Chapter 31: The Slow Dance of Death
Pain rolled over in his bed. He had been puttering along in his reaper job ever since Fira's mortality hit him like a ton of bricks. He had just woken up from a nightmare where she had turned to dust. There was hardly a thing he could do about the situation, so he decided, as he sat up, to go ask Death what to do.
He opened a portal and went through. The large expanse of dark skies greeted him. There was barren ground as far as the eye could see. A single white sigil was the only thing nearby. He took a small satchel from his belt, fished out some black dust from it, and set it in the center of his hand. Setting the satchel back into his belt, he blew the dust off his hand in the direction of the sigil.
The sigil glowed a dark purple, and a large skeleton with a laurel wreath around its head emerged from the center, clothed in a light purple cape, and brandishing a tall scythe. It was Death himself. His hollow eye sockets stared back at him.
"Hello my lord." Pain took a bow.
"What is it, Pain?" Death's lipless mouth opened and closed, clacking each time his teeth hit each other.
"I have… A question." He played with his hands awkwardly.
"Ask, and I may have the answer, though it may not be the answer you want." Death leaned down slightly.
"How would one be able to, say, keep a person from growing old and dying? As in, giving a mortal human immortality." He looked away, ashamed of the question that had been haunting him.
"There are many ways, are you looking to turn them into a Vampire? A Werewolf?" Death nodded.
"No, I'd rather not have the person in question suffer with such things." Pain shook his head, he didn't want Fira to have to hurt others to survive.
"Ah, that would exhaust most of the avenues that you could do what you wish. There, however, one more way, though I am not sure you would do such a thing." Death put a thumb and index finger to his bony jaw.
"Let me guess, The Forbidden Book." He knew the forbidden book had spells for any situation, including granting immortality to anyone.
"Yes, I see you already had the answer within you." Death let out a single laugh and put a hand to his ribs.
"I was afraid you were going to recommend it. Lady Elaine told horror stories of her reading it, and the hollow feeling that took months for her to get used to." He grimaced, even though she didn't feel that bad eventually, it still took her a long time to get used to it.
"I'm afraid that unless you want to make her a creature that lives off the life force of others, you will have to use the book." Death sighed.
"She isn't powerful enough to become part of the Veil of Light, Shai told me so. She said that it would be almost impossible for her to be strong enough in her entire lifetime." Pain put a hand to his head, he had already exhausted every other avenue besides Death's ability to make anyone a soul sucking monster, whether it be a Vampire or Werewolf, or The Forbidden Book.
"I see, it must be that girl that I have seen you with that you are asking for. Selfless as always. You never had a problem like this before, why now?" Death scratched his skull.
"I don't know, it just didn't hit me until recently. I guess it would have been because I never needed to think about it with my previous relationship, and suddenly having to worry about that now must have thrown me for a loop." He shook his head.
"I suppose, how is that Darkling fellow anyways?" Death left his mouth open.
"He's doing much better now. He and I are still best friends, it feels like our relationship went back to the way it was before, which is a relief." Pain smiled, Skyler seemed very chill about the whole thing.
"Anyways, you may get your chance, since The Forbidden Book has been lost by those who had it in their possession." Death laughed and clutched his ribs again.
"I have a small suspicion as to who has it." He didn't want to think about that unnamed man with the Fallen mouth that looked just like him, but surely it was in that man's possession.
"Ah, Yes, there are five of you now. I forgot." Death nodded again.
"I don't think I'll be able to get it from him that easy." The unnamed Fallen version of him was adamant about nobody else using The Forbidden Book.
"You could always explain that it isn't for you." Death shrugged with his long skeletal arms.
"I don't think that would be enough for him." He knew that Fallen Hex, which is what he decided to name him, would never let him have it without a fight.
"Well, you could always kick his arse and take it from him by force." Death laughed again.
"I might have to." He wasn't so positive about the situation.
"Well if he's going to be an arse about it, what else is there to do?" Death kneeled down further and let out a small chuckle.
