Prologue
When Ina'nis Ninomae awakened, she was no longer in the basement of the Bordeaux Municipal Library.
Instead, she found herself in a world of hellfire and brimstone that Ina had seen in her prophetic dreams. She was being carried through that world in the strong yet gentle arms of the Grim Reaper who called herself Calliope Mori.
Ina watched that strange new world with eyes that were filled with fear and fascination in equal parts.
The last time she saw Grim Reapers, they were fighting against the mighty Gawr Gura in a bloody melee in the library. Guns and clubs against the aquamarine trident. Here, they were celebrating and cheering while playing instruments in her honor.
They hailed her arrival and threw bunches of red spider lily flowers that sailed through the air before Ina's eyes.
Nervous as she was, Ina shored up the courage to listen to the strange chanting and cheers around her. Just like when Calliope introduced herself moments ago, Ina was being called the 'Priestess'.
It was the same name that she referred to the transfigured self she imagined in her dreams. She had kept this hidden in the depths of her heart and mind all this time.
Hearing that title shouted out by the crowds was unsettling for her - as if her secrets were being laid bare for all to see.
While Ina struggled to make sense of the chants and the strange world that she was brought into, Calliope suddenly stopped in her tracks. The reaper then knelt down on the brimstone brick road and spoke with stiff formality.
"Death-sensei! I present to you Priestess Ina'nis Ninomae from the Far East - and her Grimoire."
Death-sensei?
Grimoire?
All of the sudden, Ina found a pair of long, dark shadows looming over her. She dared to look up at the shadows and was terrified by the people she saw there - and the conditions that they were in.
The well-dressed Captain James Morrison appeared before her, albeit without the RMS Teutonic cap, and wore a saccharine, honeyed smile of satisfaction on his wrinkled lips.
Despite this sugar coated front, there was a menacing aura about him that was thicker than the air around Ina.
"Well done, Calliope Mori. Well done, Jacqueline Chadwick!" The true identity of Captain Morrison as 'Death-sensei' spoke with a thunderous voice that echoed far and wide. He then carefully took the Grimoire from Ina's hands and raised it up to the crowd for all to see, "Priestess Ninomae and her Grimoire will bring about a new age for the Grim Reapers - all thanks to your valiant efforts of you and your teams."
"I'm honored, Death-sensei." Calliope answered dutifully and kept her head low.
Ina's eyes then turned to the lady standing beside Death-sensei. It was the First Mate Jacqueline Chadwick, but her body was only partially fleshed out. Only a third of her body and three-fourths of her face had skin or muscle tissue on it. The rest of her body, like her right hand, was skeletal - just like many of the Grim Reapers who were lining up for the procession.
Chadwick's jaw - half of which was still skeletal - grinned at Ina and she puffed, "Boo!"
Ina went pale as a ghost in the presence of the two. Her fear silenced her and a cold sweat formed on her brow. Seeing them loom over her like that told Ina that she truly was in the Underworld now.
The realm of the Grim Reapers themselves.
At the very least, Ina thought, the pink-haired Grim Reaper carrying her seemed like a gentle soul. But that was a drop in the ocean of hellfire around her.
It made her wonder what Ame or Gura would do in a situation like that.
It made her want to see Ame and Gura again.
As soon as possible.
AlterMyth
Descent of the Priestess
Forty-Seventh Scene - A Librarian in the Underworld
For the next few minutes or so, Death-sensei and Chadwick took turns addressing the crowd. Death-sensei was pompous and proud and spoke like the many Old Guard orators that Ina had seen on the stands of Parliament Hill in Ottawa. Chadwick, on the other hand, was livelier and youthful and spoke in a strange, rhythmic, freestyle, slang-filled version of English that somehow flowed impressively well.
It was a whole lot of nothing, Ina decided. Just like most of the 'talk' on Parliament Hill.
All she knew was that the cheers that their speeches drew from the crowd threatened to drown out Ina's hearing. She could hardly make out what either of them said. She also noticed that Calliope Mori stayed kneeling on the boulevard without moving a muscle the entire time.
