Sean’s POV

“What the?” I muttered. I was on my back, looking up into a white sky. No clouds, just pure white background that had a faint glow to it. Turning my head, I saw that basically described the entire sky. There was no sun to be found. The ground was just as odd. Some parts were loose packed dirt, others appeared to be shattered glass. I was near enough to see a bit of a temple, but it had scorch marks on it as well.

“Oh hello little soul.” I spun to see an odd form behind me. Vaguely humanoid, all of its features were blurry as it sat on a rock twice my height.

“You wouldn’t happen to be Bigfoot would you? I’ve heard people think he was always out of focus because his features are naturally fuzzy.” I asked.

“Bigfoot? Oh no, it’s way too hard to be sneaky with big feet.” He said. To my shock, it stood up and did a triple front flip off the rock to land easily on his feet right in front of me. “Can’t do that with big feet.” He grinned.

“Fair enough.” I nodded.

“You. You’re awfully calm. Are you a frequent traveler? Most don’t bother coming to this plane. The others can be a bit, territorial.”

“Others?”

“Don’t worry about them, I’ll make sure they don’t notice you. I’m good at that.”

“I see. So, travelers?”

“Astral travelers. Wait. WAIT! Is this your first out of body experience? Oh that’s awesome! That you landed here is. Well. Amazing.” He actually jumped around a little bit.

“Astral travel?” I asked confused. I looked at my hand, only to see it was pure silver. “My hand is silver.”

“Of course it is. That’s the color of a mortal’s soul when they astral travel. So what brings you here mortal?”

“No idea.” I shrugged. “I was channeling a spell for a bit, ended up passing out. Next thing I know, I’m here.”

“Aww. That’s no fun. I was hoping for something interesting.” I shook my head as his shoulders slumped.

“No thanks. I’ve already had one god curse me with being interesting.” I shuddered.

“Interesting is a curse?” He seemed really confused.

“There’s a saying in a country back where I’m from, that’s considered both a blessing and a curse. May you live in interesting times.” I started to explain, only to be interrupted. Something I expected.

“Yes! I love a saying like that, but how can interesting be a curse?” He asked.

“Think. Have you ever gotten to a point where you just wanted to relax? Decompress, take it easy for a day or two? If you always live in interesting times, you would never get that break.”

“Oh.” He said sadly after thinking about it for a minute. “That would be unfortunate.” I nodded, and looked around.

“So, can you tell me why Zeus was using that temple as target practice?” I asked.

“Zeus? Who is that?”

“A god of lightning back where I’m from.” I explained.

“Ah, the scorch marks. No, I don’t think it was your Zeus who attacked. It was the Gluttonous Shadow Snake who did that. Luckily for those inside it is incredibly difficult to defeat gods on their home turf.” His explanation filled me in on a few details, namely that Ariana was probably in the temple. I was torn. Go and confront her? I didn’t really have the power to do anything to her though, so it might end up with me enslaved again. Perhaps I’ll just hide out until I can find my way back to my body.

“Your face went through a rather rapid progression of emotions just now. Are you ok?”

“I’ll be fine.” I said, forcing a smile. “Say. You wouldn’t be willing to help me get back, would you?”

“Hmmm, I could easily do that.” He nodded. “But it would be a waste Sean.”

Damnit, he knew who I was. Of course he did, he’s a god. But he’s not Ariana, nor Shalora as they were both women. He seemed to be too tall to be the god of the dwarves. “Should I really be taking the word of Lokir? I can’t even see your face properly.”

“HAHAHAHA! Well played! I knew you were smarter than the ones Ari usually picks. Bless her, but she gets lost in the physical muscles sometimes. Oh, and I’m not trying to hide from you, that’s a defense from your soul. You lack the ability to properly see me in this place.” He said, clapping his hands. “Come on, we need to get away from the temple for a bit. I have something special for you.”

“Oh hell no!” I growled out, dropping into my best imitation of a martial arts stance. Of course I had no idea what I was doing, but it looked good damnit! “The last time you gods tried to take me someplace, you took me away from my family!”

“Look, I’m sorry about that, but you really have to trust me here.”

“Ha! Trust the trickster? I was born, but it wasn’t yesterday friend.”

“See? We are friends, you can trust me! Though with my life you might as well have been born yesterday, not that I see how it makes any difference.”

“Godddamn idioms.” I muttered, relaxing my stance a bit since he seemed to not want to be forcing compliance. “Look, answer a few questions of mine, and I’ll go with you. Will that work for you?”

