I sat with my legs hanging over the side of the tower’s balcony as I stared out towards the vast expanse of rolling hills and dark forests. The Infinite Twilight was a beautiful world, starkly contrasting the bright colors of Heinmarr’s forests and flowered fields. Here, everything was cast in dark blues and purples with occasional neon-like light from some glowing animal or plant that shined in the distance.

A cold breeze blew over the tower, yet I felt no chill; I was comfortable. Behind me, leaning against the stone railing, I clung to the Master, who watched silently with me. We haven’t said much since he offered me the opportunity to ask him whatever I wanted. Ever since he had asked me to come to the city's heart to seek him out so that we could finally put aside all secrets, I had been cultivating so many questions, yet now, face to face with him.

I felt on the spot. My mind had just switched off. I was unprepared. The Master told me I had nothing to worry about and that he expected this; he explained we literally had all the time in the world. Or, well, to me, it would seem as such. I still didn’t understand this world. This “generation” he created, or “materium” bubble that was protecting my mind from expanding and losing containment or something of the like.

Wouldn’t an expanding mind be sound? Maybe I’m taking the term “big brain” too literally.

Just ask him. My conscience told me. You’re here to talk. So do that; just talk.

I knew the Master could hear my thoughts; apparently, he’d read my entire memory, as creepy as that is, but instead of chiming in like usual. He was polite and let me think by myself. Finally, I decided to break the ice. As per usual, stupid questions always relaxed me.

“You said you stopped my conscience from expanding,” I started, and the Master simply nodded. “Why? What’s bad about that?”

The Master let off a deep breath as if he were annoyed, yet I noticed a slight curl in his lips as he gave me a tiny smirk. “Would you like highly technical details, or would you prefer me to dumb it down?”

After his first couple of attempts at explaining extra-planar physics and magic to me, I decided to opt for the dumbing down. As much as I hated to admit it, I was nowhere near as bright as I wished I was. The Master told me that even my mother and Alexander would struggle to understand if he explained it to them thoroughly; however, given time, they could probably catch on. So that brought a tiny bit of comfort to me.

“Dumb it down, please,” I said.

The Master nodded. “Think of yourself as a balloon. Shiny, red, and buoyant. Picture the air inside the balloon as your thoughts, feelings, and memories. Everything that makes you.”

“My soul?” I interrupted.

He turned to me, and his eyes narrowed at my interruption. “Yes.” The Master nodded once again as I pulled my lips tight. “The balloon is your body, your vessel that allows you to inhabit the material plane; it is all that contains your soul, keeping it from getting scattered and lost. What do you think would happen if that balloon were to pop?” He asked.

“Uh, all the gas inside escapes,” I said, splaying my fingers out, mimicking an explosion.

The Master once again nodded. “Exactly everything that makes you will begin to expand out in every direction as it tries to fill the void. In the material plane, this is referred to as a death. When your shell is lost, your soul escapes. It is then washed away in what is known as the Current, where it is eventually washed and deposited into what you know as the Darkest Ocean. The entity known as the Fisherman pulls the clean souls from the ocean and releases them back into the material plane to be reborn.”

I nodded. “I remember being taught this. That’s how you were able to reincarnate me, right?”

The Master nodded. “Yes. I was able to pull you from the Current. The reason why I’m explaining something you already know is so that you can fully understand. Where we are now is beyond the Current’s presence. If this balloon were to pop.” He snapped his finger. “Everything that makes you, your consciousness, will be stretched thin, and eventually you will be unable to comprehend even yourself as you become one with this reality.”

“So I’d die, die? Like permadeath?” I blinked and shuddered at the thought of my consciousness essentially becoming soup.

The Master shook his head. “Not necessarily, no. You would be alive, but different; changed. I will not try to explain it as putting it into words for someone who only knows the three dimensions would never understand it. Trust me, please. So it’s best to just think you’ll be dead.”

I shuddered once again. “Got it. So, going outside the materium bubble is a no go?”

