That night, after the others had gone to bed, I continued on with my usual training, I became aware that someone else was awake as well.
"Aouu! Aaaaah!" I heard Gaerien shouting at me, causing me to stop in my motions as I had just worked my way out of that darn blanket as usual. I turned over and looked in her direction. I wasn't sure why exactly, and hadn't thought too seriously about it before, but it seemed one of the advantages to being an elf was an insanely good level of night vision. Even here in this building, with nothing discernible as a night light, I was still able to see my sister as though she were lit up by moon light. And what I saw was her staring straight back at me with a seriously questioning look on her face.
"Aou! Uuuu! Uuuuu!" She had an intense look of concentration and focus on her face that seemed to suggest she wanted to get more words out than just that. She almost seemed to have a look of desperation on her face, and even looked on the verge of tears. This.. really wasn't like her at all. This was really the first time I had ever seen this kind of behavior from my sister, not that I had really had the opportunity to pay much attention to her in the first place in this past month due to my mobility and field of vision always being so restricted.
At any rate, it really did seem like something had changed. What's more, I could see a definite look of intelligence in those eyes that seemed to be pleading with me. I didn't know for sure just yet, but maybe… We already have three in one place here, is it possible we could really have a fourth?
A smile spread across my face. I wasn't to a point yet where I could crawl or really move around very well yet, but I could still roll. As such, I used that as my method of mobility and quickly closed the distance between us. After I had flipped over on my stomach, I scooted myself over toward her several times, looking up at her along the way to see her face had turned from desperate to curious.
Once I had closed that distance, I grabbed my sister by the blanket she was wrapped in, patting my hand on the fabric several times. A shocked expression crosses her face at this time, and then that shocked expression is once again replaced by a look of intense concentration, except this time for some reason she seems to actually look like she might know what she's trying to do somehow.
'How?' I heard a voice as though it was resonating inside my head. It was similar in some ways to the self-speech, or "internal monologue" most people call it, except that the voice I was hearing inside my head was not my own. Instead, it was a different voice, one that seemed somehow familiar. I had heard that voice once before in my life. Or rather, not this life, it was my previous life. That's what it felt like, but…
"Whah?" I said aloud, before thinking better of it after a moment. My mind quickly caught up with the situation and I looked seriously back at my sister. I really did not want to settle on a conclusion just yet, but this didn't happen until I touched Gaerien like this, and that voice… I decided to try and respond in the exact same way she had talked to me first. 'Was that you Gaerien?' Her eyes absolutely lit up with delight, and she even seemed to let out a burst of infant laughter as her emotions overcame her after I had made the effort to project those words from my mind.
'Yes! Good! It worked!' I heard what I now know was Gaerien's inner voice once again.
'How are you doing this?'
'I wanted to ask you the same thing.' Gaerien sent her thoughts back to me in response to my question. 'But, I guess it's a bit rude to… No! You have to keep your hand on me!' I had allowed my hand to slip off of her while we were in contact like this, but it seemed kind of strange. She was still able to send me that message even when my hand had slipped off.
'Sorry.' I sent my mental communication back to her, reaching out and grabbing more tightly to her blanket.
'It is fine. Just… keep your hand on me like that and also keep focusing your mind. That's the only way we will be able to keep communicating like this.'
'Ok.' I responded, starting to get used to this way of communicating at this point. 'But, again, I don't really understand how this is happening.'
I heard my sister let out another "ge-he" infant giggle, and she almost seemed to look proud of herself. 'This is embarrassing, this body just shows all of my emotions whether I want it to or not.'
'Yes, the reticular formation in your brain hasn't formed yet, it's the structure that separates your higher brain from your lower brain. You won't be able to stop that from happening until it's done forming.' I patiently informed her about the neural science behind her little embarrassing situation while patiently waiting for her explanation.
Gaerien, meanwhile, seemed to have a wide-eyed curious look of bafflement on her face. 'Really, so the humans of our previous world even knew about things like that? The advanced knowledge of a magically isolated world truly is something to marvel at. Ok then, how about this? I will tell you all about how I am doing this, but do you think you can tell me how it is you are able to move and talk already!? I'm pretty sure you didn't use some magic, so it has to be another one of Earth's developed knowledges, right?'
'Yeah.' I responded to her, also acknowledging the other information she had already given me when reading between the lines. The way she talked and the terms she chose to use, I can discern a lot more than just her identity from all of that. I had suspected she might have been that goddess I had met just before my death, but I really didn't want to come to that conclusion so easily. Now, I discovered something more. It seemed that the gods and goddesses, or at least the "fallen ones" such as she confessed herself to be, were not up on the sciences as they were discovered by humans. Despite living in the world, she was not aware of several of the more complicated matters about how the world worked.
