Jane sat at the party, sipping sunset wine. It was really pink, almost like a crystal pink, and a little sparkly. It was fantastic. Surprisingly good, really. It was ‘the good stuff’ from Cascadio’s personal stash, and that guy had been partying nonstop at his Cavalcade, and that’s where Jane was right now, though she wasn’t quite sure where ‘here’ really was. All one had to do to get an invite to the party was pray to Cascadio, and then bam! You turned a corner and there was a big grass field under the open sky, filled with tables of food and music and a whole lot of people. The specific people you managed to walk into were different every time you got here, unless you were part of a specific party. Jane was part of a specific party. Or at least she would be, when the guest of honor arrived.

Right now she was sitting with Sitnakov, just enjoying a break from all the chaos that was the world now.

Up above, the sun shone down from between a dad’s draconic thumb and pointer finger, and the party was a subdued, sort of get-together, more than a real party. It also had hundreds of people in every direction.

Sitnakov sparkled a beautiful white in the sun, as he sipped his own wine next to Jane, though he sputtered a little bit when dad stepped into the party, half a kilometer away. Sitnakov breathed deep and then smiled serenely, as dad started walking Jane’s way.

Dad was rapidly swamped with people who wanted to talk to him, so he stopped and talked.

Jane wasn’t sure what to make of her father, so she was glad for another moment of breathing room.

Erick had been a Wizard, who then became a crystal who was also a person, while also becoming a dragon somewhere in all that, and then he became fae, through a trip to Earth and then back again, before promptly, not even 10 days later, he went on to fight Nothanganathor. And then he was Xoat, or at least a part of Xoat. Jane wasn’t quite sure what all that meant. And then he ritualistically sacrificed Xoat, because Xoat never wanted to come back together and he wanted to go back to the Dark…

It was a lot.

Jane was still processing it.

Her siblings were all still processing it, too.

Ophiel was currently walking hand in hand with dad, and he looked very happy. Ophiel seemed to be processing all of this rather easily and wonderfully. He was also pretending to be more of a kid than he was, and Jane was pretty sure he shrunk himself some, too, but that was fine.

Dad looked happy. He was smiling. He also looked fully human, or as much of a human as a god could be, which turned out to be pretty close to human. He didn’t even mana sense everything around him anymore unless he wanted to, and usually he didn’t want to. He saw enough already.

Quilatalap walked on Dad’s other side, grinning a lot. Jane wondered if he worshiped dad now, too, in addition to his other three gods, of Koyabez, Phagar, and Melemizargo. She didn’t want to think too deeply about all that, though.

Jane said to Sitnakov, “I’m gonna talk to him. Come over soon, but not right away.”

Sitnakov nodded.

Jane got up and went across the party to her father. She took her time getting there, and he was also half a kilometer away, so there was plenty of ground to cover between here and there. She wasn’t sure what she wanted to say, and dad was busy with all the other people at the party, anyway.

Eventually, she reached him.

Erick was talking to some elves from the Blood Enclave out there on Fenrir, and that was a bit of a thorny situation.

At the very beginning of Veird here in the Fractal Cosmology, Melemizargo had gone ‘insane’ and killed 90% of all the people under the Surface, in the tunnels of Veird, and also all of the elves. That had been an incomplete truth. Melemizargo had gone insane and killed people, but some people simply vanished. Those people had been drawn into Nothanganathor’s Sign of Power and locked into Red stasis crystals. The elves of the Blood Enclave were the ‘bad elves’ that everyone feared from the Old Cosmology, who used Blood Magic to enslave and control.

Nothanganathor had put them out on Fenrir in order to sow chaos, or left them in his Sign; Jane was sure both were true.

In the Great Resurrection, Erick had [Reincarnation]ed them all and then set them down nearby some orcol priests of Aloethag—

Jane banished her descent into a thought hole. Sometimes Intelligence was overactive.

The three elves and the two orcols standing with father and Quilatalap and Ophiel weren’t a threat. They were all talking quietly and asking dad if their plans were acceptable.

Erick smiled gently throughout a whole spiel from the elves, and said, “I’m sure it will work out fine. Aloethag is glad to have you all back.”

“But we need to atone, yes?” said the lead elf, a little mad and getting madder. “We had entered into some plans to do just that in order to be accepted into the Grand Councils of Quintlan, but then we were somehow captured for 1400 years and none of our plans make any sense anymore.”

