Deep into the Infinite Stair

[Ebiris]

"Did you create your servants or were they already here?" Alicia asks, nodding to Jessica after. "Yes, what told you that you might learn one day?"

[Anastasia]

"They were here, they awaited me," The voice giggles again, louder. "It showed me everything. It isn't like mortals, it sees beyond them. It showed me how to become part of this realm and become what I should be. It cares about me." More giggles.

[Ebiris]

"Is it still here? Does it have a name?" Alicia asks, tone turning a bit gentle at the increasingly insane giggles.

[Anastasia]

Diplo, -10 penalty. You said something right and wrong.

[Ebiris]

[19:25] <@Ebiris> roll 1d20+49 diplo
[19:25] <Penuche2> Ebiris invokes Penuche's magic: < 65 > [d20=16]

[Anastasia]

"It. It doesn't have a name, but it has a title. Guardian is the title." The giggles don't stop, "We're so tiny and meaningless, Alicia Reynes. It showed me how to be a little bigger. Can you believe none of us can create life? Such a simple thing and none of us can do it! Yet we can walk and call on magic, but to create life is beyond us, except with the system our body came with! We're so helpless, we're temporal! TEMPORAL! LINEAR! We can't look back! We can't move back! We have to have meaning, A has to follow B has to follow C or we break like a toy!"

Even more giggles as they give way to laughter, "Do you see how pathetic we are, Jessica Reynes? We weren't made to thrive, we were made to die. If I was worth anything, I'd make myself a queen in a moment! They'd all be alive because I'd create souls for them! We can't even will reality to change without limit. The most basic ability of all and what do we have? Nothing! We are blind fools with no idea how sad we are!""

[Ebiris]

"Most of us can't create life - other than with that system, yes," Alicia says, having taken a second to figure out what the Queen meant by that system. "But during Sylica's most recent expansion we created a great deal of life, plant and animal. As for the temporal limitation... that is only a limitation we have accepted. Only obedience to the Temporal Compact keeps us from violating causality."

[Anastasia]

The laughs stop.

"Then why...why can't I do it?" The Queen asks you.

[Ebiris]

"You're different than us," Alicia says, plainly but gently. "I'm not sure what the Guardian has taught you, but... you're not like anything I've ever seen before. Not a God, not a planar manifestation. You were merged with this realm, but I'm not sure if you or the realm were made for such a thing to happen."

[Anastasia]

"Why?" Is the answer, "It said it would teach me good things! Why are you different?!"

[Ebiris]

"I would like to ask the Guardian that myself," Alicia replies bluntly.

[Anastasia]

"You can't fight it," The Queen warns, "It's strong. Be careful. It attacks those who find it."

[Ebiris]

She never said anything about fighting! "Did it attack you?" she asks.

[Anastasia]

There is a longer silence before the faces all go still.

"Yes," The whisper comes from everywhere. "It doesn't fight like us. It doesn't have limits like us, but it pretends."

[Ebiris]

"But it didn't kill you. It taught you things?" Alicia asks, focusing on one of the faces in front of her even though the one she's talking to is all around.