I and Joe kept down the reconstructing hallway as the music faded out. Menu continued giving us a tour, giving all the names and faces a story to their tragic fate.

Zufphet the dreamer. He wished to show the world the true inequalities my kind placed on mortals but after gazing into the true heart of Keolon, he became insane. He requested to be locked in this prison so he may forever try to realize a picture of what he saw inside that heart. He, excluding Joe, is the only person who willingly found his way into this sanctum.

Within his cell, the man simply sat on a desk, drawing. Upon seeing me, he ran through the bars, carrying a piece of paper with him. “Y-y-y-y-y-y-y-yooooouuuu! Y-y-y-y-young laady could you t-t-t-t-t-teeEl me i-i-if...” his insane rambling trailed off, then he showed me what was on the paper. What was on It looked like a bunch of triangles, placed in a strangely incomprehensible, but predictable pattern, “If you c-c-can see what t-this is?!” I dashed behind Joe, using him as my guard against the crazy man. Could he even kill me in this strange place if he tried?

“Ignore him, My Hope, he’s a little crazy.”

“To put it lightly...That’s a ‘tesseract’ though, is he a [divimancer]?”

“Y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-you have a word for this f-f-f-fundamental shape!?” He tried to make his way past Joe, but was kicked in the stomach, and fell to the ground. It was rather pitiful, actually.

“I’m confused, is that mess of shapes actually a real thing?” Joe said casually. I got the feeling it wasn’t the first time he’d kicked the crazy man.

“Yes, I mean, there was a man with a class called [divimancer], he used a picture just like that to activate his magic.”

“Interesting, I thought he was entirely crazy, but it turns out he was just really crazy.” he picked up the piece of paper and stashed it in his brown sack of...some white substance.

The man, Zufphet, looked up from the ground “You can use my knowledge?! T-t-t-t-t-then is my duty done!? May I return?”

“Maybe if you worship My Hope and beg and plead. As far as your duty, I’m pretty sure you are a self-employed crazy person, so it’s your choice to stop being crazy.”

I spoke up, a little nervous, “What’s his level? I can’t let some crazy, level 40 person loose on the world for no reason!”

“I-i-i-i-i’m only level 37, surely I-i-i-i-i-i can be of use to you, My Hope!” I didn’t like anything about the guy, he was crazy and strong, and those two things are not a good pair.

“Hey Menu, do levels exist in this weird world?”

No, levels and classes are nonexistent in godly realms. Additionally, that man would die upon retrieval of his physical body.

“I don’t know what that means, let’s just leave him.”

Joe seemed a little conflicted, “I don’t care if we kill him, but the only way to die in this place is leaving. I don’t want to see this guy suffer for eternity for being right.”

“being right?”

“I mean, no offense Menu, but you gods are some ass rulers.”

“excuse me?”

No offense was taken.

“Err, sorry, My Hope...”

I sighed. I’ve always been defensive when it came to Seraph, but I never actually bothered learning about the pantheon of gods, “Err, sorry...Uhh, let’s keep walking.” We continued down the hall, and Zufphet began following us from a safe distance, “So, it seems like the people here each committed some sort of sin to the gods...what is this place?

“So, you’re a worshipper of Seraph, right?” he gestured towards my white robes.

“Yes.”

“Seraph is the warden of this place, that’s why it’s called The Prison of Seraph. She’s a vengeful goddess who actively seeks out those who insult or harm the gods. Many of the people here were personally arrested by her hand...” he spoke with more anger, “And instead of laying them to rest, she placed them in this god01000100 01100001 01101101 01101110ed emporium” We passed by another prisoner.

That is the first queen of September, Zhayo, who began the first winter with a grand spell to tilt the planet. Her punishment was to feel an eternal winter. Her lover’s name appears to be removed from my database.

She was in a miniature frozen waste, behind the cell. She was frozen over, holding a corpse in her arms. Solid tears ran down her face, which was frozen in a perpetual state of morbid sadness. With each scene we passed I grew more uneasy. Calling it ‘The Emporium of Seraph’ was beginning to become a good idea.

“She died for a good cause, stopping the floods, relentlessly breeding monsters, and devastatingly long droughts. Haila, the goddess of rains, despised her for turning her precious rains into what we call ‘hail’, and asked Seraph to enact her holy ‘justice’ upon her.” Now that I had given him the opportunity, Joe was more than willing to expose the wrongdoings of my patron with a disdain filled voice. It was informative though.

And that is the king of 01101000 01100101 01101100 01101100, Driver. I believe no introduction is needed. Seraph led the charge against him, then reinstated Maophas as the new king of that broken and scarred land.