Thankfully, once they had said their pieces, Chadwick and Death-sensei departed soon enough and the large crowds of Grim Reapers dispersed along with them. Only a handful of curious souls and skeletons remained turning towards the kneeling Calliope and the timid Ina in her arms.
Calliope finally got back up to her feet and hoisted Ina up along with her.
"Sorry to put you through all that, Priestess." Calliope apologized and dusted off her long black cloak for a moment, "Death-sensei is really big on the pomp and circumstance stuff and J-chad plays along with it. The crowd was loving it too, so that kinda got them to keep going. Hard to stop when you're on a roll, right?"
Ina didn't reply. Instead, she just squirmed in Calliope's arms and kept her silence.
"You've been asleep for quite some time, but you must be tired after your transfiguration." Calliope assessed. She then flashed Ina a smile and reassured, "Don't worry, though! I'll bring you to your shrine so you can rest up. It's not too far from here and it's a nice place. Promise."
This time, Ina squirmed again and finally squeaked out a response.
"I'd appreciate it… if you let me stand on my own two feet, Calliope."
"Huh?" The Grim Reaper seemed flustered by Ina's assertive tone, "W-well, sure, I guess. It's been kinda awkward carrying you around all this time after all."
With that, Calliope lowered Ina once more and let her stand up on her own power. The 'priestess' was indeed tired, but standing up again gave her a little bit of relief.
Since Calliope mentioned her transfigurations, she took a moment to take a look at herself as best as she could. She found out that she was still wearing her comfortable summer clothes - the dark purple pinstripe shirt and the breezy black skirt.
However, just as she expected, there were wings sprouting out from behind her waist. A dim golden halo illuminated the dark brimstone boulevard mildly and floated above her head. Furthermore, odd ear-like flaps of hair now stood up in attention above her head and her two side bangs were delightfully squishy now with bright orange tips.
Those transfigurations that came out in her dreams were now real, Ina realized. Only the golden tiara of stars that crowned her head and the breezy black garment were missing, but she wasn't rushing to complain.
While Ina was going over the changes to herself, Calliope reached into the pockets of her black hood and brought out a familiar pair of glasses. She handed those glasses to Ina.
"You had this on you, Priestess - but I was worried that it might get cracked when we traveled, so I held onto it."
The Grim Reaper was worried about Ina's glasses getting cracked? Ina tilted her head with confusion and her ear-flaps wiggled halfheartedly, but she took the glasses regardless.
"T-thanks… I guess." Ina put on her glasses. Then, when her ear-flaps wiggled again, she noticed the lack of resistance there and realized, "My beret is gone!"
"Ah! Right…" Calliope gasped and gave her a deep bow, just like they did in the Far East, "It was probably blown out by the wind when we crossed the portal here. I'm sorry about that, Priestess."
How considerate, Ina thought.
This Calliope Mori really was a gentle soul.
Seeing the flustered Calli apologizing profusely to her over small things made her feel like she was looking into a cloudy mirror.
Was this how Ame felt when they first met in Dr. Watson's office in London?
"Don't worry about it." Ina managed to wear a small but appreciative smile. Then, her dim halo brightened up a little when she added, "Also, I don't really know what this whole Priestess business is… but I'm not comfortable with all this formality. Just call me Ina."
"Oh? Well - okay!" Calliope nodded eagerly. Her stiff voice then gave way to a more relaxed and casual tone, "I'll call you Ina from now on my dude, no problem! You can call me Calli too, if you want!"
That was quick, Ina thought. Calli was much more agreeable than she expected.
Was it because of the fact that she was this 'Priestess' that the Grim Reapers stopped short of worshiping, perhaps? Regardless, when Ina said this, Calli loosened up.
It was like a switch had been flipped in the reaper and she finally eased back to her usual self. Perhaps it was like how Ina reverted to her mannerisms and hobbies when she retired to her room in Ottawa after formal dinner parties when all the prying eyes of strangers were gone.
The dutiful reaper that Ina had seen kneeling before Death-sensei and the easygoing reaper standing before her were worlds apart.
That gap of personality was, in Ina's eyes, oddly endearing.
