Rolling around on the cool, soft mattress, I pulled the blanket off my face. Opening my eyes, the next thing I noticed was the boy leaning over me. His eyes glittered like constellations, lighting up as I stirred.

“You’re awake,” a voice gurgled.

Sitting up in the galaxy-blue bed I lay in, I looked around. The room was mostly empty, apart from the bed was a couch, telescope and TV. The telescope faced a glass wall, beyond it stretching what appeared to be space.

“I made you soup!”

My attention came back to the boy standing beside my bed, a bowl of greenish sludge in his hands.

“Sorry if it’s bad, I don’t need to eat, so…”

I’ll just ignore it.

Taking the bowl from his hands, I gagged at the smell. Taking a sip, I realised - it wasn’t bad. Downing the rest, I set the bowl down beside me and took a breath. Then it hit me. The world seemed to fade out, then flash again. But it was different. More vivid. Turning to the boy, what stood in his place was no longer a boy - but a monster. Green sludge dripped off his -- limbs as a single eye swivelled around in slime to meet mine. More of the green sludge pooled at his feet where legs should be, dragging like a snail as he slid towards my bed.

“Now that you can see me- I am Pessima, servant of Rot. Lord Putredine has ordered me to serve you on behalf of goddess Celestia.”

Taking a bow, his fluid body rippled underneath him. Shuffling back slightly to let me step off, he straightened up.

“What… was in that soup?”

“Oh, just some witch hazel. Humans normally can’t see the true forms of servants, so I put some in to help you.”

A moment of silence followed, filled soon by the flapping of wings outside. Lines formed on the wall in the shape of a twin door that burst open, revealing a halo-bearing woman desperately brushing down her dress. Golden wings sat tucked away on her back, short blonde hair flowing in the wind.

“Stupid dress, why won’t you just settle down… why does Celestia enforce a uniform…”

A mace bound to her waist jingled as she mumbled and fidgeted, glowing with power and a shade of deep blue. Pessima turned, eye peering at her curiously.

“Nova? What business do you have here?”

The winged woman abruptly started, white eyes glinting in the light. Despite stomping into the room, her bare feet only tapped on the marble floor.

“On behalf of goddess Celestia, you, Pessima, are relieved of duty.”

“Thanks, Nova.”

Legs flailed out from the sludge as it began to shrink away behind him. His arms became more defined as more of the viscous green liquid dragged behind him, flaking off in little specks on the walls, ceiling, and floor as he strode for the door. Outside the door was a balcony, which he dived from, sludge still trailing behind him.

“Always one for flair, that Pessima… anyway, hi! I’m Nova. Celestia tells me you’re Caitlin. Nice to meetcha!”

My eyes drifted to the weapon strapped to her belt, humming slightly as if it were alive.

“Not very talkative, are you?”

I remained silent. What would I even say?

“Well, that’s ok! I assume you’ve been through a lot recently… Anyway, Celestia has ordered me to explain everything you don't understand. Questions?”

“What is this place?” I burst out.

“Why, you’re in Deitiorana! Perhaps the most dazzling place in the universe! Run by goddess Celestia, it is a haven for those who serve the Gods and/orGoddesses of The Flucti.”

“Gods? Goddesses?”

“They’re personified versions of what they rule. For example, Celestia is the personification of stars.”

“What was that slime -- person -- guy?”

“You mean Pessima? He’s a servant of Rot, and quite a high-ranking one at that. If you’re wondering about why he looks like… that, it’s because he’s been blessed, like me. All servants of Celestia are angels, and all servants of Rot are… yeah.”

“Blessed? Servant?”

“A God can give magic to who they believe deserves it, those getting abilities according to their V-rating. We call those blessings. We call those who get blessed ‘Servants’ and become immortal. The higher the rating, the higher the rank. They are renamed by the god they serve, for example,

Pessima: his actual name is Marcus. The name change is supposed to represent a ‘rebirth’ of sorts.”

“What’s an Acolyte? Celestia mentioned something about it.”

“Last question, then I’m showing you around. Kay?”

“Okay.”

