I felt uneasy. Slowly opening my eyes, I was laying on the hard floor of a transparent room, or at least that is what I thought. The walls and ceiling looked like some sort of black hole siphoning their black matter forever, if they were any walls in the first place. With how strange the room was, I couldn’t tell if it was small, big or infinite.
Not too far away from where I awoke from my death, a woman was slowly sipping her glass as if everything was normal. Getting up, I was naked, but since we were alone, there was no need for me to cover myself. If she wanted to see, she had all the time in the world to enjoy the view while I was sleeping, and if she wanted me to be clothed, there wasn’t much I could do anyway. Although, contrary to me, she wore a simple white dress. The bright colour contrasted the room splendidly.
“Did I finally, bite the dust?” I asked. I wasn’t stupid enough to misinterpret the situation. I clearly died, and there was no way that life would have given me another chance with how hard I was to kill. I do admit that I didn’t imagine heaven like that if it is indeed heaven. At least I didn’t feel the pain anymore. I never thought drowning would be so painful.
Her skin was smooth, almost shining as much light as her dress. Her brown hair was tied in a rather long ponytail, going almost to her waist, and with her not-very-modest chest, she looked like a goddess. Considering the situation, this was not an understatement or a false assumption.
“Sluuuurp….” She continued to enjoy her beverage a bit longer. A look of pure bliss on her face as she finished her drink. Since I was dead and probably not gonna be revived, I felt no need to rush her for an explanation and waited.
“Thank you for your patience, young Emery.” She said calmly. “Indeed, it seems your new life was cut rather short. Shame truly.” Her voice was neutral, without any sarcasm to it.
“Since you know my name, may I learn yours?”
“Anastasia, the Goddess of spatial magic.” Spatial magic? Lavanda never told me about that kind of magic.
“My honour Goddess, as you already know, I’m Emery.” She is a goddess, I should show proper respect. If it was an arrogant noble or king who abuse his power, I would need to hold my spit, but as a goddess of magic, she has power, true power, or should I say magic? True magic power then.
“What a polite girl you are, finally someone who knows her manner. I was wondering who was the brat who gave Hely such a headache. I was expecting yet another arrogant or needy human who wanted me to do their bedding, but it is my pleasure to learn that you are better than that.” Hely? Brat? Needy? What the hell did she hear about me? I might have been arrogant, but needy, I was not! I never disrespected anybody, not yet at least.
“May I ask who this Hely is, and what did I do to cause her problem?”
“Hely is the Goddess of death, and from what I heard, she didn’t like that you escaped her so many times.”
“Well, it seems that I won’t be able to escape this time.” Since you know, I’m dead.
“There are still a few minutes left until your soul truly died, so I thought that I may get a talk with you before that.”
“Did you need anything from me?”
“Not really, I just wanted to see why the god of Earth asked me to save you from your predicament.” She said, taking another sip of her glass.
“Then am I to assume you are the one who teleported me to that another world?” Caryly was right when she said that this might be the work of the god and goddess.
“Yes, although teleportation is such a crud word. My colleague told me you were in a rather poor state and asked me and the other goddesses if there was any place in the world we were overseeing. After some thought, we agreed. Since I am the one who controls spatial magic, I could have vetoed the vote, but it seems that your presence solved more problems than it created, so I followed the others.”
Wow, the whole thing seems more complicated than I thought.
“Even, though I did die in the end, allow me to thank you for saving me. You have my gratitude. Without you, I wouldn’t have met my familiars and those I cherished before I died.”
“I accept your gratitude. If you had lived longer, I would have liked you to do a few things for me, but as I said before, it is a shame that you died. My condolences. ”
“You said that my presence in this other world solved a few things, may I ask what?” I don’t remember doing much, at least not anything that a goddess would want me to do.
“Well for a starter, the pure elves race was in dire need of children, so it would have been nice of you to have a few elven children with time.” What?
“Was I supposed to meet a handsome pure elf and marry him?” Not that I’m against the idea. Love and marriage have always been a forbidden dream for me. Having someone I could call my husband and have children with would have been nice to experience.
When I think about it, Caryly, a pure elf, did say that her race had difficulty having children. At least enough to warrant the notice of the gods. Caryly might have known a few elven men. It could explain why I ended up not too far away from Lavanda's home in the first place. After all, she was the one who introduced me to Caryly.
