Kuroshitsuji © Yana Toboso
OCs © reaper-of-lost-souls
A/N: Well I decided to post yet another chapter (slowly catching up! =D) And I'm working on my other fanfic because I only have 2 chapters that need to be looked over… and I'm slow with that story because I'm on this one. No worries though! There's a LOT more where this came from XD ENJOY!
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When they came to the place Time and Naum was waiting Sophie gasped, awestricken by the scenery they were in. They were standing in the middle of a field, but it wasn't an ordinary green and luscious field like back home. The field was a purple wasteland instead of green fields, a combination of different colors ranging from violet to indigo. The sky around them was ashy, a type of red and black combination that threatened her lungs. Naum smiled as Space and as Sophie drew near he grabbed her by the hands and looking at her eyes. "Are you okay Sophie –"
"Y-yeah I think so," she groaned, "but the air here is stuffy."
"It's alright," he chuckled once he noticed it was the only thing that was wrong, "we don't live up here. Everyone lives down in the water, where the air isn't as suffocating and musty."
"W-water?" Sophie gulped as she looked over at him. "As in we have to dive? I-I can't swim –"
"You can't?" Naum looked at her confused before giving her a smile. "I'll help you. Well thank you Space. I can take it from here Time."
"Hey just holler if you need any help," Time told him.
"And keep Serbus under control," Space continued for her. "Since she is not used to this environment the control of the dagger with intensify ten-fold."
"Got'cha," he saluted them, the two beings disappearing as he turned around and began to pull Sophie down over the purple rolling hill. "I was hoping you'd show up before the volcano erupted, but whatever. It won't be too hard I suppose."
Sophie nodded as she kept in step with his own, coughing as she continued to breathe in the stuffy air. Deciding breathing would only hinder her abilities she stopped breathing all together, since she was a shinigami after all and knew how to stop breathing for silently hunting and reaping souls. "What is this place?" she asked, Naum looking behind before keeping his attention on the path they were taking.
"We are in the realm of Ga. Actually the full name is Gaia, but we've abbreviated everything over the centuries," he smiled, keeping a tight grip on her hand as they continued to wander farther down the road. "Here your earth would be called Ga, and the sky of gas and ash is called Ura. And the sea, which we covet above the rest of creation as our source of life, is called Ponta."
"What names," Sophie commented aloud, thinking how similar those names were to the names of ancient Greek gods.
"Yes, well they have stayed the same for most of the centuries, but as I said we've abbreviated over the years. I'd be wise to not call these places earth, sky, and sea. You'll be spotted as an outsider in an instant if you did something silly like that."
"So you say you live in the sea?" Sophie asked, "How does that work? Do you breathe underwater?"
"Sort of," he chuckled. "Your world is different than my own. The waters would actually be the equivalent to your air on earth in the long run. The only thing is you're constantly wet, I suppose, but you can walk around as if you're on land. Actually I am one of the only beings here that can make their way on land, except for the daemons."
"Daemons?" Sophie asked him.
"Yes, this land is used as a place for those who are dying or dead to go and rest. The daemons come and gobble them up, I suppose like your shinigamis?"
"Not exactly," Sophie pouted. "Do you have any souls that return?"
"That's the thing," he continued, "once you're dead you can never truly return. If you come back you're considered impure and kicked out of society to roam Ga as a daemon. That's what daemons are you see, souls that didn't properly die and can never return to Ponta. It's just how it works here."
"And Ura," she decided to ask, "what about the sky?"
"Same idea as Ga," he shrugged, "but it's a bit different… Ummmm I'll tell you more later, but right now we're about to enter into the realm of Ponta." Sophie nodded and looked at the water, the color a lot clearer than that of the sky. It looked blue like the oceans and seas she had seen before in her own world, but there was a clear coat to it like it was actually the sky. She had to admit she was hesitating about this, but since Naum was pulling her along she had to comply and followed him into the waters, disappearing in a light mist around her.
She gasped in amazement as the air suddenly became clear around her. Sophie hadn't noticed that there were cities upon cities hidden under the waters, the water acting as a sky as she noticed Naum's breath was back to normal. "Ponta is really like earth," Sophie thought aloud, Naum looking at her confused as she gently let go of his hand and started to walk in front of him. "I mean, I guess your definitions are different, but in a spiritual and supernatural sense Ponta is earth and Ga and Ura is the afterlives. Perhaps Ura holds different souls compared to Ga, but whatever I shouldn't try imposing my own ideology on you," she chuckled and quickly waved off the idea, "So where are we going?"
"My home," he said as he gave her an understanding smile and offered his hand back to her. "It's a few leagues away, but we can get there in about an hour. I'll show you around in the meantime, but you'll have to stick close. We don't like a lot of intruders here." Sophie nodded as she grabbed his hand, following him into the city as they made their way from one side to the other.