“An acolyte is a servant with magic compatibility ratings 95-100. These are specially chosen by the god as their representatives, getting a ‘weakened’ version of their own magic. As the gods are incapable of physically manifesting, their Acolytes fight for them instead.”

Nodding my head, I stood up. Looking down at my clothes, I saw they were the same as Nova’s. Glittery cloth shone on my white dress, the same material in a pattern on my gloves. The cool floor gave me goosebumps through my bare feet, itself seeming to vibrate slightly. Around my wrist was a gold band, inscribed in it the words ‘Sicut Astra’. Walking to the open door, the wind picked up. My dress flapped behind me like a flag, slowly getting faster as I neared the exit. Exiting the room, I looked outside. Above me was an enormous glass dome. Beyond that, space. Highways of angels fluttered past, an updraft allowing for easy flying. Below me were footbridges, where those who couldn’t fly would travel. Below that was an opaque, shadowy void. I’d say it was about 1 kilometre down. Both over and under me were rail-less balconies like mine, everything looking as if it were made of crystal. All around were more buildings identical to the one I stood in, glittering with the light of floating stars around the dome holding them in.

“You ready, kid?”

Nova held out her hand, the smell of freshly painted nails tickling my nose. I took it, her skin so clean I feared I’d scratch it. She wrapped her fingers around the back of my hand to yank my arm upwards, and hooked my feet around so that I sat on her back. She unfurled her wings - two, no, three-meter-long golden wings, perfect and ornate, feathers fluttering to the ground. With a few powerful beats that whipped the air around us into a maelstrom of wind, we were flying.

-

The city glittered underneath us as we flew, with the occasional park or temple. Many times we passed tall buildings with large signs, all reading place names such as ‘Andromeda Mall’, or ‘Cygnus Plaza’. Past those was a large stone building, water cascading down its hexagonal layers of varying sizes, pooling at the bottom in circular basins. It sat, levitating 50 meters off the ground, constantly ejecting water from its top. As we neared it, I could see blue-skinned people walking upon the dry areas, sitting in the streams, cleaning their ear-fins, or hydrating their gills. First angels, now fish-people. Great.

Landing on the bottom hexagon, I jumped off Nova and immediately crumpled. Sitting on the floor, I shook my numbed legs and wondered if we really flew for so long.

“You ok?”

“Yeah, my legs are just numb.”

“Oh.”

Nova stood a towering 50 centimetres above me, making my already short legs seem even shorter in comparison. After a few more seconds of sitting on the icy floor, I stood up. Before us were a pair of large stone doors, which Nova effortlessly nudged open. Inside of the hexagon stack was a series of complex, symmetrical aqueducts, all leading into a central fountain. Something in the centre spouted water high into the air, presumably out of the structure to come crashing back down again. Ocean blue ambience lights dimly lit the area, each one suspended loosely by chains fixed at varying heights.

“This is Goddess Merida’s summoning building, Aqua Sanctorium.”

A man emerged from deeper inside the building, gills dripping wet and ear-fins shaking off water. He wore scaled armour of varying shades of blue, in one hand a trident and in the other a calling crystal. Behind him trailed five individuals hidden in maroon cloaks, hunched over as if crippled by age.

“See that man with the trident? That’s Merida’s Acolyte, Atlantis.”

As if he could hear Nova, he turned and gave her a friendly wave. Returning the wave, she smiled and pulled me towards him.

“Hey Nova! How’re you doing?

“Hey Atlantis! Been doing good. Just showing this kid around. She’s going to replace Arcturus soon.”

Hold on. Me? Replace Arcturus? I guess I fall under the requirements of an Acolyte, with my ratings and all… but really? Do I even deserve that much power?

“Earth to Caitlin, hello?”

Nova’s voice shook me from my thoughts, and I quickly realised I was ignoring her.

“Y-yes?”

“We were just talking about how you should meet Merida.”

“M-Merida? Like, goddess Merida?”

“Yea. She wants to meet you, kiddo.”

“O-okay.”

Walking over to the fountain, he spoke in a loud, clear voice-

“Merida.”

