The Court of Souls?

by Andur

  That horrible day is still in my memory. At first I didn't grasp the full scale of the destruction, but a few weeks later even Ishaan had to admit that he overdid it. There was simply nothing left to hunt, so we had to relocate to another part of the tundra.

  She sighs. “I know his temper and what I'm getting myself into. But I won't find peace until I have a long discussion with him. And I haven't told anyone about my intentions, so it's unlikely that our enemies manage to intercept me.”

  I nod. “I certainly can't say that I think of it as a good idea. But if it is unavoidable, then you have to go.”

  She nods and activates levitation magic, then she lifts off and shoots towards the swamps in the north-east, rapidly disappearing into the distance.

  I chew on my tongue while I watch her departure. A severe case of domestic violence hangs in the air and I am glad that I will be far, far away when it happens. I just hope that they won't kill each other. Such a dysfunctional family.

  “Where is she going?” Aswang's voice stops my daydreaming.

  “To see Ishaan,” I grumble. The balcony seems to be a particular bad spot to be left alone.

  “Oh, I hope that she didn't choose the wrong moment to run away,” he mumbles.

  I take a look at his dishevelled appearance. Ever since we took over he has been trying to organize the ex-slave-soldiers into something like a security guard. It takes a lot out of him. “Why? Did something happen?”

  “Yes, erm... there are a few unexplained deaths throughout the city. Doreen and Manti are already investigating,” he answers and pulls his eyes away from Tisha, who is nothing more than a small dot by now.

  I tilt my head. “Deaths? There are always deaths. We may have freed the people, but that doesn't mean that they will turn into a functioning community over night. Why are you concerned by a few murder scenes.”

  Aswang gestures for me to join him and after a few moments of consideration I decide to give up on my idle occupation at the balcony. I follow him inside and down to the courtyard.

  “These deaths aren't normal. Doreen thinks that a spirit might be responsible. The bodies are awfully disfigured, as if an animal gnawed on them. Doreen suggested to hold the information back to avoid causing a panic.”

  I listen up. “A spirit? How should a spirit manage to stalk through the city without being noticed?” I ask and lengthen my steps. Could this be another move by our opponents?

  “That's why we don't want to cause unrest. It has to be one of the smaller ones. A rakshasa or a wendigo. Something along those lines. Or one of our citizens developed a nasty disposition for cannibalism.”

  We leave the courtyard and Aswang guides me through the city. I decide to share my meagre experience with wendigos. “Wendigos act in groups as far as I know.”

  Aswang nods. “Then that means it is a rakshasa. They are strong opponents and hard to find while they don't display their powers. I wonder how we got one in our city.”

  I don't answer and keep walking. The damage to the city looks almost insignificant from down here and the people who pass us look happy. Or at least busy with their own problems.

  After a while Aswang decides to continue the conversation. “So are you sure about this fusion? Can we trust Doreen? She is getting awfully familiar with the citizens and Tisha just ran off to sort out her own problems.”

  I shrug. In fact I already know about Doreen's attempts to look good in front of our citizens. But I also invested a lot of time in getting familiar with the rescued slave soldiers. As things stand now, they follow me. And only me. “Let her. She will have a leading role in what we want to build here. So she has to get familiar with the people.”

  Aswang tries again when I don't continue the conversation. “About Legna... how did it happen?”

  For a moment I consider lying, but then I tell him the whole story. We have to start somewhere.

  “Wow. She will be mad if you ever find a possibility to return her body,” Aswang answers after I have finished.

  I nod. “I am already prepared for the fallout when she is born.”

  “Born?” Aswang gasps.

  “Elona and I will have a daughter, didn't we already tell you?” I ask.

  Aswang shakes his head. “You said you are going to have a baby, but not that it is Legna! You are so dead if she ever regains that particular part of her memories!”

  We reach a small shed at the side of a bigger building and Aswang gestures me inside. “We arrived.”

  33. ~Murder.~

  “In an early Greek myth, death is a consequence of the disagreement between Zeus and Prometheus. As a result of this quarrel, Zeus creates woman, in the form of Pandora and presents her to Prometheus' brother Epimetheus, with death being one of the results of his opening of Pandora's box, which she brought with her.”

  The Journey to the Afterlife

  Dedessia, the Sea of Souls, Semper Fidelis

  Elona

  Shade and Aswang enter the room with the murder scene. It's a distraction from my work, but I am almost done anyway. “Hi, Shade, Aswang, you finally decided to join us?” I smile at the two of them.

  Then I return my attention to the abused and battered body in front of me. Something tore out his throat and let him bleed out while eating his guts. He also has quite a few other wounds, but the damage to his throat did him in. The only reason that his head is still attached to his body, is that his spine wasn't severed too.

  So far it looks like he lived alone in this shed. His neighbours knew him as a quiet man who didn't cope well with his new freedom. According to them he was a house slave for as long as he could remember.

  I guess there have to be people like this too... not everyone is happy with their regained freedom.

  “Yeah, seemed better than wasting my time, sitting on the palace's balcony,” Shade answers with a disturbed expression. “Is there any reason to dig your fingers into that poor person's wounds? I don't think that's very hygienic.”

