Edited by: tommyjl7

It has been an hour since the moment I had summoned the pale lady. It has been an hour since the body of Johann fell lifeless in the chair. I haven’t been just sitting there all this time, no. Instead, I have been preparing mentally for a journey to the other side. I’ve already been several times in the afterlife-planes of existences, but never because of my own free will. All the previous times I was forcefully dragged in by goddesses, mostly for their own amusement - I am talking about you, Heira.

As I became an Oracle I was told to be given an ability to via meditation enter plane of Evergreen, though I knew it will be an extreme burden for my mind and soul. That’s why I was preparing myself.

Nothing complex, just like a stretching before a workout helps you to avoid muscle damages, just as meditation and mind-exercises should at least prepare me for what is going to happen. In the end, the pale lady said it by herself - the living do not belong to the world of the dead.

I took the most comfortable stance sitting on the floor resting my back over the wall. Breath in, breath out.

Let’s do this.

I have cleared my head and entered a meditative state. All unimportant thoughts left my head leaving me with peaceful emptiness - serenity.

And as always, I could see and sense my body in the ways that normally were impossible. I felt blood - every single drop of it - peacefully traveling via my veins - just like it was supposed to be. I felt the air circulating in my body, every single cell alone. It was almost as if I was standing outside of my body inspecting it, just like you inspect a computer.

Everything was working fine here, so I stepped “outside” of my own mind and looked over the surroundings.

And just like always, I saw the magic and life circulating in the whole room. I saw the tiniest spirits dancing in the cracks between worlds filling our reality with magic. I saw every little insect, spider, and bug living in the corners of the cellar, and I saw the body of Johann - so alive yet dead at the same time.

Every function of his body was working properly. His lungs kept filling the body with oxygen, his veins kept transporting the blood, his brain was still working… yet extremely slow. Every higher-function was “turned-off”, his brain, instead of sparkling with blue-afterglow, was almost completely greyed out. Only the parts of his brain responsible for keeping the body alive were still working.

Meditation - the tool that allows one to see new aspects of oneself and the reality that surrounds him - I was about to push its borders onward - to use it to crack via rifts of reality. I located such a rift - crack - whatever.

Something that up until now was hidden from my inner eyes. It was like a very narrow, vertical slit in the very tissue of this reality - the gate between words, the gate that spirits used to pass from their world into ours.

The greater of a spiritual existence you are, the harder it is to pass through those rifts, this is why devils and angels can’t pass through them on their own, they need something or someone who would help them to cross it.

I walked toward it, leaned my whole existence against it, and pushed onward.

It was painful, like pushing your whole body against a very narrow passage filled with broken glass and nails. The sensation was similar to the process of forceful mana-veins opening - in other words - traumatizing.

I felt the mind-spikes being pushed into my essence, like nails being hammered into the brain, the headache I felt was so terrible, that simply putting it into words couldn’t describe the agony. It was like my brain was cooked and later someone decided to shove a spoon into it an energetically mix the content. If I had a body, I would have puked.

The concept of time become meaningless, which means that my agony lasted both a split second and an eternity. I had no idea how long the passage was, yet the idea of turning back and crossing the same agonizing path again was even more horrible than the idea of pushing onward, without even knowing where my destination was.

The pain ended suddenly, without a warning, and was almost as great a shock as the pain itself. In one moment, I was being squeezed, made smaller and smaller up to the point I actually started hoping that I would stop existing, and in the other, my lungs were filling with a cold, refreshing, almost painful breeze, which brought a comfort to my body.

Yes, I said lungs and body, because suddenly I was in material form again. Or at least, it was my avatar in the realm of the gods. I looked and felt everything, just like a normal person.

I looked around.

The Evergreen was like the most beautiful field one could imagine, with a fresh, green forest in a distance and a river making lazy splashing sounds in the distance. A paradise, a garden of Eden.

If that’s the place we are going after death, it’s not that horrible at all. It’s the kind of place where you can easily forget about all of the concerns of the mortality. To forget oneself.

From a distance, I heard a cheerful laugh. Looking around I spotted a group of dead people. All were looking like beautiful young folk, clothed in white togas hanging over one shoulder. They were eating and chatting happily with their feet in the river. I stepped to them.

