Chapter 130 - A Chat With God [I]

We talked about a few more things last night till I got drowsy and almost fell asleep. I felt Mama's frail fingers tuck me in as I took deep breaths. Soon, I heard her footsteps faint away as she left and the clack-clack-clack of her feet as she trotted downstairs to her own room.

After letting all of my thoughts and secrets out, I felt so much more comfortable, and sleep came to me much easier than before. Before I knew it, I was dreaming once again. 

One moment I was lying asleep on my bed, and the other, I was thrown into a sudden void of eternal darkness. Not a thing in sight, and I walked endlessly for a while, trying to find something of use. At the time, I had not known it was a dream, but everything seemed very much real. 

"Hello?" I called out hopelessly, hearing the echo of my own voice. "Where am I? Is anyone there?"

Again, I received not a single reply. It was dark, and I might as well have been blind because it was all the same everywhere I looked. A fear instilled inside me of the unknown, and I suddenly wondered if I really had gone blind all of a sudden. In a panic, I touched my eyes and looked at my hands afterwards, hoping I'd see something, but there was nothing. 

"Hello?" I called again, the fear inside me growing by the second. Was there really no escape? Would this be my end?

All of a sudden, there was a dull glow of a light behind and the hope came rushing back to me as I turned around and ran towards it. It was a mere orange door in the endless void, but my, didn't it help? But as I progressively stepped towards the door, the dot came towards me, too, and after a few more steps, I was sure that this was a person carrying a lantern. 

Even so, I was ecstatic and I broke into a full run to whoever had appeared as an angel to save me from this perturbing situation. As I got closer, the unique features of this person became clearer and clearer, and I frowned since it was someone I had never seen. 

A middle-aged woman dressed in a long, straight green gown with sparkles from the top to the bottom walked elegantly towards me as if modelling was her specialty in heeled shoes concealed by her extremely long dress. Her hair that hung down to the floor was fair to such an extent it seemed almost white, and so was her skin, as white as the early window snow. She wasn't wearing any makeup, but then again she didn't need to, since she was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.

Her immense beauty made me slow down till I stood rooted to my spot. I had thought that Yvonne was the definition of a goddess, but this woman seemed like she could be an actual female deity.

"My, my," she muttered as she eyed me with interest, her extremely light golden eyes moving slowly from my head to my toes. I, too, looked down at my own self and was surprised to see that I was wearing a mere white dress with nothing to indicate it belonged even to the most lowliest of commoners. My hair was free from all restraints and hung around me in their original lilac glory and I wondered how it had some to that. My feet were bare, and dare I say, very cold. 

"W-Who are you?" I said suddenly as I got my tongue back. I gulped. "What is this place?"

The woman smiled, and I knew my mouth was agape at that moment. 

"Let's start with formalities, shall we?" she said softly as she clicked her fingers and two chairs appeared out of thin air. I gasped in utter surprise, but the woman seemed bored of it as she went ahead and sat herself down. I, too, following her lead, sat on the chair opposite hers and she waited till I was comfortable.

"So," she began as she clapped her hand and a tea table appeared between us and I watched half in horror and half in pure amazement as she casually carried on pouring herself and me some tea from a flowery teapot into small gold rimmed tea cups. 

"Sugar?" she asked. I nodded and she dropped in a cube of sugar and handed me the fragrant cup of tea. Hesitantly, I took it and felt the warmth around my palms, which was ever so pleasant.

"Who are you?" I said, scared. There was no way I could bring myself to drink tea that appeared out of god-knows-where.

The woman took a  small sip of her tea and made a face. "Oof, this was supposed to be rose flavored, why is it green? I hate green tea. My magic's getting a tad bit rough around the edges, is it? Give it here," she said and took my cup of tea before making it disappear and having a new set of tea appear in front of her.

"Much better." She sighed after taking a sip of this new brew. Then she looked up at me and it was as if she hadn't even noticed I was there. "Oh! Right. My name,"- She put an elegant hand over her collar bone, indicating to herself- "is Astrid."

"Just Astrid?"

The woman smiled. "Just Astrid. For now."

I nodded and leaned back in my chair. "My name-" I paused, contemplating which name I should tell her. "My name is Ashli. Ashli Rivers."

The woman chuckled as she stirred a cube of sugar in her tea. "No need to conceal the obvious from me, dear Cynthia. Or should I say..." Her eyelids flickered upward and she stared intensely with her almost clear eyes at me, making me break out into a cold sweat. "...Seonhee?" 

I gasped and the cup of tea fell to the floor from my grasp. 

"Ah..." Astrid sighed and with a flick of her finger, the broken shards of china disappeared from my feet. But I didn't even notice. I was much too shocked to move. 

"H-How did you know?" I whispered, my eyes wide.

"How did I know what?" she asked as she, too, leaned back and drank her tea snugly. "That your name is Seonhee?"

I felt my head nod. Astrid shrugged. 

"I always knew," she muttered as she sipped her tea again. "There's nothing that goes unnoticed by me, and I'm omniscient to all things. I'm God, love."

I sat there, blinking. "Y-You're God?" The woman nodded. I frowned. "But isn't God supposed to be a man?"

The woman scoffed before putting an arm over the back of her chair and sighing. 

"I don't know how it came about that God's a male. I don't have any gender. I change forms as I please." Astrid pointed at herself and smirked. "Humans are so tiresome, saying I'm a man and putting me on par with themselves. How pathetic. Sometimes I wondered why I even bothered to create them. I guess I was bored, then."

I gulped. Wait, was this real? Was this woman, although beautiful, really an actual God? I stared long and hard at the fair lady, and it slowly dawned upon me that I was dreaming. 

"Wait, there's no way this is real," I said, chuckling hysterically as I stood up. "I'm dreaming! One can surely not believe a dream."

Astrid was unfazed as she sipped her tea. 

"Well," she said as she put the teacup down and looked up at me with those intense eyes, "this is not a normal dream, nor is it a mere lucid dream. At the moment-" Astrid clicked her fingers and a large screen appeared a couple feet to my side, a tad bit smaller than a cinema screen. After a few static buzzes, the screen groaned to life and a picture appeared on it in full color. At first, I struggled to recognize who the person laying on the small bed was, but then I took a closer look and gasped.

It was a picture, or dare I say, a video, of me lying asleep in my room. I slept serenely, and not an inch of my body moved to indicate any life in me. The only proof that I was staring at the playing video were the curtains as they fluttered due to the small crack in the window.

"You aren't in your body right now," Astrid whispered. "And nor is this a dream. It's just a space I created where your soul and I could have a little chat."

I gulped, still staring at myself.

"That's you right there, Seonhee," Astrid said as she stared at the screen. "Don't you look beautiful in your new body? How did transmigrating for the first time feel?" 

I choked up on my words as I turned to look at her. 

"I..." I gulped under the pressure. This was the first time I was sharing this information with someone else. I had kept it in for so many months, and I almost burst out at the opportunity to let it all out. "I don't know if I feel happy or sad about it. It's something you read about in story books or comics, and never did I once consider the possibility of it happening to me. But in the end, I think I'm enjoying the experience."

Astrid nodded as she sipped her tea. "But," she said, flicking her fingers and making the screen disappear from my sight, "it does come with its limitations. Isn't that right?"

I pursed my lips in a straight line and sat down. "I guess."

"Well, I'd love to catch up!" Astrid said, clapping her hands once. "But first, I have something to ask."

I waited for her to quiz me, and I was surprised at her choice of question