2) The low down.

  “So first off we had the Elder beings who showed up right after the Creation. Titans, Dragons, Primordials, and of course the Whales. The first of the First, creators of all, and so on and so on...”

  The feminine voice seemed to fall into a rhythm as if she was reciting something that had been repeated over and over to her.

  “They created the mortal races out of the raw Chaos left over from Creation, but the only way mortals could use Chaos themselves was to first get it processed and then get it handed over to them as a safe little spell by one of the Elder beings so the mortals didn’t hurt themselves, or get all rambunctious and take out one of the Elders. That never ends well.”

  She held up one finger, the underside of which looked to be a lighter shade of violet than the back of her hand and lower arm.

  “Then the Elders got into a big brawl they called the Dawn War which permanently weakened the barrier between the world and the Chaos that fills in the gaps between realities. The damaged barrier constantly let in traces of raw Chaos that slowly began to change every living thing in the world until they became monstrous Beasts, died, or worse.”

  The voice began to hum and murmur to itself for a bit as I tried to pick out the occasional words.

  “So each of the Elder beings who hmmm...volunteered? Yeah, that a good work for it, volunteered to look after a race of mortals by becoming a god. Each one of them picked one of the mortal races. They sponsored their chosen people and set things up so that every member of that race each got a Class that let them absorb the tiny amounts of raw Chaos from around them to make them stronger by advancing their class. While the unchosen races and all the animals, as well as the plants and bugs, would slowly develop Cores to deal with the Chaos they absorbed. Cores are crystallized Chaos that make living things bigger, and tougher, and even give them magical powers as they became Beasts that they didn’t even need people smarts to use.

  The hand slumped down. “Sounds neat right?”

  I considered that. “...I think that question is a trap.”

  There was a sharp laugh, followed by more giggles, “I guess you weren't born yesterday, because… you were born today!”

  There were more rattling sounds along with the giggling. I thought she might be rolling around in that birdcage of hers.

  “So… So… What happens is that people with classes can absorb a Core after they kill something and cut it out of them, and then they get a bunch of Merit points as a reward they can use to help raise their class up all at once. Everyone else has to take years doing other stuff before they get to level up. And creatures with Cores can use the Chaos from dead people’s classes after they kill them to make their Cores even stronger.”

  “Once a Beast’s Core gets big enough to burst, they turn into Demons and get smart. Then they begin actively hunting people down rather than just attacking people who annoy them.”

  The hand began to rotate around at the wrist. “And around and round it goes. People kill Beasts because they might become Demons that are a real danger and doing so also makes those people more powerful. Beasts become Demons and kill people because they know it makes them more powerful.”

  She stopped spinning her hand around with a finger pointing at me.

  “And then there’s you. Something new under the sun… with several dozen feet of stone and dirt between you and it, but I think it’s still up there somewhere…”

  ...I needed a little bit of time to think all of that over, which I think she knew since she sighed and pulled her hand back out of sight.

  But… I didn’t have enough information to finish my thoughts, and all the ones I had were just going around and around in my head.

  “I’m a rock?”

  I heard her cut off a laugh. “Yeah, a living rock.”

  “Who is also a person?

  She answered me slowly. “...yeah…”

  “What happened to the Beast I was in? Was I the beast?” I noted the other colored gem like stones still spilled over Nictob’s corpse as well as on the floor around me. “...are these all Cores from dead Beasts? Are they dead, or alive?”

  The hand lifted, palm out towards me as if trying to hold back my questions. “What? No! Cores aren’t alive... other than you. They’re more like organs, or a kidney stoned… maybe pearl would be a better comparison? They are the source of a Beast’s power but also a way to store the Chaos it absorbs so it doesn't kill the Beast.”

  She flipped her hand around as she began to explain again. “Cores can be cut out of a dead Beast and saved indefinably. People used them as money, especially the ones that are too strong for most people to convert into Merit points all at once.”

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  Closing her hand into a fist, she flipped it open again and waved it around as she explained. “If they’re too big, and people break it down to absorb it as Merit points, most of it gets wasted.”

