Determination
Rowan had played a couple of Solitaire games, thought of what she wanted for a computer program, awkwardly cut and bled into her computer, and envisioned a software that listed names, offered a search engine and that gave a detailed profile once a name was selected. The profile included important facts, family that may already be in Helheim (or Hell, you never know) and what level they should be in.
She could then have her Draugar take care of sending them to the appropriate level. She might need more staffing, but maybe three would be enough.
Her program was perfect, but she needed to rest her head a little on her desk. Every time she used her blood and her power, even if she took a little break, it was too much. It seemed she needed a deep sleep to reenergize. Like she had time for that!
When she opened her eyes after a little nap, there was a cup of tea next to her. Bjarni once again made her a cup of tea from Gadreel's penthouse. But this time, there was also a chocolate chip muffin.
As she lifted her head, she caught her Draugar glancing at her with little smirks on their faces, like finding their Lady of death asleep at her computer was too cute.
"Thanks Bjarni." Rowan said, immediately getting an offended gasp from Raganhar.
"I got the muffin." He said, but Rowan only smirked at him. When he remained offended, clicking away angrily at his computer, Rowan sighed, nearly rolling her eyes.
"Thank you, Raganhar." She said, getting a content smile out of him.
"I told you Bjarni was the favorite one." Agmundr said, which Raganhar ignored. He got gratitude from Rowan, which was all he wanted, nothing else.
"What did you get me, Agmundr?" Rowan asked and he looked a little baffled and then worried. He was trying to come up with an excuse, but Rowan couldn't torture him like that, trying not to smirk. "Just kidding." She added, but Raganhar snickered at him, like all joking aside, he really was the only one not getting Rowan anything.
"I'm the favorite." Bjarni whispered to the two others with a wicked grin on her face. They didn't seem thrilled, but remained silent. They worked on their computers, although Rowan had no idea exactly what they were doing. Downloading music? Streaming episodes of The Walking Dead?
Rowan missed that show too. Damn!
Rowan looked at her computer, at her software that was complete and ready for the souls. She was pretty proud of herself, an obvious sign that she was feeling better. She glanced at her iPad, trying to figure out how to put the software on the device.
"I can do that." Agmundr said, getting snickers out of the other two. He ignored them and helped Rowan connect the software from her computer to her iPad. She tried to keep up, but it was just confusing. She just waited for him to finish up while she ate her muffin. "I'll do the same to our iPads, if you want." He added and smiled as she nodded.
"Knock yourself out." she replied, drinking her tea. "Any word from Gadreel?" she asked and Bjarni shook her head.
"You were only snoozing for about half an hour or so." She replied and Rowan shrugged her shoulders. Hours or minutes; it was still lost time. Who ever heard of a Goddess who needed a nap after using her power? It was absolutely ridiculous. "And to let you know, your two days are almost up." Bjarni said, which made Rowan nearly cough on her cup of tea.
"What?" she asked, swallowing her tea, placing both the cup and her muffin on the desk. Bjarni gave a little nod with her eyes cast low.
"I wouldn't have said anything." Agmundr murmured, knowing that Rowan would be very stressed out with that detail.
"Time isn't the same down here as it is on earth." She said, but Rowan knew what wasted so much of her time.
Resting.
"Just what I need. Death to gloat that I was too eager and couldn't meet my own expectations." Rowan replied, rubbing her face, as if to smooth out the frustration.
"He won't do that." Agmundr said softly beside her. "And he'll be impressed with what you've done so far." He added, but Rowan wasn't so sure. Death didn't like her much. He seemed to regard her as a child who wasn't very intelligent. Not only that, but he had agreed with her that he has no business in her business; why would he care how hard she had worked on creating Helheim? He just wanted a place to put the souls that wasn't filled with clueless angels.
No, just a clueless Goddess.
Rowan could work her ass off to complete the last three levels of Helheim, but she would probably need a whole day to sleep, causing Death and his reapers to wait even longer. She could always tell Death to fuck off; he could give her a day of rest after all the hard work she put into Helheim alone.
Agmundr glanced at her, her iPad ready to go with her software, now in an easy-to-use application. She was deep in thought as her cup of tea was just an inch away from her lips.