“E-excuse me…” I started shyly. I had no idea how to talk with dead-people - atop of that in their own realm. I didn’t even know if they were aware of me nor if they could see me.

Yet, they did. Their eyes slowly followed in my direction, the shock on their faces was quickly replaced by kindness and politeness.

“Our greetings, oh walking-among-dead. Please, feel free to join us, rest and feast with us. Our home is your home.” “I am very grateful for your offer, yet I came here with a mission very dire, would you know where I can find Aira?” “Living. Always in such a hurry. Always in a rush...” the specter sadly shook her head “... yet, you would eventually come here and rest with us… Very well, the Mother rests where all paths follow, where the backwood is strong and the world is calm.”

Yeaaaah. Helpful.

Apparently, my expression betrayed my confusion, for all the dead men burst into laughter.

“Just messing with you. Follow the path to the forest. She should be in the clearing in the center. We can’t be sure though, we never walked there. We had no reason to.” “R-right. Thank you for your help.” “Absolutely no problem, pal. If ya had any more question, you know where to find us!” a male specter raised a cup filled most likely with a wine in my direction in both greeting and farewell.

I resumed my journey through the spirit realm. With every passing moment, I got more and more adapted to this place. I started hearing more sounds and I started feeling more. It all started with a sound of cicadas and crickets playing their music in the distance and with the warmness of a sun. Suddenly, I become so very tired and every tree I passed started luring me under its branches offering a well-earned rest.

Later. I will have time for rest later. As soon as I would deal with my businesses here, I will rest as much as I want, for now, onward… onward.

I forced myself to make step after step, though suddenly gravity appeared to drag me into the grass more and more. I didn’t answer the call of other dead men I passed on my journey, as I simply was so focused on battling with the exhaustion, that I didn’t even notice that they were calling me; now I noticed how scenery slowly changed from fields to the forest, and forest to the deep, dark backwoods.

It was so calm here, so wet and dark that all I wanted to do was to just lay on the moss and close my eyes.I actually had to pick some fallen branch and use it as a staff to help me not-to-collapse.

“...but at the end, everything went smoothly, I am telling you, I do love my children, but those Leviathans are really starting to give me a headache!” “And whose fault is that? Mind remembering who made them into monsters meant to splash the water from the oceans and move the mountains?! You filled them with tremendous amounts of energy and power in order to make them help you reshape this world. You pretty much gave them ADHD and now you are bitching about how you can’t handle them!”

Another cheerful laugh, so beautiful, ringing like thousands of bells.

“Oh, Aira, I think you have a visitor.” the pale lady noticed.

Somehow, I managed to focus my gaze. In the middle of the clearing, filled with hundreds of flowers, around which bees were buzzing in a hypnotizing dance a single table was raised. Or should I say that a tree which took the shape of a table with several chairs was raised.

“Oh! Zari! You FINALLY made it!” Elvish like beauty sitting on one of such chair put an extremely strong accent on making an obvious suggestion that she is mad that I didn’t come to her right after gaining the power to do so. “Sorry, I’ve been busy.” I apologize with a sad smile. “Oh, no, forget about this, in the end, I am just a goddess!” she pouted puffing her cheeks in anger. Hearing her complaints the pale lady chuckled. “Come on, Aira…” Mortis took my side “...you know that mortals are always busy, they live only for the blink of an eye, so they try to make best out of this blink…” “Not to mention that I was busy with tasks you burdened me with… Pardon me, I meant - blessed.” I added quietly “Whatever! Just sit here already!” I could clearly see that she was happy, just pretending to be mad in order to make me spoil her while I would try to apologize for crimes I never commited. “...Want to have some tea? Biscuits?” she offered after a moment.

That’s what I noticed in next moment. On the tree-table, a dozen different treats were served. The goddesses decided to have a picnic. On the one hand, I couldn’t imagine Jesus and Odhin from my previous world having a tea-gossip party like this one, on the other, the two ladies appear way more adorable than before. And they already were plenty adorable!!!

I did what I was told to do and served myself a cup of black coffee.

