Thomas took a step and suddenly found himself standing in some sort of large convention center, wearing a suit. As he looked around, he rubbed his eyes, then pinched himself to make extra sure he wasn’t dreaming. He didn’t think he was, since there was no gap in memory between his walking the halls of his school and his appearing here, but what he was seeing was simply too unbelievable. There were…mythological beings everywhere. Angels, demons, elves, a woman made of slime, and most of them were just acting like nothing weird was happening.
“Oh great.” A woman’s voice groaned from behind him. He whirled, catching sight of Ellie to his right and a demon woman to his left, as well as…a copy of Ellie and the demon woman, standing alongside the single most attractive woman he had ever seen. “How do we explain this?” The woman, a blonde human, asked.
Thomas had to force himself to look away from the blonde as she spoke, gaze honing in on the copy of Ellie beside her, looking strangely confident considering the odd situation they were in. “Uh…is that you, Ellie? What’s going on?”
“No, I’m right here.” The Ellie beside Thomas said. “But it’s weird that she looks just like me.”
The copy of Ellie smirked. “Half-right. I’m from…half a year to a year in your future.”
“Y-you will have to forgive me for my conduct earlier this morning, Miss Los.” The demon beside Thomas said, face pale as she gave a curtsey. “I was completely out of line.”
The future version of her made a face. “Ugh, why’d it have to be from then?” She asked. “It couldn’t have been literally a day later?”
The demon, seemingly noticing her double for the first time, gave her a stern look. “And who are you supposed to be?” She asked icily. “Are you the one who kidnapped me and brought me here?”
Her future self sighed. “It’s going to be a long night, isn’t it? As with Ellie, I’m you, from the future.”
“Right, we all don’t know each other yet.” Future Ellie said. “Let’s make some introductions. The two of them already know me, but I’m Ellie Los, Appointed of Life and Death, and these are my two lovely wives, Tess Los, Appointed and daughter of Fortune, and Maven Los, Appointed of Dungeons and former Crown Princess of Paumen.”
The version of Maven next to Thomas stared at Future Ellie. “Impossible.” She said. “I’m not Appointed material, and I’m definitely not–”
“Attracted to girls?” Her future self finished. “We weren’t. It’s…complicated. Long story short, we are, romantically, and we got our sexual orientation updated to match.”
“Speaking of,” Future Ellie interjected, walking over to Thomas and throwing her arms around him in an uncharacteristically seductive way, “I’ve known for a long time that you’ve had an unrequited crush on me, but I’m sorry to tell you that I’m a lesbian, and unless you’re one of those two, you don’t have even the faintest chance of getting with me.”
“Hey!” Ellie exclaimed, walking over and laying a hand on her future self’s shoulder. “I don’t know what may happen between us and Thomas in the future, but that’s no excuse to treat the him of now like that! Apologize!”
Future Ellie disengaged herself from Thomas, then whispered something into the present Ellie’s ear. In response, Ellie gave her future self a shocked look, then turned to Thomas. “But, um…she’s right, sorry. I didn’t want to tell you like this, but it’s true, I’m a lesbian, and it would never work out between us.”
The blonde, who must have been Tess, groaned. “Would you stop teasing him!” She exclaimed. “Just look at him, it looks like he’s about to cry!” Tess walked up to him, laying a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Hey, sorry about Ellie, she’s just teasing, and went too far. And, uh, sorry about this, I guess? You probably don’t want to hear this, but I’m you from the future.”
Thomas stared down at her in disbelief. “But…you’re like, way shorter than me.” He said weakly. “Hormones wouldn’t do that, and I don’t think they’d make me…” He trailed off, but Tess seemed to pick up on what he meant.
“You’re right, they wouldn’t.” She said, giving him a weak smile. “Magic can and did, though. How long until Ellie’s eighteenth birthday?”
“It’s December, so…three or four months?” Thomas replied, bewildered.
“That’s when all…this happens.” Tess replied, motioning at herself. “We learn about the rest of the world and magic, and also in the process get turned into a girl. We get over it pretty quickly, though.”
“But…I’m not trans.” Thomas protested.
“We weren’t, yeah.” Tess paused, then shook her head. “At least, I think we weren’t? Nowadays, I wouldn’t go back for the world, but…it’s complicated.”
