Part 1: Cast Adrift

  Elizabeth had grown up immersed in luxury. Born to wealthy parents, she barely knew a normal life. She wasn't really sure how she'd been cast in her first acting role as a child, not even ten years old. She hadn't chosen that life, but she'd settled into it with zeal and found within herself a voracious appetite for growing her skills and rapidly consumed everything she could from the people working around her.

  She made her life her own, and could only thank her busy family for the opportunities she'd been granted. She barely knew her mother, but her father was always always quick to spend time with her, assuming she wasn't overseas for the next scene of her career.

  Millionaire youth actress Elizabeth Fereday sat on a bench, tucked away in a corner of a park on her university campus, sketching in her workbook for an arts class.

  The millionaire part of her identity was her personal wealth. Something she was rather proud of. After all, her family wealth was beyond simple millions. Seeing the fruits of her own efforts just seemed to light a fire in her, and she was rapidly moving towards other aspects of movies. Writing, drawing and eventually directing all seemed like the next big steps in her life.

  The pages of the workbook were nearly all filled with the random imaginings that had seemed to spill from her absent minded thoughts ever since she was a young girl, even before she first showed up on the big screen.

  As long as she could remember, her dreams were full of wild alternate worlds full of magical charms and mortal perils.

  Worlds of unimaginable precious wonders that sparkled and shone with dazzling sunlight.

  Worlds of unknowable mysteries and devious plots.

  Even as she’d entered the legal drinking age, she couldn’t be bothered to socialize in her free time, lest she lose that tenuous grasp of her wondrous imagination before she could put the pencil to paper.

  Her latest drawing depicted a shining humanoid outline surrounded by the Major Arcana of her dreamscape. She’d even been gifted a beautiful set of Tarot Cards when she turned eighteen, each drawn with gemstone ink made from some of the most precious stones in the world.

  Her love of fortune telling and weaving the tale of her fate naturally inclined her towards all sorts of fortune reading, even though she was far too busy to entertain the thoughts beyond a passing interest.

  Indeed, her star seemed destined to continue to rise all through her life.

  Therefore, when had it all gone wrong?

  She couldn’t seem to identify when things had turned for the worse, but her tarot readings surely didn’t seem to imply such unimaginable suffering.

  She’d drawn the World card that morning; implying completeness and fulfillment. Always a total mystery, which was half the fun of card readings.

  Oh, how wrong she was to feel excitement for that day.

  While drawing in the park on campus, the air had begun to hum with energy and a sound like shattering glass came to her ears.

  Before she could identify the cause of the noise, her hair began to stand on end, and the air nearby was torn asunder.

  An inky blackness within the rippling waves of energy seemed to devour all in her line of sight, while glimmers of starlight shone from the emerging tapestry of night.

  “Ahh, the smell of the air. At last, I’ve made it back! This must be Earth!” A demented older man began raving and then dropped to his knees, kissing the ground.

  “Ngh!”

  With a shrill cry of surprise, Elizabeth felt herself suddenly being tugged towards the… portal that the man had stepped out of.

  Yes, the strange man had arrived through some sort of portal, which immediately seemed intent on devouring her in turn, all while the rambling old man seemed to have lost himself in rambling while tears streaked down his face.

  “Oh dear,” the old man finally seemed to take notice of her as she fought the increasingly insistent pull of the portal he’d opened.

  “Help me!” Elizabeth’s cry seemed to be dragged from her throat and into the gateway as she reached her hand for something to grasp, toppling sideways in the process.

  “Dear, oh dear.” The idiot, officially nicknamed now, seemed to ponder over what to do as he stepped away from the portal, making no moves to help her. “There is no system here. I have no skills or stats to fix this. Ah, well, surely some god or other will mend the rift. Good day, my dear, and do enjoy your world traveling adventure!”

  Her hands stretched out, desperate for anything to grasp, if only for the chance to claw her way over to the old man and wring the life out of him for abandoning her.

  Honestly, what a load of nonsense! At least fix the problems you make for yourself instead of troubling others! And what was that about a system, or stats and skills?

  Frankly, she wasn’t sure what to make of the old man, but she was certainly not ready for any world traveling!

  Her gaze flickered towards the portal, where her foot was just beginning to pass inside, as her fingers of her right hand snagged a strap of some sort… her purse!

  Not. Helpful!

  Even so, she looped her wrist through the straps and felt around for anything to stop this slow but unavoidable pull on her body.

  Oddly enough, nothing else seemed to be drawn into the swirling starlit doorway, only her. And it wanted her badly, apparently.

  Her left hand caught a small gap between the concrete walkway segments, throwing her a lifeline of sorts.

  Her slow sliding movement paused for a brief moment, eliciting a gasp from the old man who was now watching from much further away, “Ohh, I would not do that were I you.”

