“Well, shit.” Erin had time to say before she died. The words hung in the air while the last moment of her life stretched. As she waited on the event horizon of near-death her senses captured it with diamond clarity. Metal tearing, heat on her skin, the smell of smoke, and then darkness.

If time passed in that dark, she wasn’t aware of it. One moment she was in her car, the next she’d opened her eyes to a forest in summer, complete with a crystal blue pond and bright, warm sunlight. Erin sat up as her light green eyes swept over the clearing, taking it in. She placed her palms flat on the grass and pushed herself up, pulling her legs into position to propel herself onto her feet.

The memory of the semi-truck barreling down on her little four-door sedan was clear, but detached from the place she’d found herself. She knew it had happened like she knew one plus one equals two, or that gravity kept you on the ground. The forest in which she stood, with its old mossy trees and babbling brook, had less clarity than her final memory. There was a sense of fragility about it, like a dream you’ve realized wasn’t real.

As if I could unravel it with the weight of my thoughts.

“That’s not wholly inaccurate.” Erin spun on the spot as a soft voice touched her ears; finding she was face to face with the most beautiful woman she’d ever met.

“Were you talking to me?” Erin asked, folding her arms as she stepped back. Not sure if she felt better or worse at finding she wasn’t alone. Bright blue eyes watched her from above, lips turned up in a gentle smile. Thick dark hair was pinned up at the sides and hung loose down her back. There was more to that beauty than her appearance. She had a quality that Erin couldn’t describe.

“Who are you?” Erin asked, “What is this place?” She tried to cover her unease by feigning a confident tone. The goddess clasped her hands together and gave Erin a knowing smile.

“My name is Thetra and as I’m sure you already know, you died. I’m here to guide you into your next life.” She told her in a soft voice. Erin would’ve laughed at how nonsensical it sounded if she hadn’t suddenly been sick to her stomach.

I’m dead?

That was too big. She couldn’t deal with that question all at once, so she pushed it aside and gave Thetra a wary look.

“You expect me to believe that?”

“You believe it,” the goddess said with a kind smile. “You just don’t like it very much.” Erin wasn’t sure how to respond to that. She wasn’t used to being told what she believed, even if it might’ve been true. “And I’m not a goddess.” Thetra added as she flashed Erin a bright smile, “but I thank you for the compliment.”

“I never said you were a goddess,” Erin said, and that smile became more of a playful smirk, and she stepped closer. Erin had the briefest sensation that the woman was towering over her; too tall to be real, but it passed so quickly she might’ve imagined it.

“You died,” Thetra told her again, “and you were brought here, so I could guide you.”

“What about my family? My friends? I can’t be dead. I have so much I want to do.” She fought down the urge to cry, but she could feel the tears prickling in her eyes. Thetra laid a gentle hand on her shoulder, her eyes full of sympathy.

“Everyone you love will walk this path someday.”

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?”

“It should, yes. There are many wondrous things to see and experience from here on. The people you love will go on, as you are doing. “

“So what? I’m going back as someone else, or as an animal or something?” Erin asked, diverting the subject as she slowly won the battle to hold back her tears.

“That’s not how it works,” Thetra said, hand still resting on her shoulder. “The System is not as accessible to Tier 1 world as it is to the others, but there are still many echoes of its presence, like the belief of life after death. You can never go back to a world in which you’ve died. Sometimes this means being reborn in another tier 1 world, but not for you. You have been approved for Tier 2.” She delivered the last part like it was good news, but Erin stared at her, nonplussed.

“What’s that mean? Approved for Tier 2?”

“It means you’ve been promoted. Your soul has grown beyond the First Tier. No more water wings, no more kiddie pool.”

“I don’t understand.” Erin’s brow furrowed, her lips turned down in frustration. “Kiddie pool?” The beautiful woman gave her a sympathetic look.

“You lived, and consequently died, in a Tier 1 world.” Thetra cocked her head as if listening for something Erin couldn’t hear. “Earth, is that right? Do they know that means dirt?” Erin scowled at her, and Thetra clapped her hands together softly. “Earth is the first stop for many souls on their journey. It is part of a subset of existence planes we call Tier 1. You can think of them like a nursery or even a tutorial.”

“A tutorial? What, like in a video game?”

“Another echo of the System.” Thetra said as she turned away, “I find it curious how Tier 1s work so hard to create it as if on some deep level you feel its absence and a need to correct it. There will be much you recognize in your journey. Things your first world tried to imitate for their absence.”

Erin rubbed her temples and closed her eyes. The strange woman seemed happy to babble nonsense at her, offering no kind of proper explanation.

