

THE UNCERTAINTY OF DEATH

Book 1 in the Four Horsemen Series

by

Y.K. Greene

SMASHWORDS EDITION

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PUBLISHED BY:

Y.K. Greene on Smashwords

The Uncertainty of Death

Book 1 in the Four Horsemen Series

Copyright © 2011 Y.K. Greene

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work. Cover art by Larry West Productions

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Dedicated to D.K. promise kept.

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THE UNCERTAINTY OF DEATH

Book 1 in the Four Horsemen Series

"You have me again Megan."

Megan, a woman with the solid build of an Amazon and warm walnut hair, smiles a little wider and says nothing while her companion, a slender nondescript woman in an expensive suit, continues to stare at the chess board. The pieces are ornate; hand carved from stone and delicately crafted – feminine - in a way that the rest of the office is not.

Unimposing pieces, except perhaps for the menacing spread of the white and the dwindling resources of the black. D. stares harder, willing an escape to appear before her on the board. When nothing does, she sighs and advances in the only avenue left to her, lips drawn together in a fine line as Megan tightens the noose and bounces in her seat.

"Check and mate!"

D. sits back in her chair. "You have beaten me again."

Megan nods and bounces a little more with pleasure. "It was a little harder this time though, you're getting better. Really."

D. frowns at the woman, "many of the nuances of language still elude me, but even I can tell you are not the least bit sincere."

Megan had the good grace to blush a little and even stopped bouncing as she began to put the pieces back into their rightful places. "You'll get better with time." She paused to make eye contact, "all you really need is some practice - really."

"Both are things in short supply." D. stood and straightened her expensive Italian suit. Time was not her enemy in the way that Megan might consider it to be, but neither was it her friend. D spent virtually all of it working - one way or another - little was left for things like practicing games even ones as useful as chess. "Remember, not to tell anyone about this. I do not have the time to answer every challenge I would get if you did."

Megan nodded, head still bent over the board replacing pieces. "Little good it would do me to tell them anyway. Rule number umpty-seven: One can not play for their life." She looked over her shoulder at D. and winked impertinently, "and rule umpty-eleven: One cannot play to be the new Death."

Death shook her head and smiled at the woman. You would think that having those rules written down and drummed into every one of her employees would make things easier, "true and true again. Knowing that it is not possible, barely stops them from trying." She crossed to a door to the right of the magnificent oak monstrosity that was her desk and pulled a hooded robe from behind it, fear of failing is a much better deterrent. "I have not nearly the time to answer all the challenges that would arise if they all knew I cannot play games at all well."

There was a snort from Megan as she straightened up from the table. "Never you mind me telling, though I'm surprised no one has figured it out yet." She held up one hand and began ticking off fingers. "You have almost no free time as it is, let alone before you started the company. Up until you started the company you hardly interacted with anyone, human or otherwise for more than a minute. With that information it's a wonder that you learned to speak at all let alone to read and write; and with such pressing concerns already where exactly were you supposed to find the time to learn every game ever played and master them all?"

D. shrugged, deciding against reminding her secretary that not every employee had that information and pulled the comforting weight of the robe around herself, clasping it at the throat. "You know I am no good with questions, Megan." She said and pulled the hood up. Pools of shadows quickly obscured her features.

"I will have a window this afternoon, I think."

Megan paused at the heavy doors turning slightly toward her, "alright D. want anything special when you come in?"

"I think I will just rest a while, no games this afternoon. Can you keep the others away from the office?"

"Most of them," Megan said, "'cept maybe Ms. Roth, that woman's impossible."

Leslie Roth was one of the more irritating employees at the Philadelphia office. The woman was ruthlessly ambitious and having reached the lofted position of junior V.P. she was certain that the only place left for her to go in the company was to become Death herself. Forgetting or not caring that the position was already filled. D. smiled from the depths of the hood and instantly regretted it when she noticed Megan's shudder. "Do not worry about Ms. Roth. If she really wants to see me she can have a special audience, just tell her not to be too surprised at what she finds will you?"

She did not wait for her secretary's reply, stepping forward onto the Path and out of the Philadelphia office.

***

D. stepped into the darkened hallways of a hospital. In the distance she could see the warm glow of a nurse's station but all around her was blue shadows. She paused now to sweep back her hood and run her hands through nondescript brown hair. Several strands came out in her fingers and D. watched as they lost color and shape and flowed over her hands becoming part of her again.

_It is not enough,_ she thought as she watched the mousy brown strands dissolve back into herself. No matter the effort she went through to make the humans she employed more comfortable, something about her always put them on edge. She had gone so far as to follow their unconscious suggestions for her form, taking on the most unimposing aspects that they could think of then layering her physical form with the trappings of power, expensive shoes, designer clothing, antiques and priceless artifacts.

She had been female so long that she even thought of herself as such now, though in the beginning she had known no sex. After they had started calling her D. instead of Death she had thought herself to be making great strides. And still it was not enough, Megan's shudder when she had simply smiled while hooded was indication enough of that.

Death sighed; the hood crept over her head to obscure features that were already blurring in shadow. This was not the time to worry about the people she worked with, there were appointments to be kept. D. relaxed some of the concentration that she had needed in order to appear the same to all of her employees. The shoes were the first to go, and she felt her feet relax without their confinements.

Another knot of tension drained from her body as she released each unnatural constraint on her shape. Tension drained from the abdomen as she let the suit go. Next it was a minute tension in the hands as she let go of the messy bun in her hair. Her neck and shoulders eased as her face dissolved to an indistinct shadow beneath the hood and now all that was left was a tiny knot of tension in her lower back. D. knew better than to try and relax that knot, it was a consequence of spending so much time in female form that she had actually begun to think of herself as a woman. Luckily it made no difference to the people she saw what sex she thought of herself as, so long as they could see her as they needed to.

Fully relaxed now, D. began to concentrate on stretching her senses out of the body she no longer had and along the very edges of her power expanding it outward. Now the unpleasant work of making sure that she was _not_ seen began. Working carefully with the energy recently released when she dropped her office form, D. began to work a spell of disinterest.

There was little of what humans called magic that Death felt herself to possess, and none of them were exactly what could be considered pleasant. Most of them, like the Path or the List were things over which she had little to no power. Though she had altered the Path in the forming of her company – aptly named Death Inc. – in order to incorporate certain locations at certain times of the day and the List was altered on a daily bases, allowing her to give some of the names, times and locations to her workers rather than leaving her to take care of them all herself. These things tended to bother the humans she worked with to varying degrees, though they bothered her not at all. There were only two of her magics that did disturb her on fundamental levels. The first and thankfully least often used lately, was casting a Pall. It allowed her to be more than one place at once, places she could not send her employees, during natural disasters, plagues and wars; it required the breaking off of pieces of herself and spreading it thinly over a large area, often of several miles.

The other magic was employed on a daily basis \- the spell of disinterest. This spell allowed all the humans that she passed who did not _wish_ to see her to _not_ see her. Considering the reactions of the humans she worked with when D. appeared fully human, this little spell was invaluable. However it weighed heavy, the sure knowledge that almost every human being on the planet wished to disavow her very existence. Of course, there where a few, usually terminally ill and/or in great pain, that saw her through the spell. These were also the most likely to see her as something beautiful, welcoming her with open arms and tears. Those were bittersweet appointments. Sweet because they welcomed her and she could give them an end to their pain. Bitter because these people who welcomed her so gladly were gone almost as soon as she met them.

With the spell cast D. refused to allow herself to ponder the personal unpleasantness of its effect. She had an appointment to keep. A brisk pace on the Path took her beyond the nurse's desk, around a corner and literally through the corkwood door on room 213. The first bed in the room was empty and the other was shielded by curtains so D. took a moment and glanced at the List.

Leo Kaylor, 6:15 Pacific Time.

A quick peek at the chart on the foot of the hospital bed confirmed that this was indeed Mr. Kaylor's bed. D. slid it back into place and slipped around quietly checking to see if her appointment had any visitors. There was no one there, though the curtains on this side of the bed were open to admit the ambient light from the large windows. A quick glance at her watch revealed that she was running a little early so she grabbed a chair from under the window and pulled it over to the bed, settling in to wait.

While she waited D. took a good look at Mr. Kaylor. In the last three hundred years or so it had become routine for her to assign all names on the List that did not involve dangerous situations to her employees, though the circumstances of the death were not present on it, the List itself determined which ones could be passed on and which ones D. must handle herself. She had been so relieved with her diminished work load that she had not tried to push the issue. _Well, he is a looker,_ she thought as she watched Mr. Kaylor's sleeping form. His short platinum curls were plastered to his forehead in sleep and the lines of his face were all elegant curves that softened features that would otherwise have been too harshly masculine. _If he has eyes to go with that face then I am beginning to see why I am here and not someone else._ Her subordinates sometimes had trouble with bringing death to the particularly attractive. Men and women alike seemed to bulk at the fragility of such beauty.

Leo opened his eyes. For a moment D. was motionless and then a steady stream of expletives ran through her head in every language she could think of which - thanks to her hard won knowledge - was pretty much all of them. The man she had come to release into death looked up at her with the strangest, most compelling _purple_ eyes that she had ever seen.

***

Leo opened his eyes, blinked to clear away the last of the sleepiness from his vision and smiled up at the person who stood watch by his bed. He could see very little of this unexpected visitor since they stood between him and the large window of his hospital room, though it was easy enough to make out that there was not much to see. They wore a long coat or robe that extended below the edge of the bed, it was deeply hooded and only the mouth and nose could be seen peaking out beneath it.

_Still,_ Leo thought, _it's nice to see someone cares enough to stop by besides the hospital staff, police and reporters._

"So, who are you?"

Somehow Leo wasn't terribly surprised when the robed and hooded figure answered, "I am Death, Mr. Kaylor." Though the feminine tones of the voice weren't exactly what he'd expected to hear, "I am sorry but your time is almost up."

He smiled up at her again, "well that much seems obvious. Maybe I should have asked you what your name was instead." His eyesight had cleared enough that he could make out the shape of her lips as they thinned in contemplation.

_Wonder why Death has such a lovely mouth_ ; he – carefully - pulled himself into a more upright position; his skin felt tight and hot all over this morning, the flaming sensation centered around the wound in his chest. _Probably caught some kind of infection, which would explain the whole dying thing..._

"Are you aware of Death Inc, Mr. Kaylor?" He shook his head weakly and frowned to discover the lack of strength in the gesture. Amazing the things one takes for granted. "I am Death. I had no mother and no father to name me. I have no equal no – peer, that I would need such distinction..."

Leo smiled at her again amused by the difficulty she seemed to be having with the simple question and interjected. "What is Death Inc?"

"It is a company I started some time ago to help myself keep up with increased demand."

"I'm guessing you've got people – humans - running it then, since you said you have no equals?"

The corners of her mouth turned down at the edges, "yes – but Mr. Kaylor; you do realize that talking to me will not save you?"

Leo frowned, had he been thinking that? He gave a bit of a mental shrug, _what does it matter? I'd like to know a few more things before I die._ She was holding something out to him now, a tidy List of names and times.

"See Mr. Kaylor? You are at the top of my List." She paused a moment to reach into the folds of the robe and withdrew an old pocket watch on a long gold chain. "And as you can see I am already behind schedule, I am sure that you can understand that I am very busy – "

"You don't look too busy to me," he interrupted hastily, more than a little eager to point out what he'd seen on the scroll; the time beside his name was slated for much later on that morning. "If anything you're a bit early."

She frowned again and turned the List around to look it over, grimaced slightly before tucking the List up the sleeve of her robe and inclining her head slightly to Leo. "It seems you are quite right Mr. Kaylor. I shall return for you later." She turned to leave.

"No, please stay!" The idea of spending his last hour or so alone wasn't at all appealing. "You see, I've no one to spend the time with; and I'm curious. How many people get to know you personally?"

The smile she gave him was small but genuine. "None. Mr. Kaylor, none at all."

"Not even your employees?"

"Especially not my employees," she paused a moment. "Humans are very – aggressive, Mr. Kaylor. Those nearest my position are too ambitious for close relations with the possible exception being my secretaries."

Leo grunted, "please stop calling me that already. You might as well call me Leo, which reminds me; you still haven't told me your name yet." He lifted a hand to stop the protest he could already see forming behind that pretty mouth. "And please don't tell me you don't have one besides Death. I find it hard to believe that you work with – mortals, day in and out and they call you Death all the time."

He was graced with the dazzle of another smile. "Alright. I will tell you what they call me at the office if you tell me what I look like to you."

He blinked, _doesn't the woman have a mirror,_ then smiled, "alright, easy enough."

"They call me D."

"Well that just won't do. You should have a clean slate of a name." She was frowning at him again and he rushed on, "something that you can wear with out the shadow of what you are tainting it; a chance to make your own personality beyond what you do." He thought about it a moment and then sighed, "how about Mitei? It's Japanese I think, supposed to mean something like uncertain, undecided."

The hooded head tilted a moment considering then straightened as she replied. "I am guessing from the feminine tones of the name that you see me as a woman then."

He smiled and nodded at her. "Though admittedly I could still be wrong, that robe covers your head and body so well all I've got to go on is your voice and mouth really. I could be wrong."

"You can see my robe? Well, what do you see when I do this?" She swept her hands up, pulling back the hood of the robe in one swift gesture.

It happened too quickly for him to remember that the majority of the images he'd ever seen of death were at the best skeletal and at the worst, decaying, too fast for him to be frightened by the memory. Too fast by far for him to even spend a moment wondering what he would see. In a moment, Mitei stood before him, un-hooded and for a bit longer than a moment he just stared.

She was pale, he could even say in all seriousness deathly so. The kind of pale that came only from a complete lack of blood in ones veins; except, when she turned a little and the light shone on her instead of backlighting her he was able to see the rhythm of something pale and faintly luminous pulsing beneath her skin. Her hair was also a gleaming white, so pure it looked to have never been touched by things as mundane as wind, water, or even sunlight. The only spot of color on her were her eyes. Large, expressive and hazel, her eyes stared at him from that ethereal face.

He did his best to describe Mitei to herself but got a frown for his trouble. She touched her face and then spread the fingers of that hand before her eyes.

"Are you in a great deal of pain, Mr. - Leo?"

"I suppose I would be if the pain killers weren't working. Why?"

"Usually only those who are in quite a lot of pain for a very long time sees me in such a pleasant way. But you are not in pain?" He shook his head and she dropped her hand abruptly. "Leo, why are you dying?"

"It's in my chart," he motioned towards the end of the hospital bed. "I was shot." Of course the chart didn't make mention that he was shot in a gang war. He hadn't been participating, he'd actually been on his way to one of his student's homes; he'd set up a private conference with the boys mother and since their home hadn't been too far from the school had elected to take his bike there and get some exercise rather than driving, a relatively rare option in L.A. and a decision he regretted. Not that the car would have proven much better protection, on the other hand it might have deflected the one bullet that had actually hit him.

He didn't want to tell her that. Didn't want to mention that he'd seen his student hovering over him after he'd been knocked off his bike, didn't want to tell her the boy had had a cell phone in one hand and a gun in the other; but he found himself telling her this and more. About the heat in his chest and the pain he could feel lurking just beneath the glaze of the medications. In fact as time wore on he found himself babbling more and more, the realization that his death was just around the corner, finally forcing him to stop and look at her again.

"Do you look different to everyone? Even the people you work with?"

"I look the same to my employees, though the effort is tiring. I look like they expect a corporate executive to look, tall, fashionable, expensive and refined. I also look reassuringly normal, brown hair and eyes, nothing special or odd."

"Why?" She tilted her head a bit and looked at him, inviting him to come up with his own answer. "Because of the fear factor? You look like what they expect and yet rather ordinary, so that they all don't break down into quivering masses of butt kissing jelly?"

And she laughed, a sweet sudden burst of sound that surprised them both. _So Death has a sense of humor. That's good to know - I think._

"I do believe you have it." She said when she'd calmed down again, features smoothing back into a tranquility that lent her already ethereal features an agelessness that he hadn't noticed before. "I do not know why all the dying see me differently. Though I suppose it is something along the same lines."

She glanced at her watch again and frowned minutely, Leo's mind raced to find something good to distract her with, "so do you have any inside info?"

Mitei looked up and blinked at him. "Inside information about what?"

"Everything, I guess. I mean, you're _The_ Death right? What do you know about Gods, Angels, Devils," he paused when she started frowning harder then before and hurried on. "Hey, I'll settle for a little info on what's gonna happen to me after, maybe? Is there a white light and a tunnel or what?"

Mitei rose, the robe fell in soft folds around her, hiding her hands and the watch. "I am afraid that I know very little. I know you live and then you die, the death part especially," she winked and Leo smiled in a kind of startled way, _did Mitei just make a joke?_ "I do not know much of anything. I do not know "what's next" if there is anything, since I do not die. I have met neither gods nor angels, not even a single devil, though I have heard of them. From what I heard, they do not die either. Fall, fade, sleep even, but not die."

She paused, leaning over the bed and Leo found himself leaning heavily into his pillows, the first tendrils of fear knotting in his belly. "Honestly, I know little of life either, except that it ends. You see, I am very busy. My purpose is clear and my path is ever present, I do not get detours, vacation time or even a chance for sabbatical." Leo watched as Mitei placed her left hand on the pillow by his head. The sleeve on her right arm rolled back of its own accord and she extended one finger towards his chest.

"I know very little, Leo Kaylor, but I do know that your time is up."

She touched the tip of her finger to his chest.

For a moment the cloth of his hospital gown was a barrier between them, then her finger passed right through and he felt its icy touch against his chest. Then several things happened almost at once. Mitei frowned, those expressive hazel eyes growing hooded and distant. Leo felt the chill of that touch spread throughout the heat in his chest, cooling it away so fast it was painful. He was disconnected from his body and attached at the same time, so that he was literally beside himself for a moment watching Death touch him gently and then.

Leo snapped back into his body with a wrench that cramped his neck and pulled several of his stitches. Death stepped back as if she was the one stunned and gave him a glare that should have killed where her famous touch hadn't.

"What was that?"

She ignored him and pulled the scroll out of the air again, unrolled it and studied it carefully before replying, though she didn't look up. "It seems that you are no longer on my List." She glanced up at him and her eyes were hooded again though her voice was as cold as her touch had been, "where are we?"

"L.A. Municipal Hospital I think."

"Then, please come to the L.A. office sometime. I think we could find a position for you," she produced a business card from the air were before she had held the scroll and handed it to him. "Of course I must ask you not to mention me to others. Not that they might believe you but it does create unnecessary issues."

"O-of course," he managed. He was still more than a little confused and there was a new pain in his chest that the medications weren't doing as good a job of covering. "What just happened." He repeated.

"I do not know." She said, took a step towards the big window and vanished before her foot could touch the floor.

Leo blinked at the space where she had been for a moment. _Well don't that just beat all_ , was the last thing he had time to think before he blacked out.

***

Mitei's foot come down on rich soil knotted with roots her eyes gazing across a landscape made dim in the autumn sun and half obscured by apple trees. Her mind was still reeling with the effects of her last appointment when she saw a girl fall from a distant tree with a crunch.

She sighed and glanced at her List, _that would be a Ms. Jules Harper my 11:30._ A quick glance at her watch showed 11:00, it seemed she would be treated to a quick stroll through the orchard before her appointment. She glanced about herself, there did not appear to be anyone around but she gathered her energy and felt that special tension that was her obscuring herself from the living, anyway, before walking in the direction of the fallen girl.

As she walked she puzzled over what had just happened with Leo. He had been unusual, not just because of his purple eyes or pretty face. Not even because he had wanted to personalize her, often enough the dying had tried to put a human face on their death, she suspected it was the reason behind some of the myths. No, it was a combination of all these things as well as the weirdness at the end. She did not make mistakes. She had never once gone to someone who was not supposed to die, never stood by their bed and been given extra time. Time enough to answer their questions and actually get to know them, then to have the appointment revoked.

The path seemed to tug her off towards a small barrow hidden within the roots of some ancient tree. She paused a moment and regarded the tree, placing a palm flat against its trunk. Solid, as firm to her touch as to that of wind, rain and time. Trees were a special pleasure, older than many and usually so calm and joyous. Mitei stroked its bark, she did not think she was here for this tree but she reveled in the break that it represented. It was a rare moment that she spent with nature. Nature almost did not need her presence at all to go about the process; plants, birds, animals, insects and fish they all spent so much time and energy to survive but for some reason when death came to them they did not struggle with the fervor that the humans did.

Not that they curled up and slipped away without a fight. Far from it, they just fought differently. Mitei puzzled over the difference as she went about her business, trying to keep her mind from coming back to the strange happenings with Leo from distracting from her work, she plunged into the simplicity of her purpose. The question of just why animals were so much easier was an old one, more than few of them slipped through her fingers but not in the way that men would like to believe, by achieving a kind of immortality; but rather dying without her presence there.

Often with men she felt like a guard, standing with arms folded to make sure that they did the right thing; because, humans seemed the type to cheat. The idea came crashing through while she was gathering a clutch of baby rabbits to herself. Their father had gotten into the burrow and was systematically killing off the lot of them mistaking them for some other male's get. They screamed like human children as he tore through their ranks and Mitei scooped up another tiny little bunny all fluff and exposed organs, and turned the thought around as she felt its heart stop against her palm. Mitei marveled a moment at its baby soft fur as she put it back and scooped up a litter mate.

_So - men are cheaters, is that why I am here?_ The thought stopped her a moment. She was Death. Her purpose had and always would be clear; she had never had any questions about her existence. The reasons for her presence had always been so obvious. Without her no one ate, they would all starve in endless pain. Without her the world would quickly become over run with populations of everything. Without Death, some would struggle through life in unbelievable and unending agony from wounds and illnesses.

She put down the little bunny. The mother had returned and was in the process of driving the male from the burrow, the rest of the litter would survive. She reached up to rub her hands over her tired eyes, but if she was only here for mankind because mankind cheated then...

Deeply entrenched in her musings she almost tripped over her next appointment before noticing her. As it was she brought her self up just short of it, with one foot planted on the girl's hair

***

_Ugh, what hit me,_ Jules thought as she opened her eyes, the stuttered light of the orchard making her head throb and bringing tears to her eyes. She blinked them back and could make out a tall shadowy figure standing over her. "Dad –"

"I am sorry Ms. Harper but I am not your father." The voice was feminine and low, calm and soothing the kind of tone you'd use when confronting a spooked animal. The woman knelt beside her, now Jules could see the hood drawn up over her features.

She moved to sit up and felt a tugging on her hair. "I don't know who you are, or why you're in my Daddy's orchard lady. But can you get off my hair so I can sit up."

A movement under the hood, could have been a smile or a frown in the shadows created by hood and the orchards canopy, and the woman shifted her weight easing off of Jules' hair. Now that her head was free she tried to sit up and began to take stock of her entire body for the first time since she'd opened her eyes. It hurt. The pain both sharp and throbbing all at once, Jules could feel the pain radiating from several points all at once; her hip, knee and both elbows were screaming points of agony each trying to scream above the rest to gain her attention. There was an answering ach in her back and a small pain in her neck, a scrape maybe.

"Oh God." Jules gritted her teeth, hissed through them, and forced herself to lie still.

"You fell from the tree."

The robed woman pointed up above her and now Jules could see the broken branches and the ladder she had used to climb up. She remembered wanting to make a pie for dinner and climbing into the tree to gather apples. Luckily the falling part still eluded memory. She drew her gaze back to the strange woman.

"I don't think I can move. You should go to the house, there's a phone there –"

"I am sorry Ms. Harper I cannot do that." The stranger cut her off absently as she gazed at her watch an antique looking number she pulled from a pocket on a chain. Jules wondered, oddly, what time it was. "Ms. Harper you have cut your neck open. You are going to bleed to death."

Jules blinked up at her as the stranger pulled something out of the sleeve of her robe. _Is this some kind of joke,_ she thought, _maybe she has a bandage up her sleeve and she's going to staunch the flow first._ But the woman pulled a small roll of paper out of her sleeve unrolling it and gazing at it in what seemed like super slow motion before turning it towards her. After all that pageantry, Jules was expecting something epic or surreal, half convinced that this must all be a dream, but there was only a single line on the paper - her name and a time. The stranger lowered it and then dangled her watch in front of Jules' eyes so she could see it. The time read as 11:27.

"I am sorry, Jules Harper. But you _will_ die."

Things began to come together for Jules. Suddenly the towering figure in the dark robe and hood, the pain in her body and the stranger's telling her that she was going to die all began to make terrible sense. All that was missing was the famous scythe really. "You're Death," she couldn't keep her voice from coming out small but its breathy quality surprised her. She really must be running out of strength rapidly.

The stranger smiled at her from the depths of her hood, "I knew you would come to it eventually. Most do." She settled on her heels and placed both hands primly in her lap. "I do not suppose you are going to be one of the accepting ones, are you? I am sure you are in a lot of pain."

Jules considered the question through the ever increasing pain of what she suspected where broken bones. She was young, there were so many things she hadn't done yet but she couldn't deny the pain anymore then she could deny the presence of the Grim Reaper squatting at her elbow.

"I don't feel in the accepting mood, no. But I don't see much point in denying something sitting right next to me either."

This won her another smile from beneath the hood. "Good then. I must say you have a lovely orchard." The stranger leaned forward until her face hovered above Jules's. Jules wasn't surprised that despite her being so close she couldn't see more than the curve of the woman's lips beneath the hood, the smooth white curve of chin. Before the woman reached out and touched her neck with one delicate finger.

Jules didn't know what she had been expecting, but this sudden rush of cold fire certainly wasn't it. It started at her neck and spread through her body quickly colliding with the pain of each broken bone and exploding in a shower of cold sparks. Painful beyond belief, a pain so thick and weighty she had to struggle with it just to find the strength to scream; but even as she opened her mouth to it was over. Just as well, she only managed a hoarse croak, followed by some barely vocal gasping breaths. She shivered before Death her body an icy numb and wondered if this was what death felt like.

But before she could ask, Death was reaching for her, hoisting her up and setting her on her feet. Jules stumbled, clutching at the robed figure, certain she'd experience pain or unsteadiness and caught completely by surprise when neither came. Death held her steady as she gained her legs, as solid and unshakable as the tree she'd just fallen out of. It only took her a moment to realize she wasn't going to suddenly collapse and once she realized that Jules realized something else. She was clutching Death like a drowning man might grasp a scrap of floating debris.

Jules was quick to release her grip and take a step away from Death. Feeling the heat of a blush rising to her cheeks, she busied herself checking her body over again. Nothing seemed to hurt. Not even the dullest of aches in any of her limbs and her shaky fingers felt no traces of the ragged wound that should have been at her throat. There was blood soaked through her top, still warm and becoming sticky. More blood soaking into the ground where she'd laid a moment before and she could see the damning knife that had done all the damage sticking inanely in the soil. I must have fallen on the damned thing...

Raising her eyes once again to the still and waiting figure of Death, Jules squinted at her, trying to make out features beneath the hood but the darkness beneath it was more complete than the darkest of nights. Finally, she asked the burning question.

"So, what's next?"

Death stood a moment, regarding her in silence and Jules felt a tremor of fear though it was quickly being overridden by her steady nature, whatever else might be happening the worst had already come and gone. She had time now, and then some, to have her questions answered.

"In truth? I am not entirely sure Ms. Harper." Death reached a hand, the skin unusually pale but definitely fully fleshed, into her hood. She made a gesture that could have been pinching the brim of her nose.

"Do I follow you somewhere or something?" Something was off here and Jules was determined to get to the bottom of it. But she forced herself to be patient and calm; she didn't want to risk her chance at heaven because she blew up at Death.

"Actually, how about I follow you? I would like very much to have a cup of tea and I have no idea which direction your home is from here."

Surprised, but still strangely calm, Jules turned and picked up the knife. Wiping it a clean spot of her pants as she walked, she started to lead Death home...

She stopped, "you're not asking me to lead you to my loved ones? You really just want a cup of tea? You're absolutely not after the rest of my family right?" She said, feeling the fear rush up inside her again.

"No Ms. Harper. You saw my List, you were the only one on it."

Jules relaxed again and lead the way to her home. Her father's home really, he'd made that clear when he mortgaged it to the hilt to send her to school. And he made it clear every time she came back. This wasn't the life he wanted for her...

She shook her head and opened the pantry door, stopping to take off shoes all muddy with her blood and orchard loam. Jules ushered Death into the kitchen and pulled out a seat for her, before bustling about setting the water on to boil and pulling two mugs down for the tea. But her shirt was beginning to get stiff and parts of it were sticking to her skin, it was getting more than a little uncomfortable.

"Uhm – is it alright if I go and change?"

Death seated at her kitchen table, made a sweeping gesture. "Go right ahead. If you do not mind, I will wait for you here."

Jules nodded absently and then headed for her room to change. Once there she pulled off her shirt and wiped herself quickly with a rag in the bathroom, getting the last bits of blood off of her skin. She couldn't resist looking at herself in the mirror, despite her haste; there wasn't even a scar on her neck though her body seemed to be covered with hideous bruises. Bruises?

Stripped and redressed, she balled the shirt she'd been wearing tightly inside of the much less obviously bloody jeans and shoved the whole ball into her bedroom trash. Then trooped back to the kitchen, just as the water started to boil.

Jules rushed for the stove, moving the water off the heat and turning it off. Trying not to look at her waiting Death; who, she'd noticed in passing as she entered, had removed her hood.

"I'm not dead am I?"

"No."

She couldn't help but smile triumphantly as she gathered sugar, lemon, honey and tea bags onto a tray along with the two steaming mugs of water. Anything to keep from turning around and having a companionable cup with the thing that was sitting behind her; it might not be Death, but whatever it was it most certainly wasn't human.

"Not that I'm not ecstatic with joy about that. But why aren't I dead?"

Tray laden she turned, eyes on the cups, concentrating perhaps a bit too hard on keeping the water in them from sloshing out. Jules heard it sigh as she placed the tray down and started taking things off of it.

"In truth Ms. Harper I do not know."

Finally, Jules took the last mug off the tray and set it before her guest. She hadn't realized she was still grinning like a fool till she felt it leave her face as her eyes watched that pale, pale hand grasp the handle and traveled up the arm slowly to look on their face.

No one ever told her Death would be this beautiful.

Long locks of pure white pooled over her shoulders and gather gleaming and pristine as new fallen snow in her hood. Skin so pale, but kissed with the most delicate hints of pink. A face so smooth, elegant and serene it could have come fresh from some artist's bench. Beautiful indeed and surreal, would even be disturbingly creepy – if it wasn't for the eyes. Large, expressive and hazel, those eyes were warm and full of a life the rest of her seemed untouched by, they warmed her features immeasurably.

"Tell me, Ms. Harper. What do you see?"

The question caught her off guard and recalled her back to the tasks at hand. Namely, making her cup of tea, she stirred in lemon and honey. "I see someone that's not going to freak my Daddy out when he comes home from turning over the North field, though he might fall all over himself over you." Jules found herself winking reassuringly at Death. What a difference a pretty face makes. "Do you have a name?"

Death blinked and Jules noted that despite that fall of white hair her eyelashes were black. "You are the second person to have asked me that today Ms. Harper."

"Call me Jules, will yah? Ms Harper feels way too formal for some reason, it's creeping me out."

"Jules then, I suppose you could call me Mitei." She took another sip of tea, "I am sorry, but I can not explain why you are not dead right now."

Well, she cuts right into it don't she? And here I was thinking we were going to have a nice companionable cup of tea first. Jules sipped her own cup thoughtfully.

