Chapter 0: Prologue

Rain washed away the blood and tears off the face of a woman whose body was crumpled up and lying limp beside a dumpster. An explosion rocked the plaza she had been walking through, throwing her broken form dozens of feet to where she now lay. A poorly maintained and leaking gas pipe below the street had erupted and resulted in disaster for everyone walking above it.

Sirens from emergency vehicles wailed in the night, the only thing louder than the screams of innocent bystanders, everyone clamoring for aid amongst the cacophony of chaos. Despite the setting, she herself wasn’t making any sounds beyond a pitiful whimper as blood began to pour from her mouth, nose, and eyes, her organs ruptured and damaged beyond repair.

Slowly, an invisible curtain dropped around her, the noise of the carnage growing distant. The colors of the world began to slough off her surroundings, mixing into a visceral amalgamation of rain and ink like a surrealist painting. As the light of signs and floating ads grew dim, shouting reverberated somewhere nearby, as footfalls of heavy boots slowly raced towards her.

An emergency worker kneeled beside the woman, looking at her dazed expression and grimacing at the state of her body. A deep sigh of fatigue snuck out from behind his lips as looked at his companion, shaking his head.

“I’m so sorry, darling.” His poker face was weak, not even an attempt made to hide the reality of the situation. His tired eyes were filled with years of experience, his traumas visible through the crows feet.

A painful rasp responded, coughing on her own blood.

“It’s fine…” she sputtered, trying to form the words. “I know it’s over.”

“Do you have family to contact? Anything I can tell them?”

The ability to speak coherently fading, the woman merely shook her head, tears now pouring out mixed with blood and regret.

My family was never close to me, but after a lifetime of movies where someone dying asks for their parents or a sibling on their deathbed, I get it now. That is… even if mine had always felt like strangers merely brought together by blood and circumstance.

“There are people that still might make it, we’ll have to come back to finish her triage .”

His companion nodded in agreement, and with a wave of his hand, closed her eyelids, pulling back the final curtain over a now silent world around her unmoving body.

I already wanted to die, but now that I’m here, I’m so scared. Everything has lost its vibrancy, and I’m so cold. Why is it so dark? Why can’t I open my eyes back up?

Without any words, she whispered a final goodbye. The woman who had been known as Sayko Ashcaster drifted off into the forever sleep of death.

At least, that’s what she thought.

--

Drifting through a sea of stars, the cosmos acting as a cradle to Sayko’s now floating, featureless body, she wondered if she had reached an afterlife of sorts. Towards the center of the horizon was a swirling mass of stars, light, and pure energy swelling and pulsing rhythmically like a giant heart, its soft beating filling her ears.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Beyond it in every perceivable direction there were galaxies, nebulas, and a hundred billion points of light that held a nearly infinite amount of planets and possibilities. Despite the brilliance of it all, she wasn’t properly digesting the expanse of beauty that stretched out before her. The trauma of death was still fresh in her mind, consuming every one of her senses.

A literal once in a lifetime event was passing her by, leaving her to reel with what had happened.

Her ears still rang with the deafening boom of the explosion and the screaming that filled the night air. Her chest and insides felt crushed, damaged beyond repair, but the pain had long since melted away, she didn’t seem capable of bleeding anymore. By the bizarre grace of the stars and the loving embrace of death, she had been freed from the worst parts of dying.

She wasn’t sure how much time passed as she slowly drifted through space, her thoughts finally bothering to catch up with her current circumstances. It was then that all the noise inside her head fell flat, dissipating into nothingness as she beheld eternity and the vastness of space.

With her mind now clear and ready to perceive it, a delicate, androgynous voice filled her thoughts.

Hello mortal child. I am sorry beyond any measure that can be expressed with human language.

Awkwardly fumbling at her own throat, trying to find a voice of her own, she responded in a meager whisper.

“I feel stupid asking the obvious, but am I dead?”

A soft chuckle rumbled through solar clouds of stardust, before the voice responded once more.

That isn’t a ‘stupid’ question at all. If dying and your soul being thrown aloft to drift in the endless expanses of the Nether Void didn’t raise any warning bells, I’d be far more concerned about your mental state than the obvious question of your demise.

“Huh… Well, that aside, it figures I’d die from some one-in-a-million freak accident. It feels even worse because I normally never take that shortcut, but I was in a hurry so I could get home to play an MMO and hopefully forget the dread of having to work tomorrow like every other adult.”

Very, very few people get to decide the circumstances of their death, and you are just one of many trillions across the stars who found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. Although she knew the voice was trying to comfort her, the annoyance of it all was beginning to build.

“Well, whatever. Am I just going to float here now for billions of years until the heat death of the universe?”

Currently you’re at an interstellar junction that marks the space between life and death known as the Nether Void. There are countless instances of this very place stacked infinitely on top of one another, an inevitable crossroads where every soul will eventually reach at least once.

“So does that make you god?”

No, I am merely one of many wardens that places mortal souls onto the correct path for their next existence. Using a book of souls, we determine if a soul is ready to retire to the afterlife or if they’re to be reincarnated on one of any infinite number of planets spread out across the universe. Where they go or whatever awaits, while seemingly random, is determined by a combination of their past deeds and their present desires.

“That’s… a lot to unpack. What awaits me, then? The afterlife or another stagnant existence working another dead end job?”

Is there a singular wish in the depths of your heart that you’d love to see come true?

Trying to resist the urge to give a knee jerk, smartass response out of a desire to mask her inner sadness, she pressed a finger to her cheek and thought for a moment. She already knew what her deepest desire was, but due to a lifetime of putting up walls to prevent herself from being hurt by others, she hesitated for a moment.

“I…”

Yes?

Shaking her head, she called out in a frustrated tone.

“Why am I being self conscious?! I’m dead! I don’t have to worry about being a cringe thirty-something anymore!” Balling her fists and grabbing at clothing that wasn’t there, she screamed out at the top of her lungs.

“I WANT TO BE LOVED! I WANT THERE TO BE MEANING TO MY EXISTENCE! And I don’t mean some nonsense love story where I find validation in a partner like some cliché romance, I mean having family and friends!” She said, borderline panting as if she had just conquered Sisyphus’ trial.

That will be taken into consideration. The book has now spoken to me and I am sending you to a very particular world. You will still face trials in your new life, but you will have the opportunity to find all that you desire. Good luck, Sayko Ashcaster.

Before she could digest the words of the mysterious entity, someone snapped their fingers near her ear and everything was suddenly drowned in a blinding white glare, a torrent of noise filling her ears. As if she had been thrown in a raging river, she felt her body carried out to sea by an invisible undertow, rushing towards a brand new, uncertain future.