[b]Back to the past[/b] She saw only darkness, the back of her eyelids squeezed shut in concentration, trying to will a connection, a thread, that she had been told she would be able to find. “Relax my child. You cannot force open your soul. You must let yourself sink into it. Just breathe for a moment, and it will come to you instead” came a warm familiar voice, the one who had told her she could do this, and who even with those chiding corrections, still believed she could do it. So she took the advice. Air passed her green lips, flowing down into her lungs, then back out. In. Then out. In. Then out. She let herself relax, truly relax. As she breathed, as she stayed calm, her skin started to tingle with a soft warmth, while her body locked up into a kind of sleep paralysis she had complete control over. She checked, flexing her fingers, and then letting the sensation flow back in again. Relaxing. Sinking deeper into her own mind, into her own soul. Then, suddenly, the darkness before her wasn’t the darkness of her eyes but another one, the dark of a dark room. Her excitement at succeeding almost broke the meditative state, but she let it sink away, and instead reached out, following a thread all the way to the beginning and then lighting a fire to reveal what she’d found. Warm embers illuminated the space, revealing it to be a small cave, one she’d like to hide away in when she was young before she grew too large to scramble in through the narrow opening. The figure across from her wouldn’t have been able to crawl in either, but not because of any bulk. Said person was a goblin as well, though their skin was a desiccated beige in contrast to her own emerald green. He was taller too, though he was also all skin and bone where she was rather well fed. “Who are you?” she asked the figure, who first shied away from the fire, before reaching his forwards to warm them before he replied, simply “I is you” “But you’re a man?” she replied, grasping at the first major difference. “So?” the goblin replied with a shrug, before grinning with chipped teeth and saying “If dat weirds you out, you ain’t ready for who we was later” “What is that supposed to mean?” “You’llz see” the goblin told her smugly, before actually being helpful and saying “Also, that was the wrong question. Remember what she told ya to ask” “Wait. How do you know about that?” she asked, to which the other goblin simply reminded her that “I iz you” In response the meditating goblin pursed her lips, breathed deep, and then asked what she had been suggested to ask: “Who were you? What can you teach me?” “Didn’t have a name. No time fo dat in da desert. Never got out of it neither, so can’t teach you much. Well, maybe that some folk are monsters when they life on the line” the goblin who had died before Asheel could save him replied, before adding “oh, an also that death ain’t da end, so don worry bout too much” Then the light flickered, and the goblin was gone, replaced by a teal skinned goblin child. The meditator was more ready this time, but still not quite enough for the sight of one who had died so young. Still, the little goblin smiled and waved, encouraging her enough for her to ask again “Who were you? What can you teach me?” “Dot. I liked the pretty singing flowers. An I teach how to make hats out of the non singing ones? Oh, and, um, I guess have fun while ya can” the child replied, and then like their short life they were gone, and the next life came in their place. The meditator’s eyes bulged in their sockets as she looked up and beheld the towering figure of a beast folk full blood, who’s turtle shell took up much of its side of the chamber, and who’s neck was so long that in arched along the ceiling and then looked down at her with its pitch black eyes with bright yellow iris. The somewhat goofy permanently grinning lips might have made it less intimidating, had it not opened them to reveal blood stained and wickedly sharp goblin teeth. “Who… who were you? What can you teach me?” she managed to stutter, which caused the creature to only grin wider. “No name. Abandoned. Prob thought I was monster. Where right. Grew up anyway. Ate little fishies. Other lil monster try and kill. I too tough. Kill them easy. Slurp up guts. Easy pray. Big prey. More. Can teach you, little morsel, how to do same. Get a taste for it. Grow strong. Every time I ate it, killing got easier, will for you too” “No … no thank you” the goblin women replied, before thinking and asking “but someone stopped you in the end? Right?” which caused the monster to laugh and laugh before grinning again, and replying, simply “Suppose. Choked on bone” and then it was gone. The replacement was hardly better, as it was a massive snake with the eyes of a person, and small pointed ears like those some of the tall lanky beastkin had. Those were the only mortal features it had to distinguish it from an actual snake, baring, of course, the size, and the vague indication that maybe there was a torso somewhere under all the scales and muscles there. “No fear, no fear. Am friend. Ask me and find out” it insisted, curling up away from the goblin to give her plenty of personal space after the previous life had given her none. It was enough for the goblin to oblige, prompting the snake to tell. “Much same at first. Left behind, grew up in water eating little mices and fishes” it started, before going on “Monster came. I bite. It die. Horrible time. I see other monster attack other people. They bite