And dropped the crystal into the water. The fountain glowed, the central water spout stopping. A low rumble came from below, bubbles emerging and popping. A loud ‘woo hoo’ was yelled, followed by a woman who seemed to dive upwards from under the surface, coming to a stop a meter above it. Unlike Celestia, her body was an ebony brown, bright blue eyes like reflections of moons. Hair like water flowed in a frizz behind her head, ending in white tips as waves do. A shoulder-less dress covered her arms and legs, sleeves extending into the water. Like a river, it flowed downwards, fluctuating as she shifted.

“Hey there! I’m Merida.”

Her voice was soothing, like the gentle crash of waves on the shore.

“I heard from a little star goddess that you’re becoming her new Acolyte.”

Again with the Acolyte business. If I’m going to be put into that role, I might as well learn more about it.

“Uh, my lady, Merida, why exactly do deities need Acolytes? Can you not just go in person?”

“Oh, Nova hasn’t gotten to the whole animal story has she… Oh well, I’ll explain it myself.”

“A-animal story?”

“Settle down, sweetie, because I’m about to tell you a story.”

I sat down on the stone floor. Not the most comfortable, but I can deal with it.

“So I‘ll start from the beginning. Once upon a time, there was a mother. They called her The All-Mother. 1500 years ago, she cast to Earth Virtonite, a magical crystal with magical properties. While it went unnoticed to the humans, it transformed the land, sea, sky- and many more!

From fire came a wolf.

From wind came a falcon.

From water came a crab.

From earth came a butterfly.

From light came a moth.

From darkness came a fox.

From stars came a snake.

From power came a dog.

From destruction came a cat.

From knowledge came an ibis.

From life came a stag.

From death came a vulture.

From rot came a rat.

From purity came a swan.

All these animals worked together to keep the natural balance while humans went through an apocalypse. Until one day, the stag asked the vulture:

“Why do you let people die? If everyone was immortal, I would have more domain to exist in.”

The vulture replied:

“If everyone was immortal, then I would have no domain to exist in.”

And they left it at that. But the stag was greedy. He wanted that extra domain. So he whispered to the moth:

“Aren’t you tired of letting the fox take your domain? Ask him to stop.”

The moth, also very greedy, agreed with the stag. Going up to the fox, he asked:

“Why do you let your darkness fill my light? If you didn’t, I would have more domain to exist in.”

The fox replied:

“If there was no darkness to fill your light, I would have no domain to exist in.”

So the moth, annoyed yet unable to reply, went back to the stag.

“The fox refused to give me back my light!”

“And the vulture refused to give me back the living.”

Confronting the fox and vulture, the moth and stag argued.

“You need us. We make what you must destroy. Release some of your domain to us, or receive none again.”

The fox and vulture refused, aware that if life and light ceased to exist, so would their rulers. Because of this, the moth and stag became angry. Calling out to the other ‘makers’, (The wolf, butterfly, dog, ibis and swan) they told them that if the ‘destroyers’ were removed, it would be better for the world. Because of general agreement and grudges against the other deities, all the ‘makers’ agreed. Then the conflict began between the ‘Farci’ and the ‘Flucti’. Leading the Flucti was the snake and opposing her was the moth. The snake hated the moth because the moth would create light through the day, not allowing people to see the snake’s beautiful domain until night. When war began, the AllMother quickly shut it down. Confining each deity to their own domain, she stopped any animal from manifesting in a tangible form. But the animals adapted. Once again the AllMother phased back, out of existence, and went into a deep slumber. While she was asleep, the Flucti created new technologies- calling crystals and blessing crystals. Soon the Farci copied their inventions, building armies. And that’s where the acolytes come in. Deities would pick a single servant and give them a special blessing- an Acolyte blessing. How it works is the deity kinda… puts a part of themselves inside the host. If they do not meet the requirements, the subject will die. However, if they do, the subject becomes an immortal, powerful being with powers like the deity they serve, but weaker. Deities use Acolytes as representatives for human worshippers, or as warriors for battle. Like servants, however, they can die. Keep that in mind as you run across the battlefield for Celestia.”