The Shepherd

Tau awoke to find herself in the middle of a vast stretch of grasslands. A solid black sky with very occasional spots of light clashed with the bright green grass of the unnaturally flat plains.

For a brief moment of silence, Tau just stared, filled with curiosity by the strange new sights.

"Good Morning."

Tau noticed the middle-aged man standing before her. He was clothed in simple gray robes. His uncombed hair and short beard were an uneven gray with strands of black and white distributed throughout. His most interesting feature was his eyes: they were a static foggy white, like an image imprinted on glass.

Behind him stood a little girl, with an apparent age of no more than 6 years. Her simple white dress was mostly out of view as she hid behind the man, showing just her short white hair and eyes that mirrored those of the middle-aged man.

"I am Kant. And this is Phi," the man patted the little girl on the head, "What's your name?"

"Tau. My name is Tau."

As she said this, the image of a young woman flashed through her mind. This was her image of herself. Subconsciously, her mind worked out the finer details: lavender eyes, snow-white skin, moderate breasts, and long golden hair that nearly reached her waist, all packaged in a sapphire-blue dress with white lacings and enough folds to depart the realm of simplicity yet still far short of extravagance.

This was the form Tau constructed for herself after being asked her name. It was necessary for her to respond to the question. One does not interact with the world without being a part of it. And so, there she was, sitting in the grass, eyes wide, gazing at the sky.

"Pretty..." Phi murmured.

"Nice to meet you Tau," Kant smiled, "Congratulations on your awakening, and welcome to the world of the gods."

Tau felt the outlines of her face with her new hands; As a being that had existed without form, it was all very new to her.

"Right now, you are probably quite confused. Do not worry, I will answer any questions you may have and help you learn about this new world."

From the folds of his robes, Kant extended a hand out to her. Tau took it, hesitantly, and got to her feet.

"And away we go."

Like a drop of water, a part of the sky fell down and enveloped them. Kant had pulled it down; Tau felt his presence reach up and grab part of the sky. And then, with the three of them inside, the sky popped back into place.

They were in a bubble of light, in the sky, and the grasslands below them fell away into the darkness. But, Tau could still feel them, and she could tell that they were now racing away from the spot where she was born.

"Where are we going?"

"The Borderlands around the world seed."

Tau stared blankly, unable to interpret the answer.

"Do not worry about it. Just think of it as the town of beginnings," Kant added with a grin.

Tau felt a tinge of amusement, but couldn't consciously grasp the reference. She understood, though, the futility of investigation without context and settled with watching Phi perform backflips while floating in the air beside her.

As Tau watched, she couldn't help but realize how much Phi stood out in relation to Kant. It was just a feeling; the bubble itself felt weird. Kant's presence enveloped everything within it. Kant's actual form seemed to just be part of the background.

"This is my domain," Kant explained, noticing Tau's confusion, "It is a power all gods possess: world creation. You can feel it, right? That this domain is mine. That world sense is also something all gods have. Try looking into some of the stars outside with your world sense."

The stars that had looked so distant before were now much closer, and she could see that each star was really just another bubble of light, inside of which existed an entire world. She tried looking into one of the worlds and found a universe of galaxies, each with countless thousands of stars. So many that she started to feel dizzy.

"Do not look too deeply," Kant warned, and then, a bit later, "It is quite beautiful, right?"

Tau nodded slowly, still gazing at the many worlds around them in the sky.

"There are countless worlds in the mortal realm, and more are being created all the time, separated into branches and leaves based on the similarity of their world logic."

As they traveled, The concentration of worlds gradually increased. Soon, it became difficult to tell them apart, and the sky became a solid white with all the spheres of light.

"And down we go…"

Kant brought them back down onto the grasslands. Except now, there was a lot more than just grass.

A maze of small cottages outlined the circular patch of grass that they landed in. There were all sorts of people in and about their business: flying through the air, disappearing and reappearing in flashes of light, vendors with pocket dimensions filled with strange logic from obscure worlds. In the distance, Tau could see taller buildings ranging from medieval castles to modern skyscrapers, surrounded by fleets of smaller buildings floating in the air beside them. Even then, she could tell that there was still so much more that she could not see nor comprehend.

As Tau watched, a figure appeared in front of them in a flash of light and started gesturing and talking. Despite the figure being right in front of her, Tau could not make out any distinctive features of the figure nor understand its speech. It was as if she was viewing its existence through a censure. All she got was a feeling of urgency and movement, which she could not understand.

Kant understood though and nodded his head in acknowledgment. After a few more gestures, the figure disappeared in a flash of light.

Kant grabbed Tau and Phi by the hand and quickly led them away from the clearing, into one of the nearby side roads.

"What…?"

"It is a busy time for the Borderlands. Be sure to stay with me. It would be disastrous if you got lost here. You too, Phi."

Phi had wandered off to a nearby vendor, where some pure black spheres were on display, radiating darkness. Hearing Kant, she reluctantly rejoined them.

"I'm hungry," she pleaded with Kant.

"Is it already that time again…?" Kant sighed, "Soon, we need to get Tau examined first."

The three of them set off through the maze of buildings. To Tau, the path Kant took seemed random and erratic: they would walk through walls and appear on a building floating in the air; they would reach a crossroads and turn back the way they came only to find that the path had changed. They would walk into a small building and find themselves once again outside, somewhere else in the maze of buildings. Very often, Kant would disappear from in front of her and reappear in the window of a nearby cottage.

Only by constantly checking for Kant's presence was Tau able to keep up.

"I'm pretty sure it was around here… Ah found it."

They walked off the edge of a floating building and into a cave filled with glittering crystals of various colors and sizes. As Tau watched, the crystals flashed and hummed randomly, seemingly alive. Kant knocked on a nearby crystal, a relatively small blackish colored hexagonal prism, which gave off a low hum in response.

"This way."

Kant led the three of them down one of the branches of the cave to a small cavern. The ceiling was covered in strings of glowing beads. In the middle of the cavern was a semi-transparent bright green tetrahedron about the same height as Phi. Kant walked up to it and kicked it, causing it to flash angrily.

The tetrahedron disintegrated and reintegrated into the figure of a pale-skinned young man in a black suit and tie whose hair and eyes matched the bright green of the crystal perfectly.

"You can't just do this every time. Don't you think it's about time you learned to do things like this yourself?"

"Ha, ha. You should understand that is impossible in my condition. Besides, I do not believe you are currently occupied."

"I'm on break…"

"Exactly."

"Really… with your condition, you shouldn't have become a shepherd. It doesn't suit you at all."

The young man gave Kant a hard glare. Kant just smiled. The young man sighed.

"Whatever. So, this is the lost little lamb?" He nodded towards Tau.

"Indeed. The usual, please. I will return shortly. Other errands are calling." Kant patted Phi on the head.

"You're not even going to stay? You're actually just shoving all the work onto me now."

"You have my gratitude." Kant waved before leaving with Phi.

The young man sighed, and then he turned to face Tau.

"My name's Four. What's yours?"

"Tau..."

Four grinned.

"Nice to meet you, Tau. We will now be testing your original logic, so that you may gain a better understanding of yourself and find an appropriate direction to develop your abilities."

"...What…?"

Four's grin disappeared.

"Wait, you didn't know why you were brought here? Did Kant not tell you anything?"

"... uh… no…?"

"Don't tell me that you woke up and then he immediately brought you here to find me."

"... That's basically what happened..."

Four's jaw tightened and his eyes narrowed.

"There are so many things wrong with that… I don't even want to think about it. It's honestly a miracle nothing happened…"

Four put his face in his hands and shook his head.

"Damn it! Kant!"