The Great Core's Paradox

My vision swayed and I let my tongue dip into the feel-good-water again. Its bitter scent-taste spilled into my mouth, and I guzzled it greedily. When the female-who-was-not-Needle had first given it to me as an offering, I had been horrified.

I had changed my mind soon enough.

Coreless gathered around me, each providing offerings of their own. Most were nearly empty, the Coreless having already taken part of the feel-good-water for themselves. Though I had been offended at first, I quickly realized that they must have wished to be able to share something in common with me.

It was an easy realization.

They weren’t born to the Great Core. They weren’t like me - they were nothing like me. Instead, they were stuck as disgusting Coreless. I could almost see the sorrow in their eyes, hidden behind the way that they clinked their offerings of feel-good-water together and jabbered on noisily.

“Look at the little guy go!”

“Chug, chug, chug!”

It was almost enough to make me feel for them.

I pulled my head from the latest offering, glancing around at what I knew to be the first Temple of the Great Core within the lands of the Coreless. Everywhere that I looked, I could see offerings on display, signs of the gathered Coreless’ dedication to the Great Core.

In so little time, they had already collected so many. They exchanged strange pieces of ore-flesh in return for the opportunity to share in the feel-good-water with me, something that I was somewhat confused by. Was the ore-flesh being prepared as another offering? Did it have some other meaning? I shrugged the thought aside. Thoughts were hard, after so much feel-good-water. It wasn’t worth trying.

As long as the Great Core received its due, I didn’t really care what the reason for it.

I felt good.

Very good.

One of the Coreless made a few noises at the-female-who-was-not-Needle, likely asking how best he could serve the Great Core. I could see it in his worshipful eyes, in the way that they widened in wonder as I accepted his offering, and in the way that he swayed on unsteady limbs, imbalanced by his excitement.

“How did ya manage to tame a monshter like this so quick, Valera? What’s your shecret?”

The-female-who-was-not-Needle bared her teeth at the male Coreless - challenging his dedication to the Great Core, I assumed. She slapped a hand against shoulder in an aggressive display, nearly causing me to lose my grip on her own. I hissed in annoyance, but I recognized her need to establish herself.

She was used to being one of the Great Core’s lowest disciples, and was probably terrified of these new Coreless earning a position above her own so quickly.

“With my lovable charm,” she threatened, pointing towards the Unrepentant One a moment later. “Same way I tamed him.”

The Unrepentant One made a strange face, the hair above one of his eyes raising slightly. “You didn’t tame either of us.”

“Sure, I did!”

The two disciples fell into a terrible argument, each vying for the right to be the Great Core’s second least-favorite Coreless, rather than the first. The other Coreless just shrugged and tipped his offering towards me, taking advantage of their distraction to steal their positions.

I ignored their growing argument, dipping my head into the newest offering of feel-good-water.

Eventually, the offerings began to slow down, but not before I amazed the gathered Coreless with a display of our recent victory over the lesser Core through a few illusions. They made the proper noises of respect and amazement, so I showed them a few more.

More than once through the night, I almost lost my grip of the-female-who-was-not-Needle’s shoulder. My vision swayed back and forth, making it particularly difficult to keep track of what was going on. Or maybe that was the Coreless themselves, swaying from side to side under the effects of the feel-good-water.

Of all of the Coreless’ disciples, only the Unrepentant One was unaffected. He had avoided drinking any of the feel-good-water himself. However, he had also not provided any offerings. Again.

I gave him an angry hiss, letting him know that he was the lowest of the Coreless - even behind the newest of the disciples. He turned his head in shame, looking away.

Eventually, with a few final cries of praise towards the Great Core, we left the Temple at last, the Coreless pushing aside part of the wall to reveal a large-tunnel exit. Now that I looked at it, they had done a poor job of hiding it. The moving-wall that hid the large-tunnel wasn’t even the same color as the rest of the wall, making it obvious that there was something special about it. I could have probably found the exit myself if I tried.

Stupid Coreless.

The cavern outside was strange. Very strange. Even with the way that my vision swayed and shifted, that was clear.

I wasn’t sure how we had arrived, having woken up inside of the Temple to the Great Core that the Coreless had created. Ever since I had triumphed over the Great Core’s enemies, my mind had felt heavy, plagued with the unimaginable exhaustion of keeping the Coreless alive and achieving victory. The time afterwards had been somewhat of a blur; I could remember brief moments of travel in the few times that I woke, my rest broken by the occasional pang of hunger or thirst. I remembered passing through many large-tunnels, the sounds of the Great Core’s newest acolytes’ still-unintelligible noises, and little more.

I certainly didn’t remember how we had gotten here - or even what here was.

It was different from any cavern I had ever seen. Giant orbs of light were set into tiny stone-spikes, giving off light that filled the area far more than a glow-cap ever could.

And Coreless were everywhere.

Anywhere I turned, I could see them. I had been surprised by how many Coreless had been gathered to provide offerings, but I realized that there were far more. There were more of them in the area than I had ever imagined there could be. As many as there had been Aridae, almost. It must have been nearly all of the Coreless that existed, all gathered in one place.

I must have found their nest, the source of all Coreless.

It was an odd nest. It probably had to be, without a Core to create it for them. With no Core to guide them, they had to have created it themselves. Because of that, even calling it a single nest didn’t feel quite right. Instead, it was more like a huge number of nests all crammed together, each blocked by what I now recognized to be a moving-wall in a failure of an attempt to hide the way inside. Just as before, they were all extremely obvious, doing a terrible job of hiding the large-tunnels that served as both entrance and exit. It was a wonder that they had managed to survive until now, with how poorly they concealed the way in.

Even as I watched, the occasional new Coreless appeared, pushing aside the moving-walls that blocked their way. The moving-walls each swung wide with a little effort, making me even more doubtful of their ability to protect the entrances to their nests.

Was there even a real point to those?

The Coreless - I was beginning to think that I needed a new term for my Coreless, with how many there now were - made noises towards other Coreless as we traveled, each of them making their own noises in response. A few of them approached, giving my head-scales a few careful scratches. By the time that I remembered to hiss in warning, they were already gone.

Oh well. For some reason, I couldn’t bring myself to care as much as I normally would.

Instead, I settled my head back down on the-female-who-was-not-Needle’s shoulder, watching the Coreless pass us by.

Eventually, we pushed back yet another extremely obvious moving-wall, entering a nest. A Coreless was waiting for us inside.

For some reason, this one seemed to grab Will’s attention a little more than the others.

“Fathe - er, Captain?”