Jinn, the Spirit of Knowledge
When Aqua emerged through the door she was blinded for a second but then the light cleared and she was standing at a crossroad of sorts on top of a crystalline platform, the sky completely black, leading off in four different directions.
A desert.
A grassy plain.
A lake.
And a temple atop a mountain.
Where was she supposed to find these spirits Drasil spoke of?
She noticed the path in front of her led directly to the desert and sighed, deciding she would just take the easiest route first and decide where to go from there. She began walking, coming upon the desert very quickly as if she had already been there. She looked down and saw a stony path and followed it, eventually coming upon a large cave. The tunnel was lit up glowing crystals similar to the tree she had entered and at the very end she came upon a massive space.
All around her were buildings made of translucent blue crystals covered in various runes.
"Well, what do we have here?"
Aqua looked ahead and saw a woman sitting on a throne overlooking the entire city.
At least it looked like a woman but she actually resembled Drasil.
She looked human but was larger; her skin light blue like Drasil's that was glowing and gave off smoke. She had elongated, pointed ears and even thought she was naked she appeared to lack human anatomy that would be found on a normal woman. Her eyes were dark blue in the sclera and light blue in the irises like Drasil. Trailing below her waist was a veil of whip like smoke resembling a skirt or a dress.
She wore no clothing but had on various accessories, all of which were gold, such as a chain headdress, big hooped earrings with an extra hearing in the right ear, a choker, cuffs on her wrists with chains dangling from them like broken shackles, a single bracelet on her left forearm, anklets, and a belt of chains around her waist that ended in a large ring with three prongs.
She floated off her chair and slowly flew towards Aqua who kept a wary look on her but didn't summon her Keyblade. "No need to fear me. I am Jinn, a being created by the God of Light to aid humanity in its pursuit of knowledge." She gestured to the surrounding crystals, all of them showing places, people and events happening all at the same time. "Here I see all and know all…Except how you got here."
The being known as Jinn suddenly stopped with an inquisitive look on her face now. "Of course, me being summoned to aid in finding said knowledge only happens when someone summons me to the mortal realm from my lamp to ask me one of three questions. How you are here is interesting."
"I…I was told to come here by someone named Drasil. She said you could answer my questions." Aqua explained.
"Drasil…So she sent you to me." Jinn smiled as she floated around Aqua. "How rare it is for someone to appear in her realm."
"I have questions that I need answered. I need to understand why I am here." Aqua said, watching as the spirit hovered around and then stopped right in front.
"Well, I am supposed to answer only three questions every one hundred years but that only applies when mortals summon me from my lamp. But since you are here, directly in my realm I can bend those rules a bit." Jinn said, leaning forward while resting her chin on one arm and her cheek on her free hand. "So I will answer three questions you ask of me."
Aqua considered this proposal for a moment and nodded. "All right."
"Well, ask away." Jinn gestured.
"…What is this world?" Aqua asked, deciding to ask the question that was at top of her mental list.
"Well, that is a long story. It is a world that has been created and has created life." Jinn said as their surroundings began to change.
Aqua watched as everything became a deep black void before a single light appeared, forming into the very tree she had seen upon arriving.
"Long ago, there was only the Tree. And then two Brothers were born. They were highly ambitious, using destruction to cleanse the land and then creation to start anew. However the world could not handle it and thus the two Brothers were sent out into the great beyond." Jinn's voice echoed as Aqua was shown two dragons, one a long serpent dragon glowing brightly with eyes shining with a deep light and the other was a four legged dragon with wings that emitted a dark purple glow Aqua felt was deeply associated with darkness. "These new beings, the God of Light and the God of Darkness, would leave to create many new things. Thus, they chose to create a new world together."
The new dragons came together and took humanoid forms before bringing their hands together. Together a single orb of light appeared and grew, engulfing them and Aqua who covered her eyes. When she opened her eyes, she was standing on the empty plain of a newborn world. The sky was now lit up with light from stars and a sun began to rise.
"When the sun rose, the God of Light would awaken and would spend his days creating forces of life. Plants, animals, water."
A garden grew around Aqua, followed by rivers and animals that together created a landscape of such beauty that not even the greatest artist could ever hope to capture as the God of Light appeared over the water.
"When night came, the God of Light would sleep and his new brother, the God of Darkness awoke."
Aqua watched as the God of Light sank into the water and the God of Darkness appeared next.
"Disgusted, the God of Darkness brought the forces of destruction to counter his brother's creations."
The beautiful landscape was then burned away, leaving nothing but scorched ground, death and decay.
"Despite his efforts, life would always return to the world. Thus one night, the God of Darkness would create a force that would share his taste for destruction."
The God of Darkness spread his arms out and behind him, creatures made of what could only be described as darkness with eyes glowing the color of blood appeared. They reminded Aqua uncomfortably of the Unversed.
"These were made to be the ultimate harbingers of destruction that would destroy anything and everything. Finally, the God of Light decided that they should not fight anymore and make peace by creating something together. The God of Darkness agreed and together they would create a new form of life that was gifted with knowledge, self-awareness, fear and the comprehension of life and death while having free will and the power to decide what to do with that knowledge."
