The (Not) Goddess Who Explains Everything... Almost

That night, I passed out almost immediately as soon as my head hit the pillow. It was an exhaustive day, and I was thankful to have somewhat of a warm bed to sleep in. The poor excuse for a mattress wasn't exactly "Tempur-Pedic" quality, but it beat sleeping on the dirt.

You can never tell how much time passes between when you drift off into sleep and your first dream begins. It seemed this time it was instantaneous, with the last fleeting ounce of consciousness I had of my body slipping away, only for it to immediately return with my eyes wide open.

My bed was gone, along with the room I was in. I was outside with the sky clear as… well, not day, because it was night now. The stars shimmered brightly with clouds of nebulae far off in the distant, giving the dark backdrop a vibrant color. The horizon was nowhere in sight either, with the starry night continuing below my feet. I was floating in space.

"Greetings, Damien of Earth," a woman's voice said softly.

Despite the warm and welcoming greeting, the sudden presence of someone else in the infinite space jumpscared me beyond belief. I turned around and found a young woman floating next to me.

She had beautiful, long black hair and bright white robes with gold metal accents, which reminded me of ancient Greek attire. The robes themselves fluctuated in slow motion like waves.

The most striking feature of this woman was her eyes. Only her eyes were not visible, but mysteriously blocked by a glowing yellow halo, making it hard to tell how young she was. Based on every other feature of her face, she looked only a few years older than I am.

I was almost afraid, for I couldn't tell her intentions, but I did get the feeling that she was a powerful being.  It felt like she was holding a weapon at me, but it was clear that she was unarmed. She had nothing but her halo mask and the clothes on her back. 

Something about her presence also felt oddly familiar, as if I had met her before. Of course, I had no clue who she was, but she was giving me major deja vu. If I had met a beautifully masked angel, I'd remember. Giving in to the growing tension, I blurted out a greeting to break the silence, "Hello… ma'am. Am I-"

"Dreaming? No, this is real, I can assure you. As you might've speculated by now, I am the one who summoned you here to this world," she said.

"That was you? Some 'summoning' that was. You killed me."

"Do forgive me for my methods. It took quite a lot of power from me to bring you here."

"So, who- what are you? An angel? A god… -ess?"

"No. I was once mortal, like you, long ago. Now I don't know what I am. This sanctuary between the stars has been my home for ages. With all that time, I have searched endlessly across worlds to find a disciple to save my world, which brings us to this fateful moment, son of man. I am Lymelia. That is my name."

"Okay, Lymelia. Um- you said I'm here because you need help saving the world?"

"That is correct. The world you now reside in is soon to be in great peril. I have brought you here to help me prevent its self-destruction," Lymelia answered.

"So does that make me a chosen hero?" I asked with brewing excitement.

"Um-"

"Is there a demon lord I have to vanquish? Oh! Do I get an awesome sword with magical abilities that-"

"There won't be any of that. Sorry to 'burst your bubble', but you won't be doing any vanquishing or entering any great fight for the fate of the world."

"Really?... Because I'd be totally down to do it."

"I commend your enthusiasm, but what I ask of you is much simpler and just up your alley."

"Okay, so what am I expected to do here in this new world?"

The woman elegantly floated behind and around me. Like a predator sizing up its prey, only no malice emanated from her.

"I've had my eye on you for some time, Damien of Earth. It's odd, knowing someone for so long and just now meeting them face to face," Lymelia said.

"You've been stalking me," I said warrily.

"Observing. And I have heard your cries of suffering and heartache."

"If you're referring to my breakdown on the mountain, you caught me at a low point. I normally don't yell things out when I'm alone."

"I refer to your struggles with the hardships of love and your persistence through loss after loss. All to be the one you would call 'true love.' Your tenacity is quite admirable, despite your consistent failures."

"Ouch," I said. I was getting read like a book, only it felt more shameful than hearing incriminating testimonies read back in court. It's not like I tried settling down after a first date. I'm just in a hurry to meet my wife. 

Could you blame me?

"There is no blame to be cast," Lymelia said.