"What a grand place," Sophie commented, Naum giving her a smile as they continued down the road, "but why met me in Ga? Wouldn't it be easier for you to meet me here?"
"That's the thing," he sighed, "you're an outsider and seen as a daemon. Even Time and Space are seen as daemons here. The only being we see as a god or divine is mostly Life and she is told to live here in Ponta in one of the cities."
"Oh so you know her?" Sophie chuckled. "That's funny. I know Death and you know Life."
"That's right," he nodded. "She is the source of our thriving communities here, but lives down here. She actually lives up in Ura if you can believe that, but only shows up once a year during the annual celebration. Ummm… there's more I should probably tell you." Naum pointed up to a large building as they walked by, painted in white and covered in platinum all around its columns. "We believe in gods and we're polytheistic," he continued, "and that's the temple we've monument to Life. There is a court of virgins, almost all women, who come and pray every day. There's also a celebration every year before the coming of Life, where they sacrifice one young pure girl between the ages of thirteen to seventeen."
"Sacrifice?" Sophie frowned, "Why do something as barbaric as a sacrifice?"
"The girl is placed up on the alter there," he pointed to a large white stone slab placed at the top of the steps of the temple, "and sacrificed by cutting open her heart for all to see. I thought I should tell you just in case you're staying here for a long time. The time for sacrifice is almost upon us."
"But you still didn't answer my question," Sophie huffed, "as to why you have to sacrifice~ someone."
"Actually it's all just myth and tradition," Naum shrugged. "I'll tell you more about it later, but to be honest I've never liked the idea either. Sadly it's not my place to comment on the mortals' activities. It's been going on for at least three thousand years and probably more if this keeps up. Anyways my home is on the outskirts of the city, right where my mother is. Did I tell you about her? I suppose I didn't," he chuckled nervously.
"No you didn't," Sophie told him, "so who is she?"
"She calls herself Eve and she lives at the house up there on the other side of the hill," Naum pointed. "Once we're inside she can explain to you what she does and everything that happens here, but I'll have to go back into town to gather food for tonight. You won't mind if I leave you so soon, do you?"
"No that's alright," she chuckled as she waved him off. "This is just a curious place, that's all."
"Well please stay on her property," he continued. "If anyone catches scent that you're actually an outsider you'll be arrested and thrown back into Ga."
"I don't think that'd be a problem," Sophie smiled, "as long as you don't take all day that is."
"I won't," he chuckled as they walked over the hill and made their way to a little cottage out in the middle of a forest. It was small and made from the hollowed trunk of a large tree, but Sophie shrugged off the idea of how weird living the tree must be since the rest of this world was much different than her own. Naum grinned as he plucked a piece of growing fruit from the tree, throwing it over to Sophie who instantly caught it in her hand. "We try to grow our own food here," Naum explained, "but sometimes I have to go into the city to buy more, like meat for instance. Don't worry about getting sick. You can eat the fruit that's living in Ponta. Just don't eat anything in Ga and Ura, especially Ga. If you eat something in Ga then you turn into one of them, a daemon."
"Alright," Sophie nodded, looking at the curious new fruit in her hand as she munched down on it. Her eyes lit up, it tasted just like a peach!
"That's called an ula berry. We're famous for growing them. Come inside! Eve is expecting you." Sophie smiled at Naum's enthusiasm as he led her into the house, closing the door behind her as he called for the woman named Eve in the house.
Sophie looked around, curious at the objects around the room. The inside was tastefully decorated with floral wall paper and curtains. The ground had a large rug covering most of the room, covering up the dirt that was hidden underneath. What perked her interest were the bottles all around the room, pots boiling and the smell of fermented chemicals in the air. "We create potions and medicine," Naum explained as he took out a strange looking root from a cupboard and started chewing on the end, "its Eve's specialty. She used to be this great Goddess of Life, but she retired many years ago and met me here. This was my home, you see, and since I would hang out here every day and I had nowhere else to go she adopted me."
"So she's not really your mother?" Sophie nodded.
"That's correct," Naum chuckled, "but it's quite alright. I still see her as my mother regardless. Would you like a sea root? It helps sooth headaches and heat strokes."
"No that's alright," Sophie put up her hands, Naum shrugging as he closed the cupboard and slumped down in a nearby chair.
"Maybe she went out…" Naum thought to himself, offering Sophie to sit beside him as he kept an eye on the pots. "Well I'll stay here till she gets back. You can go to sleep if you'd like. Traveling can tire you out, and since you've come a long way I'd think you'd need a break."
