As I floated I could still feel my connection to all the nanites I had everywhere then laser-focused on the initial connection I’d made to my original nanites; Those nanites were in stasis at the moment I stepped through the portal at Nu Draconis to Apolyn’s Abode way back when I started this escapade. How had I known that? Wasn’t the Universe I’d been in the one I’d started in? At that moment my Cosmic Interface popped up with a red warning

Warning: A Copper rank soul has been detected in ERROR. Awakened Souls are not compatible within this subspacial region of the currently known reality. Prepare for immediate trans-location to Eternity

Prepare for immediate translocation to Reality? What the hell does that mea…

As I was questioning what the warning was trying to tell me I was once again cut off from all of my nanites and felt the void of my soul-space wobble and shutter and then cease. As I was about to wonder what happened next the feeling that I had when I fell into my soul space was reversed and I found myself standing naked in a small white room. Directly in front of me was a chair, a table, and another chair opposite with a young human woman looking at me.

I could not feel my connection to my nanites and as I thought this I tried to open my personal interface to discover it was not active.

“Hello Adam, my name is Janice. For the purposes of this interview, you can think of me as your champion. It is my purpose to welcome, inform and prepare you for what comes next. First things first though, would you like to remain naked, or would you like to have some clothes to cover yourself? “

“Clothes would be nice,” I said. Immediately I was covered with a pair of sweats and a T-Shirt. As I looked down to see what I was covered in I noticed the words “This guy Rocks!” printed in Purple on the front. I quickly looked up as Janice who had covered her mouth to keep from smiling. I lifted my right hand and pointed at the words as I looked at Janice questioningly.

Janice coughed to clear the laugh out of her throat as she said, “It would seem that one of our Administrators has taken a liking to you.”

“Any Idea who I have to thank for this?” I asked sardonically while pointing at the words on my chest.

Janice laughed, “Of course, but right now we have more important things to discuss.”

I nodded and looked around the blank white room, “This somehow looks familiar. Where exactly am I?” I asked.

“Welcome to Eternity,” she said with a lot of enthusiasm as I stared at her blankly. Janice centered herself, smiled, and continued, “I see, you don’t know what that means. Eternity is the focal point of all realities. Every being that has existed, will exist, or could exist will at some point pass through Eternity.”

“I get that it’s an important place what I would like to know is why I’m here. I assume that I passed through The Eye while I was in my soul space and that once I arrived here I was pulled out of my soul space.”

Janice looked on with some surprise, “You know what a Soul Space is?”

“Yes,” I said

“And you were in it?”

“Yes again”

Janice’s eyes glazed for a moment as she pulled up something and looked at it in her personal interface. Her eyes darted back and forth as she continued to take in whatever she was reading until her eyes refocused and she looked directly at me. Taking a deep breath she began, “It would seem that you are quite a remarkable person Adam. Because of that, and your Soul Ability Pansophical you get a more thorough briefing than most entities visiting Eternity for the first time.”

“That sounds like a good thing,” I said.

“Yes and no,” Janice said. After a pause, she continued, “It is a good thing because the information will prepare you for the future. Not so good, because it will take longer. Before we get started do you have any questions?” she said as if testing me.

I thought about it for a moment then asked, “Yes, what is Eternity?”

“Knowing to ask that specific question is the reason you will be receiving a more thorough briefing,” Janice said with a smile. “Eternity is the focal point of all Realities, past, present, and future. I want you to think of the idea of a Big Bang. Your theories state that everything came from a point smaller than the nucleus of an atom and exploded outwards. In all the realities everywhere Eternity is that starting point.”

“How big is Eternity?” I asked.

“Infinite,” she said with a grin.

“So Eternity is the center of everything. The dot at the center of a circle and that dot is infinite in size?” I asked questioningly.

“Your analogy is a good one except that the dot of infinity is in the middle of an infinite realm that has no borders”

“How is that possible?” I asked

“No one can answer that. Beings fare older than I have been asking that question and will ask that question for a long time to come”

“Why did you say it that way?”

“Besides being at the physical center of everything, Eternity is also connected to all times”

My mind tried to hold onto that idea for a second and started going through the various theories I had concerning time and space. I had to physically stop myself as the computations started taking over my thought processes as they went down infinite alternate paths that did not seem to be moving towards any solution. “So time is not linear then?” I asked instead.

