Hearing Rain tell her to ask whatever she wants, with the intention to actually cooperate, Bright leans towards him on the bed eagerly. Her eyes are shimmering with a rare, childlike curiosity.
"It's about time! Okay, first I want to know...what all have you learned about Creation?"
Thinking over everything, Rain doesn't see a problem with answering her question honestly.
"Not much more than I've already implied to you. Creation is an ancient being, known as a primordial, who seems to have played a role in the birth of the gods along with another primordial, Destruction. Other than that, I'm sure that Creation and Destruction loved the god Fate, maybe even especially so."
The last part is related to Chaos's words in Rain's Lineage description, about having loved Fate like Creation and Destruction did. In Fate's own words, Chaos seemed to have a particularly strong affinity towards Fate, so Rain assumes that Fate held a special place in the heart of the primordials; those three, at least. He still doesn't know if there are more of them.
Following Rain's answer, Bright seems thoughtful for several moments. He sees her lips purse forcefully, as though disappointed in something. Then, she sighs and cuts her eyes back towards him expectantly.
"Honestly, I thought you'd have more information about it...too bad. Would you tell me what the runes actually say? Or better yet, loan me the Relic to inspect personally? I might be able to learn something from the runes themselves...the way they're structured. The Echo doesn't always translate every nuance hidden in them."
Rain's eyes widen in surprise...he had no idea that there might be information missing from the Echo's translations. He furrows his brow, thinking it over. There may be distinct advantages to having her read the runes directly. However, there are also significant disadvantages, much more certain ones, to letting her know the full description in any capacity. For example, she'd learn about Chaos.
All of that aside, there's a more critical limitation to her reading the runes directly – it's on his Lineage description, not a Relic, so he can't loan it to her. It's a moot point. Rain frowns at Bright, his face otherwise apologetic.
"Sorry, Bright, but that won't be possible. Loaning you the Relic, I mean. I can tell you that the portion of the runic description that mentions Creation is just a passing reference. Basically, someone is answering a question asked by Fate, and they end their answer by saying that they love Fate the way that Creation and Destruction love Fate."
Bright cuts her eyes at him in disapproval, and when she responds, her tone sounds partially exasperated.
"Your paraphrasing of a mere fragment of the description doesn't help me better understand anything. You say you can't loan me the Relic, but what you really mean is you won't. That's fair enough, but can you at least tell me why you're unwilling to do so? Or at the minimum, why you won't even give me the full translated description?"
Rain meets her pressing gaze for a few seconds, trying to gauge how fixated she is on the information. She's composed enough, staring back at him like a beautiful portrait, but there's also a...rigor...to her face. There's barely contained frustration swirling beneath her grey eyes, enhancing their stormy quality. He sighs internally.
'Yeah...of course she's frustrated. I can't forget that she's some hotshot Demigod at the very top of the government food chain...she's not used to being so impeded. What's worse, earlier she was in a position of power over me, manipulating me to come work for her. Only hours later, she's being forced out of burning curiosity to negotiate information like equals with someone who's barely an adult, and that's after she bent over backwards to earn some semblance of trust from me. Now, she feels that all she has to show for this recent effort is a seemingly useless conclusion that the gods' primordial parents loved one of their children, and clear evidence that I'm still withholding relevant information from her.'
The more Rain considers her perspective, the more he feels that he's on the cusp of alienating her, if he's not careful. He hasn't done anything wrong, per se, but that won't stop her from being cross with him. Her help may be invaluable later on. As it is, he still has tons of questions about his abilities that she may be able to answer, and may feel comfortable asking about. He still doesn't know what a Blood Rite is, or what the table in his Soul Temple is for. So, he needs to at least leave her feeling like she gained something from her effort, and understands the justifications for what he won't tell her.
He glances over at Bright, who is still watching him patiently, but less so than before. He sighs deeply towards her and nods.
"Yeah, I can answer that. The truth is that you're wrong. It's not that I won't show you the Relic, it's that I literally can't. That's because...the runic description in question isn't on a Relic."
Bright's expression becomes puzzled, then realization dawns on her face. She leans forward and stares at Rain intently.
"Wait...you're telling me that the only known mention of the primordials in the gods' modern runic language, information so rare it's not even known among most scholars...the description it's in is..."
Rain nods, cutting her off as she pauses between expressing her streams of thought.
"That's right, it's part of the series of descriptions associated with my personal attributes. That's why I can't show you the runes directly...they're not on anything I can loan you. That's also why I'm being evasive about entire, verbatim descriptions. It would seriously expose my abilities and weaknesses. Would you trust yourself that much, this soon, in my position?"
He watches as she frowns slightly...in other words, she clearly knows that she would behave the same way he has. The borderline resentful frustration that was burning in her eyes before dulls, and Rain breathes a sigh of relief.
'Well, it doesn't look like she's going to hold anything against me, at least. So, that's one fire put out...'