"Are you really Death, Mitei? The Death?"

"Yes."

"You don't look entirely human"

"I am not human at all."

"Then what are you? Is death a species? Are there others?"

Mitei laughed. A warm rich sound that filled the cozy little kitchen and chased the last of the chill from Jules' bones. "If I have a species it is - unknown - to me. There are none like me. However there are 'others' of a sort."

"What sort?"

Mitei considered a moment, her eyes reflective as she sipped her tea, "perhaps you should come to my office and find out. Where are we?"

"Derry Township, Pennsylvania."

"Here," Mitei reached into her robes and pulled forth a small white card. "Please drop by this office. I will answer as many of your questions as I am I able then."

Mitei stood and Jules watched as her hood rose of its own will and shadows engulfed that shockingly pretty face. Again Mitei was nothing more than a tall figure hooded and robed in a manner that should have seemed out of place in this age, but didn't.

"I think I will be going now Ms. Harper. It was a – rare – pleasure to meet you."

"It's Jules –" But it was too late, Mitei took a step and vanished before her foot could even touch the floor.

***

Leo had had more than enough. He started to roll out of the hospital bed but the upraised metal sides were in the way. It only took him a moment to find the switch that lowered them but the delay irritated him even more.

Three days! The hospital had kept him an extra three days! His bare feet thumped onto the cold linoleum and he began pulling instruments off of his fingers and chest; they had at least stopped the intravenous drip but had refused to release him. His recovery was too fast to be explained, they had wanted to keep him longer for observation - but all he wanted was to get out of the cold white room that they'd shoved him into and go home.

Four days since he'd met Death and given her a name. Four days since Mitei had healed him and three days since he was supposed to walk into her Los Angeles office. Moving quickly Leo found the clothes they'd fetched for him from his condo and climbing into them. There was a new beeping noise added to the cacophony of the equipment he'd grown so used to over the course of the week and Leo was certain it was summoning nurses and doctors to dissuade him from leaving.

Leo pulled on his coat and managed to be heading around the corner when they descended on his room. Zipping the coat, he began following the signs for the stairs; the last thing he wanted was to get waylaid while waiting for the elevator, though he reconsidered when he realized what floor he was on. Sixty-two flights of stairs seemed to be a bit much to ask of himself after his long period of enforced bed rest. So he took the stairs down only a couple of flights before ducking back onto the floor and trying to follow the signs back to the elevators.

_Why is every hospital laid out like a maze,_ he wondered as he turned into yet another hidden side hallway and finally located the elevator. He must have found one of the less used elevators because this one was completely empty; likewise the side corridor that it dumped him into and he was able to slip out into the night without anyone remarking on his departure, though he was forced to walk around to the main entrance to find a cab.

Leo settled into the backseat and tried not to think about the cost of the ride let alone his hospital bills. Though he was pretty sure that his insurance covered it and to think how he'd laughed when he first saw that the insurance covered gunshot and stab wounds. Despite the dire forecasts of his classmates and professors he hadn't really believed that there was a likelihood of being stabbed by a student in his school. He smiled to himself, he'd been right after all; he hadn't been stabbed by one of his irate students. He'd been shot by someone else while one of his students had been involved in a gang war.

Suddenly tired, he placed his head in his hands, he didn't want to think about work. Not a single colleague had shown up at the hospital. Despite the fact that they must have known that he was in stable condition when he had called to let the department head know he wouldn't be in for a while, despite her carefully sympathetic tones and polite inquiries into the nature of his illness he hadn't received one get well card, or even a brief phone call. He sighed into his hands, resolving to take some serious time off before calling them again about his recovery.

"Mr. this the place?"

Leo raised his head and blinked in the sudden light of his complex, "yeah. How much do I owe yah?"

The cabbie tapped the meter and Leo paid the man. He must have spent too much time gazing at the complex because the guy drove away without giving him change, or maybe he thought it was his tip. Leo ran a hand through his unruly hair and headed for home.

***

Mitei watched Leo move up the front walk of a small condo from beneath the spreading branches of a magnolia tree. Hands thrust deep in the pockets of the suit jacket she was wearing this evening, hazel eyes glued to his retreating figure she noted that he was almost as tall as the form she'd been trapped into. As he paused at the door she pulled pale hands from her pockets and gazed at them in the moonlight. They were elegant, graceful and pretty damned hard to get rid of.

Her head rose at the sound of clinking keys, she watched Leo find the right one and fit it to the door lock, he hesitated in the act of turning the key and Mitei took a step towards him - vanishing before her form cleared the shadows of the magnolia.

***

Leo gazed into the darkness of the complex. For a moment he had thought he'd seen a tall figure moving beneath his neighbor's magnolia but as he stared into the darkness nothing moved, only his lonely mind playing tricks on him.

Usually when he returned home he was flooded with a sense of peace and wellbeing. He'd carefully furnished the place according to feng shui principals himself, trying for just that reassuring feeling. But when he opened the door and heard the money chimes ring on his entrance, heard the distant but constant sound of running water, he didn't find it peaceful. Leo's home had never been particularly inviting, he'd been drawn to the simplistic and spare designs of minimalism. Up until the moment when he opened the door after his long hospital stay the clean lines had always been soothing. Today everything felt cold.

He pulled off his light jacket and hung it in the entranceway closet before turning on the light. Warm yellow light poured into the entranceway from the raised living room. He cast off his shoes and ascended the stairs noticing for the first time how his sock clad feet seemed to slip a bit upon the polished wooden steps. The living room felt a good deal more inviting thanks to the soft yellow light of a few lamps but one glance at the low sofa turned him towards a second flight of stairs and the bedroom. He didn't feel in the mood to sit there this evening, with a cup of tea and a good book or more likely, with the dawning realization that he had somehow isolated himself.

Leo began unbuttoning his shirt as he ascended the stairs and let it fall carelessly behind him. There was no one to see or care how messily he kept his home, so why was it he had bothered to keep it so clean? Leo's mind wandered back over the years trying to remember what had happened to his friends. He'd had them once, good ones, bad ones but he'd had them and any one of them would have come to see him in the hospital – except, except, for some reason, they had all fallen away, vanished like melting snow over the years. Oh - Marda had moved to New York and Scott had decided to pursue a career as a pastor but none of that explained the vast distance that had grown up between them seemingly overnight.

A spray of ice cold water in his face jarred him from his musings. For the next few moments Leo lost himself in sputtering curses and fumbling at the taps, leveling out the temperature. Then he focused willfully on showering, blanking his mind and letting the familiar ritual of bathing himself sooth away some of the questions. He lingered with his head beneath the spray hesitant to leave the blanketing warmth of the shower.

Eventually the hot water began to taper off and the encroaching chill forced his hand. He toweled off briskly and stepped from the bathroom in the first breath of humid air rubbing at his damp and dripping curls with the towel.

***

Mitei paced. The room was not large, about ten paces by ten paces it was not terribly small either. Sparsely furnished, featuring mainly a low platform bed on her right, now left, now right again, two matching bedside tables and a decorative screen along one corner. The space was actually rather nice, though spare, a lamp on one of the tables gave off a soft light and several candles arranged on the other lent the room a soothing scent, the only sounds being Mitei's pacing and the distant patter of a shower in the connecting bathroom.

Mitei approached the bed; it was swaddled in white linens and slightly lumpy despite being carefully made. A questioning poke revealed the feather mattress she had suspected. With a sigh she lowered herself to the bed and slipped her feet out of the expensive Italian shoes, tucking them beneath her body. All the pacing had not activated the Path as she had hoped and real Italian shoes are not in the least bit comfortable. With a casual gesture Mitei pulled the List from the air and unrolled it, scanning it carefully in the golden light. Nothing had changed since she had first found herself in this room; the List was still completely blank. With a clench of her fist she crushed the scroll; things like this never happen, she thought as she stared at the crushed parchment.

Originally when Mitei had started Death Incorporated it had become obvious to her that she would need to alter the Path (that invisible, undeniable and unstoppable force that brought her to the dying with each step) in order to include the corporate office. Mitei had only needed to alter it long enough to pass along the appointments to the employees and then later, as the effects of finally having assistance had begun, to return her to one of the offices when there was free time.

Always to an office, places as close to a home as Mitei had ever had. Each staffed with a secretary, who for whatever reason, seemed to enjoy fussing over her and making the chilly and imposing spaces homey during her rare breaks. Altering the Path had not been at all easy and she was still unsure how she had finally accomplished the task but in the end had managed to get the desired effects and for more than three hundred years, Mitei had not found herself somewhere completely unfamiliar during free time.

At least that was the way things had worked until she found herself in someone's bedroom. Worse yet, that person was home, in the shower, and not on the List! Mitei hurled the List away from herself and did not bother noting its' disappearance in midair, focusing instead on the new spectacle of her own pale flesh. Raising both hands to eye level she gazed at their delicate beauty. The hands were nice, pale and lovely but they were not her hands. Not that she had ever really _had_ a body before; she had always been given a solid form by each of the dying, nor had she had much of a preference for one form or another. Excepting when at the office with the human workers for whom Mitei had learned to control her form, choosing most often the appearance of a rather ordinary mousey woman, polished only with money and power.

Now, trapped in the form that Leo Kaylor had given her, Mitei found she was incapable of changing form at will. At first she had not tried too hard, after all there were not any humans on the List and the rest of the planet did not really care what she looked like. Eventually, however, the attitudes in the offices had started to shift, the workers had started to shrink away or stare and Mitei, assuming that the drain of the strange events that had originally triggered the troubles her inability of changing form had simply been a symptom of had long worn off; had decided to return to her normal appearance. Disturbed by the lack of results more than she had wanted the offices to know, Mitei had taken to wearing the hooded robe to all the meetings.

Mitei flopped back onto the bed, wallowing in the enfolding comfort of the soft feathery goodness. Things were most certainly different in the new body; after the secretaries had finally managed to impress upon her the need to take pleasure in the world around her, Mitei had begun to partake of a few of the things that they had suggested, coffee, chocolate, a warm bath and so on. Everything had been nice, each helping to awaken her to the world of sensation that the mortals around her wallowed in with every breath. However until she had been trapped in this form everything had seemed somewhat ridiculous, though seeing her partake of a cup of coffee or a chocolate treat had helped to ease the employees in her presence. After she had spent a few hours running around in new Italian shoes on tender new feet Mitei had found whole worlds of new comfort in the warm bath Kathleen, the secretary at the London office, had insisted on drawing for her.  
Finally, the soft sounds of the shower stopped and Mitei rolled to one side and faced the bathroom door. Time to find out what exactly is going on.

***

Leo wrapped a towel about his waist and stepped into his bedroom; eyes misted with steam from the shower he made his way to the corner closet behind the screen by memory rather than site and began rummaging in the untidy pile of clean clothes hidden by the screen. Selecting a pair of boxers, he shimmied into them one handed as the other toweled some of the heavy moisture out of his hair and noted the reflection in the full length mirror on the closet door. Reaching up Leo probed around the fresh scar on his chest, lumpy with the soft pink color of new flesh and the wince of pain that probing around it caused him proved its tender quality. Almost completely healed excepting the sensitivity and the small tares where the staples had been holding the wound together before Mitei had healed him. Looking at the scar was a reminder of how close he had come to dying four days ago.

Death had been in the room that day, literally, Leo shuddered as he stepped out from behind the screen, noting the reclining female form on his bed.

"Ah - Mr. Kaylor."

"Hello Mitei, this is definitely an - unexpected - surprise." Leo said, ducking quickly back behind the screen and selecting a pair of jeans at random from the pile, if Death had come for him again he intended to go to it in pants this time, "uh, am I dying again?"

"No, Mr. Kaylor. Though I am here to see you, I suppose." Mitei's voice seemed vaguely amused as Leo zipped and buttoned the jeans.

"Well then," he stepped out from behind the screen and slung the wet towel over it, spreading it carefully so it would dry without getting his clothing moldy, he could hang it up properly in the bathroom later, after his guest had left. "I suppose such a happy event of my not immediate death deserves a drink." He considered a moment, "though it's probably not a good idea for me to be drinking yet, so how about coffee?"

Mitei smiled, then nodded and Leo gestured her towards the stairs. Watching as she stood and preceded him down the stairs, taking note of the cast off shoes and her lack of hooded robe he relaxed. Even if she is wearing a business suit instead of a pair of jeans and a tee-shirt, I doubt she'd come to kill me again without the robe.

The thought though irrational put a smile on his face as he followed Mitei down the stairs, through the living room and into the kitchen. She moved into the space and took a seat on a stool by the island without waiting for him to turn on a light, Leo decided that despite appearing relatively normal those hazel eyes of Mitei's must come with a few added bells and whistles like better than human night vision as he reached around the kitchen door frame and flipped on the overhead lights.

With the lights on the kitchen sparkled, partly due to the stainless steel everywhere, partly due to the high shine he polished everything to and partly due to the colorful accents Leo had scattered about. The entire effect was completely different from the rest of the house, where the living room was almost store room cold and the bedroom felt like a spa retreat the kitchen was both inviting and full of life. Leo moved into the space and busied himself making the coffee for a few moments. It had never dawned on him before how warm the kitchen felt, the thought as he pulled the coffee beans from the freezer and ground them.

The atmosphere of the place seemed unmistakable in the presence of Death. Leo smiled to himself as he measured coffee into the percolator and took a damp cloth to the grinds that had missed the pot. I suppose this is why people who've had near Death experiences all say they've felt a renewed love of life, he thought as he bundled the tools and coffee away again.

"Why did you not come to the L.A. office Mr. Kaylor?"

The question was again tinged with a faint amusement and Leo glanced at the woman sitting at his kitchen island. Mitei had propped both elbows on top and her head rested on interlaced fingers, he took a moment to scan her eyes, seeing the amusement but not the source he turned back to the cabinet and pulled out a couple mugs noting as he did that he had a set of six but had never had as many guests.

"Is that why you're here?" Leo asked as he turned back to the island and placed a mug in front of Mitei. "Have you some terribly important position that only I can fill then."

Mitei picked up the mug and turned it over in her hands, it was made of hand thrown clay with a leaf pattern etched into it and glazed about the rim and inside with a warm walnut color. Leo watched her examine it, trying to get another look into her eyes but with her lashes lowered they were as impossible to read as the rest of her. With the mug immobile in her pale hands Mitei looked almost a marble statue, perfect and poised mid motion, the kind Leo always expected to clear their vision with a blink and be on their merry way at any second.

"Actually, I think I do have the perfect position for you." Mitei said putting down the mug and meeting his gaze with her own.

"What?"

"I think you would make a lovely secretary Mr. Kaylor."

Leo turned from the island with a snort of suppressed amusement, "Leo, remember," he said and pulled open the refrigerator door rummaging for the cream, placed the carton on the counter and turned back to the cabinets, pulling down a creamer and a sugar bowl and began filling each. "You mean to tell me that you came here to find one more person to do your filing for you?"

When silence was all the response he received Leo put down the sugar container and turned to regard Mitei once again. Her hands were fiddling with the long length of snowy hair, tugging and pulling it back into a messy plait, the motion so inexpert it was obvious she was absorbed with the task, perhaps she hadn't even heard the question, he thought as he turned back to the task of pouring sugar into the small ceramic dish.

"My secretaries do not do much filing Leo."

Leo picked up both sugar dish and creamer and brought them to the island.

"I suppose that does sound a bit too 'everyday' for secretaries at Death Inc." Leo said as he got the percolator and poured the coffee.

"I suppose," Mitei said white brows knitting together. "They do things like bring me coffee."

"Oh," Leo said with a snicker. "Admittedly, that's a good deal easier than being a teacher."

Mitei spooned sugar and poured cream into her coffee then looked up at him. It was impossible to mistake the confusion in her eyes. He shifted his feet uncomfortably and busied himself sweetening his own coffee. It was obvious that she was serious and didn't seem to understand his condescension.

"They make the offices a nice place for me." Mitei said each word carefully spaced as if considering each carefully before speaking. "My offices are, imposing and cold, they are also, for lack of a better word, home. My home. The secretaries make them more inviting and warm for me, places it is good to return to..." She trailed off and he could have kicked himself; Mitei hadn't been trying to demean him by offering him a minimum wage position; she had honestly been offering him what was, at least from her perspective, the best position her company had to offer.

"You mean these secretaries are your friends." He said and sat down on another stool beside her. Mitei had said before that no one got to know her. Except, Leo now thought, maybe for these secretaries. He sipped at his coffee, but as people taking home a wage for their services Mitei could never be certain of their friendship, he shook his head. "I'm sorry Mitei. I can't be your secretary."

From this position he couldn't see her eyes to read her emotions but he felt her stiffen on the stool. "But, I could always use a good friend," he added. Seeing as friends are one thing I seem to be fresh out of.

The smile that Mitei graced him with then gave warmth to her face and set sparkles to dancing in those wonderful hazel eyes. All in all it transformed her lovely but distant features into warm beauty and Leo found himself smiling back.

***

Mitei left not long after. They had talked some more and Leo had gotten a better idea of what her life was like when he suggested they switch the barely padded stools for the sofa in the living room. Mitei had begun to precede him from the room and then, rethinking it had stepped aside to let him pass with the tray of coffee and other goodies and disappeared before her foot had touched the ground.

Watching her disappear before his eyes again had been every bit as disconcerting as their first meeting and he resolved to ask her not to do that the next time she popped in. This had of course reminded him that Mitei was likely to pop in anywhere at anytime completely unannounced and perhaps scaring passerby to death with the whole hooded Death thing.

Leo laughed himself silly and put away the coffee things noting as he did that the microwave clock read well past three in the morning. Lucky he had already decided to convalesce at home for a few more days before returning to teaching. As it was there was no need for him to contemplate the grim prospects of tossing for a couple of hours in a caffeine crippled nap and then rousing himself to more coffee and several hours on his feet.

Kitchen tidied and everything back in its rightful place Leo headed back up the stairs and to his waiting feather mattress. Even with all the caffeine screaming through his veins the bed was still a delightful prospect. Though it wasn't until Leo sunk into the feathery depths that he realized how tired he was despite the caffeine. Healing or no healing it was obvious to him as he slipped off into slumber that he wasn't completely healthy yet.

***

There cannot be anything more disconcerting then stepping sideways out of a comfy kitchen barefoot at night and onto a rocky hillside still barefoot sometime during the day; Mitei decided as she picked herself up from where she had tumbled down the slope. She dusted off her new suit and surveyed the scene of her latest arrival. The countryside stretched bleak and mostly empty of life, human and otherwise. She stood on one of many steep and hilly slopes consisting mostly of rocks, dust and spotty vegetation. Nothing seemed to be in immediate distress but Mitei knew from long experience that that did not mean nothing was about to die. Pulling the List from the air beside her with one hand, she began to beat at her rumpled suit with the other. It looked like the expensive garment was going to need to be sent out to a tailor, one of the seams had popped and there was dust ground into it all over. Nothing a good tailor could not fix though, she thought, and unrolled the List.

Before she had even unrolled the List properly Mitei could tell that something serious was going to happen, and soon. Usually the List was quite short; a reflection of the few human names that were left on it after she had given out the assignments at the various offices. The only names that were not given to one of the workers were those in places that her workers simply could not get to, like a sold out flight were someone was scheduled for a heart attack or a space shuttle about to blow up shortly after takeoff. Sometimes, there were events that were just too dangerous for Mitei to send her employees to. Fires for example, Mitei never sent a worker into a fire be it in a building or in the woods, they would obviously be in danger of dying themselves. So things like fires remained in her sole purview, during disasters, Mitei was simply the only one who could safely go. Always when the assignment was more than one or two names, the List was longer to reflect it.

The List that Mitei held now was rolling down the hill.

A quick scan over the times next to each name indicated that several hundred were to die within moments of each other. Forgetting that she had real feet and that she had left her shoes in Leo's condo, Mitei stomped down hard on a rock and was too wrapped up in the problem at hand to notice either the sharp pain in her foot or the rocks crumbling to powder beneath her dainty toes.

Even if the Path decided to behave itself there was no way that she could make it to all those people at the same time, she was going to have to cast a pall. Mitei ran a hand through the wisps of snowy hair that had already escaped her clumsy attempt at a plait, I started the company to cut down on this sort of thing especially, she glanced at her watch; exceedingly unpleasant or not, there is still a job to do and no one else to do it, she thought and stood a little straighter on the hill.

Attempting to pull off one of her fingers proved both futile and painful so Mitei settled for pulling out a few strands of silken hair. She stared at the pathetic strands a moment and then began to weave them together, where before her fingers had proved inept at plaiting they proved deft now as she wove a dark net from strands of snowy silk. Letting the ends of the net catch in a wind that blew only along the Path, Mitei felt the disorientation of the pall taking on part of whatever made her Death and seeking out those whose names were on the List. Chanting softly each name, as if they were etched on memory and she needed no List, she felt the pall find each appointment and settle into their shadows and skin waiting for the time to release them from their bodies.

The world swaying dizzily in front of her was Mitei's clue that the pall had settled over all those people and – she paused a moment sensing along the path and connecting with the far flung bits of herself, yes, with the plants and animals along the way as well. For a moment her vision was prismatic as if each bit of the pall was another eye she could look through and Mitei stumbled blindly for a moment trying to harness her sight back within the bounds of a single body. She shook herself and clasped shaking fingers to her head, there was a throbbing in the back of her skull that had never been there before; not in plague or holocaust, never when she had cast a pall before had it been exactly pleasant but never had she felt such pain either.

Mitei shook her head to clear it and was surprised to find that the shaking had only made the pain worse. First I cannot pull off a finger and now this, she mashed her palms against her temples suddenly and unpleasantly reminded that she was not quite pleased with the new state of her body. Pulling the List from the air again, a quick glance informed her that though the pall would take out most of the most immediate cases, there were still quite a few names left before she could go back to the offices and let the workers here have the rest. Mitei raised her foot and nearly slipped down the hill as it began to shake beneath her heel.

Earthquake then, she thought and stepped quickly forward on the Path.

***

The ground seemed to dance beneath her feet as she walked, the Path seemed intent on keeping her moving just a little ahead of the shifting landscape. Mitei found the whole thing mildly disconcerting as she moved, quickly placing each foot in front of the other and removing one from ground that seemed to shift or crumble beneath her toes. Move she did and in a hurry, in her new state she was not entirely certain how well she would fare is she fell, the Path continued to dance her along toward her appointments and she decided to concentrate on the task at hand losing herself in the comfort of her purpose.

The Pall snapped into sudden effect and the shock of it nearly flung her to her knees. Her vision wavered as she was forcibly connected with those far flung pieces of herself again, each one taking a bit of her mind and will and whatever made her death and reaching for each of the people, animals, plants that was on the List. There was the sensation of touching hundreds of people and things, the image of sudden darkness the smell of blood, bile and the special reek of hundreds of bowels emptying at once.

Mitei's consciousness snapped back into her new body and she stumbled forward. The Path warped her another step forward and out of the path of the sliding earth she had previously been precariously close to. Still, a falling branch nicked her as she passed leaving a gash. There was blood but she was too intent on her current task to notice any more oddities of the body. It had become far too distracting, without realizing it Mitei reached deep inside and found a trigger, a core of her being that could not be touched by whim or time. Death.

Moving with the Path instead of just on it now Mitei found each of the names on her List. The new body refusing to be abandoned kept sending sensations and refused to allow her quite as much freedom as she was used to in such circumstances. Finger and toe nails snapped off, a few bones probably broke but Mitei was beyond caring as she sought out each appointment. There was a simple joy in it; keeping her appointments and having them all turn out as they should.

Here was a man that was half crushed by his roof, he was beyond screaming and could only weep in quiet agony; he welcomed her touch, as did his wife upstairs and their oldest child who had been playing behind the building. It hurt, but this was a joyous time. So many welcomed her with open arms, few even thought of arguing. None had the strength to struggle against her and she had not the time to indulge any if they had wanted to try. There had been a good few thousand names on her List when she had stood at the top of that hill and she had only a few minutes to take care of all of them. Falling debris hit her repeatedly and stopped her not at all as the Path took her into what was probably a hospital

She passed from room to room and sometimes into the corridors. No one asked her name, or remarked on her appearance none seemed to care. All seemed to know her for their Death and most went quickly with opened arms. Mitei did not even pause to touch them. It was not necessary, just to be there with them seemed all the permission they needed. They fled their damaged bodies without hesitation. Children and strong willed young people alike, when faced with the absolute incontrovertible ruin of having their skulls crushed, ribs cracked, lungs, heart, stomach and other organs punctured; these people who would have in other instances fought to keep on living, were eager for her.

There was joy here. Joy in releasing these poor mortals. Joy in fulfilling her purpose once again. There was sadness as well. Some called for her, screamed, begged, cried for death. She could not go to all of them. This one, his head cracked open his brains a soup on the concrete, he would be that way for a few hours perhaps days more. He was not on the List now though and he would have to wait till it was his proper time. That one there, with the fractured hip and shattered leg, he was a promising athlete. Passed out now with the pain he was mercifully silent, but if she had passed him by a moment before or come back later while he was being pieced back together in the hospital he would be demanding her presence most forcibly. This woman, her back broken and her arms reaching towards the child that was on her List; this one could nearly see her, this woman's determination so great to join her child in death, there was little doubt in Mitei's mind that her name would be appearing on the List shortly. But not today, not now and there were so many others that were on the List. So many whose time had come. Still, Mitei took a step toward the woman, intending to offer what little comfort an invisible touch could and stepped onto the scene of another appointment just like that.

It was – frustrating -- that. Always only able to offer to those in their time the release that some sought so desperately. Still there was relief in this as well. Everyone was dying as they ought. Despite what had been happening the last few days each and every one of those thousand or so that was on her current List was passing without any incident. No chill fire, no improbable healing. They all just died. Moved on or disappeared but stopped living good and proper. Yes proper. Mitei smiled, soothing that, the sensation that everything was again just as it was supposed to be. All in its proper order. Life and Death working properly together again each in their proper time and place; she felt good. Really good.

Despite the rips, tares, bleeding, possible fractures that this new body had sustained her steps became light. Nearly dancing on her bare toes Mitei did a rare thing – she sang. Nearly dancing, though the path had become much more stable as the ground had stopped shaking, she sang. Wordless, sweet, joyous and soothing as she worked her way along her path, her voice defying the confines of the new body and reaching depths and heights that should have been impossible for something resembling a frail human female.

The song itself twisted along the Path faster then her steps, traveling to each on her List and a few that were not. It was not a lament, but it was still undeniably Death's song. To the dying it brought comfort, they could hear her coming for them and nothing that sounded so sweet could be that terrifying. To the rare living that could hear it, the song awakened a fervent wish. A passion for the sweet soothing joy that that song promised; this would not manifest as a death wish in some. For those rare beings that saw no possibility of joy in death, they would search for joy and sweetness in life a newer passion in living that they would probably attribute to their luck in surviving the disaster of the earthquake. But for the rest, there would be the death wish, a certainty that the peace they seek could only be found in death.

These would hunt for Mitei with the rest of their days and some would probably book themselves appointments with members of her staff for any assortment of stupid reasons in the coming days. But for now there was the song and the joy of purpose. The sweet certainty of knowing exactly what ones position was in the world. This joy was Mitei's, the song, an attempt to share that joy with all she could. An offering of comfort in the only way that Death was really allowed to give the dying, she could pause a moment to lament that the only time she seemed able to sing like this was in the midst of such great mortal tragedy. Singing was not something she did often, even more rare for her then a chance to sleep. Unlike sleep, singing was a pleasure that was her own and not something she had had to learn with time and contact with the living.

Her body was battered and bruised, perhaps broken seriously in places, but Mitei walked her Path dancing and singing, while those around her slipped easily into death.

***

Cracking one eye open carefully, Leo faced the morning. From the cursory glance that he gave the room he determined that though Mitei hadn't decided to make another unscheduled appearance the sun had once again decided to rise and surprise him in bed.

Leo closed his eye, briefly contemplated staying in bed, pulling the covers over his head and telling the sun to bug off. After all it wasn't like he had to work and he didn't have any real plans for the day, so why couldn't he just laze about in bed for a few more hours. A nagging voice in the back of his head informed him that he'd already slept half the day away already and he'd be up all night again if he didn't get up soon. Leo was busily contemplating a compromise with the nagger and himself, something involving a good book and not stepping foot out from under the warm covers, when his stomach weighed in on the discussion and he promptly lost the argument.

Pulling himself out of bed slowly, Leo remembered the towel he'd hung on the screen the night before; it had probably taken off half the lacquer by now, he went to inspect the damage and find something to cover his chest with. As expected the towel was a mess having absorbed a good deal of the dark stain of the screen, though the screen looked none the worse for wear. Leo tossed the towel over his shoulder and selected a gray turtleneck from the pile on the floor. It was wrinkled, but there was no one to notice and besides it was a turtleneck. Turtlenecks didn't keep a wrinkle or at least that was one of the many excuses Leo told himself to keep from buying an iron or, heaven forbid, actually folding his clothes and putting them away. The mess behind the screen was a source of somewhat contradictory pride for him, one he was as unlikely to give up on as his love of chocolate donuts.

Though, as he dropped his ruined towel in the kitchen trashcan, that whole love of chocolate donuts thing might be out after all, nothing like getting shot while munching on one to quall your appetite for the things. Pulling on the sweater and opening the refrigerator with a grim determination to eat a good healthy breakfast, maybe a few scrambled eggs and toast even, rather than the usual pot of coffee, he even went as far as pulling a couple eggs from their cradle and setting them on the counter in anticipation. Since he wasn't in a rush today, didn't have to hustle out the door in a few minutes with his hands full of papers, he could afford the extra time and effort it would take to make himself an honest breakfast, or so he told himself as he ground the beans and set up the percolator.

Somehow by the time the coffee was brewed and in his cup, sweetened and creamed to perfection, the eggs had mysteriously vanished back into their respective cradles in the refrigerator. And there isn't any bread in the house so I simply can't make any toast, Leo thought with smug self-amusement as he settled down at the island in the kitchen to sip at his coffee and contemplate the day.

The amusement lasted only a moment before going sour as Leo realized that though he'd decided that he needed to rest up a bit more and would therefore stay away from work for the time being, there was little to keep him occupied with at home. After a while he settled on the grim prospect of going out for groceries. He'd need to cook quite a bit if he was going to be staying at home for the next few days. Leo sipped at his coffee and grimaced, he'd be sure to pick up a cook book while he was out, maybe even make a special trip to the bookstore so he could see if they had a copy of "Cooking for the Bachelor Dummy," while he was at it.

Somehow he thought, as he was locking his front door, he'd probably end up with a big bag of Top Ramen and a stirring novel or two instead.

***

Feeling rather smug and tired an hour later Leo returned home with not one bag of Ramen but two bags of honest groceries. Ok, so they consisted mostly of bread, hamburger and hamburger helper, but there were only five bags of Ramen way down in the bottom of the bag and that was what really counted, he thought as he dropped the bags off in the kitchen and wandered back out into the living room grabbed the remote and turned on the TV. flipping till he came to a news program, for some reason he wanted to fill the empty condo with the sound of people talking, and headed back into the kitchen already weighing the merits of hamburger macaroni against beefy stroganoff for dinner.

Leo was head and shoulders deep in the refrigerator putting away supplies and taking belated inventory of what he had already that hadn't gone all fuzzy with new life forms when the newscast penetrated his mind. Pulling out of the fridge too fast he bumped his head on one of the racks and started off a clattering of glass containers. Something about an earthquake, he thought as he wandered back into the living room and sank down on the sofa.

