Audience

"Calm yourself child, and look above you."

As the deep voice echoed through the empty white space, Eres looked up in the air and promptly fell onto his backside, as staring down at him were seven figures. They floated in the air as if they were sitting on invisible thrones, and more than one of them chuckled at his fall.

The middle figure floated down closer to Eres until he was only a few feet above him. Though hovering in the air, now he was up close Eres could see that the figure looked to be a teenage boy with a shock of black hair and pure white eyes. Dressed in a pure white tunic and no shoes, he was curled in whatever invisible chair he possessed in a languid position, chin perched in hand.

"Hey, kid. The old ones sent me down here to chat with you because I looked closest to your age. You can call me Ekros," the Boy spoke happily, a laugh in his tone, "and I am going to give you some wisdom, how does that sound?"

Eres just stared blankly at the boy. Old ones? Wisdom? Ekros? He was very quickly losing his grasp on anything that was happening and as he looked up behind the boy in front of him he noticed the other six figures were gone. Slowly clambering to his feet he stared at the floating boy in front of him and began to speak.

"Ekros was it? Just going to be plain with you here but I am really not sure what is going on. I was in an office and now I am here, and you happen to be floating, so sure, wisdom sounds great if it comes with an explanation." Eres' voice started off barely a mumble but gained strength with every word until he was speaking at his usual volume and pace. The dark-haired boy in front of him went from a small smile to a face-splitting grin.

"Look at you go Kid! That's better, much better! Some fire in you," Ekros laughed out loud as he spoke, the harsh sound echoing off into the distance. "Sure, wisdom and an explanation that seems doable to me."

Ekros cleared his throat a few times and began to speak, "Let's start simple. You are still in an office, we just brought your consciousness here for a moment so we could speak. Don't worry, no time will pass while you are here and you were only brought here to talk, so any worries you have about that can be put aside, assuming you believe me anyway.

"Explanation wise you can consider us, me and the six other folks who just floated off, to be administrators of this world. Common folk call us the Gods, but you aren't quite common, are you?"

"Not common? What, cause I am a Baron's child?" Eres felt sweat form on the back of his neck as he watched the smile of the boy in front of him grow.

"No no no, not because of that!" Ekros laughed out, the laugh once again booming around the space and into the distance. "Even the children of Nobles don't often have memories of their past life you know.

And no, before you ask, it isn't our doing. Think of it like a glitch in the system that reincarnates souls, you just happened to keep your memories. It is rare, but not unheard of. So, that goes for the explanation… any questions?"

"Well, past life aside… Gods? Does everyone meet a God when they learn about their blessing?" Eres asked.

"Nope, that is a virtue of you having memories of your past life and a rather unusual blessing. We occasionally talk to people of interest in your world, but it is rather rare and normally only a significant event causes our interest so… Congratulations?" Ekros struggled to keep a straight face as he shrugged.

"Okay, sure. Past life means interest, I vaguely understand," Eres heaved a sigh as his posture slumped, "So this wisdom has to do with my blessing I guess, and how it is unusual?"

Eres tried to keep his face calm, but the memories of Adrien once again had his inner voice sprinting around yelling about cheat skills, infinite power and level-ups. His lips twitched up into a smirk before he remembered that the being in front of him had already been aware of all his secrets, so probably knew of the childish thoughts in his head, causing his shoulders to dip lower again.

"Very well put. The wisdom I am going to impart is less about how your blessing works and more about what you should do with it," Ekros chuckled at Eres' slumped frame, before sitting up in a straight-backed posture. "You have what is called a Unique blessing, meaning that it can only exist in one being in the world at a time. They are rare but just like your past memories, they aren't unheard of. That being said, I would suggest coming up with a sufficient lie to cover your blessing so that people don't exploit you, at least until you are able to use it well."

Eres was silent for a few seconds as he thought before he slowly said "So I don't need to hide this or try not to use it? Just wait until I can defend myself and go from there?"

Ekros balked, but thankfully Eres' gaze was still on the floor as he was thinking. "No kid, you can practise and use it. Who would ever tell you not to use a gift given because of fear," his words tumbled out as he rushed to make himself understood, "Of course the blessing is yours so how you use it is up to you, this is just a suggestion."

"So when I head back to that office, I will understand my blessing just like everyone else does?"

"That's right. The second we send you back the connection will be made and you will understand everything about your blessing, like everyone from the most common to the rarest blessing. Just like everyone else you will have to put hard work in to make it anything more than a minor boon, but I am sure you can manage that."

Eres let out a long slow breath. "Ekros, God, whatever I should call you… Thanks. You went out of your way to help me out and not let me blunder through this, so even if it was just idle curiosity, thanks for the help, really." Eres looked up at the surprised eyes of the God in front of him, and his face lit up in a smile.

