Death

Seriously, Enough With the Extra Dimensions Already!

Fiery Eyes was waiting for me as I stepped out of the throne room.  "You understand now," she said.  It wasn't a question, but a statement.  I was supposed to understand.  Did I?

We literally just went over this.  You are a demi-human and are to become a weapon for the reapers to win their war against a yet-unidentified enemy.  Duh.

"Sure," I said uncertainly.  "So, when do we start training?"

"Now," Fiery Eyes said, crossing her arms.

"Okay, that's great, but I still have no idea what my powers or whatever are, or how I'm better than one of you guys in any way!" I exclaimed. It didn't make any sense that the reapers wanted me to fight for them. Wouldn't they themselves be much better choices?

"I'm helping you to find that out," Fiery Eyes said patiently.

I sighed.  I had made a deal with the devil.

No dip, Sherlock.  You're in the Land of the Dead!  Who did you think you were making a deal with, a fairy princess?

Fiery Eyes grabbed my arm and I felt the twisting in my stomach before the world dropped away and we were in the black dimension again. Everything was tinted a dark purple this time, so as we moved I could actually see what was happening.  I didn't like it.  My stomach was lurching and I felt like I was going to throw up.

There was a sucking noise and then a pop, and we were standing next to a pit of lava.  Correction: Fiery Eyes was standing, I was kneeling and puking into the lava pit.

When I got up, Fiery Eyes was looking at me in disapproval.  "You did not just vomit into the pit of Tartarus," she said.  I gulped, tasted my puke, and wished I hadn't.  I had vomited into Tartarus?  Realizing what she had said, I stepped back as far as I could from the lava.  What if I fell?

You'd be condemned to eternal damnation.  Duh.

"Mortician, please attack me," she said. I crossed my arms.

"How?" I asked. "Also, it's Mort."

She sighed. "A lesson then. Mortician, reapers like myself fall under a broad heading. Pretty much every person in Hades is a reaper. Except, of course, the ghosts. That's why the reapers are given jobs. I was a Hunter. Now, I am the only Teacher. See?" I didn't get her point, but I nodded for her to go on with it.

"Reapers, no matter how powerful, have one flaw. They need a weapon, a Death-Scythe, if you will, to do any but the most basic spells. You, however, as a demi-human, do not. You can do spells without a weapon. We'll give you one, of course, but it will only heighten your power. See? If we give you a weapon, you will have its power and your own," she explained.

I nodded, even though I didn't get it.

Say something. Say something! You're an idiot! You know what, I need some popcorn. It hurts too much to watch this.

"Attack me. With magic," Fiery Eyes ordered. I looked at her strangely.

"Again, how?" I asked.

"I don't know, I need a weapon to fight. You'll have to figure it out," Fiery Eyes said.

Hey. I'm back. Popcorn didn't take as long as I'd thought. Some teacher you are, Fiery Eyes!

"Um," I said, and looked at the moving, shifting lava.  How on Earth- I mean, in the Land of the Dead- was I supposed to just figure out how to use magic?  If I was able to do that randomly, I would have by now!

Fiery Eyes sighed.  "Okay.  Well, it helps to close your eyes.  Now, the power of reapers is drawn from our weapons, but it is said that demi-humans draw power from the darkness.  I don't know how true it is, but it will give you a starting point," she said.

Why didn't she just tell me that before?

I closed my eyes.  Darkness?  Wasn't darkness bad?  Everybody seemed to think so.  But... Had I ever felt evil in the shadows the way Ness had?  No.  I had never been scared of the dark.  It seemed to wrap around me like a soft blanket.  The darkness protected me.

I didn't think that I could attack Fiery Eyes with warm, soothing shadows though.  That didn't seem like it would hurt much.  Instead, I called to mind the memory of the strange dimension that Fiery Eyes had brought us through when she teleported.  If that wasn't magic, nothing was. 

I could feel the shadows around me now, making the temperature drop.  These were not friendly shadows.  They were hungry.  I could feel their freezing tendrils snaking around my legs, moving like tentacles around me.

Are you an octopus?  Tentacles?  Come on.

I opened my eyes, and I saw... Myself.  Fiery Eyes was gone, and so was Tartarus.  I was standing in a world of darkness.  I reached out with my hand, straining to touch my other self's hand, but I met a cold wall.  The reflection crossed her arms and laughed.  Then, her face grew cold.

"Seriously?  You thought you could just reach out and touch me?  Let me tell you, Morty-poo, the laws of reality are different here.  When you summoned the shadows, you really shouldn't have started with those particular ones," she said, shaking her head and laughing.

Great, yet another sarcastic death girl.

"What's your name?" I asked.  My voice felt stifled in the weird shadow-place, like the shadows were sucking in all of the sound.  In contrast, the other girl's voice echoed.

"Doesn't matter.  I'm supposed to teach you how to use magic," she said.

"Wasn't Fiery Eyes supposed to do that?" I asked.

"Whatever.  She doesn't know about us.  The demi-humans.  Or, well, as I prefer, the shadow girls.  It sounds cooler, I think.  Anyway, I'm going to teach you, and you're going to shut up and listen."  She took a deep breath.

"Okay, so you've already successfully summoned the shadows or you wouldn't be here.  Congratulations.  You've accomplished the one easy task and it took you... What, fifteen years?  I was summoning shadows before I was one.  Plus, you've been taken by the reapers.  I mean, recruited.  That's how we all go, fighting in their stupid war," she said bitterly.

"You can control the darkness.  It's at your command.  It's easy, you'll figure it out.  The thing is, every shadow girl or boy has a special extra power.  It doesn't come from around you, but inside you.  Like, sort of, the manifestation of your inner strength or something like that," she said.

"Okay, bye!" she yelled, waving her fingers.  The dark world was beginning to dissolve around me.  "Don't trust the reapers!  You will definitely die!  See ya around!"

Then, I was standing next to Tartarus.  Without warning, I summoned the shadows.  Fiery Eyes' eyes narrowed, and she gave a little smile.  "Good.  Now attack me, we have work to do."