Sage of Shadows

Is this Death? She thought as she looks around her.

It was all black. She could not see anything, not even her own nose.

It certainly feels like it, she concluded with a sigh. I fucked up real bad didn't I?

For many years she made a living off scamming others of all their hard earned money before pulling a vanishing act. As a seasoned artist and performer, she had spent a god awful amount of time scheming and plotting on how to get into her targets sights, cultivate their trust and create escape routes for when she had taken everything and no longer had any need for the target; and also for when she needed to escape in case of unexpected discovery. Years of playing the game and one would thing she would be on high alert when something was too good to be true.

Love, she scoffed, looking down at her chest.

In this abyssal blackness she could not see it. She could not even feel it; maybe she did not have a chest at all. Now that she thought about it she did not feel her limbs either. When she tried to move them there was no response.

So this is death? She thought. The forfeiture of my physical form.

She looked down and sighed once more, though to be honest she did not know how she was doing that either. She could not feel her lungs either so they probably did not exist. That was probably the case with the nose she could not see, and one of the reasons all she could see was darkness was probably because she had no eyes. In other words, she was blind. Or maybe that was not the case either. Maybe being separated from her physical bonds had given her some kind of spirit sight, allowing her to see without a body. Meaning, this place was just fucking dark.

I'm overthinking it! She interrupted her active mind.

None of that mattered. The bottom-line was that she was dead and that knife to the heart no longer hurt.

But still, she thought while "looking" around. Where was this, Purgatory? She metaphorically shrugged as she thought about it. At least it's not Hell.

Someone like her was clearly not bound for the good place so this was already better than she expected.

Well, she thought, I'm exhausted. Maybe if I close my eyes I will fall asleep and never wake up.

That was her ideal death.

Heaven sounded too good to be true. A place where everyone was happy and satisfied; where peace and harmony existed in all corners? What a fucking joke! That kind fantasy is what she sold her targets before taking them for all they were worth and doing the classic vanishing act.

As for Hell… that place existing was more believable and unless you had some serious masochistic tendencies, there was no way anyone would want to go there.

Maybe this is how Hell truly looks like? A sudden thought came to her.

As much as her parents use to sell the story of the Lake of Fire to scare her into behaving, she had always imagined Hell to be a place similar to this. An endless black void with no sound and nary a presence. In her opinion true Hell would be to leave her here to stew in her own thoughts for eternity. It was kind of like sensory deprivation. She could already not feel her body and the darkness she saw might be because she was blind. Perhaps her other senses had vanished as well. Maybe her fate was to remain here alone with her thoughts until she began to doubt everything.

Please let it not be the case! She prayed, trying to calm her panicking self.

It would be a lie to claim she was a people person. She hated them! As a seasoned performer she had been around long enough to know that they were full of shit. Therefore she preferred her own company over theirs. That said, she still wanted to know they were there. If by some miracle she ever got bored of her own company she could then search for theirs. That was how she had always thought. Even if she ended up in the Lake of Fire there would be others she could communicate with, bond with over mutual suffering. However, if she was here alone-

HELLO! She screamed, or at least she thought she did.

There was no sound, or maybe she just could not hear herself. Lacking ears and all.

If someone heard her and responded maybe she would not hear them either.

WHAT AN AMMUSING CHILD YOU ARE! A response came from the darkness, and fortunately she could hear it.

It calmed her down.

Are you God? She asked the disembodied voice.

TO ONE SUCH AS YOURSELF I AM?

She lifted a metaphorical eyebrow at this. What did that even mean?

However, she was not going to ask this.

Where is this?

THINK OF IT AS A NEXUS FOR THOSE WHO ARE ABOUT TO BE REINCARNATED.

Reincarnation is real?

YES, the disembodied voice responded. ALL SOULS COME HERE IN PREPARATION FOR THEIR NEXT LIFE. MOST I SEND ON WITHOUT TALKING TO, BUT THERE ARE ALWAYS A FEW I CANNOT IGNORE.

Like me? She asked.

YES. WHEN INTERESTING PEOPLE SUCH AS YOURSELF ENTER THIS PLACE I TAKE THE LIBERTY TO COMMUNICATE WITH THEM. TO OFFER THEM A CHOICE?

And what would that option be? She asked, suspicious. All the while she thought, God? Give me a break! She scammed people for a living. She knew when something was too good to be true. Why in fuck's name would God take an interest in her? Let this being say what it will but she would not believe anything it said. God? Humph. She would believe it more if it claimed to be Satan.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! The entity in the darkness laughed, making her realise that her personal thoughts were not so personal where it was concerned. IT DOES NOT MATTER WHAT YOU BELIEVE. I CAME TO GIVE YOU THE SAME OPTION I GIVE THOSE WHO CATCH MY EYE. REINCARNATE INTO A WORLD OF MAGIC WITH YOUR MEMORIES AS A MEMBER OF ANY RACE YOU DESIRE.

Why would you offer such a choice? She asked sceptically. How did this being benefit from it?

BECAUSE YOU HAVE CAUGHT MY EYE. OF COURSE IF YOU CHOOSE NOT TO I WILL ACCEPT YOUR DECISION AND STRIP YOU OFF YOUR MEMORIES BEFORE REINCARNATING YOU.

So the choice is between being reincarnated as a creature of my choice in some magical world and having my identity stripped from me and being reborn in some unknown place?

YES. PREVIOUSLY I HAVE OFFERED THIS CHOICE TO NINETY-EIGHT OTHERS. SURPRISINGLY THERE WAS ONE WHO CHOSE THE LATTER OPTION. A SHAME THAT WAS, FOR EVEN AMONG THOSE I'VE TALKED TO HE WAS AMONG THE MOST INTERESTING. The being paused for a while before its voice came once more. SO WHAT IS YOUR CHOICE?

I choose neither option, she firmly replied.

Getting reincarnated in another world with her current memories, this was exactly the sort of thing those Escapist authors wrote about. What did they call it? Isekai? Those stories were usually characterised under Fantasy… because such a good thing did not exist in the world! She would be a fucking moron to believe such crap.

As for losing her identity and moving on? Who in their right fucking mind would want that? What was the use of reincarnation if she was no longer the person she was?

I prefer to stay dead, she said to the darkness, or the creature that lurked within it. Put me in a dreamless sleep and let me stay dead forever.

SO THIS IS YOUR CHOICE? The voice asked. TO REMAIN DEAD?

That is so, she affirmed.

An uncomfortable silence followed in which she wondered if the being in the darkness would fly off the handle after she dared to suggest a third option separate from the ones it had offered.

Much to her surprise the being did not reject her.

SO BE IT.

These words were spoken with such finality. She did not have time to come up with a response before the scenery changed.

The darkness faded and revealed a grey world.

What's going on? She asked, looking around.

The picture that met her was an endless desert filled with numerous grey grains. At the horizon these grains met a grey sky that was devoid of both clouds and celestial bodies. This world was scarily silent, so much so that she could not hear the slightest gust of wind, not that there was any wind to hear.

What the fuck is this? She thought, looking around.

Then she looked down and froze.

She had a body once more; hands and feet, she could see them. However, they were almost transparent. Through them she could still see the grey sand. In her bewilderment she kept staring, not realising the tingly sensation in her brain until a bunch of writing flashed across it.

Race: Ghost (Undead- Spectre)

Physique: None

Mana: SS (White)

Title(s): Darkborne

A bunch of shit she did not understand. However, when she read the first line she exploded.

That fucking arsehole!

He fucking reincarnated her as a ghost! What the fuck! This was not what she meant when she said she wanted to stay dead!

I knew he couldn't be fucking trusted!