"I don't even know if I can muster up enough courage, he radiates this creepy aura that makes me uneasy." Pain shivered, the feelings he got when he first met him came back to him and made his stomach turn.
"It's funny that I'm not the same. Everybody seems to tell me I radiate a kind of zen aura instead." Death chuckled again.
"If I'm going to succeed I'm going to have to just power through it like I always do." Pain sighed and wished life wasn't so difficult for him.
"I know you can do it. You won't lose all your soul, let your master know, she will give you the cheat sheet she got from… Oh what was her name." Death put a hand to the side of his head.
"Zlyena." Pain knew exactly who Elaine got the cheat sheet from. He wondered if she still had it.
"Ah, yes, her. She has her fingers in about as many pies as I do at the moment." Death let out another chuckle.
"Responsibilities stack, unfortunately." Pain shrugged, Zlyena was so quick to take in any magical creature that she amassed a large roster of people who needed her support.
"It's like a child trying to bring home any animal they find, only she somehow makes it work." Death sat down.
"I'll go talk to Elaine, you have a good day, my lord." Pain took another bow.
"I'll see you later then, friend." Death waved and the sigil under him lit up again and he phased into the floor.
He went back to Macabre Hearse, and knocked on Elaine's office door.
"Elaine? Are you in there?" He jiggled the door knob, it was locked.
"What is it?!" Elaine shouted.
"I need to talk to you." He felt quite impatient and didn't want to wait for her to open the door, so he phased through.
"Argh! I wish you would stop doing that!" She got up and walked up to him.
"Your door was locked." He shrugged again.
"Sometimes it's locked for a good reason! What is it that you need?" She put her hands on her hips.
"Do you still have that… Cheat sheet? The one you used to bring me back?" Pain played with his hands nervously.
"What do you need that for? Are you planning on using it? If so, I've already warned you how bad it is." She sighed.
"Well… Yes. I want to make someone immortal." He slowly nodded.
"It's that Fira girl you've been gushing over isn't it?" She smiled.
"Uh… Well..." He stopped playing with his hands and looked up at her.
"You haven't stopped talking about her to everyone but me, I'm guessing it's because of our past. Kalan has been complaining that you won't shut up about her though, which made me laugh." She chuckled.
"Oh. He didn't seem that disinterested when I talked to him about her, though… It's hard to read him." Kalan was usually stone-faced and expressionless so it was hard to gauge whether or not anything was positive or negative to him.
"Well he didn't want to bother you, so he complained to me and told me not to tell you. By the way don't tell him I told you." She put her index finger up to her mouth in a shushing motion.
"I won't, don't worry." He smiled.
"Let me go get it." She turned around and went back to her desk.
She took a key from the inside of her black knee-high legging shoe-sock hybrid and unlocked the bottom drawer. She shuffled around inside the drawer.
"Aha! Here it is! It's in Zoranian though." She smiled and held up the cheat sheet which was a stack of black sheets of paper with white writings. There was a staple in the left corner.
"You were the one who stapled it, didn't you?" Pain raised an eyebrow.
"Well, it was in a folder before." She smiled and shrugged.
"You'll have to teach me how to get over the feeling you described once I do it." He took a deep breath and sighed.
"Yeah, I promise." She handed him the papers.
"Thank you." He didn't feel the need to be formal with her anymore, so he didn't bow.
"Thank god you stopped saying 'my lady' and bowing at me, that was so embarrassing." She laughed.
"Ah, yeah. It was because I wanted to thank you for bringing me back. I learned that me just being around is enough, so I don't do that anymore." He smiled back at her.
"You've been doing a lot better as of late, I can tell." She gave him a thumbs up.
"Oh, by the way, how do you deal with Hex being mortal?" He completely forgot that, for all he knew, Hex was still mortal.
"He's not, had him trade his godlike powers in for immortality. Zlyena took him to The Veil of Light to do it, since I can't go because I'm a demon." She put her hands back to her sides and gripped the skirt of her dress.
"Oh, so that's how you consolidated that so nobody would try to kill him again." He gave a relieved sigh, he didn't want any more resurrected Brians walking around than him and Fallen Hex, two was already too much.
