The Court of Souls?

“It was just a simple letter. What was in it? Could it be knowledge, or a declaration of love, an apology? Surely just taking a very quick look inside couldn't do any harm - could it?”

- The Journey to the Afterlife

***Dedessia, the Sea of Souls, Ice Tundra***

***Shade, 11 years old***

He is bringing out the bucket. I hate the bucket. There is nothing worse than bucket training. Fighting tundra wolves and ice trolls is more to my liking. The bucket training promises just pain. I watch in despair as Ishaan approaches me with the dreaded bucket. It is filled with sand and pebbles. When he introduced his bucket with semi-precious stones to me, I thought nothing of it.

Now I know better. I try to change my sitting position and to loosen up my legs. Ishaan ordered me to meditate on a big boulder when I have nothing better to do. So he knows right away when it is time to badger me again.

When we started out with the exercise it began with him reaching into his bucket and asking, “How many pebbles do I hold in my hand?” He would take it out and show me his open hand with the pebbles inside.

“Three,” I answered and that was it. He might have taken my eyes, but apparently he can't take the ability which lets me see in the dark. It relies on sound.

Again he reached into his bucket and asked, 'How many pebbles are there?'

'Nine,' I answered and he nodded.

When he reached a third time into his bucket I didn't answer immediately. There were too many pebbles, so I had to count. That's what earned me a beating. 'No counting. Just knowing!' he said.

I decided that he is mad. But he wasn't. No matter how much peddles and sand I threw up in the air, he gave me the answer with barely a look. 'Freeing your mind,' he calls it.

Ever since then we have a daily round of this exercise. Ever since then he increases the stakes. First pebbles, then grains of sand, then both together. Just yesterday he also asked me how many stones are on the ground in a ten metre radius around me. Of course I didn't know. And of course I earned myself a beating.

At least he allows me to try to evade. I have no doubt that he could crush me with a flick of his little finger. The fact that I always have the hope of evading a blow means that he is giving me a chance. So it feels a little bit like combat training. Though I always end up with bruises. No, calling it a beating is more appropriate.

Ishaan reaches me with the bucket under his arm, then he looks me over as if he really has to contemplate his next action. But not this time! I've made sure that I know the exact number of all the things around me. He won't trick me another time. And after a year of learning to count by being beaten to a pulp I can't be surprised. Even if he throws the contends of his entire bucket into the air. I won't be surprised.

“Are you ready?” He asks with his deep voice.

“Sure,” I answer with a smile on my face.

“Okay.” He reaches deep into his enchanted bucket. I also know that the volume inside his bucket is bigger than on the outside. A magical bag, though I have no idea how someone would get the idea to use a bucket for such a complicated spell.

His hand comes out and throws an axe at me! It's not one of the tiny tomahawks for one hand, but a huge two handed thing. The monstrosity hits me squarely in the chest and I fall backwards off my boulder.

“What the hell?” Luckily the heavy axe hit me sideways. But it nonetheless drove the air out of my lungs.

“Not an axe wielder,” Ishaan decides and takes the heavy axe off my chest to return it to the bucket. I hurry to get up. Experience taught me that Ishaan likes to kick people who are on the ground. He is a grumpy, old man and never talks about his reasons for being so cruel.

Next he pulls out a sword and throws it at me. I barely manage to catch it, but he threw it at an unfortunate angle, so I ended up grabbing the blade and cut myself. I pull a grimace and watch the wound healing. These bodies are simply too convenient. No wonder that everyone in this world is a sadist.

“No, that doesn't work for you. You don't even know where to grab a weapon,” he mumbles, taking the sword from me.

Who does he think I am? None of my previous personalities was a martial artist as far as I can tell.

Next is a spear which I catch without a problem. No wonder. There aren't too many sharp edges to grab and it isn't heavy.

“Okay. Let's add a side-arm,” he produces a dagger and throws it at me. I catch it and sigh in relief that it wasn't thrown as unfortunately as the sword.

