Lost In Character: Transmigration Chronicles Of A Nameless Heroine

While this solution was sound for the current predicament, Amalasuintha's awareness of far-reaching consequences had told her that it would not remain sound in the long run. Still, she did not reject it out of hand.

"I see many ends to this," she'd said to the pantheon, "but two in particular stand distinct. First, the society of your people would become stagnant, in various ways. The uncertainties of birth would not guarantee that each disembodied soul would find a ready vessel; and should they manage it once, twice, a dozen times, what greater purpose would it serve? It is also the case that each new spark of life in the w.o.m.b begins forming its own consciousness after its heart begins beating. There is only a small window of time before then that a soul slated for rebirth could slip in. The second most probably outcome, then, is that your people would produce more souls that must remain as they are upon death, and in time, that would still greatly unbalance the cycle."

This much had been evident to the pantheon as well, when they took a moment to consider it, but because they were the deities of a people that prized individuality, they simply could not conceive of a solution that did not have as its final outcome the preservation of that individuality.

Meanwhile, what Amalasuintha ultimately wanted was for the cycle of life to continue, even with the inclusion of new elements. Thus, she counter-proposed: "If the suddenness of their identity's loss is what brings about the malice, then let us take away the suddenness.

"Yes, they shall pass through your dwelling upon death – to be embraced and to be cleansed – but after, when they are reborn, they shall be reborn among my people, that your children may gradually develop the capacity to feel past the confines of their own skins, to think about more than just their ambitions, and to wholly accept the realities of this world, which is and shall ever be their home.

"This might take one lifespan, or it might take one hundred, particularly if the individual had become one of the tainted. Still, when they achieve oneness with the earth, they would die a final time and return to the cycle, to later be reborn as so much more than all of who they'd been."

After hearing and considering this, the pantheon naturally protested the glaring imbalance of the arrangement. But being the daughter of the earth, Amalasuintha was not as compelled by that human construct called "fairness" as these divinities were, and so, just as naturally, this did not occur to her until they'd pointed it out.

She asked them what they thought would be a fair exchange for the condition she'd proposed, yet she made it clear as she did so that she would once again not be moved from her current position.

Though she did see the "fairness" in this, Amalasuintha was loath to allow it. After all, wasn't it the predecessors of these children who'd made outcasts of her first followers? Indeed, didn't they continue to make more? What would become of an all-encompassing soul born among people who were wrapped in fear and could not see past their own needs?

She knew all the numerous possible trajectories and was satisfied with none. However, she did recall the regret that always accompanied death before its proper time, especially with the young ones. Observing that there was little difference between most human children who were only focused on having their needs met and the children of the stars who were oriented towards the individual, she eventually agreed to this exchange.

To seal the arrangement that both parties had agreed on, as well as to finally make the pantheon a true part of this world, the chief Ansigar combined his power with Amalasuintha's to bring into being Ellanher, whose body was created by his mother from the earth.

To form his mind and spirit, they poured in influence: half from the sky, that he may know the value of structure and having something concrete to hold on to, and half from the earth, that he may know the value of change and having the strength to withstand turbulence.

With his perfectly dual nature, Ellanher thereafter walked both realms, creating a bridge that divine and mortal alike may cross to reach one another. It was through him that departed souls passed, to be received by their goddesses and gods and prepared to return to life in another incarnation.

Because this was the first time in her long existence that a child was born to her, one who was like her in many ways yet distinct and separate, Amalasuintha had not been able to infer what the full extent of Ellanher's influence would be down the ages. Even though his nature was parted in the middle, he was not halved in any way. He had transformed his duality into a wholeness, and his strength from either side was doubled and not reduced.

The unique nature of his divinity had an impact on reborn souls on both sides of the divide. With him emerged a third way of being, and just like the god to whom they flocked to, this new breed could walk both realms and could reasonably exist on either one.

However, in their ever-shifting cores, they knew they belonged to neither.

In this too, they resonated with the Child of Light and Darkness. In their nature was also ambition, but they did not want to be tied to one place and a single goal. They had strong connections with the earth and with other people, but they had no wish for their identities to be absorbed into the identity of the whole. They were strong in how they could bend nature to their will, and they were equally resilient in how they could bend to its greater power.

Amalasuintha's people experienced great distress over how generations of children who could at once give of themselves to others and assert their own needs appeared. They could not understand why anyone would wish for distinction, and it was with a heavy heart that they sought to bring their misguided children back fully into the fold.

Of these reborn humans who hovered in the middle of two ends, some had been silenced into bitter conformity and some had been encouraged to become part of the greater whole, as was intended.

But so many others remained in between, and rather than be subjugated by or cause more distress to others, they had taken it upon themselves to break away from it all.

In the end, what had separated these souls from the rest was the awareness that they had sovereignty over themselves. Always, they knew, they had a choice on how to be.