Hmm." He stroked his beard. Uncrossing his legs and landing softly on the ground, he walked in a circle around Luke, poking and prodding his body with his finger as he did a lap around him.
"I, uh … I don't …" Luke stuttered, not knowing what to say and caught off guard by his sudden appearance. He didn't want to admit to anything, but at the same time he didn't want to lie to someone with abilities he didn't understand, lest he anger him. The old man was capable of flight and had arrived minutes after Luke had possessed the body. Who knew what else he could do? The supernatural was entirely unfamiliar to Luke.
"No. No. No," the old man muttered to himself before lifting one of his legs and folding it across one hip and then the other, once again floating in the air. "Sorry to bother you, young lad. Your body displays no signs of possession. Your soul is stable. More than that, both your soul and body are in perfect sync." Luke allowed himself to relax. So he didn't know. "If I hadn't noticed that same body you're in right now lying dead earlier, I never would have guessed otherwise."
He winked.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
Luke's thoughts skidded to a halt as he stared, open-mouthed, at the old man, stunned that his secret had been exposed already.
"What do you want?"
"Bah. What I wanted was to be left alone. Instead I have those ruddy Olympians breathing down my neck. Treating me like their servant and expecting us to clean up their mess. Tell me—how is it my problem that a thief, a dead thief at that, escaped them and fled somewhere onto the archipelago? Especially when every sane person knows that a soul has a limited window of time to make its way into the Aether or risk dissolving by staying on Theos, making the search effectively useless."
"It isn't," Luke offered, recalling that the Seed had also mentioned something similar about the environment being inhospitable to noncorporeal entities.
"Precisely! It isn't my problem. Instead, they have us poor folk, trying to live our lives in peace, searching every one of these hundreds of islands. Looking for someone who could steal from them and get away. Let me ask you this: if this alleged thief can run away from the Olympians, what chance do we poor and weak members of a small and feeble organization like the Luminous Sky possibly have of finding him?"
"I imagine the chances are very low," Luke responded evenly.
"Next to none! A complete waste of time, and they know it. The fact that I actually ran into you. Ha!" He smiled broadly, displaying a row of perfect white teeth.
Luke mulled over his words. Luminous Sky—those were the people who had Bellerophon's Blade according to the quest the Seed gave him. The old man just so happened to be a member. What were the odds that he would get a quest and moments later meet someone directly relevant to it? Luke looked at the old man consideringly. Next to none, he decided. The Seed must have foreseen this happening.
For whatever reason, the old man didn't want to help the Olympians—Arke, Zeus, and Bellerophon. It was hard for Luke to even wrap his head around them being real. They were supposed to be myths. Ancient legends conjured by ignorant folk to explain how the world worked. Not people of flesh, blood, and bone. Never would Luke have thought that he'd one day be discussing how they conducted themselves with someone who was genuinely inconvenienced by their existence—and he himself would be inconvenienced by their existence, for that matter. Or that he would get dragged into something far beyond his imagination and make off with a prize they were now combing the world for.
"Right." Luke looked at him warily, still on guard for any unexpected surprises. The lack of response from the Seed, however, put him slightly at ease. It had alerted him of danger when Arke was gunning for him minutes ago and given him a means of escaping. Seeing as he still had plenty of charges stored up in case of emergency, he felt that, for the moment at least, he was safe. Charges, Luke realized, that he didn't understand. Not completely.
The old man's smile slipped from his face. "I have no love for the Olympians, but their power makes them terrible enemies. Overtly disobeying a request made by them is … unwise. At least for the likes of me. Look at you—they destroyed your body and recovered what you took from your remains. Still, they exert their power over us, just so they could punish you. Forcing us into this mockery of a hunt."
Luke nodded slowly, his thoughts churning as he tried to make sense of the situation. The old man was clearly missing some pieces of information. Critical information at that. As a consequence, he had drawn the wrong conclusion. Luke recalled the time he'd spent as a soul. As an incorporeal being. In hindsight, it wouldn't make sense for a bodiless soul to physically run away with something. After all, it wasn't like he had arms to carry it. From the old man's perspective, he had failed and fled in a sorry state. Except the Olympians could have claimed that he ran away with a critical piece of knowledge or something. Which also ran the risk of whoever captured him also learning what he knew. In a way, by saying that Luke hadn't escaped with anything, they were reducing his value in the eyes of others but still leveraging what power they did have to capture him. A situation that aided both Luke and the Olympians.
It's like when a criminal can't go to the police without risking their own crimes being discovered.
He didn't know what Luke had taken. Or that he was just a random person from a different world. He was imagining Luke as someone capable of going head-to-head with very powerful people and escaping by the skin of his teeth and, in the process, likely attributing his current lack of power to possessing a powerless body.
