The first thing that happened after Gehrman's declaration was the summoning of a Memory. Seishan let out a sound somewhere between a grunt and a sigh. The sparks solidified into a woven basket that shimmered slightly. She put it at the side of the table, and suddenly there was a shift.
"Please, next time you speak of him, indicate you will do so first. Valor has eyes everywhere, and even this is outing is dangerous," Seishan said.
Gehrman looked around, noting the barrier around them. It was an obscuring Memory that disguised their appearance, voice, and words.
He then raised his eyebrow considering the thing before him.
His initial fear had been that something akin to a parasite had infect Seishan. He had activated his enhanced [Eyes on The Inside] to confirm her Ascension when she had arrived, but he caught a glimpse of something else disturbing. 7 Soul Cores glimmered, their appearance slightly off and mirror-like.
The thing had no physical form, and instead to be existing in a strange dimension that Gehrman could only see because his Awakened Ability did much more than simply see Souls, it offered him insight into the many, many planes of existence. Different realms all coalsced onto this one, and the one this being inhabited was not too far off from the one souls existed in.
It was certainly different though.
If not for the fact that Gehrman's ability had been enhanced, he wouldn't have been able to notice the discrepancy, the slight fold of realites over Seishan's eye.
Gehrman tilted his head.
"Mordret, I assume?" he said, his voice amused.
Seishan nodded slightly.
"He cannot answer right now, he can manifest elsewhere, but it is not sa-"
"This should work though," a new voice sounded. It surprised Gehrman a little how fast the mans souls moved from one reflection to another.
The pristine features of a young man appeared reflected in the large window. He was dressed rather nicely, and he sat next to the reflection of Seishan, sitting across from Gehrman.
He had not taken a physical form.
"Snagging a body might breed suspicion but manifesting like this is no issue," Mordret explained. "I even did it at a Ball that Valor put on a little while ago. There were many Saints in the next room over and still no one noticed," Mordret paused, his warm smile losing a bit of luster. "Well, one guy guessed, but that was dumb luck."
Gehrman smiled back, fascinated by this ability. The other Divine Aspect holders had abilities that were outlandish. Nephis' flames were contradictory in that they could both heal and destroy. Sunny could warp space with his Shadows, accessing another plane of existence. However, that cost him Essence.
No such thing was expended in Mordret's movement at that moment. Traveling into that separate plane of existence, as if he was a being born of reflections, was his Dormant ability.
"It's nice to meet you," Gehrman said. "I've heard about you from a mutual friend of ours, Sunless."
"Ah, I'm sure he only had good things to share."
"He said you were a sociopathic monster who slaughtered an entire city in your 2nd Nightmare, as well as all the Awakened in a Citadel."
Mordret's smile did not falter at the accusation.
"I am no monster. My actions in the 2nd Nightmare had no consequence on the real world, and those in the citadel where all worthy of death. They had captured and put in isolation a child for years, not a single one of them were innocent. Plus…Sunnless…ah, what else is there to say about that young man. He does not have a favorable impression of me, that is most true. Did he also share how he slighted my years of planning for that 2nd Nightmare, stopping us from achieving a higher appraisal in the Nightmare?"
Gehrman returned his gaze. Sunny had said nothing of the sort, but judging from both of their personalities, it was definitely more complicated than that. He also noted that Mordret did not deny the "sociopath" part of his accusation.
"You tricked him during your first meeting, I recall. You were doomed after that, he's a spiteful man, so your potential friendship was doomed from the start."
Mordret tilted his head, his expression growing confused.
"Potential friendship?" he said. His voice carried a hint of incredulousness and surprise.
"Sure, as far as I can tell your both a bit similar. You just can't feel emotions…and your taller."
Mordret just blinked at him, saying nothing.
Seishan, on the other hand, cleared her throat.
"This is not how I thought this meeting would go," she confessed. "You speak of Sunless quite fondly, where is he these days. Not with Valor or us, we would have heard otherwise."
"He's here of course," Gehrman said with a warm smile. "He's been at Antarctica since the start."
Seishan nodded.
"Indeed, I'm sure he would be an invaluable scout."
Neither Gehrman nor Mordret made a move to correct her. This surprised him, as he would have thought Mordret would give an in depth analysis on each of the Awakened he conquered the 2nd Nightmare with.