“Hope this will wake me up…” I added under my nose “It won’t.” Mortis and Aira said and unison before looking at each other and bursting into laughter. “Why is that so?” “You are tired not because you are physically fatigued, but because being here on your own is a burden to your mind - in other words, you are still mentally too weak, work on your mind-stamina, then you will be able to spend more… time… here, though the word time is irrelevant, oh, let me rephrase myself - the stronger your mentality, the more things and events you would be able to experience before reaching your limit. Then, you will fall asleep.” Mortis decided to explain

I would fall asleep in the realm of the dead, that does not sound good.

“And what would it mean for me?” I asked with a concern in my voice “Nothing, really, you would just wake up with a really nasty hangover.” Aira finished cheerfully.

I exhaled air loudly.

“Sooo, what do I owe the honor of your presence?” Aira asked pouring herself another cup of amber-like tea “... do you want something in particular, or…”

She didn’t finish her question, just raised a brow in anticipation for my answer. Well, I came here in order to check how Johann is doing, but if I would admit that, she would get mad again.

“Oh, I am very sorry, I didn’t know I need a reason to see you.” I said with a sad tone “... I should have known that you are busy, even now you are already hosting another god. I don’t really want anything, just thought that maybe for once I would be the one to come to you…” “Oh, so your visit is not connected to the certain soul you sent here recently?” she didn’t believe me at all. “But I did wanted to check on him, but only as I would be leaving, yet I am far from claiming I am here just for him…”

The goddesses exchanged gazes once again, smiling with a corner of their lips. They didn’t buy it.

“Quite a talker, isn’t he?” Green-haired avatar of Lover said with a sly expression. “I must admit, I was almost convinced!” “Now, I am just offended!” I decided to keep on playing, though now even I allowed myself for some theatrical sighs and voice modulation. “... Honestly, if my presence is a burden, I may just leave and…” “Cake?” Aira didn’t let me finish as she passed me a piece of chocolate treat on two crossed silver knives. “Yes, please.” I helped her by stretching hand with a plate in her direction. “He is fine…” goddess said after a moment “... actually, you can see that yourself… Johann! Sweety, don’t be shy! Come here!”

My senses here were greatly dulled, so I didn’t notice a man hiding few dozen meters away in a shadow of trees. He didn’t walk to us, you couldn’t call it walking. Acting more like a frightened animal, he slowly sneaked to us while trying to avoid being in my vision range. He wasn’t violent, though he was far from acting normally.

“There is still a long way to go, I tried sending him into groups of other resting souls, here, he lives completely without violence, so slowly he got a bit more trusting… He even started answering, they have to have done something to him, for he is still not talking, but nodding or shaking his head is already a progress… Isn’t it, Johann? Who is making great progress?”

A huge, colossal man smiled shyly which was almost a grotesque sight.

“Go on, don’t be shy! This man here is the one that sent you here!... he is still quite confused when a stranger approaches him… damn, he is like a puppy!” her eyes show how concerned she was.

After a moment she stood up, got closer to Johann and pulled him closer into a tight hug

“My poor, poor child. Such a horrible things happened to you.” Aira whispered while petting his head. After a moment her gaze turned back to me “...Zari, I do have a favor to ask…” willinglessly I grimaced “...oh, don’t act like this! It’s all regarding this poor man. You see, I am trying my best to use all the spare time I have to keep an eye on him, interact with him and turn him back into what he once was.... but everyone that lives here is either a spirit, a deity or a dead-man. The more time he spends with us the smaller chances that he would be able to regain his sanity and go back. You will have to visit us as often as possible… or using your world criterias - every few hour to spend time with him… or, as you said it, to hammer his sanity back to him. I can only close his wounds, but you are the one that needs to watch over his scars.” “That’s… you already did more than I was expecting. Aira… Thank you.” “Oh, don’t mention it! Our relationship is beneficial for both of us!” she quickly shakes her head as if it was nothing. “But why can’t I… Can’t I… Ca…” suddenly something changed. The world started spinning. “Why can’t you start playing with little Johann right now?...” Aira guessed my question “... you should know your limits, Zari, you have used the whole time you could spend here. Time for you to fall asleep.”

The sky and ground rotated, my eyelids become heavy and shut themselves without my will. The world around me was spinning, it was just like lying in bed while being dead drunk.

Then I have once again opened my eyes, I was back in the cellar. I look up, down, left, right, I collapsed on the floor and thrown up. Just like the goddess said. The worst hangover in my life.