Erick softly said, “I’m just a mortal right now, Occultist Shev. I can give you some general advice, but if you’re looking for divine guidance then you should speak to Aloethag.”

Occultist Shev’s face did a weird little twitch. He was furious at not being taken seriously.

And then the man rapidly moved up in Jane’s threat assessment rankings, because a spear made of blood simply appeared all the way through Erick’s chest, fountaining out of his back.

Jane went through several reactions, none of which were concerned for her father’s safety, which was a big surprise for her and she would be evaluating again, later. Mostly, she mentally marked down that Occultist Shev and his people were probably going to have some difficult times ahead of them. The orcols with the blood elves looked ashamed. Other nearby party goers were stuck between disbelief and quiet fury, with most of them stuck on disbelief.

Occultist Shev sneered, “Gods who can be struck so easily do not deserve the title!”

Erick wiped off his shirt, as though he was wiping off a bit of dirt and not a thigh-thick spear of blood, in the process breaking what looked to be a phenomenal working of magic into a thick wind that ruffled hair and dresses. His shirt was unmarred, his body was unharmed, and no one was hurt, so Erick wasn’t even mad.

Occultist Shev and his two cronies looked a little worried now. They expected that magic to work more than it had.

Erick said, “You wanted advice for living in this new world? Here is some advice: I’m glad you spoke about striking gods, because sure, strike a god if you want. Gods are all fair game, I guess, because mortals can’t really hurt a god with normal attacks. Still kinda stupid to strike me. Not only are we at Cascadio’s Cavalcade, and he’s asking me right now if I wish to pursue vengeance and I am saying no, but gods are a lot more normal than I am. They’d probably follow through with some sort of curse, but I can’t be bothered with that when talking might clear up your issues.

“I’m glad you didn’t follow the normal precedent of your clan to strike first, and then demand a slave contract to heal the wound. That would have gotten you a smiting. Still not sure how I want to do smites these days, or even if I want to at all. I’m leaning toward ‘no’, except for big offenses, and trying to hurt me isn’t a big offense. It’s probably the least offensive offense you could have tried.

“Anyway!

“You should go back to the Enclave and tell them that you should follow Aloethag’s recommendations for living in this new world. No slavery. No Contract Magic. Maybe cosmetic magic would work out well for you? People are always looking to look better. Might want to rethink that impetus to use violence, though.

“Byebye.”

And then Erick swept a portal across the three blood elves, and they were gone.

Erick smiled and turned toward the orcols. “Aloethag is having trouble with them, I take it?”

“Yes, sir. That display might have helped start to turn minds, though. Thank you.”

“Glad to help!” Erick asked, “You want a portal back there, too?”

“Please.”

Erick obliged.

And then he turned— And jolted a little bit as he saw Jane. He grinned, and the world seemed brighter. It might have literally been brighter, too. And then he realized it was brighter and he calmed all of that. He cleared his throat, then asked, “Hey, Jane. I got stuck walking toward you.”

Jane just shook her head a little bit, not sure what to say.

Ophiel spoke up, “I can’t survive a spear through the chest yet, but I’m still trying!”

Erick happily said, “You’ll get there soon enough.”

Jane had kinda forgotten what she had come over here for, and really, she didn’t have any plan for talking at all except to figure a plan out by the time she got here. Now she was here, she had nothing. So she said, “I truly never have to worry about your safety at all, do I?”

Erick said, “You should have had a better childhood with a mom and a dad who wasn’t doing crazy stuff, Jane, but we both turned out okay, and we’re nowhere near the end of anything anymore.”

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Jane’s breath caught. Trying not to be embarrassed, she said, “I loved growing up with you, Dad. You’re… You’re great.”

Erick took Jane into his arms and hugged her tight.

Jane breathed out, glad that dad still felt like dad to hold. It was a weird thing to think about, but she was glad it still felt the same to hug him.

Erick patted her on the back and smiled as he stepped back, letting the serious moment turn playful as he asked, “So you once spoke about being a teleporting paladin? Still interested? If you don’t pick it, Debby is gonna!”

Jane chuckled, feeling something like joyful tears gather at the corners of her eyes. She teased back, “Solomon isn’t mad at you for taking his daughter?”

“Bah! No one wants to be the paladin of their dad!”

“Ah, so I should be a paladin of Solomon, then?”

“No no no. Benevolence is different. A lot better than Wisdom.”

