-The Gods: 4 Linist, The Harvest Goddess. She is arguably the 2nd most prayed to figure in the pantheon. She was a farmer in her life before she ascended. Her ability to grow and foster crops were second to none. In the afterlife, she is said to watch over all things green that grow and feed the people. She is also sometimes attributed to just plain farming. Although no prayer has been answered to clarify her position on this.-
Ko'Loss admission put a quiet fog across the whole group. No one knew what to say when he declared that Ed was broken.
But deep inside Ed already knew this fact. He KNEW he was broken somehow. He had always attributed it to the actions of the goddess. He believed that something she had done had wiped some very important part of him out.
And that was accurate, even though he didn't understand why. When she tore his scroll it did damage across his soul. It had put a tear in the fabric of his being. And then being dead again had brought him back to just before he was given the gift of Erust.
Several days came and passed where no one really said anything to each other. For'Ten was too curious about how Ed was broken but was afraid he would step on toes if he did. The same applied to Loran, but she was too proud of a warrior and Fay folk to ask. They were expected to know everything already, most fay folks acted like they did even if they didn't.
Ed wanted to ask, but he knew he was going to find out eventually and decided to continue his routine until he found out the hard way.
While the humans and demi-humans were busy living their lives, Ko'Loss house was in full swing. The whole area was being transformed. Since there were no more human servants, Ko'Loss had done his best to create substitutions. The old golem servants were mostly broken, but the pieces were enough to turn the previous dozen into about four new golems.
Everything buzzed with activity while the gates were repaired, the underground was secured and the house was brought back up to the master's approval. Ko'Loss needed none of the accommodations that a human or demi-human might need. But he knew that Ed would approve of them and the lab he needed was downstairs in the basement.
When the day finally came Ko'Loss brought them all to the house. Loran laughed at the thought of a housewarming party for a golem. For'Ten had admonished her for such behavior, calling it unbefitting of a knight. Loran had simply shrugged at the suggestion.
When they arrived the house was almost back to its former glory. The gardens were baren of any kind of organized plants and where flowers should have been the dirt was freshly turned and weeded. If the scent of roses and pansies couldn't be found, Ko'Loss at least wanted it to look organized. The ivy had been removed from around the house, and all the refuse from the squatters had been organized, sold, or burned depending on its usefulness.
Ko'Loss's head butler had insisted on having dinner prepared for the group. Where he had found the food was still a matter of debate. There were no stores in the area that he could have shopped from.
If you had asked the guard to the gate for the southern district though, he would tell you a whopper of a tale. One day a golem left the main gate with a large wheelbarrow. When the guard had stopped him the butler had produced an ownership tag as proof of residence.
The guard was only 50 years old and the tag was dated with an impossible date. The two of them had argued over how he got in and why he was going out the main gate. The guard knew everyone came and went through the sewer. The districts allowed people to pass easily through but this one gate, well... it was bizarre for anyone to pass through especially a golem with a wheelbarrow.
The guard thought back to his run-in with Ko'Loss and wondered if maybe golems were moving into the southern district. He wondered if they had been accepted as a form of life by the grand council.
On a desk in the city office was a report about a golem purchasing food and living in the southern district. When the watch clerk read the report he thought it was the drunk ramblings of an old man who had fallen asleep at the post. No one even knew that it had happened.
When the time came Ko'Loss gave them all rooms for the night. Beds had been turned and fluffed. Some had been restuffed completely as the innards had rotted away with time. Boards in beds and walls had been replaced as needed. House goblins had been out scrounging up leftovers from the collapsed buildings in the district. They were under strict orders NOT to destroy any buildings and only use what was already well past being called habitable.
Well past the sun being set for the evening Ko'Loss found Ed sitting in the front yard talking to a patchwork golem. The being was made up of two different maids and one butler. It had the voice of a maid but was partially made of the previous chef. They were discussing the nights dinner.
"Excuse me but I must... borrow Ed." Ko'Loss said as he walked up on the conversation.
"I am sorry Master. Thank you for your compliments." The golem said immediately. It had the desires of three different golems inside screaming to obey. If anything this made it more obedient, even to the point of being unreasonable if need be.
"Is it time?" Ed said getting up from his perch on the side of a flower box.
Ko'Loss attempted to nod but it looked more like a very small bow. Ed smiled and shook his head. "Well then lead the way."
Inside the house was a number of rooms. They were all designed for different purposes. The farthest room from the door down a long hallway led to what would have been called a study. There was an office in the front that was more for ornate purposes. Real research would have been carried out away from the door and prying eyes.
