Part 1
The fact Rebecca was speaking to her was already intriguing Vordea. She wasn't currently visible to mortal souls, or so she thought, so she decided to entertain this conversation, at least for now.
"Rebecca, who are you talking to?" Marv asked. "There's no-one here."
"Oh, she's here, Marv, right in front of us." Rebecca said, glaring daggers at Vordea.
"They can't see me, you know." Vordea said out loud, continuing to drink. "I want to know why you can, though."
"It's why I'm here, Goddess." Rebecca said, grabbing Vordea's drink and tossing it aside. Marv jumped as a bottle appeared from seemingly nowhere.
Vordea stopped smiling. "You have twenty seconds to tell me why I shouldn't kill you."
"The dragon that never was. Saffron Frostfall." Rebecca answered immediately, wasting no time. "I need you to fix my soul."
"Where did you hear that name?" Vordea asked, immediately pulling herself and Rebecca out of phase with the rest of reality. "She doesn't exist."
"Oh, she does. Look into my eyes and see the truth, I'm the final reincarnation of her." Rebecca said, putting her face directly in front of Vordea's.
Vordea studied Rebecca's eyes for a long moment, before nodding. There was no mistaking it, she was Saffron Frostfall.
"You're going to need to hear the whole story, Rebecca. Your entire party needs to." Vordea said, pushing them back into phase with reality.
"DeFountain." Vordea said, nodding at Hamlin.
"Vordea." Hamlin replied, nodding back.
"Prepare some snacks, this is a long story." Vordea said, her tentacles slithering around as she took a seat again in the courtyard they found her in. "But not here."
"Where, then?"
Vordea responded by smiling very broadly, until her smile stretched all the way across her face, showing rows upon rows of unnatural teeth, her eyelids blinking sideways like a reptile. Jack felt ink dripping on him and looked up to a sight he would not soon forget.
"Is that... a hole in the sky?" He asked, horrified.
"A gateway to Carcosa, yes."
Rebecca froze at the mention of the name Carcosa. The hair on her neck was standing on end, but she didn't know why. She could feel Saffron lurking in her subconscious, screaming not to go there, and decided to listen to her for the first time in her life.
"I'm not going to Carcosa." Rebecca said, her voice shaking.
"Boss?"
"I'M NOT GOING TO CARCOSA!" Rebecca screamed, whirling to face the rest of the party. "There are places mortals were not meant to see! Lost Carcosa is one of them!"
Vordea blinked slowly, but made no immediate reaction to Rebecca's outburst. Mentioning Carcosa to gauge her reaction was reward enough. Yes, it wasn't just a mere reincarnation, Rebecca is Saffron Frostfall.
"Your instinctual fear of my home dimension is exactly the response I hoped for, Rebecca." Vordea said slowly. "You aren't merely her reincarnation. You are Saffron Frostfall. The lost citizen of a dead universe."
"No I’m not! I’m Rebecca Montague!" Rebecca angrily replied.
Vordea shook her head, and clapped twice. The party found themselves in a sealed room with comfortable seating and food, but more importantly, no exits.
"Where are we?" Vicky asked, looking around. "It feels a bit warm."
"Very deep underground, below even the deepest Dwarven mines." Vordea answered. "Away from prying ears. So let’s begin."
"What’s Carcosa and why is the Boss so terrified of it?" Jack asked straight away.
Vordea began smiling again. She was very tempted to just show them, but that would violate rules she herself wrote, many millions of years ago.
"Carcosa is... was... my home. Carcosa is a bridge, if you will, between universes."
"A bridge?" Hamlin asked.
"As I told you a long time ago, Hamlin, the universe is cyclic. It goes through kalpas, stretches of time unimaginably long to mortals, but like the blink of an eye on a cosmic timescale. At the end of every kalpa, I consume the universe and it begins again. Saffron’s problem is that she doesn't exist."
"Stop calling me that! I’m not her!" Rebecca shouted.
"You are little more than a split personality of her." Vordea responded, annoyed. "As was Natsuko, Vesuvia, and all the others."
"What do you mean 'was your home'? Has it been destroyed?" Vicky asked.
"In a matter of speaking. Carcosa is the corpse of the previous universe. I was... born, I suppose, right before the final sunset. It's a bridge, not just between kalpas."
"But between universes." Hamlin finished, nodding his head.
"What does this have to do with my problem?" Rebecca asked. "We're getting sidetracked."
"Your soul was stolen by Xilro, after Zarfangal forbid your birth. You were never supposed to exist, so your soul is unstable, and your body is frequently destroyed." Vordea explained, taking a seat in one of the chairs. "To fix your problem... well..."
Vordea's tone softened. "I can't. I'm sorry, Rebecca. There are some problems not even the Gods can fix. But we can still do something about it."
Rebecca was on the verge of tears, but perked up at the last bit. "Do something?"
"It's not my domain, however.