“A QUEST?” asked Billy Smith, “what quest?” “Patience, Mr. Smith,” replied Jessy Peal, “first of all, we must perform the necessary.” Billy Smith looked at Jessy Peal with a dumbfounded expression, “we must use the restroom? But why would we need to do that?” Billy Smith asked. Jessy Peal stopped, turned around and gave Billy Smith a gimlet stare. “Maybe I was wrong about this one,” he thought to himself. He continued to look at Billy Smith without saying another word. “Oh – I see, you don’t mean that – what is the necessary?” asked Billy Smith. “A much better question, Mr. Smith,” replied Jessy Peal, reconsidering his prior thought, “you must agree to a binding oath or you will not leave this place alive.”

Immediately, something that seemed to be liquid metal flowed across the walls of the apartment room they were in, covering every door, window, wall, floor and the ceiling. From Billy Smith’s perspective, they seemed to be completely shut in, cut off from the outside world.

Billy Smith looked around the apartment, trying to see if there was any way out – he found none. He looked carefully at Jessy Peal – “Can I take him?” he wondered. The hairs on his neck stood on end. He felt a bone deep fear. He mastered his emotions, calmed the beating of his heart, controlled his breathing, and asked, as calmly as he could, “what oath?” “Good,” thought, Jessy Peal, “he can control his fear. He is going to need that,” he thought.

“Repeat after me: I shall never repeat anything I learn about the Divine Assistant, in word, deed, omission or commission of any act, thought, or in any way convey the knowledge to any other person, or being – intelligent or unintelligent, sentient or not whether I am alive or dead. This also applies to anything I learn as I go through the candidacy for divinity.”

Billy Smith stood there for what seemed like eternity digesting what he had just heard. Ok, so he understood why they might not want him to repeat what he has learned about the Divine Assistant to anyone else, but what is the deal about intelligent or unintelligent beings? What is that about? And what does sapience have to do with anything? For God’s sake, how could he possibly repeat something to anyone if he was dead? And why would they include the rest of the candidacy in the oath? He was here for only the Divine Assistant – he had not even been elected as a candidate for godhood yet. He looked at the apartment room again and concluded that he really had little choice. If he intended to leave this place alive, he must swear the oath. He might be able to take Jessy Peal, but he truly doubted it. It was not just anyone that was given guardianship of the Divine Assistant, after all. It was also unlikely that Jessy Peal had not taken that possibility into account. Undoubtedly, he would have prepared measures for that eventuality – the mere fact that they were now locked in the apartment and separated from the outside world was evidence of that fact. Billy Smith repeated the oath.

“Very good,” said Jessy Peal, as he touched Billy Smith on his forehead with his right index finger. A chill ran down Billy Smith’s spine as his skin tightened and his ears popped. He had vertigo for a second then it passed.

“Tell me how you found out about the Divine Assistant,” asked Jessy Peal, in a seemingly casual way. Billy Smith tried to remain silent but felt a great compulsion to speak and reveal all he knew. He opened his mouth to tell Jessy Peal and found that he could not bring his thoughts together to recall how he found out. When he stopped trying, the knowledge came rushing back in. When he tried to tell it, the knowledge seemed to disappear again from his thoughts.

“Good,” said Jessy Peal, “you are now properly bound. Now we can proceed. As I said before, you must complete a quest. If you complete the quest successfully, you gain the Divine Assistant. If you don’t, you will have to continue your candidacy without it. The terms for succeeding are very simple: Before you die ten times, Humye must be free of the Tiel. If they are not free on your death the eleventh time, you have failed your quest and you will be returned to Tergia. You will not be allowed to try the quest ever again. Do you understand the conditions as I have explained them?” asked Jessy Peal. “No I don’t,” replied Billy Smith. “The conditions seem . . . I don’t know, impossible? How can I accomplish the freedom of Humye if I die even once? How am I to get to Humye? Where is Humye? And how will I be able to get them to listen to me? – I am obviously human but the people there don’t look anything like me. Is there a time constraint? Do I have to finish within any given time period?” asked Billy Smith.

“Those are all very good questions,” replied Jessy Peal, “first, you will be temporarily granted the powers of a god of Tergia. That means that when you die, you will be able to come back for ten times. On the eleventh time, you will not come back on the world of Humye, but you will come back here, on Tergia. If you complete your quest before your eleventh death, you can also come back to Tergia.

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As for how you will get to Humye, I will send you there. You will have an aide to help you both keep track of your quest’s progress and help you track your growth. It comes in the form of an old style MMORPG interface and will seem as though you are playing an MMORPG.