However, he can already see her eyes darting back and forth absentmindedly, her mind no doubt racing, formulating theories about why something so rare and ancient would show up in only his personal attribute descriptions. He doesn't think that she's likely to jump to the conclusion that his entire Lineage and Bloodline is tied to a primordial instead of the gods, but it's only a matter of time before that insane curiosity of hers results in a problematic line of questioning and theorizing.
Before that happens, he needs to subtly push her in the direction of assuming something believable. Something sufficiently unique to explain why he's so strange, but while still minimizing issues for him...at least relatively. He has an idea, but...it might cause some problems of its own. The question is how much he trusts her to stay true to her guarantees from earlier. She was obviously being sincere, but her future self isn't truly beholden to those resolutions.
'Only time will tell...'
Making up his mind, Rain looks back up at Bright, who's sitting across from him, intently studying him. He knows it's only a matter of time before the follow-up questions come. He clears his throat.
"Ehem...Bright?"
Her eyebrows raise slightly, her face expectant.
"Yes?"
He does his best to put on a sincere, sympathetic smile. No matter what she says, or how gruff she may seem, she's still human...on the inside, at least. If it's about the right thing, he's never found flattery to worsen his chances of getting what he wants – not that people were ever very responsive to his charms in general.
"I want you to know that I recognize and appreciate how much effort you've put into us having this talk today, and to emphasize that I value your expertise and your insight immensely. I'd like to be able to talk with you like this more in the future. On that note, it's important to me that you leave here today feeling like that'd be worth your while. I'm sure that what I've shared so far is a little disappointing. So, I'd like to discuss something with you...a strange runic description about Death and Nether. I'd really like your help making sense of it...if you're interested?"
Bright's eyes widen in surprise, and she stares at him blankly for several seconds. Rain thinks that she looks almost...flustered. After several more moments, she appears to recover. However, as if noticing something for the first time, her expression suddenly becomes puzzled, then intensely excited. She leans forward, her voice becoming nearly shrill.
"You're in possession of runic descriptions with honest to gods information about Death and Nether!? Are you kidding!? Of course I'm interested!"
Now it's Rain's turn to blink in surprise.
"Yes...I am. Uhm, is there a reason you seem so...animated...over that? Death is pretty well known among the seven gods, as far as I know, but you're more excited about this than the enigmatic race of primordials that spawned the gods."
Bright just shakes her head emphatically.
"It's not a matter of how obscure Death is relative to Creation and Destruction, Rain. Famous or not, we know very little about Death – even less about its realm, Nether. Despite that, and unlike the primordials, Death seems central to several problems and mysteries on Earth."
Rain ponders her assertion about how little is known about Death. Come to think of it, before becoming Marked, Rain only knew that Death was one of the seven gods and ruled over Nether, a place that might be associated with the Fel. After becoming a Champion, he learned from Aron that there have never been any Death Lineages, but that admittedly only makes Death seem more enigmatic. He just assumed he's ignorant of other details because he's an orphan, but Bright's comment suggests otherwise.
"When you say problems and mysteries...do you mean because the Fel are believed to come from Death's realm, Nether? Aron also told me that there have never been any Marked with Death's Lineage – is that true?"
She nods seriously.
"Yes, and Death's missing Lineage is to blame for the information void – most information about the other gods comes from the descriptions of Marked or Relics associated with them. If you haven't realized it yet, all the Relics a Marked ever acquires from the Echo are tied to their patron deity, like Marked are inheriting heirlooms or something. That means there are also no Relics tied to Death or its realm, Nether.
"The scarce information we have comes from runic records in the ruins, or from passing mentions in the descriptions of Relics and people tied to other gods. We only know that Death is one of the seven gods, that Nether is its realm, and that just before civilizations in Asphodel and the divine realms collapsed, Rifts to Nether started opening and the Fel first emerged. Well, there's also that nobody who has activated one of Asphodel's Bridges to Nether has ever returned."
Rain considers everything she says carefully...there are several unfamiliar pieces of information buried within Bright's history vomit. Most notably, this is the first he's heard of the fact that Marked only get Relics from their patron deities, at least normal Marked.
'So, why do my four Relics seemingly derive from three different beings – Death, Chaos, and Fate? It's clear that Chaos had an important relationship with those two gods, which may have something to do with it. Did Chaos come to possess those other two Relics, and me inheriting them is supposed to serve some purpose?'
He has no idea...but he finds it hard to believe that the Relics he's acquired so far don't have a deeper meaning. The Relics are too powerful, and their properties and arrival too...suspiciously deliberate.
As Rain deliberates, he notices that Bright is staring at him intently, a suspicious glint in her eyes. When she catches his gaze, her eyes narrow and she speaks hesitantly.
"Rain...if you've got Trial Relics and attributes whose descriptions mention Death, Nether, and an entirely unprecedented race of beings...I've got to ask. What is your Lineage?"