37: Passing Dead
Gallen got up and looked around. He told the three students, “Claire and Faryat, neither of you have the neutral perspective needed for the job I tried to place you with. However, Drenak’s idea of you working with groups has merits, so I may be able to do something for you there.
“You also lack the fighting ability needed to keep the souls safe. Again this can be worked around. However, it will take time to arrange things for this.
“I will have Drenak and Faryat do their other tests to see what they can manage. The fighting test is over.”
Faryat frowned. “That test was unfair! We were not expecting it.”
Gallen faced him directly. “And that is why it was fair. If you knew to expect it, then I would not have seen your abilities to respond to a surprise attack. I needed to see how you reacted to the unexpected. Real attackers rarely announce their coming and give you time to prepare!”
Refocusing. “I will give you a quick run through in finding souls and recruiting some. That will give me all I need to know of your abilities.”
Faryat frowned and led them to a large school. There were many dead souls there and Faryat frowned. “I sought dead scholars. Why are we here?”
Gallen went to a memorial and said “There was a gas leak here years ago. Most of the dead students died before they realized anything was wrong.”
Messages were sent via dreams and many would wake up emotional.
Many souls passed over. Not all did, but many. Others left with the group. They too were sealed away easily.
Then it was Drenak’s turn.
He asked Gallen “Since you know more than I what is going on, are there any groups you think I should focus on?”
Gallen smiled. “Well asked. Your fellow students sought groups they wanted, showing some biased, but you did not. You asking me allows you to get the best effect you can.”
He thought for a bit and said “I recommend a place with many deaths, but few faithful or religious people. Also there is the risk of necromancers and other forms of Undeath.
“I have it. A place with weakened dimensional barriers and many restless souls.”
He described things, and Drenak smiled. At Gallen’s recommendation, Drenak also brought the other two.
Soon he was heading into a wasteland of a destroyed civilization. Nuclear war was pretty bad. Going along there were entire dead cities, and Drenak whistled.
He called out his offer, and many souls came. Clair and Faryat also offered souls passage, and helped guide many.
They could only take so many, and had to make sure no Claimed passed through. Considering they were in a communist area, there were not many.
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They took thousands of souls! Over one hundred thousand passed through.”
Gallen nodded. “This is how to deal with things.”
Everyone was stunned, but Drenak quickly recovered. Eventually he said “If there are this many so easily gained, then things can get very bad very fast. All it would take is a very charismatic soul to get other souls willing to merge with them.”
Gallen nodded. “That is correct.”
Drenak frowned and said “We will need a way to sort all the souls, and not just the reincarnation method you mentioned.”
Gallen sighed “I know! We need to figure things out! It is possible to have entire worlds just be reincarnations. Maybe we can get souls willing to be subsumed by others. I don’t know what to do there!”
Drenak thought about things, and told him “I might have a solution. They have to enter the system and have a Deity they follow. What about a short lived and fast breeding race that serves an aspect of a Deity they are willing to follow?”
Gallen paused and contemplated it. “Interesting. We would have to let everyone make such races, but that is not a problem. It’s part of the course. We could offer it to the souls, and if we get people who can help with their minds, offer them that help as well. We would not even need to have to wait until worlds are made.”
Gallen looked calculating at Drenak and told him, “You have a lot more potential than just being a psycho pomp, but an actual God of the Dead.”
Drenak frowned and told him “Nah. Too much politics for my liking. It’s getting late, so let’s go back for dinner.”
And so it was done.
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After dinner Gallen met with Felinia and relayed the ideas to her.
He added “Drenak is the kind of person we need as a God of the Dead. The fact he doesn’t want the job only speaks in his favor. He has the training and instinct for it. Heck, I would say that in a way he was actually born for this job, considering his family history!
“The only problem is his reluctance. If we could place him in charge of Unclaimed, then we could really get somewhere. Sadly, the only place to actually get him a following for this is outside of this multiverse we are making.”
Felinia thought about it. “So basically, we need to have him become a Deity that focuses on other realities and mainly gets followers from there, while at the same time avoiding politics caused by interfering with politics there, using a guy who detests all the constraints of politics this position may entail?”
Gallen nodded. “Yeah. This is not going to be easy. However, it can be done. I even know a way it can help us get therapists for the dead.”
“How?”
“Have him recruit some as followers. They focus on helping people find mental peace and resolving issues. Such issues may be what keeps them from being able to pass over.”
Felinia was very interested. “But how can we actually get them to start with?”
“Deities on the dead often have Undeath as a possible sub-domain, including necromancers. People with low level necromanical gifts sometimes get locked up as insane. Seeing people who are not there, hearing voices no-one else can hear, partial or even complete possesses, extreme and sudden mood swings caused by auras. That kind of stuff. If we tried to recruit some, openly, they would go to him. He would of course explain things to the staff.”
Felinia smiled. “Nicely planned. Anything else?”
“Yeah. If he dropped a hint about psychics also often being locked up as well due to lack of training, it could make things interesting. Basic training for necromancers and psychics to create mental shields are similar.”
Felinia continued it “Any Psychics may manage Astral Projection easier than others, reinforcing his claim over souls if they turn to him as followers.”
Gallen thought a bit. “We will need to cover Aspects before we do that, so the people honor different parts of them, and not consider having to go for the whole lot.”
Felinia thought for a moment. “Maybe if he was to visit a hospice or palliative care ward, it could help?”
Gallen agreed “Maybe. However, this is all up to him. As his instructor in this job, I can only guide him so much.” Winking he added “After all, we don’t want to be accused of manipulating his choices and using him as a cat’s-paw do we?”
Felinia smiled back. “Of course we don’t. Such horrible accusations. This school should be seen to be above such things.”
Looking at each other they burst out laughing.
Even part of the shadows seemed to be laughing at this.