Chapter Four

Disclaimer

I don't own Mabinogi nor any NPC's connected. Either Devcat or Nexon does.

A/N

In this chapter, We pretty much know he will be talking to Nao. I have other ideas for this chapter but the main scope is the talk with Nao. Unlike the last chapter I have clear ideas what I want for this chapter but not the outline. I will play that by ear.

Instant the scene again, it was as if it was curtains on one scene only to have the curtain rise on another. Now he was on a pure white circular pedestal. All around the pedestal was pure white nothingness. The only thing he saw was an occasional white dove.

Suddenly a well-endowed woman with pure white hair done in a twin tail fashion appeared in the middle of the pedestal. The woman wore a black dress and had the prettiest blue eyes. This woman is widely known to the militants. She is Nao.

My heart pounded with excitement. I have somewhat a crush on this woman even though technically, she is a NPC and a servant to the Goddess. To the militants, however, she is more than just a plain servant to the goddess. She is the one that resurrects us when we fall in battle. When she does so, the goddess blesses all of the equipment we have on us. She also helps us with the rebirth ritual. Nao also helps bring over new militant thru the soul stream and helps orientate them to their new life in Erinn. In short, Nao is like an angel and a saint rolled up into one to the Militants. It is no wonder that some of the male militants have a secret crush on Nao and some of the female militants want to be just like her.

I cautiously walk up to Nao but like always she is waiting for me to interact with her. "Umm, Nao, I know we are supposed to discuss rebirth and such but that is not what I wanted to talk to discuss with you and quite frankly I had no other way to contact you."

She looked confused for a second then replied, "I see. So you are the militant the Goddess and I were discussing earlier. We also talked with my old childhood friend Tarlach about it since he had many interactions with militants."

Crestfallen, I dropped to my hands and knees. "Then what Tarlach said is true. My body is in the real world or rather the world I came from is dead and all that's left of me is what is here in this world."

I felt Nao's hand on my shoulder as I cried, "I am sorry, but what you have said is true. You are the first militant I have felt cross over their very essence so strongly. I did not materialize you here for you already had many avatars in Erinn and I knew that. With you, I had to consult the Goddess directly. We then brought Tarlach up to further the discussion. We knew your entire gaming history even to the point of knowing how sad you felt about deleting this avatar, the one you fondly call as your main. It was Tarlach's suggestion to revive this body for you so you can use it. It was hard but we were able to get it for you."

I quickly absorbed what she had said, "Then you knew all along I won't be able to log off ever again."

I looked up and for the first time realized the state I was in, Nao had tears in her eyes. "No you can never log off ever again. We knew you were truly stuck here and this will cease being a game to you. If this was a game to you, we won't be having this conversation. You will be stuck with the preprogrammed responses like all the other militants. Truth be telling I for one am glad to be able to talk freely with a Militant normally for once, even if it's the one that forces me to bear the pain of losing my father and over again."

That statement struck a painful cord deep within me. Nao is talking about the first storyline of Mabinogi, G1. At the end of the storyline her father sacrifices himself for the better good thus releasing the Goddess from her captures. Nao materializes and clutches her dead father in her arms as she cries. I found that storyline so prolific I had to replay it many times and found several ways to do so. I had no idea it affected Nao this much. If I had known I would never have replayed it so many times. "I am sorry, Nao. I had no idea…"

"Of course you did not know. You were just playing a game at the time. I don't blame you for that but try to be more sensitive now that you do know." My smile told her I would.

I choked as Nao continued, "Now that is settled I have a proposition for you. We did not give you a choice in which character you woke in. We only presumed you would be rejoiced in having this character back. However, we could not discount the number of female characters you had in the past as well. The Goddess said once you reached out to me she will let you have a choice of any character you wish to be in as long as it's a character you created in the past. Be forewarned that once you made your choice you will not be able to make this choice ever again. You will be stuck with the body you chose."

I thought long and hard. I did have fun with the Jenny persona I had a long time ago. However, it got sticky when the guys would hit on me. I did not have the heart to tell them I was a guy but how do I reject them without hurting them. Well if I chose a female character, I would be a female all the way. Now that thought scared the pants off me. I quickly rejected that. If I were to be stuck in a body, I rather be stuck in my true gender. That left my male characters and of them all, I only really cared for one. My choice was clear.

