[In the usual apartment-like space, home of Payto and his family]

*A message appears in front of Payto*

{I think our realms are getting closer to each other.}

After seeing that the message was from another God of Chaos, I let out a long sigh.

{Thanks for the warning.}

I cracked my knuckles and neck before stepping out of the door into the swirling, Chaotic void.

{I hate it when this happens, stuff always gets weird and annoying to fix.  Not that it isn’t interesting as well.}

[A time in the three weeks it took to get to Odeen’s capital city; Keeno POV]

“Where…am I?  Is this a dream?  It isn’t Solar Convergence…Ama?”

As usual when weird things happen, I couldn’t feel Ama’s presence in my head.  I looked around and found myself in what seemed to be an endlessly expansive grassland, an equally cloudless and infinite sky above me that seemed to change to every color imaginable with every blink.  Strangely enough, there were no suns in the sky, cementing the fact that I was indeed in a dream.  I looked around to see if I was alone or if the others also found themselves stuck with me, but no luck.  The seemingly only other person here was…

“Another person?  And what is she?”

She was a person with green hair with a periodic red streak running through it that for some reason reminded me of a plant’s stem or maybe vines.  Her eyes were a crimson red, very reminiscent of blood.  Her skin was pale, like she’d never stepped foot in the sunlight.  She wore clothes that vaguely reminded me of casual clothes from my old world, mixed with robes the likes of which Pram now wore, reminiscent of the ones we found in those temple ruins.  All in all, she seemed human, or at least close enough to human that she was indistinguishable from one.

“Who are you?” (???)

“My name is Okami.  Who are you?” (Keeno)

“Name’s Lia.  What’s a Solar Convergence?” (Lia)

I was confused, who didn’t know about Solar Convergence?

“You don’t know?  It’s when bot suns overlap, making it look like they are a single one.” (Keeno)

The confusion on Lia’s face grew.

“Suns?  You have two?” (Lia)

“You don’t?” (Keeno)

It was then that it clicked in my head.

“Guess we’re not from the same world.” (Keeno)

“Guess not.  I think I would have at least heard rumors about a beautiful foxkin like you if we were.  I’m from a world called Aerylin.” (Lia)

While the news of other worlds was no surprise to me, something else from that simple statement was.

“…I don’t know the name of my world…I’ve never really cared to learn it…if it even has one.” (Keeno)

This caused me to have a small existential crisis, but Lia clearly didn’t notice, or was just unconcerned about it as she kept talking.

“Did yours have a system?” (Lia)

I was taken aback by this question.  What’s a system?

“What do you mean?” (Keeno)

“Like levels and skills and stuff.  It’s a very important part of my world.” (Lia)

A small part of my memories from my past life cleared up when she explained this and I guessed it was sort of like a video game system, like she called it.

“That aside, your world has magic, right?  Mine does.  Most people there need to use chants and stuff, but I don’t.” (Keeno)

Her eyes lit up and she smiled.  I clearly hit on a topic that our worlds shared in common.

“Yeah, my world has magic too…How come you don’t need to use chants if everyone has to?” (Lia)

Seeing as this was most likely a dream caused by something weird going on, I didn’t see a problem explaining my situation.

“I’m technically the Goddess of the Blue Sun and Death, with an aspiration to also become the Goddess of Runes.” (Keeno)

“That’s cool!” (Lia)

“Yeah, though it’s not all sunshine and rainbows for now.  While I’m working on it, I haven’t gotten my full Authority yet, in a way of speaking.  When I do though, I’ll finally get to join my Fated One, who is the Goddess of the Orange Sun, Life, and Magic in the Divine Domain.” (Keeno)

Lia got another confused expression on her face.

“What’s a Fated One?” (Lia)

“Basically, we are fated to be together by a Fate beyond Fate…ummm…like Soul Mates.” (Keeno)

“Ooooooohhhhhhh.  My world has a similar thing, though we have our own name for it, Soul Match.  And, funnily enough, I’m in a situation similar to yours.  My Soul Match is the daughter on one of my world’s gods, though in actuality we, or I guess our souls, are from a different, different world.” (Lia)

“Oh?  What’s the place you’re from called?” (Keeno)

“Earth.” (Lia)

“…” (Keeno)

I was shocked.  We were from the same original world?  Do all people that get reincarnated come from earth?  It seemed my reaction was more than I realized as Lia’s eyes narrowed in amusement.

“I’m from there too!” (Keeno)

This time she was surprised before an excited smile spread across her face.