The demon next to Tess, Maven, if Future Ellie’s introduction was correct, seemed to come out of some sort of funk, tentatively walking up to Tess. “Miss Ellie said that you are the daughter of Fortune? I was under the impression that you are mortal.” She said shyly. “Would you be opposed to explaining the situation to me?”
Tess reached out as if she was going to hug Maven, then drew back. “Sorry.” She said, scratching the back of her neck just like Thomas would when he was embarrassed. “We’re married in my time, so it was just instinct. Uh, it’s kind of complicated, but the gist is that Fortune adopts me a few months into your future. And, no, I wasn’t an Appointed when we met the first time, that happens a week or two from your time period.”
“What is an Appointed?” Ellie interjected. “The word keeps being thrown about and I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“As far as the public is aware, we’re like the hands and feet of the gods in the mortal plane.” Future Maven explained. “In reality, we’re equal partners with them. And, as of recently, we’re the same category of being. As far as the laws of the universe are concerned, we are gods now.”
“I beg your pardon?” Maven asked indignantly. “That is blasphemy of the highest order!”
“It’s true, though.” A woman said, walking up to the group. As she spoke, her voice drilled deep down into Thomas’s soul and making it clear that it was the Goddess of Fortune speaking. It was a disconcerting feeling; Thomas hadn’t even known there was a Goddess of Fortune, but ever single fiber of his being was screaming at him that this was her, and he couldn’t bring himself to believe otherwise.
“Oh, hey, Mom!” Tess said. “You’re here too, this time?”
“Sort of.” Fortune replied. “I’m from Lilith’s time period, so…fiftyish years in your future?”
“L-Lady Fortune, it’s an honor.” Maven said, dropping into a curtsey. “Is it true what they have been saying?”
“I dunno what they’ve been telling you, but whatever they say is probably true.” Fortune replied casually, her voice now just like any normal person’s. “I’m sure we’ll explain more when everyone’s here, but this place doesn’t follow the normal rules of reality. And don’t stand on ceremony with anyone you meet here, that’s not the kind of place this is. It’s a party, not…a ball. I mean, it kind of is, but it’s a place to relax, not make social connections or anything. You’ll forget all about this until my time, so don’t sweat it too much.”
“Wait, you figured out a way to preserve our memories of this place?” Future Ellie asked.
“Yeah.” Fortune replied. “I’ll let Lilith explain more, though, it was her breakthrough. Anyway, Thomas and the Ellie from that time period, are you two holding up okay? I know it’s a lot to dump on you all at once.”
“I’m…not sure.” Thomas admitted. “I feel kind of numb to it all right now, to tell you the truth.”
“And I feel the same.” Ellie echoed. “I feel like I should be more suspicious of all of this but I can’t bring myself to be.”
“Eh, that’s probably just the party doing what it does.” Fortune replied. “It’s hard to enjoy your evening if you’re breaking down from finding out magic is real, you know?”Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.
“And…you end up adopting me? Why?” Thomas asked.
“It’s a bit of a complicated story that you don’t have all the pieces to really understand, but it was your idea, actually.” Fortune replied. “Again, complicated story, but I had been watching over you and Ellie since around the time your parents died, so I already sort of felt like a mother to you two, in a weird way.”
“But…why? Why watch us?” Thomas asked.
“It is not that surprising, is it?” Maven asked.
“They don’t know about the Guildmaster.” Future Maven said quickly. “They’re just normal people as far as they know.”
“The Guildmaster?” Ellie asked.
“Gramps.” Tess said. “Turns out he’s, like…one of the most important people in the world?”
“Hey, everyone.” An angel child with blood-red hair said, walking up to the group. “I see you’ve got the whole past-self thing to deal with too.”
“Hey, Eve.” Future Ellie replied. “Yeah, we do. Uh, to make introductions, this is Eve, she’s a friend from another universe, we’ve met at these parties before. She’s also our distant aunt via Maven, and apparently, we spend a lot of time with her in the future.”
“Does that mean she’s older than she looks?” Thomas asked.
Thomas gaped as Eve rapidly aged into adulthood, her fancy dress refitting itself to fit her new form. “Sort of. I’m thirty, I just take that form to throw off my enemies. And, it did sort of work, but honestly not as well as I had hoped?” She aged back down to the childlike appearance she had had when Thomas had first seen her. “I mostly just stay this way because it’s what I’m used to at this point. Also, because it entertains me when people see me change ages for the first time, but that’s just a minor perk.”
