“We are here because you are dead, and I am here to change that,” Arx responded.

The spirit sat in silence for a second to ensure he was not, in fact, misinterpreting. He was more or less aware that he'd died, but surely there was a more tactful way to phrase all of that.

“How does this work, and why did it take so long for you to show up?” He grimaced, “No offense, I just feel like I’ve been stuck here for ages.”

“No offense will be taken. Converted to a unit of time you recognize,” Arx paused, either to actually calculate this value or for dramatic effect, “You have been here for a little over thirty billion years.”

He blinked at Arx.

“I…” He stopped himself. This was an incredibly inefficient line of questioning. Didn't this god have a better pitch prepared? “Arx, please explain my situation to me and everything else that you believe is important to know for someone in my position.”

Arx stared at him for a bit, and the spirit pulled the cloak tighter around himself. The armored giant tilted his head up and considered the stars with an appraising look. Something about it made him feel self-conscious as if Arx was looking at something deeply personal. Not in any sort of defensive way. He was just oddly hopeful that the god liked what he saw.

The stars, for their part, seemed to preen under the attention, flashing in complex patterns for a new audience.

After a few more minutes of silence, the spirit glanced again at the thick cloak completely enveloping his new body. He narrowed his eyes at the man across from him and then the snow around them both.

Making up his mind, he shrugged the heavy fabric off and slung it over Arx as best he could, which was not so easy in practice. Surely the man didn’t need to be so tall and broad-shouldered. Regardless, it didn’t sit right with the spirit to allow Arx to remain cold in his place.

The man in question turned back to the spirit. Arx studied the shivering spirit before him and the cloak over his own shoulders. He thumbed the material.

The spirit was startled out of his observation when Arx chuckled unexpectedly.

“I don’t really feel the cold.” The man’s tone had changed drastically from only a minute earlier. Gone were the flat tone and blank stare. The spirit was almost surprised to find a grin in its place. The deep voice had changed from emotionless to almost cheerful.

The spirit wished to ask about the change in personas but was unsure how such a question would be received by the increasingly mysterious man.

“In answer to your request,” Arx began, “I believe it is best to start from the beginning. In basic terms, your universe was deconstructed to serve as an energy source for another. You, of course, being a part of your universe, were completely obliterated alongside it.

“While you may have ceased to exist in your physical form, your astral soul is much more resilient and far too valuable to be allowed to go to waste. Because of this, your soul and the souls of every other sapient being in your universe have been floating in a large box ever since your death. Think of it like a savings account for a rainy day. Every time we need more souls, we open up our box and wake a few of you up.

“The problem with this, however, is that more and more people are born each day. At a rate that the universe itself struggles to create souls to keep up with the demand. These people require souls. In response, gods like me dedicate some of their time to rousing the souls and introducing them to our reincarnation cycle, which deletes their memories, scrubs their personalities, and shunts them into a newborn somewhere.”

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

The spirit recoiled slightly. He didn’t want to have his memories deleted and his personality scrubbed. He had just gotten them back, kinda. Arx continued.

“Don’t worry though. This is not what we will be doing with you. Every once in a while, we need to introduce new… features, to the operation of the universe. Each of these features is accompanied by a shepherd of sorts who ensures that none of these new features goes too far out of the boundaries of reasonability. Lucky for you, you’re the first sane consciousness that has been discovered in the soul box in over fifteen billion years. And even with your memory issues, I think we should be able to make this work

“I actually think your miraculous retention of sanity has something to do with your prior non-complex form and lack of intricate thoughts for the majority of your time following your death. It’s quite interesting, really. It appears that in response to increasing demands on your memory, your psyche created a vast canvas of constellations where each star represents important memories. If I study them for long enough, I believe I can feel your emotions at the time of the memory’s creation.”

Arx turned to look up at the stars hanging above them. The spirit did the same, and the pair was silent for a moment while he tried to see what Arx meant.

“Anyway,” Arx began again, “This makes you something of a shoo-in for the position of this update’s shepherd. There are very few souls remaining, and the probabilities of finding another soul retaining both consciousness and sanity are quite low at this point. Now. Do you have any questions, or would you like to continue with our next step in your reincarnation process?”

“Uh, let me think.” He did just that, “Oh, yeah. Why exactly did you destroy my universe?”

“To serve as a battery for another universe.”

“You already said that, and it's not any better than it was last time. Why does your universe need a battery in the first place?”

“It serves as a funnel to redistribute cosmic energy toward activities that prevent the heat-death of a much larger universe. I realize I have forgotten to tell you something that I believe you would be interested to know.”

The spirit thought this might have been a tactic to avoid answering the follow-up question, but couldn’t be sure. He was definitely curious about what the god had to say though, so he didn't call him on it.

“This setting we find ourselves in is an interpretation of your internal thoughts and your memories preceding your death. From what I can see, it appears that you were in the process of freezing to death when your universe was assimilated. I’d assume that your soul took the liberty of completing the process of your death and resigned you to the more amorphous state you were in when I appeared. Erm, sorry. I've sidetracked us again. The short explanation is that you should be able to alter this setting with enough effort.”

The god at least had the decency to appear sheepish in the face of the violently shivering spirit barely an eighth of his size. His expression would have been almost funny if the spirit wasn't so cold.

“You have no idea how close I am to seeing if I can kick you out of here too with enough effort.”

“You probably could, but keep in mind that the big box of souls is really big and souls take a lot of effort to gain entrance to without invitation. There is a reason why fully-fledged gods must dedicate their time to individually dealing with each soul that is reincarnated. I do not believe you would be content to wait the time required for us to get back in contact with you.” Arx stared at him as if he didn’t believe the spirit would kick him out anyway. He was right.

“Fine, but you owe me. I hate having cold feet.”

“What did you have in mind?” Arx asked curiously.

“I dunno, maybe figure out a name for me while I try and turn this wasteland into something less chilly.”

Arx tilted his head in agreement and the two began working. At least, the spirit began working. He was pretty sure Arx already had a name in mind for him.

Now, how does one go about changing their own soul? Supposedly it was an immutable aspect of himself, but literally, god seemed to disagree with that notion.

How had he gotten to this point? Was he able to reverse the passage of time in his own soul? He tried, but nothing seemed to budge. At least nothing quick enough to affect the tundra that had cemented its presence eons ago.

Perhaps he could just imagine things into being. The spirit squinted hard at where Arx was standing and imagined a large rock in place of the god. Hmm. Nothing.

He relented a bit and instead tried to call the boulder into being above Arx’s head instead. Still nothing. Even when the spirit attempted to imagine a small stone on solid ground without any divine obstructions nothing happened.

Well, what the heck was he supposed to do now? He’d exhausted all three of the methods that didn’t sound like a lot of effort.

Fine.

He leaned down and scooped up a handful of the powdery snow.