A Body that Changes is Better

Vivec had mind to ask his father-brother a question, and descended to the city of SO-T-HA SIL. Once there he followed the wave of thought that filled the place, and found the source. A mer both flesh and fabricated stood stooped over a contraption of metal and crystals.

"What are you doing?" Vivec asked Sotha Sil idly. The sage did not answer immediately, taking the time to painstakingly move one of the crystals hanging from the top of the metal cross that stood in the center of the contraption.

"I am changing my shape," Sotha Sil said, seemingly satisfied. Vivec watched as Sotha Sil stood straight, and then disrobed. His skin was marked by no wounds, but it was stretched taunt over muscles and bone. Vivec could see the very veins in the body of Sotha Sil pressing against his flesh, though he knew not if they carried blood or something less organic.

Sotha Sil had legs of metallic blades, and holes in a cross semblance on his back, each one ringed by the same sort of metal. He turned his back to his contraption, which started to hum. The crystals ignored then gravity, pointing each one toward a specific hole in Sotha Sil's back. Vivec took a step back, as a chime filled the air and Sotha Sil was torn apart.

Golden lines glowed in the cavern with walls of gears and springs, levers and thot gates. A lattice hovering in mid air, circles and ovals rotating at speeds that made Vivec's teeth hurt. Two of the lines splintered, and became four lines; the new lines separated from the whole, and the room went dark.

With a blink, Vivec adjusted his eyes. Sotha Sil once again stood before him, stooping down to pick up the purple robes he had worn. The contraption was silent, it's crystals again held down by the laws of Lor and Mag.

"Your shape is unchanged," Vivec noted, though he knew this to be untrue. The change that had occurred was not physical.

"It has," Sotha Sil replied silently, "and you know it." Silence filled the room but for one eonous second. "You came to ask me something?"

"Yes," admitted Vivec freely, "but now I have a new question. Why are you continuously changing your shape?"

"A leader should not lead his people through a path that he is not certain of," Sotha Sil replied, "and we as Living Gods should hold ourselves to a higher standard than others as we hold ourselves above others. Further, we are eternal. As such, we must make sure that we do not only change with the ages as they pass, but change before the ages that come. Only then can we, the Tribunal, prepare our people for what they will undergo.

"Chi 'Ge is the legacy, and as such I am adaptable as our people must be. Chime'Vol, as Beothiah showed, and Veloth again, and Azura thereafter, and We ALMSIVI finally, in the end, and We must do so three times."