3 The Measure of Difference

Lorn paced back and forth, but didn’t answer for some time.

Shakti shook her head. ‘I told you she wouldn’t like it. Not one bit, no, no.’

‘You don’t think we broke her, do you?’ asked Axiom, mimicking a look of concern using a copy of Lorn’s face. ‘I don’t want to have to go back and report we broke her. Mania likes her pets, um, not broken.’

‘Don’t be stupid. The human mind, dead or alive is fragile, but hers is different, yes, yes.’

‘Hmmm, I think you’re right. They would never be interested in anyone mundane.’

‘She may refuse us you know. Headstrong is this one, yes, yes.’

‘Irrelevant,’ said Axiom. ‘They will accept nothing less than her full cooperation. They claim she owes them.’

‘Oh, do they now?’ Lorn snapped, halting, and turning to face them. ‘And by the way, I’m nobody’s pet!’

The were talking about two shraeds, named Manic and Mania. Siblings of a sort, although, eccentric and disturbed was a better way of describing them. Those two would think she owed them. They were arrogant to a fault, but she recalled enough to know she had also liked them despite their natures.

I guess that’s what friendship is about. She did think of them as friends, though she doubted Manic would reciprocate.

How strange she should see two shraeds that way, but for a time, they were all she had. This Axiom reminded her of them a little, though he was polite. As a result, she both liked and distrusted him.

‘I’m dead,’ she muttered after a moment, and then glancing at Shakti, added, ‘and you’re dead.’

‘Yes, dear,’ the old woman replied with long-suffering smile. ‘We’ve established that. I thought we’d be further along by now.’

‘What I mean is, it’s not like we can do anything. I mean, what can dead souls do about souleaters? I’d have to go through a lot of them I’m assuming, to get at this list?’

Lorn turned to Axiom. ‘You’re a shraed, far more powerful than I am. What do you expect me to actually do? Can’t you go and do it yourself? Why can’t you steal this List of Souls and save Tharaxis?’

Axiom floated closer. ‘We call them souleaters because they feed on souls, but they are just as lethal to my kind. We have faced them before, and many shraeds were consumed. Yes, we can fight them, but at great cost.

‘My more regular kin are what you like to call, mindless, yes? Well, they wouldn’t care. I, however, would rather continue my existence. It’s fun! Also, did you know they consider us a rare delicacy? Your kind are more meat and potatoes, I think.’ He said that while sounding proud.

Lorn threw her hands up. ‘I still don’t get what you expect from me? I’m no saviour.’

‘The Shadow Twins suggested,’ Axiom replied, ‘that you’re the only one who can help. They instructed me to encourage you in this task.’

‘I’m not feeling encouraged.’

‘Well, that’s because I haven’t begun yet. You shouldn’t rush me. A shraed needs to warm up to something like encouragement. It doesn’t come naturally to us, you know.’

Lorn let out a growl that surprised even her.

The shraed threw up two ethereal hands that looked just like hers. ‘They did hint that there is more to you than you realise. I didn’t press them for more. They don’t like being pressed.’

‘Well, maybe you should have anyway!’ Lorn gritted her teeth. Everything about her felt as though she was alive. An illusion that might threaten her sanity. This task offered her something to do. A distraction. ‘Manic and Mania. Yes, I remember them. They’re sort of the reason I’m here in fact.’

‘Oh, yes,’ said Axiom, ‘I nearly forgot – they, uh, send their apologies. Well, Mania did, I think. I’m sure it was there in the wording somewhere. Manic sort of just ... well, snorted at the concept when I asked for clarification. It’s not often they apologise after all, or rather, never.’

‘Wait, what are you talking about? Are you suggesting they knew I would die and end up here?’ She’d assumed that following their guidance was what had gotten her killed, not that they’d arranged it.

Axiom’s form shivered as though a breeze passed through it, his face transforming into a twin likeness of Manic and Mania, before returning to a replica of Lorn’s. ‘They needed you here in Tharaxis. It was part of their plan. Only the dead can enter this city. Therefore, you needed to get dead.’

Lorn stared hard at the shraed, until he began to look uncomfortable. ‘Are you saying they got me this way ... on purpose?’ She tried to remember the events leading up to her demise. Well, what else could she have expected from dealing with shraeds? It was done, wasn’t it. There was no point weeping over it.

There was another name on the edge of her memory, one that came with the face who’d stared at her as she’d stood on a ledge. It came to her in a rush.

‘Threadfin,’ she whispered. ‘My undeader. Is he still alive ... I mean, well, you know what I mean.’ How could she have forgotten his name? Warmth flooded through her at the thought of him.

‘Yes, yes,’ said Shakti nodding. ‘Yes, the undead one, your lost love and all that yucky nonsense. Never had much use for it myself. Ugh. What is wrong with you, girl?’ She made a hacking motion as though about to throw up, though being dead rendered such a feat impossible. ‘He’s fine that one. A survivor, and his story is not finished. Neither is yours, no, no.’

Lorn didn’t like the sound of that last bit. ‘What are you talking about? I’m here in the land of the dead. I think my story is done.’

‘No,’ said Axiom, floating closer. His form shimmered like oil in water as he continued experimenting with his shape. ‘Every soul arriving here thinks this is the afterlife, but it’s all a scam. The souleaters are gathering all the souls of the Spectrum into one place; this city.’

Lorn shivered, though she didn’t feel cold, at least not as she had when alive. She didn’t feel much of anything except fear. She could still smell their stink, however. The stench of predators. ‘How are they doing it?’

