There were only a few things the being known as the Grandmother hadn’t experienced in her long life. She had lived long enough that her original name had been forgotten, even by herself. She had gone by numerous names throughout the years, some epithets given by others, some she had taken on herself, all to keep those who would exploit her and her extraordinary powers at bay. Healers who didn’t rely on divine powers were already rare, and those who could readily perform feats the Gods would only grant to their most devout followers were rarer still. A healer like her, who could keep old age and disease from claiming her, might very well make her unique.
That unique status had been what made her set up her home in the far north, where she managed to claim a Nexus and hold onto it over the years, using the Nexus’s power to fortify her home until it was night impenetrable. The Gods themself likely had the ability to crush her defences, but even they would need to expend some effort. For centuries, those defences and her relative obscurity had kept her safe, even allowing her to shelter some others who sought to escape the constant conflict that held Mundus in its grasp. No matter what, conflict had always been a constant in life and would likely remain so. She didn’t like it, but she was old enough to know that some things just couldn’t be changed.
But, despite her age, her ambition had never dulled. She had always sought to reach the zenith of her chosen ability, to master healing beyond the skill of anyone else, so her capabilities could match, or even overcome, the Gods themself. That desire, that ambition, had given her purpose throughout the years and allowed her to remain herself, despite living far longer than any of her people had a right to. Occasionally, she joked that she was older than the mountains, but few knew the truth of the matter. She was older than some mountains; she had been alive when the world broke, and the Gods lost much of their influence.
However, she had eventually realised that she needed to be more than mortal to achieve her ambition. Even with all the healing, with all the improvements and rituals she had performed on her body, her mortality and its limits held her back. Prevented her from becoming what she aspired to be. For that, she needed to be more, and when the System that underpinned reality had given her that opportunity, she had taken it.
The assistance she had given the young, slightly foolish and definitely desperate Traveller had paid off handsomely. Contact with other dimensions, which she postulated as an integral part of the apotheosis process, was difficult to achieve. To find someone who was willing to assist from the other side was harder still, especially if the goal was the founding of a religion. She had made a few attempts over the centuries, but never with any real success. Only with Morgana, as Jade had called herself back then, she had luck, though that might have been due to special circumstances.
Since then, she had learned more than she had learned in the last few centuries. Not just about healing, despite that being her focus, but also about reality itself.
The changes she had undergone, the slow process of shedding her mortality and becoming more, were fascinating, especially from a healer’s perspective. Every day, she learned a little more about healing and Life Magic as her own body slowly ascended. At first, it was only a tiny trickle of power that infused her from elsewhere, the flavour so tantalising, similar to the Astral Power she was used to, but fundamentally different. Her current theory was that the power was altered, maybe filtered, by the transfer between dimensions, but she had yet to learn more about it.
When the Maiden, Morgana’s young daughter, had contacted her through a curious mixture of arcane magic, ritual and divine power, she had been intrigued enough. When she learned that the contact was partially facilitated by Lady Hecate, one of the few Gods she actually respected, her curiosity was well and truly roused. Not that the curiosity stopped her amusement when she learned that the whole point of contacting her had been an invitation to a family dinner.
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She hadn’t been invited to one of those for centuries, though that was likely in part due to the dilution her blood had undergone over the years and generations. While she was confident that tens of thousands of people could trace their lineage back to her in some fashion, it really stopped mattering after the fourth or fifth generation. By that point, the relationship ceased to be familial and turned statistical. Not really something that connected on a personal level.
So, it was easy to accept the invitation. Despite there being no shared blood between any of the three, the bond they shared through their burgeoning divinity was just as strong. Maybe stronger, as it had been entered voluntarily, tying them all to one another for a long time. Long, even for somebody like her, who had lived through enough winters to have seen mountains rise and continents break.
Which only left the mechanics of attending, given that the celebration was most certainly not local. While the Maiden Luna had told her about the plans she had, sensing the familiar presence of young Morgana, or Jade, as she was now called, seeping into the Nexus, not from the Astral River she was familiar with but from elsewhere, had been a welcome surprise. Especially as the experience was something new, something she could learn from, which was always welcome. It might just help her to fully understand the transfer of power between deity and devout, though only time would tell.
Allowing her mind to be pulled through the ritual young Jade had set up was another new experience. It was similar enough to some of the rituals she had used in the past, those that allowed her to project her mind to distant places, but she had never used it as extensively as this. The closest analogue she had experienced was her old attempts to reach different realms, but those had been blind, while this one was most certainly targeted and guided. Again, the travel gave her a few new experiences she would have to analyse in the future, just as the rest of their dinner did.
Jade herself might have been the biggest surprise. The foolish Traveller had become someone truly interesting. Still young, still somewhat inexperienced, but she had obviously made massive strides on her path, widening and deepening it at the same time. Even the Grandmother had to think for a bit to remember an Arcanist with a similar magical versatility, such a command over the elements. She had met a handful of people who were as capable, but those people all had something in common. None of them could be called ‘young’ for their species, while young Jade? The girl was truly young, barely old enough to be considered an adult within her species, to say nothing of the draconic aura the Grandmother could feel from her body. The young Mother could undoubtedly stay mortal for centuries, if not millennia, all without needing to ascend to the divinity she was slowly gaining.
If the Grandmother was being honest with herself, that might just be the most impressive part. Not the pure power the young woman was gaining, that was par for the course. Gaining power through levels was simple, especially in the beginning. As long as you survived, you gained power. But to gain the skills and versatility she could feel from the young Mother? That was an entirely different thing. To say nothing of the two daughters who attended the dinner.
Neither of them was simple. The young Maiden Luna, with the divine presence of Lady Hecate’s aspect draped around her like a cloak, was impressive in her own right. To channel that much divine power, to allow a divine aspect to manifest in the physical realm like that? It was the stuff of legend, something the Grandmother hadn’t seen since Mundus broke. Additionally, the young girl had inherited some of her own ability to heal and channel Life Magic. That alone would make her formidable, but together? The only reason she wasn’t a force to be reckoned with in her own right was her youth and the lack of experience that came with it.
And the other one, Lia? The first of her kind, a unique being that was effectively bound to young Jade, a companion that could remain by the young Mother’s side throughout the centuries? Inherently powerful enough to stand between the young Mother and any threat that might try to attack her by surprise? It made the Grandmother just a bit envious. She would have loved to have someone with her, especially as the decades became centuries and her descendants faded into memory, leaving her isolated and alone.
By the time the Grandmother had to leave, she knew she wanted to return. She finally found people she would gladly call family again, and she would be a fool to let that slip away. It had been far too long.