“Yes, but seeing as I’m here. That will not happen.”

I took a deep breath and looked back over the expanse. “Are all gods in this… ascended place? This higher reality thingy?”

“It’s not a thingy.” The Master sighed with annoyance, but once again, I saw his lips curl into a little smile. “No–well,” He started and pulled his lips into a fine line. He thought for a moment and continued, “It’s complicated. Are there any here in this plane of reality? Not entirely, but are they in one like it? Yes. Unfortunately, trying to explain it will do us no good. I am not saying this because I think you are unintelligent, Luna. I say it because I know you have no frame of reference, no concept to go off of. Do you understand?”

I nodded. “Yes. It sucks, but I understand.” I sighed.

The Master nodded. “Just know that Gods, as you know them, are not material beings.”

“You were though,” I said, pulling my feet back onto the balcony.

“Indeed I was, before I truly ascended.”

“How did you become a god?” I asked.

“Do you plan on copying what I did?” He asked with a flat expression.

I thought for a second. “Could I?”

This actually made him laugh. “Ha, it is not impossible. Though I would not recommend it. The process of ascension is not what you think it is.”

“My mother told me that gods are born because people put faith in them, that if enough people believe in them, then that would—" I was silenced by the Master waving a hand dismissively.

“None of that is true—ah.” He held a finger up to silence me. “I am not saying your mother is a liar, but instead that she was partially lied to. It is true that putting enough belief into something allows essences to bond and link with one another. But merely collecting essence is only the first step along the path to ascension. To truly reach ascension, one must breach the veil.”

“What is that?” I asked.

“The veil is what separates the material plane from the immaterial.”

“I don’t understand..." I blinked. “Is it like a physical wall or something?”

The Master snorted and shook his head. “No. It does not exist within your layer of space-time. It’s a barrier here; it’s not something you can see.” He said, pointing to the floor for emphasis. “As I told you, Luna, where we are now. Is a vertical slice of your materium. A piece of your existence that I fabricated so that you don’t go insane. What’s truly out there is something I unfortunately cannot explain with words, and showing you would yield nothing because how can you see what your conscience was never trained to see?”

I pushed myself to my feet and leaned against the stone railing. “This is getting way too complicated for me…” I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair.

“And I’m afraid it’ll only continue to get more complex.”

I groaned and looked back over the vista before us. “Of course it is.” I closed my eyes and breathed gently. “Can I ask a question?”

The Master cocked his head. “That is the reason why I had you come here.”

I rolled my eyes, though more so towards myself. “Yeah, I know. I’m just used to saying that… My question is, why me?” I looked at him. “Why was I chosen for this? To be reincarnated into this world to… help you save the world or something?”

It was the Master’s turn to look towards the horizon, and though his face was mostly shrouded in shadow, I noted a sense of tension as if he had been, unfortunately, waiting for this question.

It felt like an eternity before he finally answered me. “I had already answered this question.” He looked back at me. “I had told you, I brought you here because you are special–”

"Oh, cut the fucking chosen hero bullshit,” I heard myself say, my filter coming off as I felt a sudden surge of frustration. “I had spent my entire prior life getting fucked over constantly by sleezy people saying nice shit. Or “friends” who really wanted to use me. I like to think I’ve grown enough to sniff bullshit when I see it. What’s the truth?”

At first, the Master said nothing. He merely looked at me; it felt like we were having a staring contest for a moment. After a few heartbeats, the Master sighed and drifted towards the door leading back into the bell tower. “Where are you going?” I asked.

“To prepare myself. You may come along.”

“You didn’t answer my question,” I said, following the Dark Lord inside.

The balcony door closed behind me as we walked towards the cabinets along the far left end. These were the same cabinets from which the Master had retrieved the “boon” he had given me what felt like years ago.

He stopped in front of the cabinets and glanced at me. “I will answer your question in time; first, I must prepare.”

