We were on top of a cliff. The white building behind us was tall, seeming to hold many more floors than the egg one. There were a few other scattered buildings further back as well. In front of us was a series of staggered cliffs … levels, like a staircase for giants. I moved forward, trying to comprehend what it all was.
“The Cascading Justices,” Daniel explained, his voice low. “When someone dies in Overworld, they come here. They end up in the incubation level first, where we just were. There they are weighed. Their good and bad deeds are tallied, and then they are given choices. Those who have pure souls are allowed to be reborn, or they can spend their days in the utopian land at the base of the justices. Those who have darkness in their soul are dropped into the justices. The purer of a soul you have, the lower you’ll start. Eventually you’ll get to the bottom level. The truly terrible souls, like my uncle’s, end up on this first level.”
He pointed down over the cliff to what looked like a ton of trees below. “It’s next to impossible for them to journey to peace from here, so they get stuck living out their days in one of these levels.”
The top levels were filled with monsters, and lava, and creature-infested water. All the things which were not going to make the afterlife easy or comfortable or fun.
“They can die again?” I asked, trying not to stare at the screaming souls in the level with the fire and lava.
Daniel shook his head. “No, there’s only one death. This is their afterlife, where they can enjoy torture over and over without relief.”
Whoa. “Remind me not to be an asshole during my life, because I really don’t want to end up there.”
Daniel actually smiled at that one. “Most beings have more purity than darkness in their souls. These upper levels of the justices are reserved for the truly evil. If you land in one of the bottom three, you’ll eventually make it to utopia. To redemption. You just have to work a little harder for it.”
“What’s the normal lifespan of a Daelighter?”
Daniel’s expression turned contemplative; there was a decided spark of something in his face then. Amusement, I would guess. “We’re long-lived, let’s just put it that way. Age is not something that brings death.”
That was amusing. And terrifying. And impossible to comprehend. Tied to him and this land now, I wondered if I too would be “long-lived.”
“So Laous killed me…” It was the elephant in the underworld, what had happened to me. I was starting to wrap my head around it … around what I had become. I was ready to learn more. “He got my blood. I’m sorry I didn’t stop him.”
Daniel’s arm brushed mine and I wanted to touch him so badly I had to clench my fists and plaster my hands to my sides.
“None of this is your fault,” he told me.
I changed the subject. “How did you find me? It seemed like you appeared from nothing as soon as he cut my throat.” The roar had been Daniel, I knew that now. Without a doubt.
He hesitated briefly, and some of the fury was back in his expression. “The council knew he took you to Imperial. They can track him through the transporter and network, even though they’re often a step too late to actually stop him. So I was already here, searching for you. Then when he tried to kill you, he dropped his warding. I know your energy; I found you through the network. I came straight for you.”
He’d saved my life. His quick actions and sacrifice of his own soul, or whatever happened, had brought me back to life. This was the part of the story I truly couldn’t understand. “Why did you save me?” My voice was doing some sort of stupid breathy thing, but Daniel had literally saved my life. It was a big deal. When he didn’t answer, I hurried on, “Surely it’s going to be inconvenient to have me attached to you for eternity.”
Or however long I was going to live now.
He turned away from me to stare out across the world he was the ruler of. I didn’t push; there was no rush. He would either answer eventually … or we could just live in this awkward silence.
“It was my duty to keep you safe,” he said without inflection. “I failed at that duty.”
I thought he was going to leave it at that, but then he continued: “I’ve been left for dead before.” A hard murmur. “Discarded on the floor like I was nothing. When I saw you there, all of the blood surrounding you, I just … couldn’t let you die like that.”
No part of me believed he’d been a victim like me. Even when he was hit with that special stone, his energy shorting out all over the place, he’d still fought against it.
But maybe he was talking about a time when he was young. Which had all of these soft feelings hitting me again. Baby Daniel should have been protected, and I hated that he had lived a life where that wasn’t possible.
“What is the plan now?” I asked, straightening. Death had rattled me – understandably so – but I was ready to take this asshole down. I also needed to know where my mom was. Laous had been weirdly cagey about that.
Daniel turned to face me, expression somber. “The council is taking immediate action. They’ve called a meeting, and all overlords are required to attend. They’ve been trying to keep this under wraps, but they’re starting to see that it’s bigger than they can contain. It’s time for everyone to know what’s been going on, to prepare for the fallout should Laous succeed in breaking the treaty with Earth.”
“If I’m with you, I can leave the underworld?”
He nodded. “Yes. I have the energy of House of Imperial within me. I will keep you tethered. The strongest tie your soul has is to me – Imperial is second – because I was the only thing there for it to cling onto.”
It was his heartbeat I heard when mine stopped. His heart keeping the blood pumping in my body.
“Thank you,” I said, with more passion than I usually showed. “I’m sure I’ve seemed a little ungrateful, but I know you did everything you could to save me. I’ll forever be in your debt.”
Daniel just stared at me, and again I was getting the sense that he didn’t know how to feel about his new burden either. With a final nod, he turned to head back to the egg building.
