Chapter 234: Dreamscape Ritual

    Xim rarely got to dive deeply into theological matters with the full party. She and Nuralie had frequent discussions on the topic, and Etja got involved from time to time, but Varrin and I lacked the depth of knowledge they had and weren’t generally looking to attend any sermons.

    Not to say that Xim was preachy–far from it–and the following discussion reflected that. She stuck to the concepts that related to our task, focusing on the practical aspects of the ritual and how it intersected with the other divine principles we were working with.

    We began with some context, reviewing topics we were all familiar with while coming at the material from an unfamiliar angle.

    Sam’lia was the Goddess of the Seven Organs, and as a deity, she was profoundly divisible. Not only was she one of an unknowable number of sisters, all of whom managed their own version of the Third Layer throughout reality, but her Arzian manifestation could be viewed in eight different ways.

    The first was Sam’lia as an entire entity, the motherly blood goddess ruling over a realm of mind and dream, both loving and vengeful. Beyond that was each organ itself–the Eye, Brain, Ear, Nose, Tongue, Heart, and Stomach. Each organ represented different ideals and was in charge of different things within the Third Layer.

    Sam’lian religious practices generally divided themselves among these eight categories and each of Sam’lia’s revelations was associated with one of the seven organs. Both of my revelations were of the Eye, for example. Xim’s beast mode came from a Revelation of the Heart, and her manipulation of Divine fire came from a Revelation of the Stomach. She also divulged during the lesson that she’d finally realized a Revelation of the Brain, and I expected she was going for the full set of seven, one from each organ. That was a feat that hadn’t happened in living memory, but that discussion was beyond the purview of her lesson.

    Sam’lian worship was heavily focused on ritual, especially in the Xor’Drel tribe. These rituals were generally divided into the eight categories, depending on their purpose. The ritual used to adopt me into the tribe was classed as a general ritual, relating to Sam’lia as a whole and her general motherliness. Xim used the Ritual of the Eye to transition to and from the Third Layer since all of the Third Layer lies under the gaze of the Eye and everything under the gaze of the Eye lies within the Third Layer.

    Going even deeper, each organ could be further broken down into three duties. While the Eye sees, reveals, and embraces, the Stomach hungers, consumes, and separates. The ritual Xim planned to use involved all three of the Stomach’s duties. She would also incorporate ritualistic elements from other organs to help guide the process, but that was getting into minutiae that–once again–went deeper than our crash course allowed.

    The first stage of the ritual established a target for the Stomach’s hunger–a portion of the fragment’s Divine essence–which if successful would mark it for consumption since all that the Stomach hungered for could be consumed. Consumption was the process of bringing that which is hungered for into the desired vessel, which would guide the Divine essence across my connection with the fragment and into my soul. Separation dealt with breaking something down into essential elements, either physically or conceptually, so that the thing being consumed could be properly absorbed by the vessel. That was the trickiest part for me since I would need to focus the ritual on providing me with useful essence to stuff into my Soul-Sight, culled of any nasty Hysteria baggage.

    Separation was both a literal and metaphorical process for the Stomach. One could separate carbohydrates from vitamins in a cheeseburger to send them off as nourishment for different parts of the body, or one could separate fact from fiction in a skewed historical treatise to decide what knowledge was useful for the mind to utilize. These things were as much a framework for a life philosophy as they were actionable magic processes that could be deployed.

    Either way, that was only one part of Xim’s plan. The second part involved her fancy new revelation.

    “When I sleep, I enter a realm created by Sam’lia where I can commune with her and other worshipers,” said Xim.

    “That’s how you stopped Gharifon from forcing you to stay asleep while Tavio beat my ass,” I said.

    “Do we believe Gharifon was a divine spawn at that time?” asked Varrin.

    “Pretty sure that’s why I got avatar vibes after Xim set the man on fire,” I answered. “From what the Littans said after they outed him as a spy, he seems to have been the divine spawn of Hysteria.”

    “And Xim still resisted him,” said Varrin. “I had not considered the implications of that.”

    “Goddess beats avatar spawn,” said the cleric. “By intruding on the dream, Gharifon intruded on a space where Sam’lia–and even I–have greater dominion than we do in the First. My Revelation of the Brain allows me to summon that dreamscape into the world around me for a brief time.”

