A soul is a strange thing. When the many Gods and Goddesses of the universe came together to create life, they had no idea that what they would create would surpass all of their calculations on life, afterlife, and reincarnation. If one were to ask a cosmic being about the complexities of a soul, they would hear endless blabbering on the subject that basically comes down to, "how the fuck should I know?" This boundless source of pure energy, that was created from the void, exceeded all expectations to the point where even the creators truly had no idea how they worked.

The base form of a soul is a core. This core holds the id and ego, the very foundation of a 'self'. This 'self' is then coated with a strange substance, a mystical energy of a deep void that even deities cannot see though. This energy combined with the self is, in a word, erratic, or unpredictable for lack of a better term. Though the path of life, afterlife, and reincarnation was laid out before the first soul was even created, after many millennia souls began to diverge from this path, finding their own way through the void outside the path. The many deities overlooking the path simply called this 'fate' and left these souls to their devices.

This is where we find our heroine, simply as a ball of shimmering energy floating through a seemingly infinite blackness, following her own path in death as she did in life.

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(Five hours pre death)

Emerson Cartwright awoke in her bed after having the strangest dream. While the contents of the dream were fading from her mind she was sure she was an empress of great power and beauty ruling her country with grace.

'How cool would that be' she thought to herself. Emerson or Emmy to her close friends grew up in a small town on the California coastline. Life in this little town was many ways very peaceful to the people who lived in it, but to Emerson it was an unending bore. She chafed under the watchful eye of her parents and all the other adults in her very small hometown. She would often get in to trouble for exploring the vast hills that surrounded her small valley town. As long as she could remember, Emerson wanted to escape, explore and find her own special home that she loved as much as her parents loved her hometown. While she didn't enjoy living where she did, it's not like she didn't love her parents or the people around her. She did, but she knew in her heart that this just truly wasn't the place for her.

Emerson rose from her bed seeing that it was almost noon. "Shit I stayed up too late playing games last night. My Sunday is almost over," she softly grumbled to herself. Since she stayed inside all day yesterday, she decided to go on a hike on one of her favorite trails in the hills. Emerson started undressing, taking off her night clothes but paused and looked at herself in the mirror. 'I am defiantly hot' the thought while admiring her 20 year old form. Emerson had always been taller then the other girls around her, at 5"10. Curly red hair flowed down to her shoulder and smallish breasts peaked out of her sleep shirt in the cold morning. Long legs that looked like they were sculpted through years of exercise. Yeah she was definitely hot. 'But when can I never get myself a girlfriend' Emerson lamented.

Yes Emerson was gay. Her parents weren't shocked when she came out at 17, her mom had just said, "we know sweetie, it wasn't hard to figure out considering the lingering looks you have at all the pretty girls around you." While suitably embarrassed at having being caught she also felt and overflowing of love rush through her. Her parents were her best friends. She had never not know love in life and Emerson always knew she was truly blessed.

Changing into some suitable hiking clothes and boots, our heroine set out for a relaxing day of hiking without knowing this choice would change not only her life but thousands of lives in another world.

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(A long hike later)

Emerson stood on a secret lookout point atop a hill over looking the valley of her home. No one knew of this spot because Emerson found it herself years ago. Since a young age she had climbed these hills imagining she was an explorer or wizard on a grand quest. These hills were her second home and she knew them as well as she did her house with her parents. But unbeknownst to her the lookout point she was standing on had gotten much more rainfall than it has gotten in the previous ten years making then entire area unstable.

Emerson Cartwright died alone. They eventually found her body but it was much too late for her to be saved. Her parents were naturally devastated. But Emerson didn't know this. All she knew was that she was standing on her favorite spot when the ground shifter under her feet slightly, then with no warning, she was falling.

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Darkness. An all consuming darkness surrounded Emerson. She could see nothing, feel nothing. She just sort of floated along being carried by the natural flow of the path of reincarnation, where her soul would be washed clean of all memories and her karma would be calculated and she would be sent to a suitable body.

Emerson was bored. She always got bored very easily. But there was nothing to do here. No games to play, places to explore friends to make, just waiting. She knew she was dead. Her mother had always warned her to be more careful while hiking but Emerson just shrugged it off carelessly. She regretted that now. She missed her parents and desperately wanted to go home to see them, to tell them she would be okay. But now she was just a soul moving through the path of the void.

But what Emerson didn't know was that her soul was extremely powerful. Her previous incarnations were grand warriors, kings and queens and many more. Obviously there was no way for her to know this because all her previous lives floated through and reincarnated. But this time was different. Through all her lives her soul grew and grew until she gained new powers no soul had ever had.

