Being bossed around was the thing I hated the most in the world. The Snow Raven, the leader of the Underworld, was already doing it often enough, I didn’t need the Messenger on my case as well.

I waited for the Ferryman to come back so he could give me a ride. The Capital was an old city striated with canals carrying with them the stench of the sea. I got off the boat on a small dock and dove right into the famous Ghost Market. It was called this way because most of the merchants, peddlers and clients were souls waiting to be reincarnated.

The Capital of Shadows was this great hub where humans met demons for a short while. Walking around, buying, selling, making noise… it passed the time and helped forget.

I had accompanied a bunch of those human souls here, but after a few days they tended to forget me. A few recent arrivals greeted me as I passed by, so I nodded back.

“Hey, Mr. Soul Collector, how about a beautiful teacup?”

An elderly woman called me from her stall, which was full of antique dishware. I tried to smile a bit because I had been told to be nicer. “No thanks, you already sold me a teacup two days ago.”

“Take another one, so you can have tea with someone.”

“I don’t have anyone to have tea with.”

“A nice boy like you? I don’t believe it!”

The old lady was quite pushy. It would be easier to just buy the teacup than to convince her I didn’t want it. I was about to do so when, from the corner of my eye, I caught sight of a man in a black suit among the throngs of demons and souls. It was Castor, the Snow Raven’s personal assistant. He often walked around the Ghost Market to check how things were going and report to his superior. I wondered if he’d been sent to drag me to my meeting.

I turned back to the old lady, reasoning that if I acted as though I hadn’t seen Castor, he would return the favour and pretend he hadn’t seen me either.

“How much for the teacup?”

“Just take it.”

“You’re too kind.”

I glanced behind my shoulder to assess whether the road was clear. A yelp escaped me. Castor stood right there, his impeccable black silk necktie a few inches from my nose.

“Good evening, Soul Collector.”

“Oh, hey there.”

He straightened the lapels of his suit and tried to intimidate me with his superiority complex. “The Snow Raven is waiting for you. Didn’t you get the message?”

“Yeah, the Messenger gave me the… message.”

“Then hurry up. The Snow Raven is very busy and you shouldn’t waste her time.”

I grumbled a bit because I was still on the fence about going to the meeting. There seemed to be no way out of it, so I left the old lady with her teacup and I hurried to the Moonstone Palace, some ostentatious building with wings on each side that wrapped around an ostentatious public place, just a little farther along the shore.

Inside, the marble tiles on the floor formed an intricate pattern of blue and nacre. At the end of the hall, a stairway curled up to the first floor. Here, it felt as though I had suddenly stepped very far away from all the excitement of the city. Everything became quiet.

A servant approached me, informing me that the Snow Raven wasn’t in her office at the moment. She led me to the back of the palace, into a vast garden in which the flowers and trees thrived regardless of the season. The Snow Raven was enjoying a quiet stroll in an alley of white flowers that seemed to shine with a light of their own. She paused and turned around as she became aware of our presence.

The servant announced, “Forgive me the intrusion, but the Soul Collector is here.”

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“Thank you, you may leave us.”

The Snow Raven was a tall woman dressed in a black, shimmery dress that trailed behind her without touching the ground. A long scarf was draped around her shoulders.

She greeted me with a smile. I wasn’t fooled by it, though. Everything about the Snow Raven was measured.

“It’s good to see you, Soul Collector.”

I took a conciliatory approach. “Sorry for not coming earlier.”

“Don’t worry. I simply have a favour to ask.”

I almost scoffed. There was never anything “simple” about her “favours.”

“What is it?”

She resumed her walk and I followed her back toward the palace. “The Seer will be replaced and we must find her successor.”

“Wait, what?”

The Snow Raven’s expression remained unreadable. It wasn’t that I liked the Seer. Overall, I thought she was pretty rotten as a person. It’s just that she’d occupied her function for so long, I couldn’t see why she needed to be replaced now. If an immortal occupies a function, they can remain there indefinitely, until there is an actual reason to replace them.