A small chuckle escaped his lips until eventually, a rolling belly laugh escaped the hovering boy's lips. Unlike his previous laughter this didn't boom around the strangely empty space nor did it echo into the distance. This laughter was small and personal, and it continued until tears were leaking from the edges of his closed eyes. Eres stood there perplexed as the boy laughed for a few moments until he felt slight giggles escaping him also. It was all so silly, he was talking to a god, with someone else's memories floating around his head to the point he wasn't even sure who he was.

How utterly ridiculous!

Eventually, the two boys' laughter ceased, though Ekros was still hunched clutching his sides. Wiping the tears from his eyes he spoke, "You know kid, I think you are the first person to thank a God for their favour in a thousand years. Sure people thank the heavens and they thank the concept of us, but you thanked me, me a literal God, as if I was your neighbour or friend. How truly unexpected, how sublime.

"Just for that, some more information. You could have found this out with time or research, so consider this a headstart if you will. You know that people's Blessings grow with use and that they are not a replacement for hard work or experience. What many don't know is that blessings are mutable. Someone born with a swordsman's blessing is not bound to that blessing for life, and if he was to train his skills to the point they overtook his swordsmanship, for example, his skill in magic, he would shift this blessing to that of a mage, or a hybrid blessing like a battle mage, or a spellsword, with me so far?

"This implies one can progress to other blessings of the same type. A swordsman casts down his blade and picks up a bow, and his gift becomes that of an Archer. A Paladin focuses less on his martial prowess and more on his Divine affinity and joins the ranks of those with the Priest's blessing. Or perhaps the swordsman focuses on the sword to such an extent it becomes a part of him, and when he next gets his blessing revealed to him it is that of a Sword Saint.

"This is all to say that you must not stagnate. As you have a Unique blessing you will never lose it or transform from its path, but you will be able to grow its strength, and perhaps this knowledge can help any allies you make in the future carve out a path for themselves."

Eres was staring at Ekros with his mouth wide open. This supposed headstart overturned all the knowledge he had read of blessings in his father's library about them being fixed from birth and being a blessing from the Gods that could never be ignored. Instead, here was one of those very Gods telling him that with work one could change their blessing and gain a new one.

He swallowed to clear the lump in his throat and had to cough a few times around his dry mouth to speak, "That is… a lot of information. Thank you, I am sure it will be incredibly useful in the future."

"That it will be," Ekros nodded, "Well, I suggest saying you have a Mage blessing or something similar. That will keep people off your back for now and let you experiment with your newfound gift.

"I am sure we will speak again, but for now… enjoy your gift, Eres. It was a pleasure meeting you- "

Before Ekros had finished his sentence, a roar sounded in Eres' ears and his vision went black, before coming back to him with his hand in the pool of metallic-looking liquid.

"Well boy, it doesn't take all day," muttered the gruff-looking Bishop across the desk, "I assume the connection was made successfully?"

Shaking his head to clear it and removing his hand from the bowl Eres stumbled out, "Yes, thats right. A Mind blessing, of the Mage to be specific."

"Very well. Shame it isn't Divine, but my part here is done," Bishop Marcus grumbled before starting to gather all of the implements on the desk, even upending the bowl's contents into a heavy flask. He looked up at Eres and his eyebrows knitted, "Begone with you then lad, we both have better things to do than gawk at each other all day! Back your family, straight down the passageway."

"Yes… Right. Right. I will be going then, thank you Bishop this was very helpful and I truly appreciate it," Eres gave a small bow as he started to head back towards the door, before looking over his shoulder and asking, "The God's that you serve Bishop, are they named at all? I remember reading the name Ekros somewhere, but I am not sure if it was fiction or scripture."

"Aye lade, Ekros is one of the Seven Deities that protect us and that I serve. You should be more up to date on your scripture as a Noble but," the old man sighed as he shoved the last of his implements into a thick iron-bound chest, "I suppose I will enlighten you. Ekros is the God of Time and Trickery, though he is said to be more playful than malicious. Why do you ask about him specifically Boy? Most would ask about the God King Athos or his wife Leera."

"As I said Bishop, just a name that I remembered. Thank you again for all your help, and I hope your journey is safe and quick," Eres bowed deeply and smiled at the old man before turning on his heel and heading back down the passageway.

God of Time was it? Well, let's just hope that is what you were focusing on, rather than your Trickery, Ekros.

* * *

"I am sure we will speak again, but for now… enjoy your gift, Eres. It was a pleasure meeting you- " Ekros watched as Eres vanished from his sight, whisked back to where he came, "again. Let's hope we get along better this time, Kid."

As the white expanse of space slowly faded into the insides of a large clock tower, the dark-haired youth stepped out of his throne of cogs and ticking hands and stretched his hands high into the air, feeling the tightness leave his shoulders, looking at the numerous streams of time warping around him, moving to his will.

"For both our sakes."