So are you leaving?

The journey towards the much-imagined Asteria was through long landscapes, and it wasn't as close as Morrigan thought. It took long enough for him to feel his ears numb from the goddess complaining about the whole journey they would have to make until they reached their destination, paths filled with tall, darkened trees, giving the path a chilly and somewhat melancholic atmosphere.

All this melancholy ended when Morrigan said, "Are you really so sad about all this?" He asked the goddess with a confused expression, always staring ahead, passing under the lower branches of the trees so they wouldn't hit his face. The goddess then seemed to look with round, teary eyes. "Yes, I hate all of this, I've been human in different worlds, and it's always awful. It took me 30 times to become a goddess..." She said, stopping and puffing her cheeks, her clear eyes full of tears giving her a funny expression. "Now, I'm stuck in another body again, and I can only leave here when I understand everything..."

When she finished speaking, she noticed the boy's displeased expression and then asked, "Why do you care so much about this?" She asked, changing her expression to something calmer, still a bit upset. Morrigan then said fervently, with closed eyes and a smile, "Are you forgetting it could be fun? I was going to be reincarnated here, and now it's just you and me... how about we look on the bright side?" She seemed to hear that like a sermon, and surprised, she turned her face to the side, with a red face, looking frustrated. Morrigan had little droplets in his mind, and the scene ahead was beginning to become clear in the morning sun; it was still morning despite the darkness caused by all the density of the tree branches in the area.

"Look, there's a city ahead... Actually, those are walls, and they're real big walls!" Impressed, Morrigan said with wide eyes and a shining gaze as he saw those structures, large with about four meters in height and two floors of division, entirely made of stone with several soldiers walking maturely under the construction, which was built within the solid and rough walls, on top of some parts that were lost on the horizon both to one side and the other, some watchtowers with soldiers using hand crossbows as weapons, looking closely at all movement below the walls.

"Asteria must be the capital of some place, or this place is different, it wasn't usually this big when I came to the realm of Osteria..." She said, scratching her face with the tip of her left index finger, intrigued by such architecture on a simple wall. "What do you mean Osteria and Asteria, where was the king's creativity when he thought of these names?" Curious, he exclaimed laughingly at that assertion, making the goddess give him a knock on his shoulder, calling attention to it. "Don't speak like that about the Asterians' culture, they are rigorous soldiers and have helped a lot against witches, they are an extremely civilized people, and many noble families live in Osteria..." she corrected him while he rubbed where she had hit him, it really hurt...

"So, does that mean I live here?... That's what this document with me says. Where will my home be?" they asked as they approached, hearing the sounds of carriages passing by them and the sounds of armor clashing subtly in the soldiers' walk. Some voices began to echo, and a soldier in the middle of four others at the gigantic main gate stopped them with his right arm raised, lifting his helmet completely... A serious-faced redhead with a cut on the side of his face that made his hair falter on the left side of his head.

"What realm are you from? Are you part of any of the 3 realms' families? Any documentation?" asked the soldier as he did his daily work, while they seemed to sweat cold, Morrigan then hurriedly pulled out his document, showing it to him with some insecurity since he didn't know where he was from, he had just reincarnated... The soldier looked at the documentation oddly, it was noticeable by the movement of his raised eyebrow while the other remained static. "Morrigan, Zi'o? Never heard of it, you must be new, but here it says you're from Asteria, and you're a Knight serving the court, how is that possible?" the soldier then looked at his nearby companions, and one of them said with a smile, a confident black guy in the next statement.

"He's a reincarnate, Frittz... He must be generated by the runes, that old story, you should know right away..." He said, taking off his semi-opened helmet completely, leaving it on top of the table... "Let's take him to the court he serves, and then they will help him. The clerics can guide him for sure; reincarnates suffer a lot when they arrive like this..." He said extremely confident, and he called Morrigan, turning his back with one hand, while Frittz the redhead asked, "And her?" he asked, stepping in front of the goddess, leaving her embarrassed, and making her recoil completely, Morrigan swallowed slowly, not knowing how to explain, he said, "We both reincarnated recently, and she doesn't have this document..." true, he expressed to the guards, who shook their heads negatively "We have very strict laws about letting her pass, Zi'o-san, we have to leave her here, she might be a witch tricking you, to awaken at any moment..."

