story

- Camille was conceived when Trivia throttled Camellia’s soul to force herself into her Archon pact. As a nonhuman entity — a yazata taking the form of a tree — he subsists on ‘positive’ concepts and is harmed by ‘negative’ ones, constantly cycling such environmental concepts through himself as if breathing. His soul is 99% identical to Camellia’s but that remaining 1% of difference is extremely important. He took root in Trivia’s heart and was nurtured on her love for her partner, Swift, in the mountains of Palida.

- The delivery was a messy, painful affair wherein Trivia’s skin bled buckets, which congealed into a seed. This was Camille. A gust of wind swept him off the top of the mountain and into Palida’s ocean, which carried him briefly through Nix, and then into Kitiven’s holy river, the Katani.

- The Katani is a river that Camellia blessed to always produce crystal-clean water. Its ambient concepts are powerful and nourishing to Camille, who grows rapidly in its current and, while unconscious still, attains his human form.

- He is washed up to a watergate in the walled city of Ghira.

- Ghira is currently locked down due to a horrible plague. Starting from a contaminated shipment of rice, a contagious infection has been spreading through the populace that dissolves bones and kills the host through a buildup of toxins. No passage is allowed in or out, and the Church has situated palatine guards outside the city to ensure that nothing escapes.

- A bystander sees Camille in the river and, thinking him dead, places him on a pile of corpses for burning.

- As the pile catches alight, Camille is engulfed in purifying flame. The positive concepts of purifying fire snap him conscious… and the first thing he does is scream AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

- Not because the fire hurts, mind you, but because he has just awoken with all the memories of Camellia… including the knowledge that he killed everyone and destroyed the universe.

- Panicking, Camille rushes off of the pile, toward the city, and is dizzied by the ambient concepts of death, disease, and chaos rife through the city. He passes out.

- Camille awakens deeper in the city by the aqueducts. The space is a refuge, with many people and families coming and going, and blankets laid across the hard stone floor. It is similar to a sewer, and similarly private, but not underground.

- Camille quickly gathers that he was brought here for recovery by a bystander who was amazed to find him alive after being engulfed in fire.

- The ambient concepts are still dizzying and harsh, but there is something about this refuge that stabilises Camille: trafficked around on little trolleys, vials of red liquid.

- This red liquid is a cure to the plague. As Camille gathers from gossip, the maker of this cure is a young man named Siyas — who, in his youth, accidentally invoked the Archon Phoenix when his father abandoned him to die in the desert. The invocation altered him so that his blood can cure any disease.

- Since Archons are regarded as evil in Kitiven, there is some trepidation over accepting a cure from an asura—someone touched by an Archon—but since it is working, the people in the refuge are supportive of Siyas. They are working to distribute the cure across the city under the Church’s nose (as the Church would not approve of Siyas) and bring people safely away from the chaos outside.

- Foremost of Siyas’ supporters is a former priest name Remivan, who discovered Siyas some years ago and has been working to research his Archon powers and build a fanbase around him since.

- Camille has nowhere better to be and is still dazed with the knowledge that the universe is destroyed. Through his faculty of cognizance, he can see the concepts underlying all the people and things in his environment—and being that everything is made of shards of Camellia, everything and everyone registers as just being minuscule pieces of himself. Nothing is real and the people are dolls. He keeps to himself in the refuge, stewing in this sense of profound solipsistic entrapment and isolation.

- Days pass.

- Camille has an encounter with a man who, curiously, wears a priest’s habit. He is stewarding a trolley of cures out of the refuge when he notices Camille and strikes up conversation. He is indeed a priest—going behind the Church’s back to distribute the cures, since they have been effective, and the Church’s efforts have not. He wonders whether he is compromising his faith by doing this, or whether God would forgive him regardless.

- Camille answers that he’s sure Camellia smiles on it, and that a God who wouldn’t see his good motives isn’t worth anything. This heartens the priest, who leaves.

- Remivan stages an address in the refuge wherein he badmouths the Church and promotes Siyas as a god-given indication of a real saviour. Though again trepidatious, Remivan is charismatic enough that most of the audience is receptive to his rhetoric.

- The vibes of spite and hatred from Remivan, however, are putrid to Camille. He feels sick and challenges Remivan by saying he knows who he is: a former priest who was kicked out of the Church for lusting after the power of Archons, who has always sought supernatural influence to lord over others—to this end, he is exploiting Siyas.

- Remivan deftly denies this and turns the crowd against Camille. Unable to stay in this putrid environment, Camille stumbles out of the refuge for the city streets.

