I had been offered a chance.

A chance to live despite my age and the ravages that time had taken on my body. A chance to live even though I was too old when life-expansion technology had been perfected to take advantage of that discovery.

Digi-verse, a company focused on virtual reality and time dilation, had perfected a technique that allowed you to upload your mind. You would enter a game-like world with the genre you choose.

Your body would die, but your mind would live on. You would become immortal. And because the game didn’t use any hardware, you would never have to worry about shutdowns, obsolescence, or the company closing.

Quantum Computing had been the key to discovering the breakthrough in running software. Once this science had advanced far enough that quarks could be ‘programmed’ by modifying the particles and waves identified and isolated with quantum mechanics, it became only a matter of time before enough control was gained to program those particles and waves with enough structure to run the games and time dilation Digi-verse was offering to the public.

And I was taking that chance.

Just in time, I was losing my memories, more of my mind. I was old. Too old. And I was worried there wouldn’t be enough of me to upload if I waited much longer.

The process seemed simple enough, enter deep dive and let go.

I hadn’t been prepared for vertigo as the process began. The effect of a deep dive at the moment of inception, being in two different realms, the physical and the digital, at the same time was nauseating.

A blue liquid, Digi-verse’s proprietary innovation, was used to accelerate electrical stimulus. It allowed the AI to map and codify the electrical pathways of my nervous system. This ability to make a digital reproduction of the electrical synapses of the body was the breakthrough that allowed the company to upload a mind into the minuscule universe that quarks existed within.

The electrical currents were enhanced, the blue fluid acting as a conduit so that it became possible to translate the information directly into binary code. It was this code that stored your potential. The framework of information that created the Avatar your uploaded persona would be based on.

There was some theory-crafting involved in the creation process, numbers that you would never see related to intelligence, health, and potential. But the direct correlation between reality and virtual existed even if the World you were entering used principles of logic, those only found in games, history, or fiction.

The process needed those few moments when you were a part of both realities to provide and determine the foundation for who you will be and how you will start. How you grow or evolve will depend on the World you are uploaded to and the effort you put into growth. But this starting point was needed as the final link between body and soul.

The technician or nurse had explained this. Her effort to keep me calm and focused was wasted as I was more concerned with keeping myself from reacting to nausea. The woman hadn’t introduced herself, so I had no idea what function she served here. What I did know was that Counselor Givens, the woman that had been assigned my case, had guaranteed I would survive the process and be reborn.

Reborn dozens, thousands, hundreds of thousands of times. With the gift of time dilation, eternity could be expanded past the length of the physical universe’s heat death. This first digital character might die sometime in the future. Only to be reborn again and again.

Each death would allow me to enter a different world, worlds beyond imagination, worlds I had selected as fallback choices if I failed to achieve my goals with my first rebirth. There were even Worlds and paradigms that allowed for character creation where death wasn’t a concern. I might be reborn as a Celestial being, for example.

But, if and when I did die, my information would be processed by a protocol AI that allowed me to move on and rejoin one of the myriad worlds Digi-verse was creating. My life and choices during each incarnation would impact each new avatar and my place in each World. I would re-enter the World I had lived in or move on to another world.

The decision would be mine.

The only caveat was that whatever World I was first uploaded into, the laws and framework of that World would become the standard for every future itineration. Each of the worlds would be linked and governed by rules very similar to this first character-creation process.

If I started in a world of magic, I would never incarnate into a futuristic world of hard science.

During the ‘reincarnation’ process, I would be able to speak with the Over-arching AI, Genesis, the AI that monitored all worlds, and any changes to my psychological or intellectual indexes would allow me and the AI to fine-tune the new avatar. My experiences would allow me a more nuanced build, something more suitable to my life experiences.

I had made my choice about how to create my new avatar before I had even entered the pod. They had warned me that time would continue to flow as I was uploaded, and it was best to have as much done before as possible. This was done so Genesis could process the information and insert me, allowing for my rebirth in a manner that would not impede the progression and evolution of the World or its people.

There were choices I may have to make in the future. I could choose to re-spawn in the same World I had died in, but hundreds or thousands of years might have passed while making that decision. Any people I might have known would have long evolved, grown, or died themselves. Civilizations may have been toppled, species faced wars and invasions, technology progressed, and extinction-level events occurred.

The importance I played in the development of the World was in my hands. The counselor explained that I could choose to live an ordinary sedentary life. I could live a life of ignorance, unobtrusive of the World around me, quietly enjoying the simple pleasures. Or I could choose to influence the way the World develops. Become a leader. A great magic user, a powerful cultivator, or a brilliant scientist.

I could embrace the dark and become a villain. Anything I could imagine was possible.

I was about to start panicking when a voice broke through my fears and calmed me down.

“Jay. You have begun your dive into VR. We are finalizing the calibration process. The sense you have of your body will begin to fade, any effects of the dive you have been feeling will pass now, and your senses will be blocked until we complete the process.

“We are going to ask you a series of questions. They may make no sense, and you may not know the answer; try your best. If you don’t know, imagine or guess what the answer might be. Your memories and imaginations will allow us to understand better what your role in the World you selected would be. The background most suited for and the beginning point for your new adventure.

“The questions may seem disjointed and have no real relevance, but we have learned the validity of this methodology, and we have been able to refine the process and achieve superior results from the feedback from those people that enjoy deep-dive. We can’t know for certain, but we believe that successful digital processing results increase exponentially the more effort you put into this stage.

“The first question. What is your earliest memory? Think back. Try to remember everything you can. Not only your age and what you were doing but try remembering even the smallest detail. The weather, how you felt, any emotions you may have been having, even something as minute as a buzzing insect that may have distracted you during this memory.”

My first memory?

I was young. Maybe three, I think. I was outside. The sun was shining. It was summer. The heat didn’t bother me. I was barely aware of the concepts of hot or cold. I was running. My mother, grandmother, sister, and I lived in a run-down apartment in a neighborhood that catered to the poor. We lived in an upper-floor apartment. The building had been built at the bottom of a small depression in the ground, so the second floor was only accessible from a wooden bridge that stretched from a balcony to the public sidewalk.

I was fearless and happy at that moment. Running for the sheer joy of running. My Gammy, my grandmother, was walking behind me carrying a bag of groceries. I was excited I’d gotten to go shopping with her and happy because she’d bought cookies. I was running to share the good news with my younger sister.

As I remembered the scene, the blackness began to form. The sun shone, the apartment formed, and the texture of the wooden bridge became rough. The details of the memory made me whole, and as they populated the memory, it reminded me of more. The feeling of hunger. My need to use the restroom. The smell of summer, the flowers, cut grass, and decaying garbage.

Slowly the memory solidified until all my senses were engaged. The rough-hewn railing, the uneven planks under my feet. Sight, sounds, smells, touch. All stimuli were enhanced until a perfect memory was created.

“Please recite the alphabet followed by the multiplication table up to 9 * 9.”

The alphabet was easy enough. Even at 105, I still remember that song that all children sang. The multiplication table was more problematic. I managed it, but I had to stop and figure out some of the answers. I guess it’s true that if you don’t use it, you lose it. And I’d been relying on calculators and AI for math solutions for decades.

“What do the colors blue, yellow, green, and red taste like?”

