“It was more alarming to be in that pit, trust me. However, all that aside, she’s still the only one we can talk to about saving your soul, so we might as well give it a shot, right?”
“This seems befitting of my luck so far,” Squeak morbidly said. “I’m only glad I’m dead so I can’t soil my underwear right now out of sheer fright. Well… damn it all, might as well try. Not like I have any other choice.”
“As long as you don’t piss her off or upset her you’ll be fine,” Shadow promised as they started walking towards the residence.
“And if I by chance do upset her?” Squeak worried.
“You will quickly learn to fear her snakes just as I have,” Shadow shuddered. “On that note, she has a few for pets. Do not step on them, or else.”
They approached the skull face with Squeak nervously watching the slithering weeds beside them while Shadow straightened out her outfit and made sure her bow was securely holstered over her shoulder. Walking up to the door Shadow knocked a few times while clearly trying to force a brave expression. Seeing her guide becoming noticeably tense Squeak began to fear the worst already, with the sound of a girl’s voice inside then speaking to them causing her to hop back with a squeak.
“Come in,” the voice sharply called out.
“Let me do the talking,” Shadow hushed before she opened the door and led them inside. As they did Squeak managed to take a few steps before freezing right away, a nervous whine nearly escaping her mouth as she saw, and felt, several long snakes with black scales and red patterns on their faces slithering across the hardwood floor and over her feet.
“Don’t step on her snakes, or else,” Shadow quietly warned as she shut the door. She carefully moved past the slithering serpents while Squeak opted to remain as still as stone to make sure she didn’t tempt fate by accident.
“Got it,” the ant girl softly whimpered. “By the way, your definition of ‘a few snakes’ is outrageously misleading.”
Averting her eyes from the hissing pets at her feet Squeak looked around at seeing they were inside what appeared to be a small library of sorts. Bookshelves and tables were filled and overly cluttered with large, handcrafted books and old tomes. Papers were scattered everywhere on the floor and desks while there appeared to be just as many snakes worming their way around the room. Lit candles were placed on many of the tables and in candleholders in the walls between the shelves, the flames burning steadily and calmly within the dwelling while providing plenty of light for the occupants to see in.
“I’m sorry to bother you again,” Shadow said as she started walking ahead. “But I’m afraid… I found another… um… you see…”
“What are you bitching about this time?” a girl snapped. “You know damned well I’m busy here! I’ve been busy ever since I got here! I’ve got crap and more crap and even more crap to deal with down here, so you’d better not be trying to tell me about another piece of shit that’s dropped onto our laps or I’m going to be fucking pissed.”
Shadow weakly laughed while turning pale, her hands fidgeting together before her while a few snakes crawled up around her boots and hissed at her with open mouths. As the elf nervously stammered some form of nonsensical reply, Squeak had suddenly halted as the voice she heard sounded very familiar. Looking forward she saw Shadow standing before a grand desk at the end of the room that was just as cluttered with books, papers, and burning candles as the others were. Behind it were a long set of red and violet curtains that separated the rest of the building from the study which was the entire foyer it seemed. Peeking around Shadow she saw the books that were piled up on the desk blocking her view of who the elf was speaking to, however upon hearing her speak some more the ant girl’s antennae twitched a few times as she displayed a cautious look.
“Tell me,” the girl’s voice dared. “Do you come baring good news for once, or bad news yet again?”
“Well…” Shadow slowly replied.
“As long as it’s not a repeat case of fallen souls dying decades before their official expiration date, then I promise I won’t be too mad.”
“Um… about that…”
“Shadow,” the girl angrily growled. “What did you do this time?”
“I swear I didn’t have anything to do with any of these cases!” Shadow desperately pleaded. “I have no idea what’s going on up there, I have no clue why these girls are dying so far ahead of their expected deaths! I’m innocent here! Please believe me, ma’am!”
