Ding!

Consciousness slammed back into him like a freight train loaded with anvils. The world spun in a mad dance of colors as his senses unscrambled, but his memories...

Holy monkey spirits!

It was like trying to solve a crossword puzzle with half the clues missing. His mind was a hodgepodge of tales from here, there, and dimensions beyond, but his own story? It had vanished faster than a matching pair of socks in a washing machine.

As he tried to wrangle his wits, a female voice, smoother than well-aged whiskey and twice as mysterious, slinked into his ear.

"Portalier," she crooned, a sultry riddle. "Welcome back to your cozy little oasis."

Welcome back? Portalier?

He strained, trying to mutter something coherent, but his whole darn body felt like it had been frozen in a block of ice.

Where the heck am I? His brain screamed for answers.

Moments passed, and his limbs finally decided to clock in for work. As his eyes slowly stopped spinning like a derailed rollercoaster, the riot of colors in front of him began to settle. He realized he was perched on a hard, wooden bench. He dared to tilt his chin up, and what he saw made his eyebrows want to join forces with his hairline.

He was seated in a little wooden boat, like a floating toothpick on a sea of blue, all surrounded by an inky abyss.

And…he wasn't alone.

On the opposite end of the boat sat a figure draped in a white silk veil, clutching a scroll in one paler-than-the-moon hand. As he squinted to make sense of his bizarre surroundings, she remained an enigma. For now, he was trapped in a boat with a stranger, with no memory of who he was or why he had a brain full of stories he couldn't remember reading.

"Eh, hey there." He took a calming breath. "Mind shedding some light on where I am and why I'm here?"

The shrouded figure set the scroll down, and with a flick of her wrist, she whipped off her veil. He was awestruck by her paleness, like she'd been sculpted from marble. Her waist-length white hair floated around her like a ghostly halo. But it was her eyes that chilled him, dark and empty, yet he had the eerie sensation they were peering into the depths of his very soul.

It made his insides squirm.

"Some say ignorance is bliss.” She placed her hand on the scroll she’d set aside earlier. “Of course, neither of us believe that to be true, that is why you are still the Portalier.”

A pit of dread settled in his gut.

Instinctively, he knew the answers he sought would bury him in pain. But not knowing who he was would be so much worse. "Can we cut to the chase here? You keep calling me the Portalier, but I must have a name."

Did his voice always sound so high-pitched and shaky? Nope! That was the kind of voice you used when you were so scared and confused that you’d about piss yourself.

She stared at him with her dark, empty eyes. The Portalier leaned back, every fiber of his being yelling at him to jump overboard and escape her haunting gaze.

Her response was a melodious laughter, tinkling like shattered glass. "Patience, Portalier. All will be revealed. In answer to your earlier question as to where you are… For now, you're perfectly safe in your own little slice of paradise. Some call it a 'mind palace.' A 'Safe room' is a more accurate definition. But then you lower life forms have a pesky tendency to see only what you want to see."

Great, I've got a title—Portalier. No name…my mind’s a muddle…

His eyes drifted to the scroll, where her fingers drummed a steady rhythm across its surface. “If this is a safe room, am I in some sort of game?” His voice regained some of its swagger as he gestured to the lake. “If so, I’m guessing I’m a fan of the great outdoors.”

He sensed her powerful aura brush against him. Without saying a word, she picked up the scroll and offered it to him.

"A quick read, and I'll be enlightened, right?" He raised a brow.

She leaned close. “Perhaps.” Her icy breath chilled him to the bone.

Shaking off his unease, he took the scroll. It hummed with energy as he unfurled it. One look at the inscription inside and an image of a large white orb with pointy ears and enormous pink eyes flashed across his vision. He blinked in surprise as a name appeared in his mind.

"Who's GATO?" The Portalier scratched his chin.

A sly smile curved her blood-red lips. "Your AI companion. She’s currently offline." Something flickered in her cavernous gaze. "I'm working on rebooting her without corrupting her hard drive. She holds a backup of all your memories. When your life essence extinguished during your last away mission, your bonded companion could—"

Life essence extinguished!

The Portalier threw up a hand in alarm. "Wait, you're saying I died?"

Her laughter once again filled the air, ice shards pricking at his ears. "Such a human reaction. How quaint. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised even after all these centuries of service as the Portalier you still retain your mortal instincts. And let me clarify: I'm not here to fill the gaps in your swiss cheese mind. That's GATO's job. She's your handy sidekick, skilled at healing and archiving information."

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The Portalier massaged his temples, discovering something perched on his hairline. It felt like goggles. He decided to leave them be for now. More pressing questions were on his mind, and he didn't know how long he had left for Q&A. One particular question had slipped his addled mind.

"The way you are talking to me makes me think you’re some kind of goddess."

A playful smile lit up her uncanny features, revealing sharp, white teeth. "In a manner of speaking, I suppose I am considered a divine being. At least, as far as you're concerned." She looked rather amused, as if he were a teenage boy asking her questions about puberty.

"What's so funny?"

"It's odd talking with you without your memories." She drew her veil up over her head like a hood. "I wish I could stay longer to see your face when GATO restores your memories, and you realize what you're capable of."

Her non-answer grated on his nerves, but he bit back his impatience. He wished this sorta semi-goddess would hurry up and fix his AI cat sidekick, GATO. One thing he knew for sure: compared to her, he was no god. He sensed a suppressed wellspring of energy within her. Whispers of it rippled outwards, prickling the hairs on his neck.