I had never suffered from synesthesia, so the question surprised me at first. What did blue taste like? My first instinct was to think blueberries, but that wasn’t quite right. When I thought of blue, I thought of the ocean, of the sky; blue would have that taste. The spray of sea and salt, the hint of ozone, and spring showers. Yellow would taste of honey and lemons, the perfect chilled glass of iced lemonade. Green, more earthy; cucumbers steeped in water. And red. Red would be fiery heat, chili peppers or ginger, an Asian and Mexican blend of flavor profiles.

“Which do you think more important, duty or honor?”

Why was it necessary to choose one over the other? Duty and honor should be an amalgam. My sense of duty should be tempered by those values I consider honorable. Performing my duty well was an honorable pursuit.

“What are you most proud of?”

Family. Although my children and grandchildren had long abandoned me to my fate, I was still proud of the men and women they had become. Their visits had tapered off gradually until they stopped completely, but that didn’t change how I felt about them. I still poured over social media accounts, searching for any hint or tidbit of news about each of them. I admit my actions verged on stalkerish and creepy at times. But I would know my family, even if they no longer wanted to know me.

“What do you most regret not accomplishing during your life?”

I didn’t really regret not accomplishing anything. What I regretted was the lack of time. The time my husband and I had together before his death. The time I could hold my children close. The time lost to loneliness.

“Cats or Dogs?”

“What is your favorite food?”

“If your mother and father were both about to die and you could save only one, whom would you save?”

“Which of your siblings is the best looking? The smartest?”

“Who was your first sexual experience with?”

The questions continued in that vein. No real rhyme or reason to any of them that I understood. At least the questions that asked me to remember a long walk, swimming, or exercising seemed to have some point to them. My muscle memory would be uploaded as I responded to questions that addressed my physical capabilities.

“Almost done, Jay. Just a few more simple questions about your education and work history, and we’ll move to phase 2 of digitization.”

I don’t remember much more after that. I remember those machines that had been silent, activated. The database of knowledge, the electrical impulses that comprised the sum of who I was, had been continually uploaded.

The sense of being in two places at once began to merge into a visual effect that had been documented. I was about to reach the event horizon, that final point of reality where the transition between here and there happened.

Finally.

Jay Mitchell was pronounced dead.

And Jai Myche, a young woman about to step upon the path of cultivation, was born in a world of Elves. A world of cultivation that merged my fascination with the rules of Wuxia with that of Tolkien.

My life had ended. It was time to enjoy this fresh start. A story that began with transmigration. My transmigration had been made possible with the tenets and rules of science- transmigration that had used the advances of humanity’s technology to fuel my passage from reality into the esoteric world of cultivators I would live in.

Original Chapters before editing. A lot has changed, but you don't need to read these if you don't want.

“The information you supplied about the process wasn’t very forthcoming. It was vague at best, and any research I’ve managed to ferret out doesn’t explain the procedure for the transition. How does the transfer take place?” I asked deciding to focus on the mechanics now that the decision had been made. I had no choice.

I could either toss the dice and hope that this digitization process was a way to live on after my body's death or take my chances on an afterlife and embrace the unknown.

Even with the advent and proof that the ‘soul’ actually existed, there was no definitive proof that an after-life was the final destination. Some theorists maintained that the soul was an energy construct, a layered function of the physical body, and acknowledged that when a death occurred the soul did leave the body, much like the final gasp of breath escaping. But without the physical to tether the metaphysical, the freed energy that comprised the soul would dissipate.

A person’s body served the same function as a battery, it had the ability to recharge and maintain an energy pool that provided that energy to the soul. It was this process that was needed to maintain cohesion. If the cord between body and astral soul were severed, if brain activity failed and the body shut down, then the astral form would separate and fade. Of course, there were the continuing religious theories that championed reincarnation, heaven, and oblivion.

“Most of the process is proprietary and the exact mechanics entrusted only to technicians and staff, those that have a need to know and are needed to implement the upload. It is a complex set of mathematical and computational formatting as the AI processes and copies the biomechanics of your brain activity and memories. A kind of lucid dreaming is established that allows you to transition by speaking with the AI as it walks you through character creation,” she explained.

“The process is painless. We know this because as part of the clinical studies the Regulatory Commission required the process to be interrupted during different points in transition to more fully understand what is going on, and where the point of no return is.

“There are a few brief moments when you exist in both realms, the physical and digital realities merged as the process completes and the duality is severed. It is only during this phase that interruption of the transfer proceedings can result in irrevocable death to your physical body as well as the loss of your digital avatar.”

“And if it works? What is the digital world like? There is almost as little information about that as there are the proprietary techniques Digi-verse uses to ‘upload’ a persona,” I accused her suspiciously, implicitly suggesting that Digi-verse was hiding something. Something nefarious in its claims of proprietary methodology, methods, and techniques that require anonymity and privacy.

“World settings and Universal mechanics are protected under Federal privacy legislation. Digital citizens are a protected class, and because it is so difficult to have meaningful real-time conversations between the two mediums, laws were enacted that placed tight limits on what information can be shared.

“This is no different than the right to privacy that you enjoy now for medical information. Of course, there are ways to track individuals and investigate and data-mine information, just as there are ways in the physical world.

“But protections exist. Search warrants. Orders of protection. These legal remedies exist with one caveat. Once you’ve been digitized there is no way to incarcerate or effect capital punishment for crimes that may have occurred before the individual has been uploaded and made part of the contiguous worlds that make up Digi-verse.

“The courts have ruled that the digitization process is tantamount to death. The physical body does expire. So, all assets, properties, and monies are distributed based on the individual’s last will and testament. And any crimes committed by that person are considered solved, any reparations or penalties absolved.

“Each individual starts their digital life free of animus and burden. The mistakes, debts, crimes, enemies, and friends they made in this world are terminated. You enter your new life with a clean slate.

“The reason you require Digi-verse to be named a beneficiary in a person’s will and require that person to divest 50% of all assets at the time of the procedure seems exorbitant. Even extortion” I said. “Why not allow people to pay a flat fee instead?”

“For the same reasons, a person uses when they decide to diversify their portfolio. Digi-verse has found that stocks, company shares, property, and items retain and increase in value. Money can buy these things. But time, effort, and profitability of new investments compared to those that have been nurtured and time-tested are drastically less profitable. Digi-verse has found it’s better to nurture established portfolios instead of liquidating over time.

“The cost of Digi-verse infrastructure increases exponentially each year. As the human race expands into new star systems, we have to expand the area we cover. For our part, we have signed contracts that demand we maintain the Digi-verse in perpetuity. To do this, we have seeded wormholes with navigation buoys that use quantum particles to communicate across networks.

“The monies from dividends, business profits, leases, and rentals are barely sufficient enough to grow the server buoy network. Those buoys provide the means for expansion and redundancy that meets the current needs and demands of exploration and trade routes.

“You have to understand, nano-particles allow the buoy’s to self-repair for the most part, but catastrophic events do happen that destroy a buoy that has been seeded at a wormhole entrance or exit.

“Digi-verse has to maintain the infrastructure and means to repair, replace, and update as technological advances impact the service we offer.

“That explains why you protect the information, but it doesn’t tell me anything about the in-game Worlds. What type of features I can expect. Once I sign the contracts, update my will, and agree to any NDA’s you may require, it should be possible to learn something about the worlds, shouldn’t it?” I challenged her and by proxy Digi-verse’s terms of service.

