Mortals

"Next time, at least let me know in advance that you'll be cutting off my arm!"

"It would not be a substantial test of faith if you knew what to expect."

"I thought I was going to die!"

"If that was sufficient to render your physical body unusable, then it would still be too early for you to come into contact with the mortals. If it makes you feel any better, I was prepared to cauterize the wound."

"What's that?"

"To put it bluntly, cooked meat does not bleed."

"...I'm going to pretend I didn't just hear that."

In hindsight, losing an arm could not compare to losing her entire body. Tau simply used the same method she used when Four's test went wrong: dissolving her body, retreating inside her origin, and reconstructing from scratch. It was not as ideal as simply restoring her lost limb, like how she did with the tear in her dress, but it worked nevertheless. And so, the sulking Tau was now heading towards a nearby human settlement, led by Kant and Phi.

"Hey Tau," Phi popped back, "How about Camelia Hart? I think that's a good one."

Since they were going to meet some humans, Phi wanted to create a backstory for Tau as a basis for interaction. Although it won't necessarily be useful, Phi had a lot of fun making it, and neither Kant nor Tau had any objections.

If anything, Tau thought that it would at least be nice to have a mortal name. Kant had explained to her how mortal names were half determined by one's family and half chosen by one's parents. It was interesting, and Tau certainly couldn't use her god name, mainly since not only did it not follow the human convention, it technically wasn't even phonetic. She could say it, but then it lacked the same conceptual ring that resonated with her.

"The daughter of a small merchant family, traveling together with the remains of your family in search of opportunities in a new land after a severe loss. After being attacked by demons, you alone escaped by stumbling across a nearby ruin. After the demons left, you stumbled through the forest for days and finally stumbled upon this village. Since you came from a foreign land, the locals will have to overlook your strange clothing and lack of knowledge of the local language."

Phi nodded to herself happily, "Mhmm… Yes, that covers all our bases. Well, what do you think?"

"Sure… I guess..."

Tau wasn't really sure what constituted a good backstory, but she felt like, despite Phi's efforts, her story would still prompt a lot of questions that Tau would have no good answer for.

As they walked, Tau made sure to tear her dress on the nearby shrubbery and allow several shallow scrapes to draw blood. It would be strange for a supposedly malnourished girl to stumble out of the woods completely unscathed.

"Tau, this will probably be hard for you to understand as of now, but you must realize that gods and mortals are not the same sorts of beings. For your own sake, do not get too attached to the mortals you will encounter."

Tau didn't have much time to think about the meaning behind Kant's warning.

"And we're here!" Phi shouted as she disappeared with a faint hiss.

Tau stumbled out of the woods and into a field of grass neatly planted in rows. Kant floated silently behind her. With her domain, Tau could feel that Phi was now marching through the field towards some farmers working there.

The farmers were all bent down in the grass, pulling weeds. They were all male, with ages ranging from just under ten to just over fifty. Most, especially the younger ones, didn't wear shirts. All their clothes were made of cotton, roughly woven and caked with a layer of dirt, giving it a yellow-brownish color.

In their labor, none of them saw Tau come out of the woods. As Tau came closer though, several farmers looked up and shouted at the rest, pointing in Tau's direction. Tau froze. It felt as if the air around her had turned into steel. The logic of the world suddenly bore more weight, and Tau knew that to influence it now would be substantially more difficult than before.

One of the older men, who looked to be in his late twenties, approached Tau, shouting something Tau didn't understand at those around him.

{He's probably their leader in a certain sense.}

[Most likely yes.]

A nearby boy nodded and ran off down a dirt road that lined the far side of the field. From the smoke rising from that general direction, Tau guessed that must be where the village is.

Soon, the other farmers settled down. They quickly went back to work. Although Tau could feel it with her domain, they frequently snuck glances at her. Tau couldn't really understand why, but their glances made her feel uncomfortable.

Meanwhile, the man Tau had guessed was the farmers' leader was now standing in front of her. He said something to her. It was a question. Tau couldn't understand. Instinctively, she shook her head.