“Prepare what?” I asked, stopping just short of him. Behind the ornate glass, I could see bottles and large, decorated vases depicting images of people and landscapes I did not recognize. Besides those vases were clear bottles containing liquids and other liquids, I had no concept of.

“For the unpredictable reaction I am about to experience,” he grumbled as he unlocked and opened the cabinet. He then grabbed a purple ceramic-like bottle that displayed a green painting depicting some kind of party. Men and women who appeared human were dressed in flowing robes and dined around a table with vague shapes of fruits and meats. I couldn’t help but feel reminded of ancient Greek paintings I’d seen in my history class years ago.

The Master then reached up with his free hand and uncorked the top, and immediately, a fruity scent filled the chamber. “Are you drinking?” I gawked as the Master did just that. He took a deep swig from the bottle, gulping a few times before lowering it back down with a satisfied sigh.

“Indeed,” he said, popping the cork back on.

I feel like he’s toying with me. My mind flowed despite knowing he could hear my thoughts. At that moment, I wanted to break that bottle and scream at him to stop stalling. However, I was a good girl and kept my temperament in check.

Taking a deep breath, I focused again. “Alright, you have your juice; can you please tell me now?” I held a finger up. “If I sniff any ounce of bullshit, I’m calling you on it.”

The Master nodded. “Luna, I mean this respectfully.” My heart tightened as the Master placed the drink back into the cabinet. “But I cannot answer that question—ah.” He held a finger up to stop me. “I cannot answer it in its entirety, I should say.”

“Why not?” I snapped now, fuming. “You said we could talk about anything, that I could ask you anything, that all will be clear!”

“That is not exactly what I said, but I do understand your frustration.” He slipped his arms into the sleeves of his cloak as he held them across his chest. “There are things that you should not know,” he said, his voice lowering. “Knowledge that would do you more harm than good. Remember why I said the All-Father and the Apostles want you? Why Putinov was eager to find and kill you?”

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“I-I was meaning to ask about that guy,” I said with a nod. He had referred to me as an anomaly and an abomination. Does he know I wasn’t originally from this world?

The Master nodded. “What did I say?” He prompted me.

“Y-You said they were after who I was,” I said, and he nodded.

“Indeed. They want you because of who you were. That is why I cannot tell you.”

I blinked and shook my head, annoyed. “I was some fat loser,” I said. “I wasted my life away and did nothing of value; what’s good about that?”

The Master sighed. “I am not referring to… him.” He said, referring to my old self. “The one you wish to leave behind. He is not who this ‘Father’ wants. I am referring to the one before. The one you can’t remember.”

I hesitated. “I was reincarnated more than once?” I blinked before suddenly the realization hit me like a truck. “Wa-wait the Current! You mean–”

The Master cut me off. “A prior life, something like that. Yes, but not exactly.”

I was stumped. “Huh?”

He shook his head. “As said, I cannot tell you; I am sorry.”

I facepalmed. “You’re such an asshole.”

The Master cocked his head. “How come?”

“You can’t just tease me like that. Now I’m more interested!” I whined. “Why can’t you tell me?”

With a deep breath, the Master glanced again towards the cabinet as if contemplating another drink. After a few painstaking moments, he decided against it and looked at me. I could see a faint blue glint from what little light hit his eyes as he gazed down at me and said, “Because the knowledge would shatter who you are, Luna. It could potentially awaken you and restore all memories of your prior lives. Or, you could lose your sense of self. Or fall into a deep depression. There are several variables that could contribute to a terrible outcome; the probability of anything good coming from the knowledge of who you were is not at a good level.”

“What’re the odds?” I asked. “The odds of a good thing coming out of it?” I hastened to add.

“Again, you treat me like I’m some sort of machine.” The Master sighed and rolled his eyes. “But the answer is fifteen point three three percent.”

I blinked. “Wow, okay… I wasn’t expecting that specific an answer.” He did sound like a computer.

“You asked, and I delivered. Did you expect I was merely going off a gut feeling?”

