Evil Hero (A Skybrine Story)

Chapter 23: Making Plans

Seto's POV

When I first got to the Aether, I was very, very confused.

I've seen Notch here. He was looking at me and shaking his head, as if something was wrong.

Then when Arlene saw me... well...

"Seto!" she'd cried out, running forward to hug me. Finally, finally, we could talk to each other. We're both dead.

That sounded depresssing.

"Why are you..." She hadn't needed to finish that sentence.

"Nyxus," I'd told her. "And I used too much magic energy."

"Oh," she'd said. "I heard about that. The Angel thing you did was so cool!"

"Thanks," I'd said. "By the way, why do some people have wings and some don't?"

Arlene had shrugged. "Dunno. Hey, wanna go meet more dead people?"

So here we are.

I don't know how long it's been since I died in Overworld time, but in the Aether, it already feels like an eternity.

And it's probably only been a few days.

The Aether is basically a bunch of floating islands. We - "we" being the dead people who aren't yet angels - can do pretty much whatever we want. Sure, there are monsters like Tempests, but they don't harm us.

Arlene's told me they will only harm the living, who aren't supposed to be here.

So Arlene and I built a house on one of the smaller islands. It's built with those fancy stone bricks and some of the different Aether wood.

It's like a new beginning, only this time, I know I can't die.

Arlene's also warned me to not fall off the islands. If you do, you fall down, down, down to the Overworld - and you're stuck there.

Once you're down there, you can't come back.

I mean, you get here by dying. How do you die if you're already dead?

Those fallen souls - the Overworlders call them ghosts. And to them, the fallen souls are invisible.

It's great up here and all, except for the fact that you're dead.

So anyway, some days, Arlene and I play with our magic together, just like the good old days. It's great because here, you can use as much magic as you want and you won't kill yourself.

And sometimes, I go to the mainland, where Notch's Castle is, and where most souls tend to gather.

While I'm there, I talk to other dead people. Sky's parents, who died all those years ago. Ty's mother and father. Mitch's family, who, suprisingly, aren't mad at me for not warning them earlier. Jerome's family, who died when he was eight. Ryan's family, who were murdered when he was three.

I didn't even know Ryan was an orphan until now.

Well, that explains why he traveled alone.

And most importantly, my mother.

She died when I was four. I didn't exactly remember how, but I remembered standing over her lifeless body, crying my eyes out, and Nyxus simply walked past her and didn't say a word, as if she were just another victim of his spells.

In a way, she was.

Now that I've talked to her, she's told me what happened. She was a sorcerer, just like me. A sorcerer of Light.