“Must you humans always try and make a deal? Very well. If it is within my power, and my secret to tell, I will answer your questions.”

“First, how do I get back home?”

“No idea.”

“Do you realize just how upset I’m going to be if I find out you are lying? Tell me.”

“I really don’t know.” He said again. “I’m a trickster god. Do you know the math needed to summon someone from another world? I took a quick look through your past, and I love the explanation in one of your movies. Warp speed teleportation is like trying to shoot a bullet while flying on another bullet. Well, to me that’s what summoning is. Except you are trying to shoot a moving bullet five miles away with nothing but a pistol with iron sights. Then you have to make sure the soul you transfer is safe-“

“Alright, I get it. I get it.” I interrupted him. “You can’t help me with it. Is there someone who can?” I asked quietly. Judging by his description, there was very little hope.

“I don’t know. We’ve never tried to send someone back before. Mostly because Ari picks single guys with little connecting them back home.”

“Damnit. Do you need a target? Is that it? Because I’m certain if I showed you my home solar system, you could find my soul clone in there.” I said desperately. “And if you have the power to clone my soul, why did you need to summon me in the first place?”

“Soul clones are inferior. They possess only a fraction of the growth potential of the original. In fact, if we had used your soul clone here, it wouldn’t have learned a single spell.”

“That still doesn’t mean you can’t send me back with the soul clone. Hell, why not summon the soul clone and send me in its place when it gets summoned? You did the same when you summoned me here, it’s just that my place and the soul clone’s are swapped.” I fired off the questions, getting frustrated. How the hell could they justify tearing someone from their life without asking? If I had any bones in this body, they would probably be creaking from the amount of pressure I was putting into my fists. Attacking a god was probably a very bad idea, but I gave it serious thought for a minute. After all, could they really afford to smite me?

“I said I’ll look into it, but I can’t answer your questions!” He snapped, then lowered his head to look at me and spoke a bit quieter. “Summonings aren’t my thing, but I promise that I will ask the others about it. I will do my best to get you back, but it won’t be for a while. We just don’t have the strength. Now, will you please come with me for a bit?”

“Very well. Will you remove the interesting blessing?” I asked as I followed him. Not like I had a lot of choice.

“Oh no, that has to stay I’m afraid.” He waved off my concern. “I’ll show you what I had in mind in a bit, but we need to be in this little canyon.”

Little canyon my ass. This canyon could easily fit several of the Grand Canyon back home, with room to spare. “Here, the speed route is the best.” Lokir said, picking me up and launching the both of us into the air before I could process what he said.

“HHHHOOOOLLLLLLYYYYYYY SSSSSHHHHHHHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTT!!!!” I screamed as we plummeted downward, frantically trying to think of something to do. FEATHERWEIGHT! I NEEDED TO CAST FEATHERWEIGHT! Desperation is both a blessing and a curse sometimes. I figured out what spell I needed, but casting it was a whole other story. It was like trying to pick out a specific key on a ring with hundreds of keys while you are being timed in a race. It just wasn’t happening.

“HAAAAAHAAAAAHAAA! ISN’T THIS GREAT!” The crazy ass god holding on to me laughed. “Relax, I got this.” He said, and just before we made a glorious splatter, he did something that slowed us to a perfect landing. We didn’t even disturb the dirt on the ground.

“A. Little. Warning. Would. Be. Nice.” I said between panicked breaths, trying to overcome the adrenaline high.

“But then you would know what was coming!” He complained. “You’ll get over it. Anyhow, this is what I wanted to show you.” He said, pulling a disk of pure blackness from somewhere.

“Oh god, what the hell is that?” I asked, immediately repulsed. My instincts were screaming that this was dangerous, raising all the hair on my body.

“Interesting stuff. A bit of shadow divinity. But don’t tell anyone, nobody knows I have it.”

“You have a bit of a shadow god?”

“No, a bit of a shadow divinity. It’s the stuff that allows gods to be, well. Gods. Practically indestructible. Gives off that feeling that sends shivers down your back. I know you’re feeling that one.” He smiled.

“Yeah. Feels. Unpleasant.” I paused to find the right word. I still wasn’t happy with it, but it would have to do. “So what can this do for me? I have no idea.”

“Training!”

“Training?”

“Training!” He smiled. “I’m sure you’ll figure something out. There’s a skill you need that will be easier to obtain while you are here. If you’re as smart as I hope, then you’ll pick up a few spare ones.”