Strangely, for a split second, I could swear I just saw her face being absolutely disgusted, but it vanished way too fast for me to be sure of what I saw. She was back to absolute neutrality.
“This might have been a solution, but there was an easier setup to have you help the pure elven race. If you had been human and married a pure elf, your life span would have been too short to provide him with offspring, you still don’t know, but for a pure elf, it is extremely difficult to have children, they are lucky if they can have one in 200 years. You probably would have died before having one.”
“Also,” She added. “We can’t see into the future, and we cannot predict things with certainty. That plan would have been too complicated to pull off successfully.”
200 years… it seems that they truly had it difficult. How can a race survive with this little birth? If I wasn’t supposed to meet a handsome elf, then how was I supposed to help the race?
“Instead, we made you a pure elf. This was way easier to do and would help the race by adding you and your potential children to the number. It was also useful that elves have a very high disease resistance, with it, your disease is a thing of the past.” After her words, I instinctively reach for my ears, but they were normal human ears.
“Are you sure you made me an elf? It doesn’t feel like it. I don’t even have their ears!” This is a classic fantasy thing that an elf needed to have long, pointy ears. Caryly was living proof that even in another world, this was true.
“It's because you’re still camouflaged. Since elves can’t reproduce with other elves, we designed them to be able to mingle with other races more easily. The fact that you look human is simply a remnant of the fact you don’t know how to change your appearance yet.” What? Elf are shape-shifters now?
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How is it possible to sustain a race if they can’t reproduce within their own species? It's like elves are the standard fantasy goblin who lack females and need women from other races to keep their number flowing! The only difference is that instead of being ugly parasites, elves are shape-shifters who need other species to have children. This makes no sense.
The face I was making must have told her what I was thinking because she followed like she read my mind.
“If it can clear your confusion, each species is built differently. Those that are more naturally stronger, resourceful, and have other kinds of advantages, also have heavy negative to undermine their otherwise overwhelming superiority. It is a rule we had since the dawn of creation.” She explained. “Take humans, for instance, we refer to them as a decent basis because they are average in most of their traits. A bit of higher stamina than others, with unrelenting determination, isn’t a lot compared to other races. Their shorter life span is also counterbalanced by their decent fertility.”
“What about elves? To have such a poor birth rate, they must have overwhelming advantages, right?”
“Indeed. It is one of the races, I personally think we went a bit too far with. Being one of the most long-living races, with their own elven instinct, more magic affinity than other races, and their ability to take the appearance of other species. We had to make their fertility the worst of all the living race in the world.” I could see a hint of sadness, in her voice, as she continued her explanation. “At the time we thought it was fine since this is one of the most basic ways to hinder a species, but now that their number is below a hundred in the world, we see that we made a mistake. This is why half-elf exists. They are a more tone-down version of pure elves. With fewer advantages, but far more tolerable negatives.”
Below a hundred! They really do lack children, do they? When I read about half-elf, I thought it was because they were half-breed, but it seems like they are their own species.
“You mentioned that pure elves can’t reproduce within the same species. What do you mean by that?”
“Exactly what it means. It is technically possible, but as all elves think of other members of their species as family, it is undoable for them to do it. Even with your limited experience, I believe that you did feel the elven instinct effect, right?” I’m not sure if I ever experienced something like that.
Caryly was the only elf that I ever saw. If I remember correctly, when I first saw her at the time, I already trusted her with my life for strange reasons. Going as far as hugging her as if it was the most natural thing in the world on our first meeting. It must be what she’s talking about.
“I think you’re right. It’s confusing how I didn’t think it was strange at the time.”
“Elven instinct is something that has protected the race since the dawn of their creation. To say that this is their most exceptional attribute is an understatement, for better or worse.” It must be that incredible if even a goddess is praising it, and I don’t think it is her just self-boasting for helping create the race. Certainly not.
“Well, unfortunately, I died. My apologies for wasting your time answering questions just to satisfy my curiosity.”
“Do not mind it. I am the one who summoned your soul here after all.” She said as a small smile escaped her lips.
“So what happens now? Is there a paradise, another realm, reincarnation or anything else?”
“There are still a few minutes left until your soul leaves that world permanently, so who knows.” She’s clearly trying to hide that little smile on her lips. I’m sorry to say, goddess, but you failed. “Time passes a bit slower here than in the living world, so your fate is still undecided by the world's whim.”
“Wait, undecided? Does that mean there is still a chance that I’m still alive?”
