“This fabric…” The Horned Rat reached down to John’s collar and rubbed it between the two tips of his bony claws. Inspecting the Gamer’s new shirt, now that they had pulled somewhere a little more private, the god of calamity hummed to himself. Every word of his deep voice was undermined by rodent squeaking, creating an unpleasant disharmony. “Schattengarn, now that is something you don’t see every day. Gaia’s blessing is woven into it as well… she gave it to you as a present…?”

John reached up and slowly but firmly pushed the hand off his collar. Letting go, the Horned Rat waited patiently for an answer. The red light in the sockets of his bare, four-horned skull glowed steadily. “Yes… can you do me the favour of actually telling me what Schattengarn is?” John was feeling like they could have an actual discussion.

They had made their way to John’s palace and were currently residing on the base level, inside that segment exactly made for meetings like that. It was just the two of them, John now sitting down in one of the red-cushioned chairs, which like every other piece of furniture around here were fashioned from a dark wood.

The Horned Rat was much too tall to fit in a chair. Well, at least for the moment John thought that in. Shrinking down to a more manageable size, the god sat down. His short grey fur stretched at some places and creased at others, while his tail slung around the backrest once. The tip kept dancing around, like a foot stomping to a tune; Richard seemed to be in a good mood.

“I can safely assume you know what Oblivium truly is.” The Horned Rat did him the favour of explaining without any mind games. “Schattengarn is a metal that is the shadow equivalent. Impossible to create by any current artificial means.”

“Doesn’t exactly feel or look like a metal,” John stated now fumbling with the fabric himself. “But I guess something that defies one rule doesn’t have to obey another.”

“Yes, yes.” The Horned Rat leaned back and the chair creaked. His eyes flickered down as if he was afraid the seat would collapse under him. To John, it was always amusing that beings as powerful as them still had to worry about such utterly mundane things. Shifting his weight a little bit, Richard continued, “Gaia’s gifts will make mine seem quite unappealing in comparison, I am quite sure. Well, except for one of them.”

John couldn’t help but fold his hands and give the Horned Rat a long stare over the criss-cross running fingers. “Do I need to be afraid of those gifts?” he asked. “Because it seems you would benefit more if you gave them to me on the stage.”

“That depends entirely on my goals,” the Horned Rat waved off in his typically amused, cryptic fashion. “Perhaps you assume me to want to be popular with your people? Do you think that would be right?” The Horned Rat raised his hand so that, from his perspective, John’s face was framed between his inhumane fingers.

“Right, that wouldn’t be your foremost desire, at least not when it comes to me.” John nodded, trying to get into his opposite’s head. “A counterweight to Romulus, that’s what you want me to be… ah, you don’t want my gifts to be seen publicly because they are tools that might be best unknown?”

The Horned Rat lowered his hand and clapped three times. “Bravo, Newman, you have succeeded in reading my most basic intentions.” He didn’t seem all that impressed, his voice was downright mocking. Then it turned dark, went even deeper than usual with the squeaking turning into a sound more akin to scratching inside a wall. “You are to be my weapon against Romulus.” John felt like the air was pressed from his lungs as the Horned Rat rose from his chair slowly and loomed over him. “I let you run free and do your foolish conquests because you will one day be stronger than me and I need you to develop nothing further than this petty little grudge between us. And I let you do what I want because I see in you a kindred spirit, a friend, perhaps even a successor to my cause once I am no more.”

The light of the chandelier seemed to dim more and more. John attemped to breathe, but his chest stayed flat no matter how much he tried. His field of view grew darker around the edges, until it was only the outline of the pentagram-shaped skull that he could see anymore. The red dots flickered with anger.

“Your powers are so vast that even I fail to understand them completely. I let you play your games because that seems to be the easiest and quickest way to have you achieve power, and in that freedom I let you have…” The Horned Rat’s head was blotted out by his hand that approached John’s face. It was uncomfortably close and only got closer. The claw of his index finger was coming directly for the Gamer’s left eye. “You let yourself be permanently blinded.”

John finally managed to struggle a little bit. A little bit of air, a little bit of movement. Both too little too late, the finger reached into John’s eye and harmlessly took out the contact lens. Then the pressure and everything was suddenly gone and he gulped for air like a drowning man that had finally reached the surface. It caused him to cough several times, he even had to blink back a few tears.

An act. At least some of it was just an act. If the Horned Rat had any genuine intention of hurting him, then Particle Skin would have triggered. As to what Richard had said, it was more difficult to discern what had been truth and what lie.

“Not too bad,” the Horned Rat admitted, his tone a nonchalant musing, while turning the lens before his inspecting eye. “High quality, moderate enchantments.”

“Don’t ever do that again,” John growled, in control of himself again, glaring up at the Horned Rat. He often thought about striking at the god for his endless mockeries. Then just as now, the Gamer’s Wisdom held him back from doing anything he knew was hopeless. The Horned Rat was three, maybe four times his level, not to mention a god with access to magic he didn’t know the limits of. Regardless, that experience had been awful enough that this resolve was tested.