“Unfortunately, no. The only thing I can tell you is that you will be able to choose from amongst a diverse set of scenarios and worlds. Physics are mutable in the digital world, and anything, virtually anything you can dream of can be given form and function.

“Fine. You can’t or won’t go into game world details, but what about mechanics? What happens if I die in the digital world?” I demanded.

“It depends on the world you decide to enter. The only thing I can promise is that death is not absolute. No matter what Universal constants have been programmed and assigned to the World you spawn in, no matter what iteration or unique life you wish to embrace, the only sure thing Digi-verse can promise is that as long as even one server buoy remains operational, you will survive and live.”

I knew all of this. She wasn’t sharing any information that I hadn’t found when researching my choices. Still, I wished I had more time. More time to live before making this decision, but I didn’t. Time was running out. Medicine had adapted new techniques using the body’s inherent proteins and enzymes to repair and maintain homeostasis.

But without the new DNA and genetic protein re-sequencing, a technology that had to be administered before puberty, my death was fast approaching. There were no more medical solutions and my health had progressed to end-stage. Palliative care was all that was available to me at this point. And I could feel the changes as my body began the process of shutting down.

The paperwork had already been drawn up. My will updated. My lawyer advised me of my rights and explaining the fine print of the contracts Digi-verse would require me to sign. It had come down to this final decision. Toss the dice and die, hoping there was an afterlife, and that I wouldn’t be consigned to some type of eternal punishment or forever lost in a limbo of nothingness. Or digitize and know that my mind would live on.

Digi-verse was contractually obligated to maintain and improve its server farms. They were obligated to continue researching methods of maintenance, half of all profits were required to be reinvested into research. At some point, the system would become Maintenance-free, the network capacity to source, code, repair, and expand possible without the input of man or company.

Digi-verse was contracted to discover and implement fully functional self-repairing, duplicating, and upgrading infrastructure that would continue to grow long after Digi-verse the company was relegated to the dust bin of history.

Signing the applicable documents before I could find another reason to stall, I consigned myself to the mercy of machine and computer. For better or worse, I would trust in this new life, and that no matter the circumstance or world I found myself, I would survive and flourish. I just hoped the AI that processed my creation was as intuitive as had been advertised.

Medicine was not the only field to advance over the last 100 years, obviously, since we were space-faring and planet colonizing. Advances in all the disparate fields of science had only become possible with improvements in energy and computing technologies

Cell phones had been replaced by AI and embedded chip technology. Micro-circuitry that was injected into the fold of the ear, a kind of high-tech earring, that allowed communications and the Cybernet to be accessed with ease. The adaptive ability of these micro-chips allowed neural interface to build allowing HUD type displays and video display.

The devices were powered by the natural electrical impulses of the human body, no need for batteries or charging, and upgrades and advances to hardware were possible because of the unique metal the circuitry was constructed from. Metal that had the ability to become fluid and be restructured into new patterns.

But the most important advance for humanity had come by happenstance. When an accidental discovery in Fusion technology had changed the world forever. China and the U.S. had been forced to set aside ideological differences when Iran had detonated a nuclear weapon, irradiating the oil fields of Saudi Arabia. That action had been the impetus the world required to finally restore some sanity to the divisiveness and nationalism that had been increasing.

Oil prices skyrocketed as the remaining world oil-producing countries tried to increase production. But a solution was needed. The world’s population had reached 10 billion and market forces had only increased energy requirements. Nationalism was forgotten. Countries that had been ideologically opposed had joined together, differences forgotten. The world's energy requirements threatened dire consequences if a new solution to oil was not found.

Leading scientists in fusion research had been gathered, these scientists had been tasked with combining their research to expedite a solution. A simple mathematical error, subtracting instead of adding at a critical junction had been the breakthrough that was required. Fusion energy was available and marketable.

Fossil fuels had finally been replaced with cheap sustainable energy. That technology also made traveling between stars possible. What made this energy cheap and accessible was the discovery that oxygen and hydrogen were able to be fused into water molecules without any radioactive by-product. The fusion techniques allowed dangerous nuclear materials to be replaced by safe and renewable elements.

Water was the most often used. Splitting the water molecule into oxygen and hydrogen atoms and fusing them back together produced amazing amounts of energy. But the real discovery was made when it was realized that the molecules could be reused, the water molecules split and recombined, so the cycle of fusion could be reproduced indefinitely using those same molecules.

A sustainable, renewable, clean energy source. It had been the balm and salvation the world needed after the horrors of nuclear destruction. It had staved off another world war and allowed for the beginning of globalization and a one-world government. And because the amount of water required to create fusion energy was so small, small power-producing plants were able to be built that allowed the worn-out infrastructure of power lines to be replaced with individual generators. Units that were installed at each home and business.

Even as technology advanced and changed the world, some things remained constant. Transporting the infirm, disabled, or dying still required human intervention. Sturdy men and women that swarmed around my bed almost before the ink was dry on the contracts I’d just signed. IV drip lines swapped and fastened to mobile stands. Wi-Fi connected to heart and breathing monitors reconnected to the ambulances network. And a gurney positioned next to the hospital bed so my body could be lifted and moved easily, as the room I’d slept in for decades, a room littered with the detritus of my life was cleared.

I knew the frenzied activity was mostly my fault. I’d procrastinated on making my decision for so long, that the attendants were afraid I wouldn’t survive transport, that I would flat-line now that a possible new life was at hand.

Still, the entire proceedings infuriated me. My mind was as sharp as ever. Mentally I still thought of myself as that 17-year-old schoolgirl getting ready to step out into the world and make her mark. That I was reduced to life support and strapped to beds was humiliating and infuriating.

The trip was, of course, uneventful. Smart cars and programmed traffic routes had increased efficiency and safety while traveling. GPS positioning had done much to negate traffic congestion and gridlock. The human error had been removed from the equation, with only vintage vehicles still capable of allowing drivers to assume manual control. And even these machines had to have the ability and technologies retrofitted for monitoring transportation AI’s to intervene and assume control when necessary.

The Digi-verse processing center was located in their corporate headquarters, a building of glass and steel. A towering edifice that eclipsed the surrounding buildings. It was directly linked with a sky monorail, another new technology that made use of superconductors for efficiency and replaced mass transit. With covered pathways between buildings, bridging and connecting buildings in a delicate filigree of an engineering marvel, overpasses that meandered among rooftops and allowed for easy egress of commuters between local businesses.

Making use of magnetic antigrav technology, the public transport system operated without the need for rail tracks or additional infrastructure. A platform for loading and unloading with the ability to shield passengers from the weather was the only requirement to tie in and be identified as a transportation hub. Allowances were made for the fluctuation in building height, the Grav-ways rising and dipping as needed. I wasn’t sure how anti-gravity worked, or how magnetic resonance was possible without metal infrastructure placed for the magnets to repulse and give lift, but the technology allowed for high-speed monorails that provided transport for workers, not only locally, but within a network of cities.

Highspeed transportation had allowed businesses to increase the pool of labor each business had access to from local residents to national populations without requiring people to uproot homes or move. An individual could use the monorails and arrive anywhere in the country quickly. Destinations could be reached at speeds so fast that the longest transit ride in the continental United States, no matter the distance, was little more than thirty minutes. It was one of the solutions for dealing with the world’s congestion and gridlock. Roads became obsolete and were primarily used for emergency vehicles and supply distribution.

