Anaïs took a deep breath and tried to look around. She couldn’t, either because she was stuck in place or because she was in a dark room. It was pitch black and she was not sure how she got here. She wiggled and felt her body move, however she couldn’t feel the floor. She tried to move forward but couldn’t tell if she had even moved. She inhaled, held it, then exhaled slowly.
“Hello?” she hesitantly called out. No answer. “Hello? Nurse?” she tried again. She remembered that she had been using a small ladder to put a box on a high shelf when it slipped and fell on her, knocking her off the ladder. She figured her medical alert bracelet must’ve alerted emergency services and she was in the hospital. Should she speak louder? She licked her lips in preparation, however she noted that she couldn’t feel any moisture. Was her mouth dry? “Hello?”
It came out as a high pitched croak.
Hello, AnaÏs. You have died, and your soul will now be recycled.
She stared, dumbfounded but somewhat not surprised. Her parents had been telling her for years to just hire a part-time caretaker or maid. However, she had her pride as a little person. She wasn’t as physically challenged as some of her peers and yet many of them lived just fine on their own. She should be just as well off, considering her financially fortunate parents and grandparents had made sure she’d never have to work a day in her life. They’d even had a house built to accommodate her height. Moreover, her dwarfism had been caused by a growth hormone deficiency, not genetics, so her growth had been proportionate and she didn’t have a lot of the health issues that came with more common forms of dwarfism. She felt everyday tasks, such as putting away some fall décor on a particularly high shelf, should be simple and easy. Maybe not though, because now she was dead? Probably from her head hitting the ground rather than the box that pushed her down. Her thoughts were interrupted by the blue box from before flashing twice.
Hello, AnaÏs. You have died, and your soul will now be recycled. Please acknowledge
“Um, acknowledged? What do you mean recycled? Like recycled paper?” she was confused, and a little put off. What happened to the promised afterlife? She wasn’t majorly religious, considering her parent’s religion was the reason they refused growth hormones for her. Although she had come to terms with her dwarfism, knowing it was avoidable still caused her a lot of grief after finding out when she was younger. When she moved out at 20 she stopped going to church and went to therapy instead, but she still believed in God.
Correct, your soul has completed its cycles in the current universe and will now be recycled and reused in a new universe. As compensation, you will receive one boon and one special ability of your choosing.
“Wow, really saying a whole lot of nothing. Acknowledged.” She licked her lips again, once again disturbed by the lack of moisture but unable to help the nervous action. “Can you explain why I’m being recycled? I don’t remember anything like this being mentioned in the bible? Is everyone recycled?”
Correct. Once a soul has completed a certain amount of life cycles in a universe they are recycled for use in a different universe. You may choose your boon now.
She was a little surprised the blue boxes were actually answering her questions. She pushed for more. “Acknowledged. A soul? Not just my soul?” she paused briefly and pulled her bottom lip into her mouth, chewing slightly. It hurt without any saliva to prevent chafing. “Reusing my soul means I’ll be reborn, right? If I’ve already completed some life cycles, why am I only seeing the blue boxes now?”
All souls are eventually recycled. You are here now because you will be reused in a higher universe. Souls going from lower to higher universes are more difficult to recycle. The Council of Reincarnation found that unprocessed souls are better able to handle the shift, therefore you are here. You may choose your boon now.
“Soooo…. Unprocessed? Oh, wait. Acknowledged. Can you explain what kind of boons I can choose? And what’s the difference between processed and unprocessed souls that make recycling difficult?” She couldn’t tell if the blue boxes just didn’t want to explain everything clearly or if she just wasn’t asking the right questions. Either way she felt she should at least get a clear picture of what was happening and why before she chose anything. More than likely she’d leave this place after she was done choosing.
Boons can be anything outside of abilities and skills. Boons will be applied to your new life to make the transition easier. Processed souls are souls that have been cleansed of lived experiences between life cycles. Unprocessed souls still possess lived experiences. Lived experiences tend to strengthen souls, making the journey to new universes easier. Processed souls tend to get damaged in transport, causing the following life cycle in the new universe to be unnecessarily hard. This is more pronounced when going from lower to higher universes, sometimes affecting multiple life cycles. Please choose your boon now.