“Uh… yeah.”

“While mortal guts are good at making quick decisions, I found that in the long run, relying purely on instinct will get you nowhere. I find it best to prepare for the best long-term solution.”

“I kind of got that based on what I’ve read about you and from speaking…” I sighed. “It’s really that bad? Me learning who I was?”

The Master nodded. “Regarding you, yes, it’s bad.” He took a deep breath and added, “Practically speaking, you knowing who you were would greatly benefit me.”

I jerked a bit but quickly steadied myself. “If that’s the case.” I gulped. “Why won’t you tell me then?”

The Master turned away from me and gazed towards the large, broken bell in the tower's center. What little I could see of his eyes looked longingly as he collected his thoughts. I could see on his face that he looked as if he was trying to find the right words to say, and eventually, his eyes were downcast towards the floor. He took a breath and looked at me after composing himself.

“It is because I am trying to protect you,” he said in his usual monotonous voice, and I was stunned.

“Pro-protect me?” I stuttered. “From you? Myself?”

The Master nodded slowly. “Yes, to both. Originally, when I first brought you to this world. I tried to tell you.”

“When?” I asked, unable to recall such a thing.

“Exactly,” he said. “It happened shortly after I found your soul in the Current and fished you out. Our first meeting, not the one you remember. This was before Luna, as you and I know, was born. It did not go so well. No, I will not tell you what happened.” He motioned for me to follow him towards a black, metallic door opposite the room. I followed behind him as he continued, “So I scrubbed your soul and conscience of that event. I tried multiple times after that but yielded the same results repeatedly. Sometimes your mind would break with revelation, other times you would become inconsolable.”

We stopped beside the door, and with a flick of his wrist, the Master opened the door to reveal the stairwell I had climbed up months ago. The same spiral staircase was littered with shards of broken bells. Dozens of them.

“Attempt after attempt. You became broken.” He said as he began to levitate down the stairs. “Come, watch your step.”

Nervous, I gulped and asked, “Where are we going?”

“A simple walk. Standing around that room has become a bore. I mean, no offense to you.”

I nodded and followed. “So you… wiped my memories every time I… broke?” I asked, gazing at the broken bells around me.

Were these all representations of me? I wondered.

“Yes, they are.” The Master said, startling me as I had forgotten he could hear my thoughts. “They are archeos I used to wipe your mind. Each one only has a single use.”

“Archeo?” I asked with a tilt of my head; I’d never heard of such a term. Then again, I’ve only been in school for a few years.

“Magic items. Archeo is the scholarly term for them.”

“There’s got to be... hundreds of them.” I gulped as I carefully stepped down the stairs, my hand aggressively gripping the handrail.

“Three hundred and eighty-six attempts,” The Master said in a slightly solemn tone.

“Holy shit…” I muttered with wide eyes. “When did this happen again?” I asked, trembling slightly. The thought of having been reborn so many times only to fail did not sit with me well at all. Maybe knowing was a lousy idea…

“Before you were born. By that I mean you, Luna. The ones that came before you did not get a chance to experience a new life. When I reached three hundred and eighty-seven, I realized that perhaps you needed time.” We circled the seemingly never-ending stairwell, going down and down as I progressively struggled, clambering down the ever-growing pile of bell shards.

Despite having the dread of knowing I had supposedly died hundreds of times, or, well, not died, but gone insane. My mind found the idea of leaving such a mess on the stairs to be more frustrating. My brain is weird like that.

The Master continued, “To you, at the time, it seemed as if you had just died after all. Psychologically speaking, your mind wouldn’t have been ready to receive such heavy information. So I allowed you time to acclimate and grow…” He trailed off as we finally neared the bottom of the stairs. The floor before me was nonexistent; all that was there were more shattered bells. A heaping pile of jagged pieces of metal, there was no floor to be seen.

Expectedly, I looked to the Master and gestured to the floor. “How am I supposed to walk on that without slicing my calves?”

