25. Good Intentions #2
“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 the CAELUM hallway 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 the Realm, 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 souls had to 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!”
“I also have about three million more souls to send off. Five hundred is merely a dent.”
He smoothed out a crinkle in my forehead.
“Don’t be so serious all the time. Seraphine said she was taking a break at five hundred, so you should as well.
I know you still don’t feel good after all that happened, so take it easy.
The souls will always be waiting for you no matter how many you do in one day.
People die constantly, Nicodemus. What’s a couple days when you have eternity ahead of you?
” He waved me forward towards the golden palace up the hillside, and begrudgingly, I followed, snapping my cloak stubbornly so it would encase me once again.
I shuffled behind Magnus like a little soot ball, leaving puffs of black behind that mingled with the clouds below our feet and turned them a mute grey.
I was satisfied that I left a little piece of my Realm scattered throughout this immaculate sanctuary, that I could ruin its perfection even slightly.
I hated feeling like a lump of destruction compared to the shining beacons of hope that Life Elementals were.
They got the credit for being such pristine beings, while we were the depressing waste of spaces that rained on their parade.
Well, take that, Life Realm; me and my soot clouds just made your immaculate white floors a little harder to clean.
Avalon was barking orders at two very nervous Life Elementals when Magnus and I entered the golden palace, though Magnus didn’t seem to care whatsoever about how busy Avalon seemed.
He stormed right up to her and brushed the Elementals aside to hold the bag out to her like a child does a school drawing. “Look what Nick brought us!” he sang.
Avalon peered into the bag with her oval amber eyes. “My, my, quite a loot. Odysseus has been waiting ever-so-impatiently for these souls.”
“Seraphine hasn’t brought him any?” I questioned.
“Not yet, but she’s a bit rusty, so she asked for extra time.” She heaved the bag over her shoulder and nodded to the two Elementals. “Go find Odysseus and ask him to join us at the gates of Caelum. He should be in his office.”
“He has an office already?” I scoffed in surprise as they whisked away, happy to be free of her scolding.
“He needed a place to work. He’s been experimenting quite a bit with Yuri and Calyx.”
“Experimenting? On what?”
Avalon guided us through the busy hallways of the Life palace expertly, moving at an even speed, but still with hurried energy.
“He’s always working on something. Right now, he’s trying to raise populations of the younger generations.
Birth rates are down by thirty percent compared to last year, so we need to get Humans mating to sustain the species. ”
“Wonder how he’ll pull that off,” Magnus said, reaching for my hand so I wouldn’t get lost in the sea of Life Elementals around us. I held his like a lost child, feeling completely exposed in the vibrant gold that surrounded us.
Avalon stopped us in a waiting room just before where the gates of Caelum began. “Why don’t you grab a coffee, Nick, while Magnus and I prepare for Odysseus. He should be down any moment.”
“I, sure, yeah.” I watched them depart through the ten-foot glass doors leading to the gates, which gleamed under the incredible sun above them.
Once the doors shut, I slumped into a spare chair and rolled my lips, craning my neck to make it pop.
I was, admittedly, incredibly sore and stiff from my own workload, and a coffee didn’t sound too bad right now.
Before I could stand to make one, Yuri, one of my mother’s higher-ups, exploded from an opposite hallway.
I jumped in surprise from his entrance, confused as to why he was so agitated.
He paused when he saw me beside the coffee machine and cut me a side-eye I was certainly not expecting.
“Hmm, if it isn’t Atlas’s pride and joy. ”
“And Ashlynn’s,” I teased to try and break the tension, though that only made him suck his teeth and fold his arms. “I, uh, it’s been a while, Yuri. It’s good to see you?” I attempted.
“So it has. Is the Shadow Realm in a similar state to the Life Realm?”
“If you mean in total disarray and chaos, then yes, it is.” I popped a coffee pod in the machine and hit the ON button so it would start dispensing my drink. “Seraphine, Endymion, and I are trying our best to clean up the mess, for everyone’s sake.”