Cutscene (Fortuna) was authored by Faria Lyton as a part of Co-Op Mode. This chapter is reposted as part of A Bug in the Game with permission.
Cutscene (Fortuna)
My name is Contessa. An accident worlds away from here robbed a fell godling of Her Foresight and granted it to me. As Her tainted presence killed and warped my friends and family, everyone I'd ever known, and ripped holes between the very worlds, I attacked Her with a mere shard of metal pretending to be a knife. As I was about to end the twisted deity's foul existence, Her dark magic sealed a fraction of the Sight from me - the fraction that allowed me to see Her and Her only weakness.
Still, I was able to guide the hand of another to reduce Her to something between alive and dead with the memory of the one moment I knew when and where to strike Her. Even with Her threat ended, the instant of unfettered clarity before She shackled me had shown me another threat. This monstrous divinity was not alone. She had a mate. I had only ended Her threat. Not His.
The hand I guided offered to guide me as my visions, my Path, guides her in return. Between the two of us, we have raised an army empowered by strength stolen from Her voluminous corpse. We call ourselves Cauldron. Ever we refine our methods, increasing the survivability of our potions, and the sheer power granted to our tools.
I have walked a strange and bloody Path. Each step is only shown to me as the time comes, but my Path has never failed me, so I refuse to fail it. A marble dropped here. A faucet repaired there. An infant sundered in his mother's arms. I need not know why, only that my Path is bringing me one step closer to His death.
My Path is long. It has been nearly twenty years since I began this Path. Any doubts I ever may have had in my Path have now been washed away by the flood of proof it has given me. And the torrents of blood I have shed following it. There is no leaving my Path now.
Sometimes there are hours between steps, when I can pursue my own amusements. Sometimes the Path itself guides me to rest. And sometimes the Path occupies my every moment, keeping me active for days on end.
This Path has changed under my feet at times. For all the power of my Path, humans are chaotic. Sometimes, I must visit the same small place, a room or a yard or a park, insignificant in the greater world, three or four times. I can only assume that the petty humans have resisted the guidance of my Path. Sometimes, the number of steps left in the Path changes, and I know not why. Once, the number of steps fluctuated wildly for hours, rising and falling by the thousands and tens of thousands hundreds of times in a matter of seconds. The number settled, only slightly higher than before, but the new steps burned bright in my mind. Something was different about those steps. They were not to come due soon, but I was more aware of their coming than even the step just past the one I was on.
One day, my Path led me to steal a boy's pornography, water a petunia, and push a rather large man in front of a bus. And then the pivotal steps finally came. I purchased a newspaper and stood by a dumpster waiting for the next of these troubling few steps. The newspaper was sharply thrust between the spokes of a passing bicycle, throwing the youth on it several feet before he landed on his arm, skidded a few more feet, and collapsed. The next step brought my only true treasure into my hand. God-slayer, the only memento I have my homeworld, my birth-family. The shard-blade my mother had gifted me with, the primitive knife which slew Her. I knew the next step even before the Path told me. While the boy was insensate, I was to end him in the same way I was to end Her. The Pivotal Step Burned In My Mind. Take the primitive tool of my homeworld, and thrust it into the base of his skull. The clarity of this one vital step has only been matched by the potency of the Vision I had as a child, before She crippled me in Her last minute.
Do it. Kill him.
Don't. Embrace Life.
Not a step, but… a Choice? The boy groaned, and shifted. There was no time to wait. I lifted my hand, knife at the ready. This boy, this child, had plagued me for… exactly fifteen years, since just over two years since our pawns formed the Protectorate, weighing unnaturally on my Path. It was time to end the aberration. Just a little more blood on my Path.
Maybe it was the reminder of being a child myself, and maybe it was the Choice. But for the first time in nearly two decades, I hesitated. And thus my Choice was made. The Path of Blood I had walked for so long shattered.
My eyes were opened to the monster I had become, the monsters I had surrounded myself with, the monsters we had made and protected. I fled before the boy could see me, freely crying for the first time since my Path began. I needed to know how to fix it. And the Path of Life grew before me, showed me how to correct the damage I had done, and how the world could still be saved.
This new Path confounded me. I knew where my first Path came from, but this Path... As if in response to the question, I was guided to an old forest in the wilderness. For three days I lived from the land, eating and drinking from the natural bounty before me. Then I was led to an ancient tree and rested beneath it.
My dreams took me back to my old life. I'd been a girl among a poor and ignorant people. We had gods, none of whom I held to. The men had many: the Warrior God, the Storm God, the Forge God, and others. Women had few. The Hearth Goddess and the Lust Goddess, both minor. There was only one true Goddess for women - the Mother Goddess. She-Who-Is-The-World, Goddess of Life and Renewal. I had been blind. The technological marvels of the world I lived in now made my past life look crude and ignorant. I'd accepted 'aliens' and 'entities' over 'gods' and 'magic'. And now I knew the truth was so much more than that. I'd fought a demon with its own power, but tainted myself. It was time to embrace life. She-Who-Is-The-World has called me.
Since then, I have spent every day repairing the damage I caused while following the tainted Path She gave me. She-Who-Is-The-World has given me a new Path, and the blood of the innocent has never stained this Path, and I cannot believe it ever will. And yet, I just know that this Path will still lead to His demise.
My Path is clearer than ever before, and now I can feel how much longer I will walk it, but it is still long, strange, and chaotic. Thousands of steps remain, but each step is a delight, instead of a burden. I still perform the most inane tasks with no understanding of why I do, but now they encourage life, rather than death. Blunt a blade, push an injured woman into a freezing creek, scratch the inside of a weapon's barrel. And one particular step seems to keep recurring, like a dance with a stubborn partner. Enter a girl's room, and tamper with a coded notebook. I have no idea what the effect is supposed to be, but whatever it is, I hope she accepts the guidance soon. I am... uncomfortable being so close to where I was given my True Path.
But for all the good I am doing now, for all that I have put aside the monster I was, I know there is more to do, and no redemption for one such as I, soaked in blood from a Demon's Path. I will perform my duties. I will save the world. I will destroy the evil I helped create.
My name is Fortuna. There are 5,023 steps, or 2 years 2 months and 16 days left until the world is safe. On that last day, the last step. Cauldron will burn and, by my choice, I with it.
Note from HP: Personally I'm not very fond of Contessa. I regard her as a walking, talking deus ex machina that Wildbow used to justify his dystopian world and Cauldron's place at the center of it. She's also a thorn in the side of any fanfiction writer who wants to write in the Worm universe, because any character that is too successful has to deal with Contessa. That's why so many fanfiction writers have their protagonist no sell Contessa. However, I like this interlude. It changes the story from a two-point departure: (1) James Barron exists and has The Gamer ability (2) Taylor chooses to be Lady Bug, into a single point of departure: a meddling Gaia exists. While my original concept of Lady Bug didn't need Contessa's interfence, this cutscene is a better solution. It tidies things up while dealing with the problem that is Contessa in a unique way. So, huge kudos to Faria Lyton for this chapter.