“Svilran, what can you tell me about the girl?”

“Yes, I got the information from the —“

“It has that function?”

“Yes, I’ll show you how to interface with it later. As I was saying, the young lady’s name is Selindried: Elma—no family name. The ‘Selindried’ refers to who was—umm—drying(?) her. I’m not sure what that phrase refers to.”

We came before the portal. It was glowing more than usual, and a small hourglass at the top was releasing sand into the portal. Once all the sand had fallen, Elma would appear. That sand was apparently an essential part of forming a duplicate body.

Svilran kept informing me of what she knew. “Elma is what’s called a Witherspell. They’re a type of Imaginal that is able to use magic that essentially makes living things wither. They have terrible mana reserves, so they can’t really use their magic to their full potential, and they have arms that can come off and move by themselves—oh really?” It looked like Svilran was reading some of the info for the first time too. “That’s gross... Anyway, the realm Elma came from is called Nochfall Maya. It’s a realm ruled primarily by undead Imaginals, and these Imaginals use Witherspells to... supply them with mana? Oh! Witherspells leak mana into their surroundings.”

“These things leak mana that makes things wither? Are we going to be okay?”

“We will. Because they barely have any of that mana in themselves at any one time, what can be leaked is extremely little. We’ll be fine.”

I breathed in and out a few times and calmed my nerves. I wasn’t used to meeting so many people in a day anymore. Knowing that what we were doing was also really important kind of got to me.

“Gotta put my best foot forward...”

Svilran giggled and made me look at her. “You’ll do great, Fainn... After all, I picked you.” She grinned at me and straightened up. “I’ll be right behind you—Oh! She’s coming! And don’t worry about language. Everyone speaks the same language when they’re in the Hub. It’s one of the neat features.”

I rubbed my sweaty palms on my robe. “Alright. Here we go.”

She appeared, walking out from an outpouring of light.

“Huh?” she asked. “What? Am I dreaming?”

Before us was the malnourished Elma, confused and looking around. She was just like how we saw her on the screen. Gray-skinned, with black arms and with dirtied white hair. For the first time, I noticed her legs were red from toe to knee, and she had red veins that went up her thighs... I hoped she wasn’t sick.

Her eyes finally settled on us, and she backed away slowly.

“Hey,” I said, waving gently. “Welcome to the Hero Hub. I’m Fainn, and this is former-goddess-turned-maid-Svilran.” I heard Svilran hop—she must have posed. I also heard a bell? Did she put on a bell at some point?

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Anyway, welcome....” I thought about how to greet her and explain things. “You met with a terrible fate—“ Her eyes went wide, and she paled far more than I thought possible. “But we plucked you out and are here to give you a new lease on life.”

“P-Pardon me?” she fearfully asked.

I looked at Svilran. “Okay. I’m not good at this. Please take over.”

“Your wish is my command!”

One extremely well-guided and kind explanation later—

“So...” Elma started. “I passed away... But now I’m here... In this world, saved by gods who want to help me become a hero?”

“Yes, Hero with a capital ‘H!’ That’s right!” Svilran said. “The plan is to let you rest and then send you out to other worlds in need of help! Of course, we won’t send you somewhere out of your league.”

“I see...”

I stepped back into the conversation now that everything was communicated. “So, what do you think?”

Elma looked around, then looked me straight in the eyes. I hadn’t noticed before, but her face was a real mess. The pronounced bags under her eyes were hard to look away from, and her eyes looked like they had lost their light.

“I don’t want to,” she said.

“Hmm,” I responded.

Well. That was unexpected.

Before I said something, Svilran jumped out, full of energy. “That’s okay! You can still rest here! The dormitories are right over there.” She pulled a watermelon—one of the ones we collected earlier—from thin air and handed it to Elma.

Elma received it, but her arms were so feeble she almost dropped it on the spot. I wanted to help her, but it looked like her pride would be hurt if I did. She was really trying to hold it up with her shaking arms.

Svilran bowed, ignoring the woman’s strain, and spoke gently. “Please enjoy that complimentary watermelon while you rest.”

“R-Right... Thank you.” She looked at the both of us, locking eyes with me a few times, nodded, and turned away.

When Elma was far away enough, I turned to Svilran.

“Hey, what the heck, Svilran? What kind of show are we running here?”

“They can’t all be like you, Fainn. Give her some time. It’s a lot to take in. The poor girl’s just overwhelmed.”

I looked at Elma again. “So what happens now?”

“Now,” Svilran pranced in front of me, “we go get more watermelons. Maybe Elma will really like our watermelons!”

We started making our way to the jungle. “You know, I’m okay with eating nothing but watermelons but other people? We don’t even have salt.”

“Yeah, but there’s not much we can do at this stage without Resource Points.”

“Hey, do you really not know other ways of getting these points? I really feel guilty having nothing but watermelons.”

“Yes.” Svilran frowned. “I can tell you for sure now, as I received the concrete knowledge when Elma was summoned. The recommended way of getting points is by having our heroes succeed on their missions.”

“So, we need to nourish our heroes, but to do so, we need to have our heroes succeed? Otherwise, we have to settle for maybe getting them from the jungle?”

“That’s what it looks like at the moment.”

“Good god—alright. So, Elma doesn’t want to do it. What happens with her?”

“She’s entitled to rest, but eventually, she will die again and be sent back to her world’s afterlife. This place is for heroes. She needs to undertake the job or else.”

“How much time does she have?”

“I’m not sure yet. I’m certain she has a day at least, but beyond that...”

I kissed my teeth. “For the sake of the future heroes, this place needs to be amazing,” I said. “But Elma too... I don’t want to force her into anything after what she suffered in her world.”

“Fainn, just remember,” Svilran grinned, “you can speak to her too. And when I say that, I mean really speak to her. She’s not the only one that was in a nightmarish situation.” We stopped walking, and she placed her hand on my heart. “I know the images aren’t there anymore, but you still remember how you felt about your memories. You can still speak to her.” Svilran took a step back. “Or not! She might pick herself up by tomorrow. Your choice.”

I looked toward the dormitories. “My choice, huh?”