"Is there anything else you need to talk to me about?" She smiled and played with her skirt.
"Nope, have a good day." He waved and walked out by phasing back through the door.
He went back to Purgatory and waited for Fira to get out of high school. He was very excited because he had asked her to Prom earlier, because she didn't have a date before. His new identity contained his old age, and he was under the maximum age which was twenty one, so he could go. He changed his jaw to his normal looking one for the event, and headed out. He showed up in a tuxedo Elaine had rented for him, and awkwardly waited at the entrance.
"There you are!" Fira came out of a car wearing a beautiful flowing red dress with red gloves that reached halfway up her upper arm. Her hair was braided and she wore a beautiful rose hairpin made with pearls and rubies.
"You look beautiful." He was blown away, she looked perfect. The sweat of his hands made him start to lose his grip on the plastic corsage box behind his back. He brought it out, it was a rose corsage. She gasped and put her hands to her face.
"It's perfect, thank you!" She took it and put it on her left wrist.
"Oh, yeah, you did tell me you're left handed." He helped adjust the corsage.
"We should get in soon, I think it's about to start." She looked up at him and smiled.
He took her hand and went inside, and like Fira said, the festivities were beginning. Someone was talking over the microphone in the ballroom, welcoming everyone to the event. There were red cloth covered tables covered in food and a large punch bowl at the far wall.
"I wonder what the rest of the place looks like." He peeked over and saw only white hallways.
"Let's go see!" She turned to him and started to go forward and yanked at his hand.
She pulled him towards the back of the building. They came outside where there were many round wooden tables with the soft glow of metal lamps with butterfly designs on them. The cool spring air coasted over him and lightly chilled him, it wasn't enough to make him cold, it was more relaxing than anything else.
"It's really nice out here." He looked up at the trees behind the fence that had just started growing leaves again.
"Let's go back in, we can come back out here later." She pulled on Pain's hand again.
"By the way, you can call me Brian, just for now." He looked to her, he didn't she knew his old human name, so he had to tell her.
"That's a very normal name for someone like you." She smiled and giggled, and tugged on his hand another time.
"Alright, alright. I'll go." He chuckled back and let her lead him back inside.
Music was already playing, but it was fast party music, everyone was either dancing or enjoying the food.
"Do you think I can dance without spilling any punch?" She turned to him, still smiling.
"I'll go get some and we can both find out for ourselves." He let out a single chuckle and headed over to the punch bowl.
There was a security guard there, possibly on punch bowl duty to make sure nobody spiked it, even though everyone there was under the age they could legally drink. He gave a single nod to the security guard, who gave one back. He waited in the disorderly line. Once it was his turn, he filled a single cup, since he didn't feel like punch just yet. He brought it back to Fira who was waiting at the edge of the dance floor. She took it and took a sip.
"Tastes like punch I guess." She smiled again, and led him to the dance floor.
The songs were all very upbeat. The dance floor was cool as well and the party lights lit up the room. They started dancing together, and he watched her cup in his peripheral vision to make sure it didn't spill. The music pulsed and everyone on the floor felt like they were moving as one to the music. The lights mesmerized and enchanted and bounced off the chandelier above, scattering the light even more. He saw Fira take swigs of punch constantly until it was empty.
"I'll go toss this." Fira pointed to her cup and headed for the trash can.
He was so used to not exerting himself that he was panting, he wasn't exhausted yet but he was close. He hoped that the slow songs would start soon so he could still keep up with Fira. She came back and they started dancing again.
"You doing okay over there? You need a punch break?" She patted him on the shoulder.
"I'm… Probably going to have to take you up on that offer." He let out a single breathy laugh that sounded like a huff.
"I understand, you're not used to exercise, it's so easy to put off, isn't it?" She laughed again.
"Yeah." He smiled again and took her hand, and they both went to the punch bowl together.
He waited in the messy line again until it was his turn. He got his turn, and filled two cups full. He turned to Fira and handed her one.
"Let's go outside to that one place." She pointed to the hallway.