“But which one is your real form?” Ellie asked.
“Both, and neither.” Eve said, shrugging. “I don’t play by normal rules, basically anything can be my real form. But I suppose if we wanted to get really philosophical about it…” Eve rapidly aged up once again, a demon’s tail sprouting behind her and her hair turning black. “This is what you’d consider the ‘default’ version of me.”
She just as rapidly returned to her old appearance, giving yet another shrug. “That would get confusing really quickly, though, so me and the rest of me try to distinguish ourselves how we can.”
“The rest of you?” Maven asked.
“It’s very complicated, but I’m essentially five people in one. “ Eve said. “One soul, five separate consciousnesses and personalities. That appearance was from the ‘main body’, Lilith, you’ll see her here soon. The rest of us aren’t here, but they don’t particularly mind; they’re not always the most sociable types, and they get all the memories of it at night, as clear as if they had lived them.”
Ellie frowned and opened her mouth, but Eve shook her head, cutting her off. “Like I said, it’s complicated. I live an incredibly non-standard life, and it’s hard enough to explain to people who are familiar with magic, let alone people who just learned about it. I’m sure you’ll have more time to ask as this party progresses, but for now we need to go meet up with everyone else, it’ll be easier to explain all at once.”
Eve turned and began to walk off, the future versions of Thomas, Ellie, and Maven quick to follow. Maven took a second to decide before following, but while Thomas was still in shock, Fortune walked over and grabbed his hand gently.
“Are you still feeling okay?” She asked. “If either of you two need to take a minute, then I’ll let everyone know.”
“I-I’ll be fine.” Ellie stammered. “If it weren’t for…whatever you did, I’d still be half-convinced I’m dreaming.”
Fortune smiled at Ellie. “That’s a tool we use so that people can’t impersonate the gods.” She explained. “It makes you know who’s speaking in a way that can’t be replicated with ordinary magic, and it’s come in handy when explaining things to people from Mael. Never thought I’d use it to help you two understand, but that’s the thing about these parties; you never can know for sure what’ll happen.”
“Um…I think I’m ready too.” Thomas said. “We can go.”
Fortune reached out as if to stroke his hair affectionately, but quickly withdrew her hand. “Sorry, force of habit.” She said, blushing slightly. “I know you don’t know me now, but we’re close in the future and I keep forgetting, and…yeah.”
To his surprise, Thomas found himself chuckling at the awkwardness the goddess was showing. “Uh, sorry.” He said, quickly clamping his free hand over his mouth. “I’m not trying to be disrespectful or anything, I…”
He trailed off as Fortune began laughing herself. “I don’t mind at all.” She said, gently pulling him in the direction Even had gone, Ellie following behind. “Remember, in my time, you’re my daughter. And, that aside, our group, you, me, Ellie, Maven, Life, Death, and the Goddess of Dungeons, are all good friends. We poke fun at each other all the time, so just relax, no one here is out to get you.”
Fortune paused for a moment. “Well, there’s this Amelia girl we’ll probably be seeing, but she’s just standoffish in general, don’t let her get to you. It’s nothing personal or anything, she’s still figuring out how to handle properly having emotions and doesn’t have much of a filter. Don’t worry about it, though, someone will almost certainly be around to keep her from getting too aggressive.”
“Hold up a second.” Ellie said. “Did you say Life and Death? As in… the Life and Death?”
“Yeah. You’re the one who is technically their Appointed, but after a while we decided that sticking to a hard-and-fast sort of thing isn’t our style and we all just share duties. It only matters for who can Descend into who.” Seeing the look of confusion on Thomas’s face, she continued. “Descent is when a god temporarily shares a body with their Appointed for the purposes of…well, usually it’s for making a statement or giving the Appointed an extra power bump if they need it. But that’s getting a bit too into details that aren’t important to you at the moment, so let’s catch up to the others, shall we?”
Fortune picked up the pace, and they managed to catch up to the rest of their group just as Eve finished leading them to a group of seven. “Got them!” Eve called out.