no kill. Me bite. Me kill. Me get friends. Me protect friends, they cook me food, keep warm on cold night. Me no monster no more. Was good. Die for friends in end. Worth it” It concluded with a nod, and then was gone. She was replaced with a stocky figure, beast kin again, though in her case the only bestail feature was that her beard was made of gray feathers. The goblin asked, the dwarf-from replied simply “Smith. Smithing” and was replaced with an equally straight-forward snouter who replied “farmer, farming. Simple innit” Despite those simple answers, she kept on asking “Who were you? What can you teach me?” “I were a farmer too, got gifted coconuts by the goddess herself, then tamed the desert I did! Then died coz one dropped on me head! Ironic or summin” a lanky goblin who, with his reed hat, was the first one to actually be wearing any kind of clothes, told her. “Who were you? What can you teach me?” “I was blessed to become Mouri. I made war on your kind, thinking myself greater. Now I have stood where you stand, know what it is to be not me. I can teach you the secrets of evolution. You will need them, if my kin still war as they did in my time.” So spoke a towering creature with a tendriled maw the likes of which the goblin had never seen before, and she had seen a lot of types of beastkin come and go in the city she called home. “Who were you? What can you teach me?” “Also a farmer. Someone’s gotta put the floatatos on the table, and i can teach you to make a real nice stew with em” a tall round eared beastkin with webbed fingers and scatterings of scales across his body told her. He was also wearing a simple grass skirt that hid his privates, which was a first that she really appreciated. “Who were you? What can you teach me?” “Warrior!” the tall goblin who still carried the gore wound that had done him in proudly proclaimed with a clenched fist “Protector of our people! Scourge of beast-folk everywhere! I’ll teach you how to take em all down!” “Who were you? What can you teach me?” “Farmer, also farming” another Snouter told her, “also did some knitting on the side. Bit of rough housing too inbetween. Did in a bunch o that warrior bloke’s folks I think. Buggers deserved it, even if I get how they got there. Not easy being small, turns out. Still no excuse” “Who were you? What can you teach me?” “Founding member of the miners union” a short goblin who was so attached to his profession he had a pick on him even in death, boldly proclaimed “It was a big deal! Really put goblins back on the map, and in the right way too! Grab something people need, hold it tight, and they have to deal with you. If those tall folk wanted ore they had ta treat us with respect, and pay a fair price too!” “Who were you? What can you teach me?” “Eh, nofin much. Was a priest of the cave of painted memories, but it didn’t matter to me, and I never really was good at anything else neither. I was a spoiled brat too, looking back at it” another goblin, this one with the same short stature and emerald green skin as her, admitted, before shrugging and saying that “Mother did a much better job with you than she did me, that’s for sure sis” “Huh?” the goblin shook her head, breaking out of the pattern she’d been sucked into, before asking “What do you mean, sis? I’m Mother’s oldest, how’d you die before I did?” clearly very confused. “Mother was sowing and growing long before she had you. Probably will after your dust too. Basically the only thing I take after from her. Other than the good looks, which definitely helped out with that” he joked rather than answering clearly, and then he was gone, leaving her in the dark as the fire flickered out. It seemed like she had caught up to her own life. Then it flared back to life and she was looking at a rapidly shifting amalgamation of all the people she had just met, who all asked her with one voice and many “Who are you? What can you teach us?” in a turn around of what she had been asking “I… I am you. And you are me” she stuttered, before shaking her head by a fraction in the real world, clarifying her thoughts and finding herself again fully, enough to answer “I am me. I am Lilly. And you’re going to learn everything I do, starting with what it's like to live life while in touch with your past ones” And then she was back in the land of the living, and the first thing she saw was the smile of her mother, or rather, the Mother she now realized, beaming at her with pride and telling her that “I knew you could do it!” before the goddess embraced her and assuring her daughter that “Your going to be amazing!” [hider=summary] Lilly, one of the now many mortal children of the Maintainer turned Mother, learns how to get intouch with her past lives via meditation technique taught to her by the Mother. In doing so we get a vague look at how time and generations have passed, including a mention of how goblins in some places have gone full ethno-state to compensate for their weakness, while others have found a niche for themselves as miners and yet more have been propped up by Asheel herself via being instilled with religious significance. [/hider] [hider=mp] Start 3 1 mp enhanced by cycles used to teach the peoples of the river lands how to get in touch with their past lives (as described in the khodex) and 1 bonus mp used to bless her progeny with being particularly good at it, allowing them to more easily learn and use skills from past lives. 1 mp progress towards witchcraft Ending mp: 2 [/hider]