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The Bargain
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===IX: The Bargain=== | ===IX: The Bargain=== | ||
The narrator is describing Aurash standing upon the needle. It tells her she should be dead, crushed by immense pressure and heat, | The narrator is describing Aurash standing upon the needle's hull. It tells her that she should be dead, crushed by the immense pressure and heat, but instead it has sustained her. | ||
The narrator reveals itself to be Yul, the Honest Worm, one of the five Worm Gods. | The narrator reveals itself to be Yul, the Honest Worm, one of the five Worm Gods. The others he calls the Virtuous Worms. Yul describes himself as vast and ponderous, full of strength, and of an immense size. He describes himself as having great jaws and folded wings, and all of the colonies of creatures living upon him in symbiosis. He finishes by calling himself "fecund", able to produce life and sustain it. The other Worm Gods are presumably similar in size. | ||
Yul then describes their history, that | Yul then describes their history, that Fundament is actually a prison. The wording is unclear but while they remained imprisoned they also grew; calling other species to roost upon the planet, to test them and see if they were worthy. He finishes by saying they have waited millennia for Aurash and her sisters to find them. | ||
He offers them a bargain. The Leviathan, he claims, would destroy them in fear, and that it has conspired to drown them with the Syzygy. To combat this he says the Worm Gods could help them. First they must take into each of their bodies a larva, in order to become eternal, and be free of their "fragile flesh". The larva, Yul claims, would allow them to remake their bodies and the world in their image: for whatever is imperfect they would destroy—no law would bind them, save one. | He offers them a bargain. The Leviathan, he claims, would destroy them in fear, and that it has conspired to drown them with the Syzygy. To combat this he says the Worm Gods could help them. First they must take into each of their bodies a larva, in order to become eternal, and be free of their "fragile flesh". The larva, Yul claims, would allow them to remake their bodies and the world in their image: for whatever is imperfect they would destroy—no law would bind them, save one. | ||
Aurash would forever obey her inquisitiveness, Sathona her cunning, and Xi Ro her strength. They would never cease to obey | Aurash would forever obey her inquisitiveness, Sathona her cunning, and Xi Ro her strength. They would never cease to obey these defining traits, lest they be consumed by their worm. But if they succeed, both they and the worm will grow stronger. Yul promises this is a small price to pay for eternity, and that they would benefit the most out of it. | ||
He concludes by inviting Aurash to accept his offer. | He concludes by inviting Aurash to accept his offer. | ||