"A penny for your thoughts." He said, snapping her out of it. She smiled at him and then looked at her other two friends.
"You two boys are going to install my program on everything and give it a test run. Bjarni, keep bringing me tea and muffins. I'm going to push to finish Helheim." She said, shocking them all.
"You can't. You have to rest in between. Who knows what'll happen if you don't rest." Bjarni protested, but Rowan refused to let it sway her mind. She got up, finishing her tea and her muffin, and giving Agmundr a reassuring pat on the shoulder.
"If I don't overcome my moments of stress, then what happens if the entrance to the Underworld is loaded with souls? What if we're backed up? I can't afford to rest with over a hundred souls waiting to be placed." She said with determination and her Draugar knew there was no deterring her from working nonstop.
"Not all those souls will enter Helheim. The way the world is going, I'd bet half of the souls in the entrance of the Underworld would go to Hell." Raganhar said, but that didn't convince her that what she was about to do was a bad idea.
"Be careful." Agmundr said softly which made Rowan smile. If the other two wanted to protest, they remained silent. They knew Rowan had made up her mind and they were in no position to force their opinions on her.
Rowan walked out of the office, determined to overpower the stress that washed over her when she was drained of energy. It was the stress that stopped her from building Helheim, the stress that invaded when she was weak. As she pushed the down arrow of the nearest elevator, it made her think of her years at University. All the hours spent studying, writing essays and drinking coffee because she only had two nights to write a fifteen page essay about a novel she was only given three days to read.
As she wrote that essay, weak from exhaustion, stress hit her like a hurricane and it nearly stopped her from working on a paper that could get her an A+. She ended up getting a C because the stress won and her professor was a hard-ass.
That was nothing compared to this. And it was pointless. University didn't help her become Hel again; it was just Fate to be there to meet her brother and the Winchesters.
The elevator went down to the fifth level of Helheim. The doors opened and she stared at the pitch black staring right back at her. Rowan had thought of the fourth level as the one that would be the difference between the upper and lower parts of Helheim. The fifth level is where privileges wouldn't be accorded.
Rowan cut her palm with her earring once again, which was going to have to soak in rubbing alcohol for a while before going back into her ear. With the blood dripping, she extended her hand into the darkness, envisioning cement floors covered in tiles, like Crowley's never ending waiting line. There were archways, but no openings. It was replaced with a door. Another difference was no sky above, just a cavern ceiling with fog rising to the top, which looked nice.
It was the same format as the other levels, with elevators to the right and the ability to bring the room to the soul. Another difference was that their name would be on the door.
It wasn't a very welcoming level, but this is where the other side of that drawn line lies. As Rowan thought in the fourth level, the difference between not helping pick up their groceries and not helping someone who's getting the beating of their life, this is the latter. The fifth level would be for those that watched as others got hurt and did nothing.
Those that remained silent while someone screamed for help. Those that watched someone begging for help. Yes, she could argue that one could simply be afraid of helping and that was something she would take into consideration depending on the situation. But the fifth level would be known as Blind, for the very reason that there's a difference between not helping someone with their things and thinking of themselves before jumping in to save someone from a horrible predicament.
Rowan had completed the fifth level, feeling a little drained, but not stressed. Instead, she was feeling a little discouraged just by thinking that there are some people who fear getting hurt, so they let someone else suffer. Besides the dark cloud that seemed to hang over her, she knew she was doing the right thing. Souls like that weren't bad enough to go to Hell, but not good enough to bask in the sunlight and enjoy the afterlife to its fullest in the upper levels.
She'd like to say that she doesn't judge, but she's not another human. She's a Goddess, the Goddess Hel of Helheim, which makes judging the dead her job.
Rowan was feeling a little tired, mostly because her resting period wasn't very long, but she couldn't and wouldn't stop. Not only was it a sense of wanting to conquer her stress, but a sense of justice that drove her to begin work on the sixth level of Helheim. Some of the souls had to understand that it's the little things in life that make a difference. Yes, there's evil in the world, but with little acts of kindness, it's the light that chases away the darkness. And in her Helheim, what you did in your life does matter.