{Ah… right... this means no...}

The man tried asking her other questions, but, since she couldn't understand him, Tau just kept shaking her head. The man then pointed at Kant and asked something else.

[You don't suppose they see too many floating swords around here, do you?]

{I suppose not… it makes sense they would have questions.}

But still, Tau could only shake her head. So, the man gave up. He turned around and gave Tau a hand gesture.

"He wants you to follow," Phi said out of the blue, making Tau jump.

"Phi. Where have you been?"

"I just ran through the village and doubled back. You guys are too slow!"

As she said this, Tau realized that she and Phi were not actually using their mouths to talk. They spoke directly into each other's minds. On the other hand, the man caused the air to vibrate when he opened his mouth to speak with her; he didn't, or rather couldn't, simply project his thoughts to her. Although with her domain, Tau could still vaguely feel something being communicated, it was too weak to make sense of.

{Interesting… the method is different...}

[Tau… Not the time...]

The man was staring at her, waiting for her to follow. He looked slightly annoyed. Without another thought, Tau walked towards them. Seeing her finally move, the man turned to continue leading the way to the village.

"Are you starting to see?" Kant asked suddenly, again causing Tau to jump.

"Both you and Phi. You can't just disappear for a while and instantly reappear on me."

"I will have you know that I have literally been beside you this entire time."

"Ah..."

"I will forgive your negligence of my existence for now. More to the point, are you starting to realize the differences between mortals and gods?"

"What, like their method of communication?"

"Sure, we can start there. Do you understand how it is different from ours?"

"Well, we sort of talk directly to each other's minds..."

"Sure… and the mortals?"

"They make sound by moving the air out of their mouths."

"So, what is the fundamental difference?"

{Neu…?}

[Sorry… I got nothing. There are too many details missing to definitively answer this.]

{Anything's fine. Give me something to work with.}

[Okay… Gods: mind to mind communication, really not sure how this works exactly. Mortals: communication with sound waves through the air, from the mouth. In comparison using what we know so far, it is obvious that the mortal method has more prerequisites. For instance: there must be air to carry the sound, the environment must be quiet enough for the other party to hear it, and since it's really just sound, there's the potential for mistakes in the communication in the form of mishearing or mispronunciations. On the other hand, I can't really find any serious faults with the god's method of mind to mind communication, mostly due to our lack of understanding of its nature.]

{...I regret...}

[Well, you asked for it!]

{Uhhg...}

"Gods are… better...?"

The instant she said it, Tau realized how stupid she sounded. She could feel Neu laughing in her origin.

[Wow. That was truly insightful.]

{Shut up.}

Even Kant chuckled, "Not quite what I had in mind. Although, in hindsight, I recognize the unreasonable difficulty of the question. No, the fundamental difference I alluded to is their dependence on the world, and conversely, our lack of dependence on the world."

"Yeah... no way I was getting that..." Tau sulked.

"If you understand this, you will find that interacting with mortals is just a more complex version of interacting with the world. At the same time, you will realize that to truly understand the world, you will need to interact with the mortals which inhabit it."

Tau nodded, slowly digesting what Kant said to her. By this time, she could see several buildings in the distance. The walls were made of dried mud packed around a timber frame. The roofs of the buildings were made of layered straw. Most of the houses also had either a vegetable garden or a chicken coop just outside the house. Here and there, Tau saw girls tending to the garden or feeding the chickens. Their clothing was much the same as the men's, only trading the long pants of fieldwork for skirts that extended to just below their knees.

As Tau walked past, many of them looked up from their work to stare at her. More than looking at her, they seemed to be fixated on her clothing. Torn and dirty as it was, her dress still sported intricate white laces over a smooth bright green fabric.

{I guess they've never seen clothing like this before...}

Others looked warily at the sword floating behind Tau.

[Well, they've certainly never seen a sword like this before...]

Tau soon found herself at the doorstep of one of the better houses in the village. It was slightly larger than most of the other houses in the village. It also had a stable, in which were several horses. Tau watched them chew on hay as the man knocked on the door of the house.