Chapter 1

I woke up with a very fuzzy feeling in my head, like my thoughts were stuck inside a thick, viscous fog. I was unable to focus on anything, the thoughts dashing from my grasp before I could latch onto one. It felt like an eternity before my mind began to clear and my memories came back into focus.

The last thing I remembered was walking home from a video game store a few blocks away from my house. A game that I had been waiting months for had finally been released - Pillars of Eternity - and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. I know, I am a gamer, and yes, I prefer making friends and companions in a game rather than real life. I admit I am not all that good with people; I believe the term is an introvert and I have no problem admitting that I am that to a ‘t’. After all, in video games, unlike in the real world, I’m extremely good at what I do. I prefer role playing games, or RPG games, the most. I can complete most RPG games to one hundred percent completion - without resorting to cheats - in a third of the time most people were able to. While I could be classified as a speed runner in how fast I can complete them, I don’t use exploits to skip parts of the game and I make sure to take in all the nuances. This newest game was supposed to have two hundred hours of gameplay with another fifty hours of side quests. It was a monumental feat, to be sure, as even Skyrim had only about a hundred hours, with another thirty hours of quests coming from expansions. It was also the first isometric RPG of this kind since the Baldur’s Gate games of the past. I was reading the manual as I made my way to my apartment which was above a convenience store and less than a block away. One minute I was going over the user interface section, then nothing but darkness.

Once my eyes focused my thoughts returned to my present situation, I took a look around me to see where I had regained consciousness. Much of the detail of the room was obscured in darkness; only a dim light illuminated the room from a fire in its center, the light of its weak embers illuminating only a few feet in all directions.

The fire was contained within a hearth (I think that is what it is called). It was made of some kind of stone, but the lack of light made it hard to determine. The hearth looked to stand five feet high, with a six-inch recess for the fire to sit in. I made my way to the hearth slowly, being careful not to bump into anything as I went. The lack of light was disconcerting, and I hoped that there would be wood near the base of the hearth, to help invigorate the fire. When I arrived, I looked and felt around the floor, but only felt the wooden planks of the room itself. As I stood up in front of the stone structure before me, a gust of wind filled the room and the fire burst with new life. Its light became just enough to illuminate the room, allowing me to see the interior and move freely without falling or injuring myself.

The walls were void of any pictures or trinkets that one would expect in a home and looked to be old wood panels with a weathered and worn look. The panels along the length of the room rose from floor to ceiling and each panel looked to be a few feet wide. I walked over to one wall and saw that the panels were secured to ribs by dark, iron rivets, a spattering of rust on each one. I moved along the wall, intrigued at the way it was made, running my hand along the surprisingly smooth wood. As I moved, I noticed that the wall had a slight curve to it, as did the one across from it. I looked at where they met, and I realized that the room had a unique oval shape to it. I gave the walls of the room a second look and I noticed that it reminded me of what the inside of a wooden boat would look like. My suspicions were confirmed when I looked up at shape of the roof and I decided that it was a Norse longboat made into a dwelling. Having a keen interest in the beliefs, life and technology of those people, I had gotten my hands on any information I could find.

I continued to look around the room, but I couldn’t see a door, nor did I see any windows. All the walls were solid and despite the aged look of the walls, quite sturdy. There seemed to be no way out of this room that I could find as I looked around more frantically for some chance of escape.

I began to get a sense of unease, as if I was being watched by someone that I couldn’t see. The hairs on the back of my neck felt like they had gone up, and goosebumps covered my skin. My fear ramped up a few more notches and I did my best to keep myself from freaking out.

I looked around the room again and felt surprise and fear. There was now someone standing before the hearth. I slowly made my way towards the hearth and began to see more features on the individual who I could now tell was a woman. I knew that she had not been standing there when I had initially been looking for a way out of the room only a few moments ago. As I moved to stand near her, I began to take notice of her unusual garb.