We have found that this is the best way to help god candidates acclimate to their new powers and allow their minds to absorb what they are capable of as gods of Tergia.

It also gives you an idea of what life will be like as a god of Tergia and allows you to decide if that is what you truly want. You will resurrect as you would in those old-style MMORPGs but make no mistake, it is not a game.

Those old style MMORPGs used to be concerned over issues of game balance and all that nonsense – since it is not a game, don’t worry about such things. Acquire any ability you can, build any devices you can, do anything you need to do to free Humye – just remember to do it by the traditions of the gods of Tergia.

Humye is a real planet that exists on the other arm of the galaxy far away from Tergian Unity Space and the people that live there are real and need your help to become free of the Tiel.

When you arrive on Humye, you will have the ability to choose how you look and you will be able to alter your appearance for brief periods of time after you select the initial look. After the first selection of looks on Tergia, to those that know you, you will still look like yourself. To everyone else, you will look like that initial choice of appearance you will make.

As to how to convince them to listen to you, that’s one of your tasks to figure out. But don’t worry, you will get a little help on this later.

Now we come to the time limit – there is no time limit. But keep in mind that the god election is first and foremost, an election. You need the majority of voting Tergians to elect you to candidacy. If you are gone for too long a time, they are liable to forget about you and your deeds. Let us say you stay there for a hundred years – by the time you return, most of those who knew you would be dead. Whereas that may not stop you from being successful, it would certainly not help you,” replied Jessy Peal, “Do you have any other questions?” he asked. “So, the faster the better?” asked Billy Smith. “Well, not necessarily. If you are fast but fail the quest, then there isn’t a benefit to the speed. But if you are too slow and still pass the quest, then you face an uphill battle for candidacy. So, be fast but not so fast that you fail the quest,” replied Jessy Peal, “any other questions?” asked Jessy Peal. “No – I think I got it now,” replied Billy Smith. “Could I really be gone for a hundred years? Won’t I be dead of old age seeing how longevity treatments are unlikely there?” wondered Billy Smith, “but maybe I will also get the agelessness of the gods of Tergia,” he thought but did not voice it to Jessy Peal.

“A few more things you should know before you go,” Jessy Peal said, “You will also fail your quest if the Tiel destroy Humye before you save it. By this I mean if there is no more intelligent life on the planet of any note, in other words, a civilization, or the planet itself is destroyed. Also, if you prove yourself worthy, the Divine Assistant will make itself known to you while you are on Humye and help you with your quest. It will not truly become yours until you return to Tergia.

Well, then, are you ready to begin?” asked Jessy Peal. “Well, I will go get my gear and say my goodbyes since this might take years, it seems,” replied Billy Smith. “Ha ha ha,” laughed Jessy Peal, holding his abdomen as he laughed, “I’m sorry my boy. Since you have gotten this far, you only have two options – to go on the quest, or to give it up forever and forfeit it. If you choose the second option, it will be as though you failed the quest and you will never be allowed to try again. If you select the first one, I will send you to Humye to begin your quest,” Jessy Peal said, “so what will it be?”

Billy Smith stood there looking pole axed. He considered discontinuing the quest there and then. What about his family and friends? What about his acquaintances? What about his business dealings? What will happen if he was to suddenly vanish for years? How will his family take that? Will life be the same when he got back? Was this goal he was pursuing really worth all of that?

Then Billy Smith remembered the face of that young child that was bitten off by the Tiel. The young mother that was slaughtered and eaten while still alive. He also saw in his mind’s eye all those who were at the waterfall that were butchered. He made his decision. His family, friends, businesses and everything else may miss him, they may even fall apart, but they will most likely still be alive or in existence. The people of Humye, though, did not enjoy that same fate. If there was anything he could do to improve their lives, or the chance that they will continue to exist, even if it would cost him his own life, had to be worth it. In fact, it would be a small price to pay for such a reward. His one life weighed against all the lives on Humye – seeing it that way, it seemed like a very simple choice to Billy Smith.

Meanwhile, Jessy Peal was examining all these thoughts that were going through Billy Smith’s mind. He was sure now that he had been right about Billy Smith’s candidacy for godhood.

“I will go now,” said Billy Smith, determination evident on his face. Jessy Peal smiled and snapped his fingers – the liquid metal covering the walls of the apartment all rushed towards Billy Smith, covering him completely. The liquid entered his nose, his mouth, his ears and he could feel it entering his eyes. Then he lost consciousness.