A memory from years ago.

  David did not think of himself as a prince. He was handsome and charming, but he was David before he was a prince. David loved to play games with his younger half-sister. David loved to train his body. David loved to run freely through the fields of corn that surrounded the inner circles of Vena Cava.

  The prince was weighed by responsibility. He had to smile properly at meetings. He had to shake hands in the proper way. He had to prepare himself for the war with his younger sister, knowing only one of them could survive.

  David liked being David more than he liked being the prince.

  This was why David’s friend Rose was so vital to him. She was the daughter of a lower ranked noble family, one that came from money rather than prestige. And she was incredible at shaking hands and playing these endless games with greedy, power-hungry nobles. And most importantly, she had taught David how to be so good at it, that he could be free again in his own mind.

  To be skillful is to do an action without thinking. Rose had taught David how to lie and connive in his sleep. Thus, she had freed his mind from the prison of social bonds. In his own mind he could become a hero from the stories of old, defeating disgusting old men with his glorious gift.

  David’s mind raced with thoughts as he tried to go to sleep on his thirteenth birthday.

  It is difficult as a teenager to truly understand the magnitude of some moments in one’s life. Prince David understood that this moment was going to change everything. All his dreams and hopes for the future would be defined by his gift. And so, with thoughts of that future, David lay awake in the night.

  Some kids take some “helpers” to make them fall asleep faster on the night of their thirteenth birthday. But David had never been one for drugs. He was planning on falling asleep through pure force of will.

  His mind shifted back to thoughts of Rose. She was a few days older than him, and she had been introspective since she had received her gift. She had received the ability to impart colors onto anything she touched.

  She had spent the entire first day with her gift pulling pranks on some of the snootier noble houses by changing their personal banners and crests into garish colors.

  But her ambition had not been sated. David had watched his friend grow more and more distant, thinking about the meaning behind her life.

  The gods could measure the value of a person’s life. And from that measurement they would impart a gift to that person that was of equal value to their life. This had all happened centuries ago because of the problems of the first age and the amount of power that any random person could be given. All that was beside the point though.

  David watched his friend think, ‘what is the value of my life if all I can do is change the colors of objects?’

  The meaning of life was a difficult subject for many people. David had heard all sorts of opinions on the subject.

  The devout believed that all of humanity were pawns in the gods’ game and that all life was essentially meaningless in the face of the conflict between the gods. People existed for the gods.

  Some people spoke about how humans needed to create their own reason for life. Humans didn’t need the gods to find contentment and joy in their small existence.

  Even some more radical groups believed that humans needed to extend the game the gods played so that they never grew bored. Humans only existed for the gods’ entertainment, and as soon as they stopped providing, they would be thrown away like an old toy.

  David wasn’t sure what he believed about the subject. Life had seemed too linear to him already, so he wasn’t clear on his personal direction. He had never made a real choice on his path through life, because everything had already been laid out for him.

  His position gave him immense benefits, like having serving staff waiting on his every moment. But at the same time, those servants laid out his clothes without ever giving David a choice.

  This was the life that David had known, and he was brooding about his place within the grander scheme of Life.

  Alas, heavy thoughts lead a tired child into the world of dreams. David never got to finish his ruminations on his place in the world, because he was asleep and sleeping children on their thirteenth birthday go to the gods.

  David opened his eyes and saw colors beyond comprehension. He was standing in what looked like a massive marble atrium. Along the walls were heavy tapestries covered in colors that David couldn’t tear his eyes from. There were paintings that seemed to be moving until you looked directly at them. It was so wonderful, why didn’t this exist where humans lived? Why was this reserved for the gods?

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Throughout the atrium were massive pillars. Each was detailed to show an entire life start to finish. Some people shown were famous humans, while others were just people who lived day to day. There were even animals shown as the center of pillars’ stories.

  There were giant statues that moved to look at David as he wandered around this incredible room. It was beyond comprehension and yet just enough within reach to make David keep straining his mind to truly understand it all.

  From a corner of the room a tired voice called out, “let’s see here, you must be somewhere in my notes.”

  David didn’t know what to expect of the gods. The most profane religions painted them as cruel and malicious, while the devout truly believed in their sanctity and power. This god just sounded like a middle sibling who had been stuck doing the worst of the chores.

  There was something disappointing about meeting this god.

  David turned to face the being he knew was a god. But all that was there was a series of dominoes laid out in an endless pattern, falling. The dominoes fell, then turned upside down, preparing to fall again at some later time.