Yes, an earthquake and a big one too by the looks of it, in South Asia, the death toll already estimated well within the thousands. He watched the news footage of the wounded and the homeless with half an eye. So this was what had taken Mitei out of his kitchen in mid-step. For a moment he contemplated another trek to the store for something a little more nourishing than Ramen and hamburgers, something nice, maybe even soothing - and then it dawned on him that he was planning dinner for the person responsible for all those deaths in Asia.

By some trick of fate Leo himself had been spared when Mitei had come for him, but there were people all over the planet who weren't so lucky and he was sitting here seriously considering feeding the woman! Over the course of the night Mitei had personally killed at least a thousand people, separating parents from children and snuffing out young lives well before their time and here he was thinking that she'd be tired and hungry if she dropped in tonight. Leo starred at the screen no longer seeing the increasingly pathetic images his mind's eye suddenly full of other images; Mitei sitting by what had almost been his death bed and answering his inane questions. Mitei's hazel eyes and how they had clouded over when he'd asked about people getting to know her and her eyes again when he'd said he'd be her friend.

Simple words, learned in a thousand hours of childhood play. But those words had lit up the face of a woman more ancient than he could imagine as if that had been the first time she had ever heard them. Leo ran a hand through is hair and over his face, simple words they might have been, words he'd said once often enough. As Leo sat and stared at the television screen still not seeing the images of children being pulled from rubble alive and parents hauled up after, broken several times over and obviously dead, he began to suspect that being friends with this woman was going to be a good deal less simple than it had been to speak the words.

***

Leo spent the rest of the day in a kind of daze. He tossed out everything in the fridge that was fuzzy with mold or that smelled bad, even some cheese that he half suspected had always smelled foul and headed back to the store. He told himself that he was dragging himself back to the store to restock some of the essentials he'd thrown out, but picked out a couple of nice steaks and grabbed a couple of potato's nearly the size of his head as well. By the time he returned home again he was really beginning to feel tired. There was a brief debate about whether he should troop upstairs and crawl into the bed for a bit of a nap or if he could manage a few moments on the sofa in the living room as he put away the new rations. Once again his stomach decided the matter and Leo pulled a package of Ramen aside for a quick bite and then, he promised himself, a long nap.

The Ramen turned out alright, still a little crunchy but Leo told himself that that was the way he liked it and woofed it down. Still feeling hungry though, he made a couple of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and some hot tea. This turned out to be a culinary masterpiece but despite his stomachs quiet nagging he decided not to push his luck in the kitchen any further, grabbing a few cookies from a jar and heading into the living room for the promised nap.

Lying there and staring at the ceiling the daze lifted just enough for him to wonder what he would do when Mitei dropped back in. He was still contemplating the question when sleep took him.

***

A loud thumping sound coming from the stairs pulled Leo out of his nap an hour later. He snapped awake and grabbed the nearest blunt object that came to hand, the remote; tossing it back down with a grunt he grabbed a stone egg from the coffee table instead. It had a much shorter reach than the remote but was still probably the best weapon he had in the living room, he thought as he moved towards the stairs on bare feet.

The thought was a strange one, but it was quickly lost in the jumble of the day and the immediate adrenaline of the moment as Leo closed in on the stairs and the burglar. He paused just out of reach of them and gathered himself before rushing onto the stairs, the egg raised high enough to pull the muscles around his scar painfully.

All that for not, he thought wincing as he recognized the figure crumpled awkwardly on the stairs. Mitei was lying in a sprawl, all knees and elbows; the suit that had looked so nicely tailored and expensive the night before was now ripped, tattered and stained with dust and unknown liquids. Her bare feet were cut and bruised looking, one pearly toenail seemed to be completely missing and her hands weren't in much better shape. Her beautiful lips were puffy and there was a split in the bottom one, her eyelids were drawn down over her eyes and there was another puffy bruise under her right one that said she wouldn't be opening that one anytime soon. The other eye seemed sunken into her face and there was a pearlescent pink ting to the lid that seemed all the color her body could summon for bruising. The only thing about her that seemed to have gone through the day unscathed was her long white hair. It was too fine and wispy to be snarled, naturally seeming to resist all tangles; it laid spread about Mitei's head on the stairs in incongruous silken perfection.

Seeing her sprawled on the steps like that, pushed some of the more troubling questions of the morning to the back of Leo's head, he lowered his raised egg to the stairs and gently picked Mitei up. It was an effort, the stair well was narrow and Leo could feel his scar protesting the action, but he finally managed to lift her and carried her to the sofa in the living room. He laid her there, spreading her limbs out properly and assessing the damage again once he had.

_Mitei looks bad but nothing seems life threatening, just exceedingly painful._ Leo stood over her a moment trying to remember where he kept the alcohol and bandages, when her eyes flashed open. Or one of her eyes flashed open the other was, as he had expected, swollen firmly shut.

"Hello, Leo."

"Hi, rough day at work?"

She started to smile, then winced and licked her split lip. "Yes, the roughest."

Leo snorted and headed for the kitchen there was a small bottle of alcohol and some Band-Aids in there, he was pretty sure, remembering all the times he had cut his fool finger before he had given up all but the most modest interest in cooking. Now if he could only remember where he had stashed the things the last time he had put them away. He bustled about the kitchen, slamming more cabinets and drawers than was strictly necessary and cursing loudly all the while.

Leo finally returned to the living room, a medicinal bundle in his arms and regarded Mitei sitting up on the sofa and prodding her face none to gently. He watched as she poked a nail-less finger at her swollen eye and let lose a curse that made his burly words of a moment ago seem like nursery rhymes.

"Stop that." He said coming up beside Mitei and dropping the whole lot on the coffee table, Leo grasped her wrist as gently as he could and pulled her fingers away from her face. "Don't you have enough sense to stop doing something if it hurts."

It hadn't been a question and Leo wasn't expecting an answer as he pulled a clean dish towel out of the heap on the table and doused it with alcohol.

"I do not suppose that I have any sense at all Leo." The response shocked him enough that he came down a bit heavy on the wound he had been about to dab. More shocking than her answer was the rib jarring kick Mitei planted firmly in his stomach with her loud shriek taking second place in the category.

They both drew in hisses of unexpected pain and glared at each other warily, Leo from across the room, Mitei on the couch. "That hurt!" Came identical exclamations.

The double timing was too much for Leo and he broke the glaring eye contact laughing. Mitei's glare intensified and she clutched her maligned hand to her chest, affronted. Leo pulled himself up from the floor where she had kicked him and winced at the pain, not just in his stomach where she had kicked him but in his chest as well.

"I didn't do it on purpose," he started as he pulled up his sweater to check the scar, make sure he hadn't ripped it open. "Alcohol stings, but it's good for you..."

The scar was gone.

"What. Did. You. Do?"

Mitei gave him wide eyes. "Me? You are the one drenching me in painful liquids!"

For some reason the fact that Mitei had healed him, again; brought back all the original horror of the news cast earlier that day. Leo stalked towards her, hands clenched at his side, "why did you heal me? Again? When you've spent all day killing other people?"

Mitei blinked her single open eye at him, "I do not understand."

Something about her ease of posture or maybe that single unflinching hazel eye made Leo unclench his fists. He paced around the table and ran his hands through his hair; finally he leaned against the far wall. The medical supplies lay on the table and though Mitei still clutched her offended hand Leo refused to let himself think about going over there and helping clean the wounds and put on the Band-Aids. After a moment she stuck the finger in her mouth, made a face, the alcohol couldn't taste all that good, and sucked on it.

Leo watched Mitei suck on her finger, trying to decide what to do with the half formed anger and loathing he was feeling. Finally he shook his head and decided to talk.

"You came to the hospital to kill me." It was a statement but he waited for her acknowledgement before moving on. "Instead you healed me."

Mitei blinked at him again and kept sucking on her finger, Leo waited but it became clear that she wasn't going to reply so he moved on. "Today there was an earthquake and you killed a thousand people –"

"It was more like three thousand people who died," Mitei interrupted speaking around her finger quietly.

Leo clinched his jaw feeling the raw loathing welling up again. "Why?"

"Why what?"

The question was almost too much for Leo. "Why did you heal me and not them?"

She sat quietly for a moment, sucking on her finger her hazel eye thoughtful. "Leo, I am Death. I cannot heal people." His body tensed and Mitei raised her other hand to hold him off. "Something has been happening to me lately. But I have no more answers as to what, than I do as to what happens to you after you die."

Mitei pulled her finger from her mouth and frowned at it a moment before folding it into her palm. Not fast enough to keep Leo from noticing that there was a pale nail on the tip of that finger again. "You're healing yourself right now and you want to tell me that you can't do it?"

"Actually," she sighed, "I do not think I am healing myself. At least not the way you seem to think I can. This is just part of the whole immortal invulnerability thing... I think."

Leo crossed his arms and glared at her, "you think?"

"Yes, I think. I already told you things have not been working the way they should for me lately."

"Like?"

Mitei sighed again and swung her legs off the sofa, now that he was looking for it he noticed that some of the cuts and scrapes on her feet and legs where already gone. "This is going to take a moment to tell. Come sit down." She patted the vacant section of sofa and Leo glared at her again then skulked back across the room as he realized that all the glaring and pouting were probably making him look about seven years old, perched uncomfortably on the edge of the sofa and sat rigid. Mitei either didn't notice his rigidity or she didn't care. Opening her palm and spreading the fingers out flat on her lap she seemed to examine her nails closely before beginning.

"To start with I have not had a lone human assignment in a long time. Five days ago, I had two." She held up two fingers, both capped by whole nails. There was a small nick on one of them and Leo watched the edges draw together and close before his eyes. "Both of you lived." Mitei crushed the fingers into a fist and slammed it onto her lap in obvious frustration.

"No one ever lives. Not when I go personally." She pounded her fist into her lap with each sentence; frustration giving way to confusion in her voice and even a dark hint of fear. "That you both lived is bad, but what happened when I returned to the office was worse. I am stuck in this form!" That last was a barely restrained scream that drew Leo closer where all the talk about how he was supposed to die had not. It was the scream of someone in soul deep distress. It helped to clear away the last dregs of anger and now he could look at Mitei and see the confusion and pain she wasn't really mentioning. The wounds on her body continued to knit almost as he watched, her right eye was open now though her cheek was still swollen and tinged that faint pink color and she had all her finger nails now.

"I have always been what each person needed most to see at their death. It was a small comfort and usually all I could give. Today I lacked even that. I followed the Path as always, it took me to the dying and they looked at _this_ face. And none of them seemed to care." A single tear leaked out of her newly opened eye and caught on her upper lip. "I am trapped in this form that you gave me and it is broken and strange. It bloody leaks!" Mitei swiped at the offending tear with one hand. "And it hurts all over, all of the time. And it seems to have a mind, no, several minds of its own. And then, just when I thought I was going to get a few hours of rest at an office, the Path dumps me here and you, somehow, find a way to make everything worse."

Mitei gave a surprised wail and started crying in earnest which seemed to provoke another stream of magnificent swearing; this time swimming in and out of English so fast that Leo couldn't follow it. For some reason the whole scene struck him as funny and though he managed not to laugh Leo had to smile at the spectacle before him. Mitei was still a wreck, most of the wounds had closed themselves but her suit was just as ruined as before and now her face was streaked with silvery tears and squished up in comical ways by some of the strange things she was saying.

Looking at her so nonplussed, it was hard for Leo to find even a trace of the loathing of a minute earlier. He couldn't hold back the laughter when he was caught off guard by a venomous curse in English about Io's great lactating teats and was surprised to realize he was pleased to see Mitei smile cautiously at him through the remainder of her tears.

"I bet I know some of the things your body has been bugging you about," Leo said standing. "Part of it wants to rest and another part is complaining loudly for food right?"

She nodded up at him and started to rise but Leo motioned for her to stay sitting. "I tried eating some chocolates at the London office but that just seemed to make things worse."

"Alright then, I'll go make you something that should shut up at least one of those nagging voices for a bit." He started for the kitchen and looked back at her. "You stay put on that sofa ok? I don't want you popping out of here on an empty stomach."

Mitei nodded her ascent and Leo headed into the kitchen to throw the steaks into the pan.

***

Mitei leaned against the back of the couch, trying to get comfortable. Finding it mildly difficult to do, since the couch had no arm rests or even any fluffy pillows, she settled for lying down. Getting up was out of the question, with the Path being so out of sorts lately she was likely to find herself half way around the globe the second her toe hit the floor and right now she was curious about what Leo was up to.

From the kitchen there was only clanking and sizzling sounds, an occasional curse sprinkled in for good measure, there was a rising smell of something cooking and for a moment she puzzled over what it could be, but it soon resolved itself into the smell of coffee. There was an indignant sound from her mid-region and she turned over to poke at her stomach. Poking did not seem to reproduce the sound, but she was sure it had come from around there. She brought her fist down into her stomach and this did produce a sound, though the sound of all the air rushing out of her did not seem to match at all the grumble she had heard a moment before. _What is going on with me?_ The thought was interrupted by a particularly ominous series of crashes and bangs from the kitchen and unpredictable path or not, Mitei decided it was probably a good idea to get in there before Leo hurt himself terribly somehow.

Leo was hunched over inside of a cabinet beside the stove; something was sizzling in a pan on top of it and perched way too precariously close to the edge for Mitei's comfort. Moving quickly she shoved it more firmly on top of the burner, getting a sharp pain for her efforts. She gasped and stepped back even quicker than she had stepped forward, bumping into the center island as she did. Leo hearing her startled and bumped his head on the roof of the cabinet; there was the sound of something falling over in there and his fervent cursing.

Her attention absorbed by her still smarting hand Mitei did not notice the tirade, though she did notice how the pan on the stove jumped when he hit his head on the cabinet. If it had been closer to the edge she was sure it would have come crashing down on top of him as well. _Of course, if it had still been closer to the edge I would not have touched the thing and then made a sound that startled Leo in the first place._ She shook her head and could not help but smile even as she regarded her hand; it was almost red with little white spots rising all over it.

"I am sorry to startle you Leo," she said, "sorry to interrupt whatever you are doing down there as well. But, I-I seem to have burnt myself. Yes, I think it is a burn."

This time when she spoke Leo extracted himself quickly from the cabinet without hitting his head or knocking anything over, though he still came out swearing. She smiled as he descended on her hand, the sensation not exactly pleasant but seeing his expression when he popped out of the cabinet had been; then he was grasping her hand gently pulling the fingers back to get a good look and suddenly it was the unpleasant sensation that she was concerned with again, she hissed in a breath.

"I guess that hurts then?" Leo said, with his head bent over her hand like that she could not see her own fingers, probably a blessing.

"Is this what pain is?"

He looked up at her, a lock of hair hanging over one eye made it hard to read his expression. _Did I say the wrong thing again? Things are not usually this difficult with my secretaries._

"Considering how bad this is, yeah I'd say this is what pain is." He poked her, gently in the middle of her palm. Mitei hissed and tried to snatch her hand back. "Yup, that's a typical pain response."

Straightening up, he went to the refrigerator, picking up a towel on the way. "Will that heal on its own?"

Looking down at her palm again Mitei could see that it was still a rather odd color, the white spots seemed actually bigger rather than smaller. "I do not know."

Leo returned with a dish towel full of ice and took another look at her palm, then sighed and rubbed the rolled up towel between his hands. "I can't tell, it might take some time, but you said this wasn't healing but part of the immortal invulnerable thing?" She nodded and he pressed the towel into her open hand, there was that sharp sensation again but then the soothing chill of the ice seeped through and she smiled at him, surprised. "This should help with the pain. Give it a few minutes and if it's not healing on its own we'll have to put some stuff on it."

He straightened quickly and turned back to the stove, poking whatever it was on there with a fork and turning it over with a grunt. "You should go sit down, on the other side of the counter where you can't get burned."

Mitei did as she was told, settling into one of the high stools. Not high enough to keep her feet from touching the ground though, so she put them up on the bottom rung of the stool and watched Leo tap the pans handle with a finger. Just a tap and he withdrew his finger quickly, sticking it in his mouth for a moment.

"Did you touch this?"

"Yes," she said, picking the towel up out of her hand to check those bumps again, not really paying attention as she replied. "Was that bad?"

There was an exasperated huff from Leo on the other side of the island and she looked up from her palm. "You don't know much do you?"

He made the comment over his shoulder and was not looking at her as if he did not expect her to reply. But, "no Leo, I do not know much of anything."

He turned from the stove to give her a searching look then. Unsure what he was searching for she met his gaze, expecting more questions but he did not ask anything. Just stood there looking at her for a long moment, then went back to poking the meat on the stove. For a while it was relatively quiet in the kitchen as he bustled around, doing rather cryptic but somehow soothing things. Relishing this peaceful time to herself she played a mental game, trying to identify everything in the room that he touched or used in as many languages as she could before he moved onto another object.

There were a lot of small things she did not seem to quite have the right words for, or things that seemed to just be larger versions of other things she was not sure she had the right names for because it seemed odd that there could be so many versions of fork that had different names for each but not spoons, when each of the spoons were obviously different in shape and function from each other. All in all a good opportunity to brush up on her language skills, but as she watched him ( _rush, bustle?_ ) yes bustle about the kitchen she found herself being distracted from her studies.

It was unusual that she had the chance to watch anyone besides herself work at anything. Never once had she ever seen a secretary prepare more than the end stages of a meal or snack for her. She had seen Megan crochet a blanket once, it had been a particularly good winter and the woman had taken to bringing her crochet in while Mitei had practiced her reading.

It had been Shakespeare that winter, at Megan's request, sonnets mostly. After the usual meetings Megan would come in with a bag full of colorful yarn and the partially finished blanket, they would get comfortable on the overstuffed chairs and Mitei would read while Megan would crochet. She had thought about asking the woman to teach her, but there had not been time and for the most part Mitei preferred her other activities. But watching her make that blanket had been really nice, it had made that particular blanket seem special to Mitei in a way that few things did.

Watching Leo bustle around the kitchen now, was also really nice. Warming, even with the ice still clutched in one hand, Mitei smiled absently and looked at her hand again. The palm was returning to the previous pale shade, _is this what they call my "normal" color from now on?_ The white spots fading as well, her hand seemed quiet cold and that painful sensation seemed completely replaced with the chill. She set the ice aside and flexed her fingers, _a bit stiff but definitely not as painful as they had been._

"So, you're still doing that invulnerable thing," Leo said setting a plate down in front of her. There was a piece of that meat on it and a steaming potato.

"Are you going to be mad at me again?"

"Not until after you've eaten at least," he handed her some utensils wrapped in a piece of paper towel. "You know how to use these things right?"

She smiled at him and nodded. "What is this stuff?"

He laughed from the other side of the kitchen and grabbed a couple glasses out of a cabinet. "Aw, come on, I know I over cooked it a bit but it's still recognizable as a steak. Mostly anyway," he set down the glasses on the island and winked at her, before turning back to the cabinets, "here, this should make it more palatable."

This time he came back with a bottle of red wine and filled both glasses. She smiled at him, but waited till he sat down at the island and started tearing into his steak before she touched hers. Just to be on the safe side she took her queues from him, cutting her potato open and slathering it with butter and bits of bacon, using her fork to pull the tender meat away from the brown skin and mixing it with the melting butter and bacon before finally taking a bite. Oh, my – it was good, rich with the butter and crunchy with the bacon. She could almost feel that mouthful hit her stomach, not exactly in an unpleasant way; rather she could feel the sharp pain that had been bothering her there seem to subside a little as the food hit her.

Next a bite of the steak and a sip from the wine glass to wash it down. Leo might have thought it over done, but she thought it was wonderful, the flesh was tender and there were these little bits that had been blackened in the pan that seemed to burst with flavor in her mouth. The wine was not a surprise, she had had wine often enough before. The people in some of her European offices seemed to prefer to see her sipping wine now and again to coffee or tea. It was not nearly as good as what she could get at the France offices actually, but what did surprise her was the way it hit her head. By the time she had finished the food and the wine she felt slightly fuzzy. Both more alert than she had been before the food and more tired.

It had definitely done the trick though, one of those conflicting voices that her body had seemed to have earlier was definitely silent now. So she would need to remember to eat next time she felt those urges she had noticed seemed to associate with that voice. _Next time?_ The idea of having this particular feeling happen again was not exactly pleasant. How am I going to explain this to the other secretaries, this sudden need for full meals instead of candy and cheese?

"Feeling better?" Somehow she had forgotten about Leo, "you shouldn't be hungry after that but I might have some ice-cream or something if you want dessert."

"Hungry?" _Was that what that was?_ "No, I do not think I am, hungry, anymore. Thank you Leo."

"No problem," he said, though after all the cursing and fussing he had done earlier she suspected that could not exactly be true, and began clearing the dishes. "What happens now?"

_Good question,_ "I do not know. There are other things that this form seems to be telling me..."

"But you don't know what they are?" He put the dishes in the dishwasher and then leaned on the other side of the island, meeting her hazel gaze with his purple one, seeming to search for something in them again. She took the moment to study him as well, his face seemed a mask that she could not read, but the eyes – the eyes seemed – well she was not sure what they seemed. She tilted her head to the side in frustration; some things always seemed to slip her ability to understand. "You're probably tired."

She blinked, startled, and took a mental inventory. Tired was something familiar or at least she thought so, but whatever this great beast was inside her right now it seemed both similar and completely different to what she was used to. "Are you sure?"

"Nope," Leo said and smiled. "But it stands to reason that if you've been on your feet all day you're probably dead tired now."

She tilted her head, and then nodded. If it stood to human reason perhaps it was right, "what now then?"

"I suppose you go home and get some sleep."

"Oh," somehow that did not seem to be the answer she wanted to hear. It was dark outside the windows of the kitchen; it would still be dark at some of the offices too. No one to notice if she came in now and slept at one of them, though she had probably missed several morning meetings, she reached for her List and it came to her hand properly. It was blank, which could mean she had a few hours for sleep or it could mean she had next no time at all.

Grasping the short empty scroll in both hands, one top one bottom, she took a moment to try to find her internal List. The paper scroll was not really for her, but for the people she came to and for her employees. A manifestation that some needed to see in order to not feel like they had been singled out unfairly, in reality she did not really need the list. The names and times on it where already inside of her, deep inside her, a part that she was usually not aware of, subconscious or maybe more like a muscle she used without needing to know how it worked or even exactly where it was. She reached for it now, filtering and flexing it, trying to force the List to appear before her a bit in advance.

Eyes unfocused, she did not notice the List begin to glow with a black light. Did not see the names, times, dates and locations appearing on it; just felt them in that deep part of herself. The scroll grew in her hands, from a few empty inches to a good foot of fine writing. Because there where appointments of course, lots of them, in the next eight hours several thousand people around the planet where supposed to die. Peacefully, no more disasters, not in the next few hours, the light faded from the list as her vision cleared. Only the names themselves glowed now, a faint shimmer almost like the sheen of fresh ink, but a little too silver.

Focused on the List and the task at hand, Mitei could not see the look on Leo's face, the warring horror and fascination in his eyes. Now grasping the filled list before her one handed, she began to shunt the names to the various offices. It was not something she liked to do from a distance, though she had done it often enough on a daily bases that it was fairly easy. She pulled a few hairs and used them to reach along the Path to the offices. It was not exactly a Pall, but it was unpleasantly close, as she set the assignments in their proper offices and felt the accompanying drain on her being that was the various agents being assigned a small amount of her ability for a short period of time, just long enough to fulfill their appointments and only for their appointments.

The scroll rolled up in her fist, shrinking, the hairs in her hand seemed to dissolve into her palm. She looked up at Leo then, "I think I have time to sleep now." It did not seem like the matter was entirely up to either of them though, because she slumped off the stool, exhausted.

Leo swore and came around the island fast to catch her. "Well, I don't think you'll be going anywhere tonight," was the last thing she heard before her eyes closed completely.

***

Jules sat and looked at the business card that Mitei had given her five days ago. All around her in her students union the other students went about their lunches, or studied, in more than half instances they did a mixture of both, they all still seemed to manage some extra time for being social. She was seated alone where all the others seemed to have gathered in noisy clumps, all the better to contemplate this improbable card.

When she'd been at her father's farm, shortly after Mitei had handed to her, she'd been sure that the card had referred to an office located in Harrisburg, probably the closest city of reasonable size to the farm. But now that she was back at her college in Lehigh, the location of the office was in Philadelphia. Other than that the card was unremarkable. It didn't even have the name of the company on it, just an office address and the office hours on one side, nothing on the back.

Still, she sipped her smoothie and tapped the edge of the card on the table, maybe I should go to this place. It was the middle of the week and she had classes but there was something about a summons from Death itself that kinda took priority. The idea of walking away from that kind of call wasn't really a serious question; she'd have to go just to figure out what funky and convoluted flavor of practical joke this had all been. There was that nagging part of her mind that insisted that it really wasn't a joke though, and that part of her mind didn't want to wait around at school for Death to show up again. The last thing she needed was to try and explain to her quad-mates that – no, she hadn't actually died when she took a header off the roof or something.

Jules dumped her smoothie in the trash on her way out, her appetite for the sugary thing completely gone, and headed toward the parking lot and her car _._ Classes won't wait, but it's early in the semester and I will just have to make up the work. She giggled to herself as she pulled out of the lot, maybe if I tell them it was a matter of life and death I'll even get some extended time.

***

It was rush hour when she got to Philly; traffic into the city was at a near crawl. To make matters worse she'd left without directions and didn't really know where the fuck she was going. She'd only been to Philadelphia once or twice with a few people, going shopping or site seeing. As the city slowly engulfed the road she was on she began to worry about getting lost in it, with the traffic so slow she had more than enough time to look around and nothing she could see from the highway looked at all familiar.

All she knew was that the office was probably located in the section of town called Center City, from her last visit here she'd been told that almost all the corporate offices where in that section of town. Of course that helped her not at all when she didn't know what the damned streets in it where actually called. She picked an exit that was particularly crowded and hoped that the other drivers knew something she didn't. An hour later as she was stuck between lights and in the middle of the intersection with people honking everywhere and traffic standing literally still, she thought she'd made the right choice but was seriously regretting coming out here at all.

_Where's all that brotherly love shit now_ , she thought as she took the first available turn out of that standstill traffic hell and started looking for a parking spot or lot. Even out of traffic the city was an unmanageable hell of one way streets. Worse still the further she went looking for a spot to park in the more sure she became that she was going further and further away from the section of the city that she needed to be in. The one way streets seemed all to be conspiring to keep her from turning around.

Like a miracle a small parking spot appeared and she began the laborious process of fitting her car into the cramped space, then sat a moment gathering herself. Her hands and legs were shaky as she crawled out of the car. Checked her keys, her wallet and finally, pulled the card back out of her pocket. Still just an office address and the hours on one side, Jules checked her watch. _It's definitely getting late, but this particular office seems to have really long hours so I should still be able to get in and get some answers tonight. Still,_ she looked around confused, _might miss it entirely if I can't figure out where the hells it is in this mess._

At least it would be easier going on foot than it had been in the car.

***

_This is it?_ Jules thought an hour or so later as she stood in front of an impressive steel and glass structure. It hadn't been hard to find at all, once she was on her feet the people had indeed proved both friendly and helpful, pointing her easily towards this huge new building in the center of town. The building sparkled with lights and bustled with activity, as conservatively dressed men and women swept in and out of it in a seemingly steady stream.

She didn't see any robes like the one Mitei had worn to see her, though some did have what could have been robes, or long coats slung over their arms. There was a group clustered by the front doors, smoking, they chatted together and as Jules approached they broke into good natured laughter.

"Uhm, excuse me..." She said, smiling and feeling every inch the country bumpkin as she regarded this well dressed and polished looking group. "I'm looking for the building on this card, is this it?"

A petite woman took the card from her with a puzzled look, her eyes widened as she saw the address and she turned to a colleague with a whispered comment. Soon her little white card was passing from hand to hand in the group and Jules didn't feel like such a bumpkin anymore as she watched the city folk transform into gossiping school girls.

Finally a tall man that had been standing a little to the back of the group stepped forward. His face was impassive as he snatched the card back and handed it to her, "you'll probably need that to be admitted. Yes this is the building you're looking for."

He stepped away from the group, casually dropping his cig to the ground and crushing it as he gestured she should walk with him and led her into the building. It was every bit as impressive inside at she'd thought it would be. The lobby was paved with some expensive stone that had been polished to a high shine. There were a few casual seating areas arranged about the floor though they seemed deserted for the most part. And she could see that this level seemed to boast at least one eating area with a full bar. There was the sound of more merry laughter and chatter coming from that direction. It was a reassuring sound, especially with tall, dark and somber leading her straight towards a security desk.

He stepped a little ahead of her to speak with the security officer on detail and Jules took the time to glance at her watch, whatever this place was it was open really late for all these people to be dressed so formally. She'd made it before the closing hours posted on the card but even so, she glanced around at the still steady stream of people coming and going _; the rest of the city is dark, winding down, why are they still busy here?_

The tall man motioned for her card and she handed it over cautiously, watching as the security guard scanned it carefully and then handed it back with a smile. Somehow, despite the laughter and the general friendly behavior of everyone the whole place gave her more than a few of the creeps.

"I'll take you up if you'd like," the tall man said and Jules nearly jumped. She'd forgotten him for a moment.

She smiled at him cautiously and nodded. He led her through the security station to the elevators beyond. "Uhm thanks, Mr. – "

"You can go ahead and call me Jon." For the first time he smiled at her, it was a nice smile and she felt herself relaxing just a bit. "We don't usually stand much on last names around here. The work is uncomfortable enough."

"The work?" The elevator doors opened and she stepped in with Jon, he pushed the button for the top floor and the doors closed smoothly in front of them.

He leaned against the back wall before replying, "since you have that card I don't imagine you really need me to spell it out for you."

Jules frowned, "I'm actually here to get that all clarified. I was just given a card and a name that's all."

"Ah," he said straightening up. "Then I'd better leave that up to the guys upstairs then."

She opened her mouth to retort as the elevator dinged and the doors swept open. Jon didn't give her time to reply, stepping briskly off of the elevator and making a right into the hall. What seemed like a thousand twists and turns later and they found themselves in front of a very big wooden door in a section of the floor that seemed to have impossibly high ceilings. There was another seating area here as well as several desks though only one seemed to be occupied at the moment. He walked up to the woman behind the desk and leaned over it while Jules stood in front of that big door staring.

Jon made an exasperated gesture at the woman behind the desk and walked back over to her, "you'd best go talk to her yourself. I've an appointment to meet." Was all he said and then he was hurrying back the way he'd come not even bothering to say goodbye.

"Ms.?" The woman behind the desk said and Jules hurried over to her.

"Harper, Ms. Harper. I was given this card by Mitei and told I should come meet her at the office but I think something weird is going on because the office on the card seemed to change and now I'm not sure if she even knows that I'm coming or if I'm in the right place." She said in a rush.

The woman behind the desk reached for the card silently and Jules handed it over. She barely glanced at it before placing it on her desk and reaching inside it, drawing out a laminated card on a fabric clip which she handed to Jules instead. "This should get you free access to the building, Ms. Jules Harper." She said, "My name is Megan, I'm Mitei's secretary. I'm sure you have a lot of questions but I pray you can hold onto those until such time as we're cleared to answer them for you."

The woman, Megan, smiled. Like all the laughter and smiles that had come before it since she'd reached this place it was warm and genuine. But the words that came next definitely put Jules right back on edge.

"Mitei isn't in this office right now, but you are welcome to stay until she returns at some time in the morning."

***

For a moment Jules just stared. Megan was a little on the plump side, her hair was cut mid length and there was a very sincere warmth to her over all, even so, Jules couldn't believe what she'd just said.

