It was several weeks before Tva and Noctua arrived. They had made a small celebration for Hija, bringing in his small shrine with his prayer candles and incense, his urn with a picture of his grinning face embossed in a small oval portrait on its surface. Mejias had invited all of his old friends, from back before they had even gone to school. Many, Iseult suspected, had come simply since it was Mejias who had asked. As a result it was a huge party, spilling out into the street outside their home, many of their neighbors, whom they had invited as well, opening their own homes to accommodate the attendees. It was at the height of the party, after the sun had just set, that Tva and Noctua appeared, having traveled by foot from the city limits. The party paused around them, parting for the giant, six footed blue wolf, the tall human man at his side. Noctua looked as if all this human hubbub was beneath him, but Tva was looking around at the surrounding party, engrossed.
Orikka was playing a blindfold game with some local children, so it was Mejias, directed by the invisible Iseult that greeted them. ‘Welcome to Sonsoliel,’ she said, a tad lackluster, approaching them, bridging the sizable gap between them and the other party-goers. ‘Tva and Noctua, right?’ she asked, as if Iseult wasn’t whispering in her ear. Noctua didn’t seem impressed with this rather casual greeting, but Tva put a foot forward, bowing slightly, in greeting. ‘I have heard that you are the gatekeeper? The one who guards the gate of souls?’ he said, his low voice mournful and lovely. Iseult was surprised she could understand him, but she supposed he had learned the language of humans rather than speaking for only the gods. She appreciated the gesture, he seemed very much to be Noctua’s better half. Mejias affirmed, introducing the two gods briefly to the party before setting off herself to rejoin some of her old school friends. They had been trying to talk her into accepting more acolytes, and Iseult thought they might be succeeding. She rather hoped they did, Mejias needed more people in her life than an invisible soul and a mostly absent galaxy god.
After some adjustment, the party resumed, Tva readily joined in a complicated variation of a hopscotch game with a collection of drunken, awed people, whereas Noctua seemed slighted when Mejias didn’t elect to accompany him. He stood awkwardly watching Tva while sipping a Sonsoliel brew, grumpy faced.
The party lasted long into the night, which turned out to not be terribly long, but was in fact, a few hours shorter than usual. Dawn arrived too soon, many people heading home with the night, yawning in the yellowing light of the waking city. ‘We can clean later,’ Orikka insisted, dragging the usually non-cleanliness-oriented Mejias out of the house in order to guide their guests to the gate. While neutral towards Tva, Mejias had not been impressed with Noctua, and was resistant to anything that involved being around the snippy god, who was similarly unimpressed with her.
They trekked over to the gate, seeing some yawning merchants open their shops along the route. Orikka seemed content to lead the way quietly, leaving Mejias and Noctua to ignore the others presence. Mejias did her best not to laugh at Iseult’s sarcastic commentary about the moon god, which Iseult kept up, knowing that a happy Mejias was a Mejias not trying to kill another god, something she had demonstrated that she had no inhibitions towards. And Iseult wasn’t sure that taking on such an old god as Noctua would leave Mejias unscathed, though if there was any god that would merit such a response, Noctua would be high on her list. He was the embodiment of everything Mejias despised about gods. His only redeeming quality was his affection for the wolf god, and Mejias’ feelings toward the wolf god were decidedly indifferent. She seemed to have become a bit softer towards gods since Isene, having realized that not all of them wished to become gods, nor took out their displeasures on their followers. But it was still a long shot from liking them.
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Entering the gate square they gathered at the side of the gate opposite of the palace, the long stairs of cherry blossoms stretching before them. ‘Are you sure,’ murmured Noctua to Tva. The wolf took a deep breath, nodding. ‘I need release, I cannot live my life burdened by the weight of my failures. If it is my followers and my acolytes souls’ that I am holding in my heart, I wish to release them from the prison that is my body. They deserve to be free,’ he said, his voice low and lilting. He walked through the gate with resolve, the souls sizzling off his fur, like static, similar to how they had with Yba. Iseult fancied she could see a rabbit in the midst. He emerged on the other side, an expression of reprieve on his face. Noctua released some of the strain from his body, presumably worried that Tva would choose to completely dissolve. But the wolf god remained among the living, though clearly his soul was much lighter than it had been before. ‘Thank you.’ He sighed, his voice thick and gravely with emotion. Noctua nodded to them, ‘when you need to find the next eversleeper, I will lead you. Until then.’