"Ummmm… thank you I suppose," Sophie nodded.
"Just sleep here on the clam while I go look for Eve for you. She probably just went off to tend to her garden. She does those things at the most unnecessary times," he sighed, getting up and throwing the rest of the root into one of the pots. "I'll be right back~" he told her, dashing out of the house and leaving Sophie alone sitting contently on a couch, but she supposed this was the clam he was talking about. She set down her bag beside her on the ground and sighed, her eyelids flickering as she noticed how tired she really was.
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Hearing a large array of voices Sophie slowly opened her eyes, yawning as she stretched her arms out and pulled her body out of the slump she was in over the edge of the clam. She heard a light chuckle coming from the other side of the room, noticing a blur of a womanly figure in bright white. Rubbing her eyes and adjusting her vision she noticed it was indeed a woman, a beautiful woman in a light white cloth that barely hid anything underneath. She had a light blue shawl over her shoulders, wrapped over her bosom with matching sandals to match. "You must be Serbus correct?" she asked, Sophie nodding as she groggily shifted off of the clam she was sleeping on to give her a better look.
"Sophia Serbus," she told her, holding out her hand for a shake, "but I prefer Sophie. W-ho are you?"
"Eve," the other woman chuckled lightly, "and if you're wondering where Naum is he went back into town. Come sit back down. You look tired."
"N-no I don't," Sophie pouted as she was forced to sit back down as the older woman pressed her hand against Sophie's chest, "I actually feel rather refreshed –"
"Don't give me that Miss God of Death. You creatures are always~ tired," she giggled at her. Sophie sighed as she let the woman sit beside her, looking her over and noticing how bright her extra-long emerald hair was and how light her indigo eyes stared into her own crystal blue and shinigami green eyes. "So you are a God of Death," the woman asked, "and this great rival against Naum no? I do have to say, I've only met a God of Death other than yourself one other time, and he was quite a stiff when I first met him."
"Sadly that's just how it is where I come from," Sophie shrugged. "We live only to reap souls. Do tell me though how your world is different from my own? Naum didn't really explain everything well."
"He can get sidetracked," Eve chuckled, "but I guess I can tell you about us. Ummm… before we start would you like a beverage? I have some potions if you're thirsty."
"Nah that's alright," she held up her hand.
"But I insist~" Eve huffed, staring at Sophie holding out a cup of green water.
"If you insist," Sophie pouted, taking the cup and slowly drinking the liquid inside.
Eve grinned and patted her on the head, pulling out her own cup and filling it with the liquid from one of the pots before sitting back down. "Now you're question," she giggled as she thought to herself. "Usually I expect payment for information like this, but since you're one of Death's little followers I'll leave that for another time." She set down her cup on a nearby table and rubbed her nose, letting out a sneeze as the fumes made their way into her nose. Sophie smirked at the little squeak that came out of her mouth before the woman continued. "I assume Naum has told you about our different dimensions? Ponta, Ura, and Ga?"
"Yep," Sophie nodded. "What is with those names?"
"Actually those names come from your~ Greek mythology," Eve explained, "that came over from the first Empress."
"Empress?" Sophie asked.
"Yes our worlds are very different, but are similarities too," she smiled. "You see there is this legend, which I actually know the origins of and have witnessed this first hand. Before our worlds used to grow together, Ponta, Ura, and Ga I mean, but way at the beginning when the world was being created creatures called daemons came forth. They were created from damned souls that were rejected to become humans, and thus they roamed Ga till the end of their years. If you want to look at it another way: Ponta is your earth, where you can live and breathe. Ura and Ga are supernatural realms where the dead souls go after they die. We have a problem of souls staying here in Ponta; that's why we have Goddesses of Life. Anyways Ga is where the tainted souls go, like daemons, and Ura is where the pure souls go, which is why the goddess, Life, lives up there. She has created these beings called Goddesses of Life and they go about taking beings back to their original destinations. Some go to Ura, others Ga, and if they weren't supposed to die they go back to Ponta. These goddesses are actually dead, but have been given new life by, well Life. The original work the goddesses were supposed to do is give life, but as time went on their jobs were tweaked. There aren't many males who are Goddess of Life, but there are a few who are. Naum is one of them."
"Wait," she interrupted her, "so your Goddess of Life are like my Gods of Death?"
"Similar I suppose," she shrugged, "but you associate yourselves with death. We give life. That's the difference." Sophie nodded, trying to clearly understand everything, but most of what the woman was telling her was going past her head and out the window. "Also Miss Serbus, our world lives in a maternal type of structure. Meaning females are the ones mostly in charge and the males usually obey. They grow similarly to your own world, but over time they've grown apart from their similar beliefs. Before it used to be paternal here, but now it's maternal, and it's always been maternal since the beginning of time. That's a reason why Life lives here actually, but enough about that. Do you have any other questions?"
