"Philosophy is common sense with big words." - James Madison

Unfortunately, people either do not have It, or they don't understand it.

I woke... or really, I didn't exactly wake. It's an odd sensation suddenly becoming aware of consciousness. There is no way to measure it against anything else, as the only alternative is unconsciousness. But suddenly, I realised that... I was.

I was standing in what I could only describe as a dream. I was surrounded by clouds. Beneath my feet, they were denser. I could feel the motion beneath me, almost like I was standing on a hard bouncy castle. The odd thing was that I had almost no sensation on my skin. I tried to draw my hand across my stomach but felt nothing.

I almost panicked, but merely looked down and saw that I was currently inhabiting what I could only describe as an artist's model. I was made of some white, stone or plastic material. At my joints were simple hinges, but my hands and feet were stuck in flat shapes, allowing for some form of motion, but no detailed manipulation.

"Trippy."

I spoke out loud, but it wasn't my own voice. It sounded artificial. Like someone had badly recorded my voice, and was trying to play it through an old and beat up the speaker.

But enough examining myself. I severely doubted I was in a dream. The last time that happened, I almost died, so I was on high alert this time. Even if I wasn't technically in my own body.

I looked around more and saw a doorway behind me. There was a plain looking door with a basic red sign that said 'enter' on it. It didn't look that odd, but that was completely relative though. An endless landscape of cloud that I could stand on was far from ordinary.

I pushed the door open and saw the exact same landscape. But there was a table and a chair now. On the table was a small cube about the same size as a Rubix cube, but with plain silver faces.

I sat on the chair and rigidly tapped the box. Like the shutter of a camera, a small hole opened on the top, and a hologram sprung into life.

A small figure was projected. By all definitions, an angel. They had white robes on, completely average looking features for a fairly young white dude. And silver angel wings. Except he was holding a tablet. Like, with a screen on it, not an old stone one.

"Welcome to the shift system offices. How can I help you?"

I leaned back in the chair, thinking of how to reply to what I suspected was an automated greeter.

"I was summoned here in my sleep. I may have even died. I'm not sure. But I do have some questions."

The small angel bowed his head and smiled at me.

"Any questions will be answered in due course. But first, what is your name?"

"Sam Herbert."

"Samuel?"

I nodded, silently uncomfortable at his insistence to use my full name. It had always sounded too religious for my tastes.

"Well Samuel, it looks like you're in some trouble. You were summoned here by Nephthys. I'll send you to her division now."

"What?"

I sat up, suddenly concerned. The name was familiar to me, but I couldn't place it. I had a bad feeling about it though.

The ground underneath my chair suddenly opened up, and I fell for a second before landing violently in a dark room.

I was thrown out of the chair that had fallen with me and rolled painfully across the floor.

"Ugh... ow."

I sat up, and instinctively began brushing myself off, but the lack of resistance between my smooth hands and torso made it a futile act.

I stood and looked around in the gloom. I was in a rectangular room, the walls only visible by rows of tiny purple fires that outlined the floor.

As the tense seconds ticked by, the fires grew in height, until they reached the low ceiling. The finished effect reminded me of the bars of a prison cell, but purple and... fire.

The larger lights illuminated the room though. There was a large altar made of plain black stone opposite the still standing chair, and a statue sitting behind it. It was a statue of a neutrally faced woman with her elbows on the altar. She looked almost bored. She was made of more black stone, but it was exquisitely carved, and I stepped closer to take a better look. She was dressed in a very Egyptian looking dress with a sunrise necklace and loose-looking long pleated skirt. It was almost beautiful and I reached out over the altar to touch it when it sharply turned its head to look at me.

I jumped back and fell on my butt in surprise.

"Aaahhh!"

The statue smiled, and I realised this was the person I was supposed to talk to.

She didn't move from her silently smiling expression, so I calmly climbed into the chair and cleared my throat.

"You must be... um..."

"Nephthys."