- The atmosphere in the streets of Ghira is awful. There is death, disease, chaos, and ghouls everywhere. Camille tries to exit the city, but it is blocked by a large gate. He redoubles on himself, clinging on to a single signal of solace holding throughout the chaos.

- Camille finds the source of the signal to be a young man with white hair who is being attacked by an airborne ghoul. Camille jumps in the way of the ghoul—and as the ghoul’s beak pierces him, he feels the strong urge to ‘pull’. Camille decides not to entertain this urge. The ghoul pulls out of him and, distraught that it has attacked an incarnation of Camellia, retreats in a panic. A cannonball fired from over the walls then dispatches the ghoul. Camille’s injury heals itself automatically.

- The young man, who is Siyas, thanks Camille for the save and is naturally curious about what just happened. Camille introduces himself as a yazata named Azimech, and explains that ghouls are unwilling to attack him (because ghouls carry sentiments of Arsene). He also says that Siyas’s presence and blessed blood are the only things currently keeping him conscious, so he wants to stay next to Siyas.

- Siyas is fine with this and happy to have a ghoul-repellent. He explains that he came to the city with Remivan in search of an artifact related to Phoenix—specifically, sheet music of a composition written by Phoenix that a local church had been using without awareness of its author—and by coincidence got caught up in the lockdown. He’s glad he’s been able to help people, but feels the pressure to acquire the sheet music before anything else goes wrong. And now that there’s a lot of ghouls and chaos in the streets, he thought he’d have a good chance at sneaking in and stealing it.

- With Camille at his side to repel ghouls, he feels like he has an even better chance at stealing it. He proposes to break into the church. Camille agrees to help, though his primary interest is speaking with Ghira’s presiding Abbot to arrange travel out of the city.

- There are no guards or people present, but the church has been ransacked by ghouls. Disheartened, Siyas picks through the scraps of the church in search of the sheet music, when Camille suggests they try searching the bell tower.

- They search the bell tower—and as Siyas delightedly finds the music, Camille plays a tune on the bells to alert people to their presence. Siyas is confused and betrayed, but doesn’t abandon Camille. Siyas hurries, but by the time they descend the tower, guards have already arrived at the church who promptly apprehend Siyas, and Camille as well when he professes to being an accomplice to the heretical asura Siyas.

- Camille and Siyas are taken to a jail cell attached to the main temple of Ghira. The cell is mostly for holding, as the city is in too chaotic a state for the authorities to really tend to them, but Camille anticipates that the Abbot will eventually want to interrogate Siyas.

- Siyas is furious and demands an explanation from Camille. Not only have they lost the sheet music, he’s now locked up and can’t produce more of the cure, or reconvene with Remivan. Camille can also tell through his cognizance that Siyas is deeply concerned over the question of why an Archon picked him, and whether he is a damned, evil person for circumstances beyond his control—with the sheet music being a piece to unlocking the puzzle. Camille asks Siyas to trust him and confesses to being God himself, Camille.

- Raum overhears this confession and possesses the body of their jail guard with intention to touch Camille and attain a log of his memories.

- Camille supremely freaks out, perceiving Raum’s presence through his cognizance, and hastily inscribes a rune in pitch on his skin to repel Raum. Raum is mitigated, but he inserts this information about Camille’s identity into the Abbot’s memories.

- Camille also notices that Raum, as an Archon, registers as his own person rather than as a fragment of Camellia himself. This makes Camille feel obligated to properly address Raum, eventually.

- The Abbot hurriedly comes to the jail cell and demands to know if Camille really is the second coming of God. Camille answers for all intents, yes. The Abbot falls on his face, opens the cell, and begs Camille to save the city.

- Camille is initially hesitant, but caves quickly to the Abbot’s desperation and the silent pressure from Raum. He goes out to a balcony overlooking the city and regards it with his cognizance. He can ‘see’ all occurrences the disease—and he reaches out to one, and he ‘pulls’.

- In doing this, Camille subsumes the disease back into his own soul as a shot of raw Camellia juice, healing the subject. But it also fills him with a high of euphoric omnipotence and general Camellia concepts. Unable to stop himself, he subsumes more and more and more—all of the disease, and all of the ghouls… and all unpleasant buildings and mismatched tiles and deformities and ugliness and vices, consuming half the city in a manic recursive high.

- The energy he is consuming is too much for him, so much it is dangerous, but he can’t stop. Pushed past his limit, Camille’s body automatically enters a stasis mode in the form of a tree on the balcony.

- Camille spends the next few days growing to accommodate his new energies while the cityfolk regroup and celebrate the miracle.

- Camille wakes up several days later, back in his human form.

