Senses returned to her slowly. First was feeling. She felt warm. So very warm. Not quite enough to be hot, but perhaps a bit warmer than was comfortable. Not uncomfortable enough to consider doing anything about it though. It was peaceful. Calm. Then she started feeling wet. It wasn’t just water though. It was as if she was submerged in some thick and viscous liquid. No, not submerged, suspended. The liquid was also keeping her warm. For some reason, the idea of being suspended in some liquid should have worried her, but she couldn’t quite figure out why. Next came the feeling of being constricted. She was enclosed in a relatively small space, but she felt the walls around her were for her protection. Still, she got the sense that it too should’ve worried her, but thinking was so very hard.
The next sense to return to her was hearing. She could hear her own heartbeat. The calm and steady thumping in her chest as blood flowed through her veins. At first, that was the only thing she heard, but over time, ever so slowly, she started to hear other sounds. They were all muted and somehow distorted. Likely had something to do with the liquid and the walls surrounding her. She could somewhat recognize that two voices kept repeating, and she grew somewhat familiar with them. Sometimes the two voices seemed to be speaking or even singing to her, whatever that was supposed to mean. Thinking was still hard.
The next sense that she became aware of came to her accidentally. It seemed that she was moved. Whatever container it was that held her was jostled and she discovered her vestibular senses, meaning movement and balance. After that, she recognized that she was moved more often, though the jostling didn’t happen anymore, so she wouldn’t have noticed if the earlier shock hadn’t made her aware and pay attention.
Along with her vestibular senses, she also discovered her proprioception, meaning awareness of her body. The jostling had moved her inside the container she was inside of, causing her to brush against the walls. It wasn’t painful, as the liquid protected her well, but the sensations in her extremities made her aware that she had them. She also now recognized where they were in relation to each other. A head, an important one that, two arms, two legs, and two wings. For some reason that felt right to her. All was right in the world. Thinking was still hard.
Thinking slowly became easier though. She realized she had other senses. Sight, smell, and taste, but that it would be a bad idea to test them at this point. She didn’t quite understand why, but since she didn’t quite know how to test those senses anyway, she decided to trust that instinct. At least for now. Also, just because thinking had become easier, that didn’t mean it wasn’t still hard. Besides, all was right, and she was safe. That was important.
She wasn’t sure how long she had been in the egg, and she had now realized she was in an egg before awareness filled her. Awareness of where she was, an egg as already mentioned, what that meant, she was in a body that required the use of an egg, and that she was now once again in a new body. Probably a new universe.
With awareness came memories. Memories of all the other universes her Father had sent her to. Of the numerous times she had been sent to deal with whatever ailed the broken mess that Father called Creation. She had been exiled, and this was her punishment. Countless times she had been hurled from one reality to another, never to see the Silver City again. Never to see her family again, aside from an occasional visit one or two of her siblings were allowed. Oh, how she missed them! Even Father, although she mostly missed her siblings. At least Azrael could still visit her more often than the others.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Usually, when she was hurled from one reality to another, she was still in her own body. However, sometimes her soul was put in another body, for reasons she didn’t always understand. Sometimes it was obvious. Sometimes her kind simply didn’t exist in the universe she was placed into, so she was put in a body of a being that did exist there instead. Still, that body was almost always that of an adult, or what passed for an adult among its kind. Sometimes she was placed in the body of a teen, and only once before a child. She could count on the fingers of her hand the number of times she’d been born in a body that wasn’t at least close to reaching adulthood. The fingers of her old hand as she still didn’t know how many fingers this body had. She couldn’t just use her supernatural senses to scan her body either, as it seemed that most of her more unnatural abilities were blocked. Perhaps because the body was too young and unable to handle it. Wouldn’t be the first time some of her abilities were blocked temporarily. And it did seem likely that complex powers and the whole being in an egg thing likely didn’t mix well.
When her Father tossed her from one universe to another, it was always done in order for her to fix something. Usually, it was some grand threat hanging over the head of everyone. Some great doom that would consume everything unless dealt with. Sometimes she had to deal with the problem, while other times she only needed to provide support and advice. Sometimes that something was a more mundane problem. A civil war. A robot uprising. A few times it had even been a personal problem of some important individual. Why she’d been sent from a different universe to deal with a personal problem instead of Father simply sending a local shrink equivalent was a mystery. Sometimes she didn’t even know what she’d been sent to fix. Only that she'd accidentally done it without even realizing.
Usually, though, the problem was on the level of an existential threat. The problem with free will was that mortals could do a lot to fuck up any universe Father had created for them. Her original home was far from perfect, but it was a vast improvement over some of the practical and sometimes literal hellscapes she’d been to.
She didn’t always succeed, especially on the more nebulous missions. Sometimes she misunderstood her mission, and Father never deigned to explain of course. Explanations were not His thing. Sometimes she misunderstood the mission on purpose. Her idea of how things should go didn’t always coincide with Father's. There were certain principles that she held important, and He had certain others. A few times she’d outright refused. She’d either taken a vacation, or she’d just outright disagreed with her mission and done the opposite. That only happened when the threat wasn’t an existential one of course. She wasn’t fond of allowing the innocent to suffer just because she and Father had a difference of opinion. It was the one thing she didn’t want to let go, even if her willingness to play along with Father’s designs had frayed to the point of almost willful disobedience by now.
Nevertheless, it was safe to say that she was here on a mission. Wherever here was. It likely wasn’t an urgent one, seeing as she was in an egg. It would take years, likely decades, before she had any sort of power to make a difference. She wasn’t sure what happened to her real body every time she was shoved into another, though the new body would inevitably slowly transform to become closer to her real one. The change was slow and gradual, but it always happened. She’d done some research on the topic a dozen universes back and come to the conclusion that the body adapted to the soul inhabiting it. No matter the reason though, she’d inevitably be reunited with her real body in the next universe. Or her current body would turn into her old one. Wonder what her mission this time would be?
Suddenly a bright blue transparent box appeared in her vision. Considering her new eyes were completely unused and closed, the bright blue box was rather difficult to ignore.
“Welcome to the Universe of Legends! You have been selected to become a Champion in the Great Game between the gods! The System hopes you will grow strong and enjoy your stay!”
Well. That was new.