“Yes and no. For you, and a very high percentage of all beings everywhere, say 99.9 to infinity percent, time is linear but for a very few, all points of time are accessible in eternity.”

“Does the ability to alter time still exist either through technological or magical means here?” I asked.

“Yes, but such modifications to the time streams in the various realities and dimensions do not affect the souls that have made it to Eternity”

“Excuse me?” I said, the first hint of confusion plain across my face.

“One a soul has left the Guf, the birthplace of souls, nothing anyone does, at least as far as we know, can change that soul.”

“So there is are Grandfather Paradox here?” I asked.

“Yes and no. As you will soon find out after you enter any of the infinite new realities. There will be realities to which you may be born. Realities into which you may just appear. Some will have the Heads Up type display that you are fond of. Others will not. There are universes with magic that do not have Personal Interfaces and there are realities without the magic that do have Personal Interfaces. The Guf is special in that it followed some of the very first laws that any being, anywhere ever discovered.”

“What of my soul abilities?” I asked.

“Soul abilities are inherent to the soul, they will be accessible everywhere.”

“Then how will the Grandfather Paradox be able to both affect and not affect me?”

“That’s a little bit ahead of the topics I wished to cover but I’ll see if I can’t give you the short version. You understand what a fuse is, yes?” she asked.

“Yes, a fuse blows when too much energy goes through it.”

“Yes, well a Soul is transcendent, it exists throughout time and any space, again as far as anyone has been able to determine. When a soul or the being controls the soul, depending on how you look at it. When the soul decides it wishes to enter a reality a projection of the soul forms within that reality following the rules that exist there. The theologians of your original planet theorized that the soul came into being when it was attached to a recently fertilized ovum. That is only half true. Outside of the Guf, when an egg has been fertilized a soul can be incorporated into that creature. Though this is not always true. There are more creatures throughout reality than there are souls to inhabit them. And while new souls have once again been coming out of the Guf there was a pause in their creation for a bit which you rectified.”

“Wait, there are creatures that may or may not have souls in the various realities that exist outside the Guf?”

“Yes. The Guf was created to ensure that there was one reality with the single purpose to create souls. Some entities in the Guf created souls and make their way to The Eye and once through end up here. In all other realities, Souls can randomly manifest but there is no Eye to guide them,” She said

“This is all kind of confusing, and doesn’t make much sense,” I said

“I did say we were jumping ahead didn’t I? ”

“Yes”

“Okay then let’s back this conversation back up and see if we can help you make sense of it all. If the projection is destroyed, either through normal death within the reality or by being wiped out by someone tampering with time, that action has no effect on the soul that created that projection that will remember everything that happened. That is why someone traveling into the past can both affect and not affect you. Now that I’ve answered that question, let’s get back on track. Welcome to eternity. You have just left the Guf, the place you were before you appeared here. Depending on your accomplishments and your Karmic Luck the next phase of your existence will begin. If your Karmic Luck is negative or positive does not matter beyond the fact that the numeric value helps determine the reality that you are destined for. The degree to which Karmic Luck is positive or negative does. The farther negative or positive you are the more choices become available to you. If you are not given a choice your soul will automatically be transferred to a reality that fits your Karmic Luck and your soul will await rebirth. There are many avenues to growth but know that this process will continue until your soul has grown sufficiently. While you will remember your time in this room when you come back here, while you are within another reality you may forget this room and everything that has come before this point. Good Luck.” Janice said.

“Is that it?” I asked.

“If you were a new soul that had just died, past through the Eye, and was sitting before me, yep that would be it. You, however, are not that person. You get the 2nd speech, which normally takes souls a few lifetimes worth of experiences to get,” She said then paused for a few seconds. “Okay, here we go; Congratulations! Your soul has undergone a fundamental transformation and become a nascent soul. Some souls form and fade away. Others learn from their experiences and continue to improve. At a fundamental level, you have decided that you will not fade away and that you believe your soul to be immortal. In this you are correct. You will continue to go back into various realities based on your Karmic Luck until such time as your nascent soul has grown in scale and ability. While you will remember your time in this room and even your previous lives when you come back here, while you are within another reality you may forget this room and everything that has come before this point. Good Luck.”

“So people can’t remember their previous lives and everything they’ve done once they are reborn?” I asked.

