"For the last time, I have no idea what you're talking about."
Thana and Jack walked side by side on a boardwalk at the Tel Aviv port, in Israel. With every step, a small jingle rang out from the metal chains on Thana's boots. Her hood was down for once, and Jack could see the boardwalk shops through her skin. Each of them had their respective staff over their shoulders, Thana on her left, and Jack on his right.
"None of the souls that I've spoken with have mentioned any sort of 'vulture' or weird dreams."
"Would they, if you've never asked them?"
"A lot of times during the conversations, souls recount tramatic or life changing events. Having sleep paralysis with a vulture dressed as a Ringwraith seems pretty traumatizing."
Jack stared at her, eyes slightly squinted and his head tilted to the side. "A what?"
"A Ringwraith…?"
Jack continued to stare.
"You've never read Lord of the Rings?"
"I take it upon myself not to read anything more than a News Paper."
"The books were made into movies!"
"Far too restless to sit down for more than an hour unless I'm sleeping."
Thana stared at him with her lips slightly parted, and Jack realized that his heartbeat had started to speed up. She shook her head and continued to walk. Jack rubbed his face with his hands and matched up with her.
"Okay. So you don't know anything about the vulture, or the dream stealing. But, all of the seasons are positive that it has something to do with the system of death."
"Just because Nymph told you some Frankish folk-lore?"
"Nymph has been around for longer than the guardians."
"Jack, I'm older than Nymph. Her knowing some myths and legends doesn't really prove anything."
Jack sighed and stopped walking. "Thana, Ambrose was overwhelemed by vultures and fought them off so that I could get away to find you. Right now you're our only lead, and I know that this isn't Pitch Black."
Thana folded her arms and looked over at the beach trailing off the board walk. "Okay, come with me."
The two sat on stone steps leading down to the beach. Thana, spreading a fistful of sand had drawn what looked like a food pyramid, except only divided into four. In each division, a seashell.
"The afterlife works in a four-part linear. Each of these parts has an overseer, and each overseer has different responsibilities, workers, and a weapon." She pointed to the top of the pyramid, with a white clam-shell. "The linear starts with the Azrael, me. The Archangel Azrael was called the "Helper of God," or the "Angel of Death" in Islam. In biblical literature, mortals wrote that He helps dying people make the transition from the earthly dimension to heaven and comforts people who are grieving the death of a loved one. Although nowadays its more of the former than the latter.
"Once a soul is brought to the afterlife, they are immediately placed on a trial with the Anubis." She moved her finger to the second section of the pyramid, an orange snail shell. "Know anything about Egyptian Gods?"
"Here and there."
"Well, in ancient Egypt, mortals worshipped the Jackle headed God, Anubis. After they died, Anubis would weigh their heart on a scale in comparison to the Feather of Truth. The scale measured how heavy the heart was with sin. If the scale balanced out, they would be presented to the king of the underworld, Osiris and welcomed into life after death. If it was heavier than the feather their hearts would be devoured, and the soul would be destroyed.
The Anubis passes judgement on the souls who get sent to the afterlife, and decides if they go to one of these two relms." She picked up the shell from the third section in one hand, and the shell from the base of the pyramid. "Elysium," she raised a massive, grey oyster shell. "Or Hellheim," she raised a blue mussle.
"Hold on," Jack rasied his hands to stop her. "You told me that you guys were older than Nymph, who was alive during Nordic times. How is it that all these different versions of underwordly myths exist all within the same process?"
To his surprise, a grin broke across her face. She leaned closer to Jack, as if someone else was listening. "Between you and me, we each picked which myth we liked the most and started using it as our respective titles. Cassius picked Greek, Gunza is Norse, and Edri practically begged for Egypt. I went with all the monothiestic religions because Azrael sounds respected and professional, and Angel of Death sounds freaking awesome."
Jack nodded approvingly and pointed at the last two shells. "So, the two relms?"
"Right." Thana set down the osyter shell. "Elysium, as you can probably guess, is ruled by the Hades. All of the souls that have passed judgement are brought before the Hades and are given two options. Spending death in paradise, or rebirth. Now, if a soul doesn't pass judgement, it gets sent straight to Hellheim. The warden of the relm is called the Hela, and she runs her corner of hell like a prison."
Something in her voice when she spoke about the Hela caught Jack's attention. He picked up the mussle and played with it in his fingers. "There's something off about the Hela isn't there? Why did you say it like that?"
"Ever since Edri became the Anubis, Gunza has kept to herself in Hellheim. She doesn't talk to us anymore and when she does, she's angry. The last time the four of us met, she almost started a huge battle with Cassius right in Elysium."
"Why do you think she'd be so angry? You're supposed to work like cogs on a wheel, so shouldn't everything be as it should?"
"That's how it's supposed to be, yeah. But recently Cassius has been overwhelmed with souls. Elysium is getting harder to manage by himself-"
Thana stopped suddenly, jumping to her feet. "I know what's going on." She said before sprouting her wings and taking to the sky.
"Wait a minute!" Jack shouted, racing up to her. "What? Who is it?"
"It all makes sense now. Those things aren't vultures, they're shadows. And they're stealing dreams in order to drive the soul crazy. To make them begin to lose their humanity!"
"But why? What purpose is there in doing that?"
"Ever since Edri became the Anubis she's been deciding who makes their way into Elysium and who is sent to Hellheim! But Edri is a kind hearted spirit, and he believes in the good of everyone, so he's been sending more and more souls to Elysium."
"I still don't understand."
"Jack, that means that Hellheim is empty! Gunza's relm is barren and her kingdom is almost gone. She's trying to make up for that by dragging souls here herself!"
"So she sent the shadows to steal dreams?"
"A soul's humanity is important in deciding where it should be sent. If a soul has no humanity, its as if it has no morals. She's purposfully making bad people in order to fill her quotas!"
Jack's eyes went wide as everything clicked into place. Of course she would also conveniently go for dreams. This way she could target the Guardians to go after Pitch Black and never even consider the spirits of the underworld. No one would have suspected a thing because it would only have become relevant once they started doing bad things.
"Where are we going now?"
"Athens. We need to get to the underworld and put a stop to this, now."
"Alone? Shouldn't we at least tell the Guardians so we have some kind of back-up?"
"We don't have time. We need to get to Gunza and sto-"
From above, a black mass slammed into Thana, sending her crashing onto the roof of a building. A second one was headed straight for Jack. The vultures. They had found them.
Hey everyone!
So I am a soldier doing a required service in my home country and because of the Corona Virus, we are all being pulled back up to our bases. I don't know what that means in terms of being able to update, but you'll notice from this massive update that I've spent the whole day writing as many chapters as I could before I needed to head back up I plan on continuing this story during any free time I have on base, but I won't be able to update for at least the next two weeks.
With love,
Nepenthe.