"Shall we get going then, Calli?" Ina reminded her surprisingly amiable captor, "This is your realm, after all."
"You got it, Ina! Follow me!" Calli spoke with rising excitement, "You're sort of our guest around here now, so let me show you around town too!"
With that, Calli and Ina walked side by side down the brimstone streets of the Underworld realm. Even though Ina was an unwilling tourist, she was a tourist nonetheless. Thus, she took in all the sights and sounds around her with Calli as her guide.
Apparently, Calli told Ina, this place was indeed the Underworld - but only a small fragment of it. This 'bastion' was called the Sous La Lune, or 'Under The Moon'. It was one of the many bastions that the Grim Reapers kept along the banks and branches of the storied River Styx.
" Sous La Lune ?" Ina repeated the name with a raised brow, "Under The Moon? Why a French name?"
"That's because this bastion serves the people who died in Southern France." Calli explained and reminisced, "Death-sensei told me once that a Frenchman who dies would be more at peace if his first glimpse of the afterlife was something remotely familiar. Because of that, the Sous La Lune reflects Bordeaux a bit."
True enough, Ina found a wide river flowing on one side of the brimstone brick avenue. There were a dozen boats in the water that were headed downstream. Each boat had a Grim Reaper at the oars while pale figures were seated behind them.
"Those are my juniors bringing in the people who died recently." Calli pointed out to them and waved. When the reapers waved back to Calli, she turned back to Ina and spoke, "Ferrying the dead to the afterlife has been the role of the Grim Reapers since mankind walked on two feet."
"And as the Upperworld changed, the Underworld changed along with it." Ina deduced.
"You can say that, my dude." Calli nodded in agreement, "Death is the secret of life that nobody wants to learn - but death comes for all of us." She then laid her hand over her heart and snickered, "It came for me once, after all. One cold winter day. That's why I'm here."
While Calli was speaking, the two of them came across a bridge of brimstone bricks that ran over the branch of the River Styx. There were bright street lamps of otherworldly flame that guided the boats of the Grim Reapers downstream.
"You were there on one of those boats once, huh?" Ina thought out loud, "That's a little hard to imagine - since you seem to be like a hero around here."
"I did start out like that. In a different bastion though. Chadwick, or J-chad, was my boater. She was a rookie back then - but she still had some really nice shoes."
J-chad really did have nice shoes, Ina recalled. They often stole the show on the RMS Teutonic.
"But long story short - three hundred years ago - J-chad offered me a gig to be a Grim Reaper." Calli revealed freely, "I said yes. The rest is history."
Ina and Calli crossed the bridge and arrived at what looked like a small town square. There was a simple fountain in the middle surrounded by quaint brimstone brick buildings that lined the road. When Ina got a closer look, she saw that it was like dark shale hewn from subterranean rocks, but the architecture wouldn't be out of place in a mountainous, riverside European town.
"The shrine is just up the hill past the town." Calli pointed up to a small villa, but turned to Ina with a smile and suggested, "But I'm a little hungry. I'm sure you are too."
When Calli mentioned this, Ina's stomach rumbled and drew a hearty laugh from the reaper. Ina pouted at Calli and her ear-flaps drooped weakly, but the reaper promptly apologized.
"C'mon, it'll be my treat." Calli offered, "J-chad told me about a nice place in this part of the bastion. You might like it too, Ina!"
Ina tilted her head and smirked, "Do I really have a choice here?"
Calli snickered mischievously and urged Ina to hurry.
Ina heaved a sigh and obliged.
Forty-Eighth Scene - The Finer Things In Life And Death
The elite reaper Calli brought the priestess Ina through the heart of the town square. They stepped inside a hole-in-the-wall Italian restaurant named the Trattoria Aquitania . Inside, Calli and Ina were welcomed warmly by the enthusiastic staff who - to Calli's apparent relief - spoke some English.
They were given seats on the patio where they had a good view of the town square and its quaint fountain. There was no sunlight there in the realm, but the arrays of street lamps and candles and braziers brightened up the town square beautifully.
Sticks of fragrant candles were also placed on their table and were lit with matches for them.