    “Where have I heard dominion used that way before?” I asked.

    “Fortune asked for dominion over Anesis,” said Etja. “When he wanted to teleport her out of The Cage. Orexis surrendered it.”

    “So it is a term of art,” said Varrin.

    This was the most complex intersection of magic and skill we’d ever tried, and the only way to really test it was to make a full-fledged attempt. I found myself growing anxious in a way I seldom did anymore. Even when our lives were on the line in the midst of a battle, I drew confidence from our strategies and preparation. Our ability to adapt in a fight had been well-tested, and we had plans on top of plans for when we might need to pivot.

    Here, we were pushing the envelope of several abilities, all of which had to operate flawlessly for us to succeed, with no good way to practice the entire procedure beforehand.

    I quelled my nerves and centered myself. I took a deep breath, let it out through my nose, and signaled Xim to start.

    Xim began chanting, waving her scepter in patterns that mirrored the sigils on the ground. Her hand adjusted to the subtle wiggling of the runes, even as she held her eyes tightly shut. The sounds of her whispers were like creeping centipedes crawling into my ear canal. All other noises were cowed by her words, the world a silent stage for her disquieting call.

    Xim’s body grew, a phantom image of her presence washing out to the edges of the ritual circle. I felt her revelation pull me in, and I fought against the instinct to stumble forward. The pull was a hallucination of my mind as it failed to process the journey into her dreamscape.

    An organic material grew from the floor, surrounding us in a pulsating wall of flesh filled with ruby light. Although the substance appeared solid, the world beyond it was still visible. We occupied two spaces, one spiritual and one physical. I fell back on processing Xim’s summoning with my soul, as I had learned to do with my Sight. Etja and Varrin struggled with the dual inputs while they relied on their physical brains to process the information, but they could adapt well enough to do what they needed.

    The pulsing grew louder, falling into rhythm with a powerful thudding from above. We were wrapped in the Stomach, guided by the Heart, and shown the path by the Brain. Everything was in place.

    Etja opened her soul and held me in it, a second layer of spiritual presence further cocooning me into the embrace of my allies. She brought forth the fragment, pulled from its separate partition, and I shuddered as it confronted me with its mania.

    I focused on the ritual, drawing comfort from the Closet’s environment, the work we’d done, and the presence of Xim and Etja helping to guide me. I pushed back against the fragment, seizing its assault on my mind and arresting it in place.

    A soft giggle escaped me, although I found no humor in what we were doing. Someone else was chuckling into my lips. I opened my Sight fully to the fragment, awash in its rainbow hues as I confronted it. I peeled back layer after layer, the speck of avatar endlessly dense. It was a shadow of infinity, but I’d confronted true infinity on more than one occasion. This was a pretense. It felt small.

    The fragment dimmed and rested, uninterested in fighting my gaze. My cheeks burned from the force of my grin, and I wiped the stranger’s smile from my face.

    I connected to the fragment with Reveal. It pushed back, but it was a token struggle. It let the connection take hold, as though it were eager to meld with me. I pushed my thoughts into it, fervently believing in the control I had over my realm. We’d struggled and prevailed against Hysteria, their full self, and this was an infinitesimal shard of that being. It held no sway here.

    The fragment and I sighed. The shard melted to reshape itself to my whim.

    I felt Grotto in my head, adjusting my neurochemicals. A feverish excitement dulled in my chest. I became aware of the fragment’s essence crossing over into my soul.

    Xim’s voice rose in volume, her whispers becoming a sonorous ringing, pulsing in time with the Heart. A growl erupted from the Stomach as it found its prey, the weight of its desire falling upon the fragment’s thread like a pack of malnourished lampreys. The fragment glimmered and a torrent of power poured into me, being drawn by a carnal lust, willing and insatiable.

    I saw an opportunity. Something I hadn’t expected. My control was much greater than I’d anticipated. The fragment was meek, subservient, bowing to my tyrant’s will.

    I could take more of it.

    I could draw from it until it was a dried-out husk.

    I saw another piece of divinity that I could command for myself.