Look at the time it's taken me to get away from what was said
I'll never leave, I'll always love
Aura threw the book across the room in frustration.
“Fuck everything.” She growled.
Brock lowered his own book and sighed quietly. The stacks of tomes piled up around the pair of them never seemed to grow any smaller. He, at least, seemed to relish in research, in the pursuit of answers. Aura had too – once – but time seemed to be pressing in on her from all sides, even in this timeless place. Every time she picked up the staff, she felt the thousands of souls waiting to be guided to their place in death. It was impossible to reach all of them on her own, even if she worked around the clock, so to speak. But every time she put the staff down in order to try and work out how to train some help, she and her friend hit wall after wall. And while they were sat here, scratching their heads, more and more corpses were becoming lost in the Realm of the Dead.
“I’m starting to see why Kelise packed this in.” Aura grumbled, glowering at the stack of books closest to her. “And she had a fully functioning academy.”
“We’ll get there.” Brock mumbled wearily, rubbing at the corner of his eyes. Aura glanced sideways at him.
“You need a break.”
“We both do.” He stretched his arms and sighed again. “I might go and see Zazz and grab a cup of sludge. You should get out too. No reaping, though.”
“But – ”
“No reaping. Take a break.”
He stood up, dusting himself off. Aura reached out and touched the Staff of the Dead with her outstretched fingers, bracing herself for the magical wardrobe transformation which immediately followed. Brock eyed her suspiciously as she stood also, straightening her icy blue robes.
“Don’t – ” He started in a warning voice, but Aura held up her free hand.
“Don’t worry! I’m going to see Mallos.”
He nodded slowly, casting her another suspicious glance before making his exit. Aura slashed at the air with her scythe and hopped through the resulting portal, landing – as always – in the shadows of the Realm of the Living.
The room was dark. Ish. The curtains were drawn, but light seeped through the cracks around the edges and the lining, so it must have been daylight outside. A sliver of warm light coloured the deep red bedsheets where a recumbent figure lay dormant. Without needing to move around to see the face, Aura could tell by the position and general shape that it was Mallos. Apparently, early fatherhood had taken its toll.
She could have left. It would probably have been the polite thing to do. She ran her thumb up and down the staff, her teeth resting on her lower lip, her brow gently furrowed. From the other side of the closed doorway leading to the rest of his quarters, there was a soft thump and a gurgling sound.
Before she was really aware of what she was doing, Aura had crossed the short space and was slowly pushing against the door with her fingertips. It swung silently, revealing a light space which served as both a living room and an office. A mahogany desk, meticulously tidy, sat in a prominent position beneath the window. A three-seater sofa and glass coffee table occupied most of the rest of the space which, with the exception of some bookshelves and a filing cabinet, was largely devoid of other furniture and decoration. Perched on the arm of the sofa, with her back to the bedroom door, sat a woman in black clothes with long, dark hair. She was apparently watching a baby crawling around and around the coffee table.
Although she couldn’t quite explain why, Aura gripped the staff a little tighter – briefly. She forced herself to relax her hand almost immediately and leant against the staff, her sharp blue eyes focused on the woman instead of the baby.
“Hello.” She said simply. “Hope this isn’t a bad time.”
me and you, we are ghosts
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