Attack on Sylica

[Ebiris]

"And perhaps with their own Creations, working to find answers to unknown questions," Alicia murmurs a strange thought at the prospect of other beings like the Incarnations out there. And why not? Just as there are so many Primes within Creation, why not so many Creations within Beyond?

"What then lies Beyond the Beyond?" she asks aloud, taking that thought to its logical conclusion.

[Anastasia]

"One." Mystra says, "All we know is that at the beginning, the Incarnations mentioned One. What it is, who it is or anything about it is not known to us. It has never mattered to us, save for pondering when we wish to assail an unanswerable question. Perhaps it will matter if we ever find an Answer."

[Ebiris]

Three into two and one into three.

Could one into three refer to some primordial split that created the incarnations of Chaos, Balance, and Law? Or is it something unrelated because when so much deep meaning is attached to less than a handful of numbers there's going to be repeats.

"Mmn," she hums softly. "Yes, I suppose it doesn't much matter when we can barely survive outside of Creation. Although... how long did it take for mortals to first learn spells that enabled them to survive the inner planes?" If anyone would know it's Mystra! "There may yet be more for us, in the far far future beyond our imaginings."

[Anastasia]

"Not long," Mystra admits with a gentle smile of her own. "Everyone learned quickly back them, in part because we were all more involved, down to the Incarnations. At times, they suspended the rules and let do things more forwardly than we would otherwise. My first lover was a mortal man whom I personally taught magic to in his mud hut." A faraway smile shows on Mystra's face, "He had strong, firm hands, the sort that can build the world around him, but flexible enough to work even the most delicate material components."

[Ebiris]

"Goodness," Alicia says softly, while Marie's eyes are wide as saucers at getting this sort of juicy gossip from the source.

"I wonder..." she says after a moment. "What it was like in that period when everything was so new and filled with promise. I think of things like Limbo or Chronias as eternal and unchanging... but from the broad scope of history it must be far different to one who was actually there when they were made. How much of Creation was set by the Incarnations at the beginning and how much came later? If Good and Evil were new surprises to them they can't have made things like Hades or Elysium, can they?"

[Anastasia]

"They formed quickly and naturally in response to mortals, and I suspect the Incarnations retroactively aided this," Mystra says, "This is one part of the beginning that's hazy to us, because quite honestly, I believe the Incarnations ignored linearity in that instance. I recall them being made...there are no words, Alicia. Would you like to see?" Extending her hand out to you, "If you would, take my hand."

[Ebiris]

Alicia reaches out to take Mystra's hand while Marie watches jealously and contents herself with the empathic link.

She has an ulterior motive of course. The theory is that the Incarnation of Law split into two, and it logically follows that those two parts ended up in Chronias and Nessus. So learning how Hell and Celestia were in the beginning would prove illuminating.

[Anastasia]

Mystra looks at Marie at the same time, a silent and mild rebuke expressed without a word. Then Alicia takes Mystra's hand.

Everything. Nothing.

The moment you take Mystra's hand, reality unfolds. You are in darkness. Everything and nothing.

There is a pinpoint of light ahead. The tiniest droplet of it, spreading apart rapidly. Forest and sky, sun and moon, light and dark. Before you endless droplets cluster together in the middle, while beyond it more spread. Earth, fire, wind, water. They cluster around that core in the middle, as beyond it others gather yet. Glory and hatred, love and destruction, balance and competition. All forms in this one instant, coming together.

Realities, meaning, growth. All of them form in your mind's eye, no words possible for it. It simply is, all being made and yet indistinct, the details of it hidden from your vision. Then you are drawn to it. A spreading Weave, a web of throbbing power. It beats in time to the heartbeat you feel through Mystra's hand, spreading everywhere. It connects all, connects to her, connects.

A voice, certain and inevitable, declares, "You are Mystra. You shall oversee the concept of magic, for you are magic and magic is you. You shall defend it and have absolute power over it, but shall also be limited. For there are parts of Our Creation that must not be broken. You must never block the magic from those like yourself, those whom We choose to call gods. You may favor whichever possible solution to the Answer you please, but you must be restrained, lest you be destroyed and replaced."