My home had been one of many that supplanted the single-family dwelling. As populations had soared, the surface property had become scarce, land reclaimed for wilderness and farming, while homes and cities were re-constructed underground. In vast subterranean housing suburbs. Businesses and corporations still claimed the sky with their soaring skyscrapers. But the family home became compartmentalized underground apartments.

My suburb was close to Digi-verse’s headquarters. One of the outlying cities that had been absorbed by Chicago and made part of the sprawling metropolis that had absorbed part of Northwest Indiana. The nuclear weapon that Iran had detonated had frightened humanity. It, perhaps more than the problems of the increased population had been the impetus to create homes underground. These sprawling suburbs protected by embedded anti-missile batteries. Even buried under tons of rock and earth, civilization still worried until energy domes, force fields that enclosed cities.

Truthfully, people would have been better off and safer staying isolated and spread out. But we were social people and had always believed there was safety in numbers. Small towns and villages had become abandoned as people sought protection. Tens of thousands of ghost towns littering the country until finally those resources were reclaimed and the lands restored to the natural wilderness.

Once space travel became possible, and colonization for other planets accessible by all, this trend only accelerated. The world’s population declined, falling by a billion every decade as more and more people migrated. Eventually, Earth’s population numbers stabilized, birth rates finally comparable to mortality rates as an ever-increasing quality of life and longevity rose.

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Some of those that had migrated, those seeking riches and opportunities, were quick to return to Earth. Tales of Wild West desperation and real hardships as terraforming transformed lifeless planets, allowing and creating civilization as varied as the planets themselves. The technology existed to claim all but the harshest of environments. But every world was different, and specialist AI’s were created to micro-manage development where needed.

Colonies could thrive, it was shown to be possible, but it was difficult. Riches and opportunities were plentiful, but life and living conditions could be severe, hardships and death a daily occurrence.

The colonies and new planets shepherded in a new round of manifest destiny as people fought to eke out their new lives, owning and controlling what they could claim and hold, again ignoring local wildlife as they rushed to pillage resources that would allow them to strike it rich. And their greed paid off. For the first time in decades, resources were plentiful, bountiful, and easily accessible. Mines sprung up on all colonized planets, rich seams of rare metals on Earth, metals that allowed technologies that were cost-prohibitive to become economically sound.

And oil was once again plentiful. This new boom allowed mankind to finally end famine and provide a minimum standard of benefits; housing, food, energy to everyone. The slums were demolished, the abandoned cities recycled, and that nuclear bomb that destroyed the oil fields became the impetus for the change that saved the world.

The corridors leading to what can only be called a lab were pristine and utilitarian. Stark white with fluorescent lighting casting harsh light that leached what little color the doors and signs contained. There was no artwork to disrupt the continuity of the starkness. No plant matter, waste receptacles, or blinds to block the windows.

There was nothing more than chrome, glass, and white walls. The effect was disconcerting; the sameness giving the appearance of infinity, an illusion of the walls and windows stretching out into forever.

The Emergency responder transportation crew was familiar enough with their surroundings they could ignore the disconnect and strangeness that I was experiencing, the minimalistic passage ignored as they discussed the minutia that made up their lives. Dinner plans. Problems with spouses. Recent News. And boasting about their favorite sports team’s success.

A relatively new sports league, the Zero-g championships had recently concluded. All of the popular sports that were created on Earth found their way into space. If football and basketball were followed by fanatics before, Zero-g football (ZFL) and Zero-g basketball (ZBL) were at another level.

I didn’t follow sports. I’d stopped caring about things like that about the time the Cubs won the World Series. But their conversation did help to distract me. It got me out of my headspace and allowed me to focus on something other than my imminent death.

While I was resigned and determined to follow through, technically, it was still possible to change my mind, at least for a few more moments, but I was fast approaching the point of no return. And the pit of fear that any sane person experienced when faced with their imminent demise was forcing me to swallow quickly in order to keep the bile from spewing out and staining the white walls and floors with this morning’s breakfast.

The sound of air pressure releasing and stabilizing as a door slid open revealed a break in the monotonous sameness of the hallway. The door was perfectly embedded within the wall, and it was only when the controlling mechanism that one of the transport aids manipulated released the locking mechanism that our arrival was announced to the lemmings scurrying around inside. The door opening was wide enough to allow the gurney, the life monitoring equipment, and those traveling with me to enter easily.

Once everyone had entered, the doors closed, and a hermetic seal was formed. A decontamination process, the flooding of the room with UV rays and fog of chemicals that removed and killed viruses hissed filling the room.

Once the In-charge Nurse was satisfied that we were safe, the gasses were vented, and the inner door’s hermetic seal was released and I was rolled into where I would sacrifice my life for a possibility. A dream and a promise that the digital process was a beginning, not an ending. All for the low cost of 50% of my worldly assets. My Will updated, notarized, and signed assigning the vast majority of the wealth I’d accumulated to Digi-verse as the major beneficiary.

The lights changed as a different UV spectrum flooded the room I had been wheeled into. This time in an effort to confound any attempts at industrial espionage. The UV was able to kill any nano-particulates, electronic bugs, or engineered viruses that may have accompanied us. Once finished, a final plexiglass partition was retracted, and the staging area was revealed. The room was an intricate mash of machinery, computers, and wires. The walls covered with high-resolution nano-paints that allowed for holograms to be displayed and produced in high definition. The walls were currently displaying scrolling lines of code and medical records.

The cables and wires were woven into a tangled mess, disordered chaos that would take a specialized skill to unravel and understand. What was indisputable, was the focus of the room, the machinery, and the mass of wires originated from the coffin-like box that had been placed strategically in the room.

A Deep-Dive VR unit, the machine was stationed to afford ease of access from all sides, I wasn’t familiar enough with the technology to note if there was a difference between this pod and the deep-dive pods that VR users purchased. No matter how they tried to camouflage or modify shape and function, to those of us that would be making use of that instrument those attempts at subterfuge were eclipsed by its appearance.

It was a coffin, no matter how they decorated it or tried to dress it up.

“Patient name is Jayden Mitchell. 105-year-old female. She has been diagnosed with late-stage kidney failure, liver failure, congestive heart failure. She has been successfully gene-modified to cure cancers and diabetes.

“Subject has a 132 IQ and a 9.8 standardized psychological profile. Legal and medical procedures have been verified and the subject has been legally and medically declared competent to make decisions.

“She has consented to the digital process and signed all applicable documents. Counselor Givens has briefed the patient and signed off as Court Appointed Special Advocate. Next of Kin has been notified and has agreed to the disposal of the body. The Subject has sufficient financial assets and her Last Will and Testament have been modified to offset expenses in perpetuity. All pertinent forms are signed, notarized, and have been analyzed by legal counsel. AI has ratified the forms and reports all systems go and valid,” one of the transition specialists said as I was moved into position.

It reminded me of a surgical theater. Masked attendants wearing scrubs, gloved, and surgical gowns and masks waiting to process and proceed. I’m not sure why sterile fields were important. There was no chance of infection being transmitted. My body would soon be nothing more than spare parts and kindling wood. Perhaps the sterile protocols were in place from when experimentation was required and the people that underwent testing would be subjected to multiple attempts.