- He sees the sun in the sky and instantly rushes to see Siyas, who escaped the jail when it was destroyed in Camille’s mania. He tracks Siyas down and quickly tells him that he has done well, he is not damned, and the fact he is an asura does not overshadow anything of his goodness from God’s perspective.

- An eclipse inches over the sun. With barely any time to register what Camille has said, Siyas catches on fire.

- An unfortunate side effect of Siyas’ invocation of Phoenix is that he would burn to death with the next solar eclipse—which is now. Camille watches soberly, too intimidated by his recent loss of control to try and intervene—when Raum possesses Siyas’ dying body, and the flames putter out.

- Raum is furious.

- Camille hastily explains that he knows he owes Raum an explanation and more, but that first he needs to get out of the city and needs to cover up what happened here. Raum is extremely reluctant to go along with Camille’s sliminess, but, seeing little other choice to get answers, agrees to wipe people’s memories of his identity and organise transport out on a boat.

- However, he will be sticking with Camille and will give Camille three days before he reveals his identity again.

- Camille agrees to this, and shortly afterwards disembarks up the Katani with Raum on a small rowboat.

ACT 2

- Raum is rowing up the river with Camille contributing nothing. Raum has questions — why is the world like this, why did Camellia abandon them, why torture Phoenix, how to fix Archons, and who really are you, where did you come from, but Camille insists that Raum give him more time and remains silent. Raum begrudgingly accedes to this.

- A large ship appears on the horizon, approaching them. Raum knows through his information network that these are Phoenix cultists sent by Remivan to rendezvous with Siyas, who Remivan wanted to secure a support base with. As they come closer, Camille can see that this is the case, but cannot yet discern anyone’s name to give to Raum.

- Camille and Raum go ashore and decide to hide from the cultists further inland, but are unable to hide their boat very adeptly.

- A cultist alights from the ship and finds the boat. Camille decides to receive the cultist while Raum hides, intending to pass himself off as Siyas’ spiritual tutor, Remivan, and get the cultist to report back to the ship. Camille will be able to see the cultist’s name with his cognizance, which he can forward to Raum, and from there disable the ship. He tells Raum to prepare Phoenix for an invocation.

- The cultist comes close enough for Camille to discern his name. Camille invokes Phoenix to demonstrate his spiritual powers by summoning fire, but realises that he cannot turn the invocation off and that he is uncontrollably lapsing into the personality and attitude of Phoenix. Panicking, Camille forces the lingering energy of his mania out as a big ‘spirit fart’ that manifests as a giant explosion that turns all the surroundings into charred glass. This kills the cultist and Raum.

- Camille panics and tries to run, but the cultists on the ship notice the blast and pursue him, mistaking him for Siyas. They are able to catch up and apprehend Camille, who is too paranoid about losing control to use his powers to fight back.

- Camille is apprehended in a trunk in shackles and transported up the Katani.

- The cultists return to their hideout with Camille, which is a region to the west of the capital Amsherrat filled with black sand from old volcanic activity. The hideout specifically is in a cave there.

- Camille is barely conscious due to the horrible vibes of the place, but manages to hold on because a vein of the Katani runs through the cave system. He is taken to the cult’s leader, who offers to teach Camille secrets of invocation and immortality. The cult demonstrates the ritual of immortality by burning a child alive, with each of the cultists participating growing noticeably younger.

- Camille is jaded. He knows these are horrible people, but because the world is all a sham anyway, he cannot find the anger to particularly care. He instead reveals that he is not Siyas, but Siyas’s spiritual tutor, and he will teach them the secret of real immortality if they submit themselves to him instead.

- The cult accepts this and Camille activates a powerful Phoenix invocation that reconstitutes the cultists’ bodies as holy fire, making them unkillable.

- Camille spends time in the cult hideout moping. He goes out to the ash fields and gazes up at the stars, having a meditative existential breakdown on how he was an idiot and Vertel was right.

- The cultists are gathered in a circle with nothing to do now that they have attained true immortality. In their pervasive ennui, one of them voices: ‘I wish I were dead’. There is a stir among the cultists of indignation because how could you wish for that after becoming immortal, which ends in the offender being brained with a rock. Their body dissolves into blue fire which is blown eastwards by the wind over the city of Amsherrat.

- Reports of ‘the angel from the west’ circulate Amsherrat. The cultist reconstitutes and spills information on Camille’s cult as well, which reaches Raum.

- Raum gets in contact with Renard and the two team up to go after Camille in the west. They come to the volcanic plain and the cultists hurriedly get inside the cave, but are noticed by Raum and Renard.