Well then, I suppose that means that we happen to be on more equal footing in this situation than one would expect a former mortal and former goddess to be. This was very very good since I still did not know enough about her to know whether I should fully trust her or not. When I thought she was just a normal baby and my twin sister, I had it in mind that I would protect her. When I was crawling over to her a minute or so ago when I thought she might be another reincarnator from Earth like Levin, Rolwen, and myself, I had resolved to guide and help her in any way I could. Now that I knew she was, in fact, a goddess who might know far more about this situation than me, I would be approaching her not like an innocent child but as I would any adult in my previous life.
I would not view her as a demon as I would have before the crash that demanded her intervention, the fact that she had saved my granddaughter's life was enough for me to give her at least that much in gratitude. So, I would give her the benefit of meeting as a neutral party and judge all my future actions based on what she did, and whether or not she demonstrates herself to be trustworthy, and the manner in which she handles this little information trade ought to be perfect in order to get a feel for what kind of person she might be.
'Well then,' She says, starting up on her end of the deal. 'well, how do I say this? It's a kind of divine magic, the same kind a deity uses to communicate with their followers. I can use it to communicate between us though when we are touching like this. But, actually, I really don't think I could possibly do this with anyone other than you.'
'Ok, well, that's pretty handy.' I responded. 'It feels pretty good to communicate with someone in a manner other than the constant baby talk.'
"Geee-… hahaha!" Gaerien's voice erupted again as her emotions came faster than her conscious thoughts. 'Well, I had grown used to long periods of loneliness, but it truly does feel good to communicate.'
'Is that why you are always so quiet?' I asked her. Her face contorted into a look of embarrassment and I could feel her squirming from inside the confines of this blanket.
'Yeah…' She responds. 'It's embarrassing only being able to make baby sounds, and being so helpless. So, I didn't want to make a fool of myself until my body had developed enough to move and talk normally.'
'Well, there's your mistake.' I told her, I heard a giggle escape my own mouth. I was sure a sickeningly prideful look was appearing on my own face at this moment, but I decided not to let it bother me. 'If you do that, you will be stuck developing on the normal schedule for a baby. Actually, you may even be a little behind. All of those little noises and movements babies are always making, that's how a baby explores their own body and learns how to move and talk in the first place. Since you already know all the actual words and movements you want to learn though, if you practice them with a purpose you can start moving and talking a lot earlier than a normal baby would.'
'So that's why you were always doing all those things. I thought for sure when you were always making all that noise that your memories must have still not awakened yet.' Gaerien let another piece of information drop on her own.
'You've seen reincarnations like this before then?' I asked her.
'Yes, they used to be rather common on Earth before it was sealed away from the other worlds.'
'Sealed?' I asked. 'I think you had probably better explain that one.'
'Yes, well… It's actually pretty normal for a powerful god to seal off a world from the influences of magic and the arcane energies. You see, the god-born, the creatures that are created by the gods, are often among the weaker inhabitants of any given world. However, the more powerful beings that feed on the god-born cannot exist without magic. And therefore, it is common for the gods to seal off a world in this manner.'
'You see, the god-born are very important to the gods. The god-born provide the gods with spiritual energy, which is where they gain their power from. However, the other magical creatures will also feed off of the spiritual energy of the god-born, and several such as the elves we were born as will go so far of abducting and enslaving the most sentient god-born of a world, humans in the case of this world just as was the case with Earth. Other magical races such as the monsters, devils, and demons will just straight out kill the god-born mercilessly. This is not something the gods can stand. And so, it becomes fairly common that at some point the gods will begin to erect a barrier against magical energies in the world.'
I really didn't know how to respond to… well… really any of the stuff that was contained in that huge information bomb just now. Also, god-born? She had explained it, all things that were created by the gods. In other words, the plants and the animals. The way she said it then, that would imply that elves were not created by any god since they were something different?
'What about elves?' I asked her.
'What do you mean?'
'I mean, you are saying that elves are not one of the races created by god, so then what are they? Or rather, we now as well.'
'Elves are members of a group of races known collectively as the fey.' She informs me. 'The fey races are simply souls that gain the ability to live on their own as a god-born creature would. Of course, since they are fundamentally different from the god-born, and are dependent on the god-born for their spiritual energy just as the gods and spirits are.'
'But, weren't we born like a normal human would have been?'
'Yes, Elves are the fey who are the most similar to the humans they were in their first incarnation over any other among the fey races. It really is an amazing thing, and they seem to have even developed the ability to help new fey to be born as elves as well with a process identical to the way humans are conceived and born.'
'Well, if that's how it works, then what really is the difference between an elf an a human at that rate? Just the fact that elves need the spirit energy of humans?'
'As well as the fact that Elves breath out mana just like any other among the fey.' Gaerien answered my questions conclusively like that. 'Well, there is likely also the fact that, as a fey, the physical strength of an elf would be far greater than a similarly built human.' Well, if that was how it was, it was really no wonder elves would be known for being a graceful people.
