While the goddess muttered to herself with a pensive look on her face, Rathal was racking his brain trying to think of 'who' the 'person' in front of him was.
'That's definitely not Aphine. It's a completely different god.'
He understood that it was Aphine's body but someone else was currently inside it. The voice was also different too, so he searched his memories trying to think of any god who Aphine could possibly refer to as her 'lady' and allow to possess her body but he came up with zero answers.
This was natural, not much was known about the personal relationships the gods had with each other.
In the end, he decided to think of all the golden-eyed goddesses in Aidos' myths and it didn't take him long to arrive at the answer.
In fact, it was the most obvious option that he should have chosen from the start.
"...goddess Artemisia."
[Hmm? Did you realise? Now that makes things easier for me.]
Artemisia casually replied upon hearing Rathal call out her name. She took a step towards Rathal with her hands behind her back as she began to ask.
[How do you Rathal, see 'Time'?]
He was initially confused upon hearing her words, but he calmed himself and quickly replied to her with a question of his own.
"How am I supposed to even 'see' time?"
[Hmm...true. That's something impossible for the current you.]
Artemisia stopped bout a metre away from Rathal as she sunk into her thoughts for a moment before continuing.
[I see time as a single solid straight line, one that branches out into an infinite number of illusory lines, representing the various possibilities of the future.]
As she spoke, she waved her hand and generated an image in front of Rathal, one depicting exactly what she was saying.
A single thick straight golden line ran through a dark space, branching out into countless thinner faint brown dashed lines.
[These possibilities are infinite in number and increase by the day.
However, in the end, only one of these possibilities would happen.]
[As for the other possibilities, they might as well have never existed.]
As she spoke, one of the various thin dashed lines changed into a thick golden straight line, with the dashes closing up as it ran through the dark space uninhibited.
Simultaneously, the other thin faint brown dashed lines all disappeared as if they were never there before.
Although Rathal was confused as to why she suddenly said this, he decided to wait for her to finish before asking questions.
[I have seen various possible futures of this world, Aidos. And in most of them, Rathal Cox is not supposed to be on this continent at this point in time.
Rathal Cox is supposed to be somewhere else, attempting to gain something that would make him stronger and reduce the chances of any of this world's bleak futures coming to pass.
The kind of bleak future where the entirety of the planet goes 'BOOM'. And explodes into chunks of dead rocks, before slowly disintegrating into space dust.]
She generated a small illusory video of a planet exploding into bits and held it up towards Rathal's face, replaying it multiple times as she gave a sad smile.
[It looks beautiful, don't you think?]
Rathal was at a loss on how to answer that question, however, Artemisia laughed as she patted his shoulder and spoke.
However, what I said about how Rathal Cox is not supposed to be here is true.
Sadly, due to my actions and that of a variable I introduced, Rathal Cox is currently here and not where he is meant to be.
And even more unfortunately, by the time he gets back, the window of opportunity would have been closed and he would have forever missed the chance to gain this particular item that was supposed to increase his power.]
Artemisia held out her palm towards Rathal and a small grey crystal that was no more than 15cm in length and 7cm in width appeared in her palm.
Holding this crystal up, she finalised her speech.
[My presence here, is intended to correct the changes that came about as a result of the actions of my variable.]
Rathal was silent for a moment before he opened his mouth and asked slowly.
"So, you came to give me this item?" Content originally comes from Nove1Fire.net
However, Artemisia instantly refuted his words.
Do you have any idea how much stronger this item would make you? It won't be an instantaneous increase in strength; however, it doesn't change the fact that by using this you would eventually become more powerful than you are now.
And no matter how powerful you are as a transcendent, you are still a mortal in the end. Even worse as you are one of the most powerful and most influential mortals in this world.
I dare say that you becoming stronger indirectly affects the fates of everyone else in the world in various ways.
So, the action of me giving this to you and directly making you stronger is a MAJOR action that influences this world and falls under the category of things I'm not allowed to do.
Well, I could do it and get away with it but now is a delicate time for me. I'd rather not draw the attention of the other gods for now.]
"What?! Then telling me that there exists a future where the world might be destroyed isn't a direct MAJOR action?"
In response to Rathal's question, Artemisia tilted her head to the side and asked.
[Who said I was talking to you when I said that?]
[I was indeed speaking about Rathal Cox, but I was only speaking to myself and not 'to' Rathal Cox. If Rathal Cox happened to hear my words, then that's just an unfortunate coincidence.]
Her words made Rathal think back to everything she said, and he realised that whenever she talked about the possible future and where he was meant to be, she never used the pronoun 'you' or the words 'you are'.
She either used the pronouns 'his' or 'him', or just blatantly said his full name.
It was simple wordplay that Artemisia used, and she had gone around all the restrictions that prevented her from taking direct actions.
[Oh well, if you really wanted to know why I took the pains to come here then maybe I might just be a benevolent goddess and enlighten you.]