What? Can she read my thoughts?

Lymelia continued casually, "It's only natural for humans to seek out social interaction. But your life has certainly been lacking in companionship... Truly peculiar. I've never seen someone quite as unfortunate when it comes to seeking a mate, let alone making friends-"

"Alright, I get it. My life sucked in the girlfriend department. But I tried, okay? It was just bad timing, and at other times, there was no chemistry, or moving away to another country. Or one time it was grandma's dying, so they needed time to grieve."

"You refer to your relationship with a 'Jessica,' truth be told, she was lying to you."

"Really? Man, I knew it!" I yelled.

"No, you didn't," Lymelia said, pointing out my ignorance.

"Shit, well, I guess I can't read people after all."

"I'm afraid to say that you were just... incompatible. In every single one of your failed relationships. All of them."

There was no harsher critic than the inner self, but that comment struck a nerve like nothing else before. "Okay, look, I'm not the best person in the world. I have my faults, and who doesn't? But I wasn't the worst or anything- there were far crummier guys than me getting girls. Grade-A jerk-holes… sorry for the language."

"You misunderstand," Lymelia said, "Your incompatibility was not due to your personality or aptitude in love."

"What are you saying then?" I asked.

"Fate is quite the complicated construct, but it can be observed and predicted. You, along with every other conscious being, have a set destiny in place. But it is not as straightforward as a road. It constantly splits off to form more paths as life goes. Take a tree, for example. From the beginning, there's the trunk, and then it splits off into multiple large branches. Then those large branches split away with smaller branches of their own. Every life gets one tree, but that life only lives on one path. One of the many paths from the bottom to the top."

"So this means that we have no control over our fate. It's all been decided for us," I said.

"Yes and no. Everyone is given a choice to live out as they please, but the way the universe works, there is a finite number within the 'infinity' of possibilities to choose from," Lymelia said.

"I think I'm nauseous," I groaned.

"It may be hard to grasp, but I'll explain why in a moment."

"No- I mean, I get it. It's like a choose-your-own-adventure story but more complex. Everything is all written out, and all there is to do is to walk a certain path."

"That's one way to put it, only you can't see where you're headed. We all walk our destiny blindly. For mortals that is."

"That's life, alright. And how many of these branches are there to choose from? How many possible paths?"

"It depends on the person. It ranges from the thousands to the millions."

Lymelia then straightened her shoulders and cleared her throat- preparing to say something serious by the looks of it. "All that being said… with your paths on Earth, I'm afraid that there is no version of you in your former life that ever finds a romantic partner fitting of being 'the one'. There are many instances where you do enter serious relationships, but they never last and always end in heartbreak. In some versions, you even marry, but those fail as well."

"So what you're saying is that no matter what I could have done, I always ended up alone? There's no version of my destiny where I find 'the one'?"

Lymelia nodded, equally upset and uncomfortable.

"Why?" I asked.

"Bad luck is all," she said.

"Bad luck? Out of the thousands and possibly millions of decisions of paths that I take in life, none of them end with a happy relationship. I end up alone in every single one of them?"

"Yes."

If there was a floor I could crumple down to, I would, but I floated there in space pathetically, now realizing my worst fears had come to life. I was meant for desolation, and that's it. My pursuit of happiness was a fool's errand with no goalpost in sight. The whole game was rigged from the start.

"Why am I here then?" I muttered, "Am I to expect what you did was an act of grace? To spare me from my lonely reality on Earth?"

"I am here to offer you a second chance," Lymelia said. She moved in front of me and brushed the tears that were beginning to fall from my eyes. Her soft hands caressed my cheek. This small embrace felt motherly and pleasant. "There is hope for you yet, Damien."

"You said it yourself. Everything's already determined, and in none of the paths do I end up with true love," I said, pulling my face away from her hands. "What second chance could I have? All I want is to find her! I may not know her, and I don't know what she looks like, but I want to believe that there's a person who'll love me for who I am. I guess that's too much to ask of the universe- especially when she doesn't exist. What life can I have alone? Unless that changes, you can just send me back."