“Another one?” the girl shouted. “You mean you found another soul that died way before their time? God fucking dammit! What the hell is going on up there? I can’t be dealing with this fucking crap! I have hundreds of souls to manage from the stupid war going on up there alone, I can’t be bothered with these special cases every fucking hour, I’ve got shit to do!”
“I know, ma’am.”
“We’re already running behind with the number of passings we’re tasked with as it is, we have a goddamned schedule to keep down here! There’s way too many fucking souls coming through and not enough wardens to deal with it! I don’t have time to handle these damned special cases on top of all that!”
“I’m sorry, ma’am.”
“For crying out loud, why did I have to get stuck with this job? Why couldn’t I just pass through The Horizon when it was my time? Why did the old viceroy have to be relieved and stick me with this job? This isn’t what I wanted to do with my afterlife you know!”
“It’s not so bad, ma’am. You get a clean slate for your service, that’s something to be happy about, right?”
“I’m beginning to wonder if hell would have been a better option than dealing with this bullshit every second I’ve been stuck with this job! I hate it here! I hate all of you and I hate the higher-ups for selecting me of all people to deal with this horseshit! Goddammit, they can’t treat me like this! Don’t they know who I am?”
“Tora,” Squeak suddenly said aloud as she remembered the voice, with silence then filling the room. Shadow looked back to Squeak with surprise while the snakes were now slowly slithering about as they quieted down. Footsteps were heard from behind the grand desk, with Squeak’s eyes following the sound before they widened in shock at seeing who came around the side of the counter to face her.
“You know my name?” the fallen witch bitterly spoke. Squeak became stunned to see the familiar spellcaster, recognizing her right away despite there being a few noticeable differences to her now. She wore black boots with rattlesnake tails coiled around the tops, her skirt now made of dark-skinned snake scales with red ones set in a circle around her right hip and a waving line running along the front of her left hip. A short black tunic was now worn with red and purple gemstones lined down the front, and on her back was a long, tattered violet cape with black snake designs with red eyes seen slithering down along it. On her right hand was the same black fingerless glove she wore before, her left holding her unique ying-yang skull adorning staff while also baring her red pyramid gemstone ring over her finger. Her long black hair was held in the usual twintails tied with white ribbons, her dark blue eyes were just as menacing as before, and on her neck was now a black snake tattoo that went up along the right side and ended at her cheek with the serpent’s head.
“How did you know her name?” Shadow asked. “I don’t recall telling you that.”
“We’ve met before,” Squeak carefully explained. “A few times in fact. I was there in Eston when you died, Tora. When the gemini ate you alive.”
“You were?” Tora questioned as she started walking towards her. The snakes on the ground gathered close and followed their mistress with menacing hisses while the ones around Squeak clumped up on her boots and kept her still.
“Yes, I was,” Squeak confirmed with a nod. “I honestly didn’t see myself ever meeting you again. I thought for certain you would be cast down into hell for all the trouble you caused.”
“Well, I was certainly a naughty little witch when I was alive,” T
ora chuckled. She stopped in front of Squeak and eyed her over, a small raise of her eyebrow being made while her harsh scowl remained the same. “Ah, yes. I remember you now. You were the ant girl who traveled with Alyssa. I remember, you were with her in Ashwood City and in Eston.”
“Her name is Squeak,” Shadow spoke up with a raise of her hand. “Um, just for the record.”
“I don’t care about that,” Tora said shaking her head. “And to be honest I don’t even care you were in Alyssa’s party, or that you knew her at all. I would have been quite the nasty witch with you if we were still alive given those circumstances, but right now I have plenty of other bullshit to concern myself with. What’s in the past is meaningless to me now. Far too busy these days to deal with that nonsense anymore.”
“Well… that’s good,” Shadow nervously laughed. “Have to say, I had no idea you two would know each other like this.”