Especially Sunny, since he claimed to have a vendetta against him.
Perhaps the friendship was not doomed?
…On second thought, the idea seemed a bit far fetched.
"How are things with you lot then?" Gehrman asked. "I see you've Ascended, Seishan. Congratulations."
Her face fell into one of scathing neutrality.
"Yes, such a feat."
The unsaid words were practically screamed. Indeed, it did feel a bit disingenuous for him to say that after becoming a Saint.
Gehrman coughed awkwardly.
"Otherwise, things a progressing as we expected. Our forces gather, as do Valors. The start of the war will happen right here in Antarctica, or rather, the part of the Dream Realm connected to this place," Seishan said.
"This soon? I suppose you would time it to when I officially became an ally of Song, is that right?"
"...Yes. Though it would have happened at a similar time no matter what," Seishan's eyes took on a new, indescribable depth as she looked at him. "The ceremony has been insisted upon by my family. It will take place in 3 months, at which point the body you are in will come of age, and we will exchange vows. Afterwards, mother will grant you the gift agreed upon."
Gehrman nodded. He had expected that they would do without ceremony, but in the back of his mind he felt such a thing would be inevitable. It would be embarrassing, and he would be out of his depth, but it would be worth it for the Divine Lineage.
An anchor to this world, and hopefully a bar against the Moon Pressence.
"Sounds good," Gehrman said. "Until then, I'll continue hopping back and forth between the New Workshop, Antarctica, and my Citadel. When I am here though, why don't we hang out a little bit more, it seems the proper thing to do before a wedding."
Seishan blinked, surprise kept well off her face.
"I suppose, so long as we can fit the time into our schedule."
Gehrman nodded, attempting to be more put together than he truly felt.
At that moment he tapped the basket memory obscuring them.
"The waiter is coming, lets put this away and order. I've been very excited to try some of the new dishes here."
He let his eyes slide over to the large window, and the faint image of Mordret sitting politely there.
"As for you, would you mind entering my eye? I hear that you can enter other people's Soul Seas, and I would like to have you do so a little bit later."
…
Mordret did as he was asked, albeit very cautiously. This was a new one for him. Someone actually inviting him into a Soul was…well it was mad.
Though he did suppose that was the key characteristic of this man that he had been told about. Still, it caught him off guard. Gehrman appeared a peaceful and amiable young man, though Mordret could tell quickly that he was indeed not as young as he looked.
Perhaps it was something akin to animal, or rather monster, instinct. The restrained aura he exuded filled him with dread.
A different type of dread than facing Ki Song or his father, but for some reason, it had the same effect.
In truth, he didn't actually want to see the inside of this guys Soul Sea.
But he would be lying if he said he wasn't curious.
Sunless had quite a unique Soul Sea. In fact, it had almost been the death of him. As another individual with a Divine Aspect he knew to expect something monstrous, but at the same time it had to be different than the veritable army of shadows in Sunless' Soul Sea.
If his Soul had a automatic defense mechanism like that, he would have to leave immediately. Still, there was no hostility in his voice. Even when Gehrman had called him a sociopath, he didn't say it with the disgust and fear others did.
Against his better judgment, he had entered the man's strange grey eyes, noting briefly the odd yellowish-orange ring that seemed to faintly glow in his iris.
He had watched as Gehrman ordered several appetizer dishes, and then deveroued them all. He had even offered it to the others, and it gave Mordret no small amount of amusement to see them balk at his offer.
It had taken much persuasion, but the Blood Sisters and Seishan also ordered food, and they seemed to be pleasantly surprised.
Though when Seishan tried one of his meals, a sort of meat lathered in a sweet looking sauce, she almost lost her composure.
"That's incredibly spicy," she had said before surreptitiously draining her entire water. Indeed it appeared that Gehrman's appetite was catered to the most extreme of flavors, and it boggled Mordret's mind why the man was so voracious, and with such strange food.
The meal didn't last too long.
They had set a time and place for an actual "date" (which filled Mordret with bewildered amusement) and then parted ways after some discussion on the larger situation of the Chain of Nightmares.