- Camille has erected a Trivia invocation on the mouth of the cave to disguise it, but Renard breaks through this. The pair enter the cave.

- The cultists have vacated the entrance of the cave for the deeper tunnels. Raum and Renard question the first cultist they find who claims Camille is not there, but they discern that this is obviously the right place to find him. The conversation grows into an altercation with the cultist attacking and Renard promptly slicing them through—only for the cultist to become fire and retreat deeper into the cave system.

- Renard slaughters a metric ton of cultists.

- Raum realises they are being guided off course and follows one thread of fire back through the cave to the entrance, through another fake wall.

- Beyond the wall is a cave lagoon of Katani waters, in the middle of which is Camille (who is replenishing himself from all the violence with the water). The walls of the room are covered in runes to repel Archons and Raum specifically, but Raum and Renard are able to at least stand in the room and talk without issue.

- Raum and Renard question what the fuck Camille is doing.

- Camille says it’s over, they’re doomed, and he is sorry but he cannot help them and that he has settled in this cave to isolate himself in peace.

- Raum says this is total bullshit and that he’s running away from responsibility. He can tell that something serious has happened with Camille but is more focused on getting answers to his existential problems and the Archon stuff to care too much about Camille.

- Camille insists that the Archon pacts are a sham from which there is no release, a sadistic trap imposed by a maniac too delusional to conceive of his failure. They can try and try, but there is no way to escape the psychological patterns and personal issues that triggered the Archon pacts while being encouraged by the pact to perpetually relive them, and having lost even their humanity in some cases.

- Raum again insists this is bullshit and that Camille can definitely do something. Can’t he forcibly rescind the pact?

- Camille laughs and says no, he can’t. He simply lacks that power. They’re all doomed. So he has nothing but regret, and may they leave him to be useless in peace.

- Renard sympathises with Camille’s obvious inner conflict and self-doubt, and is amenable to leaving him alone.

- Raum isn’t, Raum is pissed. What about stopping more and more people from ending up like Mephi or Phoenix? Don’t you have any power over even that?

- Just as Camille goes to respond, across the world, Lisbet dies.

- All the attention that Camellia’s ambient psyche was pouring on Lisbet snaps onto Camille, who is overtaken by Camellia’s ego, begins floating, seats himself on empty air, and smiles maniacally.

- The demeanour shift is instantly obvious to Raum and Renard.

- Camill/ellia announces that the Archon pacts are certainly resolvable, in fact that is the whole purpose of them, they simply may take some time and perhaps some assistance. That is, My assistance.

- Recognizing that he’s talking to Actual God, Raum instantly asks Camellia to rescind Phoenix’s Archon pact.

- Camill/ellia says that’s between him and Phoenix, not something for a second party to request.

- Frustrated, Raum asks about Reyl and what could be done to recover her memory.

- Camille/ellia questions whether those memories are even desirable to her. Oh, he can recover them, and by his methods he would gladly restore them—but simply foisting them on her in the way Raum desires is abominable. But if you would like to proceed down this path, and towards the path, with me, of your own pact’s resolution…

- Camille/ellia smiles.

- Camille/ellia says: there’s something you could do for me. This fragment of himself, Camille, is a vessel that is steadily growing to accommodate the psyche of the Demiurge Camellia. In addition to Camellia’s psyche and memories, Camille will eventually inherit Camellia’s infinite power. From that position, I can do very much to help you, along with all of humanity. He simply requests caretakers, or witnesses, of a sort, to ensure that the transition from the seed Camille to the reborn Camellia goes smoothly.

- Which is to say, Camille is steadily turning into Camellia. As long as he continues living and growing, his mind will eventually be taken over by Camellia.

- While Raum and Renard absorb this information, across the world, Lisbet revives and Camellia’s psyche attends to her again. Camille drops out of the air and is restored to his usual self.

- Camille, feeling existential terror at this revelation, panics and pleads for Raum and Renard not to listen to anything Camellia said—he is a liar, he is a megalomaniac, he may sound convincing, but it’s already written into your souls how deeply he’s not to be trusted. Please. Please.

- Raum concedes that Camellia is unreliable, but at least he’s offering Raum something. What is Camille offering.

- The reality of our doom is all the ash I hold in my hands, except for your mercy alone! All that I ask, is your mercy alone! Because all he will do, is pander to that godforsaken snake and ruin the world even more! Let us instead fight against this, and, perhaps we best work together, in confronting our collective problem, and, no… no! He exclaims, seeing that Raum is not being receptive.

- Renard wants to stand up for Camille, but is unsure how to persuade Raum, knowing that Raum’s gripes are deep and legitimate. He is also a little unsure himself as to whether Camellia’s return might actually be a good thing.