"Sometime in the morning?"

Megan nodded and started to rise from her seat, "yes dear, I know you've probably come far and have things to do." She said as she motioned Jules over towards the leather seating area on the other side of the room. "But Mitei does have offices all over the world dear. She can't be absolutely everywhere at once."

"But," Jules said and sat down with a huff, "I'm already probably late for our meeting. How will she know I'm here at this office now?" She considered for a moment, "forget that, where am I supposed to stay until morning?" Already she could see could imagine the last of the light fading from the sky and the prospect of trying to navigate this twisty city in the dark didn't thrill her.

"You can stay here," Megan said and smiled as she went over to a different large leather chair shoving it aside with a grunt. Behind it there was a low cabinet and Megan produced a set of keys from her pocket to unlock it. "These offices are actually operational all day and all night, Jules, may I call you Jules?"

Jules blushed _, she's been so nice to me from the moment I stepped in front of her desk and all I've done is splutter and bluster._ She took a calming breath and smiled back, "sure."

"Good then, Jules," Megan withdrew something from the cabinet and turned around with it in hand, it looked like some kind of chess or checker set, hard to tell without the pieces. "Let's play a game while we wait and I'll tell you what little I think Mitei would want me to."

For a few minutes the office was quiet except for the sounds of them rearranging heavy furniture so that they'd have a proper playing field and then the soft click of the pieces as they set them up. "The offices are open all day and all night," Megan said while Jules contemplated the board. "The hours you saw on the card are more like, visiting hours than business hours."

"You have a lot of visitors here?" Jules said.

"Well, yes and no. We have a goodish few now and again though and there are always the new recruits that HR brings in."

"Ok, but don't you guys get tired and stuff?"

Megan chuckled over the board. "None of us actually works for days straight. We go in shifts of course; actually they're usually quite short."

"Oh," Jules said and blushed again, if Mitei was the only none human then she supposed it made sense that everyone else got time off. She could see now why the office would never actually close. But, "what about the people that end up here over night? Or am I the only one this has ever happened to."

"It's admittedly rare that anyone comes looking for Mitei herself, at least at this office. But it's not unusual at all that people kinda get stuck here overnight." Megan made a particularly devastating move and sat back with a smug smile on her face. "As a matter of fact, some of the executives have apartments in the building."

Jules looked up from the board, _well that was over quick_ , "why do they have apartments here? I mean, it's a big building and all but wouldn't they rather have a nice place somewhere else?"

"I honestly don't know why they prefer to be here all the time," Megan sighed, "that you'll have to ask them, you'll probably get the chance sooner or later."

***

It was still dark when Mitei opened her eyes again, finding herself in the bedroom, sprawled over the entirety of Leo's bed. She ran a hand over her face, noticing as she did that she appeared to be missing her suit. She patted herself down, no jacket or skirt, but she still seemed to be wearing her slip. The stockings and shoes were probably long gone, lost somewhere on that hill in Asia. Her eyes adjusted quickly to the light in the room and she scanned it looking for her clothes or Leo, preferably both.

When she did not spot either she sighed and tossed the covers back. _He must have given me his bed and slept on the couch. I did not get a chance to explain about the path though and he will probably be upset if I just disappear in the night again._ It did not look like she was going to be able to help it though, she would have to at least get up and look for her clothes and she definitely did not want to wake him just so she could ask where they were, or even to say goodbye.

Creeping around the room on her tip toes she still could not find her clothes or anything that looked like a laundry room. She sighed and began to descend the stairs, as quietly as she could, the Path could whisk her off whenever it chose but at the moment it seemed content to let her wander around here in her underwear. At least she did not feel that other unpleasant feeling anymore, the one Leo had called "tired." Though, she was sure she would probably be feeling it again and often. At least until she could figure out how to get rid of this body.

The living room was just as dark as the bedroom if not more so, since it lacked windows. Leo was indeed sleeping soundly on the couch, though he did not look at all comfortable there, Mitei was reminded of seeing him in the hospital. He really was lovely when he slept and was not cursing, or bustling about. Peaceful.

There was the sudden urge to forget about her clothes and touch Leo's sleeping form. _Maybe this time_ , she was not entirely sure if she actually wanted him to die; was not even sure if she was going to touch him at all, until she found herself bent over his sleeping form one hand touching his face. He was warm against her skin and by association she knew she must be cold.

Leo opened his eyes and smiled at her. Mitei straightened up and started to speak, taking a step back to give him some breathing room – and found herself back in the Philadelphia office.

***

Mitei blinked, startled with the sudden wash of morning light streaming in through her windows, the familiar sounds of the office in full morning swing sweeping over her. Even with the large doors closed as she preferred for just this reason, she could hear the office at work all around her. She frowned and turned towards her small private bathroom, getting her robe from behind the door there and pulling its concealing folds around herself.

Who was on duty now? Mitei pressed the intercom button on her desk once, alerting the secretary on duty that she was in the office and needed her. Then she pulled the hood up to cover her face and spent a moment enjoying the comfort of its familiar darkness.

"Yes, D. what would you like?"

Mitei groaned to herself, that would be Anne, a sweet girl but a bit slow. The only secretary in this office that had not yet grown accustomed to the change in name. "Come in here a moment would you Anne." It was not a question and even Anne was quick enough to grasp that.

A moment later and those absurd doors were swinging open on hidden pneumatic hinges and a slight blond woman came into the office. She was dressed in pink, as always, a little rumpled around the edges like she had not quite gotten used to dressing in professional attire on a daily bases yet. Quite possible since Anne was the newest of her secretaries, she had been highly recommended for the position but Mitei always found herself questioning the final decision she had made to bring Anne into her inner sanctum.

"Morning D." Anne said brightly, a large pad and a pencil grasped in one hand she approached the desk under the windows. Mitei had to give the girl grudging credit, she hardly flinched to find her fully robed and hooded.

"It is Mitei now, remember Anne?" She said and pulled the hood off of her face, Anne did flinch then though Mitei was past caring. "I think I am in need of someone else's skills today. Can you please call Megan in for me?"

"Well, Megan's actually still in the building." Anne said and made a face, "she said there was something she needed to tell you when you got back."

"Fetch her please, Anne." This was interesting, Megan had a home and family of her own to get back to, for her to elect to stay around waiting for her – "oh and Anne, could you please get me some coffee." Mitei pinched the bridge of her nose. "Better yet, have Megan bring it and take the rest of the day off."

Anne pouted, but Mitei was sure she would do as she had been asked. She hated to be in the office without a secretary present, but even more than that, today she did not feel in the mood to deal with Anne's foibles. The woman had been working as her secretary for a few years now and Mitei still could not decide if she could be trusted. Her presence here today was not restful and she just did not want to deal with it.

Waiting until the door was completely closed before she put her head down on the dark wood of her desk. The constant ticking of both clocks and the ambient sounds of the office in full swing were soothing compared to Anne's presence, _why can that woman not even get my name right._ She sighed, leaving a warm burst of condensation on the desks vast, polished, surface, watched as it disappeared slowly.

The doors opened and she looked up, just Anne again. This time the woman came in pushing a cart with a silver coffee service on top, the bottom tiers would be full of snacks. Anne hesitated at the doorway unsure where to lay out the coffee service. Mitei sighed and stood, walking towards the woman and gesturing at the seating area near the doors.

They were still dancing about each other trying to get things set up when Megan arrived. She swept through the still opened doors and quickly spotted Mitei and Anne. Mitei met Megan's gaze over Anne's bent back noting immediately that she did not want to speak in front of her and dismissed the girl with a word and a smile.

Anne retreated, closing the door behind her and Mitei gestured to Megan indicating that the other woman should take a seat. Megan shook her head, "Jules Harper came in to see you last night."

Mitei put the delicate porcelain coffee cup she had been about to set down on the table back on the tray. "I do believe that is the first bit of good news I have had in a while, Megan." She said turning to the woman, "where is she now?"

"In Leslie Roth's quarters."

***

Mitei moved through the labyrinthine halls of her floor of the office as quickly as her new legs were willing to take her. She had left Megan behind at the office with instructions to find her some more clothes and get the coffee set up for two. As she waited for the elevator, she began to regret leaving Megan behind. It would have been nice to have the other woman's calming presence when she ventured into Ms. Roth's domain.

That woman always seemed to bring out the worst in her.

Not that she was not used to this kind of thing from her, or from any of the other executives in any of the other offices, all human all ambitious, they seemed bound to test each and every rule and restriction on them time and time again. Always looking for an opening or a weakness that could be exploited for their gain. Admirable qualities to be sure, at least to a point, there was only one tiny problem with their headlong upward climbs. In Death Inc there simply was not any place for all that power-lust to go. Mitei had yet to find a way to keep all of these greedy, grabby, dangerous people out of her company entirely. They always seemed to seep in somehow. She had taken to promoting them slowly but surely, taking away what little actual power they had as they rose in rank. Monitoring each as closely as she was able and then just out living them. Their ardor might not cool throughout their lifetime. But their lifetimes would fade throughout hers.

Ms. Roth was one such and then some; her ambition was such that she had risen through the ranks at a lightning speed making VP before she had reached her thirtieth birthday. At today's current life expectancy that meant Mitei could probably look forward to Ms. Roth's manipulations and trivialities for at least another thirty years, if not longer. She sighed and drew her hood up over her features, stepping out onto Ms. Roth's floor.

This floor was empty, at least when first stepping off the elevator. Marble floors marched straight forward down a hallway and to an unmarked door. Mitei hated it here; the hallway and the apartment beyond were similar to a million normal residences that she had seen. The fact that it seemed so normal in the middle of her office building, so homey and human, did not endear its occupant to her one bit.

"Good morning Leslie," Mitei said as she stepped into the woman's private quarters.

"What a lovely surprise to see you today, D." She said and smiled. For some reason Mitei had never liked the way that woman bared her teeth. More snarl than smile or in this case, perhaps a sneer? There was no reason for the woman to forget her new name; she knew Roth was more astute than that.

"Of course it is a surprise Leslie; otherwise I would expect to find you hard at work in your office by now."

The living room was full of comfortable color coordinated furniture, dust free and immaculately arranged. Pale colors and lots of warm lighting seemed to make the place look inviting. The only jarring notes in the room were Leslie's Doberman lounging in front of the false fireplace and the fact that Ms. Harper did not appear to be in the room at all.

"I am here to collect Ms. Harper, Leslie." She took a position in the center of the room, feet sinking into the soft carpet and clasped her hands before herself, unwilling to sit.

"Ah, of course dear," Leslie closed the door and moved into the room. "The poor child is sleeping now. She had so many questions by the time I found her, she chattered on for half the night."

"Fetch her."

"Surely you can understand the poor girl's need for sleep Mitei. It would be terribly rude of me to wake her now."

It seemed Leslie was set on being her most irritating. Why she had taken interest in Ms. Harper was not hard for even Mitei to grasp. She intended to use the woman in some way, the how was what eluded her. She frowned at the other woman; usually any change of expression that she made from under her hood would make the humans close enough to see it shudder, Roth did not even flinch.

"I will expect that she is returned to my office as soon as she wakes."

"Of course."

"And I will expect that once you have brought her there you will get back to work. I do not wish to hear any more reports of you having contact with this girl." Mitei smiled. "She is hampering your performance. Dear. I would hate to see one of the younger executives outperform you. I might be forced to decommission you early."

Mitei dipped her head the better to watch Roth clinch her fists. Threats to her position were really the only way to get to that woman sometimes. Mitei made no further concessions to the other woman as she moved towards the door. Leslie was forced to scramble to open it for her as Mitei sailed past her and down the hall. Her gait smooth and disturbingly even, one of the thousand little things she had learned to avoid doing when she did not want to upset the humans around her. Now it seemed a small consolation indeed to know that watching her retreating figure was probably making Leslie intensely uncomfortable.

That woman was dangerous and now she had the only mistake Mitei had ever made in her grasp. She glided into the elevator once it arrived, slumping against the back wall once the doors had closed. There was no way for her to divine what Leslie might be up to, but it was likely to be more than a little troublesome.

***

Late August deep within the woods a single man walks unaccompanied. The woods are mostly quiet and rife with noise as woods often are, but the footfalls of the man make no sounds at all; walking tall one moment, the next moving slowly on all fours, this man, a slip of the woods in human form.

He walked without aim, seemingly uninterested in the birds and animals he passed, though he wore a bow. Distantly he could hear the call of chanting, it was toward that sound that he moved, it was that sound that he stalked. Aedan had been in the woods for far too long, it seemed forever since he'd heard the sounds of the chants being sung in the distance. Forever since he'd had the opportunity to rest from his hunt.

They were close now, those chanters. Just before him in a clearing. He paced around them, silent, circling them in the shelter of the wood. So long since he'd stopped, Aedan took a moment to rest his head on the trunk of a tree. He was tired, not of the hunt that was as ingrained in his being as breathing was to others, rather he needed a rest, a chance to put his feet up and be renewed. Truthfully he was nearly desperate for it.

Regardless there was something very wrong here. Not the chant. The chant for a wonder was right, but the woods – these were not the woods that he remembered most clearly, not for _this_ chant; the trees were all wrong, the animals familiar but not quite right as well. Then there was the timing, he hadn't heard the other chants, as if he'd over slept right through his alarm, there's been no summer, just spring for him endless and warm.

The chant was right but all else was wrong. No song of ending mixed with the chanting, no female with ripe form and deadly arms waited in these woods. Where was she? For that matter where was he? And who was it that knew the right chant to bring him from the hunt? Aedan crept closer to the edge of the clearing, he'd completely ringed the chanters and now he stood at their backs. From the sheltering shade of the woods he could see them without being seen. As he caught site of them he realized that it would be a miracle if they could find their way home, let alone make out his form, in those woods.

The people before him gathered in a tight group in front of a fire. Some wore robes, but many did not, some wore little at all. A gathering of a few scraggly young males, dressed in various patches of black. They stood before the fire and chanted with glazed eyes. He could make out no females and no children, there didn't seem to be any signs of the fall feasts or celebration. Just these scraggly and bedraggled men.

Aedan turned away from the scene. These were what was left of his people? Had they called him forth by mistake? The ritual they'd been in the midst of had been sloppy, bits and pieces he'd recognized from different places and times mixed with each other and blended into a new whole. They hadn't lacked for devotion he'd felt the sincerity of their chant but there'd been too much wrong. Too many missed connections and half-truths, how they'd managed to bring him forth at all was a mystery.

The more he thought on it the more he realized was off, the language was wrong though the meter and meaning was right. He squatted in the woods, listening to them as they completed the ritual and reveled together. Smiled to himself as he heard them laughing and merry, frowned to hear them talking of their future plans. What use had he of a white goat? Somewhere in the midst of the eternity he's spent hunting, his people had lost their way. Or gone completely insane which was always hard to tell, humans had such fragile minds. They'd lost the means to contact him and – he looked around – they'd lost the ability to call the others at all. Aedan was alone here.

***

Aedan stayed till the men left, staggering through the woods and calling out to each other for guidance through the dark. It was the least he was willing to do for what was apparently left of his people. More blessing then they'd ever had. Then stood and stepped to the edge of the woods again.

The clearing was dark now, the fire out and only bits of litter and its wet ashes to mark the space. What to do now? The woods whispered around him inviting him back to the hunt but he was weary of it. To find the others then, Aedan swept his arm up straight from his side. Slicing through the empty air between woods and clearing, a rip of light appearing, it gleamed golden in the dark woods, Aedan stepped sideways into the slit and the light closed behind him.

***

Betwixt and between, he wandered, around him appeared the grey smoky trunks of phantom trees; the ground beneath his feet was golden with fallen leaves. Not quite the lands of the great hunt, these were the sleeping trees of winter the dead leaves of fall. He strode forward in these woods, certain that he'd come upon the others soon. After an hour of walking, he pulled a horn from his hip and blew it. The tone was sweet and terrible at once, it carried out from him in all directions traveling ahead of him as herald of his presence.

It was not forbidden to blow his horn here though it might be considered rude. At the least he expected to hear some kind of answering sound. The song of the goddess, her laughter or the sweet smell of ripening fruit, but there came none of these. He looked to the sky, but no moon shone down upon him. He listened for the sounds of water or that fleet sound of hooves, but there was nothing. Not a sound came back to his ears; this space was empty and barren, caught forever in a winter that should have long passed.

***

Sometime that afternoon, after giving out the appointments for the day and still no sign of Ms. Harper being released from the tender care of Leslie Roth, Mitei found herself in California again. This time the Path was kind enough to dump her outside of Leo's condo instead of straight to his bedroom.

Mitei walked up to his door and politely rang the bell, waiting for admittance. She seemed to be doing a lot of waiting on people lately. It was a novelty she had never been particularly fond of though. By the time Leo came to the door she was tapping her foot beneath her robe, waiting with arms crossed and trying to resist the urge to reach for a watch or something to occupy her time with.

The door opened without warning, suddenly Leo was reaching for her and bundling her inside. She was so surprised that she allowed herself to be shoved into the darker confines of the condo's entry way, while he shut the door behind her and peeked out of the windows.

"What is going on?"

"You showing up on my doorstep wearing full deathly regalia _is_ what's going on." He said still peering out of the window, finally he sighed and turned towards her, frowning at her again and Mitei wilted a little. "I know you disappeared without getting your clothes, but did you really think it was necessary to come back all robed and hooded?"

She blinked, confused for a moment then remembered and swept the hood off of her head. "Is that better?"

"Not really, can't you take that thing off?"

"I can, but I did not really think of it." She said and shrugged, pulling the robe off of herself. Megan had found her a nice pants suit for the day, though the new shoes were every bit as expensive and uncomfortable as the old ones she had lost. She slung the robe over one arm and hugged it to herself. "I am sorry Leo, I did not really have time to – "

"You didn't have the time to not freak out my neighbors? Or you didn't really have time to say a proper goodbye last night and get your things?" Leo stood before her arms crossed a moment then made a motion for her robe.

"Thank you but I should hold onto it." He shrugged and moved past her up the stairs and into the living room. She followed behind, "maybe I should explain."

Leo did not stop at the living room but went straight on into the kitchen and she followed taking a place on the usual stool.

"You want some coffee or something?" He paused and turned to look at her a moment, "did you have anything to eat once you left here?"

She considered a moment, "I had coffee and a few Danishes."

He sighed and went to the refrigerator, rummaging inside of it. "I'll make us something for lunch then. Hope you like hamburger helper."

She watched as he pulled a package from the fridge and another from a cabinet, reading the instructions on the box carefully before getting out even more things. In a moment the meat was sizzling on the stove and the beginnings of a tantalizing aroma started to fill the kitchen. Her stomach grumbled and she realized she was hungry again.

"How do you manage all of this?"

"All of what?" He said dumping the contents of the box into the skillet and stirring them in, "please don't tell me you mean cooking because this barely qualifies."

"No, I mean, how do you manage to eat so often? To sleep and eat and get anything else done that needs done." She sighed, "there are not enough hours in my day for this."

He laughed and moved off to rummage in the refrigerator again, this time on a higher shelf. He pulled down a bottle of soda and a couple glasses from the cabinet then moved back to check on the pan, stirring it before cutting off the heat.

"Don't you have people at your offices bringing you things? Why not just tell them you need something more substantial now?"

"I do not think it would be a good idea for the offices to know I have changed even more." She said as he put a steaming plate down in front of her. Whatever this Hamburger Helper was, it seemed to be some kind of mash.

"Not even these secretaries of yours? I thought they were your friends."

"They are, however, too much change too quickly can upset humans on deep levels. When that happens they will cling to whatever seems familiar and safe." She took a bite of the goop and smiled with surprise, "this most certainly tastes better than it looks!"

"Thanks - I guess." Leo said, sitting down next to her and offering her a glass of soda. For a few minutes the only sounds where those of silverware on plates and chewing.

"Too much change, too soon in something they all think is eternal and unchanging and they will cling to something that seems more stable – more understandable. They will start turning to each other and away from me." Mitei sat back and patted her stomach, smiling. "When that happens I will likely have trouble holding onto the company."

"Do you actually need the company?" Leo raised his hands at her sharp gaze, "I mean, does the company give you the power to be death or the other way around?"

"The other way around."

"Well then, what does it matter if you lose the company? They wouldn't be able to function in the same capacity without you."

"I would not be able to function in the same capacity either." She sighed and reaching down pulled off each of her shoes, then pulled her legs up and crossed them on top of the stool. "I barely control the Path as it is. I am not entirely certain that I could get it to stop taking me to the offices, you have seen how uncontrollable it is –"

"What is this path you're talking about?"

"Oh," she said rubbing her feet. "It is the reason I keep disappearing. I walk on a road that has a mind of its own. It takes me to the dead and dying. Or it is supposed to."

Leo slid off his stool and started grabbing dishes, "wait I'm not dying again am I?"

"No, I cleared all my appointments for today."

"Then I think your path is broken."

"So do I," she sighed. "When I started the company I made it include the offices, but I am not entirely sure how I managed that. Now it keeps bringing me here but I did not tell it to."

"That's supposed to explain why you kept popping into my bedroom?" She nodded, "what about when you leave? You got any control over that?"

"Only so long as I do not walk."

"Well that explains a few things," he said, "like why you got spooked last night and left without your clothes."

"Spooked?"

"Yeah," he said coming back around the counter. "I thought I startled you so much you popped right out of the room. Stay right there."

He trotted out of the kitchen and she watched him from the stool, feet still off the ground. He thought he had scared her? She smiled, no one had ever worried about scaring her before, though it seemed a near constant worry to her. Especially now that she could not change her face, she reached up and poked herself in the forehead wondering if it had changed since she had last checked. But the evidence in her fingers was probably enough, they still seemed the same, white and slender with just a hint of rose under the nails and at each knuckle.

"Here," Leo said, startling her from herself. "I stuck them in the washing machine when you passed out. But I think that did more harm than good."

He held up what appeared to be little slips of black rags, but as he shook them out she could see the few seams that had survived and make out a pocket on what had been her jacket. He pooled the jackets remains in her lap and dropped the skirt on top of it.

"Wanna go into the living room?"

"I am not sure that is wise," she said trying to juggle the piles of clothing in her lap. All that fabric seemed slightly slippery on top of her robe and she was having a hard time holding onto all of it.

"Don't worry I'll carry you so you won't get jerked out of here." Before she could protest he was lifting her off of the stool and bringing her into the living room. "Next time you pop in I won't make such a big deal of you following me through every room. The whole disappearing thing is really freaky."

"Is it worse than the sudden appearances?"

"Well, I gotta admit finding a beautiful woman lying in my bed does have its appeal." He said, lowering her onto the couch. He gave her a considering look, before going on, "I don't suppose I could convince you to call ahead or anything."

"Call?"

"Please don't tell me you don't know how to use a phone." Mitei felt a curious warmth rise to her face and raised a hand to touch a cheek. "You're blushing; I suppose that means you really don't know how to use one."

"Blushing?" She said, filing the feeling away along with hungry and tired. "I know what a phone is. I know how to use one, but I do not usually have the opportunity to get to one and I cannot give anyone advance warning."

"Figured," he said and sighed, "but I thought I'd ask. You could try getting a cell phone and keeping it in your robe though. That would at least solve the problem of getting to one."

"Oh! I left my shoes in the kitchen."

Leo got up and went for them and Mitei stretched her legs out on the couch. A cell phone? That would definitely make some of the people in the Tokyo office happy at least. Maybe she could hang those little pendant things on it. She put her head in her hands for a moment, so much to keep up with and it never ended, she never seemed to catch up and now. Now all of the things she had once been able to count on not needing to really know suddenly seemed to have the utmost importance. Leo returned with her shoes and she smiled at him through her hand. At least she had one friend to help her navigate these new and troubling waters, maybe two if she could only get to Ms. Harper.

It would be nice, really nice, if that whole day of horrible mistakes could have had such a purpose. Nice to have a few friends of her own that she could relate to candidly. But, as Leo sat down beside her and suggested that they play a game of chess, she had a bad feeling that despite how well things seemed to be going right now; her personal comfort and happiness was not the proper end to this equation. If nothing else these two were still decidedly human, though they had not died early when she had first found them they would die eventually, leaving her friendless again at the very least. Still, for the moment it was nice to sit down with someone she was not paying and play an innocent game that they did not believe their life rested on.

***

Leslie sat at her ease in the living room, Snapper's head in her lap, sipping from a steaming mug while idly patting the dog's head. That little country bumpkin was still asleep in one of her guest rooms, though it was pushing well towards midafternoon. _If I'd known she was such a light weight I wouldn't have wasted the good pills on her._ She'd only intended the girl to sleep through the usual morning meeting. As things were now it was becoming more and more likely that she wouldn't be able to get all of the information she wanted out of the little urchin before Death returned to whisk her away forcibly.

Thankfully the woman was too dense to realize that the only way Jules could still be sleeping was if Leslie had drugged her. Still, she put her cup down and stood up, displacing her dog, that immediately rose to follow at her heels. Though she was enjoying the morning in seeming leisure, none of this would do. She'd just have to shake the girl awake if she had to. Even if she was still groggy, she should be capable of cracking an eye at this point at least. Might even be for the best if Jules was still asleep, because then Leslie wouldn't have to be gentle with her questions.

The door to the occupied guest room was cracked open already from her previous trips to check on the girl. A quick peek inside revealed Ms. Harper, sprawled across the entire double bed. Leslie only needed to wait a moment to hear the telltale strains of a slight snore. One more thing to not worry about then, the bumpkin hadn't O.D.'d on the stuff either.

Leslie pulled the door wider and moved silently into the room, Snappy pushed past her and moved up to the side of the bed sniffing at the limp figure there. Briefly Leslie considered leaving him outside the door and closing it, but the possibility that he'd bark from outside the door and wake her target was greater than the likelihood that he would bite the prone and apparently harmless girl while she was with them, so she let him stay and chose a position beside the girl on the edge of the bed. From here she could keep an eye on the dog, the door and the girl at once. She didn't think there was anyone else in the apartment right now, but that was no guarantee that Death couldn't pop in at a bad moment.

She reached over and grabbed Ms. Harper's shoulder, turning away from the door for a moment so she could shake the girl, gently, gently, "Jules dear, are you still asleep?"

There was no response for the longest moment and Leslie began to worry that the child was indeed too far under still to communicate with her yet.

Then, "'m sleepy..."

"That's alright dear," maybe we can get somewhere with this. "I'll let you sleep as long as you want, but first I need you to answer some questions for me. Can you do that?"

"What?"

"When did you meet Death?"

"Death?"

Leslie frowned, sitting up and glancing back at the door. It might be easier to be direct while the bumpkin slept, but she was even denser now than Leslie would have expected from her when she was fully awake. She sighed, there's always a trade off. "Mitei dear, when did you meet Mitei?"

"I fell." Ms. Harper's sleeping form tensed and she raised a hand to wipe her face in her sleep, "Mitei was there when I woke up."

"Did she say anything to you?"

"Said, I was bleeding to death." This time she rolled over onto her back then relaxed there and smiled in her sleep, "but I didn't."

"You didn't?"

"Didn't," she said.

Leslie took a moment to think, reaching for Snappers alert head and scratching him behind one perfectly sculpted ear. Her fingers played with the delicate line of scar tissue at the edge of his ear as she pondered this little gem and let Ms. Harper slip back into a deeper level of sleep. Of course there was something unusual about the bumpkin; Death hadn't brought in recruits personally since long before anyone still livings memory. Death hadn't done a great many things in living memory that she'd suddenly started indulging in.

"Why didn't you die?"

"Healed," The question had been a whisper of half formed thought and the answer only confused the issue more. Healed?

"How were you healed?"

"Cold fire."

"What is cold fire?"

"Hurt," Ms. Harper frowned in her sleep. "Cold fire."

Leslie got up from the bed then, she wasn't getting anywhere with this last bit of information. But she'd already gathered a good bit more than what she'd been expecting. She paused at the doorway to look back on Ms. Harper's sleeping form, a few more minutes and then she'd wake the girl up and shovel coffee and food down her, get the bumpkin up and out of here before Death came back looking for her.

Shutting the door firmly behind her and Snapper she made her way towards her library. The one in her apartment was small and spare compared to the one that Death kept on her floor. It did have the advantage of being very specialized while Death's library seemed the usual mix of every subject under the sun. Where Death kept a mixture of company records, reference materials, how to books, classical literature and popular fiction, Leslie kept just three things in her library. Company records, Death mythology and books on sorcery.

Even with such a dedicated selection her library was still one of the largest rooms in her apartment. The company records didn't even make up a full half of the books she kept here. Those books were both dry and spare, only the most dedicated of historians could find anything of true interest in their dusty tomes. Some would probably be terribly hard pressed to figure out exactly what the company did just from them alone. But where the official records usually left a lot to the imagination, she'd supplemented the library with personal journals from as many of the past employees as she'd been able to find. As secretive as the company was, as strict as the contracts regarding employment in it were, there seemed to always be a handful of people who kept diaries of their time working within it.

At first this had surprised her terribly, so she'd researched it a bit more, getting hold of copies of older employee contracts as well as getting out her copy of her own. If anything the regulations regarding the company during its first few years had been even stricter than they were now. Though there hadn't been any regulations about keeping private journals there had been regulations of keeping outside documentation about the company. Still there were journals to be found, if you had the company records and knew the right names, the right people to contact and had the proper amounts of money, you could find journals going back to the very first days of the company. And these were the good ones, the ones full of Death's first few foibles and the ones that had driven her to the state that Leslie knew best.

It was in the journals that Leslie tended to find the most information about both the company and her employer and it had been the accidental finding of one such journal in her early days at the company that had helped catapult her up the ranks here. But as useful as the journals had been and would continue to be she doubted she'd find information about this 'cold fire,' though she knew that they'd have plenty of information about when Death had last brought in new recruits herself.

She sighed looking around herself at the book lined walls. This was going to mean a lot of reading and digging. None of which she really had the time for now. There was still that bumpkin to get up, on her feet and out of Leslie's door. Instead of searching her selves she went to the table in the center of the room and pulled a book off the top of the pile there. It was an old book, the title long worn off cover and spine. Inside all the words were in graceful calligraphy and Latin, perfectly safe for reading around the bumpkin even if she wasn't willing to take the risk of having this particular book lying around her office.

Book in hand she returned to the living room and picked up the phone there, calling down to the restaurant at the base of the building for a huge breakfast.

***

Back at the Philadelphia office after an afternoon spent playing chess with Leo. He had nearly gotten her, but Mitei had managed to hold her own long enough to take her leave peaceably without her secret shame being exposed. She sighed; letting the scraps of cloth she was still holding slip to the ground while she shook her robe out and slung it back over her shoulders. The light was fading from her office as the sun started to set outside, she put a hand to her forehead wondering how long this new body could cope with the sudden time changes, and moved to her desk pressing the intercom button.

"Evening Mitei," _ahh that was quick._ "What can I get for you?"

"Will you just come in here a moment Megan?"

A moment more and the doors swung open to admit her secretary. Megan had a huge bundle of cloth in her arms; she made her way over to the seating area and dumped them all on a chair motioning for Mitei to come closer as she shook out something. The cloth revealed itself to be a new shirt and as Mitei drew closer she began to make out the telltale signs of pockets and seams that revealed the pile to be more clothes as well.

"Do I really need all of this?"

Megan just smiled and wiggled the shirt at her a little. Mitei sighed and slipped the comforting weight of the robe off of her shoulders, draping it on the back of a chair.

