(Warning: Self harm occurs during this chapter. It's more of a 'science' thing than a 'mental illness' thing, but I felt I should warn you all regardless. The section is marked by * -- *, so if you want to skip it you can)

Fatima II

PA 0

She arrived back at her village that evening.

They entered the clearing around her village, filled with tree stumps in the process of being dug up and small farms she’d had them start experimenting with. The people she brought with her dispersed once they hit the wall, going back to their homes. She personally decided to head to the still smoldering firepit at the center, preferring the warmth of the fire over her damp hut.

She’d grown up in a desert, in Dubai. She was used to sweltering heat and sand. Freezing temperatures and snow was not something she was good at dealing with.

Reaching the fire pit, she went about relighting it. A couple of minutes of fumbling about later, and she let out a small ‘yay!’ when she finally managed to reignite the fire. Slumping down next to it, she began to relax, going over the meeting she’d had that morning.

The alliance talks had been easier than she’d expected they’d be, most likely because everyone wanted the same thing. Protection, stability, and peace. It made it easier to come to an agreement, but it had been a pretty barebones talk, all things considered.

She sighed, shaking the thought away. They had another meeting in a couple weeks, they’d figure out more then. She’d gotten the alliance, and for now that was all that mattered.

“So, you’re still awake?” she heard Nadia walk up behind her.

“No,” she replied, not moving from where she was slumped. “I’m asleep, can’t you tell?” she started making exaggerated snoring noises.

“What kind of noises are you making? You sound like a dying bear.”

“A sleeping dying bear.”

Nadia snorted, before sitting down next to her. “Aye. So, sleeping-dying-bear, how did your meeting with the local tribes go? Did you get us an alliance?”

“Mhm. They all agreed, and we’ll have another meeting next month, before the winter starts to iron everything out.”

The taller woman let out a sigh of relief. “Good. That’s good. Still, are you certain there won’t be any problems?”

“Eh?” She gave her a half shrug. “Avery—she’s the one to the northwest—she was pretty rude, and I don’t think Issei—the one to the southeast—is old enough to actually rule a tribe, but I think they’ll be fine. They seemed to want the alliance as much as I did, so I doubt they’ll be causing any trouble. Oh, and then there’s Xian, who’s pretty chill. Heh, chill. Damn it’s fucking cold.”

“Well, if that’s your opinions of them, then I’ll trust your judgement.”

“Of course you will. My judgement is the best judgement, after all.”

“Somehow I doubt that.”

After that the two of them fell into silence. The only noise around was the crackling of the fire and the chirping of insects. Fatima almost fell asleep where she was lying, lulled to sleep by the sounds of nature.

She suddenly jolted awake, having remembered something she needed to tell Nadia.

“Hey, you still there?”

“Mhm.”

“Good,” she yawned, “I’ve got some stuff to do, so I’m leaving you in charge for the next few days.”

“What?” Nadia yelped, actually sounding kind of pissed. “Again? Why!? Where are you going now!?”

“I’ve got to check some things, and it’ll take me at least a day to figure out. So you’re in charge until I get back!”

Fatima could feel the other woman glaring at her, but eventually she just sighed. “…Fine. But you’d better start doing your actual job when you get back, got it?”

“I will, I will. Don’t worry.”

--

Fatima left the village the next morning, nothing but her soul-orb and a knife on her. She was planning to do some testing today. Really, it was something she should have started trying to figure out a while ago.

Once she got to the edge of the village, she stopped next to one of the larger trees. She pulled out her knife, carving an X into the tree, and then carved a circle around it just to make sure it was obvious.

Then she kneeled down, pulling out her soul-orb. Using her knife to help her dig, she dug a small hole, burying the orb between the roots.

With that done, she stood up, stretching lightly.

‘Right. Now it’s time for a walk.’

And then she started walking east, following the sunrise. She’d need to go in as straight a line as possible, so following the sun was the only way to stay accurate.

Her goal with this trip was to test the limits of her soul-orb. The object was, without question, the most important thing she had on her. If it broke, she’d die. She couldn’t risk it under any circumstances.

Which meant she needed to understand how it worked. She’d already gotten a glimpse of one of it’s ‘abilities’ a couple days ago, when it suddenly appeared in her hands. That meant that there must have been a range on it, a maximum distance she could travel before it returned to her. And that was something she needed to know.

So she needed to walk.

And walk.

And walk.

The issue with testing the range on her orb, was that it took hours before it had appeared in her hand last time. She had no idea how far she was going to have to walk today, and while nature walks were all well and good, they eventually got boring. You could only see a tree or a shrub or a rock so many times, after all. Or maybe that was just her, a city girl through and through.

