I never thought it was so boring to just wait around in a queue. It’s nearly been an hour since I got into the queue at the dock.

“Next up!” I hear the ticket attendant say while beckoning for me to come forward.

“Good afternoon Miss, may I please see your ticket?” said the attendant at the dock.

“A good afternoon to you too. Here’s my ticket sir,” I say while responding in kind to his politeness, as I hand him my ticket.

“Thank you, Miss. Here’s your room key. Feel free to take a seat over there with the rest of the passengers while you wait to board.” The ticket attendant says while beckoning the next person in the queue to come up.

These past few days felt much longer than they should have. No thanks to the fear of someone from my family finding me. But now I no longer need to fear them.

Although I’m a bit worried about Minna and Hilde, I can’t turn back now. Especially not after spending a massive sum of money to get a ticket for a luxury liner.

I’ve heard that this ship is top of the line, with many activities to keep its guests busy. Perhaps I’ll go exploring once I’m on the ship.

*Ding* I hear a bell ringing and as soon as it finishes the cruise ship starts allowing its passengers on.

As we all begin boarding I take a look around and find that many of the people here seem to be wealthy nobles with too much free time or travelling merchants that are well-off. Surprisingly despite us being in a Dutch port many of the passengers here don’t seem to be natives, not that I’m one to talk.

As I hop off the gangplank and step foot onto the ship I’m met with the exquisite sight of beautiful pieces of art decorating the halls. Something about this is somewhat unsettling… oh, that’s why it reminds me too much of home. As nice as the paintings are, I don’t really want to spend too much time around them.

Guess I should check the itinerary I was given the other day when buying my ticket. According to this, a buffet will be held about right before departure at 1700 hours… so in about 30 minutes. Not really enough time to explore the whole ship, so I might as well head over to the outdoor pool where the buffet will be.

As I arrive at the main deck where the pool is located I find out that there are far more people here than I originally thought. Tables are lined up with a plethora of food, alongside the many waiters walking around serving drinks. Some of the nobles and merchants have already started drinking at the bar. Children are splashing around in the pool enjoying their time. This is quite the lively place, time to follow suit and enjoy the food as well.

“Giving away free swimsuits to all the guests, free food, free wine, and beer. It’s no wonder that the ticket cost so much. And it was completely worth it too!” I say as I begin to gorge down the delicious food.

“Hahaha, glad to see you’re enjoying yourself lass.” A loud voice says from behind me.

I turn to see an old man, with a large muscular body befitting of his loud voice. From his clothes, he seems to be a part of the crew.

Turning myself around to face him, I say, “if I had to guess, you’re the Captain of this ship aren’t you.”

“A smart one, ain’t ya. I’m Captain Bram, the Captain of this here ship, the Concordia. A pleasure to be meetin’ ya, Miss Augustine.”

“… I don’t recall ever giving away my family name to anyone here.” I say curtly.

“No need to worry lass. I ain’t about to hand ya over to your parents, so feel free to enjoy ya time here. Oh, and ya don’t need to worry I’m the only one who knows your here so you can let go of that dagger ya holdin’.” Says the Captain as he walks away to greet the other guests.

He even knew I had a weapon on me. Not sure if I should feel safe that someone as capable as the Captain is here or if I should feel endangered by his presence. But for now, I should keep my guard up, just in case there are more people who know who I am.

After greeting a few of the more well-off looking guests the Captain walks up to a podium at the front end of the ship and begins to address all the passengers.

“To our most esteemed guests, welcome aboard the leisure ship Concordia. Our first destination will be a Dutch holdin’ in Africa for refuellin’, then on to a Dutch India port city, and lastly we makein’ to the Japanese port of Nagasaki. We will spend one night at each stop until we reach Japan where we will spend two, after which we be makein’ our return to Amsterdam. I’ve mentioned it to a few people already but this ship was a gift from our fine friends in Italy and they have included a great variety of activities for our guests to take part in for our long journey together. Now then, I’ll be takin’ my leave now to finalise our departure. If everythin’ goes as planned our departure will be in a few moments. Enjoy your stay aboard the Concordia,” says the Captain as he takes his leave.

Taking the time to enjoy some drinks I make another scan of the passengers and make a mental note on who to avoid. But there I saw one person in particular that stood out. An old man entertaining the children with his stories. With his current tale finished, I find my interest piqued as I go over and introduce myself to the old man.

