“Of course life isn’t ‘fair’.

But it does have its way of remaining in balance.

Even if you can’t see it.”

I close my eyes and close the door behind me.

“I’m home,” I say to emptiness.

My apartment: dimly lit, plain, overlooking some random city on the U.S. west coast and with nothing but exactly what I need to live—which is almost nothing. Just as I left it. Most people should be relaxed when they return home. That would be normal, right? So why is this uneasiness in my core not going away?

A tense sigh releases from my chest, not relieving any emotion as I mechanically unload my single suitcase. Deafening quietness drums in my ears, only broken by the sounds of my mundane actions.

I glance to the mirror hanging on my wall, my dead eyes stare back.

“Alright, I have a few months ahead of me now. What should I try to improve?” I try to divert my attention by doing what I always do when I have spare time. “I got distracted back there—that’s something I can fix.” Forcing myself to think, I try to come up with a plan for how to improve myself. But the uncomfortable pressure cool-burning in my chest isn’t satisfied. Besides, I have a headache, so I’ll think about it more later. Since when have I not gotten back to something I put off till later?

“Right?”

Regret.

“Right?”

My heart beats painfully. Something bitter wells from deep within me as I realize something I’ve always known. I grit my teeth as tears of self-pity bud.

My life. That’s what I’ve been putting off till later.

I punch a wall in a vain attempt to control the flow of my long-repressed feelings. They rush over me like a tsunami regardless.

“I always, always put them off till later. What am I, stupid! Always ignoring what I want in place of something ‘more optimal’. But where does that lead me to now!”

I need to align my focus on the best method to overcome this challenge. But why do I even want to try and overcome this? What do I gain?

Pointless memories of my monochrome past rush through me. Why didn’t I try to live in the moment? I was always trying to build a better future for myself. Is this the future I was wanting?

I stare angrily at my plain empty room.

Time after time, I chose to remain alone, enduring my internal pain, making the decision to chase my stupid idealistic future. But I’m powerless to change any of that now. So cripplingly powerless.

I fall to my knees, leaning on my bruised fist. My head pulses in pain with every heartbeat. My vision is obscured by pointless tears while I tremble even though I’m warm. The pit in my stomach burns through my chest as regret mixes with countless other nameless feelings.

But what can I do? There is no turning back time and undoing my mistakes—because they were mistakes right? Where does that leave me now? Can I really turn everything around and just pretend everything till now has been a bad dream?

Of course not. If I did, then it wouldn’t truly be me anymore.

“That still doesn’t answer what I should do,” I hoarsely whisper as I collapse onto my back, staring through the ceiling. “If there even is anywhere to go.”

I’m so lost. Is this why some people try to make actual human connections?

No matter what I say or think, no one replies. What else would I expect? The room is large, but I can’t help feeling claustrophobic within myself. More bitter thoughts enter and leave my awareness as I stare listlessly at the ceiling for a time more in silence.

My head hurts, and I feel sick, but I don’t care at this point. I don’t really know how much time has passed, but it doesn’t matter. I stumble to my bedroom and collapse onto the bed still dressed in my casual T-shirt and cargo shorts. I guess I’ll think about it more later. I close my eyes, waiting for sleep to eventually take me.

***

Something shifts, and I open my eyes. Awash in deep purple light, I find myself in an unfamiliar location. Instinctual panic at the unknown threatens to overwhelm me, but I keep hold of it. Immediately focusing, I take in as much information as I can. The room looks like a fancy study of an old-fashioned castle. The space is large yet cozy, being roughly ten meters in both height and width. Bookcases full of organized books line the walls, below me creaks an old wooden flooring. On the far side of the room from where I stand is a large fireplace crackling with earthly warmth. In the center of the room, a plush chair with royal purple cushions and a golden frame resides elegantly like a throne fit for a king—or queen.

Sitting on the throne, and clearly the main focus of the room, is a lady studying me with sharp eyes as if I was a fascinating experiment. She looks to be roughly around thirty years old, judging by her face and matured look of her body. Silky dark purple hair—too perfect for a normal person to feasibly have—hangs to below her waist. Irises of the same royal purple gleam with supernatural life. On her face and through her body, she has gleaming, smooth skin that radiates perfect health. Her expression is a self-assured smile that can’t help but look domineering with her arched eyebrows. Arms on either side of her and legs crossed one over the other demonstrate a picture of pure confidence. A simple short-sleeved dress modestly drapes around her delicate frame, leaving her arms and lower legs partially uncovered.

She clearly is comfortable in this situation, compared to me who is one hundred percent ignorant. Meaning that I need to gain information quickly. The thought that this might be a dream or something similar occurs to me, but the sensations are far too tangible. The colors are too saturated, the smell of pine coming from the fireplace permeates my nose. My clothes weigh me down, pressing my bare feet into the warm, wooden floor. I don’t want to jump to conclusions, but I see no traditional logic that could bring me to this place without waking me in the process. The most likely conclusion: I am experiencing the unknown.

Thrilling. I have to actually put effort into containing my smile.

The woman seems to be waiting for me to gather my bearings. So, I’ll take the initiative and ask a basic question to judge her response, assuming we can even communicate.

“Who are you and where are we?” I force my voice to be level and controlled.

The woman smiles before replying confidently, but not arrogantly, “I am the Goddess of Power. That’s what I am and who I am. Right now, we are in a space I created for my own comfort.”

Direct... I like it. At very least she seems convinced that what she’s saying is true, based on her expressions. Not giving her a chance to take control of the conversation, I continue asking questions while also giving me time to process my situation. “How did you get me here, and how did you ‘create’ this space?”

She frowns slightly at being pushed for answers. “Teleportation obviously. As for the creation, like this.” She reaches out to her side as a glowing royal purple double-edged sword materializes in her hand from nowhere.