“In most cases yes. It prevents a bunch of problems from arising. Beings such as yourself will remember everything but you will not be able to utter a single fact through speech, thought, or writing about your experiences. No one knows who created the Geas that keep individuals from talking about what happens outside the reality they’re in. The only place you can talk about or discuss such matters is here in Eternity.”

So your saying…

Janice interrupted me, “I’ll get to that. There is a third premade speech I must give you and then a speech that has been crafted specifically for you. Let me get through these and then I’ll answer your questions,” she said pausing for a moment. I nodded and she continued. “Congratulations, you your soul has increased in rank to Copper. There are multiple levels of soul power. Copper is the lowest ranking for Souls that have created their own Soul Space.”

I interrupted Janice, “And let me guess souls increase in rank based on activities that either increase Karmic Luck or some new category of experience.

“Exactly. However, I need to finish so you understand how this works, “Prior to entering a reality without a soul space souls are extremely limited on how to improve their Soul rank. Normally it would take acts that increased Karmic Luck, the Karmic Luck being converted to Soul Experience. Soul Experience on the other hand is naturally earned at a rate of one Soul Experience per experience earned while in a reality, either by projection or when they did not have a soul space by themselves in that reality. Experience and Karmic Luck earned in the Guf and any realities do count towards this ranking, once a soul creates a Soul Space.”

“I’m getting a feeling that there is more to these Soul Spaces than your letting on,” I said.

“The analyst was right. You figure things out at an intuitive level. Eventually, a soul space will grow to such a size that the soul can open it up for exploration. Eventually, a soul space can become a reality in its own right. These realities can be visited by other souls who project themselves within the reality.”

“Why would anyone do that?” I asked, then paused as I thought about it for a minute. Janice waited patiently until I said, “The Soul of the Soul Space gets experience for those that earn experience within them?”

“Yes,” Janice said.

“I take it there is a reason souls want to continue getting soul experience and increasing in rank?” I asked.

“Yes, there are benefits to the various levels of the Soul. At Copper rank, you are allowed to choose two abilities for your projection. Doing so costs a temporary expenditure of Karmic Luck, which is returned once your time in that reality is completed.”

“But I get to keep my Soul Abilities?”

“Soul Abilities exist within the soul and while they can affect a Projection, they cannot be detected by anyone or anything unless you are in Eternity. Some Soul Abilities will only be useable here. Others will be available by yourself or the projections that you have in reality.

“Can I have multiple projections?”

“Yes, though that requires a specific Soul Ability and a minimum rank of Bronze, which is one up from Copper.”

“I know I cut you off and I’m betting that the last announcement is a doozy based on what I know about my Karmic Luck, “I said.”

“Not a very hard deduction on your part. Yes, the fourth announcement is as follows; Congratulations you have earned ERROR Karmic Luck. This feat has never been accomplished by another entity in the time of Eternities existence. Your first projection will be as Copper ranked soul to familiarize yourself with the process. You will not be able to spend your Karmic Luck on anything save Personal Abilities. Because this limitation is being artificially imposed you will be able to choose a third ability of your choice after the nature of the reality you’re going to is revealed before you project into it. If you have any questions please ask.”

“So I’m locked out of using the Karmic Luck I’ve accrued.”

“I was told to tell you that during your next lifetime the Administrators and Analysts will be working on what to do about your specific case.”

“Exactly how much Karmic Luck do I have?” I asked.

“They haven’t been able to figure that out, even at the upstream point in Eternity, we asked. The problem is that the actions you took restored souls that would have otherwise been lost and are continuing to produce souls. If you’d performed the same actions in any reality save the Guf you would not have received as much soul experience and Karmic Luck as you have. The souls, for the most part, that you’d have affected already exist outside the Guf. Also, through your actions, a lot of Gods, Divine, whatever they called themselves in your Universe became self-aware and immediately came here and are already living their new lives out in the various realities.

“Wait a minute! The Labyrinth, the Labyrinth is a Soul Space isn’t it?”

“Laby,” Oh yeah she’s been around for a really long time.

“Why don’t the owners of the Soul Space’s tell those within what’s going on?”

“That’s easy, I thought you’d have figured it out by now. Any soul that is helped by the owner of that reality loses all claim so the Soul Experience gained within it. The trial and tribulations each soul must go through earn the experience and that experience cannot be earned if the soul knows the outcome.

“So what you’re saying is that whoever’s soul owns the Guf, they just made a huge crap ton of soul experience based on my life?

“Now you’re getting,” Janice said.