We tried out this new form of communication for a while, quickly figuring out that we could send a lot more than a simple message.

I sent to the other swirly cloud.

Mark replied.

I blinked (nope, still no eyes) and turned my attention back to the sharply dressed man in front of us. Yep, that was DEFINITELY Mark, so time to move onto other things.

-----------------

After asking our nerdy CEO guy we got a bit more information.

“Ahhh, well it’s a bit complicated. Souls… ahhhh… well souls don’t really have a power source, so… wait… oh geeze I don’t know…” He paused for a moment as we stared (perceived) blankly at him. “Well, ahhh, I guess we can say I used my own power to make you able to interact? But only with each other!” He hastily added.

All this accomplished was to make us even more confused than we were before, but after an exasperating back and forth with the CEO we were able to get some answers. Souls just existed, and weren’t able to interact with ANYTHING unless given form by an outside source – such as being reborn and given a body, for example. Alternately, a powerful enough being could give them temporary form, such as what we experienced when we woke up in those rooms. It turns out that the CEO guy made the room-garden-space for us to try and ease the transition.

This put things in a different perspective: not only was this guy apparently pretty damn powerful (I assume), but he was being awfully nice to us. I figured maybe I should be a bit more polite in return.

-----------------

Mark seemed pretty comfortable as a cloud, but I kind of wanted a body back so I asked the CEO and he complied with a nod and a smile. Whew, much better. We still couldn’t speak, but moving around felt a bit less confusing.

He then told us that he was assigned to welcome us to the Overworld, as he called it. Having over a hundred thousand Karma points made us VIPs since we would be reincarnated in the Celestial class. He let us know he was a Celestial himself, and in fact had been assigned to our Earth (among several hundred others) since about halfway through the Jurassic period.

As you can imagine, this blew our minds pretty hard. I’m pretty sure that if my body was real I would have fallen over. He told us that there were trillions of Outer Circle Worlds (of which Earth was one), thousands of Inner Circle Worlds (some kind of super-planets that were not always actually planets), 12 Divine worlds, and an Infinite Celestial Plane. There was more to it than that, but he was intentionally vague and I was having trouble focusing at this point.

Apparently positive and negative Karma had been at war with each other… well, since Forever. The idea behind the Overworld was to collect souls with positive Karma and put them back into the system. Sounded kind of like forced army recruiting to me, but at this point I wasn’t about to complain.

We finally asked him his name, and he told us that Nerdy CEO was fine because he already had thousands of names across hundreds of worlds. We didn’t ask anymore, but we became more and more polite as the conversation went on. He stayed the same.

“So, ahhhh, well… if it’s ok with you guys, I kinda have a few million people to get to today.” He held up his hands, “Ahhh, but only if you feel ready” He sent, a worried look on his face.

sent Mark.

I asked.

“Ohhh man oh jeeze, I forgot again, I’m so sorry guys!” Sent the Supreme Overlord Nerdy CEO of the World. He cringed, “Ahhh, well… usually your memories return to The Grey, so everyone starts fresh, but but but,” he hastily added, “Divinities or Celestials can get their memories back! Once they learn how to access The Grey, but it shouldn’t take more than, oh geeze, I dunno… maybe a few hundred years at most? Then, ahhh, you can find each other again easily, if you like!” He beamed at us, as if this was somehow good news.

Then again, this means I can probably find my daughter again, right? Maybe it wasn’t so bad after all.

He proceeded to inform us that the only way to get stronger and maybe reach The Grey was to absorb and refine the essence of the universe into our soon-to-come bodies. This essence was called many things on different worlds – manna, magic, cosmic energy, qi, and many more – but it was all the same thing.

Then we got a piece of shocking news: The reason none of that stuff seems to be real on our Earth is because, from what I understood, ancient arrays were setup billions of years ago that drain and channel that energy from all the Outer Circle Worlds (and their adjacent galaxy!) to the Inner Circle Worlds. That seemed like a pretty raw deal to me, but not like there was anything I could do about it. Mark didn’t even seem to care.

“Ahh, OH, right, ahh, OK because you are VIP with over… what was it… half a million positive Karma? Ahh, yeah so anyway you will be given a high class Celestial cultivation method!” He beamed at us, “Isn’t that great!” He seemed pretty damn enthusiastic, so Mark and I politely agreed that it was super-duper great.

He handed us each a huge leather-bound tome that he produced from nowhere, and warned us that it wouldn’t work until we had bodies again, as our souls had no way to store or refine energy. The tomes vanished shortly after we took them, but we discussed it and agreed we both felt something … different. Like a vault in our minds, waiting for a chance to open.