Every once in a while she’d see an animal, though! Like a squirrel or a deer, and she’d have to stop and stare at it for a bit, as it was the only bit of entertainment she’d get. Most of the time they ran away, but one time she and a deer got into a staring contest. It had the most magnificent rack of antlers she’d ever seen, and was staring at her with a ‘do you want to go?’ look on its face.

Naturally, she wasn’t one to back down from this, and crossed her arms, giving the animal an unimpressed look.

(Maybe the whole immortality thing had started to make her more reckless than she should be.)

Eventually the buck got bored of her, shaking its head with a loud snort before wandering off deeper into the forest.

What a badass.

Eventually the sun rose over her head, before beginning its descent back down to the earth. Periodically, she’d check her hands or pockets to make sure her soul hadn’t suddenly appeared, but nothing happened.

It wasn’t until the sun started to set, painting the sky orange and pink that it appeared again.

She’d brought her hands up to readjust her hijab. But when she tried to grab onto the cloth, she found that her right hand was already holding something.

She brought her hands back down, blinking dumbly at her soul orb.

‘When the hell—why don’t I notice when it does that!?’

She sighed to herself. Whatever, this was accurate enough. She’d try again on her way back to her village, but if that didn’t work this would be good enough.

She’d cut another X and a circle on every couple of trees on her way up, just to make sure she didn’t get lost. Later she could use this route to complete some more accurate tests, or maybe set up a perimeter or something.

‘So, this was…’ she looked up through the canopy, staring at the sky. She’d left at sunrise, and it was currently sunset. It was also autumn, so days were shorter than summer but longer than winter, so that meant it had been about…

Twelve to Fourteen hours. She was leaning closer to fourteen, but she had no way to accurately check.

‘Right, so I walked about fourteen hours in a mostly straight line, so that means I have a range of… I don’t actually know. How far can I walk in an hour?’

…She really wished she had a more accurate way of measuring this, but that was the best she’d get for now. Her range was a fourteen hour walk.

She sighed, rubbing her forehead. It wasn’t nothing, but damn if it didn’t feel like it was.

She turned back the way she came, before pausing. ‘It’s going to be night when I’m walking back. Do I really want to walk back in the dark? What if I get lost?’

She closed her eyes, sighing again. ‘Looks like I’m camping here tonight.’

She found a big enough tree root, and then sat down on it, relaxing against the tree trunk. She didn’t know if she was going to sleep—being so far from anything familiar made her antsy.

Grumbling, she shuffled around a bit more, settling in for the night.

* -- *

Her journey back that morning was even more boring than the journey there. She didn’t even get to see that cool deer again!

She hadn’t fallen asleep last night, though she hadn’t really stayed awake either. After a while of staring into the dark woods like it was going to kill her, she eventually half-passed out, falling asleep for an hour or two at a time before waking up with a start at any loud noises.

If anything, she felt even worse that morning than when she first settled in. And then she had to walk back.

By the time she got back to the village, she was dead on her feet, and even if she wasn’t physical tired, she was mentally exhausted, so she decided to put any more tests on hold for the rest of the day.

Once the next day came around though, she felt a lot better, having actually taken the time to fall asleep. Fresh faced and ready to take on the day, she started planning her next test. She went and grabbed Nadia and a knife and brought her to her isolated fishing spot, mostly to make sure nobody else saw what she was about to do.

“So, why have you brought me here?” Nadia asked, crossing her arms.

“I’m conducting some tests on myself,” Fatima responded, holding the knife up to her eye. ‘Hm, it’s kind of jagged, but it’s not like I have many better options.’ “And I need someone here to help me in case something goes wrong.”

“Right, and what’s the point of this test?” She asked dubiously.

“I’m going to be stabbing myself to see if I die.”

“Wait, what!?” Nadia yelped, jumping forward and yanking the knife out of her hands. “What the fuck is wrong with you!?”

“Would you like a list?”

“Just—” Nadia hissed, rubbing her forehead. “Why. Why are you trying to stab yourself?”

Fatima frowned, wondering how to explain this. “…Okay, so you know how some people die when they’re killed? I don’t think I do that. But I’m not completely sure, so I’ll need to test it.”

She probably could have explained it better than that.

Nadia looked at her like she was an idiot. “And so, you decided to go about this by stabbing yourself?”

Fatima crossed her arms, getting a bit defensive. “Well, how else was I going to figure it out!? Dunk my head into the river to see if I drown?”

Nadia let out a deep, deep sigh, before reluctantly handing her back the knife. “Fine. Fine. You can stab yourself, you fucking moron. But if you die I’m going to travel to the underworld just to kill you again.”

“You have so little faith in me,” Fatima nodded dryly, taking back her knife.

