Lazoreza looked down at the boy resting in her lap. After his tears had run dry, he hadn't spoken; he had simply stared blankly at the infinite white ceiling until exhaustion finally claimed him.
While he slept, she reached into the quietest corners of his mind to view his memories. They played out before her like a tragic theater of shadows. She watched a child navigate a world of ice and steel, playing a daily game of chess with Death just to secure a mouthful of with Death just to secure a mouthful of water or a dry corner to sleep in.
"How?" she whispered, her voice breaking. "How can a child endure this? How can the world be so cruel as to let a soul spend every waking moment bargaining for its life?"
She wept for him then. Her tears fell silently, shimmering droplets of divinity that vanished against his tattered, spectral form. She remained motionless, a goddess transformed into a hollow vessel of grief, simply holding him until the world began to stir again.
Ram's eyes fluttered open. The first thing he saw was that molten gold—the eyes of the woman who had held him through the dark. He didn't move. He didn't pull away. He simply stared into that golden warmth, searching for a sign.
The silence between them was no longer heavy; it was a fragile bridge
"Can you help me?" Ram asked, his gaze burning with a desperate, final hope.
Lazoreza, who already felt the echo of his plea in her own heart, nodded softly. "I can."
"Then... can you save my brother?" His voice was a thin thread, ready to snap if she said no.
"I will," she replied, her voice firm and absolute.
Ram closed his eyes. A sound escaped him—a broken, jagged word he had never had a reason to speak in his twenty years of suffering.
"Tha—nk yo—u," he choked out. "Thank you... really, thank you so much."
Fresh tears flowed, but they were different now. They weren't the bitter salt of grief or the cold sting of the street; they were tears of joy. For the first time, someone had heard his voice. Someone had reached into the gutter and pulled him out.
Lazoreza's expression softened into a gentle, warming smile—a sunrise of her own.
"I will give your brother everything," she promised, her voice echoing with the authority of a queen. "I will find him a family to cherish him. He will have a life of comfort, the best education, and every resource he needs to make his voice heard. He will reach his dreams, Ram. I swear it on my own divinity."
To Ram, her words were the first dawn after a lifetime of night. He tried to scramble out of her lap, intent on kneeling, on pressing his forehead to the floor to show a gratitude he couldn't put into words.
But Lazoreza caught his shoulders. "No. There is no need for that."
She stood up, her robes flowing like liquid light as she looked out over the vast floor. "This place is the Veil of Reincarnation. I am the Goddess of the Alternative Universe, and I rule this threshold. Every million years, exceptional souls are brought here—those who changed history, those who performed great acts of righteousness, those who conquered worlds."
She looked back at him, her gaze piercing. "And then, there are anomalies. Like you."
An anomaly? Ram thought to himself. Or just a pity?
Lazoreza didn't answer his thought directly. Instead, she stepped closer, the air around her humming with power.
"I have told you what I will do for your brother," she said, her voice becoming a commanding chime. "But now, let me ask you, Ram! What about you? You have sacrificed your life, your body, and your very soul for another. But here, in the Veil, you are more than a beggar. What is it that you want for yourself?".
"Me?" Ram whispered, the word feeling foreign on his tongue. "Me? Please... I just want to rest. I only want to sleep. You can do whatever you want with me... just let me rest."
Lazoreza remained silent. Ram closed his eyes, surrendering to the stillness, cherishing this single, fragile moment of peace as if it were the only treasure he had ever owned.
While he drifted, Lazoreza summoned a massive, ancient scroll that unfurled and hovered in the center of the white room. With a sharp flick of her wrist, she sliced the parchment into dozens of pieces. The fragments shimmered and reshaped themselves into open ivory boxes, each one containing the coordinates of a different Universe or Alternative Reality.
She looked at Ram, seeing him truly asleep for the first time—a deep, heavy slumber that signaled the end of his suffering and the start of something new. With a movement as fluid as flowing water, she reached out and caught the lingering tears on his face. She compressed them in her palm, hardening the salt and sorrow into a brilliant, clear crystal.
"Let fate judge for you," she whispered
She tossed the crystal high into the air. It spun through the light, catching the radiance of the Veil before plummeting into one of the white boxes. Lazoreza levitated the chosen vessel toward her.
"A.U. #0032404," she read aloud. A faint smile played on her lips. "An interesting world fate has chosen for you, little one."
Next, she summoned a second scroll, this one a vibrant, pulsing blue. She tore it into fragments that became a new set of boxes, each holding a different destiny or power. Again, she threw the crystal. It bounced and skittered before landing in a box tucked away in the corner.
She pulled it close and read the inscription: #1315142011415.
"A powerful gift," she murmured, looking at the sleeping boy. "Even Fate itself wants to see you thrive, Ram."
But Ram didn't hear her. He was buried deep in his dreams. Lazoreza watched him, a strange, creeping warmth spreading through her chest—a feeling she had never known in all her eons of existence. She tilted her head toward the ceiling, her voice soft and questioning.
"Mother? Is it normal for me to feel this way for a mortal?"
A voice, ancient and solemn, resonated through the Veil. "Lazoreza... how should I know?"
Lazoreza puffed her cheeks in a pout, suspecting her mother was feigning ignorance, but she didn't push. She turned her attention back to the boy in her lap. With a sudden, firm decision, she leaned down and pressed her lips to his forehead. It was a sweet, lingering kiss—a vow of protection, a silent promise that he was no longer alone in the infinite.
"Oh? What is happening here?" her mother's voice rang out again, now brimming with mischief. "Has our little 'Lala' finally found her love at last? I must tell your sisters. This is monumental news!"
"Mother! No! Don't tell them!" Lazoreza cried out, her face flushing a deep crimson. "Motherrrr!"
But it was too late; the gossip of goddesses moved faster than light. Lazoreza didn't move, refusing to disturb Ram's rest. She leaned down once more, planting a deeper, more meaningful kiss on his lips.
As she pulled away, Ram's phantom body began to shimmer. He started to disintegrate, his form breaking apart into a thousand glowing white butterflies. They fluttered upward, heading toward the void—a beautiful exodus of light representing the freedom he had finally earned.
"It is time for you to travel," Lazoreza whispered as the butterflies surrounded her. "Go now. I will wait for you here. When your time comes to die again, I will do anything to bring your soul back to me. We will be together. That is my promise, dear Ram."
She watched until the very last butterfly vanished into the darkness of the new universe.
Unbeknownst to her, she wasn't alone. Peering through the folds of the Veil, her mother and sisters watched the scene with tearful eyes, moved by the unprecedented sight of a Goddess falling for a soul from the dirt. They were happy for her, celebrating the moment their sister finally found the one who would hold her heart.