Before Aqua's eyes the Gods of Light and Darkness came together and formed…Humans?
"This new creation, Humanity was blessed by the Gods but they were also tested many times. The God of Darkness would test their limits and creativity by sending its children to face them. This would lead to another conflict with his brother and both reached a seeming agreement. Despite it, the God of Darkness would continue creating more of its children in many different forms while at the same type, gifting mankind with magic while the God of Light gave them a secret gift to fight against his brother's creations." Jinn then showed the very island with the massive tree where Aqua had landed. "To gift humanity with magic that could be passed down to their offspring, the Gods created a connection between world of the tree and their new world where the source would give humanity its magic by using their souls as the link: Yggdrasil."
Aqua then looked up at the tree as ethereal roots grew from it and reached out across the worlds, connecting with the people on their world while her eyes widened at the name. 'Yggdrasil…Drasil!'
"The Tree was gifted with life itself, connected with the souls of mankind and thus was embodied with the very ideals that the Gods gave their creations. Through knowledge it gained intelligence, through choice it gave self-awareness and through the ability to create and destroy it understood the nature of the power it was gifting the children of the Gods. And because of that, other forms of life would be born. Spirits, beasts and many others were born in mankind's world, the source's world and were given other worlds to exist on when some were considered dangerous to the humans." Jinn continued, now highlighting sections of the tree. "Separated but still connected. For the spirits such as me, we were given the world known to mortals as Fantasias which is where you are now."
The top of the tree was highlighted next.
"The very top of the tree leads to Aesir, the realm of the God of Light."
She then skipped the second which was Fantasias and highlighted the third section.
"The next is the mid-realm, known better now as Remnant."
"Remnant?" Aqua whispered in confusion as Jinn highlighted the fourth section.
"Next we have the realm of the beasts. Creatures that were not animals but other forms of life the gods created before they created humanity. It is also called the Demon Realm and also home to the Elemental spirits of Ice." Jinn continued and highlighted the next section. "This is land of shadow, the domain of the God of Darkness."
Aqua looked at the section of the tree that led to the realm of the God of Darkness as Jinn moved on.
"Then we have the realms of Earth and Fire, home of the elemental spirits of Earth and Fire."
Aqua wasn't sure what to make of that.
"And finally, the land of the dead." Jinn finished, surprising Aqua. "Thus the nine realms created by the gods as part of their grand experiment."
The images faded, returning back to Jinn's sanctuary as the spirit of knowledge sat back on her thrown. "There, does that answer your first question?"
Aqua took a moment to compose herself, taking a deep breath before answering. "It did."
"Good. Now you have two more questions." Jinn reminded her coyly.
Aqua closed her eyes, thinking of her next question carefully. "How did I get here?"
"Hmm…" Jinn leaned forward with a fascinating look on her face. "Well, that is a good question."
Jinn hovered forward, looking closely at Aqua who took a step back as the spirit of knowledge leaned in to take a closer look at her.
"You come from outside this world. You fell to the Ever After is connected to all the other worlds made by the gods. So you are not of the Tree or the gods' creation." Jinn stated.
"My name is Aqua. I come from…the Realm of Light." Aqua said as Jinn hovered around her. "I fell here when I fell into darkness. Does this mean this place is part of the Realm of Darkness?"
"Hmm…Close but I'm afraid the light and darkness aren't dictating control here, little one." Jinn answered. "In fact both have more or less forsaken the other realms. From what I can see, you fell between the realms of light and darkness into Drasil who exists in between these realms and yet is isolated from them. I am the Spirit of Knowledge but I can only questions pertaining to this reality, not outside it."
Aqua thought this over as best as she could. So she was in a world between the realms of light and darkness that was connected to several other worlds or they were all part of the same world created by these gods like how the Olympic Coliseum which was part of the world known as Greece was connected to Olympus, home of the gods and the Underworld, the land of the dead. Drasil was the connection to these worlds who brought her to Jinn for answers. So far she was keeping up with what she had learned but there was still one more question.
"My final question," Aqua looked up at Jinn. "How do I leave and return to my world?"
She may have her master's Keyblade but she couldn't access its glider form, if it even had one. And without a glider or her armor she was stranded.
Jinn leaned forward with an ominous smile. "…You can't."
She could see Aqua's go wide in shock, trying to process what she meant. She thought she could leave it at that but this wasn't the mortal realm where she could retreat back into her lamp. It's unlikely she would leave if her question was left with such a vague answer like that.
"I see that you are confused. While I will not answer another question I am allowed to elaborate. You are unable to leave because you do not have the power to do so. Your weapon, I know it has the power to traverse worlds or it should but the one you have does not have the power to allow you to leave." Jinn explained. "But perhaps there is someone here who can help you. A fellow spirit, who unlike me is capable of creating a way to return to your world. His name is Ambrosius, the Spirit of Creation and his realm dwells next to mine."
