Unspooling the threads

Of feathered wings

Something changes, something doesn't.

It takes two weeks, according to his feathery co-workers, for something to happen that allows Leo to prove himself worthy; in the meantime, he gets himself accustomed to his new... family. The youngest of the murder, a small bird he named Code when she was the fastest to pick up on his Morse lines, and who keeps the name despite the whole murder now communicating through the code, has taken to following Leo around like a shadow; when she isn't guiding Leo through the Underworld.

It's in one of those days, where Code flies overhead and crows at Leo to follow in a too happy tone, and Leo hurries after with a grin on his lips; that is until he sees them. Code spots them a little later landing on a spire as she joins Leo in watching them, living who have traveled in search for something; Leo lifts the triangle into his left eye and confirms what he'd suspected, souls marked by prophecy.

He extends his arm and whistles once, Code dives towards him and sets herself in the offered perch, and then they're swallowed by the shadows. He's already kneeling by the time the shadows settle him on his destination, and the Underworld king calls his title with an interested tone.

"Three living my lord, wrapped in my ladies' string"

The god hums.

"Lift you head Koráki"

Leo does and finally gets a good look at his ruler, because for all intents and purposes he counts as an Underworlder, and has an odd sort of reaction to him; something soft and fragile shapes in his chest, as it whispers 'not quite'. The god looks at him evenly, and then waves the long list in his hands away.

"Which souls are visiting?"

Leo swallows, unsure if his king knows of the slight that's been done; but he's dutiful if nothing else.

"Two demigods and a satyr, one is a child of the strategist, the other is a child of the sea"

The god smiles, and Leo feels pride ripple inside him because he's clearly pleased.

"Stay hidden as they talk with me, you may just earn your first assignment"

Leo bows his head back down in what he knows will be read as gratitude, hiding the beaming grin that's shaped on his lips; Code, who's a smart bird, settles on the back of his neck, and the shadows swallow him once more.

His title is called again, after a sharp back and forth between his king and the sea's spawn, he doesn't pry even as he heard it clearly, only steps out of the shadows as he's called, Code perched on his right shoulder. He takes a moment to look at the three beings in front of him, trying to connect their features to what he knows of their souls; they're older than him, and look unsettled by either the castle, or the whole Underworld, Leo can't pin point which.

Blue eyes stare at him warily, which is fair, he's taken to wearing a cloak to look a little less human, the dark cloth glimmers purple under the right light; having nothing the color of his own soul, he'd picked one the color of the one that often danced with it. It's the one soul he can't read, despite all his training and effort, because of how heavily protected it is; but Leo knows he's meant to meet them, just like he'd known about meeting the three in front of him now.

He bows towards his king again, not kneeling fully as he's not supposed to do so in front of humans.

"My lord?"

Hades, and Leo is overly careful not to let the names slip out of his mind, but allows himself to think them because forgetting them all together would be worse; Hades gives an icy look to the sea child, before looking back to Leo.

"I have a task for you"

It was an easy enough request, returning a soul to the world of the living, particularly one that wasn't meant to be dead. That doesn't make returning Sally Jackson to that man, whose soul had made Leo feel nauseous, any easier; but he took particular glee on just how short his string was getting.

He wished her good fortune, pressing three fingers to the triangle hanging proudly from his neck, and sneaked away before calling Code and letting her take him back to the Underworld, back home.