If he knew Luke had an artifact capable of turning a powerless nobody into a god, they likely wouldn't be having this conversation. It would start a bloodbath. In the chaos that would ensue, there was no guarantee whom the Seed would go to. They had even managed, through some unknown means, to figure out his general location and started a manhunt for him. Unfortunately for them, though, the person to catch him wasn't loyal to them. Which potentially gave Luke an opportunity.
"So … what did you steal?" He leaned forward, looking at Luke eagerly.
"What do you plan to do with me?" Luke asked in return. He'd decided the less he said, the better it would be.
The old man sighed as he crossed his arms over his chest. "I don't know. I doubt that there's anything you could do for me as you are." He smiled. "How about this? Come back to the Luminous Sky with me and recover your strength. True allies are hard to come by these days. In exchange for not turning you in, I need your help with something once you pass the mortal threshold."
"My help with what?" Luke asked warily as he considered the offer. He was seriously tempted to accept it. Especially because all evidence seemed to point to the fact that their encounter had been arranged by the Seed.
"That, my new friend, is a secret. Here." A silver ring on his finger briefly flashed before a small pile of clothes appeared in his hands. Black versions of the same robes the old man was wearing.
"What are these?" Luke asked, trying his best not to show his surprise at clothing just appearing.
"Members of Luminous Sky keep to a strict dress code. Those robes are what the Outer Disciples wear," he explained.
"So I just put these on and follow you back to the Luminous Sky? Then, once I'm strong enough, I help you with something and we're even?"
"You got it."
"No one will be surprised if I show up with you?" Luke looked at him skeptically.
"Whatever technique you used to take over that body, it's seamless. I can't even tell that it's not originally yours. Granted, I don't know much about the process, but even if there are signs of possession that I can't detect, they should fade in a day or two anyway. As for you showing up suddenly, the Luminous Sky is always recruiting. My returning with someone I claim has talent won't strike anyone as odd. My position as an Elder guarantees that much."
Luke blinked as he processed the old man's words. He had deduced that he wasn't the only one on the path to godhood from the information that came with his quest, but to learn that there were entire organizations dedicated to it was a shock.
"Okay. I want to know more about what you guys actually do, though," Luke agreed after some thought. Worst-case scenario, a rumor would spread about what he possessed, and the old man might act out of greed. So long as he had a charge or two to spare though he was fine. It also gave him an in to get started with his quest.
"The Luminous Sky is decent at keeping itself on the up and up. At least as far as an organization full of bastards trying to be gods can be. Don't worry, we're not demons or anything."
"Right. That's good." Luke nodded.
Demons?
"I'm Nefkha," the old man said, suddenly introducing himself.
"Luke," he responded, taking the robes from his hands.
Might as well, he thought, awkwardly getting dressed. He was relieved that he could get out of the rags that he was wearing and simultaneously annoyed that he was still dirty underneath them.
"Ah! I forgot how annoying it is to carry mortals around. Here, this should be big enough for you to sit on." Nefkha's ring flashed, and a large circular shield came into existence.
Luke desperately wanted to ask how he was doing that, even though he knew the answer would be magic. Instead he kept his mouth shut and did his best not to be visibly surprised by anything he saw. Breaking his character would result in a bad end for him. If Nefkha thought he wouldn't be able to help him in the future, then he had one reason fewer stopping him from handing Luke over to the Olympians.
Aeolus's fate still fresh in his memory, Luke resolved to do whatever he could to avoid it. He stepped onto the dome of the shield, and they took off into the air. Gripping the leather straps with white knuckles, Luke couldn't help but compare how much better traveling was when the Seed was carrying him. Or when he didn't have bugs flying into his face.
Struggling to breathe with the wind pulling the air out of his lungs, he looked over to Nefkha, who seemed completely unbothered by it. So much so that his robes weren't even flapping. Shaking his head, he adjusted his posture in a semisuccessful attempt to make breathing easier.
They covered ground quickly and in silence, mostly because Luke wasn't able to talk at the speed they were moving. Something that he was grateful for.
A couple hours later, they arrived at their destination.
A small artificial mountain range, with twelve mountains in total arranged in a semicircle, each of them perfectly identical to the next. Luke looked at them with disguised awe. Every mountain had had its peak cut off, leaving a flat plateau, on top of which were castles made of white stone. Located in the center of the range was a city.
"Here. Take this token to the administration building in the city. It's the tall one, next to the arena. You can't miss it. They'll set you up with what you need. The rules prohibit me from showing any undue favor, and it's best that you keep a low profile, at least for a little bit, so we won't have much contact. I'll keep an eye on your progress, though, and once you're strong enough, I'll find you. If you try to run … I'm sure the Olympians would like to know that you were here," Nefkha threatened as he landed on a road just outside the town.
"You have my word."
"Hmm. Try not to show off too much, either. I don't know how strong you used to be, but take your time recovering your strength. The timing of your arrival is curious, and I don't want any of the others suspecting anything." He nodded and with a pat on Luke's back flew away. Eyeing the town, Luke began walking toward the buildings, eager for the day to be over.