Ysennia held up a scroll to show Ed, "This is your Soul. It's different for each realm. Some of them are paper like yours. Some are small silver disks and some are small glass squares. It just depends on what the people of that place are used too."
She held it out for Ed to take. He reached over to take it and noticed that the world around him was moving as he did. They were no longer in the town square. The landscape around them had shifted and they were at a table behind the chapel just outside of town. Everyone was frozen in the air, still stuck in the impossible poses of running, sitting, or just doing the things of everyday life.
Ed laid it on the table before him and used his hands to spread it flat. It made no effort to curl back up like Ed was used to. Its magical properties kept it from doing so. Ed guessed that this meant that the natural rules didn't apply like normal here in this space.
The scroll detailed his life. It had his full name, something he hadn't seen in a very long time. He imagined that maybe only one or two people even knew his last name.
Details of previous lives were listed out in one section. Short examples of his lives were spread out in one or two-sentence summaries. Things were listed out like, born to royals and beheaded at age 3, Born as a priest, burned at the stake for witchcraft.
He sighed. He was trying not to remember being burned alive. He had the worst luck in life it seemed. None of his deaths seemed completely natural. He also so that he rarely lived past 30. One time he made it into his 40's like a hermit on a hill but he was struck by lightning for blasphemy.
Further down the page was a listing of numerical statistics. Things like strength, charisma, personality, luck, and agility sat here. There were more than Ed didn't understand but he noticed that his strength, luck, and personality were higher than the others. None of them looked low, just those three were the highest.
The words and numbers were all printed in an ink that changed colors from silver to gold. As soon as ed thought he had the color pegged, it would change. Or maybe he never really had It to begin with and his mind was playing tricks on him.
"This looks sort of like one of those reports the town constables keep on people," Ed said as he looked through the rest of the sheet.
"That's very close. In a way it is. It lets us keep a record of you and your accomplishments. It also lets us record your growth as a soul as you travel from one life to another." Golliad said smiling at Ed's understanding of the sheet.
Ed flipped the sheet over to see what was on the back. The page was blank except for one hand-written note, 'Chronic lack of accomplishment – no effect from perseverance.'
Ed put the scroll down and put his hands on it. It was warm, the only thing warm in this realm between life and death. Ed enjoyed that feeling, it was really the only thing that he could sense with his normal human senses. Otherwise, the world was blank. There was no wind, no sounds, not even heat from the sun. His corporeal self was unnerved by the lack of feelings.
Golliad continued, "The Lord God made these for his personal record keeping. Every soul has one in some form on this planet. When the lord put the first four creations on this planet I am not sure he expected them to expand so quickly."
Ed immediately tried to remember the creation story. He searched his brain for his time in school in the church and he could vaguely recall the story. God made the planet and put four people on it to watch after it. They formed the first families and started farming. Eventually, they filled the land with all the people that live on the planet now.
Ed suddenly had a better understanding of the story now that he was connected to the divine realm. He could imagine what it must have been like for those first four people to be walked down to the planet by the divines and given the whole thing to start from scratch. He wondered if they were scared when it happened.
"Wait, who's this Lord God guy?" Ed said before he could stop himself.
"He is the creator. All things have a creator, he even probably has someone who created him." Ysennia said to Ed as he worked through it all.
It was a puzzle. What came first? The gods or the lord? For that matter who do they worship if they worship anyone? Do they go into the human chapels and pray to the creator? Have they met the Lord God? The puzzle of all this was making his head hurt.
Ed shook his head and tried to focus on just his soul scroll. "So, this thing is why I never seem to get anywhere?"
Golliad winced visibly, Ysennia picked up the scroll and looked at Ed. "Not exactly my dearest Ed, it's not responsible for all the things that have happened to you. Your soul is special. Most people have copies of copies of souls. The Lord only adds new souls to the world every so often. Yours was handwritten by him and put in with fourteen other souls. Most of the rest of these people are leading interesting, remarkable lives in one way or another.
We believe he put you here for some reason Ed but he even we don't know his master plans. He tells us just what we need to know and not what we want to know. What we do suspect is that you are fighting his master plan somehow. He has something he wants you to do but it's not obvious to us what it is."
"So, I don't know what we wants. He put this into the creation and it just governs me and keeps me stuck to this world like a contract?"
Golliad smiled, "That's a perfect way to think of it, Ed. It is a contract between the world and your divine being. And your soul is unique along with the others. The Lord hasn't put new souls into this world for a very long time. Most of the common souls like farmers and travelers are copies of copies of souls that were written a long time ago. That is why so many of them look the same no matter where you go to visit.
And this is what makes you so special to us; he doesn't pay as much attention to this world as he used to. So why did he suddenly decide to add the fifteen of you to this world? Would you like something to drink Ed?" She held up an empty cup at Ed to stress the question.
"Uh, sure yeah why not." He said taking the cup that was offered to him.
Ed looked down into the cup to see it was filled already. It was the first time he had seen his face in all this. It was interesting to him that he looked like himself still even though he was dead.
Golliad took his cup and took a sip. "The lord has been preoccupied with another world lately. One of our own went on a 33-year bender of miracles. Right now he is over there giving the world a whole slew of obscure plagues and mayhem. We are no longer allowed to perform direct miracles after that.
Ysennnia shook her head, "That was Jessios. He took a little vacation from his normal duties and ruined it for all of us."
Ed took a big drink of his tea. "Okay so if I have been brought back so much, I have to have accomplished something."
"Oh, you have, here and there. Did you notice the numbers next to your reincarnations? Those are accomplishment numbers. You see souls grow as they are reborn. Each time your soul comes back it learns a little more and takes it with you to the next life. That's why some people are considered geniuses. It is actually memories stored in the soul that they get to take with them. Your soul doesn't bring that much with it. So you seem to start from scratch with some minor little increases here and there."
Ed put his cup down and looked up at the sky, the clouds were frozen in place. A bird was frozen flapping its wings and it looked like a big long curve the way it was bent. "So, what are going to do now then? This seems like an awful long conversation to just throw me back into the world."
Golliad leaned back in his chair and threw his arm holding his teacup over the back. Using his hand as a flourish he continued the conversation. "So here is the deal, Ed. We have talked and we have an Idea. We aren't going to start you back over from scratch. We are going to send you back. A miracle will have happened in town square your body will be taken. We will move you far across the world and start you off with a new face and a helper to see if perhaps this won't move things along."
Ysennia smiled and nodded. "You see Ed we can't modify your soul but we can add things to it. Small contracts or other things that might help you along. You also have powers that haven't been explored yet so this helper will be there to help you bring out the best of yourself. Our divine powers are not considered the same world-class magic as the Lord. We can't make major changes but we will do anything we can to make it easier for you to grow. We are also going to give you a new face so you can be you, but start as someone new."
"And I will be following around nearby to make sure you don't get too far in over your head," Golliad said proudly.
"I can't really argue, can I? It wouldn't do any good and besides who else gets a deal like this?" Ed said to both of them.
"See that's the spirit!" Golliad smiled away like a proud father.
"So who is this helper?" Ed said looking at them both and putting down his empty teacup.
Ysennia was cleaning off the table and looked up at Ed, "Oh you will know him when you see him, you will be only one that can see him after all. When you wake up Ed you will still be here at this table but in a whole different place. I am going to leave you some presents to help get you setup. Please, do reach out to me if you need something desperately."
Ed nodded his understanding and smiled, then the world shifted.