  She understood what he meant immediately, as the portal continued to pull at her, where her right leg was already submerged up to the calf. Her brief halt in motion caused the part of her leg to be severed at the inky gateway, while her body remained still, turning the all-consuming darkness into a precision cutting edge.

  Pain.

  A sudden, unfathomable pain assailed her as she cried out, surely drawing the attention of other students going about their mornings, but such thoughts didn’t reach her anymore. Her grip slackened, and she found a sudden surge of power pull her free of the small handhold, devouring her whole body in an instant.

  Earth was no longer her concern.

  All she could feel was pain, though dimly aware that she was moving through space at a speed that made no sense to her fragile, pain-addled mind.

  Truly, pain became her constant companion in a journey that could’ve been days, or likely years. Time made no sense in this transitional experience, and she became more lucid as the pain became a part of her existence, assuming she still existed.

  The cosmic experience of everything around her was hard to put into words, but lucidity was definitely a problem the longer things went on.

  There they were. The worlds of her dreams, just out of reach.

  The jeweled mountains.

  The vast fields of endless bounty.

  The ecosystems of increasingly monstrous carnivores.

  The bloodied battlefields of war torn lands.

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  The realms became less idyllic after the first few.

  Then came the true nightmares.

  Worlds devoid of all life, destroyed by the clashes of weapons of mass murder.

  Worlds decayed by endless pestilence and decay.

  Worlds scoured clean by intense rays of unbearable sunlight.

  As she tried desperately to tear her eyes away from the horrors along the journey, she saw… them.

  In the gaps between the worlds, kept at bay by some force she couldn’t identify, the universe was full of dangers of all kinds.

  Pain seared through her anew as she was struck by stray stardust. Holes tore into her body as she was flung through a cloud of cosmic debris.

  She desperately wanted to scream, but no voice was able to rise from her lips. No reprieve to be found, Elizabeth could only feel her mind begin to slip away into the vast everythingness all around her.

  She drifted towards the horrors of those dimensional seams, so close they could reach out and seize her.

  The feeling was unlike anything she had words to describe. The unmaking of all things lay within those unknowable masses of...

  Someone… save me! Please. Anything to make this stop.

  “Anything? Then perhaps… would you be willing to help me with a little something?”

  A voice. A voice in the abyss of the universe! But so much pain. The sensation of her being wrung out by the gaps in reality faded.

  Still, she couldn’t bring forth coherent thought to form a response anymore.

  “Allow me to clear your mind a bit.”

  The pain disappeared.

  Elizabeth felt like she breathed a sigh of relief, but that certainly couldn’t have been true in this endless vacuum of space.

  Thank you. Um, you…mentioned a favor?

  “Indeed. I am Seira. In my world, I am the Goddess of Order. You are a curious case, to still be nearly whole of body in this place. I can guide you to my world and grant you a haven, but I would ask you to put your recent experiences to work in preventing further harm for me. Specifically, I would ask that you repair damaged spatial reality in that world.”

  Is it impossible to return me to my own world?

  It may have seemed selfish to ask for aid that would prevent her from aiding in the goddess’ request, but she had to know.

  “You darling little mortal. You know not how long you have been drifting through this space, between the gaps in worlds. Your world may have aged a hundred years in the time you’ve been cast adrift. [World Travelers] from my world may attain the power to traverse worlds, but they tend to form incomplete pathways that do not mend themselves. You were likely caught in one such pathway as it decayed naturally, leaving you adrift for unknown quantities of time. The world you know will not be the world that exists now.”

  I see. Your world? How different is it?

  She needed help, and someone was here to offer it. She needed to ensure she wouldn't anger her would-be savior. Musing over the fate of her life on Earth could wait.

  “You will have to see for yourself. Your time in the rift should grant you some benefits to compensate for how much older you are without unlocking your system. Language will be a concern, I am sure. Then I shall grant you some few benefits to help you along. First, I must remake your body a little.”

  At last, the Goddess revealed her form. Clearly feminine, but hard to really describe beyond that. Black… hair seemed like it wasn’t the right word. There weren’t any strands of hair, so it was more like she had a curtain framed around her face, perfectly trimmed and ending at her jawline in an approximation of a bob cut. Her eyes remained closed as if in a state of slumber.

  The rest of her body was equally unusual, though being the Goddess of ‘Order,’ it all made some sense. The “clothes” on her body seemed to just be differently colored skin, or some sort of bodysuit, like the kind a surfer might wear. Alabaster face, hands and skin, all standing out from the shining silver of the bodysuit she might have been “wearing” in some meaning of the word.

  Beautiful.