Ed followed Ko'Loss into the room and he watched as Ko'Loss touched a wall and a portal opened up in the middle of it. Ed blinked as he looked at the hole that had opened up. He scanned the room and stared at the large piles of books and the desk on an opposite wall. How man of them had unique things they could do he wondered.
Down a flight of stairs, they found a landing, which was a large semicircular shape. Lanterns lit the wall with magical flames, they flickered to simulate fire and lit up the inside area. Doors were evenly spaced along the wall in several foot intervals. Ko'Loss turned his face around his body to check on Ed before selecting a door in the middle of the arch.
The door had obviously been made before Ko'Loss turned into a golem because he had to duck down and go through sideways. The inside was more than adequate to fill his size but the small door was almost comical. Like watching adults crawl through doors designed for children.
Ko'Loss pointed to a bed in the middle of the open space. This room had not been turned out and the mattress was a musty old pile of hay with the shabby remains of a blanket on it. When Ed sat on it a cloud of particles flew off and the scent of mold and decay attacked his nose.
"Do you know what happened to you, Ed?" Ko'Loss said while collecting a few books and bottles into a pile in one large hand.
Ed nodded, "I was attacked, my powers were stripped and the face of Erust was given its own body and I was killed off and left in storage for later, I think."
"That is only partially correct," Ko'Loss said walking up to Ed and pulling a small table over to put his collection down on. "You were killed but Erust was created from your soul. A portion of your soul was used to keep him oblivious to the fact that he isn't you. In Erust mind he has simply given up on being Ed because he no longer feels attached to Ed. And with the... compulsion... that the goddess gave him he won't question it."
Ko'Loss used a large hand to push Ed down onto the blanket. Ed didn't want to lay in this place but he knew better than to question the large golem. "So what are we going to do?"
"I must repair you," Ko'Loss said. "The edges of your soul... are like a torn blanket. The strings still show the pattern... but the blanket is useless. I have to reweave those strings up so that the blanket is usable."
"What does my death have to do with this?" Ed said looking up at the ceiling.
"Everything. When you were killed, the soul could fill Erust. But with your body suspended it couldn't fully leave. Now with your body alive again. The soul is stretched thin. I am going to... Anchor, your soul to your body. Erust will still... exist. He will just be less Ed, and you will be more... You."
Ed's head hurt but he grasped the basics of it. Ko'Loss was going to do something to help cement him in place.
Ko'Loss put a large hand over Ed's face and softly cast a spell of sleep before Ed could even complain about it. Ko'Loss began his work. He laid out books across Ed's body and from bottles he pulled out arcane tools and began working. There was no other being alive who could do this work. It was only because of Ko'Loss's bizarre existence that this was possible. Outside of the divines and the oracle Ko'Loss was the only human alive who understood and could operate on souls.
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Ed jolted up from the bed several hours later. He had dozed off while talking to Ko'Loss. "What? Who? Huh!" He screamed as his brain came to life.
Ko'Loss stood up from his seat and started putting books and bottles and other things away. "Good, your soul has survived."
"That's not convincing Ko'Loss. I hope you wouldn't experiment on me dangerously." Ed said rubbing his head and eyes to clear the fog.
"Lay down Ed. You have about 15 seconds before it's going to feel... really very bad." Ko'Loss said with a deadpan voice.
"What do you...." Ed started before the whole world started to spin. Ed leaned over the edge and found a bucket laying by the bed. He began to purge everything in his stomach and some things he hadn't even eaten yet.
The vomiting continued on for nearly an hour. Ed's stomach muscles hurt from the pain. He was empty but his head was spinning so fast that he was too dizzy. When he could finally lay flat and not feel like the world was spinning around him his mind started to process everything.
Memories poured in from the cracks in the dam of his head. The conversation with Ysennia. The truth about Ashra. His conversation with Priya was there too. He hadn't even realized he had forgotten her. How much of his time as Erust was he really missing he wondered?
And as he opened his eyes slowly he started to see the Auras and mana's flowing around him. The walls glinted with spells imbued in rocks and runes hidden throughout its construction. The memories were fighting with each other for the right to come up first in their owners head.
"My bag..." Ed croaked.
"Upstairs... " Ko'Loss said not stopping his business of putting things back in order and dusting the room.
"How much more..." Ed creaked weakly to Ko'Loss.
"All of it. Lay down. When it is done, we will go upstairs." Ko'Loss said while cleaning quietly.
Ed's head was exploding. So many things to experience were fighting in his head. He could feel the power back in his body. Normal human bodies would never be able to stand up to this. But Ed knew this was the body of the Goddess' lover. And he knew again that it wasn't normal. Ed closed his eyes and laid down. He had to wait this one out, or run the risk of starting to vomit again.