Part 2
The graveyard behind The Hissing Lobster was a strange place. It was the final resting place of anyone who died in the Dragontail Mountains, and many tombstones did not have names on them, as they were found in desolate areas already long dead. Eigengrau visited often, mourning the dead who had no one left to mourn for them. But it was still with some surprise when she saw the person making their way to the graveyard currently was their apprentice, Sirene Ignitis. Eigengrau set her bare feet on the ground, covering the entire graveyard in hoarfrost as Sirene entered it, suspending the graveyard outside of time.
"Sirene, this is most unexpected." Eigengrau said as she approached her.
"Read this letter I got from his Imperial Majesty in Tel Hazan." Sirene replied, shoving the parchment into Eigengrau's hands. "I cannot answer it without permission from you, Master."
"Ah, this letter." Eigengrau replied, opening it and glancing at the contents. "So this is the inflection point. Curious."
"What do you mean Master?" Sirene asked, confused.
"It is time for the grand reveal, apprentice. Remember what I told you, thousands of years ago? It seems it is time for me to show you my other form and explain some things." Eigengrau said, as the hoarfrost thickened. "Yes, we are sufficiently outside of time now, it should be safe."
A small magical circle appeared around Eigengrau, and her body began to glow. Her short raven black hair glowed and lengthened until it was halfway down her back, changing to a bright flame red as it did so. Her eyes, which were perfectly black orbs, shone brightly as they changed to very human looking eyes with green irises. Colour flowed through her robes as it reformed into a long blue and white cloak. Sirene was left staring at a nearly identical doppelganger.
"Not what you expected, is it?" Eigengrau asked with a smirk. "See, I'm you, but I'm not you. I came from a previous kalpa." she continued, her normally monotone speech replaced with a flourish of emotion. "Eigengrau is as much a personality as an actual person, in retrospect. See, as wonderful as we are, and I'm sure you agree, we aren't exactly God material. Even if we rewrote reality and became one."
"We what?" Sirene asked, her mouth agape. She couldn't believe this.
"That's the grand reveal. There's only 3 other people in the entire universe who know this and 1 of them is dead." Eigengrau said, laughing. "Oh this feels good, I haven't let myself go wild like this for a very long time."
"Master, the letter." Sirene said, trying to get back on track. "What did you mean?"
Eigengrau was twirling around, and between jumps from tombstone to tombstone, found time to give Sirene an answer.
"You see, when I got that letter, when I was still you, that was the point. That's the point where my power transcended reality. That's my apotheosis. Solving the Emperor's problem never happened for me. It was during that job I became so powerful I broke the liminal barrier. I saw the dawn. I saw Vordea slay Agbus and weep bitter tears of blood. I walked all the way back to the dawn, and took my place there. I rewrote reality to stabilize a broken universe, as mortal souls weren't meant to become as powerful as I did. It took Vordea and Agbus working with me. It's why the price of time magic is an early grave. It's too powerful to be used."
"Then why can Narin and I use it?" Sirene asked. This was altogether far too much. She sat down on the bench in the graveyard, exhausted.
"Simple, we're fated to use it, me. Sirene Ignitis always becomes a Time Wizard in every kalpa that she is born in."
"Is born in?"
"Ah, that's a secret." Eigengrau said, holding up a finger to her lips.
"And Narin?"
"The Clockwork Dragon takes up all the excess time magic on the mortal plane and consumes it. It's why he's so impossible to find, he's orthogonal to time."
"Orthogonal to... time? Is that even possible?"
"No, actually!" Eigengrau said, sitting on a tombstone, kicking her legs back and forth. "Narin broke the laws of time something fierce, but he prevents the magic from being used on such a wide scale so I let him be." Eigengrau leapt off the tombstone and faced Sirene. "Right! So we need to figure out how you do the Emperor's job without becoming too powerful yourself. Unless you feel like we need another God!" Eigengrau laughed as she finished the sentence. "No, that won't do at all."
"Well, do you have any ideas?" Sirene asked after a moment's silence. "Because I have one."
"You do? Let's hear it." Eigengrau responded, hands on hips.
"What if you went as me?" Sirene asked, gesturing at Eigengrau. "You look like me, you act like me... well, mostly. As you said yourself, you're me. Or rather, were me."
"Tricky. I don't actually know what would happen," Eigengrau paused, doing more stretches. "If I compressed myself into a three dimensional reference point."
"Master I don't even know what you're saying anymore" Sirene said, exasperated.
"Hm. Not really important." Eigengrau said as she did calf stretches using a tombstone. "Problem is, that kind of heavy interaction requires a meeting."
"A meeting? With who?" Sirene asked, genuinely curious.
"The other Gods, silly!" Eigengrau said, laughing. "Though once we explain the problem it shouldn't be an issue. Won't they be surprised!" At this point Eigengrau had abandoned all pretext of modesty and was doing cartwheels. "You're probably wondering why I'm so much more energetic than you. Well, imagine you've been Eigengrau for the past 20 billion years, and you can finally be human again. Also as I'm sure you noticed, I'm a lot younger. 14 I think?"
Sirene cringed at the idea of being 14 forever.
"I saw that!" Eigengrau shouted, laughing. "Anyway, so they understand the problem better I'll be attending as myself for the first time ever, but to make it EXTRA special, you're attending too!" Eigengrau prodded Sirene in the chest at that declaration.