“Hello, sir, my name is Millie. Do you mind if I sit on your stories for a bit?”

“No need to ask. These stories of mine are open to all. I’m called Tanqile, a travelling merchant. Although it is getting quite late, so this will be my last story for now.” Tanqile Says as he looks up to the sky.

Clearing his throat, Tanqile begins his tale, “Now then, this is a story that has been passed down in my family for generations. An ancestor of mine was on a trading mission from the Greek city-state of Athens to Egypt. The beginning of his journey started out fine but on his return, he couldn’t make it back to the port town and was left with no choice but to set up a camp in the sandy plains of Egypt. While looking for a good spot to camp he came across a strange man collapsed under a tree. Deciding to help the stranger on the ground, my ancestor sets up camp by the tree and takes the strange man into his tent. The stranger soon wakes and sees that my ancestor is eating, and asks if there is food to spare. Being the kind man my ancestor was, he agrees to give the stranger some food and offers him to stay in his tent for the night. And soon the night passes and the dawn arrives. My ancestor awakes but the stranger is nowhere to be seen. In his place, however, is a large basket of various fruits and vegetables, coupled with a note left behind giving thanks. And these weren’t your run of the mill fruits you would find in a marketplace, these were incredibly rare fruits and vegetables. Most of which couldn’t even be found in the surrounding areas. In a hurry, my ancestor left his tent to look around the area for the stranger to thank him, but there was nothing in sight. Nothing had changed from when he first set up camp, no footprints left in the sand, absolutely no trace that anyone else had been there. Except for one thing. The tree that was nearby had withered away. Dead branches scattered on the ground with the soft wind whisking them away. Hmm… I suppose I’ll end this tale here. Now much like my previous stories this one to had a message too it. How about it, Millie, care to take a guess at what the moral of the story was?” Asks Tanqile as he finishes his story.

The young kids who were listening are all looking at me with excited eyes, anticipating my answer. With a few seconds to think about it, I say, “ it was to be kind to others, or something like that.”

“You are correct, young Millie. In India there exist the concept of Karma, doing good things will reward you with a good future. On the other hand, doing wrong will bring ruin to your future. So with that in mind you good boys and girls should return to your parents before it gets too dark out here.” Says Tanqile as he sends the young kids off.

After listening to Tanqile’s tale I noticed something strange that stood out to me.

“Hey, Tanqile. Just how true is that story?” I ask.

“To be perfectly honest, I don’t know. I also had to leave out some of the more gruesome events, I can’t be scaring those youngsters after all.” Says Tanqile.

“What about the part with the withered tree? Was that true or was it something you added?” I ask.

“Again, I don’t really know. This story has been passed down in my family for nearly two-thousand of years, so I can’t say for certain if the story is real or not. Why do you ask?”

“It’s just that a long time ago I encountered something somewhat similar. I met a strange man and after a brief moment, he disappeared with the surrounding plant life withered and dead. The part in your story about the tree had reminded me of that, it got me thinking that perhaps they were the same person.” I say.

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“That’s a good joke, Missy. But the age of gods and mysticism is a bygone era, this is the 19th century, where progressive people move the world. This story was probably something an ancestor of mine made up as a fun way to explain the benefits of kindness. Thinking about it logically there is no way someone can just disappear into thin air and the people in history who did claim to have such magical abilities were probably lying about it. Even if we assume the story is true, there is no way it’s the same person. Humans just don’t live that long. Ah… sorry for going off on a rant there Miss Millie, I’ve had discussions like this with some rather religious folk in the past. Let’s just say those never ended well.” Tanqile says in an apologetic tone.

“Don’t worry about it. Anyways it is starting to get late, so I’ll be on my way.” I say as a part ways with Tanqile.

If only he knew.

***A couple of months later***

Its been a while since we left the Dutch African port and everything was fine until now…

“Just what is this siren!? It’s so loud!” I yell as I jump from my bed.

Suddenly I feel the ship shake. In a rush to see what the commotion is I run out to the balcony by the pool. I arrive with several others before me and more coming. We see a large ship emerge from some fog with a loud bang, shooting its cannons at our ship.

Thankfully all the shots were just short of making contact but the blast from the water was still enough to rock the ship.