“What about my body? I should be heading back soon.” I started. “And why is the skill easier to obtain here?”

“Distractions.” He explained. “Here, there is only your soul. You won’t be distracted by annoying things like bodily functions. Oh, and good news! You are experiencing an increased time flow here. Helps to sort and answer prayers in a timely manner. Though it fluctuates a bit. Oh, and you shouldn’t take too long. Can’t have the soul being too much older than its vessel. I guess you could spend a week here with no issues. Good luck!”

“Wait!” I called out, and he froze just before jumping. “Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why are you helping me like this? I thought you were a trickster.”

With a large sigh, he sat down next to the creepy disk. “Look. I love tricks. It’s what I do. But sometimes, you have to rise above your instincts and do what is needed. When the fate of the world is at stake, sometimes you have to do terrible things. No matter how or who it hurts. I don’t know if you know, but I tricked Ariana into summoning you.”

He stared at me, trying to judge my reaction. I’ll admit, I was seeing red. Deep down, my soul was crying out to attack. Hurt. Tear into him as painfully as possible, it didn’t matter what the chances of success were. I wanted him to hurt! To feel the pain I felt every day, torn from my family. And prolong the suffering.

And that’s when I saw it. The disk next to him seemed to pulse in time with my thoughts, and was leaning slightly in my direction. I could almost hear it whispering. Pick me up. Let me in, and I will give you the strength to hurt him. To kill him. To send him into agony unending. I just had to embrace the shadow.

Could a god from another universe see his wife and daughter? That thought brought me back to myself. The rage passed, as did the draw of the shadow disk.

“I’m sorry. I know now what I took from you. How it drives you, tearing at your heart. And while I can never make it up to you, as not even I could reverse the summoning, I can give you what help I can along the way.”

“Can you at least tell me why?” I asked, fighting back tears. Damnit, I hated to react like this. I wanted to embrace my rage, rampage through this divine realm. But that’s not who I was, or even more who I wanted to be. Not and still claim to be who I was to Danielle and Isabelle. “And hide that for a bit?” I nodded to the disk.

He waved his hand, and the disk disappeared. He also managed to summon a chair for me to sit on, one I gladly took. “I know you’ve been in love. I thought I was, once. Croea. The goddess of foresight. Of everyone in this world, I couldn’t pull a trick on her. She always caught me, and gave me a small smirk as she did. No matter how elaborate, she always avoided it at just the last moment. ‘Maybe next time, Lokir.’ Every time.” As he spoke, he stared off into the distance with a small smile on his face. “I think that’s why I liked her so much.”

“She was your unicorn.” I said absentmindedly.

“Unicorn? Why would she be so common?” He asked confused.

“Sorry.” I said, slapping my forehead. “Where I come from, a unicorn is a creature of legend. Beautiful and graceful. The epitome of perfection, and always just out of reach. You would do anything to get it, and you think you are so close. Only to realize that what you thought were inches, were actually miles.”

“I like that.” He said after a bit. “Yeah, she was my unicorn. That last bit I could never quite possess. Or trick. Anyway, long ago she gave me a series of sealed envelopes. Telling me they were some of the greatest tricks I would ever play. And they seemed innocuous, so I fell right into her trap. Here, this is the last one.”

I took the sheet of paper, rearing back in pain from one glance at the writing. “Ow!” I cried out.

“Oh, sorry. Forgot you can’t handle divine script. I’ll read it to you.” He said, taking the paper back. “Before I did what I did, it had me alter the summoning ritual. Once that was done, the writing changed to this.”

Dearest Lokir,

I must take this time to apologize. To both you and Sean. For the events I set in motion will harm both of you deeply. I know deep down you play tricks on this world to bring joy. Even if fleeting, that bit of levity is needed. What I just had you do goes against all of that. It is better for you to hear from me than for you to realize on your own: In changing the summoning, you will have destroyed a good man.

Though I care about you, I had to take advantage of you. Of your trusting nature, and your love for me. For that, I can never apologize enough. Perhaps one day, you will realize why I did what I did. All I can say, is that this path was the only one of the millions of billions that I traveled that has a chance to save the world. And such a thin path it is, with darkness on either side. I know the scar this will leave on you. How a bit of that beautiful light inside you will die. The world is a worse place for its loss.

My final words to you are this. Live. Live, and learn to find the joy that I took from you. If you can, let my betrayal go. For though I love you, I had to destroy that so the world would have a chance at living.