I suppose there was still the possibility of failure. A one in a billion error that might crop up and I would not be digitized but instead simply die. In that event, perhaps the sterile field made sense.

Those that had been awaiting my arrival began to be busy once my identity had been established. The gurney once positioned allowed the ER personal to deftly slide me into position. The room staff skillfully adjusting my position to allow them to adjust and attach wires and tubes that connected me to the pod.

The IVs that had been providing my nutrients and medicine were removed and a new line was introduced and connected to another IV stand that had a half dozen bags of some kind of blue substance. The overhead light was turned on and maneuvered so that I was immediately blinded, the lights were painful in their intensity, my eyes blinking and releasing tears rapidly in response.

Straps were placed around my body at strategic locations. Once cinched and satisfied with the placement, I was draped with a cotton sheet, limiting my movement as the sheet was used to bundle my body from neck to toe. Velcro fasteners that had been sewn into the sheet were aligned and tightened until the only part of my body I could move was my head.

“Can you explain what is going on now?” I demanded my fear exploding into demands and accusations. “I don’t think you have to worry about espionage or proprietary secrets being disseminated at this point.”

“Of course. The process will begin with a VR deep-dive,” one of the masked attendants said, stepping forward and placing her hand on my shoulder trying to soothe my worries. “The difference is that you will not be fully immersed in the dive to begin. You will be able to interact and answer questions and prompts from those of us in the room. This contiguous existence, between the physical and virtual world, allows us to calibrate the process to your unique mental signature and psychological profile.

“Once you have started the dive, we will begin a process of replacing your blood with fluids that have been processed to allow for increased efficiency in understanding and interpreting the electrical synapses of your nervous system. The blue fluids are formulated and the hemoglobin systems that allow for oxygen/carbon dioxide transfer are replaced by proteins that facilitate mapping and electrical fluidity.

“You will be asked a series of questions that allow us to more completely understand and calibrate who you are, not who you project yourself to be for those around you, but the real person you are in your inner psyche.

“Based on these questions and the mapping feature you will begin the process of creating a digital avatar, a character creation process that will be linked with your soul. Once you are happy, the duality of your existence, the physical and digital will be severed and the soul, mind, intellect, and memories transferred to a new world,” she concluded.

“What will the world be like?” I asked.

“It depends. There have been over twenty million people that have chosen to be digitized, and the worlds that have been generated based on their psyche have been legion. Although there are overlaps and themes most people hold in common, there are also some people that have created worlds so diverse from the norms and standards that they are the sole digitized resident.

“There is no way of knowing if you will enter a world that is shared by others, or if in the process of digitizing the AI builds an entire world and universe based on standards suited to you.

“The most common themes are fantasy, cultivation, and futuristic. But there have been people that have spawned in worlds populated by dinosaurs, historical landscapes, or new species on other planets. The most interesting individual spawned as a silicon construct and absorbed sand and crystal to propagate a species of sentient particulates.”

“We will only know where you will spawn once you have entered the world. But because of time dilation, our ability to track you and your progress will become severely limited at that point. We will know where, who, and what framework the world you have entered is based on. But from that point on, communication between our worlds will cease.

There wasn't much more additional information that they could or would share. It didn't make a lot of sense to me why they felt the need to restrict what little they had finally offered. Nothing seemed to be that important. Nothing stood out as cutting edge or vastly divergent from VR Deep-dive technology.

The contiguous effect of a partial dive, being in two different realms, the physical and the digital at the same time was interesting. But the only thing that might be worth investigating was the blue liquid they used to facilitate electrical stimulus and decoding, I wondered how effective it was and if it could be used to facilitate medical treatment in some instances. The ability to map the electrical impulses of an individual seemed viable for coma patients.

I understood that this was just a bare-bones explanation, but there was nothing they shared that required such stringent controls. I suppose a rival company could devise a similar fluid if they knew that it was the means for digitization, but patents and increased production seemed sensible countermeasures for that type of industrial theft.

Money was the most obvious answer for the secrecy. Digi-verse was the beneficiary of millions of people, leaving them three-quarters of their assets. That amount of money would certainly incite envy. And the way the company structured those benefits, those investments that they received as capital and stock portfolios, allowed them to expand their business endeavors into unrelated areas. A way to diversify without jeopardizing or injecting company profits and cash flows.

"The fluid has one final property that is unique. The electrical currents that it is able to decode are directly transferred into binary code. It is this code that unlocks the potential your Avatar is based on, the numbers that you may never see that relate to intelligence, health, and potential. It provides and determines the framework for how you will start. How you grow can evolve depending on the World you are transmigrated to, and the effort you put into growth," the technician or nurse explained. She hadn't introduced herself, so I had no idea what function she served.

"What about death? Counselor Givens said there were protocols to deal with the event. Even with time dilation, my digital character will die sometime in the future. How does the AI allow for this eventuality?" I asked.

"It varies. There are Worlds and paradigms that allow for character creation where death isn't really a concern. You may be reborn as a Celestial being, for example. But, if and when you do die, your information is processed by protocol AI's that allow you to begin character creation again, the life and choices you made helping to create a new avatar and re-enter the world you had lived in, or move to another world.

"The only caveat is that whatever world you are first uploaded into, the laws and framework of that world becomes the standard for every future itineration. Each of the worlds linked and governed by rules very similar to this first character creation process. This means if you start in a world of magic, for instance, you will never incarnate into a futuristic world of hard science.

"During your 'reincarnation' process, you will enter into a conversation with the Over-arching AI, the AI that monitors all worlds, and any changes to your psychological and intellectual indexes will allow you and the AI to temper the new avatar, a more nuanced build, something more suitable to the experiences you had lived," she explained.

"One note of warning, time continues to flow while you create a new avatar. This is done so the process of rebirth or respawning will not impede the progression and evolution of worlds. Time will not stand still, and at the increased time dilation the AI's labor under, the time between lives can be extensive.

"You can re-spawn in the same world, you recently died in, but hundreds or thousands of years will have certainly passed. Any people you knew would have long evolved, grown, or died themselves. Civilizations may have been toppled, species faced wars and invasions, technology progressed, and extinction-level events occurred.

"The importance you play in the development of the world you spawn in is entirely in your hands. You can choose to live a sedentary ordinary life. Living unobtrusive and ignorant of the world around you, quietly enjoying the simple pleasures. Or you can choose to try to influence the way the world develops. Become a leader. A great magic-user, cultivator, or scientist. Or embrace the dark and become a villain. Anything you can imagine is possible."

The technicians had continued their duties as I'd asked my questions, but I had been ignoring their movements purposively, still refusing to confront any lingering doubts I had about the procedure, concentrating instead on the new information I was being given. I was about to ask why they bothered keeping any of this a secret when my vision dimmed. A blackness that was so profound that not even the floaters that had existed and danced across my vision with my eyes shut were evident.

I was about to start panicking when a voice broke through my fears and calmed me down. "Jayden. You have begun your dive into VR. We are starting the calibration process. Your senses will be limited until we complete the process.

"We are going to ask you a series of questions. They may make no sense, and you may not know the answer, just try your best. If you don't know, imagine or guess. These reflections and imaginations will allow us to better understand what world you would be most suited for, and where to place you.

"The questions may seem disjointed and have no real relevance, but we have learned the validity of this methodology, we have been able to refine the process and achieve superior results from the feedback, successful digital processing increases exponentially the more effort you put into this stage.

