Tine in the city of Obscurus, home to the remainder of the Ancients, moved very differently to time in the Mortal Plane, where Cain was attempting to mitigate the damage from the Gnomes' folly.
Misha had just begun her fourth morning here and was eagerly awaiting Miss Nyarla to return with her breakfast. Breakfast in bed was an Ancient tradition, her volunteer guide and nurse had insisted. They were always happy to see children, so the Elder Council doted on the pregnant Ancients well beyond any sense of rationality.
"Misha, darling, I have the most amazing surprise for you this morning. The Elders have finally finished their discussion on whether to add you to the Mind Link Spell. If you agree you will be able to hear us all in your mind the way we hear each other. But they also agreed that you will be able to block the link, in case it gets too overwhelming.
We've never added a human before, but hundreds of voices in your head at once might get overwhelming. To us, it's not a problem to sort them all and ignore the ones we don't care about, like GusGus, but for a Human, it might be an issue." The Ancient, now in the form of an Elven woman in a Maid's outfit, so her scale matched with Misha, smiled at the annoyed response to her words since most of the species was listening in while they talked.
Misha was a sort of celebrity here, since she was the first pregnancy in a long time, and was from the homeworld.
"Alright, I'm a bit worried about being overwhelmed though. You all have some weird communal thing going on that I don't really understand." Misha told the excitable Ancient before opening the lids on her breakfast.
"Why do you ignore GusGus though?" Misha asked as she inhaled the heavenly scent of ambrosia-topped waffles.
"Are you familiar with the Divine Nectar theory?" A voice asked from outside the door, and an incorporeal Arcane Elemental entered the room before turning into an Elf that matched Nyarla, right down to the Maid costume.
"Divine Nectar? That is supposed to be the perfect food, right?" Misha asked and the new Ancient nodded.
"Yes, getting the perfect balance of nutrition and energy was easy, but there should be a perfect combination of taste and texture that appeals to every single member of a species. That is the Divine Nectar." The Ancient nodded.
"And GusGus here has spent the last 876 years trying to find it. He is currently convinced that it is a form of spongy and moist cake, and not a liquid at all, but the only way to know for sure if he has created it is to have every single member of the species sample it. If they all agree that it is the greatest thing they have ever sampled, he has succeeded." Nyarla clarified, for Misha's sake.
"I should only need to sample Ancients though since we know how the Dragons tastebuds work, and we created most of the others, so we have full data on them as well." GusGus smiled at Misha, who was now looking at him with a gaze of longing.
"The perfect food is a cake? How close are you? Can I try your current sample?" Misha asked, not stopping with the meal she was already on.
It might be breakfast, but there was always room for a slice of cake or two.
"I think I am very close, and cake refers more to the shape than the composition, but I will gladly give you a sample during lunch. The guidelines produced for healthy human pregnancies indicate that correct nutrition levels are essential to physical well-being, so overfeeding has been strictly prohibited." GusGus agreed and Nyarla nodded.
"But I get snacks all the time. How is this different?" Misha asked, looking forward to the perfect cake.
"The level of calories and nutrients in the sample is quite high, and your body is still processing the food you have already eaten, which would interfere with the proper digestion of the sample and totally ruin the experiment."
Of course, it's an experiment. Everything is an experiment for the Ancients. Their entire existence is one big experiment at this point, constantly monitoring each other for changes and influences and collecting data in case they need it for something later.
"What brought you here anyhow? You're not usually one for babies or pregnancies." Nyarla asked out loud for Misha's sake.
"If you had been paying attention, you would know that I won the chance to cast the [Mind Link] Spell on Misha here if she agreed. Since she didn't say no, I'm here waiting for her to finish eating so that I can get to work. Though come to think of it, there is a chance that this spell might induce nausea in humans isn't there? Maybe we should wait a few hours, just in case.
Do you like board games? I have a fine collection of them with me." The foodie Ancient suggested, not in any sort of a hurry to finish the day's tasks.
When you live forever, and you're hiding from a Pantheon of angry Gods, you don't really get out and do things much. A few hours is more like a blink of an eye to most of the Ancients.
Their primary form of entertainment was casting viewing spells to watch other realms go through the trials and tribulations of life. Having Misha here, in the middle of pregnancy was not only a great gift to their species, but to their species' boredom. If it wasn't for Nyarla chasing them away, Misha would have seen dozens of visitors a day, each of them with new and interesting stories to tell the human since she was the only one in the entire realm that hadn't heard them before.
"Sure, we have some time to kill. Anything but Monopoly, that game is evil." Misha agreed and the Ancient pulled out a small box.
"This, my young friend, will be a real treat. Have you ever played the Ancients' game of life before? It is much more fun than the original."
The board was a three-dimensional space, and from what Misha could see, their pieces were actually alive. Or at least enchanted to look like tiny living things.
"Now, to cast that spell on you, so you can join the mind link and learn the rules," Nyarla told her with a smile, obviously a fan of this game, and eager to see how Misha did at it.
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