- Panicking more, Camille flees outside of the cave mouth, and, in a trap left by Camellia, is teleported directly into the chambers of Kitiven’s Church in Amsherrat before an assembly of Archbishops and the Pontifex.

- Informed to the circumstances by Camellia, the Pontifex grabs Camille’s sleeve. He asks, ‘Are you the anointed?,’ speaking of a prophecy of Camellia’s resurrection when ‘the serpent’ and ‘the anointed Pontifex’ come together.

- Camille says that he is a charlatan not to be trusted. But yes, he is your anointed.

ACT 3

- The Church erupts into a frenzy of activity with the news that the Anointed is actually here and God is on his way to being resurrected.

- Raum and Renard also exit the cave and are transported to the Church. Though Kitiven thinks lowly of Archons, the Church accepts their presence when Raum smoothly explains that Camellia wanted them to be here for this. They, however, fail to get a word in edgewise when the Pontifex takes Camille and escorts him deeper into the Church.

- The Pontifex locks Camille in a pleasant room filled with gardens, art, and a river of Katani water, where he can peacefully grow into Camellia without issue.

- Camille recognises that he doesn’t have many options. If he continues to grow, which his body will do naturally, he will inevitably turn into Camellia. He fears regression into Camellia like death, and can only imagine Camellia destroying the world even more. So there are only three paths he can see: to purposefully kill himself by overexposure to negative concepts, to stunt his growth by sustained exposure to negative concepts, or to subsume his ego into a permanent invocation of an Archon, becoming something like a clone of that Archon.

- Because he is stuck in a nice room, the first two options are not really feasible. Camille begins to resolve himself to subsuming his ego into an invocation of Trivia, while flirting with the idea of simply invoking her momentarily to teleport himself outside the room.

- But teleporting himself outside the room doesn’t solve the fact that the Pontifex will be pursuing him. Camille simmers in hesitation and indecision.

- Meanwhile, Raum and Renard fill Mephi in on what’s happened and invite him to Amsherrat.

- The three archons debate a little on what they want to do and what Camille’s arrival means for them. Renard doesn’t really trust Camellia, Mephi does, and Raum still wants answers out of Camille of what the fuck his deal really is.

- Ceding to Raum, the Archons agree to break Camille out of the room.

- Raum wipes the names of the Pontifex, many Archbishops, and the guards outside Camille’s room. Renard breaks the door open. Vastly relieved at this rescue, Camille uses a Trivia invocation to teleport himself and the Archons into the desert outside Amsherrat, just to get space from the Church.

- Having had a little bit of time to collect himself, after only minor urging from the Archons, Camille finally concedes to a confessional before Raum and Renard, but requests Mephi to go out of earshot.

- Camille confesses that this is not the first universe and that he is not a god. He is powerful like one, but not one — there were many others like him, with similar power, and we lived together in a governed society. I was the leader of that society, and in my zeal to scour the world of ‘imperfections’ I defied the will of the divine. I am a bigot. I am a terrorist. My rash actions destroyed my universe. All that I loved, and all that I do not love, together, is gone. What remains is a demented pastiche of my birth world to trap me in my own madness, minuscule in size, and deformed by affections for that thrice-bedamned snake. You may laugh at me, Azimech, an untrustworthy servant, an unworthy steward, the failure of the universe. All the others who ever did, were in fact right.

- Raum and Renard slowly digest this.

- Raum is still angry that this means Camille isn’t helping them with any of their problems, but is able to suppress his rage. He does not have sympathy for Camille so much as resignation that he might be another mostly-useless lead. Renard is horrified and very sympathetic to Camille.

- The most important thing now, however, Camille continues, is to forbid the return of my past self. He will surely, in his depravity, destroy this world again whilst tempting you with wishes like playthings. And for that…

- He summons Mephi and requests that he escort Camille into a cave system that was once the site of terrible magic rituals, which will be teeming with enough bad vibes to stunt Camille’s growth. He intends to stay there and delay the reincarnation of Camellia indefinitely.

- Mephi is hesitant because he sees the return of Camellia as a good thing.

- Camille tells Mephi that he has not met with ‘the serpent’ and so the time is not right for Camellia’s return yet.

- This completely convinces Mephi.

- Mephi and Camille leave. Raum and Renard begin making their way back to Amsherrat, stewing with this new information.

- Renard is content to leave Camille be, and help him if possible, but Raum knows that protecting Camille by leaving the Archbishops and Pontifex without their names will cause massive political issues between Kitiven and Asphodel.

- Rather than encourage those problems, Raum returns the names to the Archbishops and Pontifex.