"Let's begin.

"The first question - Think back to your earliest memory. Try to remember everything you can. Not only your age and what you were doing, but try to remember even the smallest detail. The weather, how you felt, any emotions you may have been having, even something as minute as a buzzing insect that may have distracted you during this memory."

My first memory?

I was young. Maybe three. I was outside. The sun was shining. It was summer. The heat didn't bother me, I was barely aware of the concepts of hot or cold. I was running. We, my mother, grandmother, sister and I, lived in an apartment building. It was run down. Located in a neighborhood that catered to the poor. We lived in an upper floor apartment. The building had been built in the bottom of a hill, a small depression so the second floor was only accessible from a wooden bridge that stretched from a balcony to the public sidewalk.

I was fearless and happy. Running for the sheer joy. My Gammy, my grandmother, was behind me carrying a bag of groceries. I was excited I'd got to go shopping with her, and happy because she'd bought cookies. I was running to share the good news with my younger sister.

As I remembered the scene, the blackness began to disperse. The sun shining, the apartment forming the wooden bridge. The details of the memory made whole and as they populated the memory, it reminded me of more. The feeling of hunger. The need to use the restroom. The smell of summer flowers, cut grass, and decaying garbage. Slowly the memory solidified until all my senses were engaged. The roughhewn railing, the uneven planks under my feet. Sight, sounds, smells, touch. All stimuli enhanced until a perfect memory was created.

"Please recite the alphabet followed by the multiplication table up to 9 * 9."

The alphabet was easy enough. Even at 105 I still remembered that song that all children sang. The multiplication table was a bit more problematic. I managed it, but I actually had to stop and figure out some solutions. I guess it's true if you don't use it you lose it. And I'd been relying on calculators and AI for math solutions for decades.

"What do the colors blue, yellow, green, and red taste like?"

I had never suffered from synesthesia, so the question surprised me at first. What did blue taste like? My first instinct was to think about blueberries, but that wasn't quite right. When I thought of blue, I thought of the ocean, of the sky. Blue would have that taste. The spray of sea and salt, the hint of ozone and spring showers. Yellow would taste of honey and lemons, the perfect chilled glass of iced lemonade. Green, more earthy, cucumbers steeped in water. And red. Red would be fiery heat, chili peppers, and ginger, an Asian and Mexican blend of flavor profiles.

"Which do you think more important, duty or honor?"

Why was it necessary to choose one over the other? Duty and honor should be an amalgam. My sense of duty should be tempered by those values I consider honorable. Performing my duty well was an honorable pursuit.

"What are you most proud of?"

Family. My children and grandchildren had long abandoned me to my fate. The visits had tapered off gradually until they stopped completely, but that didn't change how I felt about them. I still poured over social media accounts parsing for any hint or tidbit of news. I admit my actions verged on stalker-ish and creepy at times. But I would know my family even if they no longer wanted to know me.

"What do you most regret not accomplishing during your life?"

I didn't really regret not accomplishing anything. What I regretted was the lack of time. The time my husband and I had together before his death. The time I could hold my children close. The time lost to loneliness.

"Cats or Dogs?"

"What is your favorite food?"

"If your mother and father were both about to die and you could save only one, who would you save?"

"Which of your siblings is the best looking? The smartest?"

"Who was your first sexual experience with?"

The questions continued in that vein. No real rhyme or reason to any of them that I understood. At least the questions that asked me to remember a long walk, swimming, or exercising, seemed to have some point to them. Muscle memory was stored as questions that addressed my physical capabilities progressed.

"Almost done Jayden, just a few more simple questions about your education and work history and we'll move to phase 2 of digitization."

"Why do you bother at this point, Professor Marcus?" One of the women monitoring the machines asked. "We know that none of this is real, everyone knows this is a scam by Digi-verse to rip these people off. It's about greed. These people die, and for what?"

"We don't lie to them, Jennifer," Marcus answered, his anger at the young woman obvious in his voice. "They get exactly what they contracted for. They are uploaded. The worlds do exist. And the infrastructure and deep-space buoys are deployed.

"And it isn't about greed. Make no mistake, the money helps. But it's more about the knowledge and secrets the company learns as part of digitizing those memories. A database of secrets, schemes, and actions that would have been lost if this process hadn't been invented.

"There is no easier way of learning what skeletons have been buried and where than by accessing the database of memories those who subscribe to this method provide.

"And Jennifer," the professor said, his anger transforming into a threat, "you should remember who you are working for. I would hate to find you've broken the contract you've signed with the company and have triggered the self-digitization clause for you and your family."

Machines that had been silent to that point activated, the database of knowledge updated, the process complete, and the last binary transference uploaded.

Finally.

Jayden Mitchell was pronounced dead.

Melody Givens watched, her emotions suppressed, as Jayden Mitchell was murdered. She felt a moment of grief at the part she had played in the woman's death. But she was too excited to dwell on that guilt. She had been working for Digi-verse for ten years, starting out as an intern after completing her Ph.D. in clinical psychology.

Very few people made the time to work towards and earn doctorates anymore. Most were too invested in space travel, colonizing new worlds, or devoting most of their time in virtual worlds. It was this last reason, an incident with virtual technology that changed the trajectory of Melody's life and had her agree to infiltrate Digi-verse and act as a spy.

Her younger brother had been lost, his death while gaming in the latest VR Capsule, a one in a trillion accident the authorities explained, where the synapses of his brain had begun firing out of sequence. The character he played in-game, attempting to manifest in his physical body, a rare occurrence when someone ignored the safety precautions. The gaming company in tandem with authorities had investigated and found her brother had disabled the immersion protocols that monitored biofeedback.

She didn't believe it. After a bit of digging, using the prodigious research skills that had served her well as she worked towards earning her PhD., she began finding hints, similar instances that suggested this phenomenon was not only more widespread than the companies were willing to admit, but was in fact triggered by Digi-verse. Some bit of esoteric research that would push the bounds of virtual reality and make the unreal, real.

They were attempting to adapt muscle memory and body modification to translate. What benefits accrued in-game would have corresponding benefits in reality.

Her digging had not gone unnoticed, especially when she began sifting through data that could only be found on the dark web. She had created a throwaway account, an avatar that could traverse the hidden, with no real ties to her, but once her avatar had been attacked, her actions noticed, her identity was traced and exposed. That could have been problematic, even deadly if the person who unmasked her didn't have similar goals.

Digi-verse had attracted many enemies over the years. The contracts for clients bequeathing their estates and enriching Digi-verse's coffers had gained the attention of some of the most powerful, influential, and richest companies in existence. Corporations that spanned and controlled entire star systems.

Instead of killing Melody, once she had been discovered, those businesses recruited her. Her education, her Ph.D. in psychology were skill-sets that were still in demand, even among a company like Digi-verse that spent most of their disposable income on research, promotion, and investment in improving the abilities of AI, virtual reality capsules, and quantum computers and mechanics.

She had been trained for months, taught a biofeedback technique that allowed her to mask her physiological responses so that she could hide her fear, anger, and control her heart rate and breathing well enough to pass even the most stringent lie detector. Her body had been injected with proprietary and experimental nanoparticles, changes were introduced and made over a period of time so that her baseline metabolism and chemical makeup would not trigger Digi-verse alarms.

