Well, that is interesting and brings in a lot more questions. Something definitely didn’t sit right with me about the situation. These Gods were plotting for a race of beings to lose in order to advance some sort of plan of theirs. Also, they seemed to be manipulating people being drawn here under false pretenses. I’ve worked for shitty people before and been strung along by false friends or love interests, which seems like what is going on here.
Mentally I bit my lip thinking about it. Did I really want to get involved in this? I could just risk going back and even if that failed at least I wouldn’t have to deal with whatever nonsense this world was going to come to. I didn’t know any of these people. Why should I get involved?
Unbidden memories came back to me of my former life. I had been in middle school and someone was being picked on by several other kids. My parents had raised me to help others and I stuck my nose into it. Turned out it was a girl getting shoved around.
She was a bit pudgy and blonde with green eyes. Her face was marred by tears and snot so it was hard to say if she was beautiful or not. Her clothing looked a bit on the cheap side and that seemed to be what the bullies were targeting her.
When I charged in I didn’t manage to heroically save the day but got into a fight. Didn’t really have a good grasp of conflict resolution at that age. I did okay. I landed some blows and got beat up in return. Ultimately I was dragged to the principal's office with the others. I tried to make my case that I was sticking up for someone else. Which the girl agreed to. Didn’t matter though with their “zero tolerance” policies and I was held back a year for it.
I never saw that girl again as I ended up moving away due to my parents' work. My parents were aggravated with me and I was grounded for most of that year. I can still recall the unjustness of that action, but I never regretted stepping in. I like to think that I accomplished something, though as I got older it was easier to convince myself I didn’t.
That was because I lacked any sort of power as a kid. The system didn’t care, and my parents didn’t back me up. If I had had the ability to enact a real Change though. Perhaps my life would have gone differently. A few other instances flash through my life. Sometimes I wish I had done things differently or wished I had the ability to change my circumstances. When my thought train crashed into the obvious.
Wasn’t this new life what I wanted? I had said the thing I would want most would be the ability to affect change and leave a mark on the world. Wasn’t Abysia giving me the chance to do the one thing I most desired? To make a mark upon the world? Searching my soul I knew this to be true. In that case, shouldn’t I be making the most of this chance to ask the questions that will let me do the most and have the biggest impact?
I took a moment to reorganize my thoughts, losing concern with questioning Abysia’s motives and looking more to doing what I could to empower myself to follow my dream. Abysia created this Hero System and it seems like that is something I will be taking part in. I should ask for information on that first and then get what information I can about the gods, especially the more active seeming ones, Murrard, Theren, and Varigoth.
“What is the Hero System they spoke about? Does it have something to do with the gifts you mentioned?” I asked with a more resolute tone than I had before now.
“The Hero System is something I created to keep the world of Yenope freer of godly influences than it would be otherwise. Mortals of Yenope can grow in levels and power similar to some games you had back where you came from. The Gods can influence the kinds of powers mortals can gain. In addition, Gods can recruit Heroes from other worlds to bring into Yenope to advance their causes. Gods are limited to bringing forth one hero each unless they do so in concert. Though not all of the Gods make much use of this system.
This does impact the gifts I mentioned. I can as the Goddess that summoned you to bestow upon you certain gifts. However, I must warn you, to accept my gifts will mark you as my hero. It will put a target on your back from those three, and maybe others. Heroes haven’t all been good and kind to the world.”
“Could I go into the world without your gifts?” I ask out of curiosity.
“You could, though I would hate for you to be an outsider with no gifts,” Abysia frowned in thought. “If that is what you wish I could call upon a favor from a friend to allow you to enter the world as the hero of a neutral party.” I felt a sense of sadness in the void, but a resoluteness to allow me my own freedom of choice. I felt touched that a being as vast of a concept as a Goddess was willing to let me go my own way and do things how I wanted.
Suddenly a thought occurred to me to clarify something I should have thought of before.
“Why me?” I asked.
Abysia did not respond right away in contrast to the previous questions. Her delicate brow furrowed in thought before answering. “I am not sure I can put into mortal words this understanding. For the sake of many Pacts of the Gods, I can’t give you the information I know without editing some of it. Also, I worry that if you see this it may change how you feel and I want you to be as free as possible in making your decisions. Knowing this, should I still impart what I can?”
That was a bit odd. She was concerned that what she would show me would change how I feel. That just makes me want to know more. That she was being as upfront as she could about the need to alter things reassured me that it would be as much of the truth as she was able to tell me. I felt like I needed to know, for closure of my old life and to invest myself in the new. “Please Goddess Abysia, impart your wisdom,” I said with the firmest and most resolute voice I could muster.
This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.
The answer surprised me as I felt an upwelling of something within my being. This something was like emotions, thoughts, and memories rolled into one. I was supposed to be a Stability in the old world, a being fixed into place and unchangeable.
Nothing should have been possible to change, everything from my birth to death was pre-planned and unalterable for the sake of a greater whole. Yet in spite of that, I had changed things. Things that had rippled out. I had no idea anything I had ever done had actually done anything and yet it had.