“Downgraded from Goddess to the strange woman. That was quick.”

Erin glared, and Thetra smiled. “It’s okay. It takes time to adjust, and this is a lot to take in. To put it in terms you’d understand, magic is real.” To prove her point, she held her arms aloft and vanished from sight. Appearing several meters away accompanied by a pillar of smoke.

Erin’s eyes shot up into her hairline as her mouth fell open in astonishment, her mind blanking at the impossibility of the story her eyes told. The small forest clearing still had the flavor of a dream to it. A feeling that was no less reinforced by the crazy person talking about world tiers, reading her mind, and teleporting around.

“Magic?” Erin asked, finally finding her tongue.

“Magic.” Thetra agreed as she reappeared in front of Erin, this time without the smoke.

“Magic isn’t real,” Erin said with a shake of her head. “this could all be in my head. I was in a car crash. I could be in a coma right now.”

“You know you’re not,” Thetra said kindly. “This part is hard to accept for everyone.” Erin turned the idea over in her mind and found that there was an iron core of truth. She had died. What that meant was too much for her to process all at once, but it was true.

That doesn’t mean magic is real, though.

She argued with herself.

That doesn’t mean any of this is real.

But there was doubt. If she could accept her death, then she also had to accept that her existence had continued after, and that meant almost anything was possible now. She glanced around the clearing again, feeling cold inside despite the warmth.

“Okay,” she agreed, folding her arms over her chest. “Let’s say I agree magic is real. What’s next?”

“Ah, now you’re getting to the fun stuff. See, Tier 1 is mostly absent of magic.”

“Mostly?”

“There is a bit. Not enough that most of you ever notice, and even the ones who do can’t do much with it, but there has to be at least some. Every existence plane is made of the stuff. No magic. No Earth. Seriously, did you all name your planet ‘dirt’ on purpose? Did you know your other planets are named after gods?” The mention of gods jolted a question to the forefront of Erin’s mind, which was already overloaded, but she had to ask. She imagined everyone had promised themselves they would ask if death was anything more than not existing.

“Yes,” Thetra said, as Erin opened her mouth.

“Yes, what?”

“Yes, there are gods.”

“Plural gods? No one God?”

“Yes, and no. There are 8 gods and goddesses, but they didn’t create the universe, or at least not all of it. What we higher tiers refer to as ‘The System’ handles pretty much everything. Including the Eight. Perhaps the System is The God, but,” she shrugged, “that’s a discussion we don’t have time for. I’m supposed to be sending you on your way” “

“On my way to where?” Erin asked, looking around. “And where is ‘here’, anyway?”

“It’s an In-Between space. Kind of a post-death waiting room.” She tilted her head again, listening to something Erin couldn’t hear. “I’d love to chat, but the higher-ups want me to move you along.” She shrugged apologetically. “I’m sorry, but orders are orders. Your Liaison can explain everything from here” and with a motion faster than Erin could follow, the beautiful woman reached out and struck her in the chest with the flat of her palm. Despite the apparent force of the strike, Erin hardly felt it. She rocked gently back on her heels before regaining her balance.

“Wha-” she asked before her stomach somersaulted as gravity was turned on its head. Her feet left the ground as she fell upward.

[Please remain calm. This won’t take long.]

A cool female voice cut across her panic, but only added to the confusion as the words originated from within her own head.

As up became down, the small clearing quickly fell away above her to reveal not a large sprawling forest, but a small copse of trees bordered on all sides by nothing. Erin’s mind reeled as the trees gave way to an endless void that encompassed everything; like her reality was at the center of a pitch-black marble.

[Please remain calm]

The officious voice repeated, and Erin shouted profanities in reply. She was falling up into some black void and the voice in her head was telling her to be calm about it. Air whistled past her ears as she continued to speed up and the voice made no further attempts to calm her.

Although she couldn’t see anything but darkness, she could feel them approaching something. Some sort of surface or boundary and though she was disoriented and frightened, she wasn’t as bone-deep terrified as she should’ve been. Maybe it was just too surreal for that. She didn’t scream or flail; her body relaxed into the fall even as her mind raced.

A curious sensation shot through her, starting with her stomach, and it took her a few seconds before she realized what it was. The rate of her fall was slowing. The rush of the surrounding air became less and the dropping sensation in her stomach eased until eventually she stopped completely and floated gently in the darkness.

[You have been selected for Tier 2 word: Jetriser.]

“Jetriser?” Erin asked, her voice oddly flat in the open space, without even the ground to bounce off of. “And what the hell is a Tier 2 world, exactly?”

