In the absence of a guiding star, a powerful mind was a vessel only for going nowhere quickly. Hunger had his vengeance, but what purpose was her own?
Lots of thoughts on purpose here, both for Gisena and her companions.
Hunger has his vengeance. And we've speculated that there's more to his vengeance than a decade of suffering, dreadful as that was, that he's in some way a continuation of the Forebear, whose Procession and suffering were a horror great enough to be deserving of quest through countless ages in revenge.
Hunger was given the choice, in the beginning, between freedom or vengeance. I think freedom-hunger would have been more like Gisena, a being with immense power but no guiding star, going nowhere quickly. I wonder what purpose, if any, he would have chosen if that option won? Knowing voters we'd probably end up trying to power level Hunger even without Progression, with disastrous results. No comfy quest for us.
Natural people are born for no real reason, exist without any real purpose other than a comfortable life, and die having accomplished nothing of any relevance. But Adorie is an artificial being, with a purpose picked out and presumably built into her. She is ornamental, and while her magic might also be functional the function it exists to enable, the magical theme park, is ornamental as well.
I think dedicating your life to bringing people happiness in an amusement park is a fine and worthy thing for an adult to choose as their life goal, but being bred and born for the purpose is a bit much. "Why do I exist?" "Because the Foremost needed a princess for their amusement park". Of course it's possible she'd be fine with the situation. The lion from the petting zoo and Verschlengorge where both wholly devoted to their purpose. Perhaps Adorie would find meaning, certainty, and satisfaction in what the Foremost made her to be as well.
The Accursed seeks a kinder world.
And then Gisena has her own musings.
She sees her past in Adorie's ivory-tower innocence, but I think she see's her present as well. Like Adorie she is custom-made, with a magic that exists for a specific purpose and function. But unlike Adorie she is both aware of this purpose and dislikes it. Being given the vision of all magic but able only to destroy it. And she doesn't even know why. "Did it matter the reason behind the Maiden's decree, if the decree was absolute regardless?"
I think she'd agree that being the nullity sorceress is better than being nothing at all, but losing your dreams still hurts, even if time shows that your dreams were unreasonable.
(Also, I'm just a little bit annoyed at how casually she dismisses the Ring. I guess rings of power are trivial now or something? She can do magic now! The only thing bigger than her ego is her expectations for what 'real' magic looks like.)
But the chapter isn't over yet, because she does find a reason.
Gisena Allria was the Nullity Sorceress. The findross she produced could only do one thing. Yet, there was no limit to the forms it could take in the pursuit of that purpose... Gisena Allria scribed with her Graces a rune, whose meaning was Singularity, and whose purpose was ascension.
There was light.
In that moment, Gisena at last understood the Maiden's reasoning. Why was she the Sorceress whose only Grace was Nullity?
Simply because, a genius needs nothing else.
And with that, her childhood purpose, to explore the wonder of magic, has become possible once again.
...
The twisted resemblance of the Lady Protector spell's to certain of the Maiden's Graces, the likely true nature of the Foremost, the reality of Letrizia's family strife, the underlying form of Hunger's Tyrant Curse... for all the clues she'd pieced together, the truth only mattered where such knowledge would change the actions taken in reality.
My guesses for the tantalizing clues here
"the likely true nature of the Foremost": I'm at a bit of a loss on this one. Is she referring to the many theories we've posted about the Voyaging realm being the past/future of the Manifest realm? Is it some speculation about the Forebear making this world by taking pieces from a bunch of other worlds? Or is there some deeper secret here? Will have to think more on this.
"the reality of Letrizia's family strife": Multiple attempts have been made on Letrizia's life. First she was teleported into the Voyaging realm at random, then Ber was hired by an Astral Lord to kill her. Given that she's a duchess and her father is an archduke, it's possible that she's first in line to inherit and someone else prefered that they inherit first instead. No doubt she'd be upset to learn a brother/sister/uncle wants her dead.
"the underlying form of Hunger's Tyrant Curse": I posted this earlier, but I think the Tyrant's curse changes the mental/spiritual protection granted by his link to the Accursed such that he's also 'protected' from being controlled by things like laws and customs. Naturally this link to the Accursed would not protect Hunger from the Accursed, and so the Tyrant's curse doesn't block Hunger from acknowledging the Accursed's authority.
Like her, Hunger's first taste of magic had resulted in the death of his dreams, though on a scale far vaster and crueler. Would he repudiate that quest, knowing what he did now? Or would he continue doggedly ahead, doing his uttermost even when the path was preordained?
"Cut. Through."
Hunger fell to one knee, Ring-hand clutching his head as his soul fought to retain connection to his body. If even so fundamental a verity could be contested, then an emergent phenomenon like Pressure stood no chance at manifestation.
Hunger is his ring, with the body as an appendage, but it's only times like this that I remember this.
It's interesting to compare the rings of Hunger and Time to each other. I believe the Accursed purified the ring Hunger? Did he change something fundamental? Could we replicate this on the Gisena's ring to make it more compatible with her? And yes technically that's murder but it's a ring not a person and it's probably evil, which may or may not change the moral calculus.
What would be left of Hunger if he burned his selfhood to strike true, shattering the Blade again? Was this his fate, a cycle of endless repetition, every Tyrant felled at the cost of his identity?
This is the second time in the Realm of Myth that this "burning self" thing has come up. First up with the Runes of Mastery and resulting scars of myth, and now here. Perhaps the Apocryphal is pushing this. Tormenting Hunger by convincing him to willingly destroy himself, over and over, is a very curse-like thing to do.
Happily we've managed to escape this cycle so far, and maybe if the VOTERS STOPPED THROWING HUNGER INTO EXTREME DANGER we could put it to rest for good. Seriously, this quest is a never-ending succession of close calls. Incredibly fun to read about but if Rihaku kills off Hunger in a time skip or epilogue it would taint the whole thing.
...
Brilliant chapter, can't wait to see what happens now that Gisena is powerful enough to really contribute to the plot, or whatever crazy magics she comes up with. As for voting, personally I'm in favor of ignoring the Shard. We'll revisit her later on anyways, I have a feeling that the Apocryphal will make sure of it even if voters don't, but for now I want to see the main plot, some space opera, actual down-time, and maybe
just maybe
we will finally, finally, create a grace.
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