“No, you are dead. It simply takes some time until your soul leaves and reanimation becomes impossible. While we wait, I don’t mind continuing our conversation! In the odd case that you escape, my dear friend, once again, it is not every day that you can get information directly from a goddess.” She said with a wink. I first thought that she was a passive person, but I was wrong, really wrong.
“In that case, your Highness, I take you up on that offer.” Well, as she said, in the odd, infinitely small scenario that I ended up alive again, whatever she says can be a gold mine of information that both Lavanda and Caryly would slap me if I don’t dig now. After all. I had the reputation to be hard to kill.
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Lavanda
It had only been a minute since Tara got Emery out of the water. I was feeling like absolute shit right now. Hybry still refused to get off her, and I can’t blame him. If it wasn’t for Caryly, I never would have let go of her, either.
Her body was cold, both from the cold water she was soaked in and her lack of heat. How did I let that happen? I wanted to protect her, but she was the one who protected me. She knew that she could take that plague blast, but the lake got the better of her. Why didn’t I think about looking for her, I should have known she couldn’t get killed by a plague attack, but her disappearing in front of me got the better of my emotion.
How long has it been since I cared for something? A part of me felt so happy when Randal found her. “Finally, another person to talk to!” I thought. Randal was the only reason I kept my sanity for so long in these damn flying islands. If I ever knew that being in exile would be that lonely, I might never have done what I did.
While we were mourning our loss. A vine tentacle joined us, observing her silently. At first, I thought that it was Emery doing, but since she was dead, it couldn’t be her controlling that vine. The thing seemed to have a sentience of its own.
When I asked Caryly if she knew what it was. She must have an idea but chose to not say it for some reason. I didn’t feel like pushing her for an answer.
The three big lizards were also taking things silently. The only one who was doing something was Tara, as she tried to comfort Hybry, with limited results. Since Emery put her in charge of the kid, she had taken her role very seriously and did her best to protect him and be there for him, unlike the failure I was.
Out of nowhere, the grass tentacle that had been passive until now sprang into action as if it was suddenly possessed and stuck itself to Emery's chest, pushing Hybry out of the way. Before we could stop it, it already had its needle-like, small green roots digging into her skin. We didn’t try to remove it, since taking it off would damage her body into something I didn’t want to see. We saw its roots circulating through her veins, and going toward her heart.
Hybry tried to jump on what pushed him, but Tara restrained him with her legs. We didn’t know what it was, so it was potentially dangerous.
I tried thinking about a spell I could use since, from the look of it, it seems to want to hijack her body. I already saw plant spirits controlling dead bodies before, and it was something I didn’t want to see ever again. Especially since it was with Emery's body.
Caryly must have thought the same, but instead of helping me, she stopped me from using any spell. “Don’t.” She said calmly. She was looking at the body with big open eyes as if she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
“Impossible,” She muttered.
“What?!” I yell at her. “What is happening, Caryly, what is that thing doing to Emery!?” She took a moment to choose her word carefully, and I couldn’t believe what she said.
“Listen,” Was her answer. Her ears were twitching, a sign that she was listening to something. As an elf, she had better hearing than mine, but since everything and everyone was silent (except Hybry), I concentrated, trying to hear any sound coming off the girl's body and understand what she meant.
“Thump thump, thump thump” And it was there! The sound of a living, beating heart. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. It was coming from Emery.
“Thump thump, thump thump”
The plant was trying to revive her. Other small roots from the ground attached themselves to Emery, and within time, she was covered in vines. Soon after, she was moving, but still unconscious. Her body was breathing somehow, although the movement was still unsteady. She looked like she was coughing as she spilled out green water each time the vines constricted her heart and lungs. I couldn’t say if the water was green because of the poison, but that thing was determined to get every bit of water out of her system.
After a good minute of making her artificially breathe. Suddenly, The plant retracted from her body, and Emery's own movement surged out, and she rolled herself to the side to throw up on the ground.
“Emery!!!” Caryly and I scream, but the girl couldn’t hear us, as she fell unconscious again as soon as she finished emptying her lungs and stomach. I catch her in my arms just before she hit her own vomit.
At that moment, she was breathing steadily as if nothing happen, and she’s been sleeping all along. She was bleeding a little bit from her chest, where the main tentacle did his job, but she was otherwise uninjured.
Seeing as his beloved master was breathing again, Hybry seemed to understand what it meant and proceed to hug himself on her chest yet again.