There is an absurd misconception picked up during the body-building "muscle beach" craze of the 80s that somehow strength and grace were opposites to each other. The truth of the matter was, grace was the result of possessing so much physical strength that you can perfectly control the motion of your own body. The reason why the gigantic body builders who bulk up their biceps and their pecs to look like walls of flesh come off as lumbering and slow by comparison is not because large muscles limit your mobility. Rather, it's because those body builders of the past didn't know how to train their muscles properly, and only strengthened the largest muscles that show up the most.
The body building community of the time shortly before I died had figured things out a lot better. You have to strengthen all the small muscles as well, and you need to pay attention to mobility. Also, strengthening the wrong muscles without balancing out by building up the opposing muscle as well can even cause damage to your joints. This was likely another reason for the whole "lumbering oaf" portrayal of body builders in the past. Improper strengthening of the legs could cause damage to the knees, thus causing their movements to become slower and less graceful.
No, a properly exercising individual who strengthened all muscle groups and evened out the antagonistic muscle groups would have phenomenal grace with a very strong body. If elves had naturally strong bodies, then the elve's ability to carry their bodies with grace would be far above what any human can manage, and that on a deceptively frail frame as well due to the demands the elves put on their bodies not stressing their muscles as much. The skinny elf arms then would not be because the elf was weak, and it would also not be the skinny arm that gives them the grace. Rather, it would be a shocking thing to anyone who knew better that an elf was able to move so gracefully despite having such a deceptively skinny frame.
This was certainly a fascinating thought. However, this was getting rather far off track.
'So, from what you are saying, are the way elves are born unusual for the fey races?'
'Oh yes, it certainly is not the way that most fey are born. Under normal circumstances, you either have the powerful souls who can be born a fey on their own and materialize into the world. These powerful fey were called faeries in the language back on Earth. There are also lesser fey that do not have enough power to materialize on their own. These ones often borrow the power of another soul, and the two souls combine into one body in order to produce their physical form. I suppose the best term for these types would be pseudo-fey? There are several different types of them, but they all share one thing in common. It is usually in the form of a sentient god-born in the upper body, with the lower half of a non-sentient god-born. And, they are usually given names that are different depending on what non-sentient fey makes up the lower body.'
'So, like centaurs, fawns, and things like that?' I ask, trying to make sense of what I was being told.
'Yes, I think you're getting the idea.'
'Well then, what about chimeras and manticores? Creatures comprised of multiple animals, none of which are human.'
'Those… are a special type of monster. The manner in which they are born is fairly similar to a fey in that it is a combination of several souls joining together, but they do not join in that way unless there is a something to help them out. They need a large amount of something called arcane energy in order for the animal souls to combine in that way and gain physical form without a sentient consciousness guiding them.'
'Arcane energy? You will have to explain that one as well.'
'Well, you know a lot about the physical things of this world but absolutely nothing about magic do you? Well, I suppose it's natural. The barrier against magic around earth had been up so long that magic had been entirely forgotten by those who lived on earth.'
'Are you gloating now? You are a very impolite teacher you know.'
'Sorry! Sorry. I just was a little surprised, it's something most of the gods knew before that one gained so much power in the world he could raise the barrier single handedly. You have no idea how absurd and outside the standard that sort of thing is.'
That one? Well, I could only think she would be talking about one god, one that does not go by a name who took the identity as "God" as his name. A bit of pride rose up inside me, like one would feel pride in their ancestors long past. I hadn't been to church all that diligently, but my faith in my last life was strong enough for that to mean something. But…
'Stop it with this side nonsense, get to the point already. What's this bit about arcane magic?'
'Not arcane magic, arcane energy. The two are different. Arcane magic is cast by using the mana breathed by the fey. They take the spirit energy of the god-born into their bodies, and then release mana. The mana then becomes the fuel for arcane magic. Arcane energy then is the residue left over from the spells. If the arcane energy is not purified, it can corrupt spirits, fey, and even god-born into horrible monsters. The chimera you spoke of are among those monsters that can be created.'
'Anyway, enough about this' Gaerien said after she finished her point. 'Can you… help me to start moving and talking like you? I was Ok with waiting before, but now that I know I can do something about it I can't wait to be able to move and talk like normal again!'
With that, Gaerien cut off my line of questioning. I had so much more I wanted to know about on the subjects she seemed to be deeply informed on, and these subject seemed to cover the exact kinds of information I needed to know in this new world that, if I'm understanding this correctly, does not benefit from the anti-magic barrier of the previous world. I suppose it would have to wait for later though. Besides, I had already gotten far more information than I had just a few minutes ago, and what I already had gotten from her was going to be a lot to digest.