"I think some conclusions may have been drawn."

Auden very nearly dropped the stack of soul registers William had just handed her when he said that. The files tumbled forward and she took a few hurried steps to catch them, her heartbeat pounding in her ears. Had she heard him right?

"About Grelle?" she asked. The files thumped back against her chest. She glanced at Ronald and he looked just as surprised as she was.

William offered a curt nod. "Indeed."

Auden just stared at him, waiting for him to elaborate, explain, give more information, something, but he didn't. The three of them stood there in the middle of the hallway at Dispatch, phones ringing, keyboards clicking, the sounds of printers and papers, and William just looked at them both, one of his eyebrows half-cocked like he hadn't the slightest idea why Auden and Ronald hadn't left yet.

"Wh-what conclusions have been drawn?" Auden prompted, her arms starting to shake under the weight of the files and the news.

"I'm not at liberty to say."

"Then what the hell did you say it for, boss?" Ronald laughed, though it was short and exasperated.

William's eyes flicked over to him. "The two of you have a collection coming due in approximately fifteen minutes. I suggest—" He gave them both a look that said it was not a suggestion at all. "—you get there on time. I'm not in the mood for extra paperwork today."

"Your soul is made of paperwork," Ronald grumbled, but caved and swung his lawnmower up onto his shoulder as he walked away. Auden had no choice but to follow.

"Did he really mean what he said?" she asked.

Ronald held his hand out for the file of the first soul they were supposed to collect so he could check the address. "Haven't the foggiest. Will's typically not in the habit of saying things he doesn't mean, though."

She passed him the file. "I know, but, if that's all he could say, why say anything?"

Flipping over the pages, Ronald didn't answer. "You ever heard of Balmore Street?"

"It's by the Whittington Hospital," Auden replied. "What do you think the news is?"

"About Grelle?"

Auden nodded. Ronald looked at her.

"Don't get your hopes up too high, kiddo."

Her gaze turned to her feet and she started walking when Ronald headed off. How could she not get her hopes up? They hadn't had any news for weeks. This was the first time she had ever heard William mention Grelle at work outside of complaining under his breath about how her absence was putting a strain on the rest of the division, but now there was news. There was news. Auden wasn't sure she'd really care if it was bad because then at least they could all get out of this hellish limbo they were living in. Even if Grelle was never going to wake up again at least they'd know and could stop hoping.

She and Ronald found their way to Balmore Street easy enough. Their collection was pretty obvious, too. A gentleman in cardiac arrest being hurriedly carried by three other men who were shouting, trying to get to Whittington before the worst could happen, but Auden and Ronald were the worst that could happen. They jogged over to catch the men up and trail along beside them until the appointed time.

"I just think it's strange for him to comment on it, that's all," Auden was saying as they fell into step with the humans.

"William is about a million mysteries rolled into one obnoxious package. I wouldn't read too much into it," Ronald replied.

"Don't you think it's strange, though?"

"Bleedin' 'ell…"

Ronald looked down at the collection, who had spoken. "Hiya," he said. "Here for your soul."

The man might have responded, but a wave of pain rolled over him and he gasped instead. His mates set him down and started CPR, which they probably should have done fifteen minutes ago, and he stared at Auden and Ronald until his eyes closed and his heart stopped.

Ronald looked to her. "Auden?"

Nodding, Auden lifted her hoe carefully around the other men and placed it against their collection's chest, then pressed. His life flashed before her eyes—birth, childhood, teenage years, university, marriage, career, divorce, death. He was pretty young, only forty-six. Auden always shivered when her own face would appear at the end of every record. It was weird to see yourself in someone else's memories.

"Anything to note?"

She shook her head. "No. Just stamp it complete."

The rest of their shift passed quickly in much the same way. Auden had to look at her own face twenty-six more times after that for her half of the collections. Ronald's too. She wondered if he was unsettled by seeing himself from the outside like she was or if reapers got used to it eventually. Probably the latter. At the end of their shift, after they'd parted ways, William was waiting for Auden in the hall.

"The Board has decided to brief you on the situation," he said.

Auden's blood went cold. Her jaw locked.

"If you'll follow me?"

William gestured with a smooth hand down the hallway and as soon as Auden nodded, swallowing, he started off. Auden had never met with the Board. She didn't even know how many people were on it, and the path William took her on down into the depths of Dispatch was one she hadn't ever travelled. After a good five minutes, she and William arrived at an enormous oak door at the end of an equally enormous hall.

"They're waiting for you," he said.

She just looked at him.

"You can find your way back out?"

"I think so."

"Very well."

William swept away then, the clicking heels of his shoes echoing loudly through the hall. He was a good thirty feet gone before Auden summoned enough resolve to reach for the handle on the door, turn it, and step inside.

