“We've made our own discovery,” Rune said. “Lora appears to be a touch psychic, at least where we're concerned.She's made four paintings of men. Warriors. Three of them sparked memories in us.” He motioned at Brax and Merrick. “They were our past selves.”
“What?” Dominic drew closer and looked from Rune to me. “You can do that?”
“I didn't know I was doing it. I just painted. The guys saw them tonight, and we figured it out.”
“You said four paintings.” Darius narrowed his eyes at Rune.
“I was getting to that,” Rune said. “The fourth painting was of a Templar knight on crusade. We think he was Michael's past self.”
“That's interesting, but how does it help us?” Dominic asked.
“Know thy enemy,” Braxen said.
“You didn't happen to bring this painting back with you?” Darius asked.
“We did, actually,” I said.
“May I see it?”
Braxen got the painting from the kitchen and came back with it unwrapped. He set it on the couch, leaning it against the leather back. We gathered around it.
“Huh,” Dominic said. “He does look angelic.”
“An angelic asshole,” Darius said, making me giggle. “Sorry, Lora. Your work is wonderful. It's just the subject that bothers me.”
“No, I agree,” I said. “He looks like an enormous prick. But if he was a Templar and one of the true believers, it fits that he'd do something like this.”
“Now hold on,” Darius said. “Let's think about this. If Michael was a zealot and died for his god, he'd be very disappointed when he showed up in the Underworld.”
“You're right,” I murmured. “It would be crushing to a religious soldier to learn that he'd been fighting for a god who didn't exist.”
“And he died for him,” Rune added.
“It must have been a shock for Michael when he wound up in Tartarus,” I said.
“But would he have gone to Tartarus?” Dominic asked. “It's the soul who judges itself, and he would judge himself pure.”
“Wait. What?” I asked.
“No one judges souls,” Rune said to me. “I thought you knew that.”
“Why would I know that?”
Dominic chuckled and said, “A soul instinctively knows good from evil. When a human does something bad, it weakens their soul. If they die without strengthening their soul with good acts, they will go somewhere appropriate to be strengthened.”
“Appropriate?”
“Appropriate to the amount of weakness inside them.”
“And then what?”
“Then it depends.” Dominic shrugged. “The strong souls get a choice to experience another life or stay in a blissful afterlife. The really strong souls get a blessing in that next life. The weak ones don't get a choice. They stay until their soul is strengthened, then they get sent back.”
“What about those who are somewhere in between?”
“They are a type of weak soul. They get sent back for another go and will keep repeating the process until they get strong enough to wind up somewhere nice.”
“So, you're saying that if Michael judged his actions as good, he wouldn't have weakened his soul?”
