Those words made Circe explode in anger, "Stop speaking like that! You are more worthy of life than anyone that I have ever known."
The Lightning Kirin rolled her eyes in obvious irritation, and said in anger, "Let me finish my story, and don't interrupt me again Circe."
Circe quickly nodded, but she noticed by the dim light erupting inside the eyes of Archimedes that she was pleased by her statement.
Reassured of her silence, the Kirin continued speaking,
"Once again, it was Ohrox, my glorious prince of destruction, who held my paws and kept me sane. He told me that a mortal life was to be cherished, he said he knew the greatest secrets of the universe, that becoming an Immortal is to accept the chains of the mighty. The hidden hands who controlled all of reality. He told me that your very soul becomes theirs to keep and for all eternity you shall slave for their amusement. Your very existence becomes nothing but a joke. He told me that their appetites were horrifyingly vast and becoming an immortal would make me a feast for their endless amusement."
"He told me that the life of mortals was to be envied, everything was precious to them, because it did not last, and moment and their existence would cease to exist, like a candle flame in the wind. Incomparably fragile…. Incomparably precious. He told me that their innocence was to be coveted, perhaps even worshiped."
The Lightning Kirin unexpectedly broke down in tears, "But he was wrong… there is nothing to be envied for being a mortal, they are weak, and no matter how precious their existence is, what value can be assigned to a thing that is so easy to destroy? My prince was killed, my precious prince was murdered, and… and, no matter how much I fought and bled… no matter how many times I died, the curse of my mortality remained."
"I have died eight times Circe, and every time I died, I had kept hoping that everything would change, that I would be transformed like a withered rose given water, yet the curse of mortality clings to my bones like rot to a dead flesh. Ohrox was wrong! Weakness is not to be envied, it is to be eradicated!"
Circe was quiet for a while, waiting for the Kirin to continue but it seemed that finally she was done with her tale, and she smiled a sad smile, "Archie, I remember the first time we met, you told me that we were the same, damaged."
The Lightning Kirin looked away and sighed, "Yes, I told you that, and I'm sorry I did not elaborate. You thought I meant because I had only one life left, and that your heart was disabled was what I meant entirely. That was the truth, I only failed to include the fact that my curse went deeper than I let on. But it's all good now, with our merger there is hope that we can transcend our mortality and become something greater."
Circe's body suddenly shook as Rowan's voice sounded in her head, "Okay I'm done. To tell you the truth, I never knew there would be such a profound secret hidden inside the body of Archimedes. She is indeed one of a kind."
"Can you help her?" Circe called out loudly, before regretting her words as hope bloomed in the eyes of the Lightning Kirin.
Rowan was quiet for a few seconds before he answered, "Tell her this Circe; Helping her is quite easy, if I wanted I could make her a god before nightfall."
He had hardly finished talking before the excited woman had gushed to Archimedes what Rowan had just said, and the Kirin glowed with joy, her two wings beating rapidly, bringing her more than ten feet into the air.
Yet Archimedes did not celebrate for long before she asked Circe to repeat what Rowan said exactly, and when Circe did it, she frowned a bit, before addressing Rowan directly, confident in the fact that even if she could not hear him, he could hear her,
"You said you can make me a god before nightfall if it's only help that I needed," the Lightning Kirin nervously licked her lips before her eyes went firm, "What if I want more than just your help… what if I pledge myself to your service? There must be something more because I believe someone like you does not waste time for something that is not worthy of your attention."
Even without hearing any sound, Circe knew that Rowan was laughing in glee. That silent laughter nearly made her legs to melt in fright.
"Oh, what I shall make of you Archimedes."
®
Two weeks later they were already five thousand miles away from that cave and were inside the hundred mile caravan heading towards Trion.
Circe was no longer at the Cinder Spark level of the Third Great Circle and was astonishingly at the Incarnation State of the First Great Circle.
Her body was wracked with pain and she was sweating profusely. The agony of losing so much power did not only affect her physically but also mentally as well, as it was as if she was slicing her brain into a thousand pieces with a blunt rusty knife.
To distract herself she began peering down at the silver tattoo on her left palm. Over the last few days, she had come to realize that even the barest fraction of this tattoo contained endless mysteries.
For instance, a single lash from this eye when viewed closely would reveal that it was not just a lash, but a belt of stars holding more than a hundred worlds.
Peering closer to a single world would begin to reveal many things, she began to see clouds and when she went deeper, she saw a city, and looking deeper still, she saw a vast amount of people but they were still, like a painting, only the movement of their chest that indicated they were breathing and therefore alive.
Shifting her gaze to a man drinking a cup of tea, she noticed that the tea was not just tea, but it was an expansive green sea and on that sea were ships engaged in a war against reptilian creatures from the deep.
The voice of Rowan suddenly snapped her away from her deep introspection, "I recommend you stop trying to do that Circe."
"Hmm, why is that?" she replied distracted by.
"You can hardly perceive my existence and that is the only thing keeping you sane and alive, look any deeper and you shall die in a very horrifying fashion."
