Dear Eleanor

Death was a lot quicker than Eleanor had previously imagined. She had previously imagined that, like a gong, the sound and pain would ring and reverberate for moments, but it was a rather calm process. Wondering what exactly was going on, she pondered over whether her body had gone listless to rapidly, leaving her dead before she could feel it. Either way, it was a peaceful transition, and in an instant, she was back on her feet in a foreign place.

Looking around, her surroundings had been shifted from the mangled battleground into some grandiose hall. Reaching up, she moved to put her hands in her pockets. Though, slipping past where the pockets were, she glanced down at herself in confusion. Her coat was gone. Perhaps she had taken it off before her leap. Yes, that was what happened, she recalled. With a sigh, she let her arms dangle by her sides, wondering if anyone was around to witness her silly little mistake.

Slowly, Eleanor inched her way in the direction of the blanket of stars and galaxies that seemed to linger at the end of her hall. Still cautious of it all, as she had no idea what was going on, her ears were sensitive to the noises she could hear around her. Mainly, all she seemed to hear was the crackling of the torches, lingering from the columned around her. With hands prepared to... Weakly wrestle anything that came to attack her, her unhurried approach towards what seemed to be the end of the world, or so she imagined it, continued. Looking around, her view was packed with incredible things of otherworldly stature. Like looking into the sky, her eyes never seemed to find a place to stop, firing straight and reaching into the nothingness. It was empty... But so full.

"Oh!" Turning back, she flinched, caught off-guard by a hooded woman. Eleanor didn't mean to stare, but it seemed that there was no threat of immediate eye contact if she did, with the subject's eyes hidden behind her hood. She swiftly bowed her torso down, rising back up a moment later. "I seem to have found myself in this place somehow! Apologies for the--" She nervously rubbed the back of her neck, as the shrouded figure began to explain.

"Idna..." Eleanor took a step back in awe, as the woman mentioned 'my relic'. She let the woman goddess lady finish speaking, respectfully moving to stand beside her, as she continued speaking on the topic of Azog. Nodding in agreement, "I witnessed the story while gathering a fragment of the orb. Tragic, it is." She tried to speak as formally as she could with the woman, though she was still quite awkward and difficult in her responses.

Both of them faced out towards the galaxies and endlessness, and Eleanor wondered how her of all people had come upon the circumstances to make it there. From stepping into a portal, to retrieving a relic, to sacrificing herself. It had been quite the coincidence... Or had it? Perhaps this was all part of Idna's plan, or maybe even something greater. In reality, Niko was not much for religion, often preferring to believe in what she could see, and nothing more... But this world seemed to have a different set of rules surrounding it.

Turning back to face Idna, not to be disrespectful to the obviously very esteemed female, Eleanor was careful with her manners. Wishing to only speak when spoken to, she listened intently to what the woman detailed. Granted a question regarding anything, be it within the game or not. She had no idea of how Idna would be able to answer anything from her reality as Niko, but she didn't bother wasting her question on asking something like that. This was something she had to ponder. This was a gift of great magnitude that she could not deal with squandering.

At first, her mind raced through the first row of questions. She wanted to ask something philosophical. Perhaps something about life or humanity. Something along the lines of, 'Why do humans exist?' or 'What happens after death in the real world?' Flipping through the infinite pages of possible questions, Eleanor even took a gander at wondering the answers of those questions. Would they even be something that she wanted to hear or know? And after this event was over... Even if she tried to explain it to anyone, would they even believe her? To the outside world, she was just playing a game. To the virtual world, she had plainly sacrificed herself. It didn't help that she was staring into the beautiful void of space through the contemplation as well.

"May..." She began to speak, pausing to correct herself a moment later, "I have my question." After moments of deep thought, she had come to a conclusion. The question that she asked was not one of great magnitude to the world. It was not one revolving around some incredulous, unobtainable information. She did not wish to know some breathtaking secret about the world, nor the recipe for godly power.

"Why am I here?"

It was a question that had many meanings, though with her limited English capabilities, she did not know the best way to express what she meant. The question always lingered within all aspects of the self-proclaimed detective's life. She wondered why she was truly there, in that room, speaking with an incredibly powerful otherworldly being. She wondered why she was there, hiding within the confines of a virtual world. She wondered why she was there, in New York, when her home was across the world away. Not just why... But really, why? She did not know a better way to state her predicament. It seemed that Eleanor, Niko, truly did not know why she was there, nor why she was anywhere. Purpose was a struggle... She wanted to know. To understand.

 

As the hooded goddess pulled back her shroud covering her face, Eleanor stared with wide eyes at the face. It wasn't that she felt she could peer upon the face without fear of eye contact, but there was just a certain aura about the woman. It seemed that Eleanor needn't fear the interaction, though... A piece of her still did.

Even as the woman placed a hand on her shoulder and leaned in to whisper to her, Eleanor barely moved, listening intently to what was being told to her. Of course, none of the things said were incorrect, but they were ways of looking at things that Eleanor had not really thought about before. Perhaps she had spent so long focusing her microscope in a single place that the rest of the world had become blurry to her.

"That's how questions always are, aren't they." She painstakingly chuckled, rubbing the back of her neck and glancing to the side. "The answer is always there, even before you ask... If you look close enough..." She reiterated the point with a slightly different phrasing, shifting her gaze back up towards Idna. The woman stepped back to speak again, mentioning sleep.

Eleanor had not realized how long it had been since she had heard her full name pronounced perfectly by another. It certainly scared her, but more than that, it helped to remind her who she was. She had been playing out Eleanor rather differently than how she lived her life in the real world. Perhaps the character she had created within the game was closer to her true identity than she had previously imagined. Hearing the name, emotion welled up in the self-proclaimed detective's chest, and she fought as hard as she could to keep the tears that began to swell and wash over her eyes from falling.

"Thank you, Idna. Perhaps we'll meet again sometime." She spoke, her voice shaky and quivering from the immense sentiment. "I'd like..." To glance at the end of the world again, is how she would've finished that sentence, as the subtlety of unconsciousness began to reach for her eyelids, pulling the words from her mind, before they could escape. Was she really awake, or had it all been a spiritual endeavor? As her stance shook, her eyes got one last look at the endless and infinite tornado that was space. That beautiful cosmic mess, a beautiful train-wreck, lingered in her mind, as the images faded to black.

Waking with a sudden start, Eleanor glanced around cautiously at her surroundings. She had not expected revival to come so quickly, nor the life to flood her veins again at such a rapid pace. Just a moment previously, she was frigid, but now... With the warmth of a blanket over her legs, she stared down at herself. Whole again, without bandages or scars to show it, though... Nothing was without scars.

Finding herself within the temple, she quickly made her way outside, tasting sunlight again for the first time since the teleportation to Azog. Staring into the distance, she saw that the tree she had began under as she logged in was not too far off. Things had seemed to come full circle, though... She felt different, as she approached the tree again, stepping beneath its shade. Without many leaves, but budding flowers at it's ends, it acted as a rather choppy shield from the sun. With a new heart, and a fastened mind, she turned towards the rest of the world that lingered behind her.

"Well... I guess I've got to go find my hat, huh?"