“You have luck,” Ishaan chuckles. “It seems like we've found your weapons awfully fast. Have you remembered anything else since we talked the last time?”

I shrug my shoulders. “Ascathon, Gideon, Azir, Johann. Magic and skills, basic knowledge, but the personal memories are just flashbacks without context.”

Ishaan nods. “No one said that it would be easy. Put the dagger away. Then I start teaching you the spear. Don't worry about the size. You will grow into it.”

I do as told and we begin sparring. Of course, it's a child against a monster. I think he may reach two hundred and thirty centimetres when he stands upright? As I said, he is a giant. He doesn't even need a weapon to block my oversized spear.

We are at it for just about ten minutes when I sense something coming closer. That's a skill I learned very quickly from Ishaan. Out here in the wilderness it is important to know when something is creeping up on you.

Ishaan is living alone in and old shack. The dilapidated shack has a single room with two beds, one for me and one for him. In a corner is a rusty stove. And the window doesn't even have glass in it, so the shutters are always closed. Not that it matters to me. The barracks in the facility also didn't have windows.

It doesn't matter. Most of the time we are outside to train, ignoring the weather. From morning till night. There is not much else to do in this tundra. From time to time Ishaan uses me as bait to hunt food. The tundra wolves and ice trolls I have to kill myself. The bigger game like the ice dragons are for him.

I lower my spear and look into the direction from where I feel the intruders. “Someone is coming.”

Ishaan growls and gestures for me to stay put while he walks into the direction of the approaching fire bird with the woman riding on its head. I decide that I may as well take a rest while Ishaan is greeting his visitors. This event is a new one for me. So far Ishaan didn't let anyone this close to his shack. He would always go out to kill them long before I am able to sense anything. So this is a new thing to me.

The fire bird lands and transforms into a man while the woman drops to the ground next to him. Not for the first time I wish that I still had my normal vision. My additional sense displays everything in various shades of grey and white. I strain my ears and rely on my exceptional sense of hearing to follow the ensuing conversation.

The conversation I had hoped for doesn't turn out as planned. Before Firebird can open his mouth he gets served a left uppercut which sends him in a high arc into the next snowdrift. He didn't even try to defend himself.

Ishaan continues to follow, but the woman steps in between him and his target. She seems to have a better relationship with Ishaan. At least he doesn't attack her outright.

“Step aside, Doreen. I have no quarrel with you,” Ishaan says. He speaks very silently, so even I have trouble understanding him from that far away.

“Neither do I have a quarrel with you. It's just that this idiot asked for a favour,” she gestures for Firebird who is fighting to get out of the snow. He must be quite strong to take one of Ishaan's blows without dying on the spot. Wasn't Doreen the name of Carissimi's matriarch?

“I can't let you kill him until he brought you his message. So please make this easy for both of us. Listen to what he has to say and then you can kill him for all I care,” Doreen continues confidently.

“I already thought that you two were back together when you showed up like this. Though it disturbs me that you still value him high enough to give a shit about favours between him and you,” Ishaan grumbles and spits on the ground.

“There is something like rules between higher immortals. I don't want to be the one who breaks the customs. He has just one left anyway.” Doreen starts playing with her hair.

“I have to give you a message from Tisha and then I am gone.” Firebird finally managed to free himself and returned to the playing field. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out an envelope, offering it to Ishaan. “She got a message out. And it's addressed to you.”

For the first time in ages I see Ishaan tensing up. He takes the envelope gingerly, but continues to glare at Firebird.

Firebird bows and excuses himself. “I think that I have overstayed my welcome.” Then he retreats hurriedly and changes back into his fire form, flying in the direction he came from.

Doreen nods her head in my direction. “I thought that you live here alone? Where did you pick that up? Should I take the child with me?”

“You wouldn't be able to deal with the little monster. And he is very independent, surely he is listening to every word we're saying.” Ishaan unfolds the envelope and starts reading.