Solomon stepped up to the gathering of father and daughter, saying, “What’s this disparaging comment I hear about Wisdom?”

Debby was right next to him, wearing a soft red dress, saying, “That it’s not as good as Benevolence, dad.”

Erick laughed—

Ophiel tugged on his robes. “I want to be your paladin.”

Erick happily picked up Ophiel, smiling wide, as he put Ophiel onto his arm, easily holding him, saying, “I’m glad to have you, Paladin Ophiel.”

Ophiel giggled happily as he hugged dad, saying, “Yay!”

“I know just what you can do, too,” Erick said, as others began to join the little gathering.

Poi walked up with a drink in his hand. Teressa was there with her daughter, who was holding hands with a different Ophiel while Dariok had a big pulled pork sandwich in his hands, and Jane felt a little hungry seeing that. There was pulled pork? Where? Somehow Overseer Aisha of House Benevolence walked up with Evan at exactly that right time, with Castellan Zolan and his grandson close behind. Jane expected other people to pop out of the woodwork, too, since that was what happened at Cascadio’s Cavalcade; you met who you needed to meet at the exact right time.

Right on cue, Fallopolis stepped out from behind a tower of donuts on a nearby table, with four big donuts on her plate. One of them almost fell off as she spotted Erick and company. She startled. “Oh my! What’s this?”

Erick smiled and said, “Right on time, Fallopolis.”

“I decided on Opal, by the way,” Fallopolis said, easily slotting into the group.

Erick grinned. “A fine name.”

Opal, eh? Jane supposed. Did it have any significance? Do I know any ‘Opal’s? Well. There was that one…

There was that one ‘Opal’.

Uhhhhhh.

A wave of recollection hit most people in the group at almost the exact same time.

Poi was the first to speak up, “Wait a FUCKING second! Archmage Opal? Of Spur?”

Teressa glared hard. “No. I’ve seen Archmage Opal in perso—”

“She taught me… in… person...” Poi had started hard, but then his voice withered.

Erick said, “She taught me, too. [Ward Destruction] and a bunch of other stuff.”

“Yup!” Fallopolis said, happily. “You were all very good students, and—”

Poi frowned. “How long have you been Archmage Opal?”

Teressa asked anyone who could answer, “Opal has been around for 80 years?”

“All 80 of those years, but also that’s how I started life. I was even Shade Opal for a time, at the beginning. She died in the Great Purge of Spur, though, and was only reborn later, when I needed to help Spur come back together. It was only ever meant to be a small subterfuge, but then it sort of just kept going on,” Fallopolis said, grinning. “I don’t think even Silverite knows— Well. She’s sure to know, now. I bet she tries to kill me next time we meet.”

“She knew,” Erick said, surprising Fallopolis and everyone else except Quilatalap.

“No way!” Poi said, disbelieving.

Teressa frowned. “She knew?!”

Fallopolis frowned. “When did she know?”

Quilatalap spoke up, “When I told her about 20 years after the Purge, when you first tried to pull that shit.”

Fallopolis gasped, and it might have even been a real reaction. “You didn’t.”

“I did,” Quilatalap said. “You weren’t the only one that thought that you went too far with Spur. Also, you were ‘Shade Opal’ for a while and even if you were 1 out of 500, you were still known.”

Fallopolis flustered a little. “I had always assumed that she forgot!”

Quilatalap said, “She is just as much a High Priest in Koyabez’s church as I am. Sure, she disliked me for teaching necromancy to others, but we still talked about the big things.”

Poi relaxed, and so did Teressa. Their worlds were still a little shattered, though, and Jane could relate.

Jane had too many feelings to really consider how she felt about Fallopolis being Archmage Opal. Except for those she personally taught, Opal was always using her [Familiar] to speak with others, so it would have been easy for Fallopolis to fool everyone… Right?

Jane did wonder, though, “What about Archmage Obsidian and Wave?”

Fallopolis easily said, “Obsidian is actually a Necromancer of Quilatalap’s that got in good with Spur. Wave is just another Stone Mage, so not really a ‘Wave Mage’ at all.”

That led to thoughtful silence.

Erick spoke up, “So I’m glad you showed up for this, Fallopolis— Or do you prefer Opal?”

“Fallopolis has been a fine name for me for many good years.”

Erick continued, “So, with regard to why I need some paladins, and why Ophiel is going to be a good one, and a general overview of what I’m doing as a god: It all has to do with the afterlife of Benevolence, and how I don’t have a traditional one, don’t want a traditional one, and how I’m going to need people to help with the afterlife I do have planned.

