Death and the Emperor

Bonus Chapter: Starless Night

Author's Note: When I first had the idea for D+E, it was basically a gender-flipped version of Hades and Persephone, but when I began to plan it, the plot (obviously) turned out pretty different. This side-story was supposed to be "what if it had been more similar to Hades and Persephone?" But it went off in yet another unexpected direction. *shrugs*

When Winter comes, the winter wild that hill and wood shall slay;
When trees shall fall and starless night devour the sunless day;
When wind is in the deadly East, then in the bitter rain
I'll look for thee, and call to thee; I'll come to thee again!
– J. R. R. Tolkien, The Ent and the Entwife

There is a rumour in the Carann Empire. It lies in the hazy mist between legend and fact, never quite proved but far from disproved. Everyone knows that the Caranilnav family have always been far too interested in Death. But one of them, says the rumour, went far beyond being interested in Death. He fell in love with her, and in return she gave him immortality. All he had to do was spend three months each year in her realm.

Is the rumour true?

Some people have asked Kilan. It's no use. He never answers.

~~~~

If you asked Varan when it began, she'd say it began when she died trying to save her stupid little brother, and "don't make that face, Kilan. You were incredibly stupid and you know it."

If you asked Kilan when it began, and if you managed to get an answer out of him, he'd say it began when he made a deal with Death, and "what was I supposed to do? My sister was dead."

If you asked Death when it began, she would say it was all Fate's fault – "but those damned Reapers helped."

~~~~

It actually began when Kilan gave Death ten years of his life. He signed their contract in his own blood, and Varan came back to life.

And that was that.

Until Fate got involved.

Fate, in Death's opinion, was like a meddling relative. The sort of meddling relative who insisted on giving everyone exactly what She thought they needed without reference to what they actually wanted. And She always made other people Her unwitting pawns.

Who would have thought that a group of Reapers' attempts at baking could have caused so much trouble?

~~~~

Kilan liked wandering around the Land of the Dead. It was full of so many strange and impossible things, and nothing was ever the same twice. Once he had found a group of skeletons playing croquet with each others' skulls. Another time he had found talking cats playing chess under an acid waterfall. After those events, he was sure nothing could ever startle him again.

Walking into Death's castle to find a group of her servants covered in flour, however, was quite startling.

Kilan stopped in the doorway, staring. Death had disappeared after bringing him to her realm tonight, muttering something about an exploding spaceship and incompetent Reapers. She had said nothing about letting some of those Reapers turn her castle into a bakery. And so, putting two and two together, he suspected this was happening without her knowledge. They'd taken a previously empty room and brought baking supplies into it. Where had they found baking supplies in the Land of the Dead?

One of the Reapers spotted him before he could decide what to do.

"Look!" this Reaper shouted. Kilan thought they might be male, but it was hard to tell when they had green skin and an unnaturally long neck[1]. "It's the living boy!"