Number 218

#218 is a 2011 short story written by J.G. Taschereau that was included in Tales of the Other Universe: Volume 1. It details how Dee Gatti first came to be the Creator's personal assistant.

Synopsis
In search of her master, Dee travels to the island of Sloben where she learns that the Creator Most High is seeking a replacement to serve as his personal assistant. She rushes to the Office of Wondrous Visions to meet the Creator, but is told that only the candidate selected to be his assistant will actually meet him. Reluctantly, Dee asks to be included in the selection process, but is presented with a lengthy application form to fill out in a short time window. She uses magic to complete the answers from her thoughts and submits it, becoming the 218th candidate. Dee waits for an hour for the proceedings to begin when it is announced that the first round of qualifications had ended and more than half of the applicants had been passed over. She is gripped with panic, thinking that an answer on her application might betray her real reasons for applying. She is relieved to find she has survived the first round and is shuffled off with the others to a large auditorium, where she finds a white envelope on her seat.

The proctor of the selection process, Michael, announces that the envelopes contain a written examination that the candidates will have three hours to complete later that evening, and only the top ten highest scoring will move on to the final round. This sends panic through the group, who rush to the Office's library to study. Dee begins to feel that the effort is hopeless, since she has no formal education and would certainly fail a standardized exam. As she sits in the lounge, she is joined by a male applicant named Daniel Wilson. They make small talk, and he points out Dee's apparent anxiety, telling her that she should review the questions inside the test packet since she has them available to ensure she will do well. Dee considers it, but remembers her master telling her to remain honest at all times and so she decides not to look early.

Later that evening, Dee and the other candidates go to a large room modelled like a university lecture hall and prepare to begin. As the exam starts, Dee realizes that all the questions on the test are extraordinarily easy or are related to subjects which she could easily detail from memory. She finishes the exam in just twenty minutes but realizes that most of the other candidates are struggling. She hands in her exam and returns to the lounge to wait, encountering another applicant she had argued with earlier. Dee comes to realize that others are just as deserving if not more than her to secure the position and attempts to make peace with her adversary. The candidate, Jessica Cantide, dismisses Dee and walks off. After the results are posted, Dee discovers that she scored the highest of any remaining candidate, not surprising based on her simple questions, but the scores of the bottom 90% of the candidates was abysmal. Daniel congratulates her, though he scored 0%. Dee asks how he could have scored so low, and he explains that the questions he answered were extremely difficult, making Dee question whether or not she had even taken the same exam.

Dee and the remaining candidates are given rooms to stay for the night until the last phase of testing began in the morning. She finds her room to be spacious and beautiful, a far cry from her usual rest stops. There is also a shower, which she takes advantage of and loses herself in the heavenly feeling. She emerges from the shower to find a white dress and a pair of white shoes were brought into the room and left for her. Dee is awoken the next morning by the voice of her master in her head, but before she falls back asleep she hears Michael's voice over an intercom announcing the Creator's arrival and declaring that only the first three candidates to arrive at the meeting room would be able to proceed. She rushes to dress and bolts out the door with four other girls already ahead of her. Dee makes it to the front of the pack with Jessica, but they run into an old mart with a cart filled with papers and knock everything over. Jessica runs on, and Dee is held back by her compulsion to help the old man. He thanks her, but she is devastated to have lost the chance to become the Creator's assistant. Defeated, she decides to at least see it out to the end and walks to the room where the other candidates had gone to.

She enters the room and finds Michael and the candidates waiting for the Creator. Jessica is upset that he is not here, and it Michael confesses that the third elimination process had already occured. The old man returns, revealing himself as Daniel in disguise. He explains that the examination booklets for the ten of them were easier because none of them cheated, despite him suggesting the idea to them and every other candidate. He then reveals himself to be the Creator himself, explaining that the tests so far were meant to judge the candidates' honesty, integrity, and virtue. Because only Dee had stopped to help the old man in need, and because three times she had done the right thing even if it meant her own failure, she was the only one worthy enough to be chosen as the Creator's assistant. Dee is overcome with emotion and accepts. She asks the Creator to tell her where her master is, but he explains that if he reunited the two then Dee would return to her village, leaving the Creator behind. He requests her services for a year, which Dee is happy to accept if it means being reunited with her master in the end.