"Can't have you going around in your underwear again now can we?" Megan said and moved back to the door, shutting it as Mitei slipped out of the new suit and into the shirt. "You're going to need a whole wardrobe, in all your offices."

Mitei grumbled as she slipped out of her shoes and into a new pleated skirt.

"Don't you be grumbling at me," Megan said, hands on hips a pleased grin on her face. "Most women would be giddy at the opportunity to purchase thousands of dollars' worth of clothes and shoes."

"Most of those women would be getting something fun to wear, or comfortable," Mitei said. Pulled what looked like a corset out of the pile and held it up before her with a look of despair. "Some of them might even get a mix of both. Why in the world do I need a corset? This body is skinny enough."

"It's only a cincher and you need it because, one it's fashionable and two it conveys the proper image." Megan giggled as Mitei started trying to get the contraption on. Taking it out of her hands Megan swung the whole of it over Mitei's head and pulled it tight against the waist. "It's got snaps in the back instead of laces for easy in easy out."

Mitei sighed and then gasped as she felt the corset being snapped shut behind her, all in all not nearly as bad as the garments she remembered but still not as comfy as some of the new things she had seen. Cottons that felt like butter to the touch and was made into shirts and pants that could be slept in or worn on the street. At least the shirt she was wearing now seemed to be silk.

"Megan, are you on duty tonight?"

"Doesn't matter I figured it would be best if I stayed to keep an eye on your guest."

Mitei tried to turn around to meet Megan's gaze but the other woman had her in a tight grip, "has Roth released her then?"

"Leslie brought her back to this floor a few hours ago. She's been growing a bit anxious to see you and be off really. I had her help me pick out a few things for you to help pass the time." Megan whirled her around with one firm push on the corset. "This was her idea."

Mitei made a face and Megan took off for the door laughing. Now that the other woman was not tugging on her, Mitei had to admit that the outfit was not terribly uncomfortable. Not the most comfortable thing she had ever worn but she still had a good range of movement and did not feel like she could not breathe.

"Oh, she wasn't supposed to wear that corset with the skirt!"

Mitei looked up to see Megan close the door behind Ms. Harper who was balancing a full length mirror off the ground. "Does it matter?"

The other two women exchanged a look.

"Of course it matters," Megan said. "Though honestly, I was more concerned with getting you into the corset before you had a chance to refuse to wear it at all."

"You wouldn't have worn it?" Jules said leaning the mirror against the couch. "But why not? It's so cute; I wish I had the money for one of my own."

"She probably has some objections because of firsthand knowledge of what the old corsets were like." Megan said flopping down on the only unoccupied chair. "Or some such."

"They were neither cute nor fun." Mitei said, "and you most certainly never wore the things on the _outside_ of your clothes."

The other women broke into laughter and after a moment Mitei joined them. Then Megan was pushing herself off of the chair and heading for the door.

"Alright you're back and I'm betting you're hungry. I'll get some food stuffs and let you girls chat for a bit." She said and was out the door before either Mitei or Jules had a chance to voice a protest or an order.

Jules sighed, "well it looks alright with the skirt. Kinda, but I think you really should try it with the proper pants." She fished around in the pile on the chair pulling out a pair of gray slacks and shaking them out before Mitei. "I promise they're extra comfy to make up for the corset."

Mitei smiled at the woman and started to slip out of the skirt.

"Don't you want some privacy?"

"Privacy?" Mitei stopped with her hand on the zipper. "My office is private."

"I mean do you want me to turn around? Or maybe you'd be more comfortable changing in the bathroom?"

"Oh. I do not mind you being here while I change." Mitei said, "however, if it makes you uncomfortable I could change in the bathroom if you would prefer."

Jules made an exasperated gesture and then motioned for Mitei to continue while she went over to the chair that Megan had vacated earlier. "Now that you're finally back I guess we're supposed to talk, but I'm finding it hard to think of what I want to know."

"Probably something along the lines of why did you not die," Mitei said zipping up the new slacks and walking in front of the mirror. Definitely more comfortable overall then the skirt, the black pants matched the black and white top much better and the corset seemed to bring the whole together in an interesting way. She raised her hands to her chest, Leo had not graced her with a particularly ample bosom but somehow the corset seemed to make it seem fuller, but – "I look a bit like a pirate."

"That's half the point." Jules said, "it's all pirates and ninja's right now."

She looked at Jules, "you cannot be serious."

Jules giggled and nodded, "I am. Dead serious."

Which threw both of them into fits of laughter, made all the more complicated for Mitei because of that cute confining little corset. Breathing was not a problem but laughter seemed to be, it pinched and bit every time she laughed hard, making her suddenly aware of her abdomen. So she was the first to come out of it.

"I am sorry Jules; I still do not know why you did not die." _There, better to come right out with it._ "Did you wish to die?"

That brought the other woman out of her laughter with an alacrity that surprised Mitei. "Why would I want to die?"

"I am not sure," Mitei said frowning. "But death is all I know. I thought perhaps if you came here –"

"That you'd get a second chance to kill me?"

"No," Mitei said moving the mirror over so she could sit on the couch, but the corset was there biting into her as she sat so she started to pull it off. "I thought perhaps having you here would help me answer some of _my_ questions as well."

"You have questions?"

Mitei sighed, "I am Death"

"Are you really _the_ Death? I mean isn't that Death supposed to be all skeletal and gross?"

"That Death also is not supposed to have a multi-national company which employs thousands of humans." Mitei said, "that image of Death also does not apply to all places, cultures and times."

"So – you really _are_ Death, Death."

"Yes. I am Death and I seem to be having some problems."

"I have a bad feeling that you mean 'me' when you say 'problem'."

"I mean," Mitei paused taking a moment to actually look at Jules. The girl seemed to be holding up well but what she was going to say, well Leo had not taken it particularly well and he was older than Jules by a few years. She sighed; humans were unfathomable, "my inability to complete my appointment with you. I mean healing you instead. I mean the way you see me now and the reason I suddenly need a whole new wardrobe."

"Ok," Jules said closing her eyes a moment and sitting back in the chair. "I can almost understand how for you, my living would be a bit of a mistake. But I don't understand the rest. You healed me?"

"Apparently, I am not entirely sure." Mitei said shrugging. "Leo says I healed him and it did seem probable after – "

"Hold up, who's this Leo?"

"The day I met you I had two appointments, you were the second and neither of them went well."

"So Leo was the first, but you've been meeting with him since?"

Mitei nodded and her stomach rumbled rather loudly. She groaned and put her head in her hands. "I have seen him a few times since then, yes. I tried to convince him to come to an office, but he refused."

Jules made a gesture from her chair as the doors opened and Megan came in pushing a tray laden with food. Mitei's stomach grumbled again.

"Let's eat first." Jules said as Megan began arranging dinner for two. "Then you can start from the very beginning and explain _all_ of this."

***

Not between, not Underhill or on mountain top. Not in hidden summer glad or the halls of Valhalla. The gods were nowhere that Aedan could find them. He'd searched all the usual gathering places, then broken down and started looking in all the little places some of them liked to retreat to at various times. His searching had grown more and more frantic, as the realization that he was alone in the realm of men had grown on him.

But worse than the realization that he was the only god that currently walked the mortal plane was the realization that no matter how hard he searched _he could not find the others_. Not a trace, a foot print, scat or a clue seemed to be there for him to find and follow. It was almost as if, had he not been there himself, the gods had never existed.

That was impossible of course. As he lived and breathed and flicked into woods in California and out of groves in Wyoming, Pennsylvania and Russia; so he must have powers beyond that of mortal man. The concept that he was unable to track down his own though, was unthinkable. That there was anything alive or dead, that there had ever been anything or anyone completely capable of eluding him when he wished to find them was – unthinkable.

Yet there it was, he thought pulling out of yet another hill that had proved vast but completely empty, the gods are no _where_ that I can find them. Gone perhaps, or dead, either way they've left no sign - no hint that I can follow. He leaned against the side of the hill he'd just finished searching, placing hands behind his head and basking in the warmth of the autumn sun. The sun still shines, as does the moon. The planet turns without our influence, indeed it seems to work so well without us none have noticed our lack of presence.

From where he leaned he could still see a rocky field, were a single horse grazed and a pair of ragged children played tag in the tufts of struggling grass. The children were too far away and bedraggled to tell if they were two girls, or boys, or a mixture of both; they laughed and ran, clashed and even cried when one fell down and scrapped its knee. And they did all of this completely unaware of his presence though, as he leaned against the hill, basking in the light, he should have been clear as day.

Even as he watched the children came closer, bent on a game of "king of the hill." As they climbed and capered up the side of the hill on which he'd been leaning so calmly, neither noticed his presence though he was right beneath them. He even reached out a hand to steady one, definitely female this close up, keeping her from tumbling straight back down the hill she was so bent on climbing. She barely noticed his touch just used his steadying hand and moved on; Aedan was left with her muddy boot print as his only thanks or acknowledgement.

Disgusted, he pushed off from the hill; heading to a small grove of trees a few strides away. Completely forgotten, it seemed by those they had once spent such great energy to influence and protect. He stepped into the grove and out into the woods where he'd first heard the chanting. They seemed the closest to home at the moment, the only woods on the planet that seemed truly alive to his presence, for even as he picked out a likely spot to sit, did the ground mold itself into a more comfortable seat and moss add cushion to it.

It was dark in those woods a moonless night. Aedan sat a moment listening to the night sounds of this forest. There was deer in abundance here, foxes and a few owls. But the sounds of the larger predators seemed absent. No cat's yowl or the howl of wolves greeted his talented ears. It was a strange world to be so lush and so barren all at once; he closed his eyes on it, letting the forest cradle him as was its want.

***

When he awoke some time later, he found the sun had risen and a new day long since dawned. Aedan stretched. His limbs popped, old injuries protested the strain, he sighed still tired despite having just woken. He'd slept often on the hunt but this sleep lacked the ability to renew him as the end of summer ceremonies usually did. Except this time the ceremony had been broken, it hadn't worked, hadn't _healed_. There would be no complete rejuvenation this year, or the next. It was probably a wonder that he had so few aches and pains as he did considering how long his last hunt had probably been.

He rubbed a shoulder where a particularly knobby root had been digging into it all night and sighed, perhaps he would heal in time. Heal as mortals did, slowly over long stretches of time spent most definitely not doing what had injured them in the first place. Except he had no idea if that was truly possible for him to do. It was probable that he would heal, eventually, he was a god after all he'd survived worse – ok, so he hadn't actually survived any of it but...

Aedan hopped up so suddenly that the whole woods fell silent around him, waiting with hushed and expectant breath for the hunt to begin or end he wasn't sure which, there was only one way to heal himself of a drastic wound. The only way to do that was for him to die. He began dusting leaves and bits of bruised moss from his clothing, pulling twigs and leaves from his hair.

Normally to heal, he first had to die. Preferably after one last great hunt. Die and be reborn with the careful tending of the goddess all winter long. Sometimes she even killed him, though those weren't exactly his favorite years. Or his favorite version of the goddess for that matter, nothing like having your entrails ripped out by your girlfriend on occasion to really sour the entire relationship, he thought. So what he needed was to die. One good death would fix him right up – probably.

There was always the pesky possibility that dying wouldn't fix any of his, admittedly, minor physical ails. A chance that by dying without the careful attendance of the goddess he'd find himself unable to be renewed and would really – die. Die a death more final than anything that the mortals he watched over could ever imagine. Wink out of existence as if he'd never been. Have all he'd ever done undone and be forgotten by all, even those last few confused or insane worshipers he still had.

All of that was, of course, dependent on him finding someone or something capable of killing him at his peak first. He'd decide whether or not he was willing to risk a true death once he'd found it, or if he was willing to go about his existence almost like a mortal.

Could he get a mortgage? Did he want one? Did he want a tiny house that supposedly belonged to him when before he'd walked all the world and known every part of it as his own. Of his flesh and the flesh of the goddess. Could he ever be happy living like a mite on the back of this great beast he'd helped create, Aedan didn't really think he could.

Though the prospect of living as a mortal for a time did have some minor entertainment factors, after all other gods had done it time and again. He'd never really had the time to be worried about entertaining himself, there had always been the hunt and always the rebirth. Always some other step or something exciting to do, he'd never had the time to be bored. But as he brushed himself off and checked his gear and clothes over, changing his pants into the jeans he'd seen many of the mortals wearing and pulling a nondescript black tee-shirt out of his pouch, to cover his chest with before shoving his arrows and bow into it; as he changed to go a hunting in the mortal realms he wondered if he could live without the hunt or if the hunt would call him forever.

Aedan had been called in these woods. Already around him the woods were awaking to his influence, they grew flush with his magic, the trees more limber and their voices almost loud enough to be heard by mortal ears. Already he could feel the presence of guardians and watchers, small beasties of magic that had long been dormant awakening and tending to the wood. They would be lusher and more potent come spring then they had ever been before, children visiting with their parents would swear they had seen fairies and nymphs dancing in its shade. One might even see a unicorn; none of these were gone, just lost, betwixt and between. His presence would call them all here, as if he'd opened the gates and set a beacon. And by the next summer these woods would be flush with game.

A few years of his continued influence and a beast truly worthy of the hunt would probably appear here. A beast that _could_ kill him, though it would likely die in the attempting, when that happened Aedan knew he would be called back. Whether he'd found a death elsewhere or not by then, there _would be_ a death waiting for him here. Perhaps it was even a good death. A death from which he could rise again, one that would help fuel these woods and keep their magic strong for a while. Aedan didn't think it would last that way though; probably he'd just condemn these woods to a brief taste of life and a slow death. While he – lost what remained of his mind.

***

Mitei reclined in the sun in Leo's backyard. It was an unusually warm day and he had insisted on enjoying some of the warmth and sun so she had taken off robe and shoes as he had suggested when the Path dropped her into his backyard, and gotten as comfortable as she was able in the short pleated skirt that Jules had picked out for her.

She had protested the outfit vehemently at first. Just like the corset it had seemed ridiculous for her station. Not to mention all of these things that Jules and Megan had been picking for her lately fell completely off of her usual color scale. Nothing was all black or white; though they had not picked out anything neon or even pastel, sticking with grays and the occasional splash of white. Still the skit was so short, the blouse too loose and the vest too tight. But as with the corset all together the outfit had helped to soften her much more imposing form, drawing eyes to the long stretch of leg and the suggestion of an ample chest rather than the sometimes disturbing quality of her pale skin and snow white hair.

Now with the sleeves rolled up, the top unbuttoned slightly and her legs already catching the breeze, though she kept remind herself to keep her legs closed; she had to admit that the outfit was really a rousing success. At least here, on a particularly warm fall day, she was not entirely sure she would give it the same verdict in Philly. Or any place colder still at this time of year. One more mental note to make, she thought as she adjusted a bit to catch another faint breeze.

"Here," she opened her eyes to see Leo standing over her with a tall glass of lemonade. She smiled up at him and accepted the cold glass; the cool lemonade seemed the perfect drink on a warm sticky day.

"Thank you," she said between sips.

"Drink that too fast and you might get a brain freeze."

Mitei was not entirely sure what that was but she slowed down, finally putting the glass down on the table at her elbow. Leo's yard was not terribly big and the whole thing was surrounded with a high wooden fence. She had been lucky to come when she had because there had been a nice sunny patch for her to recline in and she had still been suffering from a chill she had picked up from a spot somewhere in Canada earlier in the day. Now half the yard was shadowed as the sun moved away from its zenith. Still, she leaned back; arching her back and feeling her skin seem to soak up the warm light.

"You'd best be careful, or you'll burn."

Mitei looked around, there did not appear to be a fire nearby.

"Sunburn, it's something that happens when someone gets too much sun and doesn't have any sun block on. Or if you've got really pale skin." Leo pointed at her legs, "like yours."

"Oh," she wondered for a moment whether or not this wonderful feeling was worth risking this burn, then she just closed her eyes for a moment and basked in it. Leo laughed and sat in the other chair. "Leo, will you come to Pennsylvania with me?"

"Hmm?" He said, "can you take people on your path then"

"I do not know"

"Well," he took a sip. "I'd rather not fly all the way to the other side of the country. Not even if I've heard that the foliage is beautiful this time of year."

Mitei sat up, swinging her legs over the edge of the chair and grasping her robe tight to her belly. Ever since the earthquake she had taken to carrying the robe with her everywhere she went, she did not want to end up at some locations without some form of clothing and she hated appearing to the dying all in rags.

Leo was not looking at her. Those purple eyes were closed much the same way hers had been a moment ago, she sighed. "Remember when I told you there were two appointments the day I met you?"

Leo nodded, how could he tell that she was watching him now?

"The other one is in Pennsylvania, she wants to meet with you."

"That's nice for her and all, but why would I want to do that? For that matter why are _you_ meeting with her?"

"I am trying to get some answers here Leo." She gritted her teeth, if he would just look at her – watching him in repose was too distracting, her eyes tended not to focus on his face but trace the lines of his body over and over again. He looked both good and faintly ridiculous in shorts, legs all knobby and hairy. "I think that the only way I can know what is going on is by talking with both of you."

"And what will you do if you find out what's going on? Will you kill us both then?" He said and finally opened his eyes, unfortunately hers weren't anywhere near his face when he did, she felt the telltale heat of a blush growing in her cheeks.

"You are my friend Leo. I do not wish for you to die, but this is my purpose. It is all that I am. I must be able to keep doing it for the sake of others as well as your own."

"Which nicely doesn't answer my question."

She sighed; somehow she seemed to have done something wrong again. This was a very odd friendship; they always seemed to be butting heads with each other and rarely seemed to enjoy themselves - except when they were eating.

"I am not a killer Leo," she said. "You have both been healed. The injuries that should have killed you are gone. I do not think I can kill you if I figure out what is wrong with me."

Leo looked at her a moment, his eyes sparkled clear and amethyst in the sun and Mitei found herself content to meet his eyes while he searched for something she had not yet learned to find in his. Finally he broke the stare and reached up tousling his blond curls with one hand.

"I'm not going to go to Pennsylvania with you or on a plane, Mitei," he said getting up and grabbing his glass and hers. "I'm going to be going back to work soon. I won't be able to make these kinds of long trips for a while."

She sighed, "all the more reason you should consent to being on my payroll."

"I will be no woman's secretary!" He said and marched back into his kitchen, leaving her to notice that the sun had reached even her sunny corner of the yard. If she had not moved her legs the shadow of the fence would already have fallen on them. As it was she debated getting up and following Leo or waiting for him to come get her.

Not for long though, Leo was back in a moment and scooped her up easily from the chair though he left her shoes behind, and carried her through his back door and into the kitchen. His body seemed harder than the women she was most familiar with touching, though his skin seemed just as soft. He did not stop in the kitchen though, bringing her all the way through and into the living room, before dropping her unceremoniously on the couch.

She bounced and started to get up annoyed but he was standing there with a smile on his face and arms crossed, to remind her she was not allowed to get up. Indignant she found herself reaching for the first thing she could get her hands on, the remote control, and flung it at him. In such close quarters it was bound to hit even though he ducked, a look of surprise on his face. It bounced harmlessly off of his shoulder and then he was upon her, fingers digging into her ribs and suddenly she was laughing and kicking uncontrollably.

"So the great and mighty Death is ticklish," Leo said when he finally let up and she was able to breath. "That knowledge would definitely be bad for your image, maybe even business. Imagine all the trouble you'd get into if the dying knew they could incapacitate you with a round of tickles."

He was still laughing but the thought made her sit up. "Please, do not tell anyone. Please – so much is already wrong; I already have so many problems to deal with. Please Leo –"

In a moment he was lifting her legs and sitting down on the couch beside her, putting her legs in his lap and hugging her fiercely. "Jeez you freak easy, I'm not really going to tell anyone. I'm not going to tell any of your secrets Mitei."

"Really," she felt herself shiver despite the warmth of the day and his arms around her. "Are you really my friend Leo? Will you keep my secrets?"

"Of course I'll keep your secrets. I'd do that even if I wasn't your friend, which I already am." He pulled back so he could make full eye contact and she looked deep into those purple eyes, wishing she could read what they were trying to tell her. "Being your friend isn't going to be easy on me though. It's going to take some adjustment I think, but I'm going to try, ok?"

She nodded and he lifted her legs off his lap getting up and heading back through the kitchen, presumably to get those shoes she had been wearing today. So it was just as hard on him being friends with her as it was confusing for her. Well that was good to know at least, even if she could not quite figure out the source of her confusion. She had had male secretaries before. Over the years and in different times there always seemed to be a handful of males that made wonderful secretaries for her. There was one at her New York City office now, but for some reason these men though different from her female secretaries also seemed to be completely different from Leo. She sighed, at a loss, as Leo reappeared, her lemonade in one hand and her shoes in the other.

"Leo can I see your chest?"

"Not that I'm not eager to undress at any female's command, why?"

"I just want to see where you were shot again."

Leo unbuttoned his shirt and shrugged it off his shoulders a bit and she leaned forward to take a closer look. The skin was mostly smooth, a few hairs here and there which she understood were not uncommon for men, but there were no signs of the scar he should have had after that gunshot and the subsequent surgery. No signs of the staples or stitches they had used to close the edges of the wound. She ran her fingers over the flesh, he was warm, nearly hot to her touch and the hiss he drew in told her she was cold to his, still there were not any signs of the wound she had touched at the hospital.

She looked up into his eyes but could not read them. "If I can take someone with me on the Path, will you come to Philadelphia with me?"

He sighed and took her hand off his chest, pulling his shirt closed and buttoning it all the way back up before replying. "It depends on a lot of things. Why don't you concentrate on figuring out if you can take someone on your path and then ask me again? Better yet, why don't you call me? Did you get that cell phone yet?"

"There was not enough time, but I did place an order for one."

"Good," he said and put her shoes on her feet, then swung her legs off his lap and onto the floor. "I'm in the phone book when you're ready give me a call alright."

"Alright," she got up, feeling dismissed and not knowing why; she had not even finished her lemonade yet, "goodbye Leo."

She took a step and vanished before she could hear his reply.

***

Mid-afternoon on another Deathless day and Leslie fully intended to make the most out of this time. After the morning meetings and the careful deployment of employees to appointments she normally had very little left to do with her day. Unless there was a dignitary that needed meeting with or she had a few appointments of her own that day. Today there were neither for her to deal with and Death hadn't been in the office all day. This was the perfect timing for her to make a visit to the library on Death's level.

She navigated the maze on the upper floor with the ease of long practice. There had been a time when she'd first come to the company and gained access to Death's floor when she'd been seemingly endlessly fascinated with the maze, all it's twists, turns and secrets. There were a few guest rooms on this level, scattered throughout points of the maze that made them almost impossible to find twice. Perfect for those rare occasions that there were guests in the building, at least the guests that you wanted to awe and cower.

These guest rooms were opulent with every luxury, except a map and real windows. Anyone that found themselves being ushered into one of those rooms was usually escorted there by a chattering secretary or Death herself. Kept distracted they were soon completely lost in the maze and by the time they reached their quarters had little hope of finding their way out on their own. Most of them were also too arrogant to admit that they were completely lost, the few that did were usually told just not to wander far from their door and that a secretary would be along shortly to see to them. The more arrogant ones would still often wander out into the maze.

They'd get lost though not hopelessly so. Where the maze didn't lead to a guest room there were traps. Nothing to harm anyone, though there had been this one very fat, very blusterous dignitary that had crawled into a 'rabbit' hole and gotten himself stuck trying to reach the garden on the other side. Leslie smiled to herself as she took a series of sharp turns and climbed a set of incredibly narrow steps.

In truth there was at least three different ways to get to Death's offices from the elevators. Two that she'd discovered personally over way too much time spent here and one that she'd been told the secretaries often used to bring Death things on. This third was supposedly the straightest of the paths, with wide hallways and an even floor in case things needed to be wheeled or carried in. However, this path, with its narrow stairs and sharp turns, was Leslie's favorite. This was the path that ended at Death's library.

The steps seemed to go up straight to a dead end but there was a hidden doorway before their peak. Little more than a narrow slit in the wall this doorway led to an even more narrow space, that turned out to be the back of an impossibly huge set of built in shelves on one side of the library. Once she cleared the shelves the light of the day streamed into the room in beams from high windows along one wall. The library was a virtual forest of shelves. Unevenly spaced and each filled with books of various quality and context, these shelves didn't even all match of a height because this room was one of the last rooms before the offices the floor here had several levels as the ground was evened back out to that of the original floor.

Of the many things Leslie had seen as a member of this company, this maze was probably the most strange, fascinating and magical of all the things that it had to offer. It awed, even after years, it still awed and it inspired. Every time she stepped from behind that last bookcase and into the light of the library she took a deep appreciative breath. There were more direct routes to the office, she'd probably end up taking one such on her way out if Death caught her chatting with her secretaries. But this was definitely her favorite.

There were tables scattered throughout the library, each placed so that the light would fall perfectly on them at various points in the day, with light sensitive lamps that turned on in the evenings and acted as beacons through the small maze of shelves. Leslie noticed a figure flitting from shelf to shelf, putting books away or pulling them off the selves she wasn't sure. She paused a moment where she was, trying for a better look at the other person before stepping toward them.

"Ah, just the woman I wanted to see."

***

Megan looked up from the pile of books she was sorting on the table, "oh hello Leslie."

Leslie walked up to the table and sat down in the only chair there, leaning back comfortably. "Is Death in today Meg?"

"No Mitei isn't," she said and continued sorting. "Though I suspect you already know that as well as you already know her new name."

"Oh come on Nutty, you've got to admit it's hard to tell when that one comes and goes."

Megan stopped sorting to glare at her, "it never ceases to surprise me how you know just the right thing to say - to piss me off."

"What?" Leslie made wide eyes and placed her hands on her chest, "we've been calling you that for years Nutty, it's just a nickname."

"A nickname _you_ started and I _always_ hated."

Leslie smiled and raised her hands in an exasperated gesture. "I'm sorry Megan, really. If you like I'll start asking the family to stop calling you that right this minute." She pulled her cell phone out of a pocket, flipping it open one handed and started to dial.

"Don't bother," Megan sighed going back to her books. "I don't think anything short of Mitei herself will make my parents stop at this point and the rest I barely speak to now."

Leslie closed the phone with a satisfying snap; it was a good thing Megan had conceded. She hadn't talked to her aunt or uncle in so many years she wasn't sure she still knew their number. She put the phone on the table, setting it spinning with a finger she watched it catch the light on its slim, shiny surface and knew Megan must be watching it spin as well.
"Do you like it? I was thinking of getting Mitei one for Christmas."

"Mitei won't accept gifts from employees."

"Well she'll have to make an exception. It's high time she had one of her own." She said, picking the small phone back up and slipping it back into a pocket. "All things considered she's completely unreachable most of the time. Never mind that she's made this her main office for the season, it's still nearly impossible to get a hold of her for meetings, what if something came up?"

Megan grunted and lifted a small pile of books, moving to the shelves to put them away. "She's aware of that Leslie. I think she's already getting one, from Tokyo, she said something about making her Japanese secretaries happy."

"Happy?"

"Yeah they get almost as excited over electronics as they do over clothes; she's expecting to have a hoot with them."

"I suppose she'll get something even better than this then," Leslie said, smiling behind her cousins back. "Honestly I'd love to see it when she gets it. Maybe I can get something similar."

"You'll probably be able to see it, though I doubt they'll come with English settings," Megan said as she came back to the table and grabbed another pile of books. "I imagine she'll probably get something top of the line. I just hope it isn't too fragile. Things get broken too easily if they're in her pockets sometimes."

"I'm sure she could get it replaced easily enough." She looked at her cousin, watching the taller, stronger woman shelve books for a while. She'd gotten the information she'd wanted out of her at least for the moment, but if she was going to be about in the library all day then she wouldn't have the chance to relax among the books as she'd previously planned.

"I wonder why she's suddenly taken to this new form." There was a pause as Megan took in her words and then kept re-shelving books. "I mean it's so – off putting – and strange. It doesn't look even remotely human. Though the men seem to like it fine I fear she's distancing herself from her female employee's."

"Don't you worry too much about how Mitei looks or people might start saying you've become catty."

"It's not just her looks, Megan," Leslie said with a dismissive laugh. "It's the new name. This is too much change for the employee's to assimilate easily, too fast."

"Consider it like a makeover," Megan said coming back to the table and meeting Leslie's gaze with arms crossed over her considerable bosom. "Women go through them often enough, after all you're natural color is brown isn't it?"

Leslie smiled up at her, "that it is. Still, for an immortal being to suddenly – Oh never mind. I suppose I should make an appointment to speak with Death about all this myself anyway." She stood up, straightening her suite and turned towards the office exit, best not to return the way she'd come or she might be distracted while she was in the maze and end up like that fat dignitary.

"I'm sure she'd _love_ to hear all about your opinions of her personal appearance Leslie."

"Do be a dear and tell her I'd like to see her a moment when she's back in the office will you?"

"Of course, I am her secretary after all."

Yes, Leslie thought as she left the library and entered Death's office proper, you are just her secretary.

***

It was evening and Mitei found herself lost in the woods. From the brilliant foliage of some of the trees she could tell she was somewhere on the east coast of the U.S. or maybe Canada, hard to tell when all she saw where trees.

The Path seemed in no hurry so she paused beside a huge tree, its leaves all decked out in shades of gold for the season, and rested her head against the trunk. She could feel the tree's mind, almost as different from a human's as that of a snake or a fly, so much slower and full of the same joy she had felt in all the trees she had ever managed to take a moment with. With her head pressed against one of them like this, she wondered again that if she could clear enough time somehow and came to a forest like this one, could she learn the slow language of the trees?

She could hear them easily enough but their thoughts were so slow she had often heard the fading echoes of their dying screams in trees that had been felled long before she found them. She suspected that she could spend a whole year in a forest like this, learning the language together with the young saplings and still only have touched a few syllables of a word. Sighing she closed her eyes and let the trees wordless joy wash over her. It was familiar to her this joy, not entirely dissimilar to the joy she had felt during the earthquake; a joy of being and everything being in its place, light for their leaves and water for their roots, rich earth to feed on and so many others to sing with.

But, she had not come here for this tree. Or probably any of its brethren, it was a rare thing when the Path brought her to dying trees. Probably some of the most horrific scenes she had ever witnessed even considering the various plagues. Some were of the opinion that trees did not feel pain and were absolutely merciless in their felling. Walking into a forest that had been clear cut for firewood, nothing left but screaming stumps filled with the memory of each of their limbs being ripped away and then torn apart right to their base. The poor things could hold on for so long, by the time that they had realized anything was really amiss it was far too late for screaming, a mercy she supposed.

Still, today was not a trees day to die. There was no real way that she could be sure of that. She had managed to give all the names on her list to her employees for the next several hours, so whatever reasons she was here for there was no name on her list to guide her. Nothing but the Path, still as unpredictable as it had been lately she had no reason to doubt that it would ever keep her away from one of her appointments and indeed in a few minutes more of walking she started to see telltale signs.

The underbrush of the forest here was broken and speckled now and then with blood, as if something of a relatively large size had come crashing through in some considerable distress. Still the Path did not seem to be in any hurry so she took her time trying to follow the trail, losing it on occasion and having the Path warp her back onto it further along. So she had time to wander, but not to completely lose the trail. After a while she noticed a scrap of brown fur on a twig and a bit later a muddy hoof print.

Deer then, she thought and stumbled up the side of a muddy embankment, expensive and impractical Italian shoes sinking and sliding in the mud, just one more reason she needed to suggest a change in apparel to her secretaries. At least she had pulled the robe on over her clothes when she found herself in the woods, along with the usual spell of disinterest. She was not expecting to find any humans in these woods, but they seemed to be everywhere nowadays and caution never hurt her. Humans on the other hand, had hurt her plenty over the years.