“It’s a warning, John Newman.” The Horned Rat put the contact lens on the nearby table. It changed colour from translucent to gold to be easier to find. “Your body is a valuable asset. Don’t damage it any further. If you don’t want creatures like me to boss you around, get stronger.”

John forcefully calmed his breathing after one last grunt and stated, “If you’re trying to NOT make me hate you, that’s the wrong road to go about things.”

The Horned Rat shrugged and sat back down. “Hate can be a powerful motivator. I think you will find it difficult to genuinely despise me. A friendly dislike is what our relationship is built on. Isn’t that so, buddy?”

“Don’t push it.” The Gamer was back to growling, and Richard’s flickering eyes extinguished for a moment and he sighed. He sounded genuinely tired of things. “Can you give me that back now? I don’t like being blind in one eye.” He could have just grabbed the lens himself, but he would have needed to get up to do so.

“I can give you that or I can give you these.” The Horned Rat reached into the air next to himself and pulled something out of a dimensional pocket. It was a small box, the kind rings were traditionally kept in. Richard tossed it across the two-step distance between them, and John caught it. He inspected the box itself for a moment, but found nothing about its velvety surface out of the ordinary.

Giving the god a half-blind glance, John then opened it. Inside he found two new contact lenses. They weren’t just curved pieces of translucent plastic. On their small, thin form, golden lines formed a peculiar shape. A ring of gold and silver-white runes, so tiny they must have been written with the tip of a needle, crossed by seven lines. The shape was peculiar due to its familiarity. It was the same appearance Gaia’s and Thana’s eyes had.

Richard guessed what he was thinking. “Isn’t it fascinating? The most effective shape of runic enchantments is a circle. The most effective way to add further specifications is to add a line that crosses. Every further line makes the entire thing more unstable. The lines will erase themselves if the craftsman loses their concentration or the grip on the magic. An enormous loss in time and resources, I can tell you. Seven, equally spaced, is the maximum before the adjacency of the lines causes them to mess with each other. I wonder whether it’s a chance that both human gods mutate exactly this shape into their eyes.” He snickered a little bit, while John Observed his gift.

It was quite incredible. The materials that went into this were probably cheap for a world power, due to the little amount needed, but the craftsmanship that went into it was incredible. As were the Attributes. Having powerful ‘friends’ really paid off.

“Ah, who am I kidding,” the Horned Rat continued his earlier monologue, “it’s guaranteed there is a connection. Gaia decides to obey the rules of the world, after all.”

That sentence pulled John’s interest away from the item for a moment. “Decides? What do you know?” From that single word, he could already surmise that Richard had access to knowledge he, himself, had not.

The Horned Rat’s teeth parted, then closed again. An answer he might have wanted to give in spite suddenly turned into a voice ringing with the power of prophecy.

“One brother knows it all, but cannot see the species’ wall.
One brother knows nothing, but the tainted all.
I know more than either, but less than both.
And that makes me the mediator of this world.

One brother has always been alone,
He will rise as ivy and spring and bone.
One brother has always been a leader,
Thus, he can always, always fall deeper.

And the great Lady, resting on the pebble of gold,
Giving powers to virgins and souls,
Of which none of us know the true goals,
Might just be more than ten millennia old.

I have plans and schemes and plots,
And know stars that will grow with rot,
Will you accept what they will have wrought?

Certain are the things I know,

And the sands of time that flow,

And the powers that grow,

All fit into a new era’s mould.”

The Horned Rat fell silent, and John eventually realized that nothing more was coming. Then he quickly took out his smartphone. “You mind if I write that down?” he asked, just for courtesy, he would do it later either way.

“No, go ahead,” the Horned Rat was oddly quiet, like a preacher that had a personal revelation in the middle of a sermon. “I did not mean to speak a prophecy today,” he informed John. “The moment of clarity came, and now it’s gone and I don’t know what half of it means…”

“Well, if you could unravel half for me, that would already be appreciated,” John stated, but wasn’t expecting anything. Especially after the Horned Rat shook his head in an amused fashion.

“No, no, that would mean I have to tell you things I do not yet know you will align yourself with me on,” Richard cackled, regaining his usual behaviour. “Alas, as much as I enjoy our little talks, I have to solve this. I do recommend you to wear those.” He pointed at the now closed box in John’s hand, which the Gamer still hadn’t gotten to Observe. “And here is my second gift to you; I think you will appreciate it much more, despite of how useless it is in the grand scope of things.”

The Horned Rat pulled a mirror out of his dimensional pocket. It was an entirely black thing, from the swung handle to the polished reflective surface. John took it and Observed it quickly while Richard left.

The description had him stop for a moment, and despite what had happened a few minutes ago, John found himself saying, “Thank you,” to the god.

“Your love for her serves me as well, so don’t think I’m being too nice to you,” the Horned Rat said, as if to prevent them to grow any closer. The door closed.