"Alright, but we'll check every once and a while to see if the slow dancing has started yet." He nodded.
"Oh, O-Okay..." She blushed and meekly grabbed his hand.
He let her lead him back outside. The cooler air on his hot skin was amazing to him. He had already worked up a bit of a sweat, and was ready to sit down. She led him to a nearby table.
"Thanks." He let go of her hand and sat down.
"So, are you enjoying it?" She sat down next to him on his right.
"It's time spent with you, I will never not enjoy that." He winked and smiled another time.
"R-Really?" She blushed, her smile faded and she turned her head slightly away, but she still made eye contact.
"Of course, you know me." He put an index finger to his collarbone as a gesture to himself.
"Yeah." She sighed and her smile returned.
"How are you fairing though?" He put a hand on her knee.
"I'm doing fine, a little tired though, and my feet are killing me." She let out a phew and wiped her forehead.
"I can imagine, are those heels?" He looked down and saw a pointed shoe poking out from under her dress.
"Yeah." She took a hand and slightly pulled up her dress, revealing a ruby red shoe with a two inch heel.
"Those look pretty high, sheesh." He didn't think she would be wearing heels that high, and was surprised she could dance with such footwear.
"I feel a few blisters but other than that I should be fine." She massaged slightly under the shoe.
"I'm glad you stopped, at least for now. Are you sure you want to even slow dance with blisters?" He was worried, he didn't want to hurt her by continuing to dance with her even though she had blisters.
"I'm not leaving without slow dancing with you, please, even just one song." She begged, her eyes showing beginnings of tears.
"We can slow dance all you want, but if it starts to get bad let me know immediately and we can stop." He took his hand off her knee and took a sip of punch.
They continued to talk while taking sips of punch for a time. He told her a bit about Elaine, and how she brought him back. He left out some details, because it was very difficult still to think about the feeling of waking back up. He discussed the feeling Elaine conveyed afterwards of an emptiness after she read the book. Fira was glad that it wasn't the other way around, and he laughed awkwardly. He looked back at her and she had a look of visible confusion. They kept checking every once and a while to see if the slow dances were beginning yet.
"The slow dances are starting." Pain had just come back from one of his trips to check if they were.
"Let's go." She got up and grabbed his hand again.
They went inside and waited for the next song to come on while standing on the edge of the dance floor, still hand in hand. Another song started up, and they headed to the inner dance floor. Pain and Fira embraced and began to dance. The song was in Korean, and was from one of the most, if not the most popular K-Pop bands at the time. It was very slow and relaxing. This is the moment she would remember forever, he held her even closer. Fira gripped his arm and pulled him in as close as she could. They went around in circles, the scenery slowly spun around them. The night continued on and they kept dancing slowly. A while later Fira tugged on his sleeve.
"B-Brian, my feet aren't doing so good." She frowned, and looked down.
"It's alright, let's get some punch and go back outside." He was caught off guard for a second once she had said his old human name. It felt like an eternity since he last heard it.
"Yeah." She nodded.
He was the one to lead her to the punch bowl this time. The line was much shorter this time because most everyone was on the floor still. He filled up another two cups and led her outside again. He sighed in relief when the outside air hit his lightly sweaty skin. They talked some more and then he began to take her back out front so she could leave, on the way they passed a mirror.
"Hey, do you… Want to kiss before we leave? That last one wasn't really, you know… Your jaw was in the way." She looked up at him with innocent eyes.
"I'll consider this one our first then." He nodded.
They kissed in front of the mirror. She pulled away slowly and tears pooled under her eyes. He comforted her and told her that she didn't need to rush to leave. They slowly walked to the front while talking. He heard her sniffle, so he told her to turn around, and he wiped the wetness from under her eyes. She thanked him, and they continued. They got to the front of the building, and they said their goodbyes in between awkward strings of silence. She kissed him once more, and walked to the car, but before she went inside, she turned and waved. He waved back, and they parted ways.
Read the rest of The Light Maiden's Mark here: https://moonquill.com/book/46
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