Then she held it up, staring at the sharpened stone. ‘Okay, this is it,’ she thought to herself, feeling her heart start speeding up, ‘I’m going to be stabbing myself. I’m going to be stabbing myself, and if I’m wrong, I may end up killing myself. So, no pressure.’

She began to raise her knife up, before slowly lowering it again as doubt set in. ‘Do I… do I really need to do this? I mean, I don’t need to know this. I mean, the goal is to not get stabbed, right? I shouldn’t need to do this…’

‘But what if I do something dumb out of ignorance? What if truly knowing how much damage I can take becomes a matter of life and death in the future? If it could save my life, or any of my followers’ lives, don’t I have a duty to figure this out now, while I’m safe and have someone to back me up? Because, really, it’s not like I’ll have a better time for this. Now or never, as they say.’

Right, no more time for doubting. Time for doing. And so, with a dramatic flourish, she raised the knife above her head. And then, with agonizing slowness, she lightly pressed the tip down onto her thumb, just enough to draw blood.

“…Is that it?” Nadia asked dryly. “All of that, for a puny little cut?”

“Shut up!” Fatima hissed back, feeling her cheeks warm. “I’m not just gonna slit my throat, okay!? Baby steps, baby steps! We’ll work our way up from here!”

“We?”

“I. Since my oh so helpful secretary seems to be doing nothing but backtalking me. Now, be quiet! Your Queen demands it!”

Nadia rolled her eyes, scoffing. “As my queen demands,” she mocked her. “This ungrateful Nadia shall be as silent as a winter grave. Would you also like me to give you a backrub between stabbings? Perhaps get you a drink from the river as well?”

Ah, to be cursed with ungrateful subjects.

Looking down at her thumb, she dunked it in the river, washing the blood off. Pulling it back out, she stared at it, rubbing her other thumb over the digit.

She let out a relieved breath. Good. Not even a mark.

Now for the more painful tests.

She brought it up to her finger again. Last time was just a little cut. This one was going to be a deeper, more obvious cut. One that she’d hopefully be able to watch heal in real time, without endangering her should she be wrong.

Laying her knife on her thumb, she cut deep.

“Son of a—” She gasped, pulling the knife away on reflex, accidently cutting herself more.

“Lady Fatima? Are you all right!?”

“Fine!” she called back. “I’m fi—”

Then she felt it, a weird, uncomfortable sort of tingling. She stared down at her thumb, watching as the flesh quickly knit back together. Rubbing the spot she had cut, she was amazed to find it completely smooth. (Well, it was actually kind of sticky, due to all the blood, but beneath that blood the flesh was smooth.)

“Lady Fatima!?”

“I’m fine! It’s already healed,” she raised up her hand, showing Nadia her thumb. “I just wasn’t prepared for the feeling of it healing. Heh, feeling, healing. That rhymed!”

Nadia gave her another look. The kind that screamed, ‘I can’t believe you’re doing this.’ “…All right, if you say so.”

‘Hah. It’s as if she doesn’t think I know what I’m doing.’

Now it was time for test three.

Then she paused, considering. Did she really want to know if she could heal from an amputation?

She glanced down at her fingers, frowning. She imagined slicing one of them off.

She shuddered.

You know what? She could figure that one out another time. Like never.

Right, so skipping test four, she instead brought her knife to her wrist. Frowning, she left it there for a moment, feeling the cold rock on her skin. She was pretty sure slitting your wrist could kill you, what with the artery right there. So this would be the first real test of her immortality.

Taking a deep breath, she jerked her hand, slicing through her wrist in one move.

And it hurt like a bitch.

“Fffffff—” she hissed, dropping the knife so she could grab at her wrist. Her jaw clenched, and she could swear she felt a tooth crack. “Motherfucking—fucker cunt of a—!”

Nadia was at her side in an instant, grabbing her wrist. Swearing under her breath, she quickly moved her smaller, blood-soaked hand out of the way to look at the wound.

However, once she moved her hand away, Fatima once more felt that disturbing feeling of flesh moving. Before their eyes, they watched as the torn flaps of skin on her wrist knit themselves back together. In just a few moments, the only evidence she was ever wounded was the dried blood on her arm.

Nadia let out a relieved breath. “Well, Fatima, it looks like you really are immortal.”

“Eh?” she asked, coming back to her senses. “Eh? But, wait, I still have a few more tests left! This doesn’t really prove anything.”

Nadia gave her a look. “No no, this proves enough. You’re immortal, nothing can hurt you, blah blah godhood blah.”

“But—”

“No buts! I’m not sitting here and watching my friend stab herself over and over again to figure out something she already knows. You’re immortal, and we’re done here, got it?”

“…”

“…What?”

“…Heh heh. You called me your friend! I knew you loved me!”

Nadia sighed.

9,970 God-Kings Remaining