1 The most embarassing way to start over
Different worlds exist, with different people, different races, and faces. And among them, different deities handle the chores of managing and motivating humans and non-humans alike. Many different planets exist to host the myriad of types of life each worshiping something. But that worship all boils down to one main divine being and the spirits he has put in place to manage them.
On a world near the center, one of the oldest and most diverse, mankind and the demi-humans live a sort of stable segregated life. People of all kinds live out their lives in a sort of peace with nature, taking what they need and trying to make just a little bit more so they can enjoy life.
In the backwater of the northern lands that humans mostly occupy is the town of Deavers' Township. It is the center of commerce for many miles of farming, hunting, and craftsmen before the mountains begin.
The town is ring-shaped with commerce in the center, housing in the middle, and all forms of industry towards the outside. This arrangement of buildings is found in almost all towns of this world. That keeps the dirty business of crafting and shipping away from homes and keeps the business clean and at the center of daily lives.
This day though the lives of people were being interrupted by a catastrophe.
The center of town was a courtyard, filled with people going to and from places. Or those on dates or rushing to work or home. This day the head priest from the church was taking the orphans on an outing to collect the day-old bread and left-overs from the shops and bakeries. These alms helped keep them fed and provided a much-needed distraction from a life of work at the chapel.
Normally this was a quiet routine but today was different.
A man was trapped under the cart today. The priest had looked back at the kids to stop them from fighting over a toy and he was caught under the wheels. The panic of people in the street to save him was making the horse rear and claw at the road while others were trying to push or pull the cart off his mangled body.
His name was Edmund. He lived an average life. Nothing was successful, but he wasn't lacking in food, water, or a place to sleep. He worked with the town blacksmith, Endre, for the last 10 years and if he had officially apprenticed him he would have been considered a master by now. That lack of an apprenticeship meant that he would never have the success of a master blacksmith.
While his corpse was being pulled and tugged, a young lady named Lily was watching in horror. Today was the day she had come to tell him that her parents had arranged a marriage with a wealthy family several towns over. It was bittersweet to her because they had been friends for as long as they both could remember.
What she didn't know until he showed up was that today was the day that he was going to ask her out finally for the first time. If there was a god of Irony, he was laughing the whole way home at his good works.
She had stood there and watched it happened, in sheer panic, she had run home. The shock of him finally growing a spine and the sight of his mangled corpse had sent her mind reeling. If they had just met for lunch, or she was going to see if he was still working or running errands. Anything else but this, it was too many shocks for her to handle. She would regret leaving his body behind later, but right now she had to escape the harsh fact of life and death set before her.
And that is where Ed's story starts. You see Ed had always cherished Lily as the only woman who ever acknowledged him as more than just a fixture around town. Or as a quiet young lad to be safe from the other lusty guys around town. He had manners. Maybe that made him safe in all their minds, and they all considered him a friend, but none ever went home thinking "He's reliable and probably going to be a decent provider one day." He just wasn't that kind of exciting that set the lady's hearts to racing and their blood pumping.
And in the heart of town, stood the recently departed soul of Ed. He looked on with surprise and a bit of anger at the comical events surrounding his death.
--------------------
Ed stood there thinking "Why I can't just catch a break!" He hadn't been paying attention to the world around him as he stood there with the midday sun bearing down. The sights and sounds going on normally around him were drowned out as he was focused elsewhere.
Normally anyone would have heard the screams of warning and the horses, but Ed didn't. He was too absorbed in his own surprise and anger to notice. And by the time he had seen the shadow of the horse and carriage, it was too late.
I guess I die a virgin, he thought to himself. This is the lamest way to die. At least the newspaper will sell when the headlines read "Town Dateless Wonder trampled by horse and buggy".
And when he thought back over it, he realized that death had hurt less than he expected. He thought that he would feel the tearing of his soul from his body or something. But as his body and soul separated his last human thought of was his best friend Lily. The sight of Ed being run over would be the last thing she would remember of him.
He had finally worked up the courage to ask her out. She had come to tell him that a marriage had been arranged for her and she would soon be leaving town. The two of them had been companions as far back as Ed cared to remember. He had memories of childhood before they had met at the church that took in orphans. But memories of when he had lived with his parents were painful. As such he preferred to think of her as his family.
Today had been the day he was going to finally work up the courage to ask her out and make that dream a reality. He had tried before but always clammed up. The thought of her rejecting him and losing his only real close friendship had scared him too much. And all the other girls and women in town found him safe. Ed wasn't simple in the mind or anything, and he was ruggedly good looking in a very average sort of way. He just wasn't the best catch in what would have been considered a large town for this part of the countryside.
Ed laid there on the ground waiting for whatever came next. Eventually, he decided to sit upright. That was worse somehow as he was now watching up close as people were pulling on his body. It was extremely unsettling. He got himself up on two feet and walked over to the curb just a few yards away as he looked on at the scene of his death continuing in slow motion.
"I have no sense of fashion at all. Why doesn't anyone ever tell me I look that bad!" Ed said to himself out loud. Normally Ed was a quiet soft-spoken person. He liked to explain his existence to other people as an extra in everyone else's life. He was always around but never the real focus of attention until now.
"Maybe everyone thought you knew? Or you had done it so long they thought tacky was your preferred fashion. Some people like that kind of thing." A voice beside him replied.