‘Simple; they have the List of Souls, which is why we need you to steal it back,’ said Axiom. ‘Its possession is enough to gain power over the dead. Sure, some names don’t make it onto the list through some wheeling and dealing, but most do. A creature known as the Librarian encountered a souleater at some point. Likely to save himself, he, or they, depending on how you—’

‘The Librarian has two heads, you see,’ chimed in Shakti.

‘Er, yes,’ said Axiom with a glare for the dead witch. His face had switched to that of a generic human male. ‘Are you telling this story, or am I?’

Shakti snorted, not seeming to care if she offended the shraed. Lorn couldn’t understand their relationship. Then again, could she have explained her relationship with Manic and Mania?

‘As I was saying,’ continued the shraed, his face forming a frown, ‘The Librarian—who sometimes goes by the name, Enepsigos—had the list last. Not sure how he got it. The fount of all knowledge, those two, if you believe them. Anyway, we think the Librarian sold, gave, or lost it to the eaters somehow.’

‘We’re a bit unsure of the details,’ said Shakti, ‘aren’t we Ax?’

‘Er, yes. Anyway, that’s how they’ve been gathering them. Maybe a handful here or there manage to escape, but most get lured in and trapped. We need to retrieve that list, and end this.’

Lorn placed her head in her hands. ‘You’re both nuts.’

Shakti shook her head. ‘Are you not the same thief who stole existence?’

Lorn looked up and grimaced. Now that she heard the words, she remembered her pact with the Grim. She’d made that deal out of desperation, and had stolen the Shathra Stone. In the end, she had denied him his prize. She’d still paid for it with her life. ‘I had some help with that business.’

Axiom formed into a likeness of the Fetch, the Grim’s servant, which she did not appreciate. ‘Yes, but we don’t have a Grim in our pockets, so you will have to make do with us, and any others we gather. But the Shadow Twins were clear on this; it must be you who steals it.’

‘Why?’

‘Think about it, you remember your life when almost no other soul can. There are perhaps a handful in all Tharaxis like you. Shakti here is one of those, but then she’s weird.’

The old healer shot him a glare, but nodded all the same.

‘Then get one of them to do it,’ Lorn snapped.

Axiom shrugged in a very human-like manner. ‘The Shadow Twins specifically asked for you. They hinted that you’d know what to do with the list once you got it. They trust you. Strange, since they don’t trust me, and I’m more like family. I’m not sure why. I’m downright decent as shraeds go, I’ll have you know.’

Lorn let her thoughts stew for a few moments, trying to examine this proposal from all angles. Eventually, she asked, ‘Why am I different?’

Shakti remained silent and it seemed she didn’t know, but Axiom squirmed. ‘They don’t like to talk about it,’ he said after a moment. ‘They don’t like me talking about it. I think it’s something dangerous. To them. To us.’

Lorn leaned forwards and shoved her face in his, ignoring its ever-changing nature. ‘I want to you to talk about it, or else you get no help from me.’

Axiom let out a ragged sigh, seeming to deflate in dramatic fashion. ‘Fine,’ he mumbled and then said, ‘It has to do with that pact you made with the Grim. That’s why I’m not supposed to say anything.’

‘What?’ asked Lorn, glancing around her. ‘Are they listening or something?’

‘Watching,’ he whispered. ‘They always keep an eye on their investments, and they invested much in you, Lorn Larthuz.’

‘So, they can’t hear what we’re saying then.’

Axiom gave a very human-like shrug. ‘I’m not sure.’

Lorn nodded, waiting. It sounded just like those two. Set the pieces moving and then sit back and observe with cold dispassionate smiles, or in Manic’s case, a sneer.

‘Well,’ Axiom continued, a little reluctantly, ‘you passed from the mortal realm into the Grimstyx after hiding the Shathra Stone. That was well done, by the way; talk of the Spectrum. Cheating the Grim went down very well with you know who.

‘Anyhow, that transition wasn’t as it normally would have been,’ he went on, ‘since the Grim needed you alive to deliver the Stone. The dead, after all, cannot handle such an artefact. So, he transformed you into a shade with more substance than a ghost but not nearly as much as a living person. Not unlike us in fact, now that I think about it. You see, in this way, he preserved your body, so you could steal the Stone. He then reformed you alive in the Styx. Does that sound about right?’

‘I suppose so,’ she whispered. She’d been transformed into something like a shraed? More of it was coming back to her, including her time with Threadfin.

‘Well, that’s why you’re different,’ the shraed said in a triumphant manner. ‘Even now, in death, you are more than a mere soul. You are Grim-touched, though the Shadow Twins hate to acknowledge this side of you. It annoys them.’

‘Are there others like me?’

Axiom hesitated. ‘There is one angel-touched we know of. A boy. Like you, he can do things other souls cannot. Those who remain closest to him, for example, often last longer than other souls in this city.’

‘Okay, so what things can I do?’

The shraed formed shoulders and shrugged. ‘Only you can answer that.’

Lorn hugged her knees to her chest, thinking. Did this mean she had abilities she didn’t know about? ‘What happens if I refuse?’

Shakti sighed. ‘Eventually the eaters will find you. They feed at random but they’ll get everyone eventually. There are thousands of them you see. Tens of thousands. More souls arrive to replace the ones they eat. The souls of the Spectrum are innumerable. They raid the city, hunting, sometimes it seems for sport. Those of us who have survived are not the same afterwards. You’ll see many going insane.’

Well, thought Lorn, that’s a sobering response. She did not like the idea of being lunch. If stealing a list was going to help stop them, then why not?

‘Fine, you can count me in, but if we’re going to do this, I’m going to need more information. In other words, I need to know everything you do. For one thing, you mentioned a resistance. Who is its leader?’

‘Well, my dear, why don’t I just take you to meet her, oh, yes, yes.’