  “...It must be nice to have limbs.”

  There was a hesitant giggle. “...yeah, they’re great. I wouldn’t trade them for anything… But being a rock might be nice too! You don’t have any bones to get broken. And you could be immortal, I mean Fairies like me live for a ‘looooong’ time, but you’re a rock. I don’t think you can age?”

  “What is a Fairy? Are they people, or Beasts?”

  The hand pulled out of sight, and she didn’t say anything for so long I started to worry.

  “It’s… not nice to ask about that. But you couldn’t know, could you?”

  ...what did I say?

  I sighed. “As I understand it, I was basically food until a few minutes ago… I don’t know anything. But you said the dead man was trying to do something to you?”

  She coughed. “Yeah… Fairies are sort of Beasts. We are spirits given bodies by the Mother of All, and we end up getting Cores because it’s our job to absorb Chaos in the places that the chosen races don’t live to prevent Demons from being born. But we’re dedicated to the Mother of All, the creator of all natural life in this world. We are pledged to help her clean up the damage Chaos does to the world, which means we are supposed to be considered sacrosanct by all of the Chosen races, but then this… twisted... “

  The Fairy went on for a while describing how little she thought of Nictob the first, which required a few minutes before she finished up with... “Then this cannibal tried to draw upon and feed on my Core while it was still inside me to see if he could take a little bit of it at a time that way. So he could then let it regrow and feed on me over and over again!”

  Ouch. To be imprisoned in this… dungeon? Having one of your organs being partially eaten out of your living body. Only to have to wait around, trapped, until it happened again.

  “I don’t want his name.”

  There was another pause, which she ended with a sharp laugh. “I don’t blame you. And you aren’t some little baby with no choice in the matter. You can just pick out your own name.”

  Good. “What happened to him anyways?”

  The hand reappeared and waved around, “Oh, his little experiment didn’t work, other than making me feel like my whole body was being pulled out of my butt from the inside out. It didn’t look like he was feeling any better since he stumbled back into the shelf behind you, and then a box filled up with you and all those other Cores fell off the top of the shelf and spilled out in midair.”

  She thumped her fist down on the table. “Crack! You smashed into the top of his head hard enough to make a nice crunching sound as you put a dent in his skull, killing him, and freeing up the Chaos from all his levels. Some of which I got a hold of.”

  The hand gave me a thumbs up. “It was enough to advance me to Tier three as soon as I’m not trapped in a cage too small for my new, larger size. So thanks for that.”

  I was a Core, from a Beast… “So I absorbed the rest of the processed Chaos since I was a Core?”

  She laughed again, “No! It doesn't work like… that… can it work like that? It’s the Beasts that absorb things into their Cores, but then I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anyone getting killed by a Core…”

  The Fairy’s voice drifted off and I tried to get her back on track. “Well, somehow killing Nictob made me a Living Core. Maybe because I was caught up in whatever he was trying to do to you? But I’m a person now, so what do I do?”

  Her hand pulled back. “Well right now, you should have the Child class, and you might be able to level it up, at least until you’re old enough for your Awakening Day when you get to choose a higher ranked class and you’re done with the starting rank Child class.”

  “...I’m a rock. How old could I possibly need to be?”

  She reached out so I could see her snap a finger at me. “No sass! I’m just a Tier Two Glade Fairy. I’m just as in the dark as you are. Just go to sleep… Right, you’re a rock. How are you going to sleep to access your Class Log?”

  Snapping her finger again she began to think out loud. “Oh, you should still have notices and can access them by looking at the flashing light in the corner… of your eye… And you don’t have eyes. Sorry”

  A flashing light? Like the rest of the room, I could see the mostly dark spot underneath me, which I now knew for a fact to be slightly lit up with a dim red light where the various glowing crystals sitting in fixtures around the room were shining through my orangish red crystal body.

  “I see something flashing. What do I do now?”

  The hand began flapping up and down in excitement. “Oh! Oh! Just say notices!”

  “Notices?”