Ed didn't pay attention to the fact that a voice had sprung up from nowhere and replied without thinking, "Yeah I know, and there was this outfit in the tailor shop the other day. I went to have sacks repaired and it was on the wall. The whole thing just looked like something you'd see on someone successful... Wait, who the hell are you?"
The tall figure next to him had impossibly broad shoulders and a slim waist that looked like a medical condition. He had short wavy blond hair and a smile that made him look trustworthy or slightly slow. The man was wearing a light-yellow tunic and pants that were dark red like beets.
"Name's Golliad, the collector," He sighed after he said it. "Do I have to tell you that every time we do this? Well now that the introduction is over, what a way to die this time Ed. I like this one better than that time you accidentally fell into an ocean and got eaten by a cryptid."
"A what?" Ed looked up at him confused.
"Oh, you know, mythical beast, lost animals, that sort of thing. I guess you proved it did exist in the end."
"Eh… I guess if you say so." Ed said turning around to look at his body again. "So now what? I mean, you don't look like the guy in the stained glass windows, so I guess I have to trust you."
Golliad sighed and nodded, "Yeah none of us do. I hate that whole squat old man image you guys are stuck on. Make the mistake of doing that ONE TIME and the humans stick with it. I tried possessing a pot pie once to just break the image... Guy died of shock and I had to take him on to the next place. So, for now, I'm stuck with it. Thankfully it's a nice conversation starter.
Ysennia the goddess isn't nearly as pretty as the glass makes her out if you promise not to tell her I said that. Hadres the actual hell god is a bit of a party boy but short and portly with no wings. Linist the harvest goddess is closest to her stained glass. She's got that godly chest… Oh my me. I wouldn't mind a chance to go strolling the realms with her, but you all drop off so fast it's hard for me to get a day off. I won't bore you with the lesser spirits and ghosts.
They generally have no real form, corporeal or spiritual. Mostly a talking dust cloud or occasionally a face. Some guardian spirits will occasionally have form, and it's not always what you would consider normal. Disconcerting when you think about it."
Ed tried not to laugh at the situation, he was stuck here talking to a god while watching his body be mangled hilariously just yards from him. Moments before all of this he had mustered up the courage to be center stage in his own life for once. Maybe being dead was his punishment for trying this hard.
"Okay, so what do I call you then? Is Golliad okay or is there something with honorifics I'm supposed to use?"
"Golliad is just fine. You ask that every time too. Now is when I would normally collect your soul and give it back to the goddess Ysennia, to be put back into the world, but she wants to talk to you first."
"The goddess wants to see me?" Ed said with surprise. What could a goddess want with a nobody from the background of everyone else's life?
"Yeah, this isn't working out how she wants Ed. Come on, follow me." Golliad waved for him to follow.
"What do you mean, how she wants?"
"I can't say more than that. Trust me the divine always has a plan. She insists I don't tell you any more than this. Otherwise, I would fill you in on the whole damn thing."
Golliad led them away from the scene and across the town square. They walked around people and horses and other obstacles until they found a deserted little spot where chairs and a table were set for people to come to have lunch later that day. One of them already had an occupant who waved at them as they walked forward.
"I see you made it. Welcome back Ed, its been 20 years this time around. I do hate the wait between these little talks of ours." Ysennia smiled at Ed and reached out and touched his face.
Ysennia wasn't what you would call beautiful, but she wasn't ugly either. She floated somewhere along that line between cute and attractive. If you looked at her face long enough you couldn't decide which one it was.
"Goddess Ysennia?" Ed stammered out. He was never a truly religious person. The whole thing felt off to him and he was starting to understand why. He was acquainted with them.
"Starting to remember I take it? Give it a few minutes it will all come flying back into your brain."
Ed blinked, she was right. He was remembering whole towns and stories that were his but not uniquely his. It was as if all his previous lives had come crashing back together. His last reincarnation was the first to come back, "The town fountain… Gregory drowned me in the fountain for asking his fiancée on a date…"
"That was a sad one. You fought back at that time, but it was too late." Golliad said, nodding in remembrance.
Ed sighed and shook his head. "Well, this makes it, what, 12 times I've been back. Can't I start somewhere else?"
Ysennia smiled and patted Ed's hand. "Yes, a dozen times at least. We have tried that Ed and it doesn't work. Your soul is locked to this world at this place. We don't know why but the Lord God has tied your soul to this particular world. When we attempt to change it, it makes your life even worse."
Golliad laughed, "Remember the time we had him born into royalty and he was beheaded as a sacrifice to the gods at age 3?"
Ysennia winced visibly. "I told you to never bring that up again! His tiny bald head bounced along the pathway for so long after they dropped it! Come on let's talk about something better this time."
She pulled something up onto the table from her lap. Ed leaned over to look at it and got a whiff of her smell. It was some kind of fresh flowers. He took his first real detailed look at her and noticed the glow of her skin, the way her clothes were almost see-through. The curves of her body and the shapes of her features were just barely concealed.
She saw him staring and smiled. She reached over and put a hand under his chin and forced his face even with his. "Please don't be embarrassed. This is all for a show, if I wanted you to see more you could see whatever I created. You would think you would be more comfortable with me seeing as we are well acquainted and old friends."
Ed smiled and tried to calm down, "She's a goddess and I am a human." He thought to himself as he slowed down his brain.
"I'm so sorry goddess," Ed said looking at her face and trying to look as apologetic as possible. "Things are still rambling around inside my head. What do you have there on the table? I can't quite make it out."