“That’s also meaningless to me,” Tora scoffed. She waved her hand down, sending the snakes at Squeak’s feet scurrying off while the ant girl was forced down onto her knees with an overwhelming magical force grabbing hold of her entire body. Holding her hand to Squeak’s cheek Tora watched the ant girl trembling fearfully while a snake crawled up the witch’s shoulder and hissed loudly at the nervous soul.
“What I want to know isn’t your name or what Alyssa has been up to all this time,” Tora scorned. “What I want to know is how in Eden did you get sent down here with so much of your life remaining? You’re not supposed to be here. You’re not supposed to be down here at all. Your soul coming here is going to cause nothing but problems and headaches for us, and I do not need more of those, no I do not. So enlighten me, what the fuck are you doing down here?”
“Same reason as everyone else who comes down here, I died,” Squeak insisted. “I was murdered today, by the very same ones who killed you in Eston. The gemini. They killed me in Green Haven, struck me down with an infernal sword of ice and magic. That’s how I died.”
“You weren’t supposed to die today,” Tora argued shaking her head. “Your fate was already decided long before you could think for yourself, and everyone is supposed to stick to the grand order that we all serve.”
“Well I’m sorry, believe me I never wanted to die, especially by the hands of those accursed monsters. But as you can clearly see I didn’t have a choice in the matter. Here I am, much to both of our displeasure. So tell me, what happens now?”
Tora growled as she lowered her hand and clenched it into a fist. Pausing for a moment Shadow then slowly drew closer to her side while being very careful not to step on any of the snakes that constantly circled the witch.
“Is there any way we can move her window of passing?” she hopefully asked.
“I already have to try and send an appeal for those other three idiots you brought me earlier,” Tora hissed at her. “Not to mention there are souls who have missed their due dates and souls that are coming through with large amounts of life still attached to them. Whatever is going on up there is throwing fate into the shitter and messing everything up for us down here. In case I didn’t make it clear to you before, asking for fate to be changed because of an irregularity down here, regardless of who is at fault for it, is not looked kindly upon by the higher-ups! They don’t like it when we tell them there’s a flaw in their grand design! They get fucking pissed off!”
“Yeah, I remember,” Shadow weakly agreed. “So what should we do now? Four cases of people dying ahead of their time all within the same hour and plenty of other souls that aren’t matching up with our ledgers; something very strange is going on up there.”
“It’s insufferable, that’s what it is,” Tora growled. “We need to fix this. Shadow, I want you to assist with gathering the remaining souls from the conflict in the elven forest. After that’s taken care of find out who the hell is messing with the grand order up there. Take another warden with you and get me some goddamned answers. If I have to enlist angels to help with this it’s going to put a serious strain between me and my superiors, I want to avoid that if at all possible.”
“We have missing souls that never showed up, the angels may already need to get involved.”
“Their fates could still change to allow them to carry on up above, and if that’s the case we won’t need to get the angels involved at all. That problem could fix itself if we let it.”
“If their fates don’t change and they miss their windows-”
“I’m aware of the risks!” Tora shouted, her voice echoing loudly as Squeak cringed from the outburst. “I’ll worry about that scenario; it’s my neck on the block if we mess up delivering those missing souls to their final destination on time. You just worry about getting the ones that are raining down out there through processing and then finding out who the fuck is toying with destiny!”
“I won’t let you down,” Shadow promised with a bow. She glanced to Squeak who was still trembling nervously in the magical binds of the witch then showed an uneasy smile at Tora. “Um, if I may ask, what are you going to do with her?”
“She and I are going to have a little chat,” Tora said to Squeak. “We’re going to find out where her fate was pushed in the wrong direction, and we’re going to see if we can solve the mystery as to who is responsible.”
“Well… good luck with that,” Shadow had to agree with. Squeak looked at her in disbelief, the ranger smiling nervously and shrugging at her before she carefully maneuvered through the sea of snakes at her feet towards the doors.
“Shadow!” Squeak cried back at her.
