There was silence from Morpheus as he regarded Greg for a long while. His reasoning about Olivia's true self and the motivation behind her actions was sound. Even his proposition of giving up half his lifespan to secure the other half, while painful, was also sound. Greg could thus understand why the being seemed confused by his choice not to go with his plan. 'You don't strike me as the kind to just roll over and die, Greg. So, why don't we skip the charade and you tell me what you want,' Morpheus finally spoke, giving up the attempt to decipher Greg's thought process. 'You're absolutely right, Morpheus,' Greg declared. 'Weak as I am, I'm little more than a pawn in this game. But if any of you think that you are going to sacrifice me without losing a pound of flesh too, then you are sorely mistaken,' Greg growled, not hiding the raging indignation in his voice. "We both know that whatever plans the Primordial has in store for you, it more than likely has very little to do with find

Greg could feel that some strange power had been interlaced into the voice making it so that even just hearing it would be enough to destroy the minds of lesser beings. If Greg wasn't already being protected by Morpheus from these effects, his mind would have already been ravaged beyond repair. "Why not come down and finish what you started instead of watching through this... thing!" Morpheus questioned, a deceptively cordial smile playing across Greg's features. It took a few seconds for Greg to process Morpheus's words, but then it suddenly dawned on him. It wasn't that Olivia was indifferent to the attack that she had just suffered, instead, it was that her true self had taken control of this clone almost as soon as the attack had been deployed. And while Olivia the avatar might have reacted defensively or even counterattacked, the true Olivia was more interested in watching to see what he would do next. From Morpheus's words, Greg could tell that this wasn't a descent as had been

When Morpheus turned to once again look in Olivia's direction, a smile crossed Greg's features. Greg doubted that Olivia's true self was aware that she was projecting her emotions through her clone. This was the only explanation Greg could come up with as he saw no benefit for the Primordial in making her avatar appear white as a sheet of paper. "Y... you know the language of creation?" The words left Olivia's lips in a stammer. Greg doubted that the Primordial had ever been forced to stammer in all her life. There was, however, no faking the bone-deep fear that seemed to have taken hold of her. "Interesting, I wouldn't expect a child like you to recognize it," Morpheus answered. Greg knew that Olivia's true self was probably tens of thousands of years old, as such, it felt odd to have her called a child. If he was to be believed, however, Morpheus's jail sentence alone had been more than seven hundred thousand years. And so, in a way, it did make sense that he'd think of the Primor

The idea that they were always solemn, serious, and thoughtful beings was just a projection of people onto them. Yes, they could be all those things, but they could also just as easily act in the most irrational and immature ways. The only thing that could be said about such beings is that they were powerful, anything else was purely up to the whims of those beings at the time. "Would you have stopped her if she tried to kill me?" Greg found himself asking after a while of silence had passed between them. There was a long silence before Morpheus spoke up. "Your words were right, Greg. Pawn you may be, but you were my mother's pawn first. The reason the Primordial came after us this time is because of my actions during your ascension. If the Primordial killed you and I did nothing, the fault for your death would have been laid at my feet. Even if I somehow survived the Primordial, I would have had to answer to my mother. I already went against her once before with the help of seven

Unbeknownst to most of them, at tier five, when mages begin to comprehend the various aspects and integrate them into their understanding of magic, they are stepping into a new life order. From simple mortals, they become a Demi. Understanding and integrating realm laws serves two primary functions. Firstly, any attack imbued with one's aspect will always be more powerful than an attack without. Secondly, and even more importantly, The deeper one's understanding of a given law, the more immune one becomes to its effects. For example, a fire mage that has a deep comprehension of the aspect of heat, could easily take a bath in lava and not feel a thing." "But while the demi are a step above mortal, they are by no means invincible. The fire mage may not be burned by the lava, but if they aren't careful, they could easily drown in it. In other words, while they have grasped a corner of the tapestry of laws that govern the realm, they are by no means immune to the rest. The goal of all De