"Have a seat."
I glanced around. The room was unusually spacious for a study, designed as a perfect circle. Two plush sofas sat perpendicular to one another, separated by a low mahogany table. Built-in bookshelves lined the curved walls, their heavy volumes interspersed with trailing vines and bouquets of dried flowers hanging.
At the very center of the room, a high-backed wooden swing hung from silver chains, facing a set of open glass doors that led to a private terrace.
"I'll state the obvious: you're wondering how you came to be here," She said, as she prepared a pot of tea.
I offered a stiff bow before sitting opposite her. "Thank you."
She lifted her cup, drawing in the steam and closing her eyes to savor the aroma before taking a small sip. I followed suit, but my focus remained fixed on her. The last time we met, her hair had been a muted, dark crimson. Now, it was a vibrant, shocking green. The contrast was jarring, likely the reason I hadn't recognized her immediately.
Red... I wonder what that is...
Just imaging it sent shivers down my spine.
She's a part of the twelve Saints, a figure second only to the Pontiff... Might be the "dirty work".
Perhaps it was just the nature of this world. Then again, my own world was no different. We spent centuries perfecting the art of meaningless war, eventually reaching a point where a single button could erase a nation. The only difference here was the medium; give people magic, and we simply find more spectacular ways to ruin one another.
I wondered idly if she used a specific alchemical shampoo to remove all "those".
She gestured toward me with a slight tilt of her hand: Ask.
"Well..." I scratched my jaw nervously. "I'd like to ask the obvious. What happens now?"
After being retrieved from the monster, I had slipped into a week-long coma. To me, it had felt like an hour or less, even. Clara told me that once the creature consumed me, it suddenly went still, allowing her to strike the killing blow. I had manifested from its remains like a ghost. Despite her own exhaustion, Clara had carried me to safety. One thing led to another, and I found myself in this sanctuary.
The logical choice would have been the Academy infirmary, but looking at Clara, the question died in my throat. Questioning her felt like an insult to the woman who had plucked me from that creature.
Her gaze intensified, pinning me to the cushions. I found myself looking away, unable to maintain eye contact. She possessed an inexplicable, suffocating presence. It wasn't just dominance; it was the weight of someone who lived entirely outside the laws of normal men, even of this world.
She set her cup down and, with a soft clink, responded. "You will remain here until I say so."
"A decision?" I sat forward, hands raised in an instinctive plea. "Wait, wait. I have to stay here? For how long?"
"Until I say otherwise."
The finality in her voice hit me. No. That can't be right. It felt absurd, like a hen refusing to let a chick leave the nest—or a mother sheltering a child from a world she no longer trusted.
I feel like that's a bad analogy, but still—!
It's certainly not about my well-being. Physically. I feel normal. Probably even greater than before, like it was refreshing.
An awkward silence filled the gap between us.
"Then.. can I ask about those things?" I gestured vaguely to the air. "The creatures. I've never seen anything like them, not even in any books."
It was the truth. Even with my knowledge of the 'game,' there were no records of such monsters. Could it be a phantom? A corrupted spirit? But they looked different.
She paused, her cup halfway to her lips. She let out a long, weary exhale. "Are you familiar with the Holy See?"
She set the tea aside entirely, leaning forward. "What do you think of it? A place of reverence? A shield for the weak? Or simply a slaughterhouse for demons?"
"All of the above?" I ventured.
"And how do you think it started?"
I paused to contemplate. In the game, the lore was straightforward. Back home, religion was a matter of worship, faith, and sacrifice in exchange for abstract blessings. Here, it was more transactional. The Elves, Orcs, Dryads, etc. worshipped Gaia as a literal force of nature. While the Humans and Dwarves worship the Holy See. The inquisition of light that eradicates evil and enforces safety and peace in the continent.
She held three fingers at me. "Are you familiar with the Great Authorities of the world?"
"Authority...?" I replied.
"In the beginning, the world was governed by Three Great Authorities."
The first was the Holy See, bearer of truth and light.
It was through the Holy See that the world was given shape and meaning. Light revealed form; truth imposed order. Names were written, laws spoken, and destinies declared. Under its radiance, miracles were possible, but so was condemnation. For where light shone, shadows were cast, and what did not align was deemed false.
The second was the Gaia.
She was not a goddess of soil alone, but the continuity of existence itself. Through her, time flowed, seasons returned, and wounds were allowed to heal, whether of flesh or land. Mountains rose, eroded, and rose again. Kingdoms fell, yet their stones remained. Gaia did not judge. She simply ensured that all things endured.
Then third, the Void, the end.
The Void ruled darkness, not as mere absence of light, but as the power of ending. It was the authority that cut threads Gaia would never break, and erased truths the Holy See refused to abandon. Where it walked, cycles ceased.
The Void was the peaceholder.
Its philosophy was absolute: Where there is light, there must be the Grave. Where there is continuity, there must be the End. It served as the Great Leveler. When Gaia's life became too choked and crowded, The Void thinned the herd. When the Holy See's light became too blinding and stagnant, The Void cast the necessary shadow. It held the world in balance not through kindness, but through the Equality of the Dust.
Gaia feared stagnation.
The Holy See feared chaos.
The Void feared eternity.
So long as the Three remained in balance, the world will remain.
"So long as the three remain balanced," she said softly, "the world will continue."
"They are called the Triumvirate."
"Triumvirate..." I asked, "This is the first I've heard of it."
It sounds familiar, though.
More than that, it was the first time I'd ever heard a definitive definition for those entities. I had always operated under the assumption that they were simply creators, like vague, distant Gods.
"The Void governs the End," She continued, ignoring my confusion. "The Holy See governs the Beginning. Gaia governs Continuance."
She paused, looking outside of the window. "The Void is The Vacant Sovereign. It is the absolute silence that waits for the other two to fail." She said, almost reverently.
"What about Chaos? Isn't there an entity that the demons serve? Named Chaos?" I asked.
Straightening, she met my gaze. "Demons are incarnations of Dissent."
"Dissent? What is that?"
She formed an OK sign with her fingers, lifting the small circle to her eye and squinting through it like a sniper's scope.
"They have nothing to do with the Void's natural silence. A demon is a choice. They are the personification of the 'No'. A tiny imperfection within the perfect system." She said, peering through the finger-loop.
She went quiet for a second, her eye darting behind the circle. "How would I simplify this?" She muttered to herself. "Think of the Triumvirate as the Root. The foundation of all things, branching out to hold the world together. The See provides the seed, Gaia provides the soil, and the Void provides the season's end."
She lowered her hand but kept the circle tight, holding it up between us like a coin.
"But the Root grew a thorn. Dissent didn't come from the heavens; it was birthed from all of it. It just existed. It's the friction between the will to keep living and the law that says you must stop. Then they created a Rejection. That rejection is what we call a demon. Thus, Chaos is born."
"Then us." I tilted my head, "Humans, elves... all of us. We're just the same thing happened, aren't we? But with a lesser sharp thorn? Just in a different way?"
"Might be." She snapped her fingers, breaking the circle. "But one thing's certain. We weren't part of the plan."
"Everything else. They all exist within the sphere of the Three. Then come the anomalies. Creatures born, not outside, but simply things that exist beyond everything else."
She gestured to the space between us, then to herself.
"Creatures like you've seen. Outliers like me."
"And finally," Then, she leveled a finger directly at my chest
"You."