Chapter 3 – The Chosen Two
"Well the how is easy really, he WILLINGLY volunteered to be the Great Other's minion and the mortal in question is….was…..Lord Petyr Baelish."
The uproar of protests and exclamations of disbelief was immense. Never did they think for a second that The Great Other would accept a warm, living being in service. It went against everything they knew about Him.
"Enough" snapped The Crone. "We have no time for this! He will come for us very soon and the defences will only hold for so long." She looked at The Stranger, "you have chosen the souls, yes?" she asked. The Stranger a.k.a Death nodded. "Good. Bring them to us now."
The Stranger turned away from viewing pool and with a wave of his hand; two bodies appeared on the floor of the room.
"They're dead."
"Why are they dead?"
"They are souls are they not?" the others asked in confusion.
The Stranger shook his head 'The living' he thought 'they truly know nothing about the truth of a soul'.
"If I may speak?" he said "They are dead because the last thing these souls remember is dying, very painfully I might add. What you must understand is that a mortal's soul is the makeup of everything that makes that mortal an individual. A soul has a memory all of its own. Everything they did in life, the soul will carry over into death and I am Death, I alone read the souls and judge them when they pass into my care."
The Stranger looked at his Brothers and Sisters and saw a slight look of awe to them. All those souls, all that knowledge they carried, belonged to Death and Death alone.
"Are you sure that these are the correct souls for the task ahead Brother?" asked The Warrior. The Stranger nodded.
"Yes indeed. These are Old Souls. In life, they suffered much but through that suffering they also gain much. They will do the right thing with the knowledge of The Time Before. As much as they may wish to be selfish and spare themselves pain and suffering, they are both too honourable in their own ways to do so. They will do the right thing, even when it will hurt them. Trust in my Judgement. If any two souls in my domain are worthy of a second chance, it is these two. Time grows short. I must wake them now."
He walked over and knelt between the two souls and placed a hand the chest of each. The Strangers hands glowed white for just a moment. As soon as the glow faded, The Stranger stood up and withdrew back to the group.
"Give them a moment" he said.
Suddenly the souls on the floor started to move and groan in pain. Slowly, the souls sat up and looked around then looked at each other.
"Um…what just happened?" the soul known as Tyrion Lannister asked while taking another look around the room. "I could of sworn the Night King killed us just then"
"Oh he did. Trust me. I've already died twice so I know what it feels like" replied Jon Snow
Jon and Tyrion slowly got to their feet. "Any idea where we may be?" Jon asked Tyrion. Tyrion rolled his eyes
"No, actually I don't but I was thinking of asking the nice people standing right in front of us. There's a slight chance they may know where we are and what happened to us" he replied a slightly mocking tone.
Tyrion knew that Jon would take the mocking in good faith and like Jon; he truly had no idea where they could be. The last thing he remembered….'no. Best not think of that right now. Right now, we have other problems' he thought and then sighed, 'I need a drink'.
"Please forgive us My Lords and Ladies. We seem to be at a bit of a loss here due to the fact that we are fairly sure that we are meant to be dead." Tyrion said with a bow in the Gods direction. Jon just rolled his eyes in return.
"I apologise for my friends' rather irrelevant manner, but he is right. I know that we are dead and yet…." Jon trailed off not knowing what else to say at this moment.
The Gods smiled.
"That's because you were" The Stranger stated. "I brought you here. You are not "alive" as a mortal knows it, you are souls."
"And this makes you who exactly?" Tyrion asked, starting to get a bad feeling about this situation. Tyrion was a smart man and the Being in front of him had giving him enough clues for Tyrion to have a fair notion of who this person was.
The Stranger smiled at him. "I am The Stranger, also known as Death and these are my fellow Gods."
Tyrion's jaw dropped along with Jon's. Even though he had his suspicions, to hear it confirmed was something else.
"Gods?" Jon squeaked out in a high pitch with a stunned look on his face
"Yes, Gods" The Lord of Light confirmed with a smirk on his face. He wasn't alone in enjoying the two soul's reactions to being in the presence of Deities. Jon's jaw snapped shut and he immediately knelt in front of the group.
"My Lords and Ladies, I am yours to command!" Jon declared. He glanced sideways at Tyrion.
"Tyrion" he hissed "Kneel and show some respect" Tyrion gathered his scatted wits.
"Ah my apologies but you are aware that I don't really believe in your existence yes? It's not that I don't want to believe you see, it's just that I've always believed what I could see and prove and please forgive my skepticism, but you have yet to prove to me that you are actually Gods"
The Lord of Light laughed. "Oh I like this one. I like this one a lot. Say when everything is over, how about you come work for me? You'd shake up the Church and my followers and it really needs that kind of shakeup. What do you say Tyrion? Come and be my right hand?" he asked in glee.
Tyrion shook his head in disbelief. "I'm dreaming. I must be. A God I don't believe in just offered me a job."
"You once asked Lord Varys while standing on the battlements of Kings Landing and said I quote "The Lord of Light, that's me by the way, wants his enemies burned, The Drowned God wants them drowned, why are Gods such vicious cunts?" R'hllor said "Oh and just for your information, we are not vicious cunts." He continued.
"So, your Red priests and priestesses, burning people alive in sacrifice to you and your Glory, is you not being a vicious cunt then?" Tyrion snarled back at him "Your Red priestess Melisandre of Asshai burned a child! A girl of two and ten years! Kings Blood she said she needed and no of course she couldn't kill Stannis, her false Prince that was Promised. Tell me oh Lord of Light, what type of "magic spells" require the sacrifice of a CHILD!" Tyrion roared at him, resembling the lion that was his houses sigil.
R'hllor looked away ashamed. The things the Melisandre of Asshai had done in his name shamed him. He didn't demand human sacrifice and when it DID happen, it was always a volunteer. Never an innocent and NEVER a child. Never.
"No magic required a child as sacrifice. What she did in my Name will leave a stain on my soul forever. I love children, I wish them no harm. Shireen Baratheon's death never should of happened and for that you have no idea how sorry I am it happened or the how deep my sorrow."
'I'll ask them to make sure it never happens this time.' He thought.
Suddenly the room shook with violence. "HE is here" Hissed The Crone "We are out of time."
Next Chapter, Death, R'hllor and the souls gain time to talk