"Please, come in and sit down. I understand there are a lot of stairs on the way here. You must be tired." Who I'd confirmed was definitely Aster, moved away from the entryway a little and swept his long arms towards the other side of the room, where weirdly enough there was a collection of pillows and bean bag chairs. This room is lit up quite well, there were candles along the walls and two on a desk behind me, and a five-foot tall one pushed in the back corner. That one was dark red and had long, thick dribbles of wax running down it and onto the stone beneath. From the thick layer of wax already on the floor below, it was clear to me that candle had been replaced many times.
I hesitated for a moment before crossing the room and settling on a beanbag, flopping in and sitting awkwardly in the sinking bag as the two Reapers stared at me. "So." I said after a moment. "What happens now?"
"Have you thought of a name yet?" York asked, finally jumping down from Aster's shoulder. He skipped over and jumped on some pillows beside me. I shrugged.
"I was more focused on having my elbows replaced, to be honest with you." Aster laughed, and my gaze flicked back to him. He was watching me, his eyes flicking all over the place. "How does that work?" I asked him, focusing on getting answers now. I had a lot of questions, and this had to be the guy to ask.
"I will explain it all to you, if you like." He held his arms out, and I nodded. I would love to have everything explained to me. He nodded in return and grabbed an armchair that had been pushed against the wall. "First off, let me explain even the basics." I leaned forward eagerly. "This planet is not the only one in existence, not by a long shot. There are literally thousands of other universes, each with their own collection of life and souls." Okay, not that shocking so far. I had always thought the people I had met who believed we were alone in this universe were naive. There's just no way there can be so much more out there and be absolutely nothing in it. I hadn't really thought about their being thousands of other entire universes, I guess, but it honestly wasn't all that hard to accept.
Despite taking all this new information in easily, I was definitely starting to feel like I knew nothing about anything after all. "Who created it all?" I glanced down at York, who was lying flat on his back and staring up at the ceiling.
"We have no clue." York said with a grin. I rolled my eyes and looked back to Aster.
He shrugged his thin shoulders sadly. "I do not have the answer to that question, unfortunately. I have no idea who created this system or brought the first of us into existence."
"Were you the first on this planet?" I asked.
He shook his head. "No, I may be the letter A, but I am just a replacement of the last one."
"A replacement?"
"Yes. This is important, so remember this." He leaned forward a little like he was about to tell me a secret. "You can be done, whenever you want. Whenever you are tired of reaping souls, of forever staying the same with no real connections, you are free to quit. Just say so. Your soul will be reaped by one of your remaining brethren and given to another vessel to be returned to the circle of life. You are by no means bound to this existence for the rest of time, know that." I nodded a little at him, showing I understood what he was telling me. I was glad to know it, too. It made this whole thing I was doing a little less terrifying. At least I would always have a way out.
"You've been doing this for a while, right?" I asked, absentmindedly smacking York's foot off me when he tried to prop it up on my knee.
Aster nodded. "Almost three thousand years now." My eyes almost popped out of my head. I can't imagine existing for that long... How many souls must he have guided in that time? "I honestly can't remember my time as a human anymore. I can't remember who I once was or if I loved anyone. I can barely remember the Reaper who brought me in anymore." He looked a little sad when he said this. His black and red eyes trail off to the ground, where they lingered for a moment.
I guess you would forget a lot over three thousand years, wouldn't you?
Would I make it that long? Did I want to make it that long?
"How old is the next oldest?" I asked, sitting up a little and refocusing on getting my answers while I could.
Aster thought for a moment. "I think it would be Finnegan, right?"
"Yup, he just passed the fifteen hundred mark." York chirpped from behind me.
"I see. Okay, tell me about the Guardians. Who are they?"
"Ah. The Guardians are what the humans of this world would consider to be an angel. While we are sent after souls with the one purpose of guiding them to their next life, Guardians are sent after souls that can be saved from death. I've been told they get a feeling that guides them across this world to a human who is not only close to death, but whose fate has the potential to split either way."
"So, they don't go to other worlds, but we do?" I thought about York saying souls never go to a vessel from the same world twice in a row.
"Correct. In their defense, there's only ever five of them at one time. And currently there's only three, I think. It's why it's such a miracle to be saved from death, I'd say. They are very busy and often can't save souls. Their jobs are time sensitive, while ours can stretch on for as long as we need."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Well. We don't always have enough Reapers to get to each soul the second it's ready to be moved to a new vessel, so sometimes they do linger, and it's not usually a problem. We deal with them in the order they come in, and each will eventually be reaped. It's where spirits come from, in fact. If a human is about to be killed, then that's that. There's no waiting around or getting to it in a minute. It's either be there to save them, or the job becomes ours. Not to mention, sometimes humans aren't ready to let go. Just because you had a very straight forward view of death in your lifetime, doesn't mean everyone else does. People from every world fear death and what comes after. Some of us are bothered by their fear and try to persuade them to come willingly into their next lives. We take our time and use what we know about the soul in front of us to try and convince them. Others..." Aster glanced down at York, who is grinning evilly from ear to ear.
"Some of us don't have time for whiny brats. I have a job to do, and that job doesn't involve making people feel better about experiencing something that happens to us all."
"Rich words coming from a man who can't die." I snapped, glaring down at him. What if I hadn't saved that girl, and she had been the one to get hit, and this little shit was the Reaper who came for her soul? Would he have dragged her off to her next vessel with no time for explanation or processing? He wasn't awful to me, but he had wanted something from me.
I knew one thing for sure.
I would not be like York.