Farewell my love,

Croea

We both sat for a moment, letting the letters contents wash over us. I had no idea what Lokir was thinking, but I felt for the guy. I had lost girlfriends to cheating before, but this was worse somehow. How could she trick him into betraying himself like that? How could I be mad at a guy that had his heart ripped out like that? Even if he did deserve a bit of it, if nothing else than to drive home the point that you shouldn’t do that again.

“So. That was the only reason you chose me? A goddess told you to?”

“A goddess of foresight and prophecy, but yes.”

“Goddamnitalltohell.” I growled out in one word. “Why is it every time there is a prophecy everyone falls over themselves trying to either set it up or avoid it? Prophecies are bullshit guesses at the future anyway.”

“And yet, all of Croea’s prophecies have come true.” Lokir said calmly.

“Look, I get that seeing into the future is her shtick and all, but nobody is perfect Lokir. Especially since she has a counterpart in the other universe. Don’t you think they would be battling each other? Fighting to make sure the other one’s prophecies don’t come true?”

Lokir stared at me like I had grown a second head. Several times he tried to formulate a thought, only to freeze before he could speak.

“Now you see it.” I finally said, breaking the silence. “Try and keep that in mind. So are you ok after reading that note?”

“I dunno.” He said, deflating. We sat there for another ten minutes or so, content to just be silent.

“She didn’t want to.” I said.

“I know.” He replied, on the verge of tears.

“Any chance she can come back?” I asked, not knowing what was possible for gods.

“There’s a rare chance.” He sighed. “But it is practically impossible. I would need to pour energy into her divine essence while in her main temple. Before you ask why we don’t do that, we can’t. That serpent I told you about? He’s called the Gluttonous one because he eats the divine essence of defeated gods. While he didn’t kill her, he did come by after Croea and her shadow counterpart destroyed each other.”

“Whelp. That settles it.” I grunted, standing from my chair and cracking my back and shoulders. “Guess we are just gonna have to kill this snake bastard.”

“Heh. And just how are you going to do that mortal? And why are you going to help me after all I did to you?” He asked with a light chuckle.

“Dunno. Probably going to have to trick the god into underestimating a mere mortal or something. Guess you’re gonna have to get that black disk back out though. And why help? You got tricked and burned. Doesn’t matter that helping you will probably help me. You got that look in your eyes that I do when I think of Danielle.”

“Alright then. Here’s the disk. And this too.” He handed me a strange contraption with multiple legs. “When you get to where you can sense the disk, attach this to it. It’ll start moving the thing around, and actively try and hide from you. Don’t let it catch you.”

“You got it. See you in a week or so.” I said. With a smile and a nod, he gave a short hop and sucked himself into a singularity. “Damn, that looks like a painful way to travel for anything with bones.” I muttered, turning to look at the disk that was already creeping me out from nearly fifty feet away.

That disk was seriously creepy. I turned my back to it, trying to figure out what skills I needed to learn. Probably to block its effect on me, as well as a detection skill. Alright, let’s try a mana shield. I reached for my mana, only to find it inaccessible. What the? Maybe mana usage required something in the body. I could feel the pool, but that was it. Alright, if I couldn’t use that, I would have to do something different. Turning, I looked right at the disc and halved the distance between us.

That was as far as I could take it. This close, I had broken into a clammy sweat and my hands were vibrating like a jar of angry bees. Sitting down with my legs crossed, I was determined that I would overcome this fear effect. Or whatever the hell it was. And so I sat there, processing what I was feeling. Memorizing everything I could about it. The easiest was the looming presence. Though I knew it was a disk a foot in diameter, it felt like a giant was standing before me. I had to overcome that first. Knowing it was an illusion helped, and I just relaxed and tried to catalogue the feeling.

I could barely grasp it. These waves of energy. I could understand what Lokir was saying, that discovering this skill would be easiest here. Where my soul was the only input I had, and there were no distractions. How could I ever learn this skill on Vitae? This energy that barely interacted with my soul, and yet caused such a powerful reaction. Focus on it. Isolate it, and determine the cause. I didn’t know how I was doing what I did, but it seemed willpower was a great portion of it. And trust that I could do it.

It wasn’t just a wave of energy though. I could feel them. The particles the disk was emitting. They passed straight through me, and that’s why there was such a strong reaction. The damn things were like neutrinos, able to pass through anything. Except instead of leaving no trace, they left a feeling of hopelessness and despair. That the source was so far above you, it wouldn’t notice when it crushed you beneath its heel.

