Rogue Adventures - A Tale from Neverbeen Universe

33

After they had emptied their well earned coffee pot Azrael returned to his own office so Thanatos could get changed into another suit which was not soaked through with blood from a wound, which had already closed and progressed to heal. Azrael assumed the injury had happened while he had been out cold.

In retrospect it had been two very eventful days, even for a Reaper, and certainly Azrael lacked some sleep. Yet a new workday had just begun and there was so much paperwork left to do. The delicious coffee had energized Azrael and motivated him. He sat behind his desk and opened the first folder, skimmed over what he last wrote to assess how to proceed with the soul.

In her last incarnation this soul had been a mermaid, but she had been dead for about a year now and Azrael had collected her soul at the very beginning of his career as a Reaper. Back then he had decided to have her wait in Heaven for another year before he would revisit her case and employ her for reincarnation. Azrael nodded, stood and went to fetch that soul.

On his way to Heaven he thought about the case of Raphael Raven. What had begun as a relatively small case of an escaped undead had quickly blown out of control as he posed a threat to all of Neverbeen Universe. As Phobos had put it, Raphael, "would rot in Hell until you forgot where you put the fucking key." Azrael bristled at the choice of words, but this summed it up very well. He would stay imprisoned for a very long time, sealed away from the world and kept under close observation.

Raphael would remain in Thanatos's care, even though Azrael and he had worked together on that case. Still it was a case which kept Azrael busy, which he worried about. He didn't know what would happen to the area of the fight as whole parts of it had been more than destroyed. These holes Raphael had torn looked quite frightening. Azrael could see their true nature and it was nothing he had seen before. He assumed this area was gone for good as its landscape was pretty much torn from this world and replaced by nothingness. And this nothingness corresponded with the aura Raphael and Kaye had emitted. Azrael had never seen such vile power.

Apropos of Kaye, Azrael wondered where she might have gone. He felt it was his responsibility to make sure she didn't wreck any more havoc. She had been a formidable opponent, even though she seemed reluctant to attack; her magic was a force to be reckoned with. Maybe Azrael should go search for her after having done his paperwork, and maybe he could ask Thanatos to come along. He would like that, and he would like to work together more. Thanatos was always such a reliable and pleasant company.

Besides, Azrael wanted to ask his colleague about the experiment and what everything had to do with Raphael. There seemed to be more to it.

In the meantime he found the soul of that former mermaid, collected it and brought it back to the Reapers' Bureau, where he checked it again for damages, cleaned and cleansed it from its previous life then deployed it for reincarnation. Finally Azrael filled in the correct forms and filed everything in the folder, before he opened the next file.

For a couple of hours he worked without a break, then the inevitable tiredness overcame him. He yawned. Even Reapers needed sleep. So Azrael decided a short nap would matter little, lay down on his guest sofa and closed his eyes. When he awoke again he realized he had slept for three hours straight. 'So much for a short nap,' he thought and sighed, straightened his suit and stood.

Before he continued his work he decided he needed a coffee. So Azrael left his office and went to get one. On a whim he bought a second one and made a detour to Thanatos's office. His colleague was still working, of course.

"How very thoughtful of you," Thanatos thanked him for the coffee and offered him the seat in front of his desk. Azrael sat and sipped on his coffee. "What brings you here, Azrael-san?"

Azrael thought for a moment. Why did he come here? He took another sip to stall for time. Then he remembered his question. "I wanted to ask you about that experiment Lord Raven mentioned." It seemed almost as if Thanatos cringed. But he still maintained his composure and sipped on his coffee.

"This experiment," he finally began, "is a request from the Lord of Time. He needed to seal a powerful enemy. It was necessary to breed and maintain a soul capable of containing such power, so I was involved in this experiment. The result of this experiment is Raphael, a breed between a Daemon and a Dhia, and he became the vessel for the power which needed the sealing."

Azrael nodded. It made sense now. "And Raphael had unsealed this power to use it to destroy?" he concluded.

"Unfortunately, yes," Thanatos affirmed. "Which is why he will stay detained beneath Lucifer-dono's castle." They both drank some more coffee. Azrael pondered. This experiment explained why Thanatos had chosen to let Raphael keep his body and memories, it explained why he had taken extra care of the Daemon's soul and why he didn't deploy him for reincarnation. To breed a soul... it was quite unusual, but not exactly forbidden either. He didn't know Thanatos had such a secret. But he was glad the older Reaper confided in him.