“Give me the basics, and I will ask about anything I don’t understand,” she prompted.
“Sure, sure. So…” He scratched his jaw and chuckled. “I s’pose I’ve never had to explain it before, and I’m not sure where to start,” he rubbed his hands on his lap, and tipped his head to the ceiling.
“Ach, sure and first I’ll say the Goddess—our Lady, was and is real. According to our texts, she created this world when she was young, based on another world she’d observed. She took things she liked and just willed ’em into being. For a time, we were like a toy, a dollhouse to her. She controlled most everything basically all the time. Back then, magic was rampant because she touched the world directly, influencing things how she liked ’em.”
Sirin blinked at him. Logically, she could understand what he was saying, but it was a lot to take in. She’d never beenespeciallyreligious. She’d say a prayer to the Lady when she was grateful or needed help. But Sirin had always pictured the goddess like some far-away Sky-Mother who didn’t interact with their world in any meaningful way. She didn’t think he had any reason to lie to her, but the very idea seemed preposterous.
“Eventually, she started to feel odd about us. She describes it as being both guilty and bored. She realized with so much of her influence, she was never surprised by anything that happened. We always did what she expected because she controlled it all. Our Lady, ouryoungLady at the time, decided she’d like to see how we progressed on our own.“ Berne sighed and shook his head.
“It was a disaster.9She built our world based on impressions of other worlds, primarily one, without any idea of how itworked. Sure, the basic rules of the universe still applied, but she didn’t know anything about science or mathematics; she justwanted it,so ithappened. When she stopped watching so closely, it seemed that the world started to fall apart.“ Berne reached behind him and grabbed a book, holding up a finger. He flipped through the book and nodded when he found a passage.
“She writes that she felt like she’d failed us both. We were entirely reliant on her, and if we were not entertaining her, then we had no point.” He closed his finger in the book, holding his spot.
Sirin could imagine it. A fledgling Goddess, enamored with a life she saw elsewhere, would want her own. The notion of being a world full of pets, or worse, ants in one of those glass observation farms, was not a flattering one. Sirin itched to snatch the book from his hands. TheirGoddesshad written things down for them. Sirin tried to suppress her wiggles of excitement that she knew Berne would be sure to notice.
“So, she poked and prodded things. She’d make a change, see if it worked, see if she could be hands-off. She’d correct any issues and try again. Eventually, she got us to the point where she thought she could leave us alone, at least for a time. Our texts—“ he held up the book, ”—say that there was a hundred-year trial period. During that time, she traveled the universe and learned about other worlds. By the time she returned, we were almost completely wiped out. The whole damn planet was in shambles. The Lady writes that she made a slew of changes based on what works on other worlds. She went on, testing’ and adapting; she even brought in another god to help a time or two.
“Finally, she got the world to the point that she felt we could last on our own for a fair bit. By then, though, she was bone tired and wanted a break. It’d taken her millennia to get the world just how she liked it and she wanted a bit of a lie-down. So, she decided she would take a rest. She gathered a group of people, human and non-human alike, and picked a spot that was remote and easily defensible. She left some writings to guide us in our task and charged us with protecting her while she slept.”
Sirin remembered hearing of at least one religion that worshiped a sleeping Goddess. She was flabbergasted at how ludicrous it sounded—and at how much sense it now made. The Lady was nearly universal among religions, an area of study for many of her colleagues. Scholars at the Citadel postulated that the recurrence of her among religions must point back to one original proto-religion that a group of them was attempting to reconstruct. If what Berne was saying was true, it made sense that she popped up in nearly every Pantheon or was the sole Goddess of Monotheistic religions.10The biggest change was in the sleeping part; most religions taught that she was actively involved in the world in some way.
“Which means, that under that mountain, just there”—he pointed out the window to the most imposing peak around the valley—“she sleeps, right now. And the entire point of the Shades and our village is to protect her and the secret of her location.”
“Hence the ‘we kill people who trespass’ thing,” Sirin said.