“Attention all crew and guest!” Shouts Captain Bram.

Hearing his voice I look around to find the Captain. Eventually, I find him in the back of the crowd.

“I want all crew members to prepare for evasive manoeuvres! And to our passengers, please remain calm. We are currently under attack from some pirates. They most likely don’t intend to sink us, as there would be nothing to gain from it. We are only a few days away from the port in India, if we can run for long enough the Navy will arrive to help. We just need–”

Without warning a cannonball flies overhead. Mothers are covering their children’s eyes, others just look away. Many of the ship’s crew start to tear, as we all look at the disfigured body of the Captain who got hit directly by the shot.

With almost all of us here at a loss with the sudden death of the Captain, the pirates continue to fire on us until a shot finally lands a clean hit to the engine room and our ship comes to a slow stop.

The pirate ship picks up speed, seemingly looking to board. But just before they get in range, the pirates turn their ship around and leave just as quickly as they came. With the pirates leaving, everyone breathes a sigh of relief… or not as we noticed the ship has started moving again.

The alarm system goes off again as several of the crew inform us that a large maelstrom is dragging the ship towards it and within an hour the Concordia will be brought under. Panic erupts from within the crowd as everyone is struggling to reach the lifeboats in an attempt to save themselves and their family.

“Hey watch it!” I yell as I get pushed into the side railing of the ship, having nearly fallen off and into the water.

Having just stabilised myself I prepare to make my way to the lifeboats with everyone else, but I get shoved by a rather round man and pushed over the railing.

Just barely hanging on to the edge I scream, “someone, help me!” but the shout falls on deaf ears over the large crowd rushing towards the lifeboats.

Only a few seconds later I receive the final push as someone brushes up against my hand on the railing, making me lose my grip as I fall into the ocean.

Being swept along with the currents into the maelstrom, I try to call out to everyone on the Concordia as a last-ditch effort. Unfortunately, I’m just too far away. As I get dragged further beneath the currents my consciousness fades away until I finally pass out.

******

I awaken to the sound of the rough river currents. I jump up after remembering what just happened and I find myself surprised that I’m on dry land.

Taking a look around my surroundings, the first thing I notice is the everlasting twilight. As if time has stopped and the sky is forever lit with a dim red light. The place would be incredibly beautiful if it wasn’t for the rest of the scenery here. Almost everything has been charred black. From the scorched ground to the darkened trees. Yet despite the signs of a fire, I feel as if I could lose a finger to frostbite. And finally a small wooden boat and a strange man fishing in the nearby river, seemingly not bothered by the strange area we’re in.

As I walk up closer to the man I notice he isn’t quite what I had originally thought. Upon closer inspection I notice the strange ears that he has, sharing similarities to that of a wolf. He even has a tail… or rather he has ten of them.

With little to lose in this situation, I call out to him and introduce myself, “hello there, I’m Millie, do you think you could tell me where we are?”

“Awake now are ya. How’s ya body feelin’?” he asks.

Not much of a greeting, so much for trying to be polite. Although now that he mentions it something feels a bit off.

“I’m not sure, something doesn’t feel right. But it would be nice if you would also introduce yourself and answer my question.” I say, with my patience beginning to wear thin.

“Well it’d be quite strange if ya did feel fine considering what happened to ya. Anyway, it’s about time I welcomed you. Congratulations, your dead now. Welcome to the Sanzu River… you might be more familiar with the name River Styx, same thing. Regardless, your dead now. This is the border between life and death.” The man says with a grin on his face.

“Maybe this isn’t the time to mention this but you lost that accent of yours halfway through. That’s a fake one isn’t it?” I say.

“…so ya seem rather calm over the whole situation, considering your dead now.” He responds.

Did I just get ignored?

“To be honest the whole I’m dead thing hasn’t really set in or something like that. I mean, I can feel myself standing right here. The whole situation doesn’t feel real. Although, when I think about it logically there is no possible way I should have survived the maelstrom.”

“If you want proof I got your body on this here boat if you want to see it.” He says.

“…wait, what!? Are you serious? I can see my own dead body, let me take a look.” I say while running up to the boat.

As I near the dimly lit boat I see a body laying down in it. None other than my own lifeless body, dressed in some kind of white garb.

