"So... You''re saying, not only Earth, butallof physical reality was wiped out."


    "Yes," said the blonde, I-wear-my-anxiety-on-my-face ''goddess.''


    "So... the apocalypse that befell Earth wasthatbad?"


    "Yes."


    "Uhuh, okay. And now,youwant to enlistmeon to your project to save thesubtle worlds—that''s what you called them, right?"


    "Yes."


    "And these subtle worlds are worlds that exist in another dimension from the physical—theImaginal Realm... And is where creatures of legend and myth reside?"


    "It''s also the dimension that inspires—oh, sorry—once inspiredthe imagination of the physical universe''s humans."


    "Okay. Got that. And this project is the..."


    "Hero Hub Project!


    "And the goal of your project is to make a paradise for heroes where they can go and take breaks in between their adventures?"


    "That was the gist, yes. What do you think, Fainn?"


    I sighed. "Yeah, okay. You mentioned you could wipe some of my memory?" She nodded. "Okay. Do it. Get rid of the gruesome details ofthatapocalypse. I don''t want to remember it. I don''t mind keeping thedetails and knowledge, like the knowledge that my family and everyone I knew is dead. I''ll keep those facts. Just take away the images. Can you do that?"


    She flared her nostrils and nodded repeatedly. "I can definitely do that!" She sprinkled me with shining dust. "Here we go! Done!"


    I tried to draw up the images that haunted my nights, but nothing. Nada. Zilch. Hallelujah.


    "Alright. Count me in, Goddess Svilran."


    I extended my hand to her, the blond, blue-eyed goddess with puffy pink cheeks. She jumped up with delight and readjusted her white gown before eagerly taking my hand. She showed me the grin that would be home on an eager child''s face.


    "Pleased to be teaming up with you, Fin!"


    ***


    Walk and Talk


    So, we were out standing on a thin layer of water that reflected the cosmos that surrounded us. Pretty crazy, I guess. I was pretty drab compared to the voluptuous goddess before me and the scenery. She didn''t seem to mind, though—thank god for that. I couldn''t imagine being stuck with a vain god on her passion project.


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    "Okay, Svilran, you gave me the executive summary. What do I need to know?"


    She enthusiastically held up a finger. "Our goal is to create a hub world for the heroes of the fantastical worlds to return to and leave from."


    "Right, and we need to do that because—"


    Svilran clenched her fist, squeezing out some yellow stars as she did. "Because the reality that''s left NEEDS heroes!" She created an image of Earth. "When Earth ended, it unleashed all the metaphysical evil humanity had bred and nursed since the Age of Atlantis out into the Imaginal Realms! Demons—both the named ones and the amalgams— vengeful spirits, djinn, elder evils, bad juju—it all came out!" She crossed her hands and nodded. "Earth was kind of like this giant cosmic plug—"


    "And humans exacerbated what Earth was plugging up?"


    "Yeah. Earth''s Humans have really powerful minds, you see—"


    I put up my hand. "Hold on. This is an incredibly important question. Are humans the root of all evil?"


    "Oh, goodness no. The physical dimensions'' humans aren''t and weren''t."


    "Oh, whew. I thought we were going there—"


    "They were justreallygood at making it worse."


    I dropped the semblance of the smile that I had.


    "It''s like you had one evil entity that was worth 1 point. It found a human and whispered into its ear, and then the human went and boosted the evilness in the world by five points."


    I sighed. "Okay, this is pretty human-centric. Question. Are aliens real?"


    Svilran smiled. "I have no idea."


    "Huh?"


    "I''m a god belonging to Earth''s solar system. I don''t know about anyone else out there in the physical realm. I mean, wedohave the Venusians and the folks from Neptune, but they were residents of the subtle worlds from the start. They just happened to be close enough to cross... They''re not the aliens you''re thinking of."


    "Are you sure? I''m willing to accept Venus ghosts as aliens."


    "But they really aren''t. The beings that correspond tootherplanets stillbelongto theEarth-Sphere. Hey, do you remember the constellations? Like Leo and Cygnus and that stuff?"


    "Yup."


    "Would you call Cygnus, the entity that reflectsthatconstellation, an alien?"


    I put my hand on my chin. "Huh... No?"


    "Why not? He came from outer space."


    "But humans made up the constellations—"


    "Did they? Or was it because someone like Cygnus existed that humans could think to see a swan in the stars? Did the thought that created the entity come first, or did the thought come because the entity was there to inspire it?"


    "Okay. Got it. Won''t ask... But wait, what happened to Cygnus then?"


    "Oh, he died."


    I was silent.


    "But to be fair, a lot of Earth''s gods died."


    "Butyoudidn''t? Actually, come to think of it, I''ve never heard of aSvilran."


    Her eyes went wide as she laughed off my observation. "That''s because I wasn''t in the public eye, silly! Anyway, the Earthly Gods were on the top of the dog-pile because of our proximity to physical-human minds. Mostof thegodsleft now are the minor-relative-to-us gods that govern the fantastical worlds of the Imaginal Realm."


    "Hmm... Okay... So humans made a problem worse than it was, and then we hit critical mass, and because of our place in the cosmos, it ruined things significantly."


    "Right." Svilran held up her hands. "But not humans'' fault. Everyone makes mistakes—"


    "Aww, that''s a merciful thought."


    "—and humans just kept making them over and over. Honestly, you kind of had to wonder how a group could be so stupid. But again, everyone deserves a second chance."


    I blinked at her many times. She smiled at me in turn.


    "Uhuh. Okay... Thanks for the second chance, I guess."


    "You earned it, Fainn!" she said as she slapped my back and laughed.


    Well, it was good that one of us was energetic. It was kind of odd that I was feeling more animated with every slap though...