“Really!?  Where from?  I’m from the US!” (Lia)

“That’s…hard to say.  I don’t remember a lot, and what I do remember is either vague, or extremely clear when it comes to what I was interested in, mostly being anything related to ancient Norse mythology and culture.  I fancied myself an aspiring archaeologist, though I think I was more a novice than an official one.” (Keeno)

She deflated a bit, causing me to feel bad, so I decided to steer the conversation back to the topic from before.

“Do you have any magic?” (Keeno)

Her eyes lit up again.

“Not much, but I CAN do this.” (Lia)

She lifted her arm, and several thorn-like things grew out of it before retracting a few seconds later.

“What was that?” (Keeno)

“My thorns.  Though my appearance makes it seem like I am, I’m not human.  I’m a Bloodthorn Spirit.” (Lia)

“What’s a Bloodthorn?” (Keeno)

“It’s a magical, highly poisonous venus-flytrap, meaning I have a lot of poison related skills.  Most of me is poisonous, even down to my saliva.” (Lia)

“That’s neat.” (Keeno)

“I know, right?  Those thorns, for example, aren’t really created but are more like a part of my body that I can grow and retract at will.  It was kind of hard to manage in the beginning, but it’s now to the point where it’s second nature.” (Lia)

“Huh.  Cool.” (Keeno)

“What about you?  Any magic?” (Lia)

“Yep.  The magic I use most of the time is my Solar magic, which is the most potent fire magic in my world, and it shares the same color as my Sun.” (Keeno)

I summoned a few fireballs above my head as a demonstration.

“My body heat is also hotter than a normal person’s, and I can control it at will, though when my emotions reach a certain point I kind of forget to control it and it increases in response to the intensity of said emotions.” (Keeno)

“Cool.  Sounds perfect for winter.” (Lia)

“You have no idea.  My best friend loves it in the cold too.  Anyway, my other magic is Death magic, naturally.” (Keeno)

“…Sounds kinda…terrifying.” (Lia)

“Meh.” (Keeno)

“What exactly does Death magic do?” (Lia)

“It mostly encompasses necromancy.  Though in my case, and the case of the one other person with Death magic that I know, we can see and interact with Death Spirits, though that’s also probably because I’m the Goddess of Death, in my case at least.  If I work in conjunction with someone with Life magic and a deep connection with my wife, mix it with my own Divinity, and a few other specific requirements, I can fully resurrect someone as well.  Other than that, it’s mostly things to deal with my Authority over Death than Death magic itself.” (Keeno)

“Amazing!” (Lia)

“Hehe.  Oh, and a correction from earlier, my race is kitsune, not foxkin, though, I’m also half dragon.  It seems kitsune genes are dominant though, so my most draconic features are the slit pupils and the scales around my eyes.  The three tails should also be a giveaway.” (Keeno)

“Aaahhh.  I thought that was just makeup around your eyes, but them being dragon scales is also super cool.” (Lia)

As our conversation reached a lull, a loud popping sound echoed throughout the space we were in, and a note appeared out of nowhere.  It was a piece of black paper with the writing on it being silver.  It seemed Lia couldn’t read it, though for some reason I could.

{Sorry you two, our respective Seas of Chaos were passing close by each other and as a result you two were caught in the waves of the event.  Your physical bodies and souls are completely fine, you both just seem to be sharing a dream.  This shouldn’t take too much longer to resolve, so just sit tight, drink some coffee or something, and all will be just a distant memory.
- Payto and Smiles; Gods of Chaos}

“…” (Keeno)

“…” (Lia)

“Well…” (Keeno)

“At least we finally got an explanation of what’s going on.” (Lia)

“Yeah.  And seeing as this is about to be resolved, we should probably say our goodbyes, so, it’s been nice meeting you, Lia.” (Keeno)

“Feelings mutual, Okami.  I wish you luck getting to your Fated One.” (Lia)

“Same to you in becoming a god.” (Keeno)

As soon as our goodbyes were finished, I became extremely tired, to the point that I couldn’t keep my eyes open.  Once I finally fell asleep, I woke up to find myself in my tent, the sounds of birds flying around and the quiet snores from the others coming from nearby.

{Keeno?  What’s up, did you have a weird dream or something?}

“Yeah, I did, Ama.  But it was a good weird.”

{Well, as long as you enjoyed it, then I’d say it wasn’t that weird.}

“Hehehe.  I guess you’re right.”