There, ahead of her through the trees she could make out a patch of brown through the deepening gloom under the canopy. A few steps closer and she was sure, she had found her deer. There was what looked like an arrow stuck deep within its chest. Its whole front was covered with its own drying blood and it struggled with increasingly frantic and feeble attempts to stand, to run, to get away from whoever had shot it and anything else that might want to take advantage of its weakened condition.

Mitei settled in beside it on her knees. One hand gentle on its muzzle feeling its last breaths come in frantic bursts, while the other reached for its chest and the piercing arrow.

Poor thing, if she really had the power to save it, the power to heal, she thought perhaps she would use it now. This kind of death was nearly senseless, no wonder the Path had brought her to this deer sometimes they had trouble accepting their deaths at hunters' hands. As a species they were born already expecting to struggle hard against natural predators, against cold and food shortages. But born into the seeming utopia of the modern age, with no predators and abundant food supplies even help surviving some harsh winters and occasionally being fed straight out of some people's back yards, when it came to a sudden end to what seemed like heaven - she sighed.

The deer had to die, its heart had been pierced and she did not have the power to change that. Nor did she have the time to make judgment calls, especially not when she of all beings knew the score on this so very, very well.

There was a rustle behind her as she placed her other hand around the arrow feeling the deer's heart kick wildly for a moment and then stop, she paid no attention to the sound concentrating instead on the deer beneath her hand. When she was sure that the deer was gone she stood up slowly, eyeing her hand that was covered with drying blood now, then watching as already a stream of ticks and fleas began vacating the body, most of life was this fast. If the Path let her she could stay a moment and see when the first flies found the body, maybe a crow would get here and pluck out a tender eye before the hunter found his wayward kill.

So fast life moved, her part in it so small and fleeting, necessary; still she sighed wiping her hand in a fold of the robe no longer certain if the garment drank the fluid or if the color of the stain was lost in its dark dye.

"You are not what I was expecting."

Mitei turned, expecting the Path to open up beneath her feet even as she did so. Unusual indeed for anyone to see her once she had cast the spell of disinterest, but not entirely unheard of at least; probably of more concern was the fact that her feet stayed planted firmly on forest loam and she did not find herself whisked off to the comfort and relative safety of an office.

"Expecting?" She said, stalling for time and looking over the new arrival carefully. A man, short by modern standards and broad of shoulder, he stood in the remains of dappled sunlight though and she found it hard to make out his features. Still he seemed healthy, strong even, those shoulders spoke of muscles she could not see; not the usual suicidal type that saw through the spell.

"When I shot that deer," he said his voice a deep rumble that seemed familiar to Mitei though she could not place why. "I wasn't exactly expecting you, I was expecting dinner."

"Oh," she said smiling sheepishly. Of course he did not know who or what she was, though how he had managed to see her through the spell let alone what he thought of a robed woman of such odd coloring out in the woods alone with the night coming on. "I beg your pardon. I have no interest in this deer I just found it dying. If you will excuse me I will be on my way."

The man stepped forward a hand raised to forestall her movement and she froze again, unwilling to move in front of this odd huntsman. "I was expecting the deer, but I'm not displeased to have found you so soon."

Alright, back to being confused then. "I am sorry?"

"My name is Aedan," he said stepping closer still. Close enough she could see his features clearly in the dusk. Short brown curls and green eyes, small details of a kind and open face that helped her relax a tiny bit more. "Do you recognize me?"

"Should I?"

"No I don't suppose you should," something went out of his frame and he seemed to shrink a bit with disappointment. "For a moment, you seemed familiar to me, but I suppose you walked closer with others than you ever did with me."

"I do not understand what you mean."

"You can call me Aedan; I am the god of the hunt."

***

"You cannot be serious," she said, smiling and taking a step back, there was only room for her to take one before she was standing on the deer, now she was out of places to go and the Path still had not taken her onward. _Great, stuck in the woods with a crazy man who thinks he is a god. Wonderful month I am having._

Aedan stayed where he was, for a wonder but reached up behind himself pulling an arrow from a quiver she had not noticed on his back before. It was an odd arrow, tipped with a point that was not the dull bullet like affair of modern arrows, but having a sharp metallic point instead. She watched, frozen as he rolled the sleeve up on one arm, revealing a weave of old scars.

"I am the god of the hunt," he said and as she watched he pulled the arrowhead over his arm, leaving a gash along the flesh that quickly began to bleed. Bleed and then close, fast as her wounds had healed at Leo's, probably faster. It seemed no sooner had the first beads of blood welled up from the gash then they were being squeezed from the flesh as the wound closed up beneath them.

Her knees felt weak. At least this meant her spell of disinterest was still working, probably, she thought.

"I am the hunt," he said replacing the arrow. "And you, you are Death; I've been looking for you."

"Wonderful," she said feeling her body flush with a heat not entirely unlike the blush Leo had helped her identify. "I do not know who or what you really are, but I do not have time for this."

Path or no Path she was getting out of these woods -- now. She started striding through the underbrush, forging a new path through the dense foliage since Aedan was standing between her and the one she had used to get to this point. The forest was already dark here, though she could still see light touching the top of the trees, it did not filter down through so many branches. It did not matter. All she needed to do was keep walking, eventually the Path would open, or she would come across something she could use to orient herself and get to an office. Except –

Except, Aedan was following her with ease through the foliage and the darkening forest; easy for him of course, she was the one breaking the path through the underbrush. Even as she thought that she stumbled and he was upon her in an instant, helping her to stand. She brushed herself off and faced him again, "alright, what do you want?"

"I want what anyone wants who sees through this little spell of yours," he said with a gesture reminding her that the spell of disinterest was still in place. "I want to die."

"Sorry I cannot help you."

Turning she started walking again going a bit slower but still walking purposefully through the trees and bushes. This time when he caught up with her he grabbed her arm, turning her to face him with a strength that surprised her though he was definitely gentle.

"You are Death, I only ask you to do what you have always done."

"No, actually you ask me to do what I have never done," she said pulling her arm away and glaring at this impossible male, he resisted but she was still able to pull her arm away and there was some small comfort in that _. Perhaps I am as strong as this god,_ she thought and there went her comfort, "I do not kill."

"But you are Death."

She stamped her foot, "yes, yes, I am Death. Though I have a name as do you, Aedan; it is Mitei."

He dipped his head in acknowledgement and spread his hands wide in a peaceful gesture. "I am sorry Mitei; I have been – impolite – in my eagerness."

She crossed her arms and regarded him through narrowed eyes. If he really was the god of the hunt she was not going to be able to lose him in the woods. Her only hope of getting away from him was the Paths cooperation, and the Path did not seem like it wanted to play. Looking Aedan over carefully, he looked more human than she did. Brown hair and green eyes, not at all unusual coloring for a human, his skin was tanned a light brown and he was even wearing jeans. If it had not been for the healing cut on his arm she would just be regarding him as a crazy, and possibly harmful, human right now. If not for that she would still be trying to get away from him by losing him in the woods as well.

She uncrossed her arms to put a hand to her head; all of this was just making her head hurt - just one more, lovely, new thing to worry, or wonder at; one more thing about this body that was more unpleasant than seemed worthwhile. Touching her head only seemed to make the pain stronger and soon she was stumbling, blind with it, she heard the muffled sound of Aedan moving to catch her; then silence and darkness as the Path finally whisked her away to the Philadelphia office.

***

It was dark in her office, empty and quiet. For once she did not move directly for the intercom to call her secretaries, doubling over with the pain in her head instead. There were starbursts of light behind her closed eyelids as she slid to the floor. How long she spent down there clutching her head she could not tell but as quickly as this pain had started it seemed to end. She found herself blinking up at the impossibly distant ceiling and panting, drained of energy in a way that did not feel quite like tired.

For once the knowledge that there was a secretary on call just a step or two away brought little comfort. She might get Anne again, and tonight she did not feel she had the patience to deal with a woman that could not recall her name. Leslie Roth could be lurking about the building, ready and willing to pounce on her despite the late hour. Mitei sighed, sitting up, she wanted Megan, or Jules, even Leo though he was on the other side of the country at the moment and was just as likely to make her feel worse.

The only option was to get up and see if there was anyone at the desk. If not she had a good chance of making it to the maze un-accosted and she could probably make it to Jules' rooms without the Path interfering.

There was no way for her to open her doors stealthily, the machinery did not work that way, but she was fortunate to find the outer office empty. Striding as quickly as she could she picked out an entrance to the maze that would lead her quickly to Jules' quarters and hoped that the girl had not decided to go exploring and gotten lost.

She was probably the only person currently living that really knew the entire maze. It had been constructed to exacting specifications when she had bought the building. An oddity to say the least, it had delighted her architects almost as much as it had frustrated them and her human employees. It took up the majority of the floor, leaving just a small portion for her actual office and the lounge and was several stories tall, though none of those floors were even to help further the confusion of the maze. She had asked the builders to boggle the mind in as many ways as they could think of, then suggested a few more. Resulting in a seemingly impossible space that protected this particular office in ways that she had rarely managed in any of the others and making Philadelphia a particular favorite for meeting with American dignitaries and even a few foreign ones.

It delighted and distracted them so much that none had ever managed to breach its walls. They felt secure in the guest rooms hidden within it because so few could navigate the maze at all let alone to any specific locations within it and the security at Death Inc. was beyond reproach. Still, sometimes people got lost in it. Mitei was the only one capable of navigating the maze fast enough to find them in those situations.

Now with her head throbbing at odd intervals, she dreaded having to search for Jules. Even as she drew near her rooms and realized another possibility, perhaps Megan had come and taken Jules out shopping or exploring the city? The other woman had mentioned wanting to do something of the sort. They could both be out there right now and beyond Mitei's immediate reach. She gritted her teeth, resolving again to get a cell phone immediately if she did not find one waiting at her Tokyo office she would have someone fetch her one and this time she swore not to move till she had the little machine in her hand.

***

Mitei stumbled around into the area that she had designated as Jules' rooms. There were other more opulent guest rooms in the maze but these were her personal favorites. There was a small courtyard area, the floor here was sunken down a foot or so below that of the floor of the hallway she had used to enter, and the resulting pit was filled with sand.

Soft, fine, beach sands that immediately swallowed Mitei's feet, shoes and all, so she stopped a moment to pull the things off, flinging them over her shoulder carelessly; sometime after the maze had been built she had had a resistance pool built into one side of this courtyard. It was about the size of a big bathtub or a really big Jacuzzi, filled with water that pushed against the body through pumps and vents in a way that allowed for someone to actually swim in that small space.

The whole room was painted like a seamless expanse of beach with the far horizon opposite the entrance; painted as the horizon over the sea as the sun lowered towards the waves. Mitei walked up to that lovely painting and grasped the sun, then remembered herself and knocked briefly before opening the hidden door. It did not swing open, but rather slid smoothly into the wall on hidden tracks and she found herself in the blue room.

She called it blue, but it was not really, this room was built with rows and rows of hidden screens. Each playing sections of the same movie over and over in a loop that was long enough that people rarely realized it repeated. The screens played scenes from a coral reef. Fish swam and dipped, lived and died, crossed in and out of those screens in a constant stream while light seemed to stream in from above and the waves rippled on the ceiling.

Usually when she entered, Mitei would spend a moment loving that room, reminding herself to update the technology in it, or both. Today she barely managed to clear the doorway before sinking to her knees and clutching her head. She heard rather than saw Jules come running up to her, felt the woman's gentle touch as Jules urged her to stand. Even in the midst of her pain she noted the difference in Jules' arms to Leo's, there was more muscle in those arms than even in Megan's but they were still soft against her skin as Jules took most of her weight and half carried half dragged her to the dark room beyond the blue.

At first Mitei had kept the bed in the blue room, but she had soon been made aware that some of the humans found sleeping in a room that appeared to be beneath the sea more than a little disconcerting. So she had had the bathroom switched to the bedroom and placed it in the blue room instead. No one seemed to have too many objections to that. Though the arrangement was awkward and presented more potential social problems than the other had. So far she had been lucky enough not to march in on anyone using the toilet.

She smiled to herself and listened to the sounds of Jules fussing about the rooms looking for what Mitei could not be sure. The pain in her head subsided and she cracked her eyes open, Jules was bustling through the doorway. There was the sound of running water, then she was back a cup of water in on hand and something grasped in the palm of the other that Mitei could not see.

"Here," she said, holding out her closed hand and Mitei moved to take whatever was in it. Jules dropped two tablets into her palm. "I don't know what's wrong but you look like you're in pain so first, Tylenol."

Jules handed over the water and mimed popping the pills into her mouth then taking a sip of water. Mitei placed the pills in her mouth, and then sipped the water making a face, "these are bitter."

"Swallow them along with the water."

"Oh," Mitei said, blushing, and tried again. This time she managed to get the dissolving tablets down along with the mouthful of water.

"You should drink the whole glass; it'll make them work faster." Mitei obliged gulping down the rest of the glass as Jules suppressed a giggle. "Now that we've got those in you, wanna tell me what actually is wrong?"

"My head hurts," Mitei said leaning back into the downy comforts of the feather pillows on the bed and closing her eyes again. "Leo will not be coming to Philadelphia any time soon -"

"Why not?"

"I am not entirely sure," she said her voice fading as she found that exhausted feeling from before creeping back up on her. "He said something about not having time, I think, something about going back to work."

She imagined Jules crossing her arms over her chest, "I don't see why he doesn't just accept your generous offer of employment."

Mitei cracked an eye open for a moment, yes – she was standing with arms crossed and this expression on her face that Mitei could not quite read. She let her breath out in a sigh, "I do not understand either of you."

Jules smiled and Mitei closed her eyes again.

"Are those pills helping?"

"I do not know, am I supposed to be tired?"

"Depends on what you've been doing lately I suppose. That and how bad the pain was and when you last slept."

"I am not sure when I slept last. The pain was bad. Very bad," she said slowly as each word became a greater effort. She seemed to be having trouble just remembering what she was trying to say. "I was in the woods, running in the woods."

"Running? Whatever for?"

"I met – god," she said sleep overtaking her.

***

Jules sat in the disturbingly bright lights of her beach, dangling her legs in the resistance pool. She'd found out quickly enough that whatever lights Mitei had had installed in this room, they were strong enough to give her a tan. As well as raising the temperature of this particular room to near summer like levels.

There was sun-block provided in the bathroom which she'd been making liberal use of at first, not wanting to return to school after her unexplained absence with a deep tan. Her professors might take her pleas for leniency a bit less well if they thought she'd been off sunning herself somewhere.

The question now was, whether she was going to go to school again at all. On the one hand her father worked himself to near death to finance her education. He wanted her to study something useful, and make a ton of money in a field that didn't involve a working knowledge of the best ways and times to spread manure. Of course she was just studying agricultural science anyway, _still_ – she sighed, _if I find the bottom to this puzzle and came out the other side with time for things like classes and studying I'll go back_.

This time at least, she'd be able to pay for it herself. Being offered the option to be one of Mitei's very well paid secretaries had been like some odd dream come true. Someone wanted to give her insane amounts of money for basically no work at all. What wasn't to love about that? Except – except there was this Leo, and he wasn't accepting the offer. The little swine was resisting it like his life depended on it or something.

So he had a job already, but it couldn't possibly be as cool as this one, she picked up a handful of fine sand letting it sift through her fingers. What could? Whatever he was doing for money now, how could that compare to places like this! Not that she had really had time to explore the maze yet, truthfully it was a little intimidating, the idea of stepping out into it without a map or a string or a piece of chalk to mark her way.

She stood up, dusting the sand from herself. Well, none of that really mattered. Not terribly much anyway, even if it did seem to be stressing Mitei out quite a bit. When she wakes up, she'll be all focused on that last thing she said. Of course, she had to, something that out there would definitely eclipse Leo's odd behavior.

I mean, how often does someone, even someone like Mitei meet God? For a moment she stood in this odd and tiny stretch of beach and wondered if she'd heard Mitei right. She couldn't have said "God." Maybe she was one of those weird fan type people that insisted on calling artists and athletes "God."

At some point every single thing on this earth would end up dying and Mitei would get to meet them then, but – Jules bit her lip and started to move toward the hidden door to her rooms – but Mitei seemed to know the difference between deity and not before. That first night, after they'd eaten and when Jules finally gotten to ask a few, ok a million, questions; Mitei had said she knew nothing of any deity at all. Stating the simple logic that since these beings were immortal by nature and she only met the dying...

Jules sighed, washed her face and hands in the sink then grabbed a rag and wiped the last of the clinging sand from her feet as well. Not that it mattered, the sand was everywhere in here already.

There wasn't anything to be done for these questions but to go and poke Mitei awake. Still she hesitated; the poor girl was probably exhausted this "new" body of hers seemed to take a lot out of her. On the other hand, Mitei passed out so fast there was a real worry that she might not have cleared her schedule for this little nap first. As far as Jules knew there wasn't any way for her to check that, since only Mitei had the original List.

Nothing for it then, "Mitei –" She walked into the bedroom to find Mitei sitting up in the middle of the bed List already in hand.

Mitei didn't show any signs that she'd heard her, grasping the list tightly in both hands and seeming to _pull_ more length out of it. The whole thing seemed to glow this odd, dark color and Mitei seemed lost in what she was doing. From her position by the door Jules couldn't quite make out what was happening on the other side of the list, but from where she stood she could see the parchment seemingly indented by an invisible third hand, writing. Writing so fast it was hard to mark each new line on the paper before that hand was done and moving on to the next one.

Finally, when the list was stretched as far as her arms seemed able to grasp it Mitei stopped pulling. Except now, now there was a growing pool of darkness around and under the other woman. This darkness seemed so deep for a moment Jules worried that Mitei would fall right through the bed. Instead the list started to shrink in her hands again. She could see little glowing squiggles falling away from the list and into the pit, being whisked away into it like something pulled down a drain. In a moment the list that Mitei had stretched to such lengths was just a tiny scrap of paper she grasped one handed again.

The hole that wasn't a hole closed up with similar speed and Jules found herself gapping at Mitei as the other woman slumped back on the bed.

"Have I frightened you?"

"No," she said picking her jaw up off the floor and smiling at the exhausted woman. "You did surprise me though. What did you just do?"

"I cleared my schedule."

Oh, well that made sense and took one topic off her list for discussion. But, "does that mean you're planning on sleeping some more? I wanted to talk to you..."

Mitei smiled, the motion was slow, tired, but the twinkle in her eyes was bright and lively. "I am not going to sleep again for quite a while. I have some things to do."

"Oh. What things? Are you going back to Leo's?"

"Eventually, yes, but first I was thinking I would talk to you. And get a cell phone."

"Good," Jules said sitting on the edge of the bed gingerly in case there were any last traces of that hole waiting to ambush her. "I wanted to ask you about what you said before."

"What I said?" Mitei was distractingly running fingers through her milk white hair. So Jules got up and grabbed a comb, getting behind the woman and starting from the ends. The strands barely needed the combing to detangle, falling smoothly between the tines without catching at all. "Will you braid it for me? I cannot seem to get the hang of these things yet."

"No, a braid doesn't suit your outfit today but I will style it for you a bit."

Mitei didn't reply, just grew still beneath her fingers as she combed through it. Disturbing how still she could be, it was like combing the hair of a life sized doll, or a corpse.

"You said you were running in the woods," she said focusing on the tasks at hand. "From God."

"From _a_ god," Mitei said moving slightly as if the subject made her uncomfortable. "Yes."

"Do I really have to ask all the questions?"

"It would be wise if you want them answered. I am," she paused, "ill equipped to guess what is on your mind."

Jules sighed, pulling strands of hair back from Mitei's face and tying them back with hair ties. "You know, it's hard to have a girlfriend to girlfriend chat with you when you talk like that right?"

"Like what?"

"No one's ever mentioned that you speak strangely. Not exactly like it's an ancient language or anything but it's odd."

"Oh, they have mentioned it before. I think it has something to do with my language problem."

"'So many languages, so little time,' I think Megan said."

"That sums most of me up nicely really."

Jules hugged her, taking them both by surprise. It was hard to remember sometimes in the midst of all else that Mitei might be old but she never had any time to gain the knowledge that supposedly went with that kind of age.

She disentangled herself from the other woman and went to the dresser, picking up a hand mirror. "Alright then, since time is of the essence," she gave Mitei the mirror. "Let's talk about this god then."

All of that worry and it turned out to be some kind of weirdo in the woods. Maybe a weirdo with abilities similar to some of Mitei's, but a weirdo nonetheless; Jules flopped down on the bed, lying across Mitei's legs.

"He couldn't have been a god then," she said.

"Why not? I do not know all of the nuances that surround religion but he was definitely not human."

"Well, I don't know all the nuances either," she said. "But if this guy was a god, especially the god of the hunt. Wouldn't he have found you again already?"

"Is that the way it works?"

"Like I said I don't know," she shrugged. "But the way the smaller gods seemed to work was that they were the end all and be all of whatever field they were in."

She looked over at Mitei expecting a happy expression, but the other woman just drew her legs in tight to her chest, resting her head on them in thought.

"Somehow, I do not think that these gods really work that way."

***

When Leo walked back into his condo, after a brief journey to pick up his mail, that evening he was unsurprised to find Mitei sitting on the couch when he returned. He didn't pause to chat, heading right into the kitchen to dispose of the junk and put the bills away for later perusal.

"Don't get up," he said over his shoulder. "I'll be right back out in a minute." Taking her silence as assent he continued with the task at hand, sorting his mail before returning to check on his surprise guest.

When he entered the room Mitei started to rise and he pushed her down again with an absent finger. "Uh uh, no disappearing for you." He studied her face, it was unreadable as ever but she gave him full eye contact and what he saw in their hazel depths drew him down on the couch beside her.

"Ok, tell me what's wrong."

She fumbled a moment with her robe, fingers searching the folds with more and more urgency as if she'd lost something small, before pulling out a metallic object. Leo stared at it a moment and then he smiled – this was something he could probably help the great and mighty Death with.

"I got a cell phone."

"I see," he said. "So why didn't you use it before showing up on my couch?"

Mitei blinked slowly, "I was not sure I was coming here until I was here. Besides I do not know your number or fully how to use this, I had only the time to pick it up before I found myself here."

Leo sighed, suddenly tired. There was no way he wanted to get into an argument with Mitei over proper etiquette right now. It was late and getting later every moment. Maybe if he helped with her phone she would flitter out again and he could get some rest. But – "come on upstairs with me. I've decided to go back to class tomorrow and I need to get ready for bed. I'll help you with the phone first though."

Mitei said nothing, only rising to her feet in reply and Leo decided to let her walk under her own power rather than carry her up the stairs. It was a short walk but by the time he got her upstairs and poised on the edge of the bed he was jittery with nerves. The way she worked, she could have disappeared behind him on the stairs at any moment and each step he had taken forward had been a reminder of how much he most certainly did not want her to disappear tonight, no matter what he said to the contrary. Now he watched as she removed her shoes and slid back further onto the bed, completely removing her feet from the floor, and relaxed visibly.

She fumbled with the phone for a moment, there was a bright flash that seemed to catch both of them off guard and then Mitei made a frustrated growl low in her throat and pulled her arm back to throw the phone as far from herself as she could. Leo stepped in quickly to keep her from damaging the fragile, and no doubt expensive, piece of equipment.

"Calm down, you just took a picture with it that's all."

He sat down beside her and began to explore the phones options. Luckily the controls seemed to be in English, though he recalled Mitei saying she was going to get it from the secretaries at her Tokyo office. It only took a seeming moment to enter his number into the contacts list and take a few photos to use as a screensaver for the tiny view panel. He was showing her how to switch the different photos out, so that later when she had a free moment or took a really good pic, she would be able to switch it out without needing to make another trip out to see him – when he noticed her eyes.

Though they focused on the tiny screen between them and seemed to take in everything he said, even when he had to explain the tech speak in more and more simplistic terms so that she could understand them, her eyes remained glazed and distant. If he didn't know better he'd say they were rimmed with worry. That just couldn't be a proper assessment, since Mitei's ageless face never showed such thoroughly human signs of distress.

Finally they put the phone aside and he shrugged the thought off as he prepared for bed. After he'd brushed his teeth and stripped down to a more comfortable level of attire for sleeping though, he found Mitei still sitting on the bed hands crossed on her lap and showing not even the faintest interest in trying to walk out of his bedroom and onto this "Path" of hers.

He stood in the bathroom doorway considering her eyes a moment before he realized he was standing before her wearing nothing but his boxers. The blood rushed to his cheeks as he hurriedly turned out the bathroom light and crossed to the bed, slipping under the covers as nonchalantly as he could. This close it was impossible to misinterpret the expression in those eyes. Something was troubling her, something a good deal more important than programming her new cell phone.

He reached for her almost without thinking, drawing her into a comforting hug. "Alright, tell me what's really upsetting you."

Leo wasn't sure what he was expecting, what could be bad enough to upset Death herself? However Mitei's next few words seemed to be at just about the right level to inspire panic in an immortal being.

"I met a god the other day."

"A god or The God?"

"A god," she said quietly and slipped out of his arms. "He said his name is Aedan, he said he is the god of the hunt."

He – almost - laughed as he listened to her story unfold. Some weirdo had caught up to her in the woods and managed to freak her out to no end before the path had whisked her out of his reach. Though he had to admit, the part where Aedan had cut himself to prove his unnatural healing abilities did turn his previous humor a bit sour, the whole episode still sounded too farcical to be real.

"I thought you said that you didn't think there was a God."

"I did not know. I have never met one before."

"Have you ever met someone that could heal like that before?"

Mitei froze a moment, thinking, "not that I know of. The world as I know it has gone crazy lately Leo."

He snorted, leaned back and placed his arms behind his head no longer interested in offering comfort. The whole thing seems a bit laughable. Certainly nothing to lose precious sleep over, not when he had a classroom full of rowdy teenagers to look forward to first thing in the morning, Leo closed his eyes and started to drift off.

"Will you come back with me Leo?"

The question caught his attention and pulled him back from the edges of sleep with a snap that was almost painful. "I've already told you, I'm going back to class tomorrow."

"Please, Jules thinks that if we could all put our heads together we might solve this puzzle and set things right."

"No," he found himself snapping at her but didn't feel able to control himself. She just seemed to push his buttons sometimes, without even trying.

"Please Leo."

He sighed and shifted in bed, opening his eyes so he could give her a withering stare as he replied, but meeting her eyes was a mistake. One look at those hazel depths and he felt his temperament calming, looking into those eyes now he wondered for the second time if they were really as human as they seemed. With one fluid gesture he flung the covers back on the bed and got out.

Stomping over to Mitei's side he hoisted her up and carried her back around to the turned down section, depositing her back onto the mattress he stalked back over to the other side and slid back under the covers, pulling them up around them both. Mitei gave him confused eyes, even as he grabbed a hold of her again and drew her down till she lay comfortably in his arms.

She seemed a bit cold against his mostly bare skin at first, but she warmed quickly at his touch and he found himself relaxing even more, despite no longer being able to look her directly in the eyes. It was a long time since Leo had last had anyone to hold onto when he closed his eyes; he'd almost forgotten how soothing sharing space with another person like this could be.

"Is this alright?" He asked as he started to drift towards sleep again. "Am I making you uncomfortable?"

"No," she said her own voice showing signs of fatigue, "this is nice. Is it alright if I rest like this?"

"It's the least I can do," he said "I'm not going to go back with you Mitei."

"I know Leo, but I think – I think this is what scared is."

He hugged her tighter, almost regretting refusing to go to her office and take those generous checks she had offered him. But there was no way he could see through to being a real friend to her while he was being paid to make that effort. Mitei relaxed in his arms quickly though, in what seemed like moments he felt her breathing even out as she relaxed into exhausted slumber. He yawned and found sleep soon after.

***

Aedan had her scent. It was all over his hands and thick on the path she'd broken through the woods trying to flee from him. More over he'd seen her Path, seen how it had whisked her away seemingly without her will, possibly even against it. With all this information it stood to reason that he should have been able to hunt her down easily. Haunt her every step like some vengeful poltergeist.

Despite his godly prowess as a hunter he remained completely unable to locate this, Mitei, again.

Her Path was hers alone, he found himself forced to try and follow its trail between and within the waking world. Popping in and out of so many locations so fast it was a wonder so far that no mortals had been drawn into the shadows in his passing, though to be honest with himself, he had to admit he had not been paying enough attention to notice if they had indeed been. And if they had without his notice, if they were lucky they would die a quick and messy death there.

Every now and again he had some sign that he most certainly was on the right trail. While he might pop onto a field one moment that showed no fresh spoor for him to follow to his query every now and again he would pop into a building full of tiny rooms and he could feel her thick within the very walls as if embedded in the structure of the buildings themselves. However he did not linger.

Despite feeling her all around him within these buildings the spoor was still jumbled and stale, as if she'd been there previously but not for long. As god of the hunt, Aedan was schooled in patience and perseverance. However this, Mitei, was both trying his nerves by the minute and piquing his interest in disturbing ways.

There were no dogs, no mounts, and no hunting party; however he could feel his blood warming as he tracked her down step by step. Though his bow was slung over his back he had long ago unsheathed an arrow from his quiver and he fingered it absently as he hunted. His nostrils flared and he found himself crouching to sniff at a slightly fresher spot of her scent now and again. In searching for Mitei he had hoped to find a death worthy of a god, but the longer the search drew out the more he felt closer to a beast than a deity.

***

In a way Aedan relished this feeling, the descent from the supposedly higher functions that made him seem human and the wallowing in the thrill the moment. The moment? No it was the thrill of the scent, of immersing himself thoroughly in his purpose; with each step he grew closer to his quarry and the desire to hurry along her tracks in the hopes of catching up to her nearly made him move to a run. As he stepped through another doorway betwixt and between and into a building honey combed with rooms and full of the busy scurrying of human worker drones.

Her scent was thick here, layered over and around the upper levels of this building that formed an elaborate labyrinth. Subtly mingling with the scent of countless others, completely over laying the steps of a woman here, walking beside a male there, faint and stale around a rabbit hole there. Yes, Death's scent was heavy in this place but it wasn't a fresh scent, in most cases the scent was faint and old nearly undetectable to even his talented nose. In other places the scent was sharp and crisp, new enough to set his mouth to watering and he found himself quickening his pace but this too, petered out in a few meters and was gone.

Hot on her trail now, feeling his prey just beyond his grasp, Aedan strode towards the nearest doorway – and popped out in a small dark room. It was sparsely furnished but it was easy for him to identify as someone's residence. He held still a moment, fighting the feral urge as the scent teased his senses, and expanded his talents beyond his nose. Testing the house, listening for the faintest sign of any of its inhabitants and finding none Aedan let the scent captivate him again. It was thick here, as if he had found his prey's den. _Yes, oh yes,_ he thought as he leaned in over the low sofa and drew in deep. _Does the reaper live here?_ To his talented nostrils the scent drew a beautiful multifaceted picture. It was easy for him to see her sitting in the kitchen as well as here, walking up these steps as well but there was a confusing puzzle. There was no connecting spore between each resting place, at least not of the reaper's.