He said, explaining with all tenderness, despite the rigorous words, he put his arm in front of Morrigan, who simply waited for the goddess to explode in anger as he imagined would happen, to his surprise, the goddess's eyes lowered, and she turned her back to leave, making Morrigan gape... "I'm sorry for this, friend, but rules are rules..." He said, looking a bit saddened, but he soon returned to his post, and the soldier on the other side called the boy... "Let's go! I'll take you; you'll see other pretty girls soon. She'll be fine, believe me, there's a place for everyone in Runegard..." He said confidently in what he claimed.

Swallowing hard, the boy said, "Give me a minute, I want to talk to her..." he said, running towards her as she was already a little distant from them. Arriving out of breath, he passed in front of her, and raised his arms as if asking "What's wrong?" without saying a word, she then hugged his left arm, somewhat saddened, and said, "I can't tell them I'm a goddess, it would be kind of weird, and they don't like magical powers in the realms, and it's better if I find a way on my own...," frustrated, she said to Morrigan, and he then asked with a face not understanding if that was indeed the same person as before... "So you're leaving?" he asked, feeling a little bad about it... "If you stay by my side, it will look very suspicious, don't you think? We can't convince them to let me pass..." She said this, and Morrigan then said, "You didn't even let me try, did you? Did you always do this in other worlds?" he asked, looking at her diplomatically, with a serious expression.

"Yes, the worlds are not made to favor reincarnates, either you reincarnate too strong or too weak, and you have to start everything from scratch, this cycle is horrible!" she said still avoiding looking at him, who followed her head tirelessly until she furiously said, "Stop trying to look into my eyes, how annoying..." He then took a deep breath and grabbed her wrist, and as he dragged her, she worriedly said in a loud tone "You don't need to do this for me, you'll end up condemning your reincarnation... Your second chance!" she tried to stop him, however, she herself noticed in his eyes a blue glow emerging mystic smoke, and through his wrist, she could hear the sound of a clock ticking sonorously, tick... tock... tick... tock...

In silence, as they approached Frittz, they began to talk with Morrigan saying, "Can you let her pass? Does this document allow us to find out who she is?" Frittz shook his head negatively, causing the goddess to grab Morrigan's arm with her other hand, trying to remove it. However, when Morrigan asked the next question, the entire place glowed blue for a few seconds, and only she heard a heavy clock gong ringing loudly... "Dong!" "I take responsibility for what happens to her. We'll find a cleric who can help her find her way; there's no soul without purpose in this world, right? Maybe my mission in this world is to find her destiny..." as he said this, the goddess widened her eyes subtly until her expression was open-mouthed, and then her expression became dark, totally nervous, her heart suddenly accelerated, but then she said, "Can I sign somewhere? To give my word?" she said trying not to seem so protected by him...

Frittz then thought for a few seconds, however, what he didn't know was that there was much more about him being convinced by Morrigan... The guard then took a blank document and let the goddess sign it... "What name do I put?" she asked softly, pulling Morrigan by the arm. "Do you have any you liked when you reincarnated before?... I don't want to have to give you a name..." he said embarrassed about it and then thought with his hand to his chin... "Goddess," he said without any creativity at all, apparently, his creativity had been all spent at that moment. She then thought for a few seconds and smiled, writing that name on the paper handed over by the soldiers.

Both entered guided by the soldiers; the goddess was now quite happy, thinking that perhaps believing in something again was necessary for a goddess who had seen a lot; faith was something she had lost over time, seeing the way Morrigan had believed in something and made it happen, she smiled curiously and excitedly with her fingers intertwined in front of her face, wanting to know what would happen next...

"What is this feeling? Am I... happy?" she thought with an extremely red face, and happy with that, they were in Asteria, and soon they would discover more about Morrigan, and perhaps about Goddess, his travel companion...