  I focus my full attention on the corpse in front of me and withdraw my energies from his body. “Actually there is. It makes it easier to send my mana into the body and lets me check out the length of the wound channel. We want to know what we are up against, do we not?” The person in front of me is an adult, male, and must have been quite cute while he was alive. But looks don't matter in death.

  “And? Have you learned something?” Aswang asks curiously.

  “Yes, I took a close look at three of the corpses which we found so far. Whoever killed this person and the other three had a long maw with sharp teeth. The longest teeth are fifteen centimetres in length and curved like fangs. In addition the creature must have a set of sharp claws to hold the victim, five human-like fingers.”

  I raise my hand and wriggle my fingers. “The monster likes to go directly for the throat. That's probably the reason why it managed to kill so many without causing a commotion. So far all the victims were attacked while they were alone.”

  Shade inhales and exhales slowly. “Any idea how strong it is?”

  I shrug my shoulders. “Hard to say. But it managed to take down two mids without a big fight. We are dealing with something that's at least comparable to a small deity.”

  Doreen was waiting silently in the room's corner. Now she decides to enter the discussion. “I already suspected a rakshasa. This makes it a little more certain that you have a nasty parasite within your ranks.” She throws an accusing look at Shade.

  Shade grumbles something, looking down at the corpse. “I wonder where it came from? We didn't take anyone in. Our whole population consists of former slaves. Could it be that the spirit was enslaved by a collar?”

  I shake my head. “I admit that I don't know much about the slave collars which are used by Parle and Inanimatum. But the spirits are closer to animals than to intelligent beings. Some have a small amount of reasoning left, but most of them act only on instinct. If they really have souls-”

  “They do,” Shade interrupts me
. “I fought a group of wendigos once, and each of them had a soul. I tried to investigate their minds afterwards, but I have to say that there isn't much of value there. Whatever birthed them twisted their entire being into something that can hardly be called sentient.”

  “You investigated their minds afterwards?” Doreen asks shocked.

  Oh, yes. I guess we didn't mention that little detail to my grandmother. “Shade is a soulmage. If he gets his hands on someone's soul, he can wring it out for information.”

  My husband nods. “Yes. But so far I didn't get my hands on anyone useful. The only one who knew a little more about Inanimatum's dealings was Paolo. But when he finally broke there wasn't much useful to be gained. He knew how the city works and the names of buyers and trade partners. But no hint at a bigger plan. At least I don't see it. Yet. He was just an accountant in charge of managing the city.”

  Doreen reaches for her throat and massages it. “I don't think I want to know what you mean by 'broke'. Or how many souls you've already collected.”

  “Quite a few. My little army grows slowly, but steadily,” Shade answers amusedly.

  I decide to steer the discussion back to the topic at hand. “We have to catch the spirit, whatever it is. Does anyone have an idea on how to lure it out?”

  “A bait? Do the victims belong to a particular group? Age, gender, strength?” Aswang asks.

  Doreen shakes her head in dismay. “I am afraid it doesn't work that way. First, this particular spirit doesn't seem to have any preferences and normally they can take human shape. If I take a look at the list of victims, I can see no pattern except for the regularity in which they are killed. One person per night. Second, rakshasas belong to a group of spirits which still have a decent amount of intelligence. It could pose as a normal citizen to hide. I am afraid that we have to organize a search party with all of our immortals.”

  “Is there a way to recognize it by having a discussion?” Shade asks. “Because then all we would have to do, is to order all of our citizens to have a nice and long talk with their neighbours.”

  Aswang doesn't share his opinion and raises both hands. “And what if it hides somewhere? The city's sewer system is a perfect hiding place. We would cause unrest for nothing and the people are already on the edge from the recent events.”

  Shade has a point. But we have no guarantee that the spirit is that far gone. What if it has enough intelligence and control over its instincts to hold a decent discussion from one stranger to another. I guess we could search for missing people if the situation wasn't as chaotic as it is. So shortly after having lost over half of our population we still don't have the actual numbers of the people who remain in the city.

  I raise my hand. “The spirit attacks one person each night. I propose that we take all available higher immortals and spread them throughout the city for at least three nights. If we don't catch onto the spirit's activities by then, we make a public request for everyone to have a long and decent discussion with their neighbours.”

  Aswang nods. “I suppose that's a reasonable compromise. But what do we do if we catch it? If it goes all out, the battle will cause a lot of damage.”

  Doreen shakes her head. “That's the trouble with these monsters. When you catch them, they are already wreaking havoc in your living quarters. I guess the only option we have, is to limit the damage as much as possible. Once one of us finds the creature, he has to hold it until the others arrive. It will be hard to accomplish and dangerous for those who don't have any fighting skills.”

  Shade tilts his head in thought and walks closer to the corpse at my feet. “Don't any of you find it strange that this happens exactly now? It's very convenient to keep us occupied. Instead we could be searching for our real enemies.”

  My eyes widen in realization. “You think that someone planted the rakshasa among us?”