Emerson could feel the waves of powerful energy emanating from her core. It was strange just being a floating ball of power but Emerson was desperately bored, so she started trying to manipulate the waves of power coming off of her. The first thing she tried to do was stop the waves of power and try to condense it inside her core. Being a formless being was strange, so very different from human form so the work was slow going. But the one thing Emerson had was an abundance of time. So she practiced and practiced until the waves of energy seemed easier to control. 'Alright. Time to give it a go.' She thought. Emerson imagined sucking in a big breath pulling her mystical aura into the core of her being. Suddenly Emerson felt herself stop moving. The flow she was riding ended and she was unmoving an seriously scared. 'Uh oh. What did I do?'

Only one or two beings through the entire history of the universe were able to manipulate the very foundation of their soul and no one was ever stupid enough to try doing that while going through the path. The three deities that were currently overlooking the path were suitably shocked when a soul under their care suddenly vanished.

"A soul is gone." Said a beautiful woman as she looked over the void which held the paths.

"So? It happens sometimes, a soul will deviate from its path. It happens Aphy, don't worry about it. It's just fate." Said a small childlike god who was lazing around reading a book.

The goddess did NOT like that nickname especially coming from this lazy childish and sorry excuse of a god, Hermès. "First of all you little shit my name is Aphrodite and you will get it right." Aphrodite glared at him and continued, "the soul did not deviate from its path, it is no longer on any path at all. It disappeared!"

This caused Hermès to look up from the book that his eyes hadn't left for the last 59 years of his shift watching the void. "That's impossible Aph-ro-di-te." The way Hermès slowly dragged out the pronunciation of her name grated on her nerves. "There's no way for that to happen. We created souls, there's no way for one to manipulate itself, to hide itself from our sight." He lazily replied.

"Well it happened come and look! This is your fault, you haven't worked a singly day we have been here! You just read that damn thing and and leave all the work to Tyr and I!" As her tyrade continued she was getting angrier this sorry excuse for a god just constantly got on her nerves.

"Okay, okay. Let's all calm down." Interrupted Tyr. "We must find the soul and return it to the path." Aphrodite harmuphed and continued searching. Even lazy Hermès put down his book worked for the first time in his rotation.

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Emerson couldn't possibly know but she had just made history as the first soul to be able to manipulate its energy without a physical body to hold it. It was a feat upon itself. What she had done was not just pulling her energy inside her core but instead completely obscuring her aura from and watchful eyes. But now she was stuck. Not moving at all through the void. So she decided to release her aura as it took a lot of her concentration to hold it in. 'What do I do now? Well if I can pull myself in maybe I can spread myself out and look for things.' Having no eyes to see Emerson hoped that she could feel when her pseudo-body came in contact with something. So she slowly spread her being into thin waves almost like sonar through the void.

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"WHAT THE HADES IS THAT!?" Hermès screamed,to the annoyance of his coworkers, while looking at the void. A massive amount of soul power was fluctuating now far off any visible path. The three gods stared in shocked silence as the souls seemed to grow and grow until a gigantic light consisting of a single soul illuminated their viewing. And then as fast as it appeared it once again vanished.

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Emerson had spread herself to her upmost. As thin as possible to to try to feel everything and anything in her vicinity. But felt nothing. She was alone absolutely alone. Until a slight rippling felling could be felt on the far reaches of her soul. She focused oh this strange phenomenon, not knowing that in the void there were many rifts that connect many different worlds to this desolate place. What she was probing now was one of those rifts. As soon as he had her full consciousness focused on the rift, she fell a weird sucking sensation and the rift pulled her full being through it.

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Shocked silence permeated around the three gods. Not quite knowing what just happened. Until Tyr spoke up, "I believe that soul was just pulled through a rift. That's not good."

"Let's not worry about that now, there's nothing we can do about it as I said, it's fate. Aphy-" Hermès started to use his nickname for the goddess but thought better of it based on the glade she sent him. "Aphrodite, do we know who the soul is?"

Aphrodite closed her eyes for a moment until a piece of paper appeared in her hand. What can you do? Even deities had bureaucracy. She studied the paper. Her beautiful features shifting from puzzlement to shock to fear as she read. "Oh this is really not good" she mumbled.

"What's not good? Who is it?" Asked Tyr. Pale faced and slightly trembling Aphrodite passed the paper to the other two gods. Who quickly snagged it and read.

"Oh this is really not good." Both male gods said at the same time. The soul that was lost on their watch was none other than one that had been around for so long, gone through so many incarnations, and accumulated so much positive karma, it was close to deity level power.