The room was dark. So dark, that Auden could not even see the ceiling, though she got the feeling it was far above her. Just ahead lay a table, a single chair tucked under the side closest to the door, beyond that was an enormous wood panel. It was intricate and detailed, illuminated slightly by the light from a lamp on the table—the only light in the room. The wood panel curved around the room and looked to Auden like an oversized judge's bench. She felt eyes on her the moment she stepped through the door.

"Auden Lord."

The voice that spoke reverberated through the space, soft and loud at the same time. She could only nod in response.

"Be seated."

Stepping forward, Auden pulled the chair out and sat as instructed. She looked up, searching for the ceiling, searching for the eyes that she could sense pointed down at her from up on top of that bench, but she could see nothing. Only the slightest reflection of light off of glasses, but she wasn't certain she could see even that.

"The reaper Grelle Sutcliff is your partner."

It almost sounded like more than one person had spoken, voices moving in perfect unison. Auden was distracted in puzzling over it for a moment that she forgot to respond and they spoke again, a little harsher this time.

"The reaper Grelle Sutcliff is your partner."

She started. "Y-yes. Yes, she is."

"You also share a residence with her. And the demon."

"Yes."

"You know, then, how carefully she has been monitored and the nature of her condition. You were there when she received the wounds. You were there when her soul abandoned her body."

Those weren't questions, they were statements of fact. They made Auden's throat cinch up and tears begin to form in her eyes. She'd had nightmares about it ever since it had happened, just like she'd had nightmares about Nick and about her suicide, but she hadn't told Sebastian. She hadn't told anyone. She didn't want to be a burden.

"It was your Scythe, in the hands of a demon, that did the deed."

"Yes," she said through her teeth.

"The analysis of the research is complete."

Auden looked up. There wasn't anything to see. No faces. Just darkness.

"When a body dies, it surrenders its soul. Reapers collect these souls, process them, and transport them back here for secure transfer to the next stages. As part of processing, a reaper reviews the soul's Cinematic Record and may, if special circumstances warrant, allow that soul to be reunited with its body and the human being to continue its life."

Auden knew all that. Her hands bunched into fists and she only just bit back the comment that everything that had just been said was common knowledge.

"A reaper's soul, however, is different."

She looked up again at the darkness.

"When a human being becomes a grim reaper, they forfeit the right to die an ordinary death as they have already chosen one for themselves. Their soul composition is changed and they are given an immortal body in order to carry out work as a penance for taking their death into their own hands."

She couldn't keep it back this time, but she did manage to keep it a whisper. "I know."

There was a pause like they were waiting out any other interruptions. Auden stayed silent.

"Reapers can be killed. However, should the soul of a reaper exit its body, no decision made by another reaper can grant it permission to be reunited with that body. Permission must be given by a greater authority."

What the hell did that mean? Some other kind of supernatural being? A reaper for reapers? "What greater authority is there for Shinigami?" she asked.

"On High."

Auden swallowed.

On High.

God.

Or Gods.

Grelle had never answered Auden's questions about God. She called the entity On High just like every other Shinigami. They all followed its orders, even Auden. Of course there was a power greater than them. Auden had known this, but she had forgotten.

"Then Grelle can come back?"

"It requires a special review from On High."

"But she can come back?"

"As it is understood, yes."

Auden's heart thrilled. The tips of her fingers went numb and her limbs tingled and her stomach twisted itself into a knot.

"Her body is healed and her soul is contained, all she requires is permission."

"Well—then—why hasn't she been given permission?" Auden started to rise from her chair. Grelle's body couldn't live without her soul. That's why she couldn't be off the machines. "Why can't she come back?"

"You have known the reaper Grelle Sutcliff for only a year. In that time you could not possibly have come to comprehend all the things she has done in her life. The trouble she has caused."

"But she hasn't caused any trouble for a long time! She—"

"Sixty years does not constitute a 'long time' in the scope of eternity."

Auden fell silent.

"Her lives, both human and Shinigami, and the actions she took as part of those lives, are currently under review On High. There is no statistic on the likelihood of her return."

Auden couldn't feel either of her hands now. She looked down at them and they looked far away, like they were not her hands.

"You're not to tell the demon."

"But Sebastian—"

"Speak nothing, Auden Lord!"

A thousand voices blew together like the wind to form that roar. Auden had been halfway out of her seat, ready to protest, but the force of it sent her back cowering. Her whole body started to shake. Grelle could come back, but maybe they wouldn't let her, but maybe she could come back, and Auden couldn't talk to Sebastian about it.

"Do you understand?"

She nodded. Frightened tears stung her eyes.

"You are dismissed."

The latch on the door opened behind her. She rose from the table, her knees trembling, and carefully tucked the chair in before she went. Maybe she would have glanced back into the room one final time, but she knew there would have been nothing to see but darkness.