  Elizabeth wasn’t sure why that thought popped into her head, but she could feel the emotion of happiness wash into her mind at the clueless thought she’d let slip away.

  She really was. Elizabeth wasn’t sure if this would forever change her tastes, but she couldn’t see anything being this beautiful to her eyes ever again, meaning Elizabeth likely would never feel attracted to anyone who was anything less than truly flawless in the future.

  She had to offer her apologies to men going forward. The Goddess of Order was far too perfect to allow her mind to see any man as anything close to such flawless beauty.

  “Aren’t you such a flatterer? I’d offer you even more boons for such a thoughtful perspective, but I rarely play favorites. I can reward you for a job well done in the future, however. Let’s get started, shall we? This will take you some time to get used to.”

  The next thing Elizabeth saw, a primordial liquid was enveloping her body. She had no clue what it was, but it felt cool to the touch.

  A far cry from the pain she’d been in before the goddess had alleviated that sensation.

  “Now, the materials for repairing your body won’t be organic, per se, but it’s the best I can do out here with what’s on hand. Clay… too soft. Metals will be too unwieldy… I’ll just have to rearrange some atomic components.”

  That last comment seemed a little contradictory of her comment about using the materials on hand, but this was a goddess, and Elizabeth felt she could find some trust in her heart for this being that had surely shattered her thoughts of ever finding true love.

  Really, if she could pull it off, she could see herself finding a way to become a god just to be with such divine perfection.

  If she could blush while embraced by this liquid in the void between worlds while a beautiful goddess mashed together rocks like putty to fill in her missing body parts, Elizabeth was sure she would’ve.

  The whole situation was so far beyond her imagination from that morning… it couldn’t have just been that morning, really.

  Stupid World card. You’re not supposed to be so literal.

  “Card? Whatever do you mean? Also, I’ll be waiting for your confession when you become a goddess yourself, so do try to reach me.”

  I’ll keep that in mind! And cards… I had them in my bag. They’re Tarot Cards for reading your fate. I drew the World card on the day I got sucked into the weird portal that crazy old man came out of.

  Elizabeth felt like she could strive for a goal now. But could she actually become a god herself? She’d have to wait and sort that issue out when she had the rest of things figured out.

  She glanced at the purse still wrapped around her intact right arm, then held it out to Seira.

  The purse itself was made of fine leather, and when Seira gazed inside, she immediately withdrew a shining deck of artistically drawn and stylized cards, capturing and reflecting the light of the cosmos around them.

  The Major Arcana.

  Each card was larger than her hand and seemed especially ethereal in that light.

  “Well now. Such high quality materials must not go to waste. I’ll be giving you a divine mission, and these shall be a little advance payment for you, so don’t ever lose them.”

  With that, Seira placed a chaste kiss on the cards, then gently pressed them into Elizabeth’s chest, where they vanished into her body with a pale silver glow.

  I… What did you do? And how would I lose them if they’re a part of me now?

  “Really, that’s just for safekeeping. They won’t be of any use to you right now, but one day, they’ll be your own divine instrument for the mission I grant you.”

  I’m not sure I understand, but thank you.

  It was all she could come up with after such a vague answer.

  Elizabeth studied her body to see if there were any notable changes, but she couldn’t see anything yet.

  She knew she was missing her left foot from the calf down since the portal incident, and the stardust she’d passed through had shredded her left hand and pieces of her torso. She didn’t think she’d still be alive if it weren’t for the odd timeless nature of the rift.

  Seira seemed to have found the right material for her “repairs” at that point.

  A stony looking material was shaped and molded to fill the gaps in her flesh, patching the holes in her lower stomach and fixing her hand.

  She couldn’t feel anything from those areas, however. It was as if they’d been replaced with actual stone, and she wasn’t sure how her body could function without organic material.

  “Do not worry, my future paramour." The goddess spoke with a hint of amusement. "I’ve ensured that the human functions of your body work around the replacements. In my world, such things are the work of [Biomancers] but a goddess’ work won’t lose to mortal hands.”

  Elizabeth couldn’t believe it. Was that a coy smile on the goddess’ lips? Paramour?

  And what was Biomancy?

  What about all the organs she was undoubtedly missing?

  “Those will be the least of your worries. You’re going to have a long road to recovery, so try to hold tight to those feelings of yours. Good luck, my [Priestess].”

  Elizabeth suddenly opened her eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling.

  [*ding* Welcome to Pallos!]

  [Name: Elizabeth Fereday]

  [Race: Stone Golem/Human Hybrid]

  [Age: 21]

  [*ding* Congratulations! You’ve survived your early years, and the system is now fully unlocked for you!]

  That was as far as she got through the odd notifications dinging and popping up in her field of view before the goddess’ pain nullification wore off, and she began to scream in both pain and complete horror.