| |
Thea’s haunting scream was unlike anything I’d heard before. It was so raw, so powerful, so charged with emotions I didn’t know the words for, but I could feel them. There was something grey, like deep sadness or sorrow. A heavy pressure that weighed on my stomach, something that wasn’t easy to shake. Grief? Perhaps that was what it felt like to lose a loved one.
There were so many feelings that I felt through her as she summoned the Veil in a manner completely different from Valkyries. We used our wings to carry us on the coattails of life returning to death, shifting into the Veil by passing through a fissure. That was what most Afterlife Assistants were taught.
This was different. She wasn’t slipping through a crack, she was calling death here. Her voice, it held a power I could never have imagined before. It was the call of death and with it, it brought exactly that. Death.
I shielded myself, worrying about me and Thea at the same time. The dark smoke grew and grew, until it completely engulfed her and Bàs. The two figures lingered in the earthly world for just a moment, before the black cloud exploded and they were gone.
The tension in the room broke and my breath returned to me. I hadn’t even noticed it had been stolen. The sounds of the world were overwhelming after that intense silence. The rhythmic ticking of the clock behind me, the noises of a dormitory, even the shrieking of the wooden floor. All those noises, they all were signs of one thing. Life.
I didn’t know how long I sat on Thea’s couch, trying to make sense of everything. I’d been exposed to death and the Veil for as long as I could remember. The women in my family had been Valkyries for as long as Valkyries existed. Even the Veil wasn’t a stranger to me, I’d been there. I’d travelled through it.
And yet, I’d never experienced it like that. I didn’t know if I wanted to ever again. If I had to feel those deep, powerful emotions every time I brought a soul across, I didn’t think I’d be able to do the job.
To carry the weight of human life...
It was just too painful.
I waited until that same depressing feeling corrupted my heart and even without turning around, I knew Thea was back from the Veil. Her footsteps and her catzel’s nails clacked on the floor as she returned to the seating area and took place next to me.
Her face still lacked expression, but the emotion had returned to her eyes. She looked at me and some more colour rosied her cheeks. She signed, stiffer than usual. “You OK?”
I nodded. “Hmm.”
“Questions?”
“Loads.”
I stared at her, watching the life return to her features. It took another moment before the weight of the soul fell from her shoulders and she seemed, more or less, herself again. Sometimes it was hard to remember that all our teachers were qualified Afterlife Assistant too, but I would never forget after this. They had a duty that went beyond teaching.
“Can I make you some tea?” I proposed, hoping I wasn’t crossing the line. I didn’t want to intrude in her space, but she looked like she could use a good cup.
She nodded. “Please.”
“Alright. Tea coming up...”
I was hesitant to leave her, but I couldn’t make tea and be here at the same time. Besides, she was an adult. She’d be fine, right?
With a last look, I left for the kitchen, only to arrive there and realise I’d never made tea in my life. I barely knew how to make my own coffee.
Great...
I checked all the cupboards and rattled some containers and cans, until I realised the box of teabags was sat next to the kettle.
“Duh,” I mumbled to myself. I didn’t know how her coffee machine worked, so I just prepared a cup of tea for Thea. That would do.
With shaky hands, I carried the steaming cup of tea back into the living area, only to find her fast asleep on the couch. Bàs was lying protectively on the floor next to her, one eye opening as he heard me coming.
As quietly as I could, I placed the tea on the coffee table and grabbed one of the blankets lying around. It seemed like a strangely intimate thing to tuck my teacher in, but I didn’t want her to get cold.
Carefully, I draped the blanket over her, trying not to wake her. She stirred, but she didn’t wake.
Good.
I quickly scribbled a goodbye note, waved at Bàs, and snuck out of Thea’s flat while making sure I pulled the door firmly shut. Bringing souls to the Veil was exhausting, everyone knew that. Surely, it was no different for Banshees.
Quietly, I slipped through the halls of the Triad dormitory, unseen and unnoticed. Even if someone saw me, they wouldn’t care. They just kept to themselves and that suited me just fine. I didn’t want to be seen here, at least, not yet.
I just hoped Thea would be alright. Should I return later to check up on her or was that a weird thing to do? I wasn’t sure, but it sounded like a good idea.