Balance

Chapter 8

8

“No!” Eleanor and Death cried in unison.

“Yes!” Life returned. “Who else will go?”

Eleanor’s eyes were huge with fright. “Not me! Choose someone else, like—like Asher! Have you seen how big he is? He’d fend for himself just marvelously on his own.”

“We’ll bring you back to life,” the goddess was planning aloud, “give you whatever you need to find Jay and the cult, then let you destroy the book!”

“Oh, so it’s bad when Jay resurrects herself, but just fine when we do it?” The bald man was incredulous.

“Jay’s new life was unplanned. Eleanor’s would be planned, and therefore she’d have the blessing of gods on her side.”

 “Life, what if it doesn’t work? What if her soul is harvested by them? What if she screws up her new life like she did the last?”

Eleanor looked down and said nothing.

“It’s better than letting that cult of Seers run amuck again. We can’t tell any of the other Brothers or Sisters about this. They’d start defecting like Jay did. Eleanor is here, she knows what’s happening, and hasn’t let us down before. And if we give her a body, it’ll be easier for her to fight back against anyone who tries to harvest her soul, and she can interact with other humans to get the information we’ll need! We should give it a chance.”

“What if she’s no match for those Seers…” he began.

“And what if she is? You said it: we can’t leave our post in The Heavens. And we don’t know who is taking part in this new rebellion, so we can’t kill anyone from up here. Our best bet is to send Eleanor in our place. None of the other workers will find out, and life in The Heavens will remain as is.”  

“But will Eleanor even accept?”

“Yes,” Eleanor interjected, almost before Death had finished speaking. “I’ll do it.”

Life’s eyes softened, and that smile of motherly pride took form on her face. “Fantastic. Now, we’ll have to…” Life babbled on about preparation for the reincarnation.

Eleanor tuned out the two gods’ words after that. I’ll live again. The blatant fact rang through her mind over and over, until, with sharp force, the full effect of those words hit her. She would live again! She would walk, breathe, and feel again like she had those many years ago. If her only purpose for living was to quash the last vestiges of Life and Death’s past problems, then she would do so with passion. She would prove that she could be trusted with another life, and wouldn’t waste it. Eleanor was determined to not to end up just another name stamped on a soul-collectors notebook.

“Eleanor,” Life called the girl back to attention. “There is something we need you to do before we can reincarnate you.”

“Anything,” she answered truthfully.

The siblings exchanged a glance, before Death commanded, “Lead us to the Seer boy.”

…

It was late at night when Eleanor returned to Knotweed for the second time that day. The few leftover townsfolk shuffling about the street were somewhat wary of the tall, sharply dressed figures passing by, but were totally oblivious of the ghost that trailed behind them.

“We could show them our more godly forms.” Death reasoned to Life. “Shoot around bolts of energy. Scare them a bit. Make them ponder their existence. It’s good fun,” he shrugged.

“Not tonight. We’ve got too much to attend to. Besides,” with a forefinger and thumb, she rubbed the hem on her very short dress, “I want to look nice in this outfit, not scary.”