My Grim form was always a bit plain, I thought, until I saw myself in the reflection of the pooling fountain beside us. My black raven-like wings stretched wide across my back, anintimidating sight, so I tucked them away. My plague mask sat at my waist, tied to a black leather belt that hung from my armor. My cloak was long and elegant, framing my body perfectly, and allowing my intricate armor to glisten under the morning sun. I was missing my scythe, of course, after the fight with Death, but Endymion promised he and Griffin were cooking one up for me, so I would have to make do for now. Even as a boney freak I couldn’t deny I wasn’t a handsome and daunting force of nature, a being fit to take on the role, and intimidating enough to do so.
My Shadows collected in my mind and went to work buzzing to one another as we stepped inside Purgatory, which sounded like the pits I was submerged in while in Gehenna. Millions of souls were bouncing around the Realm, shrieking and disorientated by their tragic and swift deaths. Seraphine braced her scythe and nodded to the path straight ahead. “Don’t get overwhelmed. They’re going to be a bit discombobulated for a moment but just go right to your designated area and start small. We have all the time in the world to sort them out.”
“I will use a spell to subdue them.” Endymion raised his scythe and, with one fluid motion, struck the ground with the handle, making a sea of white light cascade over the Realm. Each soul it washed over was consumed by the waves, which seemed to lull them into a peaceful stillness that they desperately needed. The calmness that echoed across the empty space made me settle and find my courage to continue once more.
“Let us depart for our respected Realms after our five-hundredth soul. That will give Evris and Odysseus something to work on and allow us a bit of a break after so many,” Seraphine instructed.
“Understood. Good luck, all.”
I ghosted forward towards the hallway markedCAELUMwith my scythe firm focus despite my jittery nerves. Really,Seraphine had definitely given me the easiest job, but it was still daunting to see how many souls were lingering in this section. Most of the Humans who had been killed were innocent enough for Caelum, which was usually the case, but that meant there was millions of them waiting for me.
I took solace in the fact that Odysseus would be helping Magnus on the Caelum side of things. He was already creating new doors for these souls to go in, so all I had to do was mark them, verify their status, give them a number, and then send them to Magnus for final transition. I would need to sign off on each soul, of course, but Odysseus had more work ahead of him than I with having to create their personal sanctuaries. Magnus would bring the soul from me to Odysseus and instruct the Odysseus to make the sanctuary the soul asked for, so our system should have been pretty foolproof. Odysseus could make a hundred doorways in one hour, so I knew how to pace myself to match his speed.
The souls felt me enter their space, and the moment they did, they collected in large masses and tried to swarm the entrance I came through. I was overwhelmed by their ferocious energy but remembered a spell Dad had taught me when I was a kid. “Silentium mihi aeternum affer,”2 I spoke into the air calmly, moving my hand in a semicircle. The spell radiated a cooling light that cast a barrier over me, blocking out the incessant buzz of the voices. They bumped into the barrier and bounced off it like ping pongs, making me chuckle to myself. “Ah, silence. Something so hard to obtain nowadays.”
“One soul, two soul, three soul, four! My goodness, they are just everywhere!” May sang as she counted off the blobs floating about us.
“If Dad taught me anything, it’s to not be overwhelmed by their numbers, and to treat each onefairly. Souls were once flesh and blood, after all, and deserve respect and dignity.”
“Spoken like a true God-to-be,” Claude complimented. His words made the pit in my stomach loosen in the slightest bit.
I reached through my barrier and plucked the tail of my first soul, which wriggled in my boney hand like a tadpole. I chuckled in delight and pulled it into the barrier with me where, once it was enveloped in peaceful silence, it began to settle in my grasp. “Hello, little one. What was your journey like?” I crooned as I brushed my fingers over the pulsating orb. I drew a circle on the outside of the soul, and once it was completed, a projection of the soul’s life displayed before me.
Her name was Anne-Marie. Born to a quiet farming family and raised in the countryside, she led a short but full life with her parents and four siblings. Taken from this world at only twenty-eight, she died from the disease Pestilence spread through her village, which took her mother and two sisters as well. My heart thudded painfully as I watched her chase the family dog and her twelve-year-old sister through the tall corn their family grew, where the two played hide and seek until their final moments. She was a pure soul, who had never seen the big city, and had dreams of taking over the farm for her nearing elderly parents, but those dreams were stolen by… my father.