"So, where's the meeting?" Sirene asked.
"At the Inn!" Eigengrau stated as if it was the most obvious thing ever. "I'm still not sure why he runs it, but I've had some theories over the years. When's the meeting you ask? Why it's tonight!"
"How do I even get to the meeting?" Sirene questioned.
"When you get back to the Inn in a few minutes, call over Vaust and tell him you've been ordered to attend tonight's meeting by me. He might be confused but he won't question it. Now then, it's time for you to get going! I'm going to be unstuck in time here in the graveyard until the meeting, I need to think some important thoughts you know!"
With those parting words, Sirene suddenly found herself alone in the graveyard, with the sun beginning to set in the west. She'd been in the graveyard for hours, it seems. Pondering the strange side of Eigengrau she had never seen before, she made her way back to the Inn. The inside had died down a bit from lunchtime, as travellers had left to make it through to Dragonpost before night set. As she sat on her stool, she waved at Vaust, who nodded his head and after a few minutes made his way over to her.
"Well?" he asked Sirene.
"You're gonna see some weird stuff tonight." Sirene answered, still thinking about what she saw earlier.
"That feels ominous, Sirene." Vaust replied, wiping out a mug. "Mind elaborating?"
"I've been ordered by my Master to attend tonight's meeting." Sirene whispered.
Vaust dropped the mug, causing it to shatter on the floor. Looking around, he leaned in very closely.
"This is unprecedented. You're the first mortal to even be told of the meetings." he whispered urgently.
"What I saw in the graveyard is even more unprecedented!" Sirene harshly whispered back. "The rest of you will see that nightmare tonight."
Vaust asked her what she meant by that, but Sirene refused to answer. The hours crawled by without incident, and not long after midnight, when the last of the Inn's guests had gone to bed, and Vaust was cleaning up, a knock was heard at the door.
"Looks like it's about to start." Vaust said. "Sirene, it's showtime." the Inn's furnishings shimmered as Sirene was pulled into the adjacent space between planes and the meeting began as the door swung open, and a large bearded man with a war-hammer entered.
"Vaust, who is this?" he demanded.
"Eigen's orders, Sargon. Sirene is attending tonight." Vaust replied as he finished mopping the floor.
"The apprentice?" Sargon asked, his expression changing. "Why it is good to finally meet you!" he thundered, walking over to Sirene and extending a hand in greeting. "I am Sargon, God of Justice!"
"I am honoured to meet you, Sargon." Sirene replied, returning the handshake. "I must say I'm surprised it takes place in an Inn."
"Hiding in plain sight, girl. Vaust!" Sargon called, but the bottle of beer was already flying and he caught it in his hand. As he finished the bottle, the door opened again, and a short woman with black armour walked through. Around her arms were bright glowing chains, attached to her claymore. She spotted Sirene immediately and walked up to her.
"Sirene Ignitis, why are you here?" Vordea demanded.
"Settle down Vordea, Eigen's orders." Vaust said. "The apprentice is attending."
"Well now isn't this interesting. What's Eigen planning?" Vordea asked Sirene.
"You're not going to like it, Vordea." Sirene replied. "I can hardly believe it myself."
"Believe what?" Vordea asked, but before Sirene could answer the door was smashed open and Eigengrau entered, still in her Sirene Ignitis personality.
"Vor-dee-uh!" she sang, bounding and leaping over to the short Goddess, and picking her up. "Great to see you as always! So, we got an extra special meeting tonight, and Zalas is busy with something so we're beginning right away!" Eigengrau said, talking extremely fast. "Now let's see, what was the agenda for tonight, Vaust? Well, it doesn't matter because I've got an interaction petition to introduce!"
"What the fuck is going on?" Vaust managed to reply first.
"Eigen, what have you done with yourself?" Vordea managed to squeeze out. Sargon was too shocked to say anything.
"This is what I was talking about." Sirene said, sighing. "Vordea likely understands, but well, even after the explanation earlier today I still don't. Master, can you please explain it to them?" Sirene ventured.
"Oh I suppose I could, yes!" Eigengrau replied, finally putting down Vordea, who retreated to a safe distance immediately. "So, simply put, I'm Sirene Ignitis! Well, I'm not the Sirene you see here. I'm the Sirene from a previous kalpa. I transcended my power and eventually became a God, and walked all the way back to the dawn, then with the help of Vordea and Agbus we rewrote reality and I was always a God. But something unexpected has come up."
"Unexpected?" Vaust asked, hopping up onto a table and sitting down.
"My dear apprentice has gotten a letter from the Dwarven Emperor about a job. Problem is, in a certain previous kalpa it was during that job my apotheosis happened. So if my apprentice takes the job it's quite possible that time will in fact be a flat circle." Eigengrau said, taking a seat and leaning back. "So we need a solution."
"A solution?" Vordea was curious now. "Wait... oh no."
"Oh yes!" Eigengrau said back. "We need someone to take Sirene's place."
"Such a person doesn't exist!" Vordea shouted. "We made sure of that!"
"You think I don't know that?" Eigengrau shouted back. "It's why I brought her!"
"But you just said we can't have her go!" Sargon rumbled.
"I'm getting to that!" Eigengrau shouted impatiently.