Divine Ten - Stone
I studied this list, as Gold continued, “It's widely known, the Truth of these powers. The Goddess is particular about the wielders, while the Reaper let the rest of the human’s power manifest by the entropy of nature. He felt the chaos would give humans challenges to overcome and help them grow.”
Willow pulled the book from his hands. “The gods need a new system,” he criticized. “King Wyvern has Divine Four, and I can’t think of anyone less worthy.”
“That wasn’t always the case,” replied the doctor, attaching the ends of the coils to gaps and knots in the wood. “Hundreds of years ago, the Wind King was a hero of prophecy, and many scholars credit him for the deep peace the continent has experienced for centuries.”
He stopped what he was doing to properly look at us. “But he’s different now, and he’s dangerous. A great change is happening to the leaders of both kingdoms, like something in the stars demanding their removal. Divine Seven manifested in Ivory for a reason. She is key to maintaining that peace.”
“How do you know she isn’t manipulating you doc?” asked Willow, lounging on an invisible cloud.
His heterochromatic eyes sparkled. “I can show you how I know, and Badger will be my assistant.” He splayed his hands. Each finger had a different silver ring designed with abstract patterns. “If you would, touch your fingertips to mine and activate your power.”
I complied. The coils remained still but were ice-cold in the Unseen. The older man’s soul was a mixing swirl of his namesake: gold and silver spirals.
"Whoa, what's all this?" Sharp’s light moved closer, warm like sunlight on my skin.
"It looks like some strange language." Piranha's nasally voice was distinct, even if their soul was dim.
Willow's voice was like his light, soft yet impossible to ignore. “There’s an array of different lights and markings floating in front of you.”
Gold-and-Silver moved left and right, like an eye scanning a page. "My ability is Divine Eight, Literate, a Pantheon power that allows one to see the language of things," he explained. "The different shifts, colors, and shapes of our souls tell a story, much in the same way scars do. My eyes decipher patterns in the soul light, which can tell me everything about you, your health, and your power. You used to have Lucent?”
“That's right,” I confirmed. Even though I couldn’t see the doctor’s body, I felt his hands moving in spirals near me, and the heat of his light on my face.
“Can you move your entire body into the Unseen?”
“Yes.”
“Right. And you can take others with you?”
“Y-yes.”
“You can hear his voice?” Sharp asked.
“I can,” he confirmed. “I can sense many things you cannot. When I first ate the Wild Fruit, I thought my power was unusable. I was like a child learning to read for the first time, except with no one to help me. The power you inherit is an arrow towards your destiny. I made Literate useful by working and studying hard, until I could understand what I saw. All right Badger, come back.”
I reappeared. Gold-and-Silver plucked a black notebook from the folds of his dress and wrote on it with breakneck speed. "From what I can tell, you have a power that moves you into the Unseen, as well as any organic extension of yourself. When you touch another person, the energy transfers over, unable to distinguish the difference.”
In a much lower voice he asked, “Have you tried touching other souls?”
“No.” I shuddered at the thought. “I can phase through living tissue though.”
“Phase through?” He touched his chin. “What else can you see in the other dimension?”
“You just read my power, right? I hoped you could tell me.”
He smiled, revealing canine teeth capped in gold and silver respectively. “Soulburn. A bit of life left behind after someone dies. A rare phenomenon to behold, but nothing to be afraid of.”
“I wasn’t afraid.”
“No, of course not.” The doctor checked the time on his ring. “I would like to conduct a few more tests, if you’re up for staying another day.”
Willow hovered by the door, the red symbol above his head. “First, tell us more about Ivory.”
Piranha chewed the ends of their sharp fingernails. “And Marrow. He’s…terrifying.”
“He’s not that bad,” the doctor answered, removing the coils. “Powers granted by the Wild Fruit serve specific functions in the community, even one like his. When Marrow performed the ceremony, his soul was pulled even further past the Unseen, resulting in an unkillable body. That’s why he fights for the king. His son Mercury…”
“They’re related?” Sharp scoffed. “I guess the resemblance is long gone.”
“He’s the son of Marrow and Ivory. They're married, you see. Give him time. Mercury has a good heart, but abysmal judgment,” the doctor commiserated. “His power makes him excellent at fighting, espionage, and speed… although it can get annoying. Olivine, on the other hand, can manipulate things in many nuanced ways, like opening and closing wounds in surgery, for instance.”
Piranha recoiled, pupils dilating. "Opening and closing wounds? Could she rip someone in half if she wanted?"
He freed the last of my limbs from the instrument. “No. The most she can do without your consent is hold you in place. Some powers, even Varieties, have safeguards to prevent abuse.”
I slipped my shoes back on. "Safeguards? Does Ivory's power work the same way?”
The coils jingled as he tossed them one at a time into an empty wooden box. “As your friend suggested, the power of Charm enforces trust onto anyone Ivory talks to, or anyone exposed to the faint orange light around her. You didn’t imagine that. It may sound dangerous in the wrong hands, but like all powers in the Pantheon, it has a catch. Can you guess?”
The others looked stumped, except Willow, who raised a hand. “It can’t affect everyone?”
The doctor perked a bushy eyebrow. "Well, that is true, but it’s not the only safeguard. When Charm works, it creates communicative and empowered groups of people, but it only works if the wielder remains honest, empathetic, and transparent. Her power will forever lose effectiveness on an individual if she breaks her established trust, or if she causes intentional harm to that person. Quite a fitting power for a king don't you think?”
Willow frowned. “It doesn’t work on me though. Why?”
He gave my friend an affectionate look. "Your soul is likely bright enough to dull the effect. I’ve noticed patterns across cultures in my research, and I discovered high concentrations of Divine energy in nomadic people, especially those who live near the Wind Plateau. Have you seen his soul, Badger? Am I right?”