The Master, levitating slightly ahead of me, glanced down thoughtfully. Eventually, he looked at me and said, “Apologies; I am not used to those who walk.” With a flick of his wrist, I gasped when suddenly every shard of metal vanished, and all that was left was black smoke. No. The metal didn’t vanish; it became smoke.

I frowned. “You couldn’t have done this at the top of the stairs?” I asked.

“You didn’t ask then,” he said simply and pointed to the wooden door, which the garbage had obscured. He flicked his wrist towards himself, and the door audibly made a thunking sound as a heavy deadbolt came undone. The door then swung open with an eerie creak, revealing a dark corridor beyond.

The Master turned to me and asked, “Would you like me to clear any other obstacles in your path?”

Flabbergasted I sighed. “Like I need to ask, yes, please. I can’t fly like you.”

“Would you like to?” he asked.

I hesitated. For a second, I considered it but shook my head. Flying would only be a distraction; I had to focus. "No, thank you. Are we going anywhere in particular?” I asked briefly.

“No. Merely wandering while we speak,” the Master admitted as he levitated along through the now-open door. I followed behind him.

When we entered the large corridor, ether light illuminated the pathway in a blueish-white light. Revealed to me was a long corridor spanning in either direction made of Gothic architecture. Large pillars lined the hall every dozen feet or so, and running down the center between was a purple rug with gold trimming. As I stepped into the center of this vast corridor, which was wide enough to fit a tank down, I could see gargantuan paintings mounted on the walls. Many of them were of a man or a young human. He had olive skin, black shoulder-length hair, and striking blue monolid eyes. Many of the portraits showed him in regal attire, as seen in some Renaissance paintings; he was a king. A young one at that.

I looked at one in particular. The young king was on his knees, surrounded by a crowd of commoners. Or at least so I thought; many of the people were wearing raggedy clothes of faded colors. One specifically was a plump woman in a faded dress, and what surprised me was that she was holding the king’s crown. I thought she was taking it off his head for a second, but when I looked at it again, I realized that she wasn’t taking it. She was crowning him. The commoners were giving it to him.

“Who is this?” I asked, noticing the Master continued moving further down the hall to my right.

The man stopped and spun around to face me. He hovered back over to me, followed my gaze, and looked at the painting. He studied it for a long moment, leaving me to feel anxious as I feared I might’ve pried into something he didn’t want me to. If that were the case, he would’ve brushed me aside by this point.

“Do you not see my likeness?” He asked, looking back at me.

I frowned and looked up at the Master. Like always, his face was shrouded by his hood, and I could only see part of it. I saw pale, almost chalk-white skin, a thin neck, and a sharp chin and mouth. He looked frail, almost sickly, unlike the man in the painting.

I blinked and did a doubletake. “That’s you?” I asked, flicking back and forth between the Master and the young man in the painting.

The Master smiled, a broad smile revealing white teeth and fangs I’d yet to see. He chuckled, seemingly amused, a shock coming from the man who said nothing was funny anymore. His smile grew into a laugh.

I was unnerved, for I had never heard him laugh like this before. “Uh, wh-what’s so funny?” I asked as the Master guffawed. His laugh was light and pleasant yet equally disturbing coming from someone like him. I would’ve said he had a wonderful laugh if I had known him in any other circumstance. But not now.

His head hung back as one hand smacked his thigh, and he leaned forward, nodding his head. “By all there is to be…” He sighed, reached up into the darkened portion of his hood, and wiped at his eyes. “I just realized…”

Relaxing a little, I lowered my hands after realizing I had them raised. “Realized what?” I asked nervously, afraid this ancient being had just snapped.

“I am free to reveal myself to you now,” he said, and before I could say anything, he reached up and pulled his hood back.