“I took some of Melemizargo’s dungeon slimes but reincarnated them into something a lot more Benevolent, changing how they work completely. I used those dungeon slimes to make Benevolent gate spaces that I spread out across the universe. I even put a few on Earth. I call them safeholds; not dungeons. I’ll skip the nuances of that to a minimum and get to the good stuff.

“Those dungeons naturally collect the souls of those who die anywhere nearby, if they’re not slated for other directions, and give them choices.

“The most popular choice, by far, is to be [Reincarnation]d in a new world, with a bit of power to help them along the way, in the shape of a [Personal Script] and one spell of their choice.

“I figure that I benefited greatly from the whole planar experience, so I’m giving that experience to as many people as I can.

“So? What do you think?”

First, came silence.

And then everyone wanted to start talking at once.

“Will people be able to return to life where they were?” Poi asked. “Free resurrections?”

“Sometimes people will be brought back where they already were, but I imagine the vast majority will be moved on, far, far away from where they started. Wherever they need to be. Infinity is a very large place, with a lot of problems, and this is a good systemic solution.”

“Are there dead people inside Benevolence right now?” Teressa asked.

“Only about a million. The number is rising daily, but you can’t even see them most of the time. They’re in the fog.”

Fallopolis was a little offended as she asked, “You’re just... letting people into… into heaven? Just like that?”

“Of course!” Erick said.

“Is it a shitty heaven,” Fallopolis deadpanned.

“Admittedly, it is a shitty heaven. No everlasting joy for most people, though I am giving that to a few people who truly do want it. I want people to move on to new lives, though, so that’s the goal there.”

Conversation turned weird, honing in on religion and worship and the nature of divinity itself. Dariok asked about other gods, and if Erick was taking all of their worshipers. Erick spoke of how the options after death covered that, with boons gifted from the gods Erick allowed into his system, which was all of the current ones. One could always pick up other gods and other universal Marks, outside of his system, though. Castellan Zolan asked about abuses of magic in new worlds, and power gained through causing death and chaos. Erick replied about Personal Scripts only incentivizing the helping of others, or personally bettering yourself, and while the second was rife for abuse, it was also the right thing to do, for you can’t help others if you need all your help for yourself. Evan asked about choices of bodies. Erick said that body choice was among the options, but in a limited sort of way, for the system would throw the person into a world where they needed to be, so that they could be their best person, both for them, and for others. If someone wanted to learn body changing magics, then they could do that, though.

“Got a space set up for a presentation, like we did with the dungeons?” Fallopolis asked, with a sly little smile, as though she already knew the answer.

Erick chuckled. “Maybe! Let’s finish up here, though.”

He had a space set up for it, Jane knew. Maybe he hadn’t had one at the start of this conversation, but he had one out there, now.

Shadow was somehow present, as though she had always been there. She asked, “What about second and third deaths?”

Erick smiled. “There’s gonna be a checking system to see if a person deserves a third or fourth chance at life. Right now, that check involves the judgments of the Benevolence safeholds on worlds that have one, but that’s getting into the nuance of it all, and is better saved for the presentations.

“Ideally, this whole thing will allow for a form of eternal life for most good people, well past their second, third, and many other deaths. You might consider it a different form of Koyabez’s Peace Corps, that Quilatalap used to be a part of, where they sent out people to solve conflicts and then resurrected them if they failed, so they could try again.

“The End is always there for a person if they want it, of course, but ideally, every person who goes through the reincarnation planar system will be able to make their own heavens, in whatever lives they can make, wherever they happen to be, and if they want to go again at the end, then they can.”

The group went silent, though there were a few gasps from the newcomers in the crowd. There was Silverite, and Killzone and Chernom. There was Al and Mog and Savral. The Regent and Archmage of Storm’s Edge, which had been Erased and then Restored. A lot of people who had been thought lost forever, but they were back. Rats even stood beside Life Binder Messalina, though they were both far away from the group, not wanting to intrude too much. Sitnakov was beside Jane, and Jane…

Jane was silent as she listened, but she already knew how she felt the very second Dad had mentioned [Reincarnation]s in a new world as an ‘afterlife’.

Jane’s voice cut through the silence, “I love it.”

Erick grinned.

~ ~ ~ ~

THE END

~ ~ ~ ~