Deep within me, I could feel something like an organ. Did souls have organs? Apparently so. And every time a particle passed through this organ, it would shudder and send vibrations along my soul. These vibrations were the source of the feelings. So I had two choices. Stop the particles from touching that organ. That would stop the pressure I felt, but would also prevent me from detecting the particles. Not very helpful in the long run.

Option two. Fight against the shaking. Overcome it. Let the organ vibrate, so that I can detect the threat. And once I had noticed the organ, I focusing on the particles became a bit easier. So I needed two things. Send power to the organ, making it grow. And strengthen the fibers holding it in place, so that they could resist the energy of the particles. Over and over I fought, willing some energy into these areas of the soul. And slowly, ever so slowly, I saw progress.

Time lost meaning as I strengthened myself. Every time the giant’s pressure shrunk to half its normal size, I moved closer. I kept repeating this, over and over and over. Until I could reach out and touch the disk. Smiling, I backed away, amazed at how much easier it was. I stopped actively fighting the feeling, and instead of facing down a giant I was simply in the room with an angry bouncer. The difference was phenomenal.

But that wasn’t all that I was going to do. I know that Lokir wanted me to dodge his little construct, but I had a different idea. I wanted two things. First, a way to counter the particle. Each particle has to have its own antiparticle, and I wanted to find it. Most likely it would be the one associated with this worlds divinity. That was one objective. The other was finding a way to copy both particles. If I could pull that off, I would have a weapon I could use against both sets of divinity.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

“Hello there Sean.” Lokir’s voice pulled me from my meditation. Though he had appeared behind me, and with no noise whatsoever, I wasn’t startled.

“Lokir.” I calmly said, groaning a bit as I got up from my position. “Long time no see.”

“You didn’t jump. Did you discover a few new skills?”

“I did.” I smiled. “Not sure what they are called, as it seems the system is blocked here. But I can feel them, almost as if they are new portions of my soul.”

“Fantastic work! I knew you would manage something. Can you give me a demonstration?”

“Sure. Watch this.” I said. Concentrating, I managed to form a small bit of divine energy and fire it at Lokir.

“Divine energy?” He asked, surprised.

“Yep. Turns out our souls create it, just incredibly slowly. That ten second spell took a lot out of me, but if I had a full minute or so to prepare?” I smiled. “Your energy is the opposite of what that other universe’s god puts out. I can harness what I produce and hold a small bit in me, but not nearly enough for a spell.”

“So you can not only sense the energies, but harness them too? I see now what Croea saw in you. Keep practicing, I’m interested in seeing where you can proceed with this new bit of energy. Not many can manage to harness their soul’s power.”

“Thanks Lokir. I had a quick question though. What is the point of the mortal soul producing such a small amount of divine energy? I mean, it took nearly a day to generate what I could harness.”

“How else do you think your prayers reach the gods?” He asked with a smile. “Every prayer takes a bit of energy, sometimes more. We also get it when you worship us. Helps us keep our powers.”

“So, does that make you gods or parasites? Leeching off the power of bunches of mortals.” I chuckled at his face. While he was distracted, I started harnessing the particles coming off the disc. I couldn’t quite produce them, but I could harness them just like the ones from our universe. “I need you to listen up Lokir.” My voice dropped into a darker range. I was holding a sphere of divine shadow over my palm. “I threatened that little bog for simply taking the form of my family. For you four that took me from mine, you need to realize something. I. Won’t. Tolerate. It. Anymore.” Each word was punctuated with a pulse from the orb. “And that includes the new family I am forming. If you need me, come talk to me. Leave Elendria, Carrigan, Bribis, and the rest of the caravan alone. Got it?”

“Oh my, that is certainly unexpected.” He said, and I swore he got a little paler. “I will keep it in mind, but I can’t pass along the warning yet. They’ll know that I managed to contact you. So let’s do this: once you get to Shineheart, head to the temple of Bruin. I can pass on your warning afterwards, when they know you are safe. It’ll stop them from panicking anymore. Shit’s annoying.”

“Sure. Oh, by the way.” I said, memory hitting me all of a sudden. “If you are the patron of demons, you should know there’s a false hero leading an army from Three Rivers against you. Might want to get out and do some smiting or something.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, but we are prevented from the direct smiting. Head back to your friends, and forgive them about the clothes. They were worried about you.” He said with a grin, before tapping my forehead with a finger.

“Clothes?” I managed to get out, before I felt my body being sucked into a singularity. It was the single most unpleasant thing I had ever felt in my life, and judging by the glint of laughter in Lokir’s eyes he knew.