- The Pontifex immediately teleports Camille back to the Church.

- The Pontifex chides Camille for his sneakiness and reasons that he will have to take a harder hand with him, but forgives Raum, who he knows is listening.

- The Pontifex drags Camille to a golden room full of mirrors. The mirrors reflect Camille, and in doing, recursively fill the room with so much positive concept it is nearly unbearable. As Camille struggles to steady himself from lapsing into Camellia invocations, the Pontifex binds him to a pillar in the centre of the room and forcibly injects some of his power into him.

- This triggers Camille to ‘pull’ and ‘swallow’ the energy, which builds into an uncontrolled recursive subsumation of the positivity of Camille’s reflections and the Pontifex’s aura. Camille’s state, again, becomes dangerous.

- Camille, uncontrolled, effluxses the vast imbibed power in another big ‘spirit fart’ to survive. This subsumes the Pontifex into the room alongside general Camellia energies.

- Camille passes out.

- Raum knows through his log of the Pontifex’s memories that this has happened, informs Mephi, and hurries faster with Renard to the Church.

- Mephi uses his magic to teleport to Raum and Renard, and then teleports the three of them to the courtyard outside the Church.

- Camille regains consciousness—with amnesia. He cannot remember anything about anything.

- The golden room shakes, screams, cackles, and rises into the air. As the room breaks off from the Church and flies into the sky, Camille, dazed, loses his footing and falls out of it. He hits the ground hard but his body automatically recovers.

- Vaguely irritated, but snapped back to attention by the landing, Camille sighs and takes in his surroundings. Seeing through his cognizance that everything is just made of parts of himself, he is a little confused, and latches onto the one signal that is not ‘part of himself’: the Archons.

- Camille gets up and pursues the Archons.

- Meanwhile, through Raum, the Archons witness the golden room fly through the sky and slam down into the busy central square of Amsherrat. The room cackles with a voice, proclaiming that all will be returned into the perfection of Camellia and all people shall be made perfect.

- Bystanders are instinctively drawn to the overpoweringly warm, splendid aura of the room and enter it.

- DO YOU WISH FOR PERFECTION!? The room declares.

- YES! A man responds.

- The room subsumes the man into a puddle of gold that is drawn into the mirrors.

- Raum and the Archons are horrified at the realisation they have unleashed some sort of homicidal soul-eating calamity.

- Mephi says I told you so that this was a bad idea, since Camille SAID the time wasn’t right yet.

- Raum massages his forehead.

- The room is attempting to subsume literally everything in existence, but material in the environment without a consciousness is being supplied with Camellia’s unconscious ego, which is currently focused on attending to Lisbet and thus resists its pull. Conscious things, like people, however, are susceptible to the room’s influence and are streaming into it to be eaten.

- As the Archons try to organise, Camille shows up before them and waves hello.

- Raum says, I know this isn’t intentionally your fault, but what the fuck is this.

- Camille is confused.

- The ‘golden room that is eating people’ thing, Raum explains.

- Is that not a funnel for the dust? Camille questions.

- Renard breaks from the other Archons to try and confront, and slay, the Room. The Archons are a little worried about Renard potentially dying but basically agree with this plan.

- The dust? Raum presses. Don’t you mean the people?

- I suppose they do have that form, Camille observes.

- Raum throws his hands up in fury.

- Is that unnatural? Camille questions.

- Hell’s bells, people are lining up to get spattered to gold like it’s a blimmin Ordish food depository, of course it’s fecking un-nat-u-rale!

- Seeing from Camille’s honest confusion that he has lost his memory, Raum pinches his brow in frustration. If Renard’s thing ain’t working, you better have some bloody solution to this.

- I hardly see why it needs a solution. Do you fear being alone without them? Are they your entertainment? Belongings? Playthings?

- Fuck no, they’re people and they deserve to live. Hell, is this how you think of us?

- Not of you, of course, Camille says alarmed. You’re a person.

- Raum runs his hand through his hair. And they ain’t? They’re people too, like I said. I don’t want them to die how you PRESUMABLY don’t want me to die.

- But they are so inconsequential. They are, indeed, as dust. Your attachment seems to me as fetishism.

- My sister was one of those. I was one of those. That ain’t a fucking fetish.

- Meanwhile, as Renard goes to fight the Room, he finds that all the people in the vicinity have disappeared. Trivia has also arrived on the scene and teleported them into her twilight dimension to save them. Unaware what has happened, and dreading more complications, Renard draws his blade and accosts the Room.

- Camille’s eyes widen slightly. You were one? Then, these are as seeds?