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
“Oh okay, well… Acknowledged.” She still felt confused but the blue boxes were obviously getting impatient. She still had a ton of unanswered questions, but she decided to go along for now. AnaÏs felt that even if she asked more on the process it wouldn’t really change anything. She was still dead and about to be recycled. Reused. Reborn? Reincarnated? She was about to enter a world with nothing but a boon and a special ability. Was she getting a new family? Would she be a baby upon arrival? “Okay, can I choose money? I want all my money and assets from my previous life to be converted dollar for dollar to the highest form of currency wherever I’m going.”
Processing…
Processing….
Success. All currency and assets from the previous life cycle have been converted to core coins totaling 267,655,890,026.
Yeah, it was a lot. She was very much a pampered rich girl, and she felt her life was only that smooth due to money. As long as she had money she felt most things could be solved, hopefully it was the same wherever she was going. If she was reborn into a poor family, or reborn with no family, at least she’d be able to ensure she didn’t starve to death. Of course she’d have to be careful depending on the situation, but money could also buy bodyguards. “Acknowledged.”
You may now choose your special ability. Please not, grayed out abilities are unsuitable based on current soul
The dark space around her suddenly filled with white words. Looking closer, some of them were slightly dim, looking more off-white than gray. The abilities were a little… mundane. There were things like enhanced hearing and darkvision, along with more vague things like primordial form and titans bolt. The titans bolt was grayed out so it was somehow unsuitable. “Hey, what makes something unsuitable? Like Titans bolt?” It was vague but sounded cool, like some giant lightning bolt or something.
Available abilities are based on current soul suitability. Titans Bolt is a racial ability for titans. As your soul currently presents as smaller than average in height, becoming a titan would stretch your soul out of shape to fill your new body. This can cause many issues and has been deemed an unsuitable change.
“Acknowledged.” AnaÏs took a deep breath and started nibbling on her lip again. She looked at the abilities listed before her again. So, if she chose a racial ability she’d become a new race? She hadn’t even thought she would be anything but human. Was she okay with that? Was she okay with any of this? Probably not, but she wasn’t really feeling the true weight of it. She wasn’t feeling much other curiosity. Odd. She glanced around again and teleportation disappeared. She frowned, finally realizing the vast list was actually shrinking. “The abilities are disappearing? Why? And is there any way to narrow things down?”
The abilities listed are currently being presented to multiple souls that are in the process of being recycled to the designated universe. The abilities will disappear when the quota is filled. You may voice your request and we will do our best to narrow things down.
“I see, acknowledged.” That changed things. She was currently racing against others in her current predicament. She looked around again and watched as enhanced memory and heart of ice disappeared. “Can you show me abilities where I can gain loyal helpers?” She honestly felt a small hit to her pride saying that, but if her new body would be somewhat based on the old then that meant she’d be a little person again. Everything was one big question mark right now, but if she could get some guaranteed help then she’d at least have that to depend on. In her last life money and family were what paved the way for her. She had money and now she wanted a support system to lean on. If she had these two things then she felt she’d at least have some confidence to face a new unknown life, in an unknown universe that was apparently home to people with magic-like abilities. She watched as the list slowly shifted, a few abilities moved to the front. They were summons from the beyond, familiar, raise undead, and seed soldiers. Really, only raise undead was easy to figure out. She tried touching the words and focusing on them, but no description came up. “Can I get a description for each of these?” she asked hopefully.
No.
A girl could only hope. “Acknowledged.” She tried to think on how these would be used or what they’d be related to. Raise undead was probably the ability of a necromancer or lich maybe, while familiar could probably be related to witches. The other two were odd, and summons from the beyond sounded way too ominous. Ominous for everyone else, that is, and an extra layer of protection for her.
“I’ll take… oh geez” before she could even finish summons from the beyond and raise undead disappeared. Obviously, she wasn’t the only one feeling insecure, and she was wasting time. “I’ll choose… seed soldiers.” The floating words disappeared and she felt as though she was floating. The feeling abruptly disappeared, and she inhaled deeply, realizing for the first time she hadn’t been breathing before.