"Yes, master," Mystra's voice is heard, new and yet the same as it is now.

"Then watch." The voice commands her. "Choose."

The highest light shines atop the Holy Mountain, radiant even now.

The endless glades of the forest paradise loom forth, beautiful even an instant as they are made.

The gentle place between them, where all is peace and calm, even now calling to any soul who comes to it.

The lowest pit of the Pit beckons and threatens, shadowed even now.

The endless screams of the Abyss threaten to drawn all out, Mystra's gaze turning away from it.

The emptiness between them, where all is gloom and suffering, even now calling to any soul who comes to it.

The place of perfect order, where even now all is accounted for.

The place of perfect chaos, where even now all is unaccountable.

"Choose." The voice demands, dispassionate.

Mystra looks inward. She sees the possibilities - endless wars, magic as a weapon, a tool to be used in warfare. As primal as fire or earth, as deadly as flame or crushing rock. Panic. How? How can she choose?

"Choose or be destroyed," The voice demands, still dispassionate. "If you are unable, we shall have another."

You feel Mystra's fear - she wants to live. She wants to live, to feel, to be. She wants...shouldn't everyone want that? Shouldn't everyone have a chance to live and be happy? Yes. Even though her magic will do great and terrible things, you feel Mystra believe that one fact with all her heart.

"You have chosen," The voice intones, and then all is.

Your vision returns, Mystra letting go over your hand.

[Ebiris]

Marie ducks her head, chastised while Alicia goes on a trip.

And what a trip!

Her hand lowers from Mystra's and she exhales. "I remember when you showed me the Weave. This was... well, all that and more, wasn't it? Which Incarnation was it that spoke to you? What did they mean that you must be restrained?"

[Anastasia]

"The Incarnation of Law," Mystra sits back as you process it all. "Were I to try, I could perhaps triumph over everyone in Creation, as I control magic absolutely. Yet I am forbidden from doing so, restrained in what I may do. I have no meaningful limit to what I can do, save to the outermost limits of the Weave itself, and the limits set by the Incarnations. I am largely a bystander in so many things because the Incarnations commanded it to be so. I am allowed to have my paradise, to guide mortals to it, but many problems I cannot solve, even if I could. I am the Guardian of Magic, not the bringer of the Answer. Were it up to me, I would take the magic from all the forces of woe in Creation and bring about Good's triumph, but the Incarnations would not allow it. It would be a meaningless suicide."

[Ebiris]

That makes sense. But why even include something so powerful as magic if its deity has to be so specifically neutered? Alicia tries to imagine a world without magic... something like the world of her childhood but even less? Even then they still had magic, and their civilization was built on the ruins of a past one that had far greater command of the arcane. How would a society form from the beginning with no magic at all?

She supposes it would be a world organised around brute strength. Like ogre tribes, perhaps? Ones without even shamans anyway. But ogres are stupid, and there's nothing to say that bereft of magic that humans and elves and dragons and demons and angels wouldn't be able to put their minds towards ingenious ways of organising society that she can't imagine for herself, burdened by her preconceptions.

"So the Answer is determined when all of Creation is tilted towards one ethos?" she asks, back to the main point. "Be it Law or Chaos, irrespective of Good and Evil? What happens then, did any of the Incarnations ever hint what they would do with their Answer? Or what would happen to Creation with its purpose served?"

[Anastasia]

"Not quite. The Incarnations want an Answer to Good and Evil as well now," Mystra explains, "But in essence, yes. Once we have an answer...we do not know for certain, but doubtless the Incarnations would want to study it. They have long sought an Answer and not been able to obtain one."

[Ebiris]

"So if Celestia were to triumph and all of Creation flocked to the holy mountain it would be a clear result, but what if Elysium or Mechanus were to triumph instead? Would they accept the partial answer then forcibly split Creation apart again down the remaining neutral axis?" Alicia asks. "I suppose we just don't know and all I can do is speculate."

[Anastasia]

"I don't know for certain, but I think so. The idea of eternal balance between law and chaos is one possible Answer," Mystra admits.

[Ebiris]

"That's right, there are three options not two, so balance is equally valid," Alicia realises. "We've gotten rather away from the Competition, but I suppose it's all relevant in the end."