- Mephi interjects that you could see it like that, but he’s not really sure that becoming an Archon is the intended end goal of life.

- Raum says no, these are already fully fledged people, which is what he’s been saying. They have hopes, dreams, feelings, people who love them and people they love.

- Renard’s wielder is accosted by an urge to submit to the Room’s consuming influence, but resists it and succeeds in trashing the room. He brings down its support pillars and its roof crashes in on itself. Relieved that he has slain the Room, Renard relaxes momentarily.

- The aura of the Room seeps through the wreckage and consumes Renard’s wielder. Renard clatters to the ground, wielderless. Renard has failed; the Room remains an issue.

- They love? That’s within their capacity? Camille voices. That is incredible, unspeakable, inconceivable, he murmurs, reconsidering.

- Well conceive it, ‘cuz it’s real, says Raum.

- Seeing remotely that Renard has failed, but has not been consumed, Mephi briefly proposes that he try subduing the room, but rescinds the offer upon realising that the Room is consuming souls and that if he tries consuming the room himself, that may end up damning the souls.

- I see, Camille voices to himself. They may be fragments as dust, but they have inherited the heart of their maker, and there is some value in that…

- Raum pressures Camille again to do something. Can he do something? He better do something.

- Camille affirms that he can deal with the Room, which is just a piece of himself, after all, and accepts that the people of Aurholm are worth saving in the first place despite his detachment from them.

- Camille goes to the square with the Room, which is a bubbling, festering wreck. The Room shouts in frustration that no one is here and sends out a powerful alluring pulse to draw people in from long distances. Hit directly by this pulse, Camille grits his teeth and braces to avoid being subsumed.

- Camille, overcoming the pressure, ‘pulls’ hard and subsumes the Room into himself instead. The Room is defeated and, in a rush, Camille’s memories return.

- Camille is left holding a vastly dangerous overflow of energy that threatens to destroy him, which he vents in another big invocation, this time of Renard. All bladed objects in a several-mile radius become sharp enough to cut through anything.

- Camille pants in exertion and relief, having dealt with the energy in a basically harmless way for once.

POSTSCRIPT

- Raum retrieves Renard and begins organising to hand him off to one of Renard’s cultists, so that he can have a wielder again.

- Trivia returns the people to the city.

- Simultaneously, Raum addresses Camille.

- Camille is ashamed and confesses he still doesn’t have a solution to the Archons, or to Camellia’s eventual resurrection through himself, and they have come back to a net zero. But he does request, being still too high on lingering energy to risk any invocations, that Raum help him situate himself in Nine Columbines Sanatorium — a nearby location with relatively negative vibes due to all the sick people.

- Raum alters the memories of Archbishops and Nine Columbines personnel to admit Camille into its supernatural damages ward.

- Camille decompresses in the hospital for a few days. The negative vibes of the hospital stabilise his energy and restrict his growth into Camellia somewhat, buying him more time. Seeing things have wound down, Mephi returns to Miulu.

- Camille resigns that the only way to avoid Camellia’s return is to subsume his ego through a permanent invocation of an Archon. He voices to Raum his intentions to do this, who is very displeased but doesn’t have alternative ideas.

- However, Raum informs Camille that a shaman girl from Palida called Ishvari has just embarked on a pilgrimage to come see him. Feeling this meeting could be important, as Ishvari has just done some pretty major stuff in Palida while the Archons were busy with Camille, Raum insists Camille at least wait to see her.

- Camille accepts this and waits.

- Ishvari arrives some days later. Camille is gobsmacked to see that Ishvari is Lisbet—actually Lisbet, by her very soul—and breaks down bawling because HE ISN’T ALONE.

- While Camille collects himself, Ishvari (after asking if he’s okay) says hello and begins explaining some of the stuff that’s been happening in Palida. Particularly, invocations haven’t been working for the shamans there, and there’s this major problem with this snake called Arsene who isn’t connected at all to Heaven—actually the whole world is a little bit disconnected from Heaven, and the world is actually the soul of her friend Camellia, and he’s a bit stuck here—and because Camille is God she was wondering if he could fix this.

- Camille explains that generalised invocations haven’t been working because the soul of the world, which is what these invocations try to alter, has been focused on serving Lisbet and only Lisbet because she is a real human and the soul of the world is a High Terran. These invocations will continue to fail as long as Lisbet exists.

- This alarms Ishvari.

- But, seeing Ishvari’s nature and powers through his cognizance, Camille discerns that Ishvari is a composite being made of two souls: that of Lisbet and her Thrax parasite, Irida. If she uses her powers to shatter ‘Lisbet’ out of herself, and manifests as only Irida, this is a solution that allows her to still exist without dying.