“If you say so. I won't doubt your judgement.” Doreen sighs, looking away from me. “I'll leave you to your solitude.” She floats up into the air and follows the fire bird.

I watch Ishaan as he just keeps standing there with his eyes glued to the letter. Then he suddenly explodes, throwing his fist at the nearest hill. The damn thing simply evaporates and I am thrown off of my boulder by the resulting shockwave.

He starts screaming in mad rage while I crawl to safety behind the next big rock. If the maniac decides to cough my way I am dead! Maybe I should have inserted myself into the discussion when Doreen offered to take me with her. But then again, it seemed highly inopportune at the moment and it doesn't look like Ishaan wants to let me go like that.

Suddenly it seems like a blizzard broke loose and even my environmental protection spell starts failing. Small needles of ice get through and shower my face with small pricks. I curl up against the rock and try to wait it out. The ice titan has to be done with his tantrum at one point or the other.

It feels like hours pass, but finally the wind and the explosions subside. I hear heavy steps coming closer. Then something grabs the heavy furs I've used to make me some suitable clothes. There is nothing out here that's fluffier than a tundra wolf.

Ishaan pulls me out of the snow which gathered up on me, therefore breaking the nice little shelter which developed around me.

Then he shakes me to remove the snow. “Do you know a Aswang and a Manticore?”

“What!?” I shriek like a little girl.

“Do you know them!?” He screams.

“Once, I had friends by that name.” I call out.

He returns to the boulder, carrying me like a child. Well, I am a child, but it feels strange. His next action is even stranger.

He sits down on the boulder and places me on his lap. It's giving me the creeps, but when I look at the flattened landscape I feel no desire to become the target of his next rage attack. It's flat. He levelled the tundra as far as I can see! It is still snowing, so my sight is restricted by all the interferences in the air. But he must have taken out at least a few square kilometres.

After an hour of sitting there I can't take it any more. “You destroyed the shack.” It was a useless thing which gave almost no protection against the wind and the cold. But still our only protection against the elements.

Ishaan holds out the letter for me to see. “Read.”

Is he joking me? If he hadn't just proven to be a force of nature, no, a god, I would hit him. “The letter is just a sheet of paper to me. I can't see the letters.”

He sighs and places a hand above my eyes. There is a prickling sensation and unbelievable pain. I try to get away, but his other arm locks around me. After a few painful minutes he takes his hand away and I can see again. It's still blurry but I can see! I know better than to complain about Ishaan's decision. Then my eyes wander to the letter.

Dear Ishaan,

I know that I've hurt you and that I don't deserve your help. But when they caught me I was pregnant with our child. It's not Moonray's. They took him from me when he was born and put him with their slave soldiers. I tried for years to find him, but getting connections inside the facility is hard and I have to be very careful of my actions because of the slave collar. If they find out that their orders aren't shackling me completely I am done for.

I paid a high price to get one of the slave soldiers who are in his age category out of their facility right before they make their annual race. I hoped that such an insider could describe likely candidates to me.

His name is Shade and he is the most likely candidate. I was so happy when I learned that he might have survived. As luck would have it I got one of his friends, Manticore. They took her simply because the opportunity arose. My contacts made it look like she is dead and smuggled her out.

Then we tried to catch Shade during the race. He simply ignored my man who almost got a hold of him, but I guess that was only the sensible thing to do. My underground organisation got one of his other friends instead, Aswang.

Then we didn't get another opportunity to get him out until he and his remaining team member escaped on their own. They fled through the swamps.

Please, Ishaan. Try to find him. He is also your son. I hope this letter isn't delayed for too long.

Tisha

I take the sheet and turn it around to see if there is more. Something like 'Haha, this is a joke and you fell for it!'

I can't believe it. Aswang and Manti are alive? But Legna is dead. What if we had simply stayed put? Would Legna still be alive?

“Do I have to call you 'Dad' from now on?”

“No!”

.