It smelled like the red spider lily flowers.
The whole Underworld seemed to be infatuated with those flowers.
Ina was given a menu and she saw a whole host of Italian cuisine listed there in English and in French. It reminded her of her time back in Ottawa almost.
After a short while the two of them gave their orders.
Ina felt a little adventurous so she ordered the most unusual thing on the menu - squid ink pasta. Calli, on the other hand, ordered a plain plate of lasagna and a bottle of red wine. She offered Ina a glass too, but the librarian politely refused.
Their food came a little while later and Ina was delighted by how the food turned out. Fine Italian cuisine wasn't what the librarian had in mind when she imagined the Underworld, so she was pleasantly surprised. It made her wonder how they got the ingredients to make all this.
Moreover, she was surprised that Grim Reapers ate at all - it made her wonder how it all worked. Calli poured herself a glass of wine and noticed that Ina's mind was hard at work."
"You're wondering why Reapers still eat like this, huh?" Calli guessed, "It's one of the first things I had to learn when I became a reaper myself. I can tell you about it if you want - as long as you're not squeamish."
Ina nodded and then slurped on her own black pasta, urging Calli to go on. The reaper nodded back and happily obliged.
"Our souls are anchored to these bodies." Calli laid a hand on her chest and explained, "I'm not alive, but this body is. A living body needs to eat and drink to keep living. That good stuff also helps us restore our magic reserves." She then cracked her knuckles and continued, "If I shed my skin and stay in my skeletal form, I don't need a lot of magic to function. I wouldn't need to eat or drink. But I can't exactly do a whole lot with just a skeleton body, can I?"
"So, it's like a matter of sustenance. Humu humu ." Ina hummed with keen scientific interest, "The energy you'd normally get from eating and drinking becomes magic? How peculiar."
"When a Grim Reaper falls in the Upperworld, there's usually a skeleton waiting for them when they come back to their home bastion in the Underworld." Calli added and then shrugged, "But it's still a hassle to have to build up enough magic to fully restore your body."
"Is that why Miss Chadwick wasn't fully healed earlier?" Ina recalled the senior reaper's frightening greeting on the boulevard.
All of the sudden, in the corner of Ina's eye, Jacqueline Chadwick - or rather, J-chad - appeared in her partially skeletal form and approached them.
"That's exactly right, Priestess." J-chad confirmed proudly, "The kouhai manager and the shark-girl ganged up on me."
Kouhai manager? Like a junior? Who was J-chad talking about? Ina could only wonder.
J-chad then formed the shape of a gun with her fingers and continued, "Then Amelia Watson blew my brains out! It was kinda cool, actually! Only the second time someone finished me off like that."
"J-chad…!" Calli seemed flustered all of the sudden, "What are you doing here?"
"I was waiting for you and the Priestess at the shrine, but the two of you were running late. So, I went down to town to look for ya!" J-chad explained with a grin. She then turned to Ina eating together with Calli and added, "Though… I guess it's worth it if the Priestess is fine with it. Just be thankful Death-sensei wasn't the one who checked out the shrine, kiddo!"
Despite J-chad's amusement, Ina saw that Calli still seemed to be rather nervous.
"If I buy you a bottle of wine and give you part of my stipend next month…" Calli offered cautiously, "Will you keep this between us and not tell Death-sensei?"
"Make it two bottles and it's all good in the neighborhood, my dude. Doesn't have to be the expensive stuff either!" J-chad renegotiated generously, "Keep your stipend though. You're still paying down that thing you bought!"
With that, Calli stood up and offered her hand to J-chad. The two of them then started an amusingly unique handshake.
"It's a deal, J-chad!" Calli perked up immediately, "You're a lifesaver!"
Calli bought two bottles of cheap wine for J-chad and then sent the senior reaper on her way back to the shrine. J-chad waved goodbye to them with her skeletal right hand, holding the wine bottles up in the air and told them to take their time.
"The two of you seem close." Ina noted, "You and J-chad."