“Huh, so that’s what I look like from an outside perspective… wait, hold on. How am I standing here while I’m laying in the boat there? Also isn’t it about time you introduced yourself.” I ask.

“You have a point. We’ve been talkin’ here for a while now, and I have yet to introduce mine self. I am the Demon-God Akkre Kojuuin, the Keeper of Eternity.” He says with a smug look.

“Hmm… I’ve read my fair share of historical texts and studied various mythologies from around the world and I have never once heard of you before.” I say as I go through my memories.

With his ears and tails drooping down a bit, Akkre sighs as he continues, “well I suppose it’s no surprise. I am the one lost to history yet forever destined to preserve it, for only I will remain at the end of days to start the universe anew. That’s enough of the depressing stuff for now though. Lets us go back to ya first question. The reason there be two of you is ‘cause your soul has been removed from your body. You’re currently in a simultaneous state of existence and non-existence. As it stands you’re not really dead… but you’re not alive either.”

Akkre continues his lecture on what’s going on but everything he says is too complicated for me to understand.

“I’m sure you didn’t understand any of that. So what you should take away from all this is that I can bring you back to life.” Akkre says.

Upon hearing his statement I bolt up to Akkre and move my face in close to his and say, “You can really do that!?”

Pushing me back a bit he responds, “of course I can, but it won’t be for free. Nothing is ever truly free. Every action has a consequence. As for the price of your life back, it will forevermore belong to me.”

I take a moment to ponder what he means, but unable to figure it out on my own I end up asking him.

“What I meant was that you would serve me as a vassal. Our relationship would be that of a lord and his vassal. Of course, there is one other party in which you would serve but my own orders would supersede them if they conflicted. So how ‘bout it? I give you your life back in return for your servitude?”

There is no need to think about it, I’ve still got things I want to do and I don’t want to meet a miserable end here.

“Of course I would accept, no way in hell I’m letting myself die that easily. It’s kinda funny though, how people are taught not to make a deal with a demon yet here I am doing exactly that.” I say.

“Then we have ourselves a deal. Oh, and also I think you humans around here got the wrong idea about demons. A demon is a type of spirit being that is classified as a soul eater, not whatever hellspawn your thinking of. Besides I’m only half, my other half is divine so this is closer to making a covenant with a god. Let us move on to the next part, now that the details of the contract have been laid out. While you may not like this, it won’t hurt you… for now at least.” Akkre says as he pulls out a strange dagger.

The dagger is two blades with one on each end of the handle. The dagger itself looks like a ceremonial weapon, but the two blades are vastly different. One is a dark obsidian coloured blade with the other being a ghastly white transparent blade.

Without much warning, he proceeds to make a small cut on his finger and lathers his blood onto the obsidian blade. Soon after he plunges that bloody blade into the chest of my lifeless body. And before I can protest he turns and pushes the white transparent blade into my own chest.

Expecting pain I bite down on my lip… but I feel nothing, nothing at all. Then suddenly the double-edged dagger vanished.

“Just what did you do!?” I ask in a panic.

“I created a blood oath between us, based on what was previously agreed. You will serve me for as long as you live. Although you might experience some pain where ya’ body was physically stabbed. And that dagger has become one with your essence. I was able to bind it relatively easily to your soul since, well, your soul is already here out of your body. It is the physical representation of the pact we made so be sure not to lose it, not that it is even possible to lose at this point.” He says.

“I probably should have asked earlier, but what is it you actually want me to do?” I ask.

“If you want my honest answer, I want you to do everything I’m too lazy to do myself. I will explain in some more details when you meet the others. Hop on this boat and I’ll get us out of here. I will also be beginning the procedure to bring you back to life so hurry it up, Millie Von Augustine.” He says as he extends his hand out to me.

As soon as I grab his hand he pulls me onto the boat with him.

“I don’t believe I ever gave you my full name, although for someone who can bring me back from the dead I wouldn’t have been surprised if you had known my name from the beginning,” I say as we sail along.

“Well… yeah, I did know. I know the names of everyone who dies. It’s a part of the job after all. Anyways let’s get this started, for what was your end has become your new beginning.” Akkre says.

My senses slowly fade away causing me to lose consciousness as Akkre begins the procedure. Eventually, I succumb to slumber, with his last words ringing in my head.

The end is nothing more than a new beginning.