“Let’s start with this, what do you know already?” Cicilia asked after they had both taken a seat and gotten themselves situated.

“Well, all this has actually been going pretty fast here. I’m still trying to process it all.” Daren said as he recalled everything God back on Earth had said along with what he’d just heard from that guy Mark. “So, yes, I got that whole degrading spirit thing. That was the first bombshell I was hit with. There’s also this whole bit about demons and angels of death.”

“You don’t have to worry about that part here.” Cicilia said. “The issues of the spiritual world are very different from one world or world cluster to another. You’d best just throw out everything about the spiritual world you learned about over on Earth. Including and especially the part where you can dream up whatever to warp the environment. That’s something unique to Earth as a result of the extreme concentration of spiritual energy over there. Spiritual energy has a factor in forming divinity and raising the strength of the soul. This is why you even have a chance at obtaining divinity in another world other than Earth, your soul has already been strengthened to such an extreme degree by Earth’s spiritual energy.”

“Ok.” Daren said. Great, more on his already very full plate.

“Sorry, I derailed you a bit there.” Cicilia said. “Go on.”

“Uhh… well, so, from there… something about cultivating sparks of divinity and that strange limiter device that Jehova guy said was supposed to keep me from going pop or something in my new body. It also had something to do with manifesting some superpower-like abilities.”

“Yes.” Cicilia said. “Reportedly, some of our oldest members who came here without that device had to be incarnated into very strong races in order to contain the power of their souls. This limited the kinds of assignments a new member could be given. It has been very helpful since he started sending people with those things. It automatically detects the power that the body you’ve been incarnated into can handle, and it restricts the growth of your spirit accordingly. Your spirit is responsible for carrying the power of your soul to your physical body.

“As for the whole powers thing, yes, I take it you chose this world cluster because you heard about the fact this area is responsible for most of the superhero comics that made it to Earth?”

“Yeah, I have already been told that those comics are just an interpretation of what really happened, and it’s also put through a filter through the artist’s mind that changes a lot of stuff. For instance, I assume there isn’t a litteral copy of New York out there with superheroes flying about.” Daren said and got a satisfied nod from Cicilia.

“So…” Daren continued “I don’t mean to sound eager or anything, but what was that whole bit I heard about sparks of divinity and manifesting as superpowers anyway? I think that if it’s related to how I’ll be living in this world then it might be important for me to know.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it Mr. Aldrech.” Cicilia said. “In fact, it is good for you to know this. The whole technical process is rather complicated, so we will have you on a world that is heavily populated by other members of the order. And, by heavily populated, I mean that there are more than ten of our members. Usually we can pull off most assignments with three or less. This will be a world that has been under our jurisdiction for a long period of time. Because of that, you don’t really need to know everything about it immediately. There will be others to teach you more as you take it in.

“For now though, what you need to know is that those ‘sparks of divinity,’ as Earth’s most prominent god calls them, are created from your most significant actions in your life. Some like to say that by feeding those sparks more relevant actions you are cultivating your divinity. You can generate new sparks any time you take a significant character-defining action in your life, but just because you create sparks dose not mean they will stay a part of you. The action will either need to be extremely significant or you will have to have repeated the same significant action several times. For instance…”

Cicilia trailed off and got a sudden look of realization in her eyes. “Well, actually, before I give you this example I have to apologize for something. I should have told you earlier, but I possess an ability that allows me to read the divinities that have settled onto a person’s soul. It’s kinda part of the reason I was given this position in the first place. So, I can see from yours that two of the divinities you possess are the ‘Hero’ and ‘Sacrifice’ divinities. These two actually serve as a perfect example of what I was just going to explain.”

Daren was a little stunned to hear this. She could see that spark of divinity stuff? More to the point though, he has the ‘hero’ divinity? Isn’t that pretty significant or something? He didn’t have too long to ponder all of that because Cicilia started to move on with her explanation.

“So, the ‘Hero’ divinity can be obtained without the ‘Sacrifice’ divinity, but when I see those two together it usually means one thing. I’m going to guess that you died protecting someone back on Earth, is that correct?” Cicilia asked.

“Uhh… yeah.” Daren said. “I was a youth counselor at a high school, we wound up with a school shooting and I threw myself over a student to protect them when the shooter came in.”

“Well, that would probably explain why you have the ‘Youth leadership’ divinity as well.” Cicilia said. “Not a bad one to have, I might add. It can also produce the more general ‘Leadership’ divinity as well as several other divinities out of the ‘Order’ sphere, but those are all things that are a bit too complicated to dump on you now. Anyway, back to the example on the ‘Hero’ divinity.