The statue, no, the goddess spoke with a voice that hardly befitted her. It was a smooth voice, almost enchanting. She had a slight African accent.

Of course.

I knew I recognised the name. Nephthys was the Egyptian Goddess that guided souls to the underworld. The relation to souls immediately made me squirm. I knew why I was here now. And... I was in trouble.

"Nephthys. Good to meet you. I'm Sam."

She laughed once, showing white teeth that contrasted the black stone she appeared to be made of.

"Samuel. Do you know why you are here."

There was only one way to deal with this, and subterfuge was not it.

"I've stumbled upon spectral manipulation. Something in sure I shouldn't have."

She tilted her head, narrowing her eyes.

"I assumed from the nature of you acquiring the spectral affinity that you were a simpleton. But you display intelligence that suggests otherwise."

I wasn't sure whether to take that as a compliment or not, so I just sat quietly and stared back at her.

"Nonetheless, it is correct that you should not be able to do what you can. Spectral manipulation is something reserved for those who devote years of their time to soul-searching. meditating. Stuff like that."

I still wasn't sure what to say to that. I felt like I had cheated the system. I tried to open my mouth to speak, to try and defend my delving into the power. But she cut me off before I could even start.

"Nonetheless, this... state of affairs has allowed me to initiate a plan I expected to only need to use in a few years. I call it the reaper project."

Something in my expression must have shown curiosity because she immediately explained what she was talking about.

"The other deities that deal with death, and I have planned something that incorporates spectral users like yourself. Essentially, I want you to become a reaper for us."

"A reaper of souls? Like the grim reaper?"

She chuckled into her hand, lazily lying it down on the table and resting her head in her other open palm.

"Mr Grim is one of the deities on the council. But as far as I know of your culture, yes, you will collect the souls of those who have died."

"A contract killer of sorts?"

"Honestly, it makes no difference if you kill them or not, we just want the souls. And we want you to devote them to us."

I opened my mouth to speak again but paused. Was I ready to take on such a huge job? I was prepared to glide through this apocalyptic world once I had enough power to become untouchable.

"Do I have a choice?"

She leant back on whatever she was sitting on and looked puzzled.

"Do you not want to serve us?"

"I don't even really know what this is, or who you are."

There were a tense few seconds of silence between us, and Nephthys frowned and leant forwards again.

"How much time has passed in your world since the shift system took over?"

It was a sudden and rather odd question, but not one I didn't know the answer to.

" Um... about four hours? Maybe closer to six... and I don't know how long I've slept for."

There was another pause in the conversation, and Nephthys looked at me with a slightly open mouth.

She stood up suddenly, knocking over the seat that was behind her with a loud slam.

"Oh no... no no no no..."

This was odd. This goddess was panicking like she had just made a massive mistake. I suspected she had.

"Ummm..."

"Samuel!"

I jumped at the sudden shout.

"Yes?"

"I'm too early. Forget this meeting. Forget it all."

"Wait, what?"

I stood uncertainly as she rapidly began tapping the altar in front of her. Parts of it lit up in symbols and shapes I didn't understand.

"Go back to your world. Make sure you don't die until the first day is over. I will contact you shortly after."

She spoke quickly while staring down at what I now suspected was a desk, but I knew it was directed at me.

"Here, take this."

She drew a symbol in the air with her finger, tracing a cross and a circle. A jade ankh faded into existence, and she grabbed then threw it to me.

"Don't lose it."

I awkwardly caught it through the loop, and let it slide up my arm. It was far larger than I thought.

I looked up at her nervously smiling at me. She waved her hand and winked, then I fell through the floor into darkness.

I woke suddenly, registering the jade ankh fall to the ground next to the sofa I was on.

I sat up, growling at a blaring headache I had. I knew masturbation was always a good way to relieve a headache, but now didn't seem like the best time.

I tried to look around, but it was dark in the office. Cold too. I pulled the thickest coat up around my shoulders and idly wondered why the dean had a woman's fur coat on the back of his door.

