Divine Mission

“Why am I here? Am I dead?” Mia asked next, hoping she wasn’t being too demanding of the literal goddess in front of her. She’d never been terribly religious—more accurately, her life had been so focused on fencing for so long that she’d had no time for anything else—so she had no clue what the proper behavior would be in the presence of a god. Her first instinct was to be respectful, of course, but she couldn’t help but ask some questions under the circumstances. More than that, her sheer bewilderment at her present situation prevented her from thinking all that clearly.

“I brought you before me to request your aid,” the goddess answered. She gestured to the world above. “This world is called Twai. My sister, the Goddess of the Sun, and I are responsible for guiding it. You are to effect a change which we have spent centuries attempting to complete, but have been unable to accomplish through more subtle means.”

“…why me? What could I do that a goddess couldn’t?” Mia questioned. Inside, she wanted to ask a number of more pointed questions. For one, by what right had this goddess brought her here at all? And what of her previous life? Was she meant to just forget all of it in the name of this divine mission she’d never asked for?

But when she so much as considered asking those questions, something froze her in place. For a split second she felt convinced she’d seen eyes on the goddess’s previously featureless face…and they’d been as dark and empty as a new moon. That quickly convinced Mia that while the goddess would allow her to ask questions, those questions were to be limited to clarification and nothing more. Directly challenging the goddess’s will would not be permitted.

“Much. For while we are capable of whispering into the ears of our believers, my sister and I may not interfere directly with the living. You, however, are not of our world. In exchange for a favor, I received permission to select one person with the traits I required and bring them before me. In the moment of your passage between your world and ours, I may grant you my boons, and by this means, create a champion more capable than any mortal,” the Moon Goddess explained.

“Boons…?”

With a wave of her hand, Mia’s rapier appeared in the goddess’s hand. Only at that moment did Mia recall that she’d still had it in hand. As the Goddess of the Moon ran her fingers over the blade it rippled and transformed. A pattern blossomed across the blade, which began to glow with a soft inner light. The swept hilt gained a soft gold hue Mia had occasionally seen when looking up at Earth’s moon, while the blade more resembled the same body’s typical silver. Once her fingers reached the tip of the rapier, she offered it back to Mia, who accepted it with both hands.

“The first of my boons is a blade which shall never shatter nor fail to cut. I name it Thuận Thiên—a name from your world’s legends I find most fitting, though its abilities match not. Two others, you will learn of in due course. I have not the time to explain them,” the goddess stated.

“No time…? But, you’re a goddess. You must—” Mia shivered as a chill ran down her spine, telling her she’d just come entirely too close to questioning the goddess directly. Swallowing, she rephrased the query in her head. “Isn’t there some way you could at least tell me what you want me to do?”

“Centuries have passed ere I could convince my sister direct intervention was needed. Only now that her grand plan has failed has she seen the wisdom in my counsel. Yet, should we dally too long, the spark we require will pass us by, and another will not arrive for many decades to come,” the goddess replied cryptically instead of answering Mia’s question.

“I don’t understand,” Mia admitted instead of pushing. Her instincts told her that demanding more information would be the wrong move. Still, she would have liked to point out that in the time it had taken the goddess to say all that, she probably could have just answered the question Mia had actually asked. Unless she really couldn’t, and it would have taken a lot longer to explain in enough detail to make sense.

“You will, in time. I believe allowing you to reach your own conclusions will bestow upon you more powerful motivations than would passing down a command,” said the Goddess of the Moon. When Mia blinked next, she found the goddess directly in front of her, one hand outstretched and a single finger upon Mia’s forehead. “Go, now, my champion. May your will be mine own.”

With that, the goddess pushed. It was the lightest of touches, and yet the heaviest of impulses. Mia’s body froze as she toppled over, falling rigidly towards the lunar soil. Instead of crashing into the ground, however, Mia passed through it like the surface of a lake. She briefly perceived the lunar terrain rippling like water as she sank through it, but most of her attention went to the Goddess of the Moon, whose gaze seemed to pierce straight through to Mia’s soul in that instant.

This time, Mia didn’t even have time to blink before she found herself somewhere else. The transition had been so abrupt as to make her question if she’d imagined the entire encounter with the goddess. For a moment she considered the possibility that she’d just suffered a psychotic break of some sort as a result of all the pressure of the national tournament. Only for a moment, though. Because the place she found herself in wasn’t the hallway of a modern gymnasium or the streets of a 21st century city.

She felt fairly certain that modern-day Earth didn’t have scaled horses.