Each injection of new nanites slowly created a layering effect, establishing a network that allowed visual and audio to be streamed and held in a partitioned storage vault of nanites. It had taken almost ten years of carefully changing her body, allowing her eyes and ears to record events that she was privy too. Last week the final upgrade made today possible. Anything she saw and heard could now be streamed and transmitted to an encrypted cloud server that only those with the highest security clearance could access.

Even with the framework in place, she had thought months even years might be needed for her to find solid proof of Digi-verse's malfeasance, but a perfect storm of events had made today possible.

Usually, she was not allowed to remain in the room when a person was uploaded onto the Digi-verse mainframe. That held true today. But the technicians and security deviated slightly from normal procedure, each deviation allowing her to pause in the decontamination room, that area that destroyed spy-bots, nanites, and viruses. The partition had closed once she left the room as normal, but it was Plexiglas, easily seen through, and the technicians were jaded by familiarity, too busy to note that she had paused. The guards accustomed to her presence dismissed her as a security risk.

The sound from inside the room should have been muffled, but one of the fail-safes created for the room she was waiting in, was that sound from inside the main room would be transmitted clearly, making it easy for instructions to be conveyed, unless the security barrier was activated. It should have been activated as soon as she left the room, but a connection problem with one of the machines caught the technician's attention, the one responsible for activating the barrier.

She watched and listened as the staff discussed Jayden Mitchell's death and learned the details of the scam Digi-verse was involved in. Professor Marcus and Technician Jennifer Riley's discussion explained so much about why Digi-verse held firm to the patents and technology they had invented.

Not exactly a Ponzi scheme, Digi-verse was mining the memories of their clients for secrets, proprietary information, and blackmail material worth more than any of the money they were receiving as death benefits.

As Melody was pondering this new set of facts, trying to understand how this related to the death of her brother, she failed to notice the soft hissing and odorless gas that was filling the room. Until her vision began to fade.

Realizing that her actions had finally been noticed, and that someone had decided to act, she wondered with her last conscious thought if they were simply killing her or knocking her unconscious to upload into their Digital database. In either case, they had waited too long, their discussion had been streamed and uploaded.

It didn't matter at this point if they uploaded her, using the technology of Digi-verse to discover what limited information she might have about those that had funded and directed her actions. The visual images and sound feeds were safely uploaded to Cloud storage. She might not be able to get justice for her brother, but her last thoughts were of satisfaction, knowing that people powerful enough to do something, now knew the truth.

Council chambers were normally not restricted. I'd always ruled openly, but there were a few times when I called a forum that required discretion. Today was one of those times. Not because I wanted to hide what we did here, but in response to Irvin's request. He'd requested today's events not be broadcast.

Only the Twelve Houses, House Teigh, and those trained to present motions or argue legalities of the law were allowed entrance. This chamber was an important part of Tuatha de Danaan's governance. It was where discussions between the Houses took place, where laws were codified, and where sentences were made.

The five Houses that I had initially created, had expanded until a full quorum, a coven of twelve had been established. Twelve people that had proven over time that they could be trusted to rule well. They understood that their positions made them servants of the people, responsible for their lives and well-being.

Duchess Wynne had abdicated her House position even as she leveled up and became a Ranked: Princess. Her efforts and interests were too narrowly focused on vengeance. She would see those responsible for her daughter's death brought to justice. A justice she had every intention of gaining personally. Instead, Queen Wisteria of the Knocker's had sworn Benefice and assumed the House position that Wynne abdicated. It hadn't taken long for me to understand just how valued a friend she was going to become.

Duke Hawthorne had leveled up and become the Ranked: King for the Volar-Fey. They had continued to proliferate, spreading their unique protections and prodigy over the entire planet. They had evolved, specializing into elemental branches as they had done so, creating a sub-species of Volar-Fey that prospered well in the icy tundra, lava fields, and thin atmosphere of mountain tops. The only place they had been unable to infiltrate had been beneath the water's surface. Still, they managed to assimilate that element by breeding with Nymphs.

Princess Liotonis had yet to level. I think it more lack of interest than talent. She simply didn't care if she became a Ranked: Queen. As my first Benefice and member of Twelve, she enjoyed a certain gravity that belied Rank. Her power and control of her domain were absolute, so the title was superfluous in the scheme of things.

She had done an amazing job creating a city that supported and harvested the Level 8 dungeon that was centered in her territory. Surprisingly, she had assigned Earl Hugo to administer the city, and he had done an admirable job. I'm not sure if the humiliation of losing the fight with me, or the increased responsibilities of running a city had matured him, but I was impressed with the results.

Duke A'Daoine, on the other hand, had leveled up. As a Ranked: Prince, he was the first Seelie to gain that position by honing his own abilities and earning it with hard work. I had been elevated to the Rank of Prince during ascension; it had been gifted to me by System. I'd done none of the hard work required. Prince Illiad, Queen Mab's son, had been power-leveled, so I discounted his achievements and gave more significance to Prince A'Daoine's achievements.

Offering Benefice and a position to Queen Uie of the Slaugh had been a stroke of luck. Her inclusion had done much to soothe fears the Unseelie had concerning any bias and preference towards the Seelie I might have. Her inclusion as one of the Twelve had far-reaching results, results I'd hoped for. My inclusion of an Unseelie lesser-fey as part of the government structure of the Tuatha de Danaan, a creature of nightmare and horror, to my quorum of Houses had demonstrated my intentions in a practical and unassailable manner.

Just as important, her council was often remarkably astute. Slaugh did not play politics, they were direct and forthright in what their goals were. It was refreshing to hear her give her honest opinion, without that opinion being parsed through the lens of faction.

I had gradually added more Houses over the years. Spending the time to find people that were talented, dedicated, and that I thought would mesh well. Not people who would agree with everything I suggested, but people who might have differing points of view, and were capable of discussing these viewpoints logically. I looked for people that tended towards logic instead of emotion. Although I didn't want people to agree with everything I suggested, I also didn't want people who would disagree, who would form a faction that decried all policies as flawed.

I had managed to find people to fill the House positions, keeping to the requirements I'd set for racial distribution. Princess Liotonis, Duke Loiyd, and Duke Terius filled the three Unseelie House council seats. Prince A'Daoine, Duchess Minerva, and Earl Bartlett headed the three Seelie House seats. Queen Wisteria of the Knockers, King Hawthorne of the Volar-Fey, Queen Uie of the Slaugh, Goblin King Nkce, and Herd Patriarch Garr of the Kelpie were named to House positions and represented the lesser-fey. Finally, I selected Master-craftsman Tink, a Brownie that was skilled in more than one of the crafting professions to head the House that would represent those professions.

These people, a cross-section and true representation of the Sidhe became the Twelve, a coven of Power. There had been bumps along the way, growing pains as each new member was added and found a way to work with the other members, but the last House council seat had been filled over ten years ago and we had learned to work well together, smoothing over those growing pains that any new governing body would encounter.

We had learned each other's personalities, each other's strengths and weaknesses. We had learned how to govern a country, faction, and a world together. And now, we trusted each other, despite our differences and ideologies.

It was this knowledge and trust that I was counting on at the moment. The quorum would decide Irvin's fate today, and the looks of sympathy and empathy this decision was garnering for me made any attempt on my part to pretend that today's events were not personal were otherwise impossible.