I checked the clock on my phone. It was just past midnight. So I had slept for about 7 hours. It wasn't nearly enough. I pushed my head back into the coats and tried to get back to sleep. As a final thought, I picked up the ankh off the ground after scrabbling for a few seconds. It was cold, but I remembered what Nephthys had said. It was probably important.

I tried to ignore the headache for a few minutes, but that was very unsuccessful. I tried to distract myself by messing around on my phone, but I was bored of the apps I had on there, and I couldn't get a Wi-Fi signal to download a book.

As I was re-thinking the whole masturbation idea, I heard a creak outside the door. I turned off my phone screen and slowly slipped out of my warm nest of coats, following the wall around the room to reach the wall next to the door.

Skill learnt: Silent Step ©

Useful, but it could wait.

As I reached the door and leant against the wall next to it, I heard the door handle slowly turn. Whoever was trying to get in was doing a good job of doing it silently.

But it turned out I had locked the door, and despite the handle being turned, they couldn't get in.

"Kurwa."

A hushed whisper carried through the door, and though I didn't understand the word, I recognised the voice.

I hastily turned on the torch of my phone and unlocked the door. I slowly pulled it open, shining my light out.

There, standing against the far wall, fear across her face was... Klaudia. A friend of mine... well, to call us friends was fairly prude. We were closer than that. But this was far from any expectation I had. She seemed the type to cut and run. Run far away from here. I had no idea why she was here, at the college still, or even at the Deans office. And at this hour.

I could see her uniform was in shambles. She had never really been one to wear it properly anyway, so the blazer and tie were missing, along with her top few buttons. But what she was wearing was torn and bloody in places.

What was curious was that she hadn't changed her appearance at all. In my opinion, there wasn't much to improve on, but that was completely superficial.

I turned the torch on my own face after swinging the door fully open, to reveal myself.

She smiled, obviously relieved and pushed past me into the office.

It's not like I was expecting a warm greeting or anything, but it was entertaining to see that she still wasn't the hugging type.

I silently shut the door again and locked it. But before the door had shut, I caught a glimpse of the floor. It was clear of all the bodies that had covered it before, leaving only shreds of clothes and a few miscellaneous items. The bodies had all disappeared.

I turned back with a shrug and saw that Klaudia had taken over my sleeping space.

Oh well. I've done more for her.

She had probably had a harder time than I had, so I let her have this one. Besides, I had already slept for a few hours. I picked up the thick fur coat up off the floor and wrapped it over my shoulders again. I was in for an uncomfortable night in the dean's chair, but at least I would sleep. I threw one last glance over to the already sleeping body of Klaudia and smiled at the chances that must have occurred for this to happen.

As a final thought, I got up from the chair, leaving the coat and put my blazer over her. She was relatively uncovered, and it was cold in the room. It wouldn't do for her to catch a cold so easily. Especially if she was to travel with him, as she probably would.

I sat back in the chair, realising I still had the ankh on my wrist. It had almost no weight, so I had essentially forgotten it was even there.

I pulled it off my arm and held it in front of my face. Though there was almost no light in the room, I could see it was almost giving off a slight green glow. Maybe it was really shiny though.

Why not analyse it?

That was a good point. I didn't want to say anything out loud though, so I just focused on the outline of the ankh, and thought analyze as hard as I could. Whatever I did, it worked, and I was given a large amount of information about something that was far more interesting than I had previously thought.

Jade Warsword (unactive):

Quality: Epic

Condition: Perfect

Attack Rating: B

Stats gained: (-)

AGI +5

STR +7

DEX +3

It was a weapon. A good one at that. It granted him some nice bonuses but was currently inactive. I wanted to think about how to activate it, but I was surprised by the fact that my headache was gone. If I was going to swell at all, it was now. The sword would have to wait until the morning. As would dealing with Klaudia. She was an odd person on the outside at least, but I always knew of her as the person who was more like me than anyone else.