"Talking"

Emphasis

Thoughts

*Sound Effects*

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Two strangers stood face to face in a desolate, eerie world. One, whose form was much taller, licked her lips as though she'd found some juicy prey. The other looked on with indifference to her current unbelievable predicament. Neither flinched as massive structures fell from the sky, plummeting into nearby terrain. While debris clouded their gaze on one another, the taller woman let out an awkward sigh and waved her hand nonchalantly. In moments the world was serene, desolace had become paradise.

"Normally a mortal would be pretty shocked now... right?" she cocked her head and gave the smaller woman a sidelong glance.

Shorty just shrugged it off, "A dying woman sees many dreams, this isn't a bad one."

*pft-hahahahaha* "This isn't a dream at all, shall I prove it?" she pulled out a spring onion while grinning maliciously, "I hear it cures the common cold and shocks the living daylights out of most mortals... really the things you people do."

Did I have such tendencies? The smaller woman wildly waved her hands in submission, "I'll have to pass on that, are you really a goddess?" she asked.

The taller woman puffed out her chest and tossed the malicious tool aside, "That special ability of yours to glean information from everything is why I've come to see a mortal. Normally I would have just written you off as a passing interest, but I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw visual psychometry being used. Even identifying me as a goddess, that's an odd ability you've been gifted, child of man."

The middle aged, mortal woman took a few steps forward, "I never asked for these eyes, come to take them away?"

"Wrong! I've come because that pesky soul, Elisabeth, got on my nerves."

The middle aged woman's eyes widened as she fell to one knee. "Elisabeth, is alive!?" her cold eyes now had fire in them.

The goddess gave off a slightly annoyed glare, "I did just call her a soul, didn't I?"

Reigning in a multitude of conflicting emotions the woman spoke up once more, "How is she?"

Her features softened slightly, "As with any other soul, spending her hundred years in paradise awaiting reincarnation... The problem is that instead of enjoying paradise the child has spent all of her time gazing back towards your world, towards you."

The warm embrace of long lost hope filled her heart, "My days are numbered here... will we be together again?"

"No, you won't," the goddess didn't hold back.

"Why!?" she yelled out, sorrow overcoming hope as tears began to flow. "After everything that's happened, why not?"

"Because you went and did some rather bad things, I shouldn't have to explain exactly where your soul is bound for..."

The woman scoffed, "I don't regret any of it. At least I didn't until now, if I'd known there was an afterlife, with my daughter... I would never have become like this."

"I know and Elisabeth knows, so... after years of annoying, endless nagging she convinced me to find a loophole. Your daughter is rather tenacious Noel." The goddess sighed and rubbed her bottom while remembering some troubling antics, spring onion treatment shocks everyone, not just mortals...

Noel let out a slight laugh, "Elisabeth can be quite the pest can't she?"

Ignoring her comment the goddess began to explain, "You're dying a slow death, in a few short months all of your deeds would fall upon your soul for judgement. You've done a lot of good, sure, but your methods have been questionable at best. Results, don't change the actions you took to get them. So how about this," a malicious grin plastered across her face as she pointed a finger towards Noel's chest, "I'll take your soul out of commission early, before your time. You'll be reborn and given the chance to, how should I put it, tip the scales in your favor."

Noel frowned, "I've done a lot of unspeakable, sometimes cruel things, it would take a lifetime to even hope of saving my soul. By then Elisabeth's hundred years may very well be nearly over."

The goddess smiled gleefully, "So you caught that part, well you're right. Even if you succeed, the reward wouldn't last very long..."

Noel shouted without hesitation, "Any time is better than nothing, even if I had to wait a thousand years, do it!"

The goddess chuckled and held up both of her hands, "Now, now, calm down for a second there, I haven't finished yet. Those books you worked on as a proofreader during your stay at the local hospital, did you pay close attention?" Noel gave her a slightly inquisitive gaze before nodding, "Good because I'm the one who wrote them!" she announced proudly. "Believe it or not I'm sending you to another world, yes there is more than one world. In this world I'll be sure to place you in a way that gives the potential to live more than a hundred years. Survive Noel, wipe your slate clean, and gain a long life. Do these things, redeem your soul, then after eighty-six years have a child." Noel's eyes widened as she understood what the goddess was implying, "I'll have your daughter reincarnate, memories intact, the good and the bad, all of it."

"How should I begin to redeem my soul!?"

The goddess chuckled ruefully, "Obviously, let your morals guide you, don't eat babies, you know that sort of thing. Otherwise just have fun, gods tend to enjoy watching an entertaining mortal, especially one with your... promiscuity. The quickest way to redemption is unfortunately through the gods, evil stains your soul, just doing good may not be enough. However, from what Elisabeth has told me, she gets her roguish behavior from her mother..." she gave Noel another slight glare. "You should do fine."

A smile graced her delicate, well aged visage, "Thank you, Airi."

The goddess, Airi, looked up at her in shock. "The eyes tell you more than I thought Noel, put them to good use in your next life as well... I have your permission?"

"Of course you do... about the woman I was sleeping with, is she about to wake up next to a corpse?"

"Don't worry about it, that was me in mortal form," Noel's jaw dropped at that comment. "Thanks for that by the way, its been ages since I actually enjoyed... you're quite... the way you... mmmmmnn..." Airi was giving Noel a pair of irresistible puppy dog eyes at this point...

Much, much, much later....

Airi let out a content sigh and muttered under her breathe, "hell of a ride." Noel desperately tried to put the fact that this person is a goddess out of her mind. Once again they stood facing one another, Airi began to speak, "Elisabeth wanted me to tell you she'll be having fun in paradise." Noel smiled vacantly as Airi pulled another spring onion out. "This is the only way Noel, forgive me," she claimed in a melodramatic voice.

Noel's eyes went wide as her smile contorted with a mix of fear and jubilation, "Oh-nononono hold on, wait, wait, wait, oh god please wait!"

Airi gave her one last malicious grin while tossing the onion away, "Just kidding, but this will hurt, a soul isn't meant to be torn from the body before death after all."

Noel's sigh of relief only lasted for a brief moment as an ethereal hand violently tore through her chest.

*GRAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!*

Noel's final thoughts as her consciousness faded surprised even herself, I'd have preferred the onion...

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