The Divine Domain of Bodies

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Ahsch was becoming quite annoyed with the amount of brooding he’d engaged in during the past year of his life. He could feel the frown drag the rest of his face down as he made his way slowly back towards the Odestag suites. It was only after he had gotten onto the lift and was about to send it to that familiar ‘home’ floor that he paused, and deliberated greatly for several moments. With a sigh, he sent the lift all the way to the ground floor.

I need some time and space to think, he told everyone in Daydreamweave, so I’m…

Mahat already told us, Ariin interrupted kindly. Just be careful, brother.

A small smile touched his face. I have all my defensive spells active, don’t worry.

Arriving on the ground floor, he nodded to the guards at the front gate, then stepped outside, took a deep breath, and looked around, contemplating. The bridge straight ahead would lead to the heart of the Capital, but there were a number of ferries he could take to reach pretty much anywhere along the shore of Star Mirror Lake. And Ahsch had no idea where he wanted to go.

After a few moments’ thought, he decided to try something. Closing his eyes, he focused on his bond sense, then gave it a target - Enochiel’s domain of bodies in the physical world. It was staggeringly complex to detect something like that, but with the amount of practice - and likely a bit of help from the divine domain of bonds - he was able to get some kind of response, and a direction.

Keeping it in mind, he turned and walked towards the nearest ferry. Hopping on, he considered his response to the mermaid pilot’s question, “Where would you like to go, My Lord?”

“The… southern end of the mercantile district, please.”

With a bob of her head and a brief, professional smile, the mermaid turned and swam, pulling the small ferry away from the dock and around the small island R’sath sat upon. Curious, Ahsch discreetly began to cast his numerous diagnostic spells, scanning the mermaid. He wasn’t so much looking for anything wrong with her, and much more on answering the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of her body. What was her skeletal system like? How did it function in conjunction with her muscles to give her such strength in the water? How about her respiratory system? Was her circulatory system fundamentally different than he expected?

He wasn’t quite sure where his sudden drive to expand his domain of bodies came from. Perhaps it was his agreement with Kiilira. Perhaps it was due to being the one he felt was ‘weakest.’ Perhaps it was his tentative goal of creating additional bodies.

Perhaps it was his divine intuition.

Nevertheless, the drive was there. Disembarking the ferry at a small, humble dock at his destination, he turned to the mermaid. “Would you like me to remain, My Lord? It will cost you some.”

“Yes, please,” he replied, then pulled out a pair of gold coins. “We can break the change once I return.” She nodded, and he went to wander off, but paused and looked back at her. “Pray forgive the… admittedly intrusive nature of this question, but are you experiencing pain or general discomfort along the left side of your tail?”

The mermaid’s eyes widened. “Y-yes, My Lord. Did… was my pace…” she began.

Ahsch waved away her concern. “Your swimming was just fine. Might I suggest you get that checked out though? The Temple of Enochiel will do so for free, though I understand they often have a waiting list to get in, since they are open to the public. If you have the spare coin, I believe the Faithful of Bikulla are offering similar health care services now at some of their Temples, though I can’t say what their wait times look like.”

Her mouth worked silently for a moment before she bobbed her head again. “Th-thank you, My Lord. I’ve been considering it, but… I didn’t think they would bother with it.”

Ahsch smiled. “Even if you think yourself to be the picture of health, some problems remain hidden. They encourage everyone to get checked whenever they can, and then use the self-diagnostic spell they teach to keep tabs on yourself, and get re-checked if anything looks wrong.”

The mermaid smiled widely. “Thank you for the advice, My Lord! I’ll try and get seen as soon as I can.” She frowned slightly. “But, if you don’t mind my asking… how did you know?”

Ahsch flushed. “I… I’m sorry, I invaded your privacy, and was using the diagnostic spells that the Order of Enochiel uses.” He bowed slightly towards her. “You have my sincerest apologies, I wasn’t thinking…”

She giggled. “Apology accepted, My Lord. After all, if you hadn’t, I would still not think to go to the Temple!”

He straightened, sighing in relief. “Thank you. Well then, I’ll be back.”

The mermaid sketched a bow, which was somewhat amusing given she couldn’t do that very well whilst mostly submerged. “I shall await your return, My Lord.”

With a small wave, Ahsch turned and wandered into the city, following the vague direction his bond sense was suggesting. He thought it ironically accurate that it led him not deeper into the mercantile district, and instead towards the poorer residential segment in that area.

As he walked, he considered the domain itself. The only explicit mention of bodies in Enochiel’s teachings was about taking care of one’s body mundanely and being proud of it. The question of how that actually translated into magic and spells was a different matter entirely. Cleaning spells, the ease with which he learned the diagnostic spells, or made the self-check-up spell, all of that counted, but there was a nagging sense that those didn’t truly cover what he’d claimed. Nor was it within what Kiilira - or rather, Krutune - had asked for.

A brief image of grotesque abominations, amalgams of bodies and organs and limbs flashed through his mind. As did the idea of ‘purity,’ of eugenics and ‘ubermensch.’ He recoiled from both instinctively. ‘The Thing,’ Nazi delusions of ‘perfect men,’ neither of those were anywhere close to what he wanted from the domain. But as useful as ‘not that’ was for identifying something, it didn’t fully answer the question.

Then the idea occurred to him, simple, yet perfectly accurate: full-body transitions for transgender people. And while the direction Krutune wanted, for an ‘optimization’ of strength and speed and durability, didn’t exactly resonate, the general concept between that and something like a full transition did - sculpting a body to become what someone wanted, what they felt was right and them. And maybe there were things further than that, things he simply didn’t think of due to his lack of exploring the domain.

Ahsch suddenly stopped, looking up as the direction of the bond sense petered out. He glanced around, finding himself in a quiet, relatively unremarkable alley.