A half-angel, half-demon who, seeing as how she was identical to the form Eve took earlier, must have been Lilith, turned to them. “Ah, good to see you all!” She said brightly. “When are you all from?”
“I’m from the present.” Fortune volunteered.
“We’re…well, we’ve just married and finished our honeymoon.” Tess said. “Past me and Ellie are from a few months before everything goes down, and the Past Maven is from a month or so after, right after the two of us first met.”
They began chatting a bit, and as they did, a man sidled up next to Thomas. “You’re…also from a place with no magic, right?”
“Um, yeah.” Thomas said. “Who…”
“Right, right, sorry.” The man said. “My name’s Lucas, I’m apparently the past version of Lilith. I heard a bit about you from her, and seeing as how you’re the only guy here aside from that one important-looking dude, I thought I’d introduce myself.”
“The name’s Thomas, and there are a lot of women here, now that you mention it.” Thomas admitted. “Strange.”
“If you only count the future versions of people like us, he’s the only man in this group.” Lucas said. “It’s downright uncanny.”
“He becomes a woman too.” Fortune said, glancing back at them. “And it’s uncanny, but it’s not an accident, either; most of the people in each group are romantically involved with each other in some form or another, and many of them are attracted to women only. So, yeah, not that big of a deal, but –”
Fortune was cut off by Lilith clapping her hands and gathering the attention of the group. “Okay, there are a lot of us here today, and this is the first party for half of us, so I think it’s prudent we get any questions out of the way now.” Lilith began. “This place is…well, it’s complicated to explain, especially since some of you here haven’t even been exposed to magic, but we’re in sort of a place outside the regular flow of time. Every so often people get whisked away here, we have a party, and then get plopped back wherever we were, none the wiser.”
Lilith paused, smirking. “Or, that was the case. As of my time, we have figured out a way to keep our memories of this place, and we’ve made a point of making sure all of you get yours back. You won’t get them back until my time period, so it’s anywhere from three to fifty or sixty years off, depending on which group you’re in, so it won’t affect your lives immediately, but just don’t do anything embarrassing because you think you won’t remember it.
“A couple of you are probably already wondering if I have knowledge of future parties from your future selves, and the answer is no, we’re ninety percent confident those haven’t happened yet. Don’t worry about it too much right now, this place is way outside the normal rules of time and it’s not worth hurting your head thinking about it right this second.
“Alright, now, the big one. There’s going to be a lot of talk about Higher Beings and Administrators; to keep it short, you can think of Higher Beings as the gods and Administrators as the head of the gods. The three main groups here are from planes ruled by three different Administrators that are in an alliance with each other. Full disclosure; my wife Kali and I share the duty of Administrator for our planes, but you don’t need to worry about standing on ceremony or anything.
“As of my period in time, all of you are Higher Beings. It may seem strange, but you absolutely have the qualifications to stand on this sort of stage. Even if you weren’t Higher Beings in the future, just being here makes you more important than even some Administrators. I’m not kidding; only seriously important people get an ‘invite’ to these things.
“All that being said, I’m getting the feeling that we should split into groups for this one. This party has a way of drawing you to where you need to be, just walk in a general direction and you’ll end up with the right group. And don’t try and fight it either,” Lilith said, looking between two women Thomas had yet to meet, “whether you like it or not, you’ll end up where the party wants you to go. People have tried, it never works and generally makes for an annoying and unfun night, so just go with the flow. Alright, now…let’s get to it, I guess!”
“Do we really just walk off and it’ll work out?” Thomas asked doubtfully.
“Yup, and I feel like going…this way.” Fortune replied, picking a seemingly random direction and walking off.
“Funny, I was going to go the same way.” Lucas said. “Well…nice talking to you Thomas, maybe I’ll see you around? I guess…if not then we’ll meet again in the future? Kind of?” He headed off after Fortune, leaving Tess and Ellie alone amidst the crowd.
“I was going to head there too.” Ellie said. “So…that’s confirmation, right? It’ll just work?”
“I wasn’t as sure about all of this, but that was the place I was thinking about heading.” Thomas admitted. “So…shall we head off, then?
“Might as well.” Ellie said, starting after Fortune.
Thomas followed, not quite sure where any of this was heading, but there wasn’t much he could do except soldier on and pray that his brain wouldn’t be too broken by the end of the evening. He…didn’t have much hope.