“I’m so sorry you died like this… I swear, I will make things right.” I brushed the soul against my cheek, just to soak up her beautiful aura, before bringing her eyelevel to me. “My dear… what would you like your afterlife to be?”
“My…afterlife? I’m dead?” she echoed in awe.
“I’m afraid so. You died so suddenly that I am not surprised you do not remember your death, but that is for the better. What can I do to make your afterlife enjoyable?”
She contemplated my words for a good while before finding her voice. “I always wanted to run an animal sanctuary. I wanted to be surrounded by dogs and cats and any animals who could not find a home. If I had it my way… I’d love to take in those lost souls, so they can rest alongside me in a beautiful home, surrounded by love.”
I used my fingertip to write her number, one for my first day, across her soul before nodding once. “What a beautiful idea. I will ensure you have this selfless wish.” I kissed her gently before placing her into the bag strung to my waist, something to hold the souls in until I had my scythe back. “Have a beautiful afterlife. You deserve it more than you will ever understand.”
After I had collected my first five hundred souls, I ghosted out of theCAELUMhallway and toward the doorway beside the main entrance, which was made of lavish gold. The markings were sealing bonds to all outside of the Grim Reaper, but to others, they would look like gorgeous, hand-crafted designs in the ancient wood. The doorknob gleamed despite there being no light in Purgatory, a welcoming sight in a place of darkness and despair. I turned the knob and opened it to the blinding light of the Life Realm, which took my breath away. I shielded my eyes from the overwhelming light but managed to find my bearings. I pulled my cloak around myself better and ghosted through the doorway, shutting it firmly behind myself to keep anything else from trying to follow me.
Magnus was waiting on the other side of the doorway, leaning against his standing, and coveted, golden scythe. He, as the Death Elemental in charge of Caelum under Grim, was gifted this scythe to signify he would be a being to work with theRealm, and his scythe had important significance to his role. The scythe was one of the only weapons created that could hold souls marked by Grim for Caelum or Gehenna.
Regular souls were obtained by Reapers, but once souls were marked and their destinies solidified, then they became essential to the order of the universe. These soulshadto be properly placed for the new souls Life created to take their place, and souls who were misplaced would reset the entire algorithm. Magnus’s role was to take the souls from Purgatory and store them in his scythe until Mom or soon, Odysseus, would be ready to place them in their forevers. It was an overly complicated process with many strict rules, but I knew my job in the process, and that’s all that mattered to me.
“Evening, young sir! I see you have my souls?” Magnus chimed with a grand wave.
“I do,” I answered, pulling the bag from my waist. “Five hundred to start you off.”
“You make this sound so easy,” he chuckled, taking the bag from me. When our hands touched, he winced and shivered with an audible sound of disgust. “Yuck, I hate the feeling of those boney fingers of yours!”
“I’ll change back.” I shimmered back into my Elemental form, which, even though I was myself again, was still dark and brooding compared to the beautiful Realm I was currently in. My eyes were like two pitch-black sauces when they examined my reflection in the golden pools around us, but I didn’t mind standing out so much. “Is this better?” I questioned, raising my arms to shrug casually.
“Much. I like my creepy Nick much better than my Grim Reaper Nick.” He peered into the bag at the vast number of souls with wide eyes. “Wowzer, that is a lot of souls. You did all of these on your own?”
“Who else was going to do it?” I sniffed, a little agitated that he thought so less of me.
“Touché. You’re a natural, just like your papa!” He cast a beaming smile over me, but when I didn’t return it, his own fell drastically. “Ok, tough subject, I gotchya. Well, for now, let’s deliver these to Avalon so she can prep them for your mom and Odysseus.”
“I have more souls to tend to…?”
Magnus slapped my back, hard enough that I swore I felt a rib break. I hacked a puff of air, grimacing from the pain. “Come on, you can use a break! You’ve been at this all day!”