Uron, Lohne, and Cedric stood behind me. My personal Vassals. People sworn to me, not King Teigh Mac de Beleros y Cyronax. It was hard, at times, distinguishing between the two identities, but these three people managed it. They were uniquely suited and qualified to give advice.

They had broached the idea of entering into a parental contract, the four of us contributing our essence to give birth to a child. I was in no rush. All but the first generation of Volar-Fey were conceived steeped in the magic of my power. They had used the time they had been cocooned within the Sithern, safely stored within my body, as I transported it from Earth to Talahm to filter the magics coursing through my body and create life.

The Volar-Fey the Sithern had allowed to Swarm when my Capital was formed were children of my magic. Not created from the seed of my body, for Fairy, there was no difference between the metaphysical and physical. Each Volar-Fey was a son or daughter of mine, and as they bred, those children became my grandchildren.

Unlike the multitude of Volar-Fey, intent and active participation would be needed for success, but the blessing of a child conceived with an Anam Cara pair was not something to dismiss. Still, there was no rush, the Sidhe were masters of Time. Although we could be lost to ennui, those of us that took the long view, worked to understand how ramifications and actions that were taken today may affect events a million years from now created barriers and protections against the boredom. With Danu's Blessing fertility restored, there was no need to rush. We could take our time. Time to allow me to consider the pros and cons, including the political ramifications of creating a child with my direct Vassals.

I knew that these thoughts were superfluous, just more stalling, a means of distraction as I ignored what would be done here today. I would be forced to listen as someone presented evidence of Irvin's actions. The moves he had taken in his quest for vengeance, and how out of control he had become. Good, bad, or indifferent, everything he had aspired to accomplish since I had rescued him from Mab's torture chamber would be presented as evidence.

And then I would have to entertain motions from each House seat on how we should act. Motions that would offer suggestions for penalties. My fear was that no one would remember the innocence that had been lost twenty years ago and suggest Death as the only solution. And if that were the case. I would comply with that judgment and act. It would destroy a part of me to do so, but I had extorted the doctrine of fairness and equal justice since I formed my Kingdom, I would not turn my back on those ideals now.

Irvin wouldn't expect me too, and the harm I would do, the loss of trust and respect might never be healed. Sidhe and Fairy had long memories. They never forgot a slight, and if I ignored the Twelve in this instant when it was personal, any future objective would be filtered through the memories of Sidhe that knew that I had wavered when events touched upon me and mine.

I was happy to be free again, to soar across the sky even if the night was settling in. Sister had removed the two strangers from the cave, happy that they had healed, even happier that the plant had grown and expanded.

Sister thought it was the corruption that the plants absorbed from the strangers that had made the plants grow so much. I wasn't so sure; I thought it might have been the rain, but I didn't want to admit to Sister that I had caused so much water to flood the cave when I called the storm.

By the time Sister came to get the strangers, the water had dried. Either the plants had absorbed it, or it had seeped between the cracks in the cave floor. With the water gone, and Sister happy about how much the plants had expanded, I thought it was alright, not to mention what I had done.

Sister had said sometimes it was better to be quiet. I think Sister was right. All the best hunters knew that silence and patience was important. Sister had said that was even more true for words. Words once said could not be taken back. Sister had explained that there were people who would and could use what you said to hurt you and others.

Sister tried to explain lies, but maybe it was because Sister and I couldn't lie to each other, our bond wouldn't allow it, that I didn't understand how dangerous lies and deceit might be. I knew Sister would never hurt me, so I never had to worry.

But Sister also explained that sometimes a person needed a secret even from people they trusted completely. That it was OK to remain silent and not share everything. Sister promised me that silence was not the same as a lie, so as long as she didn't ask me if I had made it storm and I lied, Sister wouldn't be angry at me for staying silent.

I thought about telling her, anyway, wondering why I was afraid or worried. I knew Sister wouldn't be mad. It might disappoint her if calling the storm was something bad, but she would just explain why what I had done was wrong. But if I told her, I would have to admit how the water started flooding the cave, and I didn't want Sister to think I was not smart.

I was smart! Sister had said so, and I had learned what happened when you called the storm near the cave now. I wouldn't be so foolish again. Learning was part of getting smarter, Sister had said so.

I had felt Sister's anger and disgust during the day as I guarded the two women. I wasn't sure why she was so upset, but when she finally entered the Aerie to get the strangers, she was calmer. I tested her emotions through our bond, unhappy to see that Sister was still worried about something, but I decided her worry was better than anger or fear.

Sister asked if I wanted to help her or stay in the World a bit longer to rest. It was a silly question. I always wanted to help Sister, so once the strangers were taken care of, Sister flew outside the town that smelled and tasted bad.

I had told Sister there was something wrong with the town. That the smells permeated the area creating a layered 'taste' that was affecting the world's energy and the potency that was being released. The town was diseased, maybe poisoned. I wasn't sure, but what I was sure of was that the land was dying in this area.

Sister was sad when I told her that, but not surprised. She explained that some bad people had done bad things to the land here and that she and I would have to work hard to fix it. It was our duty to heal the land.

I had never had a duty before. I knew Sister and I were born to protect each other, but that wasn't a duty that was our role as sisters. Sister explained that a duty was something we owed to something or someone. Sister was tied to the land now. I had felt it when the world accepted her Qi signature, and that connection came with duty. Sister said it was our job to find a way to repair the damage done to this town and to find out why the land was dying.

I thought about her words for a time as I began my sweep of the area. Sister had asked that I keep mapping, flying in a strange pattern she demonstrated. The town that she was worried about was the starting point and the center of each sweep. I would fly out in one direction, updating the map by using that funny way of thinking and fly back.

Sister taught me how to track how far I was flying by splitting that funny way of thinking into multiple functions. I was able to map the land, and now I could track the beats of my heart to keep track of my distance. Sister had taught me my numbers, so it was easy for me to count each beat. When I counted five hundred beats, Sister said I should turn around and come back to town.

She said I could repeat this as many times as I wanted, picking a different direction each time so that I could fill in the map for her. It had been hard at first, counting to five hundred, using the funny way of thinking to update the map, keeping track of where the town was, and riding the wind. There were so many things to keep track of that I lost track at times. But it got easier and easier the more I did it.

Sister said that was how all things were learned. That hard work and not giving up was the key to success. The more you did something, the easier it would get until it was easy instead of hard. She said when things got easy, the best thing to do was to find something to add to what you were doing to make it hard again. Only by making the hard stuff easy would we grow to be powerful and safe.

I had been mapping most of the day, and I was beginning to get bored. I thought I might find Sister and sleep for the night when the land's Spirits woke and prodded me. There were three of them. A Spirit of the River. A spirit of the Ocean. And a Spirit of the Wind.

They shimmered in ghostly light, that was sickly in color. They didn't look healthy, and I thought it may be the reason why the land was dying. Something had hurt them. Something that kept them from protecting the land where the town was. I couldn't quite see the chains that bound the Spirits, even with the funny way of thinking Sister had taught me, but I knew the Spirits were bound to the land, bound to protect it.

They ignored me as I flew past, the wind Spirit the only one noticing me. She had been playful even though she was sick and had sent a gust of wind for me to coast on. Being nice when you were sick was something only someone good would do, so I ignored the map and my decision to sleep, rushing to the town, following the bond between Sister and me to get her help.

Sister would know what to do to heal the Spirits and restore balance to the town. I was sure of it.