Solus sat heavily in his newly repaired chair. Everything was a mess. Riyanna had left, presumably to get some work done. Ryan was, as usual, on Earth somewhere. Why he prefered to stay in that chaotic world, Solus would never understand. Arkelus was asleep in his room, and Solus was sure he would stay there.
Solus concentrated on his job from where he sat. Soul trancending his physical form, he rose and floated down to Earth.
There were a large number of rituals going on in the human world, none of which he had any particular intrest in. Night was falling, meaning he had to slow the path of light in its tracks.
Floating, he covered the distance of the world quickly, ligering on the vampiric areas and places of death. He didn't run into Riyanna, although he was hoping he would. They needed to talk if the two of them and their son were going to be in the same house.
He smelled her sent, and following it ran into a wall of trees. This was a forest he knew well. Back before he was the God of Darkess he used to train in this forst with his friends, now all of them Gods. This was also where he met Riyanna ad he killed her oldest brother, driving her into a rage that killed her twin making him the God of Life, and later her suicide making her the Goddess of Death.
Needless to say this place was a place of death and despair, so Solus could see why she would make her way here.
He saw her sitting on the edge of the waterfall where she had thrown herself off so long ago.
"Are you going to go home anytime soon?" Heasked her. She didn't look up. Solus took a step in her diection and she vanished like dust blown by the wind. An illusion.
She didn't want to be found.
Back at the hose in the Land of the Gods, Arkelus was awoken by a sound in the house, but when he reached out with his power to see who it was, like his mother had taught him, he found that it was neither his father or his mother and none of the gods that he knew of.
He stayed in his bed. He had sensed earlier that his father was in no good mood (he rarely was) and would be even angrier if Arkelus invited guests without permission.
His bedroom door opened and he caught the smell of the dead. Not the almost enticing smell of his mother, but the smell of days old carrion. He gagged at the smell.
"You, son of the Gods!" The thing called. Its voice was deep and hoarse. The sound that would make one cover their ears ad pray never to have to let go.
Not for the first time in his extremely short life, Arkelus thanked the stars he was mute and couldn't say anything even if he wanted to.
"Ah, a mute eh? Even better. KNow this cild: I will return for you. Then you wll not be so afraid. Then your father will be unable to stop me!" The voice came again. Arkelus buried himself deeper in his blankets and pillows, and the spector disappaeared with it's voice, it's smell, and the fear that had been in Arkelus.
Riyanna wandered her old homeland, now covered over with casinos and large buildings. Nothing to show that here, the gods had been born killed and reborn. She knew Solus had probably caught her sent again, so she made a golum of herself and left it there.
The next instant she was in the Carribian at the bedside of a man who was dying of a snake bite. He was to go to the God of the Underworld, and from there, who knew. He would not get another life. He had had too many as it was.
"Please, big brother! Don't die! Don't go!" A small boy was curled up next to the dying man. She could hear her own screams echoed in the boy's mournful cry.
"Will he be okay?" The man's soul had finally departed from the boy was crying to a corpse.
"There is no way to know." She answered. "If it is any comfort to you, he will live."
"It is comfort enough. Where do I go from here? Hell?" the ghoul asked.
"No. Not yet anyway. I know not if that is your final destination, but it is not your first. Come. I have other things to attend to." One of them being to find a way to get the screaming out of her head once and for all.
She grabbed the man's hand and they were transported immediatly to the Ghost plane. A portal opened.
"I can't go in there!" he yelled. This happened sometimes with older souls. They didn't wanted anotherlife. It was worse because she had told him that his brother would live. Communication made them want to stay.
She ignored him and instead held fast to his hand. She let him struggle for a while. Then she grabbed him by the neck with her free hand and threw him into the poral.
Once he was inside, the portal closed and she found herself in the human world again. Solus was waiting for her.
"Hope you didn't have too much trouble?" She greeted her once lover.
"It took me a while, but you're predictable." He answered.
"I'm not going back, so you can stop following me now." She answered.
"Why?" Solus pursued.
"It's my fault remember? I'm causing Arkelus problems. So I've decided to die. After a while he won't even know who I was." She answered. It was painful to say aloud, but it was said.
"It will be worse without you. He needs his mother." Solus disagreed.
"You're better with him than I am. He doesn't need me." She said, the tried to petal away, but Solus grabbed hold of her arm.
"I didn't get to run, so neither do you." He sad, fury in his quiet voice.
"At least I'm leaving for his benefit, not mine! Now let go!"
"I shoud be telling you the same. You know you saren't supposed to talk to the dead. You do it to every big brother you come across. Get over it and let it go." Solus refused to let go.
Then the both of them heard something that made their blood run cold. Arkelus's fearful silent scream. His aura calling out for help.
Both of them were home in an instant.
"You left him alone you imbecile!" Riyanna yelled at Solus the moment they walked into the door.
Solus ignored her and opened Arkelus's door.
"What the Hell is that smell?" Riyanna asked.
"What smell?" Sous asked.
"I can smell carrion. It's just like the smell when I died." Riyanna said thoughtfully. "Arkelus did someone come in here?"
Arkelus looked at her mutely. He had a feeling telling his mother was a bad idea.
"I see. Okay. Keep your little friend a secret. Just remember the release rule!" Riyanna said cheerfully, putting her son back to bed. She and Solus walked into the living room.
"I'll stay, but only until we figure out the deal with the smell." She said, loungng on a sofa.
"What the hell is the'release rule'?" Solus asked distracted.
"I came up with it to take all his dangerous little secrets away. If he keeps a secret from us he must have it written down some where because secrets have power and that power must have an outlet. Once he gets around to drawing who was in his room he'll hide it, I'll find it and we'll have a closed case." Riyanna smirked. Young minds were so plyable.
She got up and stalked to her room. She needed sleep. Solus followed in behind her.