“The ‘Hero’ divinity is one that can be obtained either by spending time in a line of work where you protect and save people, such as being a law enforcement officer or a medical worker. In these fields, you will rescue and protect people on a frequent basis. These are the kinds of significant action that produce the ‘Hero’ divinity. However, these jobs would also produce other divinities such as ‘Healing’ for medical work, ‘Rescue’ or ‘Recovery’ for someone in something like search and rescue, or ‘Service’ for law enforcement or the armed forces. You have none of those divinities I just named off by the way. But you do have the ‘Sacrifice’ divinity, which goes along with the one and only act that can claim the ‘Hero’ divinity with a single significant action.”

“So, great.” Daren said. “What you’re telling me is that by reading my ‘divinities,’ you have the ability to gain insight into my life history?”

“Only by generality.” Cicilia said. “I don’t know any specifics. But it does give me a lot of insight into what kind of person you are. I don’t see any sparks of divinity that would suggest you are a bad person. Quite the opposite in fact. I do see one though that suggests you managed to make something of yourself despite living a pretty harsh life. You possess the ‘Adaptability’ divinity. It’s a pretty rare and powerful one that you don’t see in just anybody.”

“Really?” Daren said. So, ‘Hero’ is just a minor point of interest but ‘Adaptability’ is the one that’s really powerful and significant? Well, if ‘Hero’ can be gained so easily then it probably makes sense, but ‘Adaptability’ was apparently significant enough to have it’s power mentioned as well as it’s rarity. But still… “But, uhh… how does being adaptable tell you I lived a harsh life?” He asked. That one didn’t make as much sense.

“Alone, it doesn’t.” Cicilia said. “You actually have a few others like ‘Perseverance’ which could have also been gained from harsh physical training and ‘Life-Path’ which could have also been gained from your job as a youth councilor. It is the combination of those two along with ‘Adaptability’ though which makes rising above a harsh life become the more likely of the methods by which you got all three of those. Of course, there are still other ways to get those three. The rest of it I just got from watching you and the way you act. I’ve also gotten good at reading people. Knowing a person’s divinities just points me in the right directions and narrows the scope. It’s kinda like a doctor reading a person’s symptoms. It depends more on my experience and an educated guess to pick what’s more likely between the shrunken pool of possibilities.”

Daren shook his head at the idea. “Alright, fine.” He said. “How do I get to know…” He was about to ask how he could know what his own divinities were, but he wound up having to stop mid sentence because a bunch of glowing words suddenly appeared in his vision.

Personal information:

<<True Name: Daren Aldrech>>

<<Name: Daren Aldrech>>

<<Spiritual age: 34 Earth years>>

<<Physical age: Non-applicable>>

Spiritual status:

<<Will: 43 (100%)>>

<<Deftness: 19 (100%)>>

<<Vibrance: 39 (100%)>>

<<Wisdom: 16 (100%)>>

<<Intelligence: 15 (100%)>>

Divinities:

<<Youth leadership: Derivative sub-concept; Lv. 0 (72%)>>

<<Life-path: Derivative sub-concept; Lv 0 (96%)>>

<<Perseverance: Sub-concept; Lv. 0 (40%)>>

<<Hero: Sub-concept (aspirational); Lv. 0 (0%)>>

<<Protection: Greater sub-concept; Lv. 1 (0%)>>

<<Compassion: Greater sub-concept; Lv. 0 (55%)>>

<<Adaptability: Greater sub-concept; Lv. 0 (83%)>>

<<Sacrifice: Fundamental concept; Lv. 1 (0%)>>

Daren was caught by surprise at what he saw. What was all this information? What did it even mean?

“Very game-like, isn’t it?” Cicilia’s voice snapped Daren out of his surprised confusion.

“Huh?” He said.

“I know that look.” She said with a smirk. “I’m sure all that information is meaningless to you right now, but you will get used to it and figure out what it all means. That information is generated by the restriction device you were equipped with. I can’t see what you’re seeing, but I’m guessing it’s telling you your basic statistics. These would be your personal information, numerical statistics, and your divinities. You can get more detailed information about anything on there just by focusing on the word and mentally asking for it. I would encourage you to look more into it at your leisure once you have incarnated into your next life.”

In other words, it would be a time wasting distraction right now. Daren hesitantly looked back up to Cicilia and wondered for a moment how to get rid of this floating text. As soon as he had that thought though, it simply vanished from his sight.

He was slightly alarmed for a second and mentally called it back up, just to see if he could do it. Sure enough, it all displayed in front of his vision again. Assured that he could call the information up whenever he wanted, Daren dismissed it again and focused back on Cicilia.

“Now, I think that is enough for a review of where you are” Cicilia said. “I believe I should get into what you will be doing once we set you down into your new life here, and what it means to be under the protection and guidance of the Earthborn Order.”