  Doreen gives up her position in the corner and comes closer. “That's impossible. I've been in this world for over four thousand years and everything I know tells me that spirits can't be controlled. They are malevolent beings of instinct and the very few who hold a shred of their former intelligence are even more dangerous than the rest.”

  “I never said that someone controls it. I just pointed out that it is a strange coincidence. And why should the spirit be controlled? Wouldn't it enough to place it in our vicinity? It would seek out this settlement on its own to start its work.” Shade gestures at the dead body on the ground.

  “Certainly,” I mumble, but something else concerns me even more. “Though let's say that it happened as you suggest. That still leaves the question of how our enemies managed to snatch the spirit at such a convenient time. I can't imagine that they hold such dangerous existences in cages, just in case that the need for them arises.”

  “Maybe the spirit can answer that question.” Shade's expression takes on a vicious grin.

  “Okay. I'll organize everyone. High time to get out of here.” Aswang heads for the door, but Shade stops him with a question.

  “Don't tell me that you feel uncomfortable among a corpse?”

  Aswang turns around and points at me. “I have no problem with the body of a dead person, but am I the only one who finds this scene disturbing? A beautiful succubus? Gently poking around in the guts of a guy as if she is doing him a favour?”

  “Hey! I didn't kill him!” I have to defend myself. “And apart from his age there isn't much to him anyway. His weapon is much smaller than Shade's and I am not into necrophilia!” Yeah, right. No way such a shrivelled thing could satisfy me.

  All eyes in the room focus on me and I realize what I've just said!

  “Ahem. It's not like I lifted his trousers to take a look. It's a natural part of the examination process. One has to research every aspect of the crime scene. If I overlook something because I am too lenient or too embarrassed to have a good look at the whole body, it would be unforgivable.”

  What am I doing!? I am making it worse with every word. This has to end now. “Don't worry, Aswang. I already had a long discussion with Manti and we agreed that you are off limits. Though I already offered her my help with that little problem of yours.”

  He gasps and flees the scene. Manti will have a hard time once he finds her. The only problem that remains is Shade who is eyeing me with a raised eyebrow.

  I jump to my feet and run towards him. “Forgive me! I would have never thought that you could become jealous of a dead body. He can't even get it up.”

  Shade reaches out and stops me by grabbing my forehead to hold me out of reach. He can easily do so since he is bigger than me.

  “I am not jealous! Just don't sully me with those bloody hands of yours. Go and clean yourself.”

  34. ~Waiting.~

  “Max Tegmark's four levels:

  Cosmologist Max Tegmark has provided a taxonomy of universes beyond the familiar observable universe. The four levels of Tegmark's classification are arranged such that subsequent levels can be understood to encompass and expand upon previous levels. They are briefly described below.

  Level I: Beyond our cosmological horizon

  A prediction of chaotic inflation is the existence of an infinite ergodic universe, which, being infinite, must contain Hubble volumes realizing all initial conditions.

  Accordingly, an infinite universe will contain an infinite number of Hubble volumes, all having the same physical laws and physical constants. Given infinite space, there would, in fact, be an infinite number of Hubble volumes identical to ours in the universe. This follows directly from the cosmological principle, wherein it is assumed that a given Hubble volume is not special or unique.”

  The Journey to the Afterlife

  Dedessia, the Sea of Souls, Semper Fidelis

  Shade

  “Are you sure that we are assigned to this post together? The deployment of our forces makes no sense.” I mumble while studying the sheet of paper in my hand. The one who distributed us among the city, assigned Elona and me to the sam
e location. Everyone else is on their own.

  “It makes perfect sense. What do you think is wrong about it?” Elona asks with an expression of pure innocence on her face.

  I can already imagine her, blackmailing Aswang to draft the deployment plan according to her ideas.

  Oh, and there are so many things wrong with it. Mainly for the fact that I can't run off and hunt on my own. “First, we are two strong higher immortals. Maybe the strongest fighters in this town. And we are stationed in the same spot.”

  “I can explain that. We are the hunting squad, all the others are just scouts for us. Once they find the enemy and alert us, we will swoop in and save the day with overwhelming force,” Elona answers cheerfully.

  It's night though, and raining! Why would I want to sit out here and wait while others have to search for the spirit? “Okay, then what about the fact that each of us could probably take down the spirit on his or her own?”

  Bashfully, she places both hands her cheeks. “You are so considerate. But what if the enemy is stronger than expected, or if there are more than one of them? Would you really let your hopeful wife take that risk without you at her side?”

  “I have long since given up on keeping you out of the fighting. That's the one memory that's as clear as day to me. Though I wish that you would stay out of it. You know, baby and all...”

  Yeah, I was about to make that my third point. But apparently she doesn't see it as a problem. Whatever. I sigh and watch the rain pearl off of my mana shield. The blue, shimmering bubble around us isn't very strong. Just enough to deflect the rain.

  Our post is fairly close to the palace at an empty square. There aren't many people around and there are no street lights. Most of the night-life is restricted to the ring streets at this hour. There are some lone people who are returning to their living quarters after a day's work. But they clearly have other business than watching a pair of love birds sitting on a bench.