"You know, I don't even know why I'm surprised anymore," Rin sighs, standing back as Leah turns slowly in front of a large mirror. "I mean, I'm not even actually surprised. Just resigned. Tired. I want a normal job."
"There are no normal jobs for the dead, dear," Leah reminds her.
"I know," Rin deadpans. "Do you actually need me here? I have paperwork to do, ma'am."
"I do need to know if this is something your people would find appropriate for the circumstances," Leah says, turning her gaze towards Rin and smiling.
"…well, I'd give it a definite yes. Maybe ask Yahiko or Hizashi."
o.o.o.o.o
Leah does not dress as Hela does, nor as the true Leah. She has simpler tastes, for a variety of reasons, but she has definitely inherited their flair for the dramatic.
The Leah of old wore bones in her hair, and Hela has her helm. This Leah is plenty content with her simple bones for daily activities, but for something special… she has to take it farther.
She may take a cue from Loki, on this occasion.
Lace of finely-wrought silver creates a mask over her eyes and nose, becoming a true helmet as it crosses her hairline and moves further back. It's carefully held in place with magic, so that the spiraling antelope horns, clearly made of pure white bone, do not overbalance it as they extend up and back.
Her hair remains unbound in this form, and her dress is not her usual, but it remains simple enough; sheets of gauzy green fabric fall in layers over her legs, just shifted around each other enough to provide the occasional glimpse of pale skin without ever truly showing what lays beneath, and though she retains her customary high collar, her arms are bare save for wisps of bare fabric tied from shoulder to elbow to wrist in a manner reminiscent of the old Greeks.
If her eyes are just shadowed enough for a green glow to be the only thing anyone can make out, if her skin is of a pallor she would not retain normally, if there is green-black smoke seeping from the ground she walks over, then it is only to hold the image she wishes to portray to humanity.
"All stories begin somewhere, Yahiko," she whispers with a smile, setting foot in a little village outside of Kirigakure. "Let us plant the seeds of mine."
He stands behind her, clad in his own work uniform; it's a heavier armor than he wore as a shinobi, but there are still swathes of dark fabric. His helmet is a tarnished steel in a shape reminiscent of the Disir, coming low over his nose and eyes, with decorative wings not unlike Thor's sweeping back from the temples.
"You do not do things halfway." Yahiko jumps straight up and lands clinging to the tip of a tree, staring out through the mist. "I'm guessing you're heading for—"
"Yes," Leah says, and starts walking forward. This form is no less true than her usual one, but it is different. It exudes her powers in ways that her normal form keeps close and coiled.
The grass dies beneath her feet and the faint touch of her skirts. The path she leaves behind her is not a thin one, as her power billows out from her form. It is dry and grey and dead.
It is not only human lives the Death takes, and Leah is as Hela was, and is willing to take any to come to her. Jashin still takes the lion's share, but Leah has hers to collect. Vegetation dies instantaneously at her touch. Humans take the longest. Everything else… depends. On sapience, on sentience, on complexity of form.
Everything depends.
Death is cold.
The water freezes beneath her heels as she reaches the river, smooth and rigid, locked to the bank until she's gone for long enough to melt again.
The mist hides her until she is within a few hundred meters of the village. It is not a massacre, not quite, but the plague that has taken hold of this community is close enough for Jashin to bow out and let her take whomever she can find.
Yahiko ghosts along nearby, darting forward and back and around on the surface of the water itself, while she takes slow, deliberate steps befitting of a queen.
There is shouting as someone on the shore sees them. Yahiko is usually invisible, but at her side, when she lets her power out like this, he is… translucent. She is more solid, at least to the eyes.
A fishing spear goes through her shoulder, in one side and out the other. There is not a scratch left behind, just a slight flutter in the fabric of her sleeve as the air is disturbed.
She does not halt in her approach, just tilts her head a little, inviting them to try again.
"Can they hear us?" Yahiko asks, coming closer for just a moment.
"When you speak, they hear but murmurs, indecipherable but nonetheless unnerving," Leah answers. "Stay behind, for now. You are a retainer, not a guard."
"As you wish…" Yahiko mutters, just a little petulant.
There are more spears, and Leah ignores them even as she reaches the shore.
"A shinobi?" One of the villagers demands; he is healthy and strong, and will survive the plague. She ignores him. "One of those damned illusions? What the hell are you doing here?"
Leah pauses in her walk, turns her head towards him, and tilts it just a little.
"I am not a shinobi," she says, letting them know and understand. "I am more."
She turns away and heads further into the village. Someone tries to grab her by the arm, and cries out and stumbles when there is nothing there to catch. His passage leaves billows of black smoke pouring from the place he'd touched, but little else.
"The grass!" One man chokes out, scrambling back and pulling other with him. "Look at the grass!"
There is a panic, of course. More threats. Yahiko laughs wryly, amused as only a shinobi can be.
A bird comes down and attempts to land on Leah's shoulder. It passes through and falls dead to the ground.
"What the hell are you?" One of the men demands again.
She decides to steal a monologue from the woman she might have become. Could have become. Would have and would not have become, had she been her own original.
Hela's monologue.
"Why do the living so fear my touch?" She asks, not stopping in her walk. She gestures towards a house that has someone only seconds from expiring, and Yahiko darts in the direction she indicates. A broken wail of grief comes only seconds later, and Yahiko returns.
"Do I not bring peace to those who long have borne life's burden?" She asks, aware that people are following her with useless weapons at the ready. "Do I not bring rest at the end of life's weary journey?"
"What the hell…" Faces are pale. Fear is evident. All is as it should be.
"Do I not banish pain from all who may suffer?" She lets her voice get quieter at that, gesturing at another house. This death happened before they arrived, but is recent enough for the child's soul to still be near. "Do I not cure all ills—and put an end to all wounds?"
"What are you?" Someone demands again, stepping into her path and shoving the point of a fishing spear beneath her chin.
She eyes him coolly, eyes glowing just a little brighter. "Is it not obvious? I am Leah of Hel, Queen of the Dead. I am here to collect those that are mine. If you do not wish to become one of them, you'd best move out of the way. My power is not always a discerning one."
The man stumbles back with a shriek, and Leah smiles.
"Good choice."
"I'm done," Yahiko says, jumping to a position behind and to the side of her. "I ran through the remaining houses and grabbed the lingering souls, took out a few that were about to die and just ended the suffering a little early. We good to go?"
Leah reaches out into thin air and makes a grasping motion, as though pulling all those souls to her, and then slams her magic forcefully into the ground, burning her symbol into the ground.
She smiles wider.
"Do not fear death, little mortals. She comes for everyone, but we who collect you when she has done her part are fair rulers."
"For the most part," Yahiko mutters under his breath.
She disappears in a wisp of smoke, pulling Yahiko along with her.
"To the next location," she says, and starts for it, Yahiko behind her.
It may take time, but her legend will thrive eventually, in one form or another.
o.o.o.o.o
A/N: The monologue referenced can be found here: phoenixyfriend dot tumblr dot com slash post slash 158558087805
Leah's symbol is a triangular (thin isosceles pointing downwards) knot with a gem held in the bottom-most space (stylized as a dark circle when she burns it into the ground) that I based off of a necklace I got at a Ren Faire because knots are pretty big in both Norse and Celtic cultures, and the symbol seemed like the sort of thing that Leah would use to differentiate herself from her predecessors.
I really wish I could draw well enough to do Leah like this. BTW the horns are either impala or addax, but I couldn't decide which.
o.o.o.o.o
Next time: Time for some PR.