My soul hurtled through the sky at an impossible speed, the earth disappearing below me into a blur of green and blue, blotted by white puffs and streaks of cloud. Soon, I was drifting far above the earth, in the Sea of Souls, following the perfectly straight beam of light that pointed like a compass needle from Grave Oath’s tip toward another soul.
This one was in the outline of an older man with rolls and rolls of flesh, wearing nothing but his underwear. Was this Millicent’s husband? Had I actually managed to reach him?
Well, it looked like I might not need to imitate his voice. If I just figured out how to bring him to his wife, she could speak with him.
As I drifted through time and space toward Millicent’s husband’s soul, I sensed that there were weakened souls drifting into the Sea of Souls. They were those of the people I’d killed, I realized.
This was interesting. It seemed that when I used the souls to gain more powers, they weren’t actually destroyed. Instead, they were somehow filtered through the huge gray tree, and then they floated on up into the Sea of Souls, like smoke from a burning fire. It made sense; something like a soul couldn’t actually be permanently destroyed.
I didn’t know how my using them for energy and thus weakening them would affect what would become of them in the Sea of Souls though.
I mean, I hardly knew anything about what the Sea of Souls was in the first place, or what happened to all of these billions of souls floating like shreds of fog up here. I still had a lot to learn about this whole thing.
As tempting as it was to simply drift around here and get lost in the mysteries of this bizarre place, I had to get on with the task at hand. I followed the string of light to Millicent’s husband’s soul. His soul—which looked just as he had looked as a mortal man, chubby, balding, and graying—was faded, almost transparent, and I got the sense that he was almost ready to move on to the next plane, wherever that was.
“Not yet, buddy, not yet,” I said, grabbing his ghostly form by one of his plump, hairy wrists.
He looked at me in shock; he had no idea who I was, of course, and didn’t seem to understand how I could touch him as if he was back in his physical body. Hell, I didn’t understand that bit either, but I wasn’t about to try to melt my brain thinking about it. I focused my thoughts on being back in my physical body in Millicent’s room and closed my eyes, still gripping her husband’s wrist tightly. Once more, I felt a tremendous sensation of acceleration and speed, and then, in the blink of an eye, I was slammed back into my body.
As soon as I opened my eyes, I understood that Millicent’s husband was here with us—I could feel his presence—but I couldn’t see him anywhere.
“What the hell just happened?” a gruff, unfamiliar voice abruptly barked, startling both myself and Millicent.
“Erdon?” Millicent asked hesitantly. “Where are you, my dear? It’s been so long since I last heard your voice!”
“Don’t ‘my dear’ me, you cheating whore!”
I looked down and saw the skull’s jaw moving. Ha! The old guy’s spirit was in the skull. So, this was the full extent of what I could do with my ability. It wasn’t just for seeing the moment of someone’s death, but it could also be used to bring them back, to speak with them.
I knew the dead-husband’s soul wouldn’t stay there for too long though. Every time he spoke, his voice sounded softer and more distant, and I could feel that the thread Grave Oath was using to reel his soul in like a fisherman’s line, tenuous in its hold.
“What?” Millicent gasped. “We haven’t spoken in years, and that’s the first thing you say to me?”
“I’ve seen how many guys you’ve fucked since I kicked the bucket! Shit, if every one of those chumps who stuck their prick in you got together, they could form an army capable of taking over the whole of Prand! What did you expect, a pat on the back and a handshake? And who the hell is this asshole who yanked me out of my peaceful slumber to come back to this shithole?”
I snickered, only barely managing to stifle a laughing fit. I was damn sure that this hadn’t been what Millicent had in mind when it came to talking to her dead husband.
“Ugh, you’re such a bastard!” she yelled. “You’re just as much of an asshole in the afterlife as you were when you were alive. I’m glad you’re dead, and I’m glad you died on the crapper with your pants around your ankles. The privy was the most fitting place you could ever have died in!”
“Yeah, and I bet you fucked the cleaner right after he finished scrubbing my shit outta the privy, right? Before my body was even cold, I bet!”
“Yeah, I did! I screwed the cleaner while they were carrying your corpse down the stairs!”
I couldn’t hold it in any longer. I let out a bellow of raucous laughter. Both of them were so into their argument, however, that they neither noticed nor cared that I was laughing.
“I know! I saw it while my soul was floating around the room!” the skull roared. “I just wanted to see if you’d admit to it! Ugh, you know why I had my saber with me when I keeled over? Because I was going to run you through with it after I finished shitting! I just wish I’d been able to do that before my stupid heart gave out!”
“I was going to ask for your forgiveness, you bastard,” Millicent shrieked, “but now, all I want to do is tell