"I actually do," Sophie chuckled. "I heard about temple worship from Naum and various deities. What goes on here?"
"The deities are usually supernatural beings that have shown their selves to the humans here," Eve continued to explain. "The temple worship in this particular city is just a branch from that, a way for them to find favor with these deities that may or may not exist anymore. Some are for good harvests, others to chant death away from their lives. Things like that. I'm guessing Naum told you about the sacrifices?" Sophie nodded and Eve couldn't help but grin. "Yes they do sacrifice young maidens, but this is prepared every year in advance. This is to bring a good harvest and to call upon Life, but she doesn't usually come down for those. She actually despises them. It defeats the purpose of living, right? To kill others I mean." Eve sighed as she slumped back in her chair, Sophie setting her cup down somewhere before leaning back on the clam. "I have to show up in her temple most of the time during this time of year, since she doesn't like to go. That ceremony is to also ward off Death, who would show up sometimes showing that the crops will be bad and there will be famine that year. Actually if Death shows up the maiden lives, but if Life shows up she doesn't. Weird isn't it, that if Death comes someone lives and if life comes they don't."
"Yes it is," Sophie pouted, "but there must be a reason why there's a temple. Why only girls?"
"They are the dominant of this species of mortals," Eve explained, "and they usually don't die unless they attack each other. There's also a hidden truth behind it, which there was that Empress three thousand years ago that ruled over this people. Actually she didn't come from here, she came from your world and teleported herself back and forth, but she reformed society and changed many of their beliefs. Even warred against the Ga dwellers and defeated them for a short period of time. She tried to change their attitude towards human sacrifice, but alas many didn't like that idea. Still she is valued in the history books as the greatest that ever lived because she brought great peace. There's a throne in that temple as a symbolic gesture just in case she ever comes back. Now there's more to that temple, but since you're tired and Naum will be out late I'll let you sleep. Come with me and I'll let you rest in one of the extra rooms."
"Okay," Sophie answered meekly, following Eve as she stood up and made her way up a winding stairs.
Sophie followed behind and walked down a narrow hallway, the other woman opening the door for her and inviting her inside. "I actually redecorated for you in mind. I painted the walls gray so they don't blind your eyes while you sleep. I know how you Gods of Death tend to hate bright lights so I dulled the place for you."
"T-thank you," Sophie bowed, the woman giving her a wave and a giggle as she said goodbye and went back downstairs. Sophie smiled because she left the door open for her, sighing as she looked around the room and set her bag down at the foot of the bed. Flopping down she rested her head on what she assumed was a pillow and instantly went back to sleep, trying to process everything that had transpired in her unconscious mind.
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A/N: Tada! More information for you XD Well I hope you guys are excited for this new adventure. I am =3 Now doesn't Naum seen to have the same problems as Sophie? Oh I can't wait to go more into that! XD
Gaia – Ancient Greek mythology, "land" or "earth"; goddess or personification of Earth in ancient Greek religion, one of the Greek primordial deities. Gaia was the great mother of all: the heavenly gods, the Titans and the Giants were born from her union with Uranus , while the sea-gods were born from her union with Pontus
Pontus – Ancient Greek mythology, "sea"; an ancient, pre-Olympian sea-god, one of the Greek primordial deities. Pontus was Gaia's son and, according to the Greek poet Hesiod, he was born without coupling. For Hesiod, Pontus seems little more than a personification of the sea, ho pontos, "the Road", by which Hellenes signified the Mediterranean Sea. With Gaia, he fathered Nereus (the Old Man of the Sea), Thaumas (the awe-striking "wonder" of the Sea, embodiment of the sea's dangerous aspects), Phorcys and his sister-consort Ceto, and the "Strong Goddess" Eurybia. With the sea goddess Thalassa (whose own name simply means "sea" but is derived from a pre-Greek root), he fathered the Telchines and all sea life
Uranus – Ancient Greek mythology, "sky" or "heaven"; primal Greek god personifying the sky. His equivalent in Roman mythology was Caelus. In Ancient Greek literature, Uranus or Father Sky was the son and husband of Gaia, Mother Earth. According to Hesiod's Theogony, Uranus was conceived by Gaia alone, but other sources cite Aether as his father. Uranus and Gaia were the parents of the first generation of Titans, and the ancestors of most of the Greek gods, but no cult addressed directly to Uranus survived into Classical times, and Uranus does not appear among the usual themes of Greek painted pottery. Elemental Earth, Sky and Styx might be joined, however, in a solemn invocation in Homeric epic
Ula – Celtic – sea jewel