Ding!

"Ah, there we go. GATO is ready to fill you in. Before I go, I want you to remember to abide by the rules when you portal, something your idiot predecessor did not do. Stick to the mission. Look, but don't touch. Until next time—"

He jolted upright, causing the boat to sway, its blue waters shimmering with silver ripples. "Wait! You didn't tell me your name."

"That's because you didn't ask..."

Taking a deep breath, he composed himself. "Please, what should I call you?"

"Anything you like, but don't call me early."

A silver mist enveloped her, and she vanished.

In her place hovered the massive white orb with pointy ears. Its eyes flickered electric pink.

Oh boy, something went terribly wrong, sir! Terribly, terribly wrong! I tried to prevent your death on the mountain, but there were just too many zombies…

"GATO?" the Portalier rubbed his jaw.

Yes, sir. My, my, you look dreadful, just like that zombie that feasted on your… lower intestines. Never mind, you are fortunate the Goddess Summoning token you had in your possession worked! Give me a moment, and I'll restore you to full health.

Suddenly, hot pink lasers shot out of GATO's eyes, scanning his entire body. A blinding light washed over him.

At first, it felt like his body was engulfed in flames, while white-hot pokers stabbed his brain through his eyes. Then, in the blink of an eye, the pain ebbed, leaving behind a warm, fuzzy feeling that tingled from head to toe.

"A friggin' zombie got me." The Portalier shuddered as his vision cleared. The memory of his gruesome demise came back in sharp relief. Flexing his fingers, he recalled the agony of dying while gripping the Goddess Summoning token in his blood smeared hand. “A lady veiled in white vanished before you appeared. I feel like I know her…she is a goddess.”

Take a deep breath, sir. Yes, the lady in white is the Goddess Kythia. She gave you that one time summoning token when you agreed to serve her as the Portalier. Experiencing the memory of your death, especially such a traumatic one, will leave you feeling a little disorientated. It will soon pass.

GATO was right. Soon, his mind cleared and all the jumbled stories screaming for his attention had been compartmentalized and organized into something he could access and understand.

He wasted no time in trying to recall his name and who he was. Everything came flooding back. He remembered being rescued, powerless to do anything except watch from a distance as a black hole consumed his home world. It happened centuries ago, but it didn’t stop a wave of grief hitting him like a tsunami.

“I’m the last of my kind.”

Gazing at GATO, he saw her eyes dim as if she shared in his sorrow. They exchanged a silent understanding—she could heal everything but a broken heart.

After what felt like an eternity, the tears ceased, and he noticed that the inky abyss had receded like a black fog, revealing a lakeside house on the distant shore. The boat drifted toward it in silence.

Are you okay, sir? GATO’s comforting words poured into his mind like warm honey. Because our next person of interest lives in a volatile cultivation world.

Nodding, the Portalier looked up at the sky. “I’m okay GATO, thanks for asking.”

His mind teemed with a sense of purpose, a mission yet to be fulfilled, as vast as the stars in the night sky. As long as the cosmic conflict between gods and demons threatened to disrupt the stability of the multiverse, he had work to do.

The Portalier was chosen by the Goddess Kythia because of his hypersensitivity to those cosmic ripples and his ability to manipulate them. There’d been some close calls but with GATO’s predictions, he’d always known when and where to intervene to preserve the stability of the multiverse. He might not know all the fancy cultivation terms like GATO, but he'd once been a galactic repo man, and he knew how to get the job done.

He dropped his gaze to look GATO straight in the eye and forced the steel of resolve into his voice. “Before we leave on our next away mission, I have questions I know you have the answers to. Let’s start with the basics. Who is our next person of interest and what system are we dealing with this time?

Our person of interest is one Leocedes ‘Hunter’ Filo. The system in this world is sanctioned by the gods and governs cultivators’ power progression through chi cultivation ranks.

However, there is an added complication, as Hunter has caught the eye of a god who wants to challenge the inequalities of this system. He believes Hunter has the potential to not only be the first initiate of a brand new system but will lead a group of twelve other specially selected initiates training in a tower of ascension.

The Portalier rubbed his hands together. “The birth of a new system. We have plenty of experience with dungeons, towers, and helping new systems come to fruition.”

This time is different, sir. Hunter cannot ascend and grow stronger on his own. The god Claude summoned an ancient tower that will require him to seek cooperation not only from the tower itself but the other initiates.

“No edgelords need apply.”

Exactly.

“I like the way Claude thinks.”

Unfortunately, you are in the minority. There are many powerful opponents who will do their best to ensure Hunter fails. An added complication is my ability to predict the exact moment in time we need to intervene to ensure his success isn’t hampered by divine interference, as there are powerful actively worshiped shrines in this world. I have identified several cannon events but from this distance it is impossible to say yet which one is the one we need to intervene in to preserve the stability of his universe.

“Well then, the more I know about his backstory, the better. I need to know why Claude is interested in him in the first place. How far back in Hunter’s life do we need to go?”

One moment sir…taking into account the interference at this distance. We will begin at the first milestone event I have been able to identify that occurred when he was seven years old.

The Portalier lifted his gaze to the star-lit expanse, fixing his goggles over his eyes. After fine-tuning the cat eye lens, he pinpointed Hunter's home world.

"Time to roll, GATO. We've got a multiverse to keep in check, and Hunter's tale is far from over."