This New World

Chapter One

It's been ten years since I was born into this world, give or take a few months. I was walking with my parents to the local church of the Silvadin faith, which my parents were a part of and the state religion of the nation we live in to be baptized. Normally I would have been baptized at birth, but I was born outside of the theocracy, as well my parents and I just recently immigrated from the old continent.

Interestingly, my parents and I race are also called Silvadins, technically being a subspecies of nearly every other race. Silvadins are distinguished by a pair of purple horns and purple scales covering three collarbones to their necks.

Most countries don't mind Silvadins, but most of the other major religions absolutely hate us, calling us "Children of the Eldritch Queen". Religious persecution and discrimination, especially against the Silvadins born amongst the elves, led our race to be more nomadic before crossing the Great Ocean and establishing their own country.

Most children don't learn our history until they're much older, but I was different. I had memories going back to when I was born but nothing before. I had thoughts and ideas that I know aren't normal for a kid, my mind trying to perform actions that my body simply couldn't do. I didn't tell my parents any of this out of fear.

We entered the church to find it unsurprisingly empty, my parents wanting to have a private ceremony. I hardly paid attention to the priest's words as my attention was drawn to the church's architecture. It felt familiar but alien to me. My thoughts were interrupted when the priest uncovered a baysin of black liquid, but it was more akin to a liquid void where nothing could escape. The priest dipped his index finger into the liquid, saying, "May the blood of the Goddess Juniper protect and guide you young one".

He placed her finger onto my forehead, drawing a circle and then a horizontal line through it. Flashes of times, places and people ran through my head, all of it jumbled around until I found myself in a strange place. There were columns and columns of ones and zeros with a bluish crystal on each of them with a massive one dominating the sky above her. What grabbed her attention was the massive sphere of the same void like blackness of the liquid before wrapped in chains of ones and zeros.

The black sphere was dotted with plates of purple, their edges lined with gold. Long neck-like protrusions from the sphere, lined with the same colored plates. At the ends of the necks were heads shaped like that of a dragon made entirely from the plates, their eyes being the only indication of the void-like sphere. I suddenly began to move, my body seemingly floating to the top of the sphere.

And at the top was a beautiful woman, fused to the void black sphere from her waist down. She lifted her head to me, her white hair perfectly framing her face. Her eyes were the same void of the sphere, but they contained love, kindness, regret, and a whole host of emotions. She smiled and lifted her arm and touched my forehead and spoke.

"Remember".

All the fractured pieces of my past life memories reformed, and I understood. I understood the true nature of Juniper, who she was and what we meant to each other. I knew her motivations and reasoning of how she ended up like this. And then I was back in the church. My body felt heavy as I collapsed, my parents grabbing me as my conscience fell into darkness.

-Eleanor as gained the [Oracle] skill
-Eleanor as gained two titles, Oracle of Juniper and A most favored of Juniper