From such an obvious display of supernatural power, something inside me lurches with longing. She doesn’t seem to be threatening me with her weapon at least, which is nice.

In lack of my response, she continues in what sounds remarkably like a practiced sales pitch.

“You must be wondering why I brought you here, aren’t you? I am here to bring you an offer. If you accept it now, I can give you more power than you could dream of having in your world. You can have anything: money, fame, women,” she says in what is probably a half-hearted attempt at a seductive smile. “Are you interested?”

Am I interested in what she has to offer? Absolutely. Do I want it for the reasons she stated? Not at all. If she put down an ultimatum right now, I would accept almost regardless of what it cost. The desire burning within me for something beyond what I understand is more than I can bear to contain. Besides, am I even leaving anything behind? Either way, for the sake of best possible negotiations, I need to act as if I’m not interested.

“None of those things particularly interest me to be honest.” I pace to a bookshelf and study the writing more closely. It isn’t in a language I can identify. “I am, however, very interested in what you get out of this.” Knowing what the other party wants is key in negotiations.

She leans back in her throne, sighing as she idly toys with the sword in her palm. “I never was good at being deceptive, so I’ll be blunt. I need your help.”

That was surprisingly easy. “With what? And specifically mine?”

She tilts her head and smiles. “Asking questions to gain better control of a situation. I like it.” She sighs once more before changing to a serious tone. “It’s a bit embarrassing to say, but I was defeated by my sister, the Goddess of Justice, around sixty years ago in our war. I’ll spare you the details, but I lost everything: my country, my people, my angels, my trust in others...” She trails off, wincing as if recalling a bitter memory. “Regardless, I searched and eventually found a method for gaining a theoretical infinite amount of power. I doubt you would have prerequisite knowledge to appreciate the details, but I’m honestly quite proud that I managed to find it. It involves using a medium from a different dimension to escape our internal rules of balancing stored energy.”

It would be nice to hear the full details for the sake of gaining better information, but for now, they aren’t as important. What matters is being sure beyond any shadow of a doubt that she’s being honest in what she’s saying. And so far, either she’s telling the truth or is ridiculously skilled at deception. Well for that matter, this whole situation is illogical by traditional standards. So, who knows if she can cast an illusion or some sort of magic and throw everything off? But it’s counterproductive to think in that way, so I’ll do as I would in any similar scenario and look for gaps in her words.

Continuing, she answers my second question. “I have nothing to gain from hiding the fact that you are the third person I’ve offered this to. The first person was also from your world and said something about metal and that he couldn’t go anywhere because he had to protect his ‘gear’. The second was some telepathic girl, who wouldn’t even let me finish a sentence before forcing me out. How rude.”

“Why choose me or them in the first place?” It’s not all too necessary to know, but my pride pushes me to ask regardless. Besides, it sounds like I have the option to walk away, meaning I have considerably more leverage than I thought.

“Naturally, since it needed to be a person from another world, I would try and find one that would be most powerful in mine. It’s not exactly common knowledge, but I’ve found that skills of mental speed, visualization, focus, and creativity are what contribute most to capability.”

The first three I can understand applying to me; they are key to learning at the highest optimal rate. But creativity? I’m probably the least creative person in existence. Why should I ever bother with anything that doesn’t guarantee a concrete result. I don’t reply, allowing her to continue.

She shifts into a more comfortable position while speaking in a wearier voice. “I don’t want to admit it, but I would be in quite a bad situation if you declined. I only have enough energy for one more person after this. And the technique I used for interdimensional travel was, in itself, a gamble. The only method I could find to travel without having a beacon at the destination was to destroy my physical body, leaving me right now as a mental projection.”

I stare her directly in the eye. She really is bad at negotiating. She gave the key piece of the puzzle to understanding her intentions: desperation. She’s throwing everything away for one last chance at her goals. I can respect that. Everything she is describing paints an outline for a world where people can be immortal, and where it is typical to casually wield the supernatural— a world I formerly could only dream of. Regardless, there is still a sliver of uncertainty that this could all be a deception. Naturally, risk with reward.

“You still haven’t said what you want from me.”

She regains her smile and matches my gaze. “What I want from you is to help me, once and for all, defeat my sister. I will need to tag along with your body for a bit due to me being in my current state. In return, I will give you my power.”

She tosses the sword in her palm lazily toward me. I pluck it from the air, bringing it in front of me. It’s light but otherwise has the strange sensation of having no other physical properties.

I genuinely smile as I feel true anticipation/excitement for the first time in my recent memory. If you were offering something like this, you should have just said it from the beginning.

She continues. “It’s somewhat complicated to explain, but essentially—”

“I accept.”

Her eyes widen in surprise.

“We will have plenty of time to go over the details later, right? I accept your terms as you stated. All you want is for me to help you get revenge on your sister, right?

“Not revenge exactly, I got over that long ago. More like…” She pauses before hopping to her feet gracefully. “Well, either way, we need to make ‘physical’ contact so that I can return both of us to my beacon—although technically none of this is physical.”

I steadily walk towards her, my bare feet padding on the floor. “Oh, if not revenge, then what?”

She approaches me at the same pace. “Hmm, I’m not quite sure exactly. Does the reason why matter?”

Standing in the center of the room together, I can now see that we are the same height. A faint scent of flowers emanates from her. “I guess we’ll find out when we get there, won’t we?”

Her hand makes gentle contact with mine as purple light fills the room, fading the walls out of existence. “It’s a bit premature to ask, but why did you accept so quickly?”

Voices become distorted along with vision as the room completely disappears. “If only my life is on the line, then I don’t have much to lose. So why not?”

Royal purple energy completely washes over me as my consciousness fades to black.