_Another dwells here_ , yes now that he thought on it and wasn't allowing himself to be distracted by the quarry he could smell the much heavier overlay of a male scent. Where the reaper's scent was missing in places, this man's scent was thickly laid, and on more places besides. His finger prints where thick on the surfaces of this and every room and though Mitei's could be found here and there, they were nothing compared to the other. The picture was coming clearer, _not the reaper's home then but this man's perhaps?_

Aedan climbed the stairs and found a sparsely furnished bedroom, if there was an answer to this puzzle it would be here. Out of all the places that he'd been dragged too on the trail of this particular prey, he'd never once come to a single residence where the occupants had not recently died. Never once had any of those dwellings ever had as strong a trace of his quarry in them as this one did. No, it was far more likely that his prey lived her or...

The bed was thick with the mingled smells of the two.

_Her lover then,_ he thought as he sunk down onto the tousled sheets unable or unwilling to control the urge he rolled, bathing in the rich smell of their warm bodies. Taking in the notes and subtleties of the new scent and then just wallowing as a dog will in a pile of questionable origins. Oh it was a very interesting scent, in a very interesting house. For instance this man's scent, full of testosterone and vigorous energy, was also completely and utterly human – very interesting indeed.

Finally Aedan sat up and faced the room, _if I can't move quickly enough to track down this preternatural being, perhaps her lover will be more accommodating._ He was up in an instant and heading for the doorway, sometimes you can't stalk your prey to the very end; sometimes it's better to set a trap.

Aedan found himself walking out of the shadows of an alleyway. Across the street a large stone and mortar building surrounded by a twenty foot fence, topped with barbed wire. The street before him was deserted and there was a desolate air to the surrounding neighborhood, heaps of trash crowded into every conceivable nook. Aedan circled the building carefully, keeping an eye on the dark and barred windows, the area was thick with smells but the air was even thicker with pollutants. Aedan could make out the mingled scents of many entering and exiting the building, so he could rule out the probability of it being a prison but that was all he was able to glean from the outside.

Unsure what kind of prey he'd now chosen, whether or not this human would prove an accommodating piece of bait, Aedan easily leaped the locked gate and approached the fortress. _This will be so much more entertaining if he puts up a good fight;_ he thought and reached for the doors.

***

Mitei had expected to be able to sweep out of her private bathroom and through the outer office on silent slippered feet and head straight for the board meeting on a lower floor. Unfortunately she did not get the chance as she found Leslie Roth perched comfortably on the huge wooden desk under the window, even with her back towards the bathroom the woman's transgression into her personal space was not something that Mitei could allow though the urge to continue on her previous path right out of the doors tugged at her fiercely, she felt the sleeves of the robe creeping slowly down her wrists and over her hands, a cool and soothing touch, as the hood slid over her face and hair obscuring her vision somewhat and casting her face into deep shadows.

"Why are you here Ms. Roth?"

Leslie turned slightly, gazing over her shoulder the picture of absolute calm despite seeing Mitei garbed in hood and robe, no vestiges of false humanity showing. "Your secretary let me in; didn't she tell you I wanted to see you D.?"

Conversing with Roth seemed to make it easier for Mitei to recall her previous detachment from her form; she felt not a muscle twitch or a warm rush even though she could feel her ire rising at the mortal before her. "I was resting, Ms. Roth, they have strict orders to not disturb me while I am taking my ease."

"Oh? Well she let me right in, I hope that's not a problem."

Of course it was a problem but one that Mitei would have to deal with later, "there is a meeting scheduled Ms. Roth, please come with me."

"Actually, D dear I was hoping to talk to you about something on the way," she slithered off the desk and landed daintily on her expensive stiletto heels. Taking tiny and precisely balanced steps that forced Mitei to shorten her stride to match or speed quickly in front of the other woman. "You see I heard that you had finally been convinced to get a cell phone and I'm sure you haven't yet had a chance to program it properly with all the company contacts."

Yes, the cell phone. Currently it was nestled deep within the folds of the robe but it came to hand at her thought. "I have the main numbers of all the corporate offices and have already learned how to take pictures with it."

"Really, well I don't know why I was worried then. May I see?"

Mitei handed the phone over, letting it fall into Roth's hands without touching the woman's fingers. That seemed to shut her up as for several minutes, throughout the entirety of the maze, Roth fondled the small device. When they finally reached the elevators it was handed back.

"So you decided to go with an iphone? A blackberry would have been more professional but I do admit these are the more fun phones." She chatted as the doors closed and the elevator began its decent to the conference room floor. "I took the liberty of adding my number to your list of contacts, please feel free to call me personally if you need anything special taken care of at the office while you're out.

So that was the woman's angle, more access and more privilege that her peers had not yet had the opportunity to claw over? Suddenly there was a feeling in Mitei's stomach even more unpleasant than hunger but much more faint. The doors opened and Mitei found herself lengthening her stride away from Leslie Roth as if distancing herself from the woman could allow her to distance herself from the feeling in her innards, she would have to remember to ask Leo about the sensation next time she saw him.

***

Leo was knee deep in writing out a complex equation on the chalk board when an announcement came over the loud speakers. A code "C" was being called and the revelation made his mouth run dry, stopping him mid figure. Code "C" had been invented by his school district many years ago after the Columbine shooting specifically to address the problem of a child who was in the school with a vendetta and a weapon. Since then security had been tightened to the max, guards were armed with tasers and there were metal detectors at the main entrances. Of course, since Columbine there had been many more shootings at institutions and now the code "C" simply meant that there was a suspicious person in the building probably armed and definitely dangerous. With the announcement made, the office was probably even now calling the police for immediate assistance and all Leo was supposed to do was lock the classroom doors and wait for the police to arrive and give an 'all clear' signal.

But Leo didn't think things were going according to plan. First, the code was given in an unfamiliar female voice, not the slightly nasal tones of the male principle. The plan was always to have the principal make the announcement, for authenticity and complete control over a code word that was the equivalent of calling down defcon 1 rather than a false fire drill. There couldn't be any mistakes with a code "C," no rehearsals. Which meant, someone had either already gotten the principle or this was some kind of horribly unfunny joke. Either way, Leo couldn't follow the original plan and wait quietly in his room for rescue.

The question was: what to do with his students while he went to check out the situation? Normally once class was in session you didn't dare leave the room. Disorder tended to quickly break out once the teacher was absent the scene things got quickly to unbelievable levels. Once a colleague had been forced to leave mid class while suffering through a case of explosive diarrhea, when he returned to he'd found the doors locked from the inside and the students gathered around the center of the room, beating a weaker student senseless. By the time he had managed to unlock the door the poor child was a mass of blood and broken bones. His pants, some designer label, had been stolen, slurs racial and otherwise had been scrawled on his face and legs with a pens, markers and his own blood. Both teacher and student had transferred out of that school shortly thereafter.

Leo didn't want to leave his students in danger while trying to protect them. He erased a section of the board, writing out five complex equations, some from trigonometry and some calculus, even a little geometry. Faced with a class of seniors but not his advanced placement students it was a good bet that these problems were only vaguely familiar to them at best. It would take them all day to have any hope of actually solving any of them.

"Take out a fresh sheet of paper and a pencil – this is a pop quiz," groans and protests stained the air behind him as he scrawled the last few numbers. "This will count as a full quarter of your grade this semester; it can sink you or pass some of those who weren't passing. Show your work. You'll have until I return to complete the answers on the board."

While they were occupied peering at the board, Leo slipped out of the class room and headed for the one of the back stairwells, it was often unused by students and faculty alike. Not exactly the route that a murderous maniac was likely to take with a high death count as his main goal. At the head of the stairs, he slipped out of his shoes. The last thing he wanted was the sound of his running feet to alert the potential threat that he was coming down the back way either. His class room was on the third of five floors, the basement was completely inaccessible to everyone but the head custodian who had the proper keys. As Leo crept down the stairway he was obliged to stop and check as far as he could on the second floor. With a code "C" declared the hallway should have been empty and it was blissfully silent, not a hint of movement from anything but the various classrooms. The first floor was a different matter entirely.

It seemed quiet enough at a glance but there was an, expectancy, about the silence that weighed heavy on him. As he eased to the doorway he realized that there was a gaping hole in his previous plan. Besides the small possibility of coming across the threat alone, unprotected and shoeless in the stairwell, but because of the building's design – in a "U" shape around the gym – he could only see the right hand section of each floor at a time without actually exiting the stairwell.

Leo had deliberately picked the stairwell that let out behind the principal's office for just that reason, instead of the one that lead to the gym. But now crouched at the exit, he had to wonder about who might be lurking just out of site around the bend, the principal's office was on this side of the building but it was directly at the corner of the front section which would mean Leo would not only have to make it down the hall unnoticed but into the office as well when there might already be someone lurking on the other hallway.

There was a flutter of fear in his gut as Leo peaked out of the stairwell and around the corner. Nothing moving but the hallway wasn't empty, there was someone standing at the very end of the hall.

They stood with their hands on their hips; shoulders relaxed and carefree, head tossed back and still as Leo had only seen Mitei be still before. From this distance, he could tell that the figure at the end of the hall wasn't of an age with anything that could be called a student here; the other man looked shorter than Leo himself, stockier with more muscle than fat, longish brown hair. The other man, the probable threat, didn't appear to have any weapons on him.

Regardless of outward appearances, Leo felt that flutter of fear turning into a flood of outright panic. Something about that man's confident back struck spirals of fear and awe into the very core of his being and suddenly Leo found himself fighting the urge to curl up in a corner of the stairwell, pissing his pants with his hands over his eyes and praying, though he'd known no religion before, praying that that man would pass him by.

Leo found himself in a nightmare battle with his own emotions, desperate to keep them under control and fight back the fear or at least arrest it and hold it in check - because from here he could see that other man way too clearly and he wasn't just standing at the end of the corridor, he was scenting the air; rolling the scents over his palate and attempting to sort and digest every single one. In a building crowded to bursting with human bodies, daily, and in a section of the building that was nearly constantly bathed with new scents, this man was unlikely to uncover just one – his. But with him on the same level, all Leo needed to do was emit a stronger, fresher scent to gain his attention.

All of this went through Leo's mind in a flash and he didn't waste any of his energy trying to dissuade himself from this assessment of the threat before him. Didn't bother questioning why he was so sure that the other man was scenting the air like a bloodhound on a trail and knew far better than to wonder why he thought that a perfectly normal looking human being could possibly hunt by scent at all. Something in him just knew these things, deep in the fiber of each and every muscle there was a memory that seemed to recognize this man and these fibers were working overtime telling him to flee or cower. This bone deep muscle memory told Leo that there was no hope, no way to oppose the force in front of him, told him there was no hope whatsoever if he was that man's prey or even accidentally attracted unwanted attention. It was that memory that Leo was really fighting a memory deeper than the span of his entire life, a memory that was instinct, self-preservation and reverence.

Part of him wanted to walk out into the hall, approach the figure and bare his throat in supplication. Leo fought that part as well, fought it almost as hard as he was fighting his very skin, begging it to stay cool, not bead up with sweat. Calm was his only hope here and somehow, Leo knew that too. Because what was standing at the end of that corridor matched Mitei's description to beyond anything he had ever imagined. That thing was not human, that thing was not a man – that was a god, a hunter and possibly, probably Leo's doom if he were to fall under his gaze.

***

Hands on hips, Aedan took a moment and just stood at the end of the corridor. There were steps in front of him, leading up to other floors and down towards the doors he had entered, to his right there was an empty corridor and behind him the same. He'd already investigated the room to his left, there had been only a faint hint of his prey inside but the flutter of activity had drawn his attention. Beneath him in the stair well before the open outside doors, a tumble of inelegant bodies waited. There was more of the same inside the doors to his left.

He hadn't killed anyone but their infernal buzzing was distracting while he was on the trail. Plus the ones at the door had attempted to injure him. Just because he couldn't die on his own didn't mean that he couldn't be hurt. Aedan still recalled the horrors of hunts gone by when worthy prey had managed to rip him open from throat to asshole, slicing cleanly through his intestines and vital organs. The pain had been intense, maddeningly so. On those occasions he'd lost thought of his purpose and was unable to make it home when called. He'd stayed on the hunt for untold years while the lands died and the people languished tormented by famine, disease and the sight of his mutilated and insane ride.

Eventually she had come for him, or to put it properly, she had let him come to her. Flooding the worn trails with her scent, thick and tantalizing like nothing else he was capable of remembering. When he'd finally come to find her, the source of that scent, she'd embraced him almost tenderly while he'd done his best to rip her apart. It had been futile on his part, she was stronger than he was and always would be, so while he struggled she simply held him tight to her bosom. Tight and tighter still, the air couldn't get to his lungs but it wasn't enough. Not nearly enough to kill Aedan in that state. So she'd pressed harder, crushing him until he was nothing but a red paste smeared over her body.

Those had been horrible hunts, though he had felled the beast and it had been a truly worthy foe, his wounds had been sustained more out of his own hubris than anything else. The mad rides that followed was a penance Aedan never wanted to pay again, certainly not now when there was no hint or scent of his goddess through any of the hills, halls or passages. Not a taste of her to be found. No safe end waiting for him in the case that he went mad again. No, there was only Mitei and she'd already refused to help him, fleeing through the woods instead of granting him the death he desired.

Aedan didn't think the people in this building would be capable of dealing him that kind of damage but he wasn't about to find out by experimenting with his body. Besides, there was no need; he could easily take down these. Not a one of them had been fit enough to hope to match his speed in a foot race let alone open combat. Not a single one of the mortals had even seemed properly trained with the weapons they did have, so clumsy he'd danced around them easily, putting them to sleep with a nearly gentle flurry of taps. None of them would suffer any permanent damage from the encounter but more importantly, neither would Aedan.

So he stood, hands on hips, head lifted in the air feeling just a tiny bit smug as he scented the corridor. There was a furious jumble of scent on the stairs in front of him that clearly indicated it was the major thoroughfare of the building. Down the hall to his right the scents were faint and mostly old, as if it was rarely used in the numbers that the stairway was though more rarely traversed by one or two – teenagers. Aedan frowned; he could smell that particular stew of chemical reactions and hormones far too clearly. The building was over flowing with hormones and the fresh red scent of mingled menses. He tried to filter out the stench, it was distracting, thick and more than a little stomach churning. The last thing he wanted was to do a disservice to the deer whose heart he'd eaten this morning by vomiting it up here in this fetid corridor.

There were so many pressed so tightly on top of each other and each on the cusp of this tumultuous phase of their growth. As Aedan filtered the stench out as best he could and got his gorge under control he was left wondering how the mortals could put up with being crammed so tightly together in such numbers, to his preternatural abilities the stench was unbelievable. It had hung heavy and ever present in the thick toxic air outside but here in this building it was overwhelming. Why live stuffed together so closely? It wasn't a question he should have been concerning himself with in the middle of hunt and all, but focusing on something else helped him draw his mind from the overwhelming and distracting plethora of scents and after a moment or two of contemplation he was ready to move.

Right, down the rarely used corridor; Aedan was already pretty sure his prey would not be found here it but it did afford him a chance to rest and refocus his senses. He didn't need to have this level of skill to track one mortal in a den of mortals and keeping his skill trained up high enough to find Mitei would only put him at a disadvantage in their fetid mess, overwhelming and confusing him. Let alone the disastrous consequences if he was closer to a feral state and caught the scent of a particularly healthy young female moving into her most fertile period. Aedan had to fight his gorge again. Though he'd taken more than a few human lovers in the past the thought of doing so as predator rather than god was revolting to his senses. On the other hand it was a good sign that at least he hadn't progressed as far to madness as he feared he might.

Not mad then, at least not yet. All the more reason to find this mortal he was after sooner rather than later. Aedan reached the end of the corridor and turned left heading for the stairs upwards instead of checking the right hand corridor as it turned away from the stairs. Down that way he could scent a hell of sweat and effort, without a single hint of his prey. So he simply spared himself the trouble and moved to the next level. Moving down the hallway quickly, now not even attempting to filter all the different scents that assailed his senses just searching for the one scent that mattered. Not here. Not on this floor, probably, though as he walked down the corridor he did catch a whiff of the scent he was searching for. It was nearly buried under other, fresher tracks, but it was there faint and fading but there and leading upwards.

***

Leo wasted several seconds after it left, just breathing. All the strength seemed to go out of his legs and he fell to the floor, panting as silently as he could. For what seemed like forever he was unable to sit up, let alone stand but he knew that he had to pull himself together and do it quickly because if what Mitei had said was true then this dangerous beast that had been unleashed upon his school was indeed a god. It didn't take much of a leap for him to surmise that the thing had been hunting Mitei by scent since their meeting; it had probably had no luck in finding her by playing catch up on her path but lucked upon Leo's own scent and followed him here. If that was the case, the students were likely safe but he was in serious shit.

Worse, he wouldn't be able to go home as that was likely where this god had picked up the scent. If it failed to find Leo here it would probably return there and wait - after all, the city was a veritable stew of scents and it was the easier course. There was only one thing to do, he had to get back to the classroom and unlock the door. That would potentially leave the students open to attack but he was relatively sure that his opponent would pass them by altogether. More importantly that would mean that the students could continue on with their classes for the day, proceeding to their next class without him present, he hoped, but there was also the little matter of his cell phone – he'd left it in the classroom.

He pulled himself off the floor and found himself slipping resolutely back up the stairs, his body still a jangle of nerves but the fear under control. Taking the stairs slowly, trying not to raise his temperature or sweat proved the hardest part of the sortie as he made his way back to the classroom and hurriedly unlocked the door. There had been no sign of his opponent on the way, that probably only meant that he was going down each corridor one at a time, looking for a stronger scent and stopping on each floor. That meant that Leo had time to go to his classroom and grab his briefcase, cellphone and anything else he thought he'd need.

Once inside the classroom Leo tried to put on a calm face. The children were pretending to be studiously working out the problems, the classroom didn't appear any worse for wear, and in fact it seemed exactly the way he'd left it. Everything here seemed so normal and mundane that it was almost hard to remember that there was a deranged god bent on his own death hunting Leo a floor or so below. Hard to believe that lingering here could lead to certain injury or even death. _I wonder if this is what shock feels like? Or am I just going insane in the most pathetic way possible?_ He thought as he gathered his things together.

Something was missing. He couldn't find his phone. A frantic search of the desk didn't reveal his tiny black Nokia cell. It wasn't in his coat pocket and sure as hell wasn't in his pants. One of the angelically studying students must have taken it. He felt himself sinking into his chair. Without that phone he wouldn't be able to contact the only thing on this planet that might save him from the stalking death that was awaiting him in this very building.

For the first time, Leo seriously wanted to hurt his students. If he died here, it would be because one of these little thieves had tried to rip him off. Or maybe it was one of the clowns, trying to get a few laughs out of the others and not caring that he was getting his ass into hot water at the same time. All of the reason he could think of suddenly seemed far too petty and exhausting to contemplate, so he let the contemplation go.

"Alright, who has my phone?" A pause and some of the students continued to ignore him, pretending they were really engrossed in the papers before them. Some snickered and a few gave him blank looks. "Alicia, please hand over your cell phone."

A brunette in the front row looked up from her paper and bit her lip. Alicia was a relatively good student and knew that bringing cell phones to class was prohibited but of course leaving them in the lockers was an even worse idea. After a hesitation she finally reached in her pocket and handed it to Leo.

"It was switched off the entire time I swear."

"I know, you're not in trouble here." Leo said and started dialing. "I'm guessing that the yahoo who stole my phone didn't think to turn it off as well."

A moment later and he could hear his ring tone emanating from a shelf at the back of the room. So it had been a clown and not an actual thief then. Well that's a small relief, Leo thought as he retrieved the tiny black device. It would have taken him all day to find, if he'd found it at all before it really _had_ been stolen, stuffed in a dark corner like that.

With the phone safely in hand he had an idea and settled himself comfortably behind the desk again, calmly dialing Mitei's number. If he was right and the students weren't in any danger, he himself might be in less danger by staying near them. Perhaps this god wanted few witnesses to his actions, as Mitei seemed to prefer. So he'd settle in to wait. Mitei would hopefully come at the call and meet the guy in the hall or at the least draw him away with a fresh scent trail and Leo and his students would be safe until the school day ended and they were free to head home. After that he'd need a new plan and possibly a new place to stay while Mitei sorted out whatever needed to be sorted. One thing was certain, faced with an enemy of superior fighting ability and strengths unknown Leo couldn't win, unless he called in an ally of equal measure.

The phone rang in his hand and he thought, _time to bring in the Calvary._

***

It was high time she headed home. Jules sat with her feet dangling in the pool the warm, bright, probably cancer inducing lights beating down on her giving her a more and more noticeable tan while she slowly worked out a plan. She'd have to go home, not to school but all the way back to the farm and talk with her father. On the one hand he'd be pleased about the well paid position that she'd managed to bag herself with an international corporation and on the other, well her father was no louse, he'd be wondering exactly how she'd managed to land such a lucrative position without finishing the degree he was working himself to death in order to afford for her.

She stood up, dusting sand off of her bottom and heading into the cool depths of her temporary bedroom. She'd already asked to be moved, that bathroom was a bit too disconcerting and she was concerned about what those tanning lamps outside were doing to her skin. As she packed up, amazing how much she'd managed to accumulate while staying here, Mitei had given her an allowance to buy some essentials for herself while she was out with the secretaries picking up things for Mitei's suddenly growing wardrobe. It had started with the absolutely necessary, a tooth brush some toothpaste a comb, and then gotten a tad bit out of hand one day when she walked into a designer boutique and instantly fell in love with this unbelievable little red dress. The dress had demanded shoes and a new coat and a few accessories and while she was at it she realized she really didn't have any clothes at all to wear with her so she'd gone out and bought a few more less than essential essentials.

Jules resolved to pack them all up, on the off chance that her living arrangements had changed by the time she returned to the corporate office – if she returned. Jules couldn't help but bite her lip in an old gesture. There was a good chance that if she couldn't explain things well enough to her daddy, he would forbid her to return. Worse, there was a chance that he'd sit her down and remind her just how hard he'd been working since her mother had died so he could fulfill his promise to her to make sure that she went to a good school and never had to consider working on a farm. Defying him if he was bull headed enough to try and forbid her was one thing but Jules wasn't at all sure she'd be able to withstand the look of hurt in his eyes if he took the other route.

Maybe she could keep going to school and work out a part time schedule with Mitei? Nights might not be great for her but she could certainly do weekends until graduation. If Mitei was good with that, she could always cut back her course work at school too just aim for a general B.A. instead of a degree in agricultural sciences. That would make some night work a lot easier to contemplate, Jules thought as she heaved her heavy bag into the elevator and pushed the button for the bottom floor.

She didn't realize she was holding her breath till she was below Leslie Roth's floor and let it out in a relieved rush. There was something about that woman that disturbed her deep down at the pit of her stomach. Something about the way she'd smiled when she was graciously taking care of Jules that first night that had made the young woman feel like she'd stumbled right into the gaping jaws of a shark. Of course, none of that was charitable to think of the woman who'd been nothing but friendly to Jules from the very start but even so, Jules couldn't shake off the feeling that Ms. Roth was a woman to be avoided if at all possible.

Thankfully that had proved absurdly simple to do. As Roth never seemed to wander the maze and when not out with the other secretaries waiting to be added to the rotation or out shopping for Mitei, Jules had stayed in her suite of rooms mostly. The elevator doors opened on the ground level silent and smooth and Jules was surprised to notice that the sun was already low outside. Another reason she was hoping for a different suite of rooms, it was almost impossible to tell the time and passage of the days. It had taken her a full week to realize that the lighting in the bathroom cycled through daylight and moonlight in a regular cycle that seemed to vaguely approximate day and night outside the building but it was an imperfect clock and with the constant sunny day outside the bathroom and no clock in the bedroom she'd quickly gone off her table.

It was a lot later than she had hoped it would be, and it would be full dark and pretty late by the time she reached the farm. That might work in her favor if she could sneak in without her father noticing and then be up before him with a big breakfast spread out. That seemed like a fine plan, at least in theory but as she started trying to retrace her first few confused steps back to her car she threw out that idea. She still wasn't that familiar with the city and it had been forever since she'd tried to get back to her car since she'd parked it here in the first place. It was going to take her a good while to find it again and when she finally did, well she'd forgotten to print out some directions back out of the city so she'd be forced to try and wing it again. Hopefully she wouldn't get too terribly lost, Philadelphia wasn't that big or confusing after all.

***

A half hour later and Jules was finally unlocking her trunk and tossing her heavy bag into it. The light was fast disappearing from the sky now and she'd be in trouble if she ended up having to try and navigate the darkened city after the daylight faded. She slipped behind the wheel, pulled on her seat belt and checked her mirrors while she slipped the key into the ignition. Glancing out of the window to check for traffic she turned the key –

There was an ear piercing noise and an excruciating pain in her chest as the steering wheel was snapped off of the column and thwacked into her, all six of the windows shattered, blown outward as the car exploded around her. After that, the whole world was flames and pain.

***

The path brought Mitei abruptly to some street in some city. That was all Mitei had time to notice because there was a car burning furiously in front of her. The street was empty and deserted, filled with the shocked hush of a city unused to this kind of scene - in a moment it would be flooded with onlookers, people with cell phones, either calling for police or excitedly snapping picture and video ready in an instant to upload to the internet. For right now it was just the burning vehicle, the dying victim inside it and their death.

She could smell them now, the crisp tasty scent of meat cooking, high and sweet enough to overpower the chemical smell of gasoline, though even as Mitei noticed it the scent changed, notes of burnt meat seeping into that mouthwatering smell. Striding towards the car, weaving a cloak of disinterest around her so that the early arrivals would not notice and remark upon her presence, Mitei heard the first sizzle as the flesh of the person inside split and clear juices that were once bodily fluids seeped out to splash on the overheated seat around them. Her hood rose around Mitei, protecting her from the flames she was currently too preoccupied to remember might harm her. Whatever had caused the fire had not blown the door off the hinges but it had twisted it terribly out of true making it difficult to open so that Mitei's questing fingers could reach the poor person trapped inside, roasting and screaming.

Oh how they screamed and screamed.

Flailing about, blind by now, the fire had surely already taken the delicate lids of their eyes, boiled the eyeballs in the socket leaving them with nothing left to see except perhaps for the bright afterimage stuck in their mind from the first fireball.

The door was twisted out of true, a human would have required the Jaws of Life to wrench if free but even in her altered state Mitei was no human and lacked knowledge on the minutia of human strength anyway. She did not hesitate, simply placed one hand on the roof of the car in front of her while the other grasped the door and - pulled. The whole car groaned as the already twisted and belligerent metal was forced into new shapes yet again by her hands. The flesh of her own hands began to singe and blacken, ugly blisters popping out on the delicate white skin that Leo had given her but the door - moved. Parting almost easily with the frame, Mitei threw it carelessly over her shoulder and with an unobstructed path could finally reach for the poor victim trapped inside. In moments like these, Death needed no list to direct her.

The empty eyes turned toward Mitei the wide and screaming mouth, this close Mitei could see the tongue actually on fire, saved to scream thanks to the dripping juices from the poor things head. Mitei did not have any time to offer words of consolation, just reaching for them offering the gift that was uniquely her own to give.

There was a violent cracking sound and a burst of cold energy that shocked her system, surprising her and forcing Mitei to take a step back.

***

Mitei nearly lost her footing on the path as it shifted violently beneath her, not just taking her to a new location but violently wrenching her around. She blinked, puzzled, in the glare of florescent light bulbs and late afternoon sunshine. It had been dark on the street with the burning car and it took her new eyes a moment to adjust. In fact, everything was taking a while to adjust, her balance was still off and she was only now taking in parts of the room (there are many desks lined up in a row in the front but scattered further back and teenagers huddled against the back wall) a school then. Somewhere to the west of where she had just been for the light to still shine so brightly.

"Mitei, watch out!" Someone said from beside her. _Leo? Was that Leo?_ Mitei turned her head to look at him quizzically. _Oh no! Did I just appear in front of his entire class? He is going to be really furious with me for that, I just know_ \- but she did not have time to brood on that thought because the person she had glimpsed briefly in the doorway finally registered on her mind. Aedan.

***

Later, when the dust had a chance to settle and the others asked him about what had happened in his classroom that day Leo would have trouble relating what he saw for several reasons. First and foremost would be the fact that almost as soon as she saw him, Mitei threw a scalding hot bundle of nearly naked woman at him, knocking him square off his feet and onto his ass. And the second reason would be simply because it was too hard to conceptualize.

Mitei had appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the room, with a naked and steaming woman in the grip of her right hand, burn blisters popped and bled on her luminescent skin, easy to see a mile away and she'd seemed dazed, confused. That was until Leo had called out to her, then a moment later she was flinging her burden at him and stepping between Leo and the naked threat of the hunting god in the doorway.

No that's not right, this was the god of the hunt and he was finally upon his quarry. When he'd finally come to the door of the classroom, crashing into it with the slow powerful heaves of some great beast and the determination of only something mad, Leo had finally realized the true error of his calculations. This was no man who would reason, once it had him pinned, that waiting would bring it's true quarry fast enough. No this was a hunting beast and it's quarry was just, beyond it's reach. Oh this beast was going to destroy anything between it and it's prey, buildings, walls and children if it had to, and Leo had brought it right to the classroom. Right to his defenseless students. Worst of all, once it had killed him, sating its one minded desire for conquest, Mitei would come, she would have to. She'd be completely blindsided by the beast in blood lust. High on the hunt fulfilled, experienced, skilled and brutal - a god walking - how the hell was Mitei supposed to survive against that?

But here she was now, not only saving him from dying to summon her but standing between the hunter and it's prey. Leo didn't have time to fear for her or doubt her, certainly not enough time to struggle out from underneath the searing heat of the bundle she'd tossed upon him before Mitei - changed.

Suddenly what stood before him wasn't the slim, slender and fragile woman he'd seen standing over his death bed. What stood before him was Death, immense and terrifying, all encapsulated in the form that he knew best yet filling the all of the classroom so tightly he could feel the press of it on every ounce of his flesh. Then Mitei seemed to bristle, from a tail she did not have up to her head and out of her mouth, hands flung open wide - she ROARED.

After that the world opened up beside him, and he fell up.

***

Aedan, stood before her and Mitei could somehow tell, scent, taste that the hunt was upon him and his target was not herself. Nothing would be able to keep him from charging into that classroom in a minute and rending Leo limb from limb - nothing, except a far greater threat and challenge.

At no point in her long, long lifetime had Mitei ever considered using her innate abilities either defensively or offensively. At no point had she ever felt the need to. Nothing could harm her, even now, diminished and warped as this form seemed to be, Mitei still recovered from all that was thrown at her. Pain was simply a new nuisance that was short lived. Suddenly, now, with Leo in danger, a man who so adamantly proclaimed his friendship and so constantly confused and angered her, a man whose fragile life had been saved by some fluke of her nature once but who might so easily be lost at any time.

Suddenly Mitei had something to protect.

The rest was a blur; Mitei would not be able to consciously recall what she had done in the following moments. Only that she reached for the deepest most fundamental parts of herself, the parts that were so natural that she never thought of them consciously, reached deeper into her core of being than she had ever reached before and grasped the heart of herself - then turned it out.

Turning it outwards like a cloak, Mitei flung Leo **away** _, anywhere, everywhere, keep him safe_ and at the same time she flung death forward and out. The room filled with Death. Flooding to the rafters, the plants went first snuffing out of life so fast that they did not have time to wilt, spontaneously combusting into little puffs of ash. The teenagers, the children, crowded up against the far wall started to go next. They were not as fortunate to go quickly as the plants, they choked and sputtered, falling to the floor and clawing at throats and eyes, a few went into convulsions.

Mitei felt them and despaired, _I did not mean to, so sorry!_ It was too late to call Death back, though Mitei tried, oh how she tried. Reaching back into herself and throwing figurative switches, trying to shut enough of her system down to allow her reason to regain control of her inner self, her powers unknowable mass.

