Chapter 2: Ch2- O Lady Of the House,

When the lights vanished, Ali blinked a few times, trying to clear the floating stars in his vision. What he first saw, when his eyes had returned to normal, was a door, painted blue. A wooden door, not unlike any he had seen throughout his life. Yet observing it drew him in for a moment, filling him with a feeling of finality; small sense of anxiety bubbling from inside.

After a moment of silence, he managed to separate his eyes from the door, to see the house it was attached to, and the garden surrounding it. It was magnificent, a slice of paradise. The bushes of rose surrounding the cobblestone path that separated the seemingly infinite garden in two, the ferns, trees, small insects buzzing around- everything had a beauty to it that left Ali speechless. Yet, it was also just a simple garden.

With a startle, Ali returned to his senses, only for his eyes to make their way to the larger than life door once more. He stood on the porch in silence, not sure what the hell was going on. No sense just standing here like this. Yet, his body refused to move.

Ali didn’t know how long it took, but eventually, his hand moved on its own, knocking on the door of the 2 story manor. Every second that passed after filled him with even more anxiety and dread, until the door opened with a gentle chime.

“Ali Bakir, right? Come in dear; come listen to this old lady for a moment.”

Beautiful. That was all he could think of at the moment. She was a woman of average height, but that was the most Ali could make out of her as a fact. She was not old, yet not young either. Crow’s feet were adorning the edges of her eyes, but the glistening skin spoke of youth. What Ali knew was that she was beautiful in a sense that he had never encountered before. She wasn’t pretty, sexy or hot- she was just… more.

Ali stood there, at the step of the door. His now parched lips opening before his mind caught up to him.

“I…”

“None of that dear, no need to be shy now. Come on in.”

She said with a smile. Still mesmerized, Ali stepped in, following her through the house. When he came to himself, he was sitting at a small square table, right across the old lady. In front of him, on the table was a cup of hot tea and 2 cookies. His eyes darted around the room, trying to make sense of what was going on. All he saw was a small kitchen, the kind that one could find anywhere, but it was perfect beyond sense. Every decoration, even pans and pots hanging from the wall racks or the cups and glasses in the cupboards were leaving him stunned.

“First, take a sip, will you?”

His eyes followed the voice to the small lips of the lady, then to the steaming cup in front of him. Hesitating for just a moment, he grasped the cup and lifted it to his mouth, taking a long sip. And just like that, the magic was broken.

The woman sitting in front of him was just a middle aged lady, not unlike his aunt. The pans were simple pans. The fridge was just a fridge. And Ali was sitting at an ordinary table by the window overlooking an ordinary garden. Yet the smile on the old lady was just as radiant as before. What was that..? Wait, where is Mary and Zahra? She saw the blue box too, right..?

“Better, right? I know how hard it can be meet with someone so far above yourself.”

She said as a matter of fact.

Grade? Above? Swallowing down his nervousness, Ali said the first thing that he could think of.

“Thank you, madam..?”

“You can call me Xena. Just Xena will do. You must have a lot of questions, right? Go on; ask them, I will answer as best as I can.”

Xena said with a beaming smile, encouraging him on. Ali tore his gaze from her back to the tea that he was now grasping with both hands. Hundreds of questions were racing through his mind. Where is this, what was that white light or the blue box, what is a grade and many more, but it was the simplest question that left his lips at the end.

“What is going on?”

Ali asked, playing with the cup in his hands after taking another sip. He didn’t know how or why, but the tea was helping him.

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“Oh dear, that is a big question to ask. You remember the blue box, right? It is just as it said. Your previous life, Seeding Stage, has ended. People of your world are about to enter another, grander stage. And I am here to help you, and billion more like you throughout your universe in the process.”

Billion others? Is she a god?

“The system, as you will come to learn shortly, is very powerful, powerful beyond belief. It seeds life throughout the multiverse, waiting and watching until they exhaust their potential. That is what happened to the humans of Earth. You reached the point where that System deemed that taking more active role would be more preferable.”

“Potential? But we were discovering something new every other day, weren’t we? Wasn’t everything getting better and better? How could we not have more potential?”

His protest was weak, Ali knew that, but that was all that he could do, trying to grasp at any fragment of rationality as best as he could. He saw the lady’s lips turn to a grimace, and his heart dropped. Just for a second, he felt like an idiot for causing such a reaction, but the feeling of wrongness vanished as fast as it came. He returned his gaze to his tea and untouched cookies.

“Yes, true, you were advancing, but it was all going in the wrong direction. Technology, mass production and advanced tools to be more specific were reducing the chances of humanity of Earth advancing on its own. You see dear, a craftsmen has to work with own two hands to give soul to his work. But with your people using machines to make machines, it killed any chances of developing to a craftsmen society too. Your technology might get better, but it is a dead end, you would have never been able to leave your galaxy before the end of your universe.”

Ali didn’t know what to say to Xena, or to say anything at all. It was too much.

“What about Mary? Zahra?”

His voice was hollow. He didn’t question if she would know them. She had known and expected him, whatever she was.

“Ah. Long story short is, humans of Earth will have to adapt to new life, a life of conflict. Earlier stages can be very stressful for adults, let alone children. Mary is in statis at the moment. She won’t feel a thing, but she will come out at Stage 2. Authority over her is in the hand of Zahra. If she dies, then her husband can decide to redeem her from the stasis, or pass his authority over to her next of kin. Actually, you are 5^th on line for Mary. Her mother, father, grandmother, grandfather are before you, while your uncle and aunt are the only ones after you. If all of you die or refuse, she will be send to one of the orphanages that will come at the start of Stage 2.”

His hand tightened around the cup, and he steeled his emotions. He had never been particularly close to his uncle or aunt, despite all the help they had given. Only morsels of happiness in his life had come from the 2 girls. He had tried his best to give the two of them the best life he could, and he would do so again. He didn’t know what the stages meant, but it was clear that he had to be there for them through it.

Sulking never helps. Ali repeated to himself. He had heard it a hundred times from his father when he was a child, enough to engrain action into him.

“What do you mean by conflict? Also, why do you always say humans of Earth? Are there more humans?”

He lifted his head once again, to witness a smile brighter than sun itself. Bright enough to lessen all his worries.

“Ah, but of course! One of the System’s goals is to help races ascend. One of them was, as you would put it, a humanoid. Not a human mind you, my dear, but a mankind. Humans, elves, dwarves, beastmen, harpies, halflings, and many more are based on them. There are more, such as demons or trolls, who have essence from 2 ascended races, through that doesn’t make them any more likely than your race to ascend. There were millions of planets of humanoids alone in just your universe. But you really shouldn’t care about this topic for now. You just have to keep advancing the Stages and levels. Things like nature of the System or ascension are little ahead of you.”

Millions of planets..? and that is humanoid alone? I knew universe was almost infinite, but if you put it like that…Ali took one more sip as he listened with attention. He didn’t miss that she hadn’t said anything about the conflict she had mentioned, but he gave a polite nod to her, assuming that she would come to it at some point.

“Levels? Also, what will happen at Stage 1? What should I expect?”

“Well, before that you still have to start and go through Stage Zero. As for levels, it would be easier to show you. Hmm, there are a few ways, but for now, just say ‘Status’ out loud.”

This isn’t Stage Zero? The blue box had said that he was being teleported to Stage Zero, so Ali had expected this to be it. Putting his confusion momentarily aside, he did as he was told.

“Status.”