‘Do you think that goes could actually be important for reincarnation?’ Iseult asked, laying on her back in Mejias’ room, as her little sister flipped through a magazine. It must be weird reading a puff piece about herself, Iseult thought, looking over at the red handed punk clearly made up to look like Mejias on the cover. ‘What do you mean?’ Mejias replied, not even looking up, flipping a glossy page. ‘I was watching as the gods dispersed, and it occurred to me that having all those souls mixed in together could maybe be a good thing, that maybe it helps them to recombine into new souls for reincarnation.’ Mejias looked up, an eyebrow raised, ‘is this some sort of ploy to make me change my mind about gods?’
Iseult propped herself up on an elbow, looking flatly at her sister, ‘I’m being serious,’ she whined, mildly annoyed. Mejias folded her magazine closed, tossing it to the side and leaning back on the pile of blankets she had stacked up behind her to sit against, along with a strategically placed pillow to keep the whole thing from flopping over. ‘I suppose,’ she replied, drawing out the word. ‘I mean, I didn’t see a lot of distinction between the souls that were leaving, they were sort of all mixed up together. So, it could be. Are you thinking of looking into it?’
Iseult paused, thinking it over. ‘I’ve been thinking over a lot of things, in the past couple days,’ she held up a flat palm in a halting movement, ‘I want to start out by saying I haven’t made up my mind, so don’t freak out.’ Her hand went down to twist with her other in her lap as she continued, ‘I’ve had this task, for the entirety of my afterlife, this problem to fixate on, to purify the godsouls and prevent the entire universe from being ripped apart. But now that’s been mostly resolved, I’m not really necessary for it anymore. And I did learn a lot about myself over that time. Like, I’m not sure I’m totally a good person, I’m selfish and short sighted, and worst of all I was willing to sacrifice you, although that changed once I knew you and cared about you. Which I don’t regret, but does make me feel like a hypocrite. But now that chapter of my life is over. So,’ she paused, looking up from her hands, ‘I’ve been thinking a bit about diffusing, as in like me diffusing.’
Mejias sat up, looking horrified, ‘but,’ Iseult emphasized, trying to finish her thought before Mejias managed to interrupt, ‘I think if I don’t want to I need a task, like something to keep me here. And I love you, but I don’t want that to be you, because I don’t want you to feel like just a task to me. You aren’t,’ she leaned forward, intent on emphasizing her sincerity, ‘you’re my sister and you’re the most important person in my life since Mnomo. But without something to do, something that I’ve to commit myself to, I don’t think I can stay. I think I’ll just fade away, without even having to go through the gate and dispersing. I’m not talking figuratively,’ she gestured to herself, to her ghost-faded body, ‘I’ve physically felt myself getting fainter. So, I need a task, an anchor, something to keep me attached to the land of the living. And after thinking about it, I really think this is a worthwhile research question. Why are there gods, what purpose do they serve? Because I don’t think it’s just a random thing. I think that perhaps they are helping the soul ecosystem in recombining new souls.’
Mejias looked at her, words seeming to escape her momentarily as she took in the breadth of this new proposal. ‘I’m sorry I didn’t notice you were dispersing, I should have been paying more attention,’ she said in a small anxious voice, ‘and if you really think that’s true,’ her voice gained some strength again, ‘I’d be happy to look into it with you,’ Mejias smiled, lamb eyes crinkling. She had such a beautiful smile, Iseult thought. And maybe this was a good enough task to let her stick around in order to keep seeing it.
End