It appeared that Gehrman in his current state was powerful enough to single handidly deal with every Nightmare Creatuer in Eastern Antarctica, but he also was starting some new projects in his "New Workshop" and also his Citadel.
He had talked animatedly about this.
Apparently the place was an utter ruin when the Song family had gifted it to him, but the renovations were going well.
Now that he was a Saint, he gained much greater control over the Citadel and it's component. He had even (somehow) changed the name of the Citadel. It had started with a simple declaration, but somewhere along the line the Spell had actually changed the runes.
Now in his runes it was listed as:
Citadel: New Yharnam
The expansions here were mind boggling and would take decades, if not centuries to fully construct, but he appeared to use his deadly and harrowing blood manipulation to actually work on the construction himself.
He had also used the component to start developing small rivers in certain places. They flowed easily and calmly, and acted as transportation from one place to the next. In time, it would effectively become a form of transportation akin to PTV driving and roadways. Except the vehicles would be wooden boats and the roads these rivers.
Seisahn, for her part, listened contently, asking prompting questions every once and a while.
It was unnerving.
The conversation was anything but mundane but it filled Mordret with this feeling of alienation. It really felt like a family dinner, something he had only briefly imagined before.
Still, he hung on.
Even when they left – Gehrman leaving a tip that left the host with his mouth hanging open dumbly – the banal talk continued.
Prompted by him, Seishan shared her own experiences that had happened recently. What went smoothly, what went poorly. It was surface level, but it still served to make Mordret more angry.
He couldn't really put a finger on why it did.
But by the time they had reached a secure, secret location, deep in the Song stronghold and Mordret was prompted to enter, he was half tempted to tear into it a bit.
Then he entered, and he felt cold.
The strange light from the never ending ceiling was transfixing and pale. The 7 bloody moons of strange shape and behavior cast contrasting atmospheres, making it even more alien and unnatural.
He had thought he prepared himself.
He was wrong.
A sprawling landscape grew for kilometers around. Gravestones littered gardens on this island of stone and archaic design. White, fresh flowers stood perfectly still, disturbed by no wind.
Before him, the pale gardens fell way into a sprawling forest. The trees tilted and menacing. The trunks skinny but towering, packed together in some places and illuminating a few well trodden dirt paths.
The color of each path was odd, the trees blocked the light of the blood moons, causing the paths to stand starkly against the forest.
Then, behind him a building stood. Gehrman's initial thought was that this was his Citadel. Indeed Citadels did manifest inside an individuals Soul Sea, an empty facsimile.
But no, that place newly named "New Yharnam" was far off, looking haunting under the ominous colors of this place. It floated on a sea of blood. Yet, inexplicably, it was not the center of his Soul Sea, this place was.
Or rather, it was that building. The old wooden structure had odd architecture, sharp angles, and a strange aura.
However, even with all that. That was not what took his attention.
Each and every one of these details caught him off guard, but nothing caused him to feel more uneasy and insignificant than what hung above, below the Blood moons.
Twisting, winding, overlapping, gigantic corridors of ancient stone floated impossibly above the Soul Sea. Sprawling impossibly far, as infinite as the Soul Sea itself.
"Quite confusing, isn't it?" Gehrman asked.
At some point he was beside Mordret. His heart rate spiked at the sudden appearance. He hadn't noticed his approach, and that terrified him.
Things were supposed to be the other way around, the owner of the Soul shocked by the invader, but this time he was the one who had been caught off guard.
He fought the urge to flee just then, noting the casual nature of the man.
Gehrman had taken on a new attire, an old outfit that seemed to be makeshift light armor made from old clothes.
"What is it?" Mordret asked. Then, he gestured around. "What is all of this?"
"My old home. Well, pieces of it, at least. At the same time though…" Gehrman trailed off and his eyes rose to the series of impossible contorting mazes in the sky.
"That place was something below my home, and I really couldn't tell you how it got here, or why it manifested in such a way."
Mordret's eyebrows furrowed.
"What…is it?"
"There were a lot of different names. The Catacombs, Labyrinth, Pthumeru, but from the looks of it, those terms don't fit. Those terms describe specific mazes, but this…it's an infinite and random creation of such things, irregular spaces, or pocket dimensions."
He paused, his voice grave.
"It's the Chalice Dungeons."