“May I ask why the Seer will be replaced?”

“You may not.”

This must have been the result of some political games between the Underworld and Heaven. Luckily, I was nothing but a pawn in this game, so it wasn’t my job to worry about it.

The Snow Raven went on about the favour. “The Seer received clues that a worthy successor lived somewhere in the human world. Therefore, we need your help finding them there.”

As a general rule, demons, angels and humans couldn’t travel between worlds. Their soul wasn’t adapted to the different environments and being in the wrong world created symptoms that could range from significant discomfort to intolerable pain. There were exceptions, however. I was one of them. As the Soul Collector, I was allowed to travel to both the human world and the Underworld. Another exception was the Messenger, who had access to all three worlds: the Underworld, the human world, and Heaven.

Which compelled me to make the following point, “Why not ask the Messenger?”

“The Messenger will be supervising you.”

This assignment couldn’t get any worse than this. I was slowly turning into the Seer’s personal tool of doom. “What if I refuse?”

“I won’t force you, but the Light Stag might insist.”

I shuddered at the mention of the ruler of Heaven. “Alright then.”

The Snow Raven smiled. “Keep me updated on your progress.”

Progress would happen after a good night’s sleep. I thought I was already having a nightmare when I saw Castor walking toward us on the path. After a moment of shock, I reasoned that he must have been here to report to the Snow Raven. I headed back to the palace without paying attention to him.

“You forgot this,” Castor told me as I passed by him.

He held out a small object. I squinted a bit and recognized the teacup the old lady showed me in the Ghost Market.

“That’s not…”

“Castor, are you making gifts to the Soul Collector?” the Snow Raven chimed in.

“No! No, no, no…” I protested, eager to rectify the facts.

They just kept talking like I wasn’t even there. “The Soul Collector was doing some shopping before coming here. He forgot his purchase.”

“I see. I was wondering why you never give me anything.”

“You are my superior. People might find such a gesture inappropriate.”

The Snow Raven smiled fondly at Castor, while I fondly considered punching him in the face.

“I’m lucky to have such a scrupulous assistant,” she remarked.

Castor handed me the teacup and I had no choice but to accept it.

Even though I had my own apartment in the Capital of Shadows, I barely ever stayed there. A garbage bin in the human world was better than a mansion in the Underworld as far as I was concerned. However, it was already late after my meeting with the Snow Raven, so I decided to spend the rest of the night in the Underworld.

The reflection of the stars flittered on the surface of the canal that ran along the sidewalk. I was so unused to being here that I almost missed the door to my place in the obscurity. All the old stone buildings looked the same. While I wondered which to choose, I heard footsteps on the cobblestones catching up with me.

“Hey, Luca! What are you doing here?”

It was the Messenger, calling me by my name again. He never learned. “I live here.” I mean, somewhere around here.

He could doctor his expression into a light-hearted smile all he wanted, he still looked suspicious as hell. “I know, but you haven’t been here in a long time…”

I had a look at the wooden doors lined up along the narrow sidewalk. There was one with a scratch on it that seemed familiar.

“You sound stressed out,” I told the Messenger, who was doubled over trying to catch his breath. “Have you been working too hard?”

He straightened up and laughed unconvincingly. “What? No…”

My key fit in the lock, so I figured I had chosen the right door. I went inside and took the stairs to the top floor, where my apartment was. The Messenger followed closely on my steps. Something was definitely wrong with that guy.

“Luca, wait, I thought it would be ok with you…”

I decided I wasn’t going to listen to him if he kept calling me that name. At the same moment, I turned the doorknob to my apartment and realised it was unlocked. I pushed the door and thought there had to be a mistake somewhere.

The hallway gave directly on the living room. Last I remembered, I hadn’t left anything lying around. Why, then, was there someone lying around on my couch this very moment?

The girl noticed me standing there and looked up from the newspaper she was reading. “Oh, hi Mr. Soul Collector!”

The Messenger sighed behind me. I don’t know what he sighed for. I was the one who should be sighing right now.