It was not working, or if it was, it was not fast enough! And while she was distracted, her entire consciousness turned inward, Aedan struck. Rising to the challenge that stood before him, conscious enough to save the blameless children from his opponent, he wrenched Mitei into the space of the doorway and away betwixt and between.

***

The first thing that made any sense when he came to, months, hours or days later was the sound of screaming. The trip to wherever they were had distorted everything so at first Leo was not at all sure that he was hearing what he thought he was. Nothing that anguished and pain filled could come from the mouth of the living. Listening to it and waiting for enough of his other senses to return to pinpoint that sound and silence it, the next thing Leo was aware of was the cool trickle of water as it fell from his lids and splashed onto his cheek. Alone with the screamer in something that wasn't altogether dark nor fixable in his mind as here or there, tears leaked in silent companionship down his cheeks.

Finally realizing that this blurry light was the most he'd be getting out of his vision, guessing and rightly so that wherever they were was not something that his mind could properly translate from the input his eyes gave it, Leo began to cast about from side to side, looking for the screamer. Wiping the tears from his face but not daring to stand in this pointless light, his eyes finally lit on the smoking form of the woman that Mitei had thrown at him, hours, months, weeks before.

Focusing on her seemed to help with his disorientation and Leo chanced standing up. Yes, that definitely felt alright, even if she was kneeling head upturned, screaming, at a slightly skewed angle to his own position. Still his sense of equilibrium returned and though he didn't quite feel comfortable calling the position his head was in 'up' that didn't matter at all as much as getting to the screamer.

The fact that there was still heat and steam rising from her naked flesh must have meant that they hadn't been there all that long, Leo seriously doubted that a person could smoke for more than a few moments after whatever trauma she'd been put through. Unless the simple act of coming here had restarted her steaming, Leo glanced at his own hand, _nope no signs of smoking. Good to know._

Moving towards her proved more difficult than it should have been. No matter how many steps he took the screamer didn't seem to get any closer. After a few Leo tried breaking into a run, not an easy fete what with the lack of a solid floor or a sense of balance but the effort was in vain. She just screamed and screamed, what seemed like a few simple feet away from him.

Leo just couldn't take that sound anymore, it seemed like ages since he'd heard nothing but the sound of the woman's cries and they were working on him, filling him with panic, dread and - maybe a little anguish? Yes, anguish and despair.

Leo shook his head trying to clear it. There was no help for it but to reach the screamer and put a stop to her constant wailing, he simply _had_ to reach her - and suddenly she was within reach. His flailing hand caught on her shoulder and she shuddered uncontrollably, choking on the scream she'd screamed endlessly and, Leo suddenly realized, without breath for what could have been an eternity.

Shuddering away from his touch, the screamer quieted now, the lack of noise was nearly suffocating but Leo endured it. Concentrating on getting the woman's attention, he moved in front of her, gently waiving his hand in front of her face. She wasn't a pretty sight. Eyes wide open and the pupils nearly turned all the way back, whites glaring out at him and her mouth still stretched grotesquely open. Bad, but getting better, even as Leo stared the screamer reached up and touched her face, numbly at first as if she wasn't sure what her fingers would find, then faster and faster; fingering cheeks, lips, tongue, stopping to clasp both hands together and wiggling each of her fingers experimentally.

"I can't see," the screamer said, a note of rising panic in her voice. "Mitei, why can't I see?"

"Calm down," he said, gently grasping her hands and settling them into her lap. "Close your eyes for a moment."

When she did, Leo reached up and gently rubbed the lids, hoping that the motion would reset the pupils and not do any further damage. "Try them now."

She opened her eyes, blinked them experimentally and a tension he hadn't realized she was still carrying, left her body in a whoosh. She nearly crumpled to the ground but Leo reached out to steady her, unsure of where she'd stop falling; still slightly unsteady on his own feet.

Amazingly she didn't struggle going limp in his arms and allowing him to help her settle into a more comfortable position. "Now I have a question for you. Several actually. Who are you, how do you know Mitei and what the hell happened that left you naked and screaming?"

She shuddered in his arms and belatedly Leo realized she was probably cold and uncomfortable being pressed naked against a strange man; he let her go, raising his hands in an empty, non-threatening gesture.

"Your shirt."

"Huh?"

"Give me your shirt. Please."

"Oh, yeah," Leo stripped out of his button down dress shirt. He wasn't a big man but once he handed it over and she'd slipped it on fumbling with the buttons but glaring at him when he moved into help, the shirt came to her mid-thigh, more than respectable according to the teenaged girls at his high school at least.

"That's better. Yes, much better," she mumbled as she buttoned herself up. "My name is Jules, from your eyes I can tell that you're that asshole Leo, and I'm Mitei's friend." He started to object at the 'asshole' reference but she didn't give him room to protest. "As for what happened to me, I think I was just blown up."

Then she, Jules, dissolved into tears. Curling up on herself with Leo's shirt half buttoned around her, sobbing with a kind of quiet dignity that spoke to relief as much as it did to the horror of what she'd been through. Not knowing what to do, Leo just waited and watched her cry, certain at the very least that it was a less soul breaking sound than her earlier screams had been.

After a while she dried her eyes on the sleeve and looked up at him again, "I guess, Mitei must have saved me."

"She healed you too?" So either Jules was the other of the two or Mitei's already uncertain condition was actually getting worse. He wondered how much of this seeming chaos interjecting itself into her nature had to do with the spectacle he'd seen in the classroom and shuddered.

Jules nodded, "this was the second time. So much worse than the first time. So horrible..."

When she trailed off Leo found himself letting her, what she'd been through was indeed unimaginably horrid but he couldn't help feeling more than a little unsettled. If Mitei had healed this woman not once but twice as she had healed him, though he had to admit that Jules' injuries were probably a good bit worse than his own both times, then perhaps her condition was worsening? Leo shuddered again as the hair stood up on the back of his neck, what happened if Death was no longer able to end lives?

Wasn't that what he'd really wanted? Then why wasn't he happy about it?

"How did you know my name?" He asked, trying to distract himself from the deep seated unease that he was unable to rationalize.

She snorted, concentrating on doing up buttons as she replied, "Mitei's told me all about you. Asked my advice. She's so scared and confused and you have not been helping her at all."

"And exactly what kind of help was this poor slip of a mortal supposed to give to the all mighty and powerful Death?" Arguing with Jules would be at the least, a good distraction because when he was done being snide and sarcastic, Leo had the feeling that he'd have to come to grips with where they were, or were not. Not a comforting prospect when he couldn't even start by firmly identifying up, down and the floor.

"Oh don't act so oblivious." Jules snapped back. "She's all but begged you to come to the office with her and take up the position of secretary, told you all about her current predicament. How can you honestly sit there and call her 'all powerful' when she's lost complete and utter control of everything she's learned to accept as her very nature?"

This onslaught of good sense from a woman who, by her own admission should have died more than once before delivering this particular message, somehow didn't manage to make him feel at all better. He shook his head and threw his hands up in exasperation, "all of this is moot, at least for the time being. Right now I think focusing on the here and now will do us a great deal more good."

***

"I think I broke something."

That was the only thing he'd gotten out of her before Mitei had collapsed in his arms. Aedan hadn't wasted time shaking her or trying to get a response, simply lifting her dead weight and hoisting her over his shoulder. Here was as good as there betwixt and between so he saw no need to camp where they'd landed on the shore of a twilight lit lake so huge he couldn't see the other shore. Gentle waves lapped at his heels as he turned and surveyed the cold and empty evergreen wood in front of him. Striding towards it and disappearing just at the tree line to reappear on the dusky trail strewn with the dead leaves of autumn and bordered by the sleeping trees of winter.

It was the matter of a few minutes for him to find one of the groves where he would normally meet up with his goddess. Empty now of her presence as well as the retinue that would have set up the camp and seen to her myriad comforts. Still there was a large space of even ground, no leaves had fallen here and the ground was soft but not muddy. A comfortable natural carpet fit for a goddess, let alone the Death that he laid upon it.

When he'd settled her, Aedan turned back to the woods looking for dry wood for a fire. These places were especially attuned to the needs of the gods who called them home and playpen so he could have found the requisite branches within a few feet of the clearing or within a few days walk, the forest would adjust to his unconscious desire. Right now Aedan wanted to gather himself, a part of him was angry and full of the frustrations of a hunt gone wrong. This part wanted to either return to the trail of the male he'd had pinned or return to the clearing and take care of the now unconscious and helpless threat that had distracted him from the kill.

Now instead of the hunt, he focused on what Mitei had said before passing into unconsciousness, "I think I broke something." What something? The Mitei he'd seen in that classroom had been all he could remember that a god of death should be, capable of felling an unwary god and more. If he charged her again, brought that out of her again, Aedan was almost certain to get his wished for death.

That was, if she was still capable of using her abilities and hadn't broken herself in her attempt to protect the mortal male. Even if she had not broken that particular ability, Aedan realized that alone with no one to protect and nothing she cared about nearby, he was unlikely to provoke a similar response. Instead Mitei would simply tell him she was incapable of "killing," and allow him to rend her form down to a bloody hamburger to get her to try otherwise.

No at the very least, he'd need that male again.

Of course that would all be moot if she'd thrown him where Aedan thought she'd thrown them, onto whatever personal pathways she used that had made his ability to track her such a impossible endeavor. Having already experienced the full frustrations of attempting to track her on that pathway, Aedan was loathe to try again just to get a bargaining chip and there wasn't any guarantee that if he found the mortal, that Mitei wouldn't do it all again except this time taking herself safely out of reach along with her companion.

He shook his head, Aedan wasn't much of a planner beyond the basic strategies of the hunt, ambush, flush, chase and track; and trying to out think his opponent was getting him nowhere. _First thing first then, find out what she's broken and deal with that._ Whether it was her ability to grant death to the dying or her ability to walk her special path, fixing what was broken would probably be to his advantage, allowing him to gain her trust so that he might make his request again and if being polite failed to earn him results then he'd use her mortal companions against her. Aedan hefted a double armful of wood and headed back to the clearing.

***

Mitei was not entirely sure where she was but she knew she had to get out of here. The last thing she could remember was Aedan's face looming half mad over her, before that there was the confusion of the dying, c _hildren, somehow she was killing and they were all children;_ and the desire to protect. When Mitei opened her eyes onto this quiet winter wood and the impossibly bright starry night above her was confused but certain, she had to get away.

Getting up did not prove at all difficult, she was wobbly and a level of tired that put everything she had felt before, even the earthquake, to shame. Still there was no thought of sleep in her mind. There was some horrible jittery energy coursing through her limbs and once in motion she soon realized that only more motion would calm that jittery feeling. Mitei took a step forward, then another and another, each step faster than the one before it, the Path showed no signs of whisking her away from this familiarly unfamiliar location, by the time her foot came down on the edge of the clearing Mitei was doing something she had never done before.

She ran.

Mitei had never run before but once she started it seemed natural. Somehow she found footing in the dimly lit woods; somehow she did not stumble over roots or get caught on thickets or brambles. A stray branch caught at a lock of hair a moment and then was behind her. Without watching where her feet fell and without knowing where she was going, Mitei ran; the only thought in her mind to put as much distance between her and that clearing as possible.

Surely Aedan will return there and then...

And then she would be gone as far and as fast as her feet could take her. Each step she managed to take giving her greater odds of the Path opening up under her feet and shunting her to safety.

Despite the danger there was an exhilaration in this headlong flight through the starlit woods. Mitei leaped a small stream, the movement graceful and seemingly easy thought the distance was greater than she was tall and the drop nearly as deep. Feet sinking into the bank on the other side she turned, avoiding the trunk of a large oak suddenly in her path, so sharply that she felt her long hair slap against the rough bark, catching a moment before she was past it and running full out again.

Her feet found purchase where none should be found, her body gained speed that no one could mistake for a human and a grace that resembled nothing more than Death's Dance was lent to each step as she fled. Mitei had managed quite a bit of distance but it was taking an odd toll on her, somehow she was losing the urgency of the moment. The need to flee and the reason seemed to become hazy in her mind and were nearly forgotten – all that was left was the urge to run, to dance, to run dancing in the starlit woods.

Faster, I have to go faster.

***

When Aedan returned to the clearing with his arms full of wood and found her missing, he dropped the bundle and gave chase. The hunt was still upon him, nothing but bringing his prey down before him or his goddess' calming touch could bring him out of it.

It was child's play to pick up her scent again and find her trail where it entered the woods, Mitei wasn't terribly careful and the signs of her passage were everywhere. In a moment he was on her trail, moving faster than a nightmare and nearly as bleak. She was in his world now; there was no way that the prey could escape him.

_Something is off_ , he thought as he cleared a small river, slamming into the trunk of an oak where a few silken strands of white hair clung. There was something off about her scent; there was something more there than he'd originally picked up in the clearing. It was still her scent, no doubt in his hunt addled mind about that, but there was something new, something more added to it. _Sweat?_ Perhaps, he had caught a whiff of this on her before, something familiar teased at his senses and quickened his step. Now he was barreling through the woods like a thing possessed, tree trunks cracked at his passing and saplings were snapped neatly in two.

It was maddening this scent, he couldn't resist it. Something about it clouded his memory, urging him to greater speed while forcing him to take greater care with his approach. Aedan stopped barreling through everything in his path, dancing around the trunks, attempting avoid snapping even old twigs beneath his boot. He was close now and for some reason he wanted a glimpse...

_There_ , a flash of flowing white hair disappearing around a maple, _and there_ a glimpse of graceful ivory limbs as she cleared a defile. It was hard, her dark robe cloaking most of her form in the colors of night made it hard to spot her through the trees but still he followed, feeling suddenly clumsy as he leapt, skidded and barreled into another tree. The poor thing groaned under his weight and he found himself wincing in sympathy. _There again,_ she seemed to have slowed down, glancing over her shoulder a vague look of concern on her face. _Not for me, no, for the damned tree!_

And they were off again.

Aedan gaining and losing distance, growing close enough to see her faint smile, hear her laughter ringing in the trees and once, feeling the faint and fleeting lash of her hair across his cheek. She danced onward, so tantalizingly out of reach, teasing him forward; before them now another river this one wider and deeper, far too wide for both of them to leap, she skirted the edge of it and he found himself following.

Suddenly she was leaping, a graceful slip of silvery light arcing over the water, then dropping fast over the edge – of a waterfall. There was no hesitation as Aedan plummeted after her.

***

The water was cold and deep, by the time that Mitei had clawed her way back to the surface, her head was clear again and she became aware of her body. _That is pain, and quite a lot of it,_ she thought right before a particularly debilitating burst slammed into her lower right leg, twisting her up and making it impossible for her to kick towards the shore. She flailed, trying to keep her head above water, when she felt a strong arm about her waist, tugging her backwards toward the shore.

The second her feet hit the bottom Mitei stood up and flung off the strong arm of her savior, turning to face him. _Aedan, of course_ , "why will you not leave me alone?"

Instead of replying, the god of the hunt dropped to his knees in the water, head bowed before her, "you smelled like her. Forgive me but, for a moment you were, my goddess."

_More weirdness, great, just – great_ , Mitei ignored the kneeling god before her and strode around him, fighting water to get to the shore. Her dress, a wispy thing of white chiffon that was, of course, more complicated than it seemed, streamed cold water as she went and was probably ruined. Her hooded robe was even soaked, though she knew from past experience that not even the Pacific could keep her robe wet for long. Once on the bank she noted that at some point she had lost another pair of lovely, expensive and altogether impractical shoes; sighing, she rung out her sopping hem and hair, a wary eye on Aedan all the while.

He was standing now at least, regarding her from what she felt was a safe distance. The look on his face was, heartbreaking, Mitei might not have been able to place the exact emotion that he bore but somehow looking at him now made her feel like she was looking at something intensely, intimate and raw. Something in her chest ached in sympathy with that look on his face.

"I am truly sorry Aedan," she said at last, "but I cannot grant you the death that you seek."

"I know, somehow even though you remind me more of my goddess than ever before, I know."

"I am not your goddess. Not your mate. Not your death."

"I caught you," he said, stepping forward out of the water and coming to stand beside her. He touched her arm, so lightly and then withdrew as he hesitated, "We can be at ease now, this hunt is over. Come to the clearing, I'll light a fire and we can warm ourselves by it."

Mitei hesitated but followed where he led as they left the river and its roaring waterfall behind them.

***

It is going to be a good fucking day.

That's what popped into Leslie's head when she woke up that morning. The tracking system she'd installed on Death's phone was working perfectly as far as she could tell and for the first time ever, someone was literally able to keep tabs on Death's whereabouts at all times. Not that she had any intentions of letting others know that she knew where Death was at the moment, partly because even the GPS on her phone didn't know right now, and partly because the corporation was in a complete panic.

Someone had tried to blow up the new secretary last night. The fireball had been all over the news and it hadn't taken long for the vehicle to be identified as belonging to Jules, the company hadn't been fast enough to keep that information from leaking out and by now her father was probably in a hell of panic, fear and anger - none of that was Leslie's problem at least. She'd managed to keep the company's name and location out of the media, though the news had mentioned that Jules had come to the city from her nearby college campus in order to apply for a position at a Philadelphia business, that was all the information they'd been given.

With the handy little tracker in Death's phone, it was easy for Leslie to tell that Death had been called to the scene of the accident as usual, what wasn't usual was the fact that there had actually been no body in the burnt out wreckage of the car. Leslie had no idea what Death had done with Jules' body and she didn't really care, after she'd checked the GPS and confirmed that Death had been on the scene she'd checked to see where Death had gone next, there'd been a brief stop off in California and then - nothing. At the moment Death was so far off the map the GPS couldn't track her.

It was entirely possible that Death was currently slogging through the bowels of one of the few under developed stretches of wilderness left on the planet, that her cell phone had lost the last of its power in the night, any number of reasons why Leslie couldn't currently track her. But right now, Leslie highly doubted that Death was anywhere that mortal means could reach her.

In this company death was literally a way of life, but all accounts she'd been able to dig up in the libraries indicated that whenever Death lost one of her over paid secretaries she took it hard. Or as hard as a being who wasn't human could take a death anyway. On the even more rare occasions when that secretary's death had been unpleasant in any way shape or form, it wasn't unheard of that Death would be morose as well hard to impossible to reach - and that meant nothing but opportunity to Leslie.

Of course there was the rather obvious possibility that someone else had been privy to this information and acted on the newest, most vulnerable and gullible member of the company deliberately hoping to make Death vulnerable in some way. So she'd have to act fast, very fast indeed. She'd already moved to quiet the media and the government agencies that would investigate the accident and look for Jules' body or captors. They would continue the investigations but any information would be passing directly into her hands before anyone else and she could use that information to help her gain leverage with the board.

Right now was a dangerous time to be the head of any corporation, everyone the world over was looking for a way to topple the top earners out of their pay brackets and disseminate the 'absurd' profits among the starving masses. Now wasn't the time for Death to be acting erratically and drawing attention. Not that Death had ever seemed properly cautious or cutthroat enough to be heading the biggest corporation in the world, no, Death had always seemed particularly naive to Leslie and now might be the perfect time to have her removed from total control of the international organization once and for all.

There was a meeting scheduled for ten in the morning and Roth was up at six, slowly sipping a cup of coffee and contemplating the day's plans. If all went well, within a few short hours she'd be well on her way to finally grasping this company in both of her meticulously manicured hands.

Now, if only she could figure out a way to capture Death's power for her own. Not a single one of the books on sorcery she'd been able to find, buy or steal had contained a single spell that would help her capture such a power from someone else. Oh there had been spells a plenty, some even swore to be able to bind the abilities of another to oneself but her constant experiments had proven them all to be false, Leslie hadn't even managed to steal the singing voice of one particularly hungry little street performer she'd briefly associated with.

She set her mug down with a rattle and stood up to pace. Well if I can't have her powers over death for my own, yet, I'll just have to settle for having her corporate power. With the meeting just a few scant hours away, Leslie retired to her bathroom and a long, luxuriant bubble bath.

***

Feeling a bit calmer once she'd managed to get all the buttons on Leo's shirt closed and now that her skin had stopped smoking, Jules tried looking around. It was unexpectedly difficult. Whenever she turned her face away from where Leo was currently standing in front of her, her eyes seemed to lose focus. Nothing she saw behind her seemed to be something that either her eyes or brain could process.

So she looked back at Leo and used him as a control. The area around him was still very hard to focus on but keeping him in view seemed to help her at least gain a sense of up and down. Of course, the fact that he seemed to be standing at a slight, but still impossible, angle to where she was sitting almost threw her off again.

_Enough_ , she thought, _this place obviously isn't Kansas and nothing will be gained by sitting on my ass, hoping to figure out up and down by staring at this useless hunk of man meat._ She levered herself to her feet, careful not to think about the mechanics of the motion and wasn't at all surprised to find that she and Leo had a more direct orientation when she was done. "So, now what?"

"No idea," Leo said and slowly glanced around the area directly behind her. "It's really hard to get any kind of bearing in this place."

_Mr. Obvious I presume,_ "it's probably not a place at all. Leo, do you remember what happened?"

He shook his head, "I was at work when you and Mitei appeared in the middle of my classroom... Oh shit! The kids!"

Leo turned abruptly and took several passionate but futile steps, only managing to get maybe a foot away from Jules before he stopped progressing in the formless distance. He kept trying though, before it finally dawned on him that he wasn't making any apparent progress.

"Calm down," Jules said when he'd finally stopped. "We're not going to get anywhere trying to storm off into the murk like that. Tell me the rest."

He turned around and explained as best as he could, how Mitei had appeared and tossed Jules at him then _changed_ and gone to meet Aedan who'd found her again at last. When he got to the curious sensation of a space opening up beside him and somehow falling up, Jules stopped him. "We fell up? Are you sure?"

"That's what it felt like at the time but to be honest, however we fell it was bad enough to black me out for a bit, so I can't be sure of that at all."

Except it was pretty obvious when you thought about it, where ever they had ended up it hadn't been Aedan's doing that had sent them there. If it was Mitei who'd done the sending, well Death only had a handful of options, carrying them out bodily, getting some of her Los Angeles employees to take them away or somehow using her personal Path. With a mad god in front of her, the first two options seemed extremely unlikely and that meant, "Mitei flung us onto her Path to get us away from Aedan."

"I thought she didn't know if she could take people on her Path."

"She didn't, but last I knew I was in Philadelphia, not L.A. which means she took me with her when she went to go save you so it must be possible."

"Ok, if it's possible – then where the fuck are we?"

"We, are probably still on the Path – without Mitei."

Jules let her words sink in. If Mitei could indeed take people with her on her path but those people couldn't move forward in this formless haze on their own, then they might well be trapped here without her.

***

Soaked through, without a sun overhead and with the chill of a winter night upon them, Mitei was shivering rather violently by the time they made it back to the camp. Aedan immediately fell to with the impressive pile of wood he had brought there, an area was cleared for a fire and he had the logs blazing in no time. Still, with the damp cloth of her ruined gown clinging to her skin Mitei could hardly feel the warmth of the fire and found herself shivering all the harder.

Seeing her Aedan reached into his pack and pulled what looked remarkably like a large fleece blanket, holding it out to her, "you'll get warmer faster if you strip out of that and put this on while you sit by the fire. I'll go cut some branches to make a lean-to for the clothes to dry on."

Mitei watched him go warily before stripping out of her still dripping garments and throwing the blanket over her shoulders. It only took her a moment to realize she got warmer if she used the blanket as a shield from the cold air at her back and opened the front to funnel hot air directly at her body. She was still standing this way, relatively naked by the fire, when Aedan came back and cleared his throat to alert her to his presence.

Mitei peered at him curiously over the edge of her blanket a moment before sighing and dropping it; she ignored Aedan's sputtering gasps and picked up her robes from the pile at her feet where she had tossed them. Warmed by the fire, drier than even she would have expected, Mitei pulled the comforting fabric around herself, finally bundling her chilly feet and ankles in the blanket and sinking down beside the fire.

Aedan stood a moment longer gapping at her, before coming closer. He was wearing another blanket, knotted around his neck and again at his hip, it kept the blanket from falling off while he worked, getting a rough wall together for them to dry their clothing on. His hands were deliberate and deft, Mitei could not help but watch him latch twigs together and cover them with different twigs, then spread their dripping garments evenly over the whole and pushing it nearly in the fire.

"Will they not burn? So close to the fire?"

"Green wood doesn't catch fire easily and with these clothes being so wet to begin with we have to put them practically in the fire if we want them to dry quickly. Or where you planning on staying the night with me in my woods?"

She shrugged, "I do not think I have a choice. I think my Path is broken now."

"Your path?"

"My Path," she repeated the explanation she had so recently given Leo. Something deep in her chest clenched unpleasantly remembering him. "What happened to my friend?"

"Your guess is as good as mine." Aedan said but lifted his hands when she shot him a belligerent look, "hey I'm just a god, I don't know absolutely everything alright."

Mitei thought about it for a moment, "you know far more than I do. Or at least it would seem you do."

Aedan sighed and hunkered down by the fire, still being careful to keep a bit of distance between the two of them, "my guess would be that you flung them onto this Path of yours."

"Them?"

"You appeared in that room dragging a woman in one hand, you flung her at Leo before you sent them both away."

"Shit!" For once, Mitei's hard won knowledge of languages escaped her. _There is only one person that could be, the one in the car... wait,_ "how could you tell she was female?"

"I'm pretty sure I and most of the males ever born can identify a naked woman at a hundred yards, even in the midst of a frenzied battle and even if the woman in question was somehow putting off enough heat to have made a fire sprite jealous."

_Shit,_ "so. You are telling me. That this woman. Had all her skin?"

"Well yeah, lack of skin would definitely have made it harder for me to tell she was female."

_I did it again, worse yet – I lost her!_ Mitei jumped to her feet, marched over to the steaming pile of her clothes and tested them with a finger. _Still very wet, but I have to get out of here, now!_ She abandoned the dress, pretty as it had been it was probably ruined anyway and started toward the tree line again.

Aedan caught her by the elbow long before she reached it, "what are you doing? I thought we'd gotten past the whole hunting thing?"

"I do not really care what you intend to do from here on but I have to find this smoking woman." Mitei said, shaking off his grip. "And Leo."

"And exactly how do you plan on doing that if you really have 'broken' your Path?"

"I will have to walk. Once I get to one of the offices I can always use the employee network to locate them..." She trailed off.

"Figuring out that won't work, are yah?" Something about the way Aedan said that made Mitei want to kick him. She made a mental note to ask Leo about it, when she found him. "Look, first of all you're not on Earth as you know it right now so there's no way you're going to be able to just walk out of these woods and find an office. Actually, you shouldn't have even been able to run through those woods like you did without losing your mind or getting terminally lost."

"I have to do something!"

"Of course you do." Aedan said, stepping aside and gesturing at the fire behind him, "first you have to march back over there and sit your lily white ass down, then you can listen to me and maybe the two of us can figure out a way to find them."

"My ass is lily white?"

"More like snow with the faintest hints of pink, like you got a light spanking – and that's beside the point!"

Mitei was not entirely sure why that made her smile at Aedan but it certainly did. Something strange happened then, though she was robbed and hooded a state sure to cause shivers in even her most devote secretary but when she smiled at him, Aedan did not flinch, shudder or avert his gaze. Instead the god of the hunt met Death's eyes beneath her hood and smiled back.

Even with everything that had been happening to her up to that moment, Mitei found it unsetting and was seated and listening to Aedan almost automatically, without further protest. He explained that though he had managed to track her footsteps in the world as easily as he ever had – her Path had been completely beyond his tracking skills. Whenever she was on it, he had lost her trail, only picking it up again after she had returned to the world for a while and long after she had moved on to her next location. This had been frustrating when he was 'hunting' her but also meant that her Path probably was not on the material planes that he had access to.

"In short, I can bring you anywhere you want to go - except for this Path of yours." Aedan said, folding his arms, "that might be different if you brought me to it, so I'd be able to fix its location in my mind but for right now all I can do for you is to take you to places on the mortal plane. Though I probably won't be half as fast and efficient as your Path normally is, we could maybe do a little damage control before trying. At least get you some more clothes."

"Damage control," Mitei recalled the room full of dying teenagers and shuddered. _That is going to be a big mess waiting for me in the offices too._ "I should get back to the offices, but why are you suddenly so willing to help me when you only chased me before?"

Aedan surprised her again then, by getting up and dropping to his knees before her. He was not a terribly tall man, even standing she was far taller than him in the body that Leo had given her, so kneeling before her like this Aedan had to crane his neck up to look her in the eye. It left his throat oddly exposed and Mitei found her eyes tracing the long line of it before meeting his eyes.

"I apologize; I have not acquitted myself in a manner that my goddess would have approved of, chasing you through these woods that were a home to us, brought that fully to my awareness. Let me atone for my actions by helping you get this 'Leo' back."

The form was not exactly like those she had seen in recent memory but Mitei recognized the gesture well enough as one of supplication and difference. _He wants something and has decided he is more likely to get it by being nice than not; so gods are not that different from mortals, at least this I know how to handle,_ "fine. I will accept your help and gladly."

***

"Alright," now that Jules had said it, there wasn't anything else left to do except face the monster in the room and solve the problem. _Just what a math teacher does, right?_ "Somehow we managed to get onto Mitei's Path and apparently without her to guide us we have very little control over it. But not none." Jules started to open her mouth a protest evident in her furrowed brows but Leo beat her to the punch. "I wasn't standing close enough to touch you when I got here. I was able to move, we just have to figure out how and repeat that."

The simplest answer was to keep each other in view and try using that as a kind of anchor so that one could move away then the other would follow. If they could get a momentum going like that they'd cover plenty of distance in no time at all. Except Leo remembered not moving at all when he'd first opened his eyes and seen Jules screaming in the distance, all of his original effort had amounted to absolutely nothing, _so how did I get over here?_

While he thought, Jules made a few more attempts to move away from him. She'd obviously noticed that the only thing to focus on here was each other and this time when she tried to start off she kept an eye on him; first trying to crab walk sideways then trying to keep both eyes on him and walk backwards. She got exactly nowhere before finally giving up.

"I think I've got an idea how to do this." He said when he noticed that she'd settled down again. "I'm going to give it a shot, you stay here." Then Leo took a deep breath and tried to concentrate on being 'there' a spot about six feet away from where he was currently standing. Once he had the distance fixed in his mind, he took a deep breath and stepped forward – and nearly fell on his face when his foot connected with what he was, for lack of a better word, calling the ground but also seemed to be a few inches lower than the ground he'd been standing on a second ago.

Looking around was useless, there was nothing but that hard to grasp blur in front of him. Leo forced himself to turn around, slowly, and scan that blur regardless of how difficult it was to make anything out in it. When he was facing the opposite direction from where he had started, he saw her. Jules was a tiny spec, quite far from his current location he could see her vigorously waving her arms and he imagined that she was probably shouting as well but he couldn't hear it from where he was.

Going back was a lot easier than going forward had been, he only needed to focus on her gesticulating figure, focus on being 'there' and take a step. He stumbled again and nearly collided with the woman who was now yelling directly into his surprised face.

"What the, pardon my French, fuck was that?"

"I think, I've just figured out how to move forward in this place," Leo said when he'd regained his balance. "But it's tricky. I was only trying to move six feet away but I ended up going much farther than that. It was easier getting back than it was going out. I think you acted as a guide."

"What?"

Leo sighed and flopped down on the 'ground' trying to get comfortable before he began, "ok this is all ungrounded guