The Innocence of Death

by E G Stone

  Gulp.

  Kiss of Death

  I took a careful step backwards, hands held high. A few precious inches appeared between the tip of the sword and my neck. “Justice, what’s going on? Why are you here?”

  “You are interfering in the cause,” Justice said softly, matter-of-factly. He kept his sword raised. “You would harm one who has no business in your inquiry, simply because you wish to pursue your ‘investigation’.”

  “Okay, first off, the whole harming thing was purely an accident,” I said, looking pointedly at Yolanda. She nodded, the battle magic fading as she shrank down back to her normal size.

  “Purely an accident,” Yolanda parroted. “A reflexive action when someone attacks me.”

  “See?” I said, trying to smile encouragingly. I didn’t know if Justice was truly blind or if he just wore that blindfold as a symbol of his position. I really hoped he could see that I wasn’t a threat. “We just want to know about Alice’s relationship to Magnus, and who she could have talked with that killed the guy. That’s all.”

  Justice said nothing. As Yolanda shifted back to normal, I noticed that Alice had scurried away from the troll. Alice’s beautiful human image was back and she cradled her broken arm with quiet whimpers. The harpy continued sidling away, taking shelter behind Justice.

  I started moving towards Yolanda, who was also cradling her wounded arm, though it was healing rapidly. Justice slid forwards until his sword point rested on my chest once more. “Whoa! I didn’t do anything!” I defended, backing up again.

  “You thought to dispense justice when you had no right to do so,” the aurai said. “It is my right to intervene.”

  “I just explained to you that we didn’t do anything. The harm was unintentional and we apologise profusely. That doesn’t mean we can let her go, but I swear we just want to ask questions,” I said. Alice sneered at me, the expression somehow looking anything but ugly on her features.

  “Look at you, human. Completely incapable of facing Justice. Incapable of figuring out the truth,” Alice taunted. “He will protect me and you will have to go back to your master with nothing.”

  “Justice, come on,” I pleaded. The blind aurai’s mouth drew down at the corners. He really did look terrible. The trembling in his sword arm was getting worse, too. “Look, you don’t want to do this. I don’t want to do this, there’s no reason for violence. We can just sit and have a nice cup of coffee.”

  “Enough of your prevaricating!” Justice snarled. He lunged forwards and drove the sword into the space just below my collarbone and my right shoulder. I screamed and fell backwards, clutching the wound. Yolanda let out a cry and lunged in my direction, but Justice swiped the sword at her, too. She paused.

  “I’m alright,” I panted, though I was fairly certain that I wasn’t. At least I wouldn’t die from the wound. It didn’t stop the hole from bleeding or pulsating with burning pain. I tried to stand and managed only to stagger to my knees. I decided that being stabbed with a sword was far worse than having my throat cut. “What was that for?” I gasped.

  Justice was breathing heavily and his sword dragged on the ground. The muscle spasms were getting worse. He bared his teeth at me and took a step forwards. I managed to stand, though the world felt wobbly beneath my feet. I pressed my left hand against my shoulder. It quickly became warm with blood.

  “Okay, seriously?” I gasped, my arm throbbing with each beat of my heart. I moved towards Justice, hoping that I could knock the sword from his grasp. He wasn’t looking so well and I had a bit of an advantage. Well, okay, no. My only advantage was that I wouldn’t die, that I could keep going. But I could still be hurt—obviously—and that could take me out of the fight really fast.

  So I decided that I would be stupid and rushed Justice. I had hoped that he wouldn’t be expecting my attack, and he wasn’t. But he was also an immortal being. That meant that even though Justice was looking rather the worse for wear, he dodged me easily enough. And then he swiped the edge of the sword along my back, cutting deep.

  I let out a cry of pain and fell flat on my face, my wounded shoulder getting a good scraping on the gravel. My glasses fell off my face, the cracked lenses breaking even more. I grabbed them and shoved them back on my face with my good arm. The pain flared up enough to make me nearly black out. I ground my teeth and sat up, forcing the darkness back.

  Yolanda hadn’t waited to see if I was okay. She ran towards Justice, her feet pounding on the ground, her arms outstretched to beat him back. Justice dodged her charge as though she were nothing more than a raging bull. A mortal raging bull. He came to a halt about twenty feet away, his shoulders heaving with effort. Sweat was dripping down his brow readily and his shirt stuck to him. I thought I saw a faint spot of red on his own shoulder, but with all the other blood—most of it mine—it was hard to tell.

  “Justice?” Alice asked cautiously. She danced forwards and ran her fingers over Justice’s arm. The aurai flinched away a few steps. “What’s wrong?” Alice asked, stepping closer. She pressed up against him in a very intimate fashion, running her hands over his sunken cheeks.

  Justice roared and threw her off, jerking his sword as he did so. Alice gasped and fell back, a long, thin line of blood cutting her from the top of one thigh to the opposite shoulder. I saw Justice stagger back as though he had been the one to take the blow. That didn’t seem to stop him, because he just staggered forwards, his lips drawn back in a snarl. He raised the sword high above his head. Alice screamed in terror.

  “No, wait!” I cried, moving as quickly as I could, the pain in my arm and back fuelling my desperation. I skidded to a halt just before Alice’s prone form. Justice let out a wordless cry and drove his sword towards me.

  “I’ve had enough!” he yelled. Getting killed by a knife hurts. A lot. Having someone slit your throat with a scalpel is marginally less painful, but equally as effective and startling. Getting killed by a sword, though, is like pouring burning gasoline through your veins. The other wounds Justice had dealt me didn’t even register. The blade must have pierced my heart, because I had a couple of seconds of realising what had happened before the blackout took effect.

  When I came to, Justice was ten feet away, leaning on his sword, drops of blood dripping from his mouth. Yolanda was crouched in front of Alice and me, her hands spread flat on the ground, like some massive guard dog. Justice cried out, fury lacing his voice. He tightened his grip on his sword.

  Worse, though, than all of that was the fact that there was a small Fiat at the far end of the gravel lot.

  Detective Janos was moving towards us, a tire iron raised as an improvised weapon. His eyes were wide and flashing. “What’s going on here?” he asked, his voice sounding even more garbled than usual through the amulet. Yolanda let out a cry and started moving towards me.

  “No,” Detective Janos held up the tire iron. “Don’t move! You are all going to be arrested, just as soon as backup arrives.”

  “Detective,” I pleaded, “don’t. You need to get back to your car. Call off the backup.”

  “You!” Janos said, fixing on me and ignoring the dangerous aurai with a sword. “You’re the one who tricked my Chief into letting you into this investigation! You think I wouldn’t notice that most of the file you gave her was nonsense?”

  Great. I guess the amulet-made file wasn’t foolproof. All things considered, it shouldn’t have surprised me. It never rains, but it pours, after all.

  “Look, Detective, I swear that I’m not trying to interfere in your investigation. You’re dealing with things you can’t understand,” I said, holding up my right hand to stop him. I gasped and swallowed back another scream. My death wound had been healed, but my arm and back were still open wounds. Still bleeding.

  “What…what’s going on?” Janos asked uncertainly, looking closely at my wound.

  “Human,” Yolanda rumbled cautiously, “you would do well to leave this place.”

  Janos squinted at her, as t
hough he could almost see through the troll’s human image. He shook his head and raised the tire iron higher. Janos took a good look around. He saw Alice crouched on the ground, blood indicating where the shallow wound from the sword had been. He saw me leaning over her, my hand pressed to my shoulder and probably a big splotch of blood where Justice had stabbed me through the heart. Janos saw Yolanda standing some distance away, looking nervously between me and Justice. Then, Janos caught sight of Justice.

  The aurai tightened his grip on his sword, teeth bared in a feral snarl. Justice’s muscles were still shaking violently, and his white hair was plastered to his head. Most unnerving of all, though, was the fact that his blindfold developed crimson spots before our very eyes. The blindness of Justice was becoming tattered.

  “Drop the sword!” Janos yelled, shifting his weight into a fighting stance. Justice hissed and raised his sword, though the effort looked as though it was too much. Janos took that as a definite threat, and rushed Justice.

  “No!” Mine wasn’t the only cry, but it was definitely the loudest. Yolanda was the closest to the human detective. She took one giant step and knocked the man out of the way. Janos flew about ten feet through the air before landing and skidding on the gravel. He groaned.

  Justice’s sword glanced harmlessly through the air where Janos had been.

  “Why won’t you just leave me alone?!” Justice snarled. He took a step towards us and collapsed on the ground, his sword clattering a few inches away. “Just leave me alone.”

  “We didn’t do anything, Justice,” I said. I crawled around Yolanda and knelt in the gravel a few feet away from him. He turned his head towards me and twitched a hand in the direction of his sword, but it was pretty clear that he wasn’t about to get up and continue fighting.

  “Why are you doing this?” I asked. “I get protecting Alice, but why are you fighting us? You killed me, Justice. You were going to kill Janos. An innocent mortal.”

  “You are not dead,” he panted. Even as I watched, the flesh on his face became grey and drawn and a few spots of blood appeared at his nostrils and ears.

  “Why are you doing this?” I repeated. He shook his head weakly. A sound like a dying dog caught in his throat. “Please.”

  “Because I loved her,” Justice murmured, red tears slipping out from under his bandage. I looked at Alice, whose face was caught in a look of horror and shock.

  “You loved her,” the harpy croaked. “But you said—”

  “I know what I said!” Justice screamed. He banged a fist on the ground, but the motion was too weak to do more than raise a few bits of dust. “You were nothing more than a…a tool. To get me close to the mortal warrior.”

  I sat back on my heels. “You killed Magnus.”

  Justice turned his face away from me, apparently unable to say the words. Alice let out a scream and lunged to attack the fallen aurai. Yolanda turned and held the harpy in place. Alice’s broken arm was healing, but Yolanda put enough pressure on it to keep Alice still. She cried, though, beautiful silver tears falling down her face. Ironically, they made her look more human and more real to me.

  Detective Janos sat up, “H-he killed Magnus?” The man groaned and tried to inch his way towards us. I ignored him, instead moving closer to Justice.

  “Why?” I asked. “How?”

  “You wouldn’t understand, mortal,” Justice said, his voice creaking. The bandage around his eyes grew darker as it soaked up the bloody tears. Whatever he had done was tearing him up inside.

  “You…you said you loved her. It’s Life, isn’t it?” I said quietly. Justice’s mouth tightened but he didn’t say anything. I looked up at Yolanda and she gaped at me. “Life wouldn’t love you back, though, because she only loves those who fight her. And you work with her.”

  “The devotion of those who oppose her is nothing compared to what I can give,” Justice whispered. He started sobbing in earnest. “It hurts, Cal,” he cried.

  “I know,” I said. I moved the last few feet towards him and put my hand on his shoulder. It was all I could do. I didn’t know what was wrong and even if I did, I wasn’t sure I could fix it. “Tell me about the Ennedi Tiger,” I said, trying to take his attention away from the apparently inevitable.

  “Mercy taught me about them,” Justice gave a slight laugh. “It was years ago, when we worked together on a case for the Order. They were beautiful and powerful and didn’t care about Life or Death. Only purpose. They were like me…before I started to care.”

  “Caring isn’t wrong,” Yolanda said. She still held Alice, but her grip was relaxed and the harpy was doing little more than crying into Yolanda’s arms. Janos had stopped moving closer in favour of gaping at us instead. “But you acted on that caring. You went against your purpose.”

  “I killed a man with no just cause,” Justice said, his tone betraying his self-contempt. “I drew an innocent into my ploy. I eluded my own justice. And it’s killing me.”

  I looked at Justice in horror, my stomach roiling with the realisation. He coughed and more blood flowed at his nose and the corners of his mouth. I saw the bloody splotch on his shoulder grow, the wound a mirror image of my own. Indeed, the wounds that he had inflicted on me, Alice, Yolanda, they were all there on his body, shimmering like the false images the amulets provided. But it was much worse than that. Apparently denying his purpose—going against what his very being stood for—was taking out far more from Justice than he meted out.

  “Justice,” I breathed, reaching out a hand. He curled his lips and looked away.

  “Don’t bother, Cal,” he coughed. “I know exactly what you’re thinking. Sympathy has no place here. I was in the wrong and I am paying the price. That is only just.”

  “But it is not merciful.”

  Mercy appeared as though she just walked through a screen. She had on the medieval-style gown and a sword in her hand. At her side stood Death, looking grimmer than usual. Shadows swirled around his form. Life was at Mercy’s other side, her own expression barely containing hatred for the broken figure at her feet.

  Alice let out a shrill cry and broke away from Yolanda, holding up her arms in futile defence. Yolanda bowed her head in trembling respect. Janos let out a strangled sound in the back of his throat that he quickly swallowed down. He recoiled back, probably doing his best to be unnoticed by these immensely powerful beings.

  “Master,” Yolanda said. Death paused at the troll’s side. He let out a long breath. “We did as you asked,” Yolanda continued, her voice shaking.

  “Indeed,” Death said. “And yet, I cannot help but wish that this had turned out a different way.”

  “You traitor,” Life spat. She rushed forwards and delivered a kick to Justice’s side. I flinched. The woman was still beautiful, still terrible, but she was also savage, too, and uncontrollable. At least, until Death stepped up to her side and put a hand on her shoulder with gentleness and grace.

  “Enough, my dear,” he said, voice low. Life let out an animalistic snarl and rounded on her husband.

  “He has taken my beloved from me. He presumed to love me more! He will suffer for the insult,” Life hissed.

  “Magnus has passed out of your hands,” Death replied firmly.

  “But Justice is still in them,” Life crooned, her eyes blazing—quite literally—with fervour. “And he will be dealt with accordingly.”

  Life reached for Justice, preparing to close her hand around his throat. “N-no!” Janos cried. He got to his feet and stumbled closer. Everyone, including Life and Death, froze and stared at the human detective. He was bleeding from a few scrapes his slide across the gravel had given him and he was covered in dust. But he just kept moving forwards.

  “D-don’t,” Janos stopped just in front of Justice’s dying form, putting himself between the sylph and the ancient powerful beings. “Don’t kill him!”

  “What is this?” Life asked, drawing her brows together. She looked at Death, “Is he another of yours?”

&n
bsp; “No, my dear,” Death said, his empty sockets focusing on Janos with great interest. “He is still yours.”

  “I’m not anybody’s,” Janos ground out. He clenched his fists at his side. “I don’t know who you are, but you’re going to leave this man be. He needs to be treated for his wounds, then brought to trial to face justice.”

  Life tossed back her head and let out a peal of laughter. The sound sent shivers down my spine and my heart started pounding faster in sheer excitement. My wound also started bleeding more heavily again, the throbbing pain returning with a vengeance. I clenched my jaw to keep from yelling at Life.

  “Foolish mortal,” she crooned, smiling at Janos. His face was flushed and he was obviously enthralled by Life’s presence. I wasn’t technically alive, and it was hard for me to shake that influence. The detective, by my guess, should have been on the ground at her feet, begging for her favour. He just stood his ground. Life spread her lips in pleasure. “You have strength, to fight me so. But you know not what you do. Stand aside.”

  “No,” Janos barked, the word sounding as though it had been ripped from his throat. “This man is a murderer. He will face justice.”

  Life laughed again, this one cruel. “Do you not understand? He will not face justice. He is Justice. And he has failed. Who will deal with a failed Justice?”

  Janos rocked back on his heels and looked uncertainly at the form on the ground. Justice was still bleeding from his nose and ears, and his blindfold was soaking up more of the blood from his eyes. The phantom wounds that the sylph had garnered were becoming more solid.

  “Human,” Death spoke, his tones gentle. “Your courage is admirable, but you must understand. He is dying. There is nothing to be done.”

  “Y-you can’t know that!” Janos insisted. He shifted the tire iron in his grip, prepared to defend Justice.

  “I can,” Death said. “And I do.”

  “Listen to him, Detective,” I said from where I crouched on the ground. My shoulder had stopped bleeding quite so heavily and I didn’t feel like I was going to pass out from the pain. Janos flicked his gaze to me.