"Yeah. We're sisters-in-arms." Calli agreed wholeheartedly, "She's had my back and I've had hers since the very beginning. She works harder than everyone else too. No matter how many times she's brought down, she keeps rising back up. There's no one else I respect in the Underworld more than her."
"More than Death-sensei?" Ina tested.
Calli nodded without a second thought. She poured herself another glass of wine and savored it for a moment. Then she turned to Ina with a warm smile.
"J-chad is one of the most loyal reapers you'll ever know. She respects Death-sensei like he's her real dad." Calli explained honestly, "Death-sensei is a great reaper - our Lord of Death himself, of course. I admire the dude and respect him for the way he's led the Underworld for the past three hundred years of my afterlife. But I don't know the first thing about the dude. Especially lately..."
"Lately…?" Ina noticed Calli's thoughts trailing off and pried, "What do you mean by that."
"O-oh, it's nothing!" Calli hastily changed the topic and urged, "Now eat up before your food gets cold… t-though it won't really get that cold here… b-but you know what I mean!"
Ina feigned a smile and continued to eat her delicious pasta. However, hearing Calli fret about the Lord of Death made her feel like all was not exactly well in the Underworld after all. Behind the pomp and circumstance, the beautiful rituals, the pretty locales, the delicious food and the warm smiles, there was trouble brewing.
All of this stirred up Ina's resolve even more.
She didn't belong here, she told herself.
She wanted to go home.
Forty-Ninth Scene - Gilded Cage
After their hearty meal in the town square restaurant, Calli and Ina carried on with their journey to the top of the nearby hill. Despite the lack of a breeze and the ever-present heat, it was a surprisingly pleasant stroll uphill. Soon enough, they reached a small, rustic house on the hill where J-chad was waiting for them.
"Welcome to your shrine, Priestess." J-chad greeted with her partially-skeletal smile, "This is where you'll be staying until the Ancient Ones gather in this bastion for the Ritual."
Ina glanced at the house and thought that it looked rather quaint and peaceful - like a sleepy summer cottage in the woodland outskirts of Ottawa. It was a nice-looking house with a cute little garden dominated by red spider lily flowers that were still a ways away from blooming. The librarian was tempted to explore the house like she would explore a new hotel, but there were other more pressing matters on her mind that time.
"What exactly is this ritual, J-chad?" Ina went straight to the point, "Why am I being called to become a Priestess of the Ancient Ones?"
"If I knew why the Ancient Ones chose you, then i'd probably become an Ancient One myself! Hah!" J-chad laughed heartily, "Here's what I do know, though. When the Ancient Ones gather in this bastion, you will be formally anointed as their Priestess. It'll be one hell of a celebration, that's for sure!"
"Death-sensei and the Ancient Ones teamed up when the usurpers from the Cover Corporation came into this world." Calli chimed in as well, "Beings from another world disrupted the balance of things in ours."
"That's right." J-chad nodded in agreement and folded her arms, "The Priestess of the Ancient Ones, with the support of the Grim Reapers from all around the Underworld, will prevent another attack like that from happening. That's the new age that Death-sensei spoke about - a world of peace."
"Me?" Ina shuddered, "Stop an invasion from another world!? Bring about an age of world peace!? How am I supposed to do something like that?"
When Ina asked this, J-chad brought out the Grimoire that Death-sensei took from Ina earlier. She returned it to Ina and spoke.
"You may not feel it now, but you have been granted supernatural powers, Priestess. Magic similar to ours. Maybe greater." J-chad suggested proudly and handed the book back to Ina, "Attune yourself to the magic in that book. Perhaps the answers you're looking for are in there!"
Ina took the book and glanced at its plain dark purple cover. She then gripped the book tightly and retorted.
"Listen, Calli. J-chad. I have no doubt in my heart and mind that you're amazing people - if I can call you that - but I'm not exactly here on my own free will."
"But the Ancient Ones chose you…" Calli tried to speak, "You reached out to the whispers, and…"
"I didn't choose to be here!" Ina interrupted angrily, "I just touched the book once and it knocked me out. Now I'm here! Does that sound fair to you!?" She let the thoughts that she had been keeping bottled up inside, "Ame and Gura are waiting for me to come back. My parents are waiting for me to come back. Those are the whispers I hear in my mind now. I want to see them all again!"