  Somehow, the being made of dominoes searched through a stack of papers, throwing them left and right after briefly reading them.

  “I’m not seeing you here in my notes, David. Well, that’s not the end of the world I guess I just have to do it manually.”

  The dominoes fell towards David and briefly touched his forehead. David felt some sort of presence enter his soul. He had never felt his soul before this moment and his first impression of it was someone forcing their way in. It was not a great way to meet this new sense.

  The god that David was fairly sure was Fate tumbled into a pile of unmoving dominoes. All of them stopped moving and fell to the floor in a giant unmoving heap. Then the dominoes started to form together into the shape of a man.

  The god solemnly turned to face David. “You have no karma. How is that possible?”

  The god began pacing in front of David in a frantic shuffling-falling walk. “You have existed; therefore, you must have karma. Karma is literally the string that binds all beings together. You were born thus you must at least have a connection to those that birthed you.”

  “It makes no sense. If you live you must have karma, only the dead or those that haven’t existed don’t have it. What are you?”

  Fate faced David and looked at him. “Are you sure you’re not a god playing a new prank on me?”

  David spoke for the first time, “no. I am a human.” He was shivering, this sounded unusual, and David did not enjoy being unusual in this context.

  The god walked back over to David and opened his mouth, inspecting his teeth like a prize horse. “Yes. You are definitely just a human. But what is wrong with you?”

  “What’s wrong with you?” David accusatorially snarked back at the god. Maybe not the wisest choice he could have made, but David was true to himself to a fault.

  Fate seemed to think about the question for a moment. The god brightened like they had suddenly come to an answer. Then they fell back to the ground in a puddle of dominoes as they realized they didn’t like the answer to the question.

  After reforming into a shape that was vaguely manlike, the god addressed David in a tone of finality.

  “By the compact made by the gods, I may only allow gifts to go to humans with appropriate amounts of karma. You have no karma; therefore, you cannot have a gift. I am sorry, for what it may be worth to your tiny human soul.”

  With a shove, the god pushed David out of the room. Through the walls, through the world itself David’s soul floated through space on a beeline to his body.

  He had no thoughts in his mind other than, “why?”

  What did it mean that his life had no karma? Would he not affect the world around him? Was he so truly insignificant that his life had no worth to the gods?

  David let his soul scream into the void as he hurtled into his body.

  David curled into the fetal position and refused to get out of bed. What point was there to living his life if the gods themselves had decreed that he was worthless?

  Servants knocked on the doors and David screamed for them to go away. His presence was requested to address his father and tell him of the gift he had just received, he yelled at them too.

  David oscillated between anguish and anger. He burned with self-loathing, at the fact that he didn’t matter enough. And then his anger was cooled by depression when he thought of the ramifications of his life having so little meaning.

  Rose snuck into his room. But David didn’t even look at her, he was so focused on his inner world that the outside seemed frail and weak in comparison to his inner brooding.

  She didn’t say a word. She just sat in the corner of the room and let the silence fester, like mold growing on a loaf of bread. Eventually, it was impossible to forget about. The silence ate David up, until all the unspoken words hanging in the air began to be spoken.

  David slowly described his experiences in the clouds to his friend and confidante. Rose’s eyes burned with rage but showed none of the empathy that David was expecting.

  “We don’t matter to them.” After David finished his story, Rose uttered the declaration that would change their lives.

  It was that simple. It had always been that simple.

  “We are a game to them. Nothing more and nothing less. Our lives exist as their entertainment. The read our lives and think to see their meaning in the strings of karma. But they are wrong. They have never lived as we have, and they can never understand what it means to be alive. They cannot understand what it means for a life to have value.” David got up from his bed as he gave his impassioned speech to Rose.

  David and Rose concocted the beginnings of a plan. They had Rose use her gift to change the color of David’s eyes and hair to something truly garish and hideous. They were going to pretend that David’s gift was manipulation of his hair and eye color.

  Then they were going to do something with all this impotent rage they held against the gods. This yearning desire to punch them in the face, they would find a way to get to heaven and make them understand what it was to be human.

  Before the two of them had even left the room to enact the beginnings of their new life. A knock came from the door.

  It was not a timid knock, but the knock of someone who was not going to wait for someone to open the door for them. The knock was more of a warning than a request.

  The door opened and a plain-looking person walked in. They had brown hair, brown eyes, brown skin, everything about them was a boring shade of brown. They held a wooden flute in their hands, and they smiled like a child who was in on a joke.

  “I hear you two are going to overthrow the gods. Do you think you could use a hand?”