The Figure: Beginnings
We had taken to this place Theodosia had lovingly named “The Vacuous Void”, managing to devise a way of using this primordial version of The Weave to transmute this ‘non-matter’ into something more tangible. Despite the combined decades of understanding of science and magic we could never get things quite right. Everything we made that ‘grew’ from the solid nothing below our feet, felt strange but we used that to our advantage, creating matter that had never, and could never exist in the world we’d come from. Metals stronger than any conceived of, glass stronger than any could be yet thin as paper. Devices made from the mind, manifested in ways I couldn’t dream of. Had I been a tyrant I could have taken over our world with the mere thought of such a thing. As I worked to root our lab in the Void, Theodosia made trips to and from, collecting things to make our stay more comfortable. Things we couldn’t recreate. Her books, and plants, things of value only sentimental.
It was cramped at first. The first dome of many to come served as our lab, and home. Despite all the strange devices, glass containers holding strange liquid and all manner of brickabrack it was cozy and somewhat quaint. Trips outside to continue construction had to wait until she was out for trips to the real world, I had needed to create a smaller room to one side to exit but foolishly started a much larger project of a proper home first. A lock chamber was to be the next project. We’d not taken to exploration quite yet, typically hauntingly silent, if I really listened sometimes I could hear what sounded like some animal breathing. But given the ziggurats we’d discovered in the past I had no joy in the thought of searching out them in a place with not a speck of light to speak of, and any spells to create light were worthless, even the most powerful spell barely showed the tip of the nose. I’d devise something better soon. Until then, staying at camp was safest.
I crouched down, and took out the small piece of white chalk. It always felt strange holding things with this suit on. I could feel the chalk by pressure but not feeling it against my skin was an odd sensation, more than wearing gloves of leather would cause, it felt more like wearing several pairs of mittens. I went to work, drawing out a circle line with runes and more circles, then repeating them with exact copies, each larger circle touching and linked with a rune meant to chain them together so activation of one would cause the others to react in kind. The new metal sprouted from the ground causing the previous metal to rise and curve slightly working itself towards a dome. Even with the suit the cold got to me fast, after just three spells I had to return inside to warm up. I needed to finish the dome today, and before Theodosia returned. After five more of the complicated spells it was done. The new dome was up, along with a lock chamber connecting the two, so one could leave without both needing to don suits. We could move in as soon as it had air, and warmth. Taking a step back, I nearly lost my footing stepping into one of the many missing places in the ground. Efficiently invisible unless you could get what little light magic could provide to hit it at just the right angle. I felt myself fall, only managing to grab the umbilical air hose pulling myself up from freefalling to gods know where. I laid there on my belly for a bit, feeling the cold ‘ground’ seeping through my suit and into my body, feeling like needles of ice against my bones.
When Theodosia eventually arrived home, the room was warm enough to be survivable and plenty of air. And I showed her, despite it being just an empty room it set her imagination into overdrive, she rambled off ideas of where to put things, new things to make to fill the space, speaking almost too fast for me to keep up. Simply standing there out of her way, so she didn’t need to change her path, letting her bustle about using that brilliant mind of hers to make mental notes and picture everything.
That’s when it happened. A sound from the window, it sounded as though something had slammed itself into it. Both she and I turned to see, it wasn’t out of the ordinary for the structures to make odd sounds, the heat from the inside and cold beyond reason outside never meshed, making everything groan from time to time. When she couldn’t see anything she went back to speaking of all the things we’d do, before she could take a step away, the window exploded outward. The change in pressure yanking me to the ground, I didn’t see what happened to Theodosia. I don’t know how long I was out, but I awoke gasping for air that wasn’t there. My body was a roaring fire of pain, broken like a porcelain doll inside a bag. Vision caught between an eye that saw nothing, and one that saw the shifting blobs of color, I pulled myself over to the gaping hole in the wall, on fingers that left marks of blood as I left a trail from some unseen wound on my lower body. Managing to pull a piece of broken chalk, forming a spell that closed the hole in the wall in a twisted aperture of glass and metal.
Even the thinnest air made my skin burn in pain, I somehow managed to pull myself into a suit, knowing I couldn’t help Theodosia if I couldn’t move. When I could see what was once her, nothing but a wriggling mass of pink spongy flesh was in her place. Soft pained groans came from the mass, her groans. She couldn’t fit into a suit so I did all I could think to do. I created her a chamber of glass and metal, to protect her form from the same pain the air caused my own flesh.
After that…I don’t know how long passed. I prayed to every god, several demons, even things who’s names were never meant to be said. None came, none answered my pleas, I was utterly alone. There was not a choice, I had to become a god of sorts, Theodosia wouldn’t like me having that thought, but if the true gods, weren’t going to answer my calls, I would become a god who could.