Chapter 2 - Magic and Technology

Ash sniffed the odd capsule a few times before eventually settling in it. It was comfortable and smelled like the strange blend of technology and magic that had swept through the world as time wore on.

Ash and Luna had both been very young when the magical creatures of the world began interacting with the creatures that called themselves humans. Humans could use magic but did not produce their own in the same way as the magical races did. They took ambient magic in the air and formed it into spells to suit their needs.

It was a novel approach to races that generally used their own magic unless more was needed for special rituals and it paved the way for many advancements that would have never existed otherwise. One of those advancements was the capsule, judging by the smell of magic coming from it.

Most of humanity learned of the magical world and adapted well. Some of them, though, tended to think the various magical races oversold the importance of the small rituals and other things that they did. They would claim that they had never done such things and had always been just fine ignoring that the magical creatures of the world had always existed even if they hadn't allowed themselves to be seen.

Ash was solely responsible for one such incredibly important ritual as the last remaining member of her race. She made use of ambient magic to help but it was still draining on her own stores to do so. Hers was a race capable of shifting form to act as others but they never changed in front of any but their dearest friends and family. As such, when Ash took her true form many humans believed her to be nothing but a mindless beast.

She could communicate in her true form using magic but it was hard to hold a conversation when someone was shooting at you for the valuable alchemical ingredients you produced. Ash almost always stayed in the alternate two-legged form of an elf, appearing very similar to Luna in height if nothing else.

She lay back and followed Luna's instructions, eventually closing her eyes as if to go to sleep.

The world around her was white but she felt Luna's magic as a steady presence nearby. That was strange, though, as the last time Ash had checked technology couldn't replicate magical signatures completely. There was something always missing that made them feel…other.

She glanced around until she found a floating orb of magic that belonged to Luna, frowning at it until it spoke, "This is what's called a guide form. It doesn't allow me to interact and you're pretty much the only one that can see me since I'm connected directly to your capsule. It'll let me talk to you and help with the setup process."

"This feels just like your magic," Ash said evenly, managing to turn the statement into a question with her expression alone.

"A bit of an advancement made with the help of our organization," Luna brushed off the question without actually answering as Ash would understand soon enough and guided her friend through the setup process for the capsule and the game as well.

Soon enough the feeling of the white area around them changed. The floor felt more solid and slowly seemed to shift through colors until it was a shimmering black marble floor flecked with ivory accents. The white that stretched off into the distance darkened at the same time, turning into a beautiful night sky though the patterns of its stars felt both soothing and foreign all at once.

Ash was looking around, marvelling at the beauty of the place when someone seemed to appear out of thin air. One moment, only Ash and Luna were present and the next a tall handsome elf stood in front of them. Normally Ash would have startled and likely run but she knew his face well. She knelt in greeting and cast a slight glare at the light beside her that was Luna, practically feeling the laughter at her surprise radiating from it.

He smiled calmly and beckoned for her to stand, offering his solid hand to help her up. He was massive enough that he still made her feel like a child though she'd been full grown for several centuries.

"I apologize, lord Sidus, for I did not expect to see you here," faced with the progenitor of both her own race and Luna's particular elfin race as well, she slipped into the formal manner of speech from a time long past.

The lord of the stars himself laughed, a sound that seemed at once rich and warm but also cool and distant just like the stars themselves. His shimmering black hair, a void filled with shifting colors of stars that came to life and died fell to cover part of his face with the action.

Eventually, he smiled softly and brushed the hair back behind him, "That was by intent, my dear. I could not bear to call to you for this, not with as weary as you are right now. Beyond that, I wanted to see how you would react to being able to speak with me after so very long."

The gods had been banished from interfering too strongly in their world by a spell crafted by human mages. They felt the gods regarded them as little more than pawns and found a way to alter reality itself to keep them from it. The gods could only guide their world through their oracles, which both Luna and Ash were. Sidus had not spoken to Ash in a very long time as it took a lot of an oracle's magic to do so and he would never risk her death just to chat.

He saw a slight flit of worry cross Ash's face, reading it as easily as if the emotion were his own, "With the help of a great many of all of our oracles, we gods have gained the ability to interfere, as it were, in this false world that has been created. We watch and we guide and we influence things here just as once we did for your own world. Here, it costs you nothing to speak to me which is as it should have always stayed."

He smiled as he turned away and walked a few steps, "Nonetheless, what kind of god would I be, whether of a false world or otherwise, if I did not guide you into this new journey you are embarking upon? Let us begin at the appropriate place, with yourself and how you wish to be seen in this new world of Fantastoria."