“Aye, though, as I said,”—he waved the book—“there isn’t anything in here about actually killing folks, just bits on safeguarding and keeping folks away.”11
“And, Shades?”
Berne rubbed the back of his neck. “Ach so—The Lady modeled this world on another, but it wasn’t a copy. She pulled from their mythology too.” He took a deep breath and seemed to consider for a moment.
“The man yeh saw, with the shadows coming out of his sleeves—he’s an actual Shade. They are her guards and live under the mountain to watch the Lady while she sleeps. They can do all kinds of shadow magic things. Whereas the rest of us are Shades in name only, honorary if yeh will. We still guard her, but not as intimately as they do. I think there is a bit more to the name, but to be honest, I never much cared.” He shrugged, dismissing it.
“So, let’s say I’m buying into all of this; where does the lunula come in?” Sirin asked.
Berne chuckled. “Right, well, what she didn’t know was how her physical presence would affect the world. Before she went to sleep, she rarely physically manifested in our world. We were like fish in a pond to her, and she was always separate. But now, she sleeps under the mountain, and her physical body affects things. She sleeps floating in an underground lake, and the sheerpowerof her presence warps reality. They say that time and space can change and bend in ways yeh would never expect when you're near. That’s partly why only the Shades live down there and spend that much time with her. We aren’t sure what it would do to the rest of us if we were there for longer than a day or two.
“Over time, the algae that grew there naturally fed off of the power she exuded by just being. They mutated, somehow and eventually, made it so some people, with the right predisposition, could change bits of themselves.12I’m not sure how it works, frankly, but you’re quite familiar, I’m sure,“ he finished with a wink.
“The difference here is that we are alwayssteeped in her power. The village is surrounded by a bubble, which mimics the seasons and day-night cycles from a temperate zone, so that we don’t have to suffer the extreme weather and months of dark or light. It also keeps out folks who’d mean her harm. That’s why it’s night, but not as cold as it should be. Most importantly, that’s why we can change more. So yeh can change, I would say, some things about yourself, we can well…—“ he paused and took a deep breath, running his hands down his face.
Sirin was grateful for the pause because she’d so much to process. Most of what he said she’d dismissed as myth, religious ramblings passed down through blind belief. Instead, he was asking her to accept that those things werereal. And not only real but more intricate than she’d ever imagined. She took a deep breath and prepared to delve deeper.
“More. You can changemore. How so?“ she asked.
“Well, erm…” He rubbed the back of his neck and blushed. “Ye remember my bear yeh kept smelling? Well, it’s me.” He didn’t wait for her to react in any way; instead, he stood and stripped off his shirt and pants.
Sirin yelped as he dropped his pants, seeing him bare himself so casually made her blush more than she might have expected, though she was still processing what he said.
“What are you doing?” she squealed from behind her hands.
“Oh, fuck me—“ he cursed. “I promise, it’s—I’m just trying to show yeh my bear. Lady help me, I swear this isn’t—I just don’t have a lot of pants I can afford to ruin!”
His voice deepened as he spoke, and she peeked from behind her hands to watch as the dusting of curly white hairs on his back grew in length and thickness. His skin darkened but was then quickly covered in a pelt of thick white hair.
She’d seen people change their looks plenty of times at the Citadel; it was part and parcel of being a lunologist. This, however, was far more than she’d seen. He grew in height, and right before his head brushed the ceiling, Berne folded in half, his arms slamming to the floor of the cabin with a boom. His arms were covered in the same thick —fur, as the rest of him. She gasped when she noted a wiggle at the base of his spine. He’d grown a smalltail!
Sirin was overcome with awe. Her mouth hung open and she felt wiggles throughout her entire body, urging her to investigate. What an extraordinary discovery! She giggled at the wiggle of that little tail and heard an answering chuff from Berne. Sheknewthat sound, had heard him make it in the distance, and a rush of affection and familiarity consumed her.