There was a moment of pause, but Calli cleared her throat and shot back with a low growl.
"When it comes to Death and Destiny, we don't always get what we want, Ina."
"Then don't try to sugarcoat this like it's some sort of great honor that I chose to do wholeheartedly. This is just a gilded cage! I don't feel honored at all." Ina snapped sharply, "I'm not happy with this arrangement. Looking at you and J-chad now… I don't think the two of you are either."
This time, neither Calli nor J-chad could talk back to Ina. They probably knew that nothing they could say would change Ina's mind - and neither of them had the heart to lie.
Adventuring with Ame all this time taught Ina how to read people's faces after.
Looking at Calli and J-chad now, she could tell that she had words in her heart that she couldn't say. Ina saw it in the way J-chad's skeletal right hand fidgeted at her side and how Calli wouldn't look her in the eye. They both had regrets that neither of them were brave enough to admit.
Their silence brought a frown to Ina's lips and she broke away from them. She opened the door to the rustic cottage and spoke with her back turned to her captors.
"I'm going to rest now. Please leave me alone."
Ina didn't wait for them to answer her. She stepped inside, slammed the door behind her in the dark room.
Alone there in the darkness, Ina leaned back against the door until she slid down to the ground. Her dim halo grew even dimmer now and barely pushed back the dark. Tears then started to flow down her cheeks and she croaked.
"Ame… Gura… I miss you." Ina hugged her legs and begged, "Please… save me."
All of the sudden, the Grimoire in her hands glowed with a faint purple light and stole Ina's attention. Then, she felt an unnatural presence sprouting out from behind her back.
Ina's face went pale when she dared to look back behind her but her abject terror kept her from screaming. There was a myriad of large purple tentacles that grew in the darkness and loomed over her. Seeing those tendrils threatened to rob Ina of her sanity and she thought that she was going to faint.
However, those tentacles stayed back at Ina's behest and kept their distance from her as if they were following her commands.
One of those tentacles, however, broke rank, reached into a pocket of Ina's summer dress and brought out a handkerchief that Ame once lent Ina in London. That tentacle then brought the handkerchief gently to Ina's eyes and wiped her tears with unbelievable tenderness.
Ina dared to reach out to that tentacle and held it in her hands. It responded to her and held her hands like it was obediently greeting her.
Was this… the power of the Ancient Ones?
Epilogue
Outside of the hilltop house, Calli and J-chad stood before the door in silence. After the heated confrontation that they had with Ina just moments ago, neither of them had the courage to knock on the door. They knew that the Priestess didn't want to talk to them or anyone else right now.
At least, they knew the people she wanted to see were still in the Upperworld - in the land of the living.
Despite that, both of them were stunned by Ina's sharp perception.
"For a while there…" J-chad folded her arms and repeated with a hum, "For a while there, the Priestess sounded like you when I first met you, kiddo. You made the same excuses at first - begging for your life."
"There were still things that I wanted to do back then, J-chad." Calli started sympathetically, "If I were honest… I still wish I could do them now."
J-chad then laid her skeletal hand on Calli's shoulder and patted it.
"We're Grim Reapers now, Calli. It's our job to help folks come to terms with reality. We're teaching them the secret of life that nobody wants to learn. They'll have to accept fate sooner or later, just like we did."
"Did we, though?" Calli asked honestly, "Accept our fates completely?"
"Hmm… I wonder about that." J-chad answered inconclusively, but she patted Calli's shoulder again with sympathy, "Changing our careers this late in our afterlifes will be a hassle. Just kidding~!"
"Yeah…" Calli replied halfheartedly.
"Speaking of our careers… I'll take over your watch duties tonight." J-chad started and took her hand off of Calli's shoulder, "Death-sensei's calling for you in the bastion's keep."
"Death-sensei wants to see me?"
J-chad nodded then reached into the pockets of her black hood and brought out a pair of dice. She placed those dice in Calli's hand and asked.
"You ever played Craps before, kiddo?"
To Be Continued