"I can't send you back. But as I said. There is hope for you here in this new world," Lymelia said reassuringly.

"How? Can anything be changed about my destiny? Like, can a new branch grow or something?"

"Unlikely, a tree is always formed and predetermined once born into the world. Only outside forces beyond the lived-in world can change one's 'tree of destiny.'"

"Like you did," I said, slowly on the cusp of a revelation.

Lymelia smiled in agreement. "In your case, you were brought into a world, not born. And for you, a new branch didn't just grow, but a whole new tree did. Once you were summoned to this world, you were given a new destiny tree, separate from the one on Earth. A new tree of possibilities."

Now this sounded promising. The promise of a new destiny immediately uplifted my mood. A destiny where I can achieve my dreams. Sure, it was a bummer to know that our lives were all written out already, with some leeway for free will, but I was given a whole new board to play with, like a new campaign from D&D.

"Your soulmate may not have been on Earth. But they are in this world," Lymelia said.

"My soulmate…" I said.

"She is here, and as I can foresee, there is a destiny path that leads to her."

"Who is she?"

"The princess of the Apsolade Kingdom."

"A princess? Wow. Um… is she hot?" I asked.

The goddess, once again, whose halo blocks out her eyes, stared at me silently while tilting her head in judgment. Her masked face could be easily translated to 'Really?'.'

"Sorry. Right. She's my soulmate, so it won't matter. I'll assume she's hot, which she probably is, but I'm not vain or materialistic at all. She can be a jester in court for all I care. Ahem- so where is she?"

"The princess, your soulmate, resides in the capital of Apsolade, and that is where you must go."

"So where does the saving the world part come in?" I recalled.

"If you succeed, marrying the Princess will cause a chain of events that will ensure the world's survival. If things are to transpire without your interference, it will lead down a path of destruction. One that I cannot stop. My powers are limited and keep me bound to this very realm. That's why I need you," Lymelia sighed.

"Okay- marry the Princess equals saving the world. Sounds easy," I said. And for a moment, I wasn't thinking about the bad string of luck I've had in past relationships or how awkward I can be when interacting with women. "I'm curious, what will happen if I fail? What destruction does this world face?" I asked.

"I cannot reveal the specifics but…" Just then, Lymelia's trail of thought seemed to have halted. Something caught her attention. She eerily held her breath and looked behind her. I peered around her shoulder to see what it was she might have noticed, but nothing but the vacuum of space was behind us. All around us, for that matter, was nothing and silence.

"Is something wrong?" I asked.

"You have to go. I've run out of time," Lymelia said.

"Go? Why? What is it?"

"I'm only able to keep you here for a short while. We won't be able to see each other for some time, so you'll be on your own. Remember, find the Princess at the capital."

"Wait, I don't even know where the capital is! What's her name? Do I need to do anything or say anything to meet her?"

"The more I tell you of what to do, the more unlikely it'll happen. You'll be fine. Trust your heart and find your way," Lymelia said as she drifted away from me.

"Hold on! I never asked- why me of all people?" I called out.

"You must trust me. If you find the Princess at the capital, you will fall in love and finally have what it is you desire."

"What's her name?" I asked.

But it was too late. I fell suddenly, as if a trapdoor had given way, sending me into the blackness of the void. Gravity brought me down faster and faster until I could feel the wind return, deafening my ears with its droning sound and turbulence.

"Agh!" I gasped.

In a jolt, I sat up in my bed with cold sweat covering my face. The dark environment around me was no longer the starry space but the walls and the wardrobe of my room. I was back at the inn, and it was still nighttime.

My head fell back down with a deep sigh of relief from the fall. As surreal as that experience was, I was already over the constant teleportation and being flung through space, because I was not getting used to the sensation.

But a new emotion overtook my exhaustion, leaving me restless as a child the night before their birthday. With the information I had just been given, I know for a fact that there's someone out there who's meant to be my soulmate- a princess of all people. I couldn't wait to meet her, and I was equally excited to receive my first grand quest finally. 

First thing tomorrow, I head for the capital of the Apsolade Kingdom.