“You’ll be fine,” Shadow promised with a friendly wave and smile. “It’s not like she’s going to kill you, you’re already dead. Don’t worry, we’ll find the one responsible for getting you mixed up in all this. Just… stay here and relax. I’ll be back eventually, I promise.”
“Eventually?” Squeak desperately shouted, with the only response she got being the door quickly shutting as Shadow left as fast as she could. She stared at the door in stunned silence then looked back to see Tora tapping her foot while glaring at her.
“Now then,” the witch said stepping closer to the nervous ant girl. “Tell me everything, and I mean everything, that’s happened with you. The sooner I find the one fucking around with fate, the sooner I can let my frustrations out on that poor soul instead of someone like you.”
“I’m starting to think I’m not going to wake up from this,” Squeak quietly whimpered to herself.
Outside the witch’s home Shadow adjusted her gloves while walking along the dirt path, the elf coming to a halt as she glanced behind while showing an uneasy frown. After a moment she shrugged and continued walking away while the string of her bow quietly whispered in the breeze.
“I’m sure they’ll get along just fine. She scared the shit out of me when we first met, but now… well, I’m sure Squeak will be fine.”
She made her way down the mountainside trail, taking notice of the herd of fallen souls still pouring through the valley below as they trudged towards the city of Vexus.
“Well I didn’t take up this mantle just to have some annoying meddler ruin everything for those souls below,” she reminded herself. “Whoever is fucking around with fate, you and I are about to have a serious problem.”
Reaching the bottom of the mountain and watching as the endless line of downtrodden souls marched on with a few horse riders trotting alongside, Shadow thought long and hard about her orders from Tora and having to take another warden of the underworld with her.
“This could be a tricky assignment,” she mused to herself. “Logic would dictate that I pick someone calm, collected, experienced, and above all, completely focused on our mission to accompany me.”
As she said those very reasonable words aloud one of the riders suddenly cried out as her horse bucked back unexpectedly, the girl flailing her arms as she struggled to remain on the steed’s back before finally dropping to the ground with a hard thump. While the horse neighed and trotte
d off and passing souls laughed a bit at the sight, Shadow showed a blank expression from seeing the familiar scene before she slowly formed a sly smile on her face.
“Then again, I don’t want to be bored while I’m out there.”
Walking towards the fallen rider she chuckled while eyeing over the girl, seeing her slowly sitting up on her hands and knees with her green cape with golden edgings draped over her head. The brown tunic she wore was dirtied while under her tightfitting brown skirt her pink panties were seen clear as day that a few human men passing by slowed down to see more of. Her gloved hand wearily searched for her bow that lay on the dirt nearby while the other struggled with pulling her cape off her head as she muttered and grumbled to herself as she often did when this happened to her.
“Having trouble again?” Shadow spoke up, causing the girl to hop with a loud squeak. She scrambled around in circles in a panic, with her finally getting back onto her feet with her cape still pulled over her head as she gave a proud salute in Shadow’s general direction.
“No, ma’am! Everything is under control here, ma’am! I was just- um- I was only- and the horse- I mean- it’s not-”
“Haha! It’s okay, calm down,” Shadow assured as she walked over and pulled the woman’s cape off of her. “You know, accident-prone people usually stop being accident-prone after they die. Why are you so stubborn with keeping that trait even in death, Zoey?”
“I’m sorry,” Zoey whined, ruffling her brunette hair in its ponytail and pulling it out from between her quiver of arrows and her back. “The horse just got spooked out of nowhere, I wasn’t expecting that.”
“These horses don’t get spooked,” Shadow said while dusting off the elf’s tunic. “They’re undead, they’re used to seeing all manner of souls coming through this realm. I think it was less of your horse being startled and more of you not keeping a tight enough grip on the reins. Likely because your head was once again in the clouds. How many times have I told you to stop daydreaming? You have a job to do, that’s all you should be thinking about.”
Chronicles of Eden - Act XII Page 44