She was standing facing the fire, her hands over it, palms down, absorbing the warmth from the flames. The woman was dressed in a long dress made of what I believe was a type of cloth, perhaps linen. It was golden in colour, with a low-cut V-neck not typical of what she was wearing. A hood of the same material was over her face, masking much of her features with dark shadows. Only her jaw, as well as her lips, were illuminated enough to make out under the hood. From what I could tell as I got closer to the hearth, the dress went all the way to the ground, where it pooled at her feet. While the hood was of the same golden material as her dress, the cloak was different than any I had ever seen before. It seemed to be an intricate collection of what looked to be feathers, but I couldn’t make out the color or size due to the lack of ambient light. The cloak was long and flowing, leading from her shoulders to the floor, trailing about a foot behind her.

When I got a few feet from the hearth, I saw another two sets of eyes peeking out from behind her cloak, their irises glowing from the flickering light. I looked closer and saw that they were the eyes of two cats, both abnormally large for typical house cats. The coats of both cats were grey from head to tail and they had deep golden eyes, an unnerving intelligence behind them. They silently sat on her right, behind her long flowing cloak, the only movement was their tails swishing through the air.

Now, when I looked back at her, I could see the hood had been drawn back and now her eyes were on me. They looked soft and gentle, and yet they also seemed to bore into my very soul with an intensity I had never felt before - as though all of my thoughts, fantasies and dark secrets are laid bare to her knowing gaze. The power I sensed behind her eyes, frightened me and I felt the urge to run.

While these thoughts filled my mind, she continued to stare at me, as the awkward tension continued building in the silence between us. The only sound in the room was the flickering and popping of the fire; even the cats were silent. Slowly she returned her gaze to the hearth before her and the heavy and unnerving tension vanished as quickly as it had come. The fear, however, that didn’t go away and I stopped before reaching the hearth.

“Come closer, my child,” she said softly. Her voice had a slight, melodic ring to it as she spoke. “It is alright, you do not have to be afraid, we have much to discuss.”

She glanced over at me, a warm smile on her face that seemed genuine to me. As I looked into her eyes, the last of the tension dissipated, as a sense of ease washed over me. I slowly made my way to the hearth, my eyes never leaving her, as I moved to stand at the opposite side. As I got closer, I could see more of her features that had been hidden by the cloak. Her hair was golden, done in an intricate, braided ponytail. Golden ornaments adorned her hair as it framed her face and fell over her right shoulder down past her breast. Her face was young and reminded me of some of the women I had seen on a trip my family and I took to Europe when I was twelve. As I stood across from her, our eyes once again locked, and a small smile once again appeared on her face. This time, there was no unease or tension, just peace and calm radiating from her. Her eyes had a light hazel look to them, and I could swear that there was almost a faint glow emanating from them.

“Excuse me, ma’am,” I asked, using all the courage I could muster. “Where am I? How did I end up in this place? And who are you?”

Her smile grew wider, revealing pure white teeth, gently illuminated by the firelight. After a moment, her eyes returned to the hearth, and her posture changed. She stared silently at the flickering flames, her smile never faltering, before she looked up at me and answered.

“Three very good questions, my child,” her smile saddened a little, “To the first question, this place where we find ourselves currently is a crossroads of sorts. An in-between place that separates a person from many possible destinations. Here, one may be guided to a new life if the situation calls for it or sent to their final eternity. The destination tends to depend on many different factors and, from time to time, extenuating circumstances.” Her expression became even more somber. “Indeed, I am afraid that a certain situation has called for you to come here, to this place.”

I was sure that the look on my face was one of bewilderment at the first answer she had given. It was cryptic, vague and only generated more questions. The worst part was, it had been only the first question. I wondered what else I would learn from the other two questions as I tried to mask my shock.

“What do you mean that ‘this situation’ has called for it?!” I asked, the shock I tried to hide painfully clear in my voice. “What is it you are not telling me?!”