Standing before me was a man much older than what I’d seen in the paintings beside me. His skin was ghostly white, like chalk, but was smooth and clean. He had a square jaw with an almost pointed chin, the blue eyes that looked at me were sunken, and dark bags were prevalent, as if this man had not slept in years. No longer restricted by the cloth over his head, the inky, black hair spilled forth, resting on his shoulders and swinging forth in front of his face. His face was thin. The man looked malnourished, yet he was handsome aside from that, like the paintings. If not a bit dead inside, his eyes looked at me almost lifelessly.

I blinked and looked him over. “Whoa…” I said, taking a moment to regain my thoughts. “I-I don’t know what I was expecting,” I said nervously. “I-I half expected you to reveal yourself to be someone I knew.”

To my surprise, the Master visibly blushed faintly, though his skin turned almost a light shade of blue instead of a pinkish hue. “Perhaps I was a little too dramatic; to you, it seems like nothing but…”

I waved a hand. “It’s been forever for you, I know,” I said, though I didn’t. If what he’s been saying is true. I don’t think I could fully conceptualize time within this realm. I smiled at him. “You look good…” I glanced at the paintings. “Different, but, uh…”

“Old.” The Master blew air from his nose. “It’s been ages since I had any visitors. I would’ve cleaned myself up if I knew this was coming.” He sighed and rolled his eyes.

“Was that a joke?” I asked with a giggle. “So you do have a sense of humor.”

“Of course I do,” he said. “As I said, I am not a machine.” His lips curled slightly into a smile.

I chuckled. "Well, now that I see a proper face, I can agree to that,” I said, no longer feeling as intimidated now that I could put a face to this guy. Aside from the unnaturally pale skin and vampiric fangs, he looked just like an average guy, unlike the paintings representing the supposed Dark Lord.

A memory flashed before me. In the fight with the archbishop, Lucien had called me something, or well, the Dark Lord, as he was controlling me. “That name,” I said out loud, “the one that Lucien called you. Garl?” I repeated the name I heard in my mind out loud.

The Master’s dark eyebrows rose in shock, and then his expression immediately shifted to frustration and embarrassment. All within a few seconds. “Bollocks,” he hissed. “I had hoped you would’ve forgotten that.”

I snorted. “Is that your name?”

He glared at me, and I flinched. "No, it isn’t my name. It’s a nickname he had given me.”

Nervously, I asked, “What is your name then? Surely it isn’t ‘The Master’ like you’ve been having me refer to you as.”

“I never made you; you just chose to call me that.” He mumbled.

“Because you gave me nothing else.” I sighed.

The Master sighed and turned to face the painting of the common woman crowning him. After a few moments, he took in a deep breath and looked at me. “Well, there is no use concealing myself any longer. Before I reveal my true identity, Luna, know that my name shall not be spoken beyond this realm, for it is forbidden by the Divine Mandate.”

I gulped. “That sounds intimidating.”

“It should be.” He nodded. “The gods and their followers would wreak havoc if my name was unleashed. That is why I did not wish to speak of it before.”

“Why didn’t you tell me then? The reason I mean,” I clarified.

“Because of trust,” he said. “If I came through and immediately told you that my name would bring trouble to you and your family, I feared you would not be so keen on working with me.”

I nodded. “True, but also leading me into a pack of hungry monsters is also not a good idea.”

The Master’s lips formed into a thin line. “I will admit that I had acted hastily during that period; for that, I am sorry.”

I nodded. “Apology accepted.” I smiled widely and twirled my wrist for him to continue excitedly. “I want to hear this name of yours. I swear I’ll keep it between us.”

The Master cocked an eyebrow at my sudden excitement. “You truly are like a child.”

I shrugged. “That’s because I am, old man. Now, c’mon, I want to hear it.” I urged him.

The Master frowned but sighed. “Well then.” He took a deep breath before slowly lowering himself down to the ground. His feet touched the floor, and the Master surprised me with a deep and respectful bow he had indeed practiced. “Luna Ashflow, it is a pleasure to introduce myself finally. I am Shaed Garlan, the Master of Shadows and the Lord of Twilight.”