[Tier 2 worlds are a higher existence plane. There are many differences. Some are more consequential than others. You will likely find magic, as well as the abundance of life forms supported by it, to be the most significant.]

So Thetra had been replaced by a voice that sounded remarkably like Erin’s elementary school vice-principal, and that voice had moved into her head.

In life, Erin had always considered herself the sort of person who was open to new experiences, but this was madness. A fever dream that felt far too real.

“Magic life forms?” she asked after several uninterrupted seconds of perfect silence.

[Correct.]

Erin waited, but it quickly became clear that she did not plan to continue. With a scowl, Erin prompted her.

“Care to elaborate?”

[I’m sorry, but that is not possible.]

She sighed and closed her eyes in the darkness and shook her head.

[As you gain experience, the System will permit me to provide you with further information.]

“Okay, so it’s like a game?” She knew she should find that strange, but so far it was on par with everything else that had happened to her since her death.

[I must caution you against such an attitude. While the System bears a resemblance to the games of some Tier 1 worlds, Tier 2 worlds are not to be taken lightly.]

“I guess that means no respawns?” Erin felt an icy wave of disapproval roll across her at the question and she could only guess that the new resident in her skull didn’t approve.

[Though you are being reincarnated this time,]

She said, her already cool voice now practically frigid.

[It would be unwise to assume that it will happen again. I assure you there is no guarantee. If you treat your life as disposable because of these experiences, you will regret it.]

Erin raised an eyebrow in the darkness but decided it was best to just take the proverbial demon on her shoulder at her word. “Life is a gift. I hear you loud and clear.”

[An agreeable sentiment,] Once again professional.

“So who are you, exactly?”

[I am your liaison to the System. I will assist you with navigating your growth in the life to come.]

“Do you have a name?”

[I do not.]

“Why not?”

[There is no need.]

“I-”

[This is not a productive topic, and our time is limited.]

Being cut off by the voice in her head was a strange experience, but if time was a factor, then maybe it was best just to let her say what she needed to say.

“Alright,” Erin said hesitantly. ”So what’s next?”

[An agreeable sentiment.]

Her Liaison repeated. As the last word resonated in Erin’s head, a block of light bloomed before her eyes and, despite spending what seemed like a very long time in perfect darkness, they did not need to adjust.

“What the hell-” Erin called out in surprise as the block of light resolved itself into rows of alien runes before becoming a fresh set, equally unknown to her. This happened several times before they miraculously slid into English letters.

Name: Erin Young

Class: Unranked Mage

Tier 2 Soul: Normal

Mind: Normal

Body: Normal Spell Slot 1:

Aug 1:

Aug 2:

Spell Slot 2:

Aug 1:

Aug 2:

Spell Slot 3:

Aug 1:

Aug 2:

Spell Slot 4:

Aug 1:

Aug 2:

Boons:

Liaison

(Unknown)

(Unknown)

(Unknown)

(Unknown)

It’s a character sheet, Erin thought in a daze. It’s my character sheet. Her eyes traced the lines as her forehead slowly crinkled.

“Not a lot going on there; what’s with all the spell slots? and what does ‘normal’ mean?”

[As of right now, you’re unranked, or what the System on Jetriser considers normal.]

“So… what’s that mean?” She asked, confused.

[You now possess a Tier 2 soul. All your physical, spiritual, and mental traits have been correspondingly enhanced.]

“But I’m just me,” Erin said, but trailed off as she looked at her hands, her skin illuminated by the light of her menu. At first glance, she looked like herself, but the longer she stared, she realized that was wrong. All her little imperfections were gone. A small white scar from when she got hurt playing as a kid was gone; along with a half dozen tiny moles that had peppered her arms.

[Pardon me,]

The voice said,

[but strictly speaking, that is not you. Your original body died and remains on Earth while your soul was brought here. Once promoted, the abundant magic of the In-Between was used to fabricate you a new vessel.]

“But I still look like me?” Erin asked, her chest rising and falling more rapidly, her hands jumping to her face as her mind twisted with the realization she was made of entirely new everything.

[Except for its greater magical capacity, your soul is the same, and it knows what you look like. When your body was constructed, you kept your appearance.]

“Oh,” Erin said, not at all comforted by the information. Her skin was crawling with the thought of the body she’d known all her life left to rot somewhere back on Earth. Add in the fact she’d just found out these weren’t her original bones, organs, or skin, and her sense of dysphoria heightened dramatically.

[Are you alright?]

“Yeah,” Erin replied, floating suspended in darkness. “Just having a breakdown. Give me a moment.”