There was nothing in the cell, just a man who looked at me with an inscrutable expression. He wore dark red robes, had black hair, and his eyes bore some strange sanity. They gave me the impression he had slipped so far into the insanity that he looped back into true understanding.

“He has never spoken to me.” Joe said, “He’s the oldest of all the jailed here, and the only one who will never get the release of death. I didn’t even know his true name before-”

He spoke, interrupting Joe, “Child. What is your name.”

When he spoke he radiated authority like he was its definition. I didn’t even recognize the fact he had asked a question, so when I tried to speak, it was just like reality-I was unable to consciously move my vocal cords to speak. Joe was stunned.

“Speak, child.”

“S-Saya,” I said, the pressure being relieved enough for me to stutter a breath.

“Saya. Do not trust the words of your god. True love can only be seen behind her words and actions. She speaks in falsehood and fear. Should you accept the love she refuses to state, you will no doubt be put through trial after trial. Man, Joe. There is no need for you to change your ways, bandit of the cracked earth, find your destiny in treasure, then seek me out once more. Now leave, and do not ask me any questions.”

His sudden outbreak of wisdom was so sudden I didn’t know what to do. I realized after I snapped out of the authority-hit stupor that I had already done as he commanded, and began down the hall.

Joe had sweat on his forehead, and was clearly shook as well, “Well that’s Driver...we should be at Seraph’s chamber, now.”

We arrived at double doors.

These doors are known as the precipice of heaven. They are 77 feet tall and were built by the immortal smith, Repo. Behind this, Saya, you will be a jury in the sentencing of Seraph. The triumvirate will watch and listen to your thoughts. Your actions, now, will have repercussions across the entire world, and may even result in the death of your patron. Are you prepared?

I-i-i-i-i-i-W-What? I was speechless, what is happening?! Joe stood up for me, “Wait, what do you mean ‘the sentencing of Seraph? Why is this child partaking in a meeting of the triumvirate?! You can’t just do this to her, What the fu-” He suddenly couldn’t speak. He had been muted my Menu.

Saya, are you prepared?

I didn’t know what to say. It was never explained why this happened, nothing was. I was simply sent to this place “What’s happening?”

The gods are in turmoil. Seraph has betrayed the Triumverate, and you have been chosen to speak about the recent betrayal you witnessed.

“Betrayal? What happened? I just wanted to ask if I needed to kill some animal.”

Seraph attempted to tell you not to. The triumvirate saw this as an admission of guilt. You will be given no more information.

The doors began to open. Behind was someplace that looked like a colosseum, larger than my whole hometown. Under any other circumstances, I would be happy to be in such a grand place.

If I didn’t have stage fright, that is, or if I weren’t currently being overlooked by three gods, or if I weren’t overloaded with information so vague I couldn’t trust my own mind, or if I weren’t about to potentially change the world forever for reasons I didn’t know, or if I had time to prepare, or if I had a lawyer, or if I hadn’t spoken for the first time in thirteen years ten minutes ago.

The only time I ever stood in front of an audience and communicated to them was when I was asked by my magic teacher to explain a new spell I’d theorized to a few of his traveling colleagues. It didn’t go so well when they began picking apart my theory like a flower’s petals, and I couldn’t keep up with them with my at-the-time slow handwriting.

I halfway wanted to die, is what I want to say. Unfortunately, dying is illegal in Seraph’s chambers as well, so suicide wasn’t even an option.

I was shoved by some unseen force, and Menu didn’t follow me. It moved me in front of Seraph, which took a while due to me digging my heels into the dirt.

The stadium was massive beyond compare, and the entities that call themselves gods were barely visible, standing almost half a mile away from me, on a balcony overseeing the two people who now stood in the stadium. Me and Seraph.

Seraph had blonde hair, with two angel wings identical to my own on her back, wore pure white robes, and her feet and legs were chained to the ground with some sort of purple chains. Her blonde hair covered her face, but I saw the god’s face gazing up at me from behind the hair. Nearby, a grand spear twice my size was plunged into the ground.

A voice of authority, though what I interpreted to be less than the king I had spoken to not long ago, resounded from the middle of the three gods on the balcony, “Child, you stand before the greatest beings in existence. You called out our names, and we have assessed your situation. You bear evidence of great importance in this trial-

I am Kukaltl, the god of truth.”

The one to the right of Kukaltl spoke, I could identify he wore a scarf,

“I am Kvet, the god of sentiment.”

The one to the left then spoke, very quickly,

“And I and Keolon, the god of knowledge.”

Kukaltl spoke again, “You will be the third of seven witnesses to Seraph’s treacherous actions. Your actions and words here will be filled with nothing but the truth, the whole truth, and the truth of your heart.”

Kvet then spoke, “You may now speak, mortal.”

Seraph’s trial had resumed.