A Jaded Life

In a seemingly endless, silvery-grey expanse, three figures sat and stared into the void, their eyes easily piercing through layers of reality and allowing them to observe. Far away, their power was channelled by one of their mortal servants, a young child slowly growing into her power and still relying on strength granted to them by others, but for once, the power wasn’t used for the child or for their caretaker. No, the power was purely used for the purpose of the three figures, for they had come across something interesting, something rarely seen.

Sure, the expansion, the Change as the child’s caretaker called it, had altered countless worlds before and would alter many more but this had been a rare occasion where the three figures had been able to get some information on and to the world before it had changed. It hadn’t been easy, there was a reason why the three had actively worked with beings they normally wouldn’t work with, but it had been done. Their plan had, for all intents and purposes, worked quite well, numerous beings had been introduced to the System in a world they had deeply entrenched themself in and thus lost most of their interest in. And lost easy access but that hadn’t been part of their plans but an annoying accident. Those happened, even to the greatest entities, as the joke went, no system was foolproof, it simply hadn’t encountered a sufficiently talented fool.

There had been some complications on that world and suddenly, things weren’t as routine there but given that they had observed a fascinating mortal, one who had accomplished enough to make blessing them trivially easy, the three were happily counting it all as a great success. The mortal’s actions had added grains of knowledge to her endless expanse, increasing her power just a tiny bit and the blessing they had given to the mortal was a just reward for their unknowing assistance. There just weren’t enough mortals willing to push the boundaries of reality, their minds stopping them with their amusing concept of sanity. As if a sane being could expand the limits of what was known, to see the unknown and remain hale. No, only a special mind could add grains to her endless desert of knowledge and those minds were the most valuable, as they so often snuffed out before being able to reach their full potential. Normalcy, such an overrated idea, didn’t these fools know that to be normal was to be average? Who would want to be average, if they could be special?

As the Crone pondered for a few moments, the other two kept careful watch, the Mother making sure that their precious mortal servant, adopted child of her equally precious mortal student, wasn’t harmed. It just wouldn’t do to injure such a useful vessel, especially as it would greatly diminish her ability to interact with her student. At the same time, the Maiden, curious child that she was, slowly modified the magical structures channelled through their servant, allowing them to see just a little more of the reality around them, fascinating as it was.

There were so few forces that radically altered reality on that fundamental level, they only knew of the system that could accomplish it. Or the Astral River, as some called it, or the Ether, Warp, Weave or so many other names used to refer to the intricate and infinite construct that was underpinning so much of reality by adding its own fundamental force to its structure. Without it, there was no magic, nor the system so many beings took for granted, using it to enhance themself, their knowledge and magic. Where it came from, how it worked, nobody truly knew, at least nobody they had ever heard about. And given their domain, that said quite a lot.

Thus, anything that might shed light on the mysterious workings of the Astral and the System was something they greatly desired, which was what ultimately caused them to join the others and assist the mortals on that distant planet, even before it was reached by the Astral. An incredible feat, one that had only been possible thanks to their help, alongside that of many others. Some might even claim it was an impossible feat, but the impossible was only that as long as nobody overcame the challenge it posed.

For that, even the chaos and destruction still ravaging the world they had used to train the Travellers was well worth it, as strange it sounded to exchange a mature and stably developed world with one that went through great turmoil. But with turmoil and chaos came opportunities and with opportunities came new knowledge, usually it came slowly but in this case, interesting discoveries were remarkably frequent.

Like the incredibly potent crystal conglomeration of radiation and magic, only kept in balance by the system as it slowly expended the energy trapped within that matrix to expand reality in an impossible way. Space, even time to a small extent, were warped in the area, the runes drawn by their young servant allowed them to perceive that slice of reality with a wide array of their senses, letting them see so much more than they normally could.

Truly, a fascinating experience, one that could only be topped by being there in person but their very presence would be too much for the developing Astral in the area. While it might be fascinating to see reality crumble around them, if only to see what it was replaced by, the experiment would be too costly. They would have to find a better place for it, one that they, and their compatriots, hadn’t invested immeasurable efforts into. Otherwise, those compatriots would likely register their displeasure, they had even complained about the acts of that interesting mortal who had managed to cause such devastation in that settled and boring world. Didn’t those fools know that change meant opportunity and stability was only a different word for the slow death by stagnation?

Soon, the ritual performed by their servant in that distant world ended, gifting the three a treasure trove of raw information that would have to be carefully distilled into knowledge before it could be tested and understood.

Around them, time was slowly flowing forward, while a small part of the three was dealing with their servant and their student, repaying them for the treasure of information they had received. A paltry reward on their level but a treasure of equal worth to the information they had gained to those who received the reward. They were still deep in their quest to understand the raw data when they felt their servant complete yet another task and doing yet another impressive job of it.

The Shrine they had built had been designed by the same, small aspect of the Maiden that taught their servant, making sure that the servant was educated to their standard, despite the turmoil in their world. It just wouldn’t do to have their servant ignorant or incompetent, and if the lessons allowed them to shape their servant's worldview into something that encouraged others to explore the unknown and broaden the scope of knowledge in the world, all the better. Teaching one, who would hopefully become a teacher of others, starting exponential growth if things worked out as they planned. And things would, if only because they were not shy about putting some weight on the scales to make things work out according to their plans.

It was with wide smiles that they gave out yet another reward, hoping that it would propel their student to new heights, adding just a few final touches to the Shrine. Using the Shrine’s presence, they could stretch their senses into that world without putting undue pressure on the Astral, allowing them to add just a little more to the treasure they had already gathered.

Noticing how reality slowly changed in the environment of the temple, they engraved what they could perceive on the crystal their servant had prepared, all three faces stretching into grins as they did. Recorded information could be used by comparing later data to the record, allowing them to observe the effect the change they had noticed in the present had over time. Sadly, it was doubtful that they would be able to constantly observe the centre and the crystal there, but they could observe the Charland itself. And how it slowly seeped into the ordinary reality around it, changing not just the direct environment but also the Astral River and thus everything in that world to a lesser degree. A small part of them would be hidden in the Shrine, taking note of the environment and maybe of a few interesting mortals.

Maybe the next group of Adventurers could be motivated to go into the centre again and take another reading. It would be another data point and if there was one thing they could never get enough of, it was new data. They had an entire hidden dimension to fill with knowledge and that was a task that might be as endless as the expanding dimension they used as their library.