- Ishvari is trepidatious, but accepts that this is a solution. And she’ll reincarnate as Ishvari again if she actually dies, anyway.

- So the second problem. The ‘disconnected from Heaven’ thing. Well, Ishvari’s very presence presents a solution.

- Ishvari’s soul is still connected to Pleroma, and thus, to Heaven. Camille reasons that if he cycles a minuscule portion of Pleroma through himself by pulling it through Ishvari, he could reconnect this world to Pleroma.

- Ishvari doesn’t really get it but is like YEAH LET’S DO IT.

- They do it. Camille pulls on as tiny a fragment of Pleroma as he can manage…

- …but 1% of infinity is still infinity.

- AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA OH MY GOD

- Overwhelmed by the vast amount of power he is intaking, the world and Camille begin to shred apart in an apocalyptic transfer of energy. The universe is breaking. Again.

- While Camille is only able to scream and panic, the image of Camellia rises out of the chaos.

- Camille, simultaneously seeing himself from the perspective of Camellia, offers himself an Archon pact to save himself and give himself time to submit to becoming Camellia on his own terms, out of compassion.

- Camille accepts the pact ASAP. While thinking, ‘yeah right’.

- The world stabilises back to what it was, without reintegrating with Pleroma. Camille is now an Archon.

- Camille effluxes energy into the desert and creates a sea of raw concept, called the Sea of Aur.

- Let’s not do that again, Ishvari and Camille decide.

- Ishvari returns to Palida and shatters herself into Irida. Generalised invocations work again.

- Camille leaves Nine Columbines and uses generalised invocation to construct the Arboretum, a massive tower that reaches into space, and moves in there. Raum stops manipulating the Archbishops to cover for Camille.

- Now that he is an Archon, Camille’s identity has stabilised so that his ego and self concept are no longer sliding into other personae when he does big invocations, and, most critically, it protects his ego from sliding into Camellia’s. He is no longer turning into Camellia, though he is able to invoke him on command.

- This means he has plenty of time to address all the issues left on his plate. Such as: the Archons, Pleroma, Arsene, and all those religious prophecies and promises Camellia made to Kitiven about returning and bringing in Paradise.

- Camille is very overwhelmed.

- Though he initially resists this position, Camille eventually breaks and resigns that the only responsible way to deal with all these problems is to actually become the Messiah the people want, and actually make good on all of Camellia’s promises. Somehow.

- To this end, Camille has been occasionally working with Kitiven’s clergy as a tight-lipped religious consultant, and as a Pontifex when they have no one else filling the role. The clergy feels somewhat awkwardly towards Camille, suspicious of him due to his Archonhood, but accepting him as the Anointed. Camille is also openly blasphemous about Camellia being nothing to hope in.

- Camille instates a means for people to reach Heaven, by voluntarily subsuming themselves back into his soul (a euphoric state). Pilgrims who go to the Sea of Aur will find a shrine, inside which is a book. When one writes their name in the book, they are subsumed, but their name is remembered.

- The clergy are against this, but can’t really stop it.

- The clergy also hate that Camille’s existence makes it harder to invoke Camellia, because people keep slipping and invoking Camille, which is different.

- Camille begins hand-picking agents as his Pilgrims, who he sends to go on various quests and do his chores while he stays in the Arboretum—particularly, the collection of stories and media.

- Camille becomes obsessed with the idea that some solution to his problems can be found in the archetypes, which are also in Pleroma, of stories. He becomes particularly fixated on the archetype of the Messiah, and begins praying for the memetic concept of Jesus in Pleroma to become actually real and save him, because he is that desperate.

- Otherwise, he mostly spends his time in his room staring at the stars and collecting various objects to cycle. He is procrastinating and too nervous to do much.

- He maintains contact with the Archons, becoming their de-facto leader and keeping basically good relations with all of them except Aster, who is afraid of him and who Camille doesn’t know exists. Raum is one of his Pilgrims, though he is still exasperated with Camille.

- Renard is still supportive of Camille, but distant from his plans. Mephi believes in Camille and is waiting for the prophecy of Camellia’s resurrection to happen, but is a little dubious on whether it actually will. Phoenix does not trust Camille but respects his authority. Camille keeps a working relationship with Trivia, who wants to support him however she can. Lisbet likes Camille but wants him to become Camellia already.

- Camille saves Poppy from isolation when she becomes an Archon, and becomes good friends with her.

- Making friends is fun!

- His latest friend is Zachary, a sensitive boy who he surely can’t burden with all these damn problems.

- Surely.