Something from that old world wanted me, along with those changes out of that world. Abysia had known of me through some sort of Goddess sense for a long time and jumped at the chance to take me away from there whenever that Something wanted me gone. Due to some sort of Godly Pact, I had to be willing to agree to be taken in the manner I was. My body was left behind as a puppet to continue its role as a Stability and my soul was freed to the care of Abysia.
Abysia felt something for me, something that transcended words. It was a sort of kinship, of closeness, not quite love, but full of care and affection. Mixed in were things akin to pity or depression over my previous situation. At that moment, I knew that if I began my new life here Abysia would do her utmost to give me all the freedom she could. The only thing she asked for was that I try to fulfill my dream of Changing things. Even if a Change I brought about ended her, she would not feel betrayal, only the sadness of separation.
As this mixture of knowledge, emotion, and whatever else flowed through me I felt a whirl of agony. It was too vast. There was a lot of nuance and details I missed out on as my soul cried in pain that it was too much. Just on the verge of blacking out I instantly felt relief as the flow of whatever it was she gave me stopped.
I realized I was no longer separated from Abysia but rather she was cradling me in her arms against her. Something like a tear fell from her face onto my being and I felt renewed. She smiled down at me.
“I am sorry that hurt, I had no idea the Sharing would be that painful,” she said quietly. “Are you doing okay? Our time grows short so I only have time for a few more questions.”
Slowly I did what passes for a nod for an incorporeal spirit. Though I made no move to leave the comfort of her arms. The thought of asking about the other gods or heroes seemed trivial in light of what I felt. I knew deep in the core of my being thanks to what she called Sharing that Abysia was devoted to me in as much as a Goddess can be to a single mortal.
I couldn’t grasp all her reasons as to the how and the why. However, it touched me deeply. I hadn’t thought I could feel again like the way I had when I made my wedding vows long ago before that relationship ended like the snuffing of a dying candle. I asked something other than what I had planned.
“Goddess Abysia, I hope I am not reaching too far. I heard the gods mention you were cut off from Yenope for some reason. Would it be possible for you to send some part of yourself with me so that I would not lose contact with you? I felt something when you imparted your knowledge and I don’t know that I could bear to be cut off from you completely.”
Abysia smiled brightly at my words, it felt like the sun burning through clouds of rain. Though she cautioned me.
“I could send a part of myself with you, but this would be in lieu of any other gift I might bestow. The gifts are quite powerful and could make your life much easier,” I got a fleeting sense of powerful things that could make my life much easier and the world safer for me. “I will be honest I do not know what part of myself being shared with you could do when you pass into Yenope. Knowing that, do you still want to have me go with you?”
“Yes Goddess, please,” I said with all my heart.
“Very well, then I must set you on your way with this gift. You will encounter the Hero System and a friend, Ysella, will help you through it. She is a bit… unique. Though smart and powerful.” The goddess raised a hand above me. Green-black energy flowed from her delicate fingers and fell like droplets of water between what passes for my eyes in this soul body. It chilled me to the core yet was filled with warmth. The contradictory feeling of a vast emptiness that was somehow filled entered me. Most of all though, I could spiritually taste the complex interwoven feelings of Abysia. “Now go my hero, Ehl, and if we should speak in the future, please just call me Abysia.”
The world seemed to drop out from under me, with a feeling akin to the plummeting dive from a rollercoaster. I smiled up at Abysia as she faded from sight and mentally turned around to see where I was going. It looked like I was falling towards an office room where someone was seated behind a desk. I felt a bit of panic for the speed at which I was falling until I realized my descent was slowing as I neared this vague office room adrift in a sea of nothing.
I fell into the room, though without the pain or sound of a crash I was half expecting. My eyes were immediately drawn to the other person in the room. She had tanned skin, with dark black-purple hair cut in a short tomboyish look. Her golden-amber eyes shone with mischievousness. Her outfit was that of a business professional, though she was stacked. The jacket and shirt straining around her torso. Her business pants were tight to her body as well, showing powerful-looking thighs attached to goodly proportioned hips.
“Umm, might you be Ms. Ysella?” I inquired. She positively beamed at my slightly timid inquiry.
“You are a bright one aren’t you mister Ehl,” she slowly walked out from behind the office desk and circled me. “Well it is probably for the best we get started with explaining the Hero System and we may have some time to chat later.”
Ysella is definitely… unique I thought. Smiling at Abysia’s description. The thought of Abysia warmed my spirit. Though she didn’t seem to be able to talk to me through whatever connection she had made I could feel the warmth and support.
“Please Ms. Ysella, I am prepared to listen to your every word.” I gave the mental sort of a bow which made Ysella laugh. Her laugh was a curious thing, it felt rich and luxurious, like a silken sheet sliding over your ears.
“Well let us get started,” Ysella gave a small dismissive wave as she seated herself behind the desk with her legs crossed. “Simply say or think the words Status, Activate and you should see the screen from there for us to get started.”
Saying it out loud felt a bit awkward so I simply thought it. A menu-like screen appeared not too dissimilar from what I have seen in RPG games before. However, a popup appeared that seemed like it might make for an interesting precedent for working through this with Ysella.
[Hero System Initialized. Soul Check Complete. Administrative Access Granted.]