“To answer your second question,” she softly replied, without looking up from the flames. “I am sorry to tell you this, but you are no longer one of the living, though you have not crossed over yet. As you might recall, you were on your way home to your apartment, from picking up a new game from your favorite gaming store. While you were distracted reading the game manual, you did not see the large truck speeding towards you up a narrow alleyway. The driver had been trying to escape some police who were tailing him and had turned to look back at the cruisers chasing him when you walked into his path. He hit you square on at one hundred kilometers per hour, hitting you in your midsection, and then ran right over you. You hit your skull on the initial impact, but you were knocked unconscious, so you were not conscious for most of the injuries. You suffered multiple broken bones, lacerations and a few perforated organs from bones breaking and piercing them. You began to hemorrhage immediately and bled out before an ambulance could arrive at the scene.”

Her words shocked me to my very core and my legs gave out beneath me as the news of my death set in. I lashed out and grabbed the edge of the hearth to try and keep myself upright, and moderately succeeded.

I was dead! Hit by a truck while walking home. How cliché! It sounded like the beginning to a few of the anime shows I watched, as well as some movies. I was eighteen years old; I was far too young to die like this, when there was so much, I had not experienced yet. I hadn’t even gotten laid yet, or even kissed a girl, for that matter. This was total bullshit! Now this strange woman was telling me that I was dead, all because some stupid driver decided to evade some police and wasn’t looking. I felt my emotions get the best of me, knowing my death had been so meaningless and my grip gave out. I stumbled to my knees, my hand hitting the floor in an attempt to not fall completely to the ground. I felt numb, as though I was having trouble breathing and I just couldn’t understand why this was happening to me.

Unshed tears began to fill my eyes, as the reality of everything sank in, knowing I would never see my parents or sister again. I would never get to play video games or see my friends again, or to even have a chance at romance. I would miss being able to play video games, as it was one of the few pleasures I had, and I felt that this was becoming the worst day of my very short life.

As I sat there, wallowing in my own self-pity, I felt something soft brush against my right hand. Then the same sensation moved along my left hand and I looked down to find the two cats rubbing against me. I had no doubt that the two were trying to ease my pain and comfort me as only cats can do. The tears finally started to fall, as the cats continued rubbing their faces and bodies along my arms and hands. I felt a soft purr vibrating through their bodies. I petted the two cats as a thank you, though the action felt slightly hollow, even though I was feeling some ease from my pain.

“I am sorry, young one,” the woman uttered from beside me; pity and sadness filled her voice. “Losing the chance at a long, eventful life, with all its unique ups and downs, is a cruel and unjust thing to happen.”

I rose once again, using the edge of the hearth to brace myself and used my free hand to wipe the tears from my eyes and face. My legs still felt a bit shaky, as if they were unable to hold my weight, but I tried my best to ignore it. My stomach felt like I had been hit in the gut by a defensive linebacker and at any moment I would throw up. I was actually surprised that I had not thrown up already and it took most of my willpower to keep the nausea at bay.

“Now, to answer your final question, child,” she paused, and I felt anticipation and dread ramping up. “I am Freyja, or Freya as it is pronounced in this current era. I am Queen of the Vanir, proficient in the old magics and wife to Odin All Father. While you may know me as Frigg, the Edda’s were a bit blurred and I was assumed to be two different people. However, in the earliest times I was one an the same. However, over time and through the evolution of the various tribes, my identity was split to satisfy specific tales. I am what your kind would refer to as one of the gods of the Norse Pantheon. I am the one tasked with helping people with transition from the life they have left, to their next chosen existence. Whether to a final resting place or to another world in which to start over, depending on the circumstances of their life and their death.”

I had to give it to this woman, she didn’t flinch in the slightest as she revealed her name to me. First, she tells me that I died a meaningless death, then she hits me with the fact she is a Goddess of the Norse Pantheon. While I tried to believe that this was just a dream, I knew that this was anything but a dream. Could this day get any more messed up and unbelievable for me? If this is a crossroads, where the hell am, I going to end up when I am finished here? Why am I even talking to her? Shouldn’t she have just sent me to my next destination already?