"I chose to stay in this character."

"Are you sure? This choice once made will be final?" asked Nao?

Again, I stood firm, "I am sure. This is my final choice. I only wish to thank everyone for making this choice available to me."

The atmosphere shifted again. When it was done shifting, I was in a familiar location. I say familiar but It was never officially a part of Mabinogi. It was conception drawings from Devcat of what the Goddess' inner chambers looked like. It was the sitting room I seen many times when the Goddess was having fun teasing Nao. I looked over at Nao and she seen the expression on my face that noted recognition. Her face burned red with embarrassment.

When the Goddess stepped thru the door, I immediately dropped to my knees and knelt before her. I had no other reference to draw from of what to do when suddenly faced with a real live goddess. I heard Nao giggle, "Get up Jack, although it's greatly appreciated, the goddess is not one for such formalities."

After I got up, I looked over to the goddess for the first time who decided to speak, "Before we begin explaining the many things we have done for you there is one last thing you need to decide. This is something only I can help you with and not Nao. It concerns your Knight transformation. As you are aware of, when one first gets their transformation, they are always Paladins of white knights. Later they have the permanent option to become Dark Knights. This choice concerns your DK status. While you made the permanent choice to stay with that body you are aware it is the only toon you have made that ever went DK and that is something you hated. You stopped playing with this character soon afterward. I think that is what led to you subconsciously deleting that character in the first place, which is another mistake you regretted. These mistakes I believe led you to be disenchanted with Mabinogi."

"The choice I am offering you is simple, this one time only I will make you a paladin once more if you so choose."

I remember my disappointment clearly. However, it stemmed from a source the goddess was not aware of. I was always a dog lover. When pets were first introduced to Mabinogi I quickly bought two dogs one being a Siberian husky who was only available for a short time. I bought these pets for I learned the next storyline was going to be solo. Later I bought a couple of horses and a minibear.

When I finally got my Trans, I was floored when I noticed my Siberian trans'ed with me. It was as if we were connected in some way. I felt that connection deeply thru the screen.

However, I knew nothing about the true nature of that Trans when I decided to become a dark knight a year later. I thought it be cool being a DK. I even looked forward to how my Siberian would look all DK'd out. I was crushed when I saw he did not transform at all. I discovered the rules governing his transformation. He only transformed into a Paladin form. When I decided to go DK, I broke that connection we had. I soon hated my DK status.

I had other characters that were Paladins and the Siberian did trans with them. However, it felt like he was cheating on me during those times. Soon I did not call on my Siberian anymore. I could not bring my heart to do so.

Now the goddess is offering me a chance to hopefully undo the damage I caused. I wonder if in doing so would amend the connection between us. "Thanks goddess. If it were to mend the connection with my Siberian husky, I would do it in a heartbeat. However, I don't think that is an issue easily solved."

"Well if you don't choose to be a Paladin again that connection can never be repaired. The first step is to become a Paladin again. Don't you agree?" asked the goddess.

Of course I was going to choose to be a Paladin again. After all it was true what the Goddess said, I really hated my DK status. "I choose to be a Paladin."

Suddenly I was gripped with extreme pain like my guts was being ripped out. I knew I could feel pain in this world now but not on this level. I was then encased in a prison of light but not enough to blind me like the light of Tarlach's transformation. Then just as quickly, all the pain and light shows were over.

"There you are Paladin again. Take heed the pain Jack, if it were not that you be able to withstand such pain this opportunity would not have been possible. Other characters would simply have been deleted upon trying what we have just tried."

"Meaning this switch would not work for the other militants," I added.

"Precisely so I will not advertise the fact you have managed to switch back into a Paladin. Since you admit you are somewhat a lone wolf most will not notice. The few that will notice I think we can trust."

"About the only one I know that will notice is Danster. He by the way knows what has happened to me."

"Well I feel strongly that we can trust Danster. That is one of the major reasons we made talking to him possible for you. In time, however you will learn how to talk to all the other militants. Tarlach, Nao, and I felt we had to limit who you can talk to initially. However, if you had accidentally discovered how to talk to them earlier you would have been able to."

A/N

I intended to have the talk with Goddess be in all one chapter but I hate extremely long chapter so I opted to split it when the word count reach 2,000. I think the next chapter will be interesting though.