everything we can to prepare for that.

Teemo smiles and sprawls out on my core.  “I’m glad you’re getting this thing into a more permanent place, Boss.  The Secret Sanctum’s nice and all, but Aranya and them aren’t the only ones who have been wanting to set you down someplace cool.”

Oh yeah?  You and the other scions have been plotting behind my back?  Traitors!

Teemo snorts.  “Absolutely, Boss.  You’ve made a bunch of cool stuff for everyone else.  Don’t be surprised when they try to return the favor.

…if I said everyone doesn’t need to, does that make me a hypocrite?

“Maybe a little,” he answers with a smirk.  “When you try to lead by example, don’t be surprised when people start following.”

I grumble, but can’t be too upset, even with playing it up for a bit of fun.  I’m proud of you guys.  All the scions, all the followers.  It’s a lot to take in sometimes, a lot of expectations to live up to, but you guys are all worth it and so much more.

“Aw, you’re gonna make me blush, Boss,” Teemo tries to play it off, but he can’t hide the appreciation I feel through the bond.  I make sure the others can feel my appreciation for them, too.  I even tap a little into the divinity power to send my followers a bit of warm fuzzies, as well.

It clears the butterflies in a flash, and I think everyone in and around the cathedral can tell it’s time.  Let’s get the core moving, Teemo.

He stands and snaps off a salute before stepping into the shortcut, doing one last round of checks as we prepare for launch.  In the cathedral, Aranya smiles and stands from her seat in the front pew, and makes her way to the dais.

“It’s time.  I'm sure you all felt that from Lord Thedeim.  You don’t need me to tell you how pleased He is with our work, our effort to repay Him for all He’s done.”  She smirks as she looks toward my core, even with it still in the Secret Sanctum.  “It’s far more grandiose than He would have made for Himself, but if we don’t spoil Him, who will?”

Amusement echoes through the cathedral, and I’m again glad Aranya has managed to instill a sense of informality among everyone.  I definitely would not be coping as well if everyone was always smacking their foreheads against the floor for me.

“Still, if there’s a place for a bit of pomp and circumstance, this is it.  He can grin and bear it for a few minutes.  Slash, some music, please?”

My earth elemental unslings his guitar and checks the tune, acting like he doesn’t have something picked out for this.  He plays a few testing licks, building the atmosphere, before settling into the theme he’s chosen.  I would have probably saved it for Sue’s debut… which this will kinda be, come to think of it.

And Doppler’s as well.  Piano sounds soon accompany my earth elemental, Doppler and his poppers skittering out of a shortcut near Slash to play harmony to his melody, and I approve of the choice.  It gives a sense of grandeur without feeling all egotistical about it.  There’s murmurs of concern at first, with an unknown spawn appearing out of nowhere, but I wouldn’t exactly call this boss music, even if the music is pretty boss.  My other scions make their appearances along the walls, making good impressions with it.  Each brings their own flair, starting with Queen and her ant swarm dramatically flowing from shortcuts in one wall, alchemical fog billowing along the ground.  Thing follows next, the subtle engraving of enchantments through the cathedral glowing at his command.

The lights draw the eyes upward, where Coda and Poe each swoop in, each flying with clear precision in their own way.  Coda is perfectly calculated, his eyes and ears taking in everything with intellectual curiosity as my bat flies.  Poe is no less precise, the large raven showing regimented control and focus.  They each alight on the same beam, Coda hanging upside-down and Poe standing tall.

Poppy and Titania enter together in a burst of petals and vines, my living vine and pixie scions working together to fill the air with the scent of flowers and fresh dirt.  It makes the place feel more real, in my opinion.  Not just a pretty facade, but a place where things get done.  Fluffles slithers in through the foliage, soon spreading his wings and gliding to coil by Aranya’s side.  He sits with dignity, my Conduit ready and able to spend exactly what he needs to protect not only me, but everyone else, too.

Rocky’s entrance is understated as my zombie simply stands from a pew, but he commands attention with his mere presence.  There aren’t many zombies with boxing gloves on, let alone ones that can fight with a wide range of magic as easily as he fights with his fists.  He strides forward and stands on Aranya’s other side, looking over the congregation with a smile on his rotten face.  Grim slips out of a shortcut and sticks to the back, staying out of the way.  The very picture of the grim reaper is softened by the dirt stains on his robe, and the grass along his scythe blade.  He doesn’t draw the eye like Rocky does, my skeleton scion preferring to stay in the background, but his presence is still a gentle comfort.  Despite his appearance, he works very hard to ensure no delver falls here.

Honey and Goldilocks make similarly muted entrances, my bee and bear scions each content with ensuring things go smoothly, not worrying about becoming famous for it.  Leo exits a shortcut with a few wolves around him, looking every bit like the military mind he is.  All he needs are a few medals to jingle on his chest.  Jello makes her entrance not far from him, my slime cube burbling happily as she folds and shapes metals within herself.  If Leo isn’t careful, Jello might actually take my joke seriously and make him jingle everywhere.

Nova can’t help but make a dramatic appearance as she pools magma around herself, my magma wyrm scion soon shaping it into wonderful statuettes.  She may look like the most dangerous scion in the room, but she wouldn’t hurt a fly… unless it was an enemy scion.  Zorro’s entrance goes mostly unnoticed, just the way my fox scion likes it, but I’m not letting him avoid the spotlight forever.  Begrudgingly, he makes his way for the dias to sit beside Aranya, carefully observing everyone while looking like he’s hardly paying any attention.  A Spymaster needs to be subtle about it, right?  

Tiny’s appearance is under the crystalline floor, my gigantic spider pulling along my core with thick cables of silk.  He’s still my Guardian, after all, so I think he deserves a bit of recognition with being the one to carry my core.  And behind him comes Sue, the t-rex finally giving her first proper roar as the music swells, proclaiming that if anyone wants to harm anyone here, they’ll have to go through her, first.

Everyone is looking all over, hardly able to decide where to focus their attention.  While most of my scions are publicly known, this is probably the first time anyone has had a chance to see all of them, so there’s a lot of rubbernecking as people try to see everything all at once.

Their gazes eventually, inexorably, are drawn to my core, and I’m personally relieved to see most of the people having normal reactions, even if that’s often closing their eyes and offering a little prayer to me.  I spot the telltale signs of a few having visions, and Teemo is quick to ensure a few denizens are there to make sure they don’t fall over or anything.  The ones seated aren’t in any real danger, but I do have more than a few verdant skeletons needed to ease a few of the standing people to the floor while they ride out whatever they’re seeing.

I had been hoping the clear quartz floor might keep people from having visions at all, the refraction hopefully acting like a mirror to look at Medusa, though I don’t turn people to stone.  I’d say about five percent of the people here are having visions, which I think is pretty sustainable.  We’ll still need to keep denizens on standby, for new people and just in case people get more than one chance to look at my core and see something in its swirling orange depths.

Either way, the music fades and Aranya smiles at all those gathered.  “Welcome all, to Lord Thedeim’s Cathedral Sanctum.  Being public is a big Change for Him, and a lesson to us all.  To be secret is to be safer, perhaps, but it also risks missing out on so much.  A hidden lantern cannot shine as it should, but an open flame can bring disaster if not handled carefully.  Seek Change, seek improvement, be deliberate in those decisions just as you are willing to Change those decisions if it is needed.”

She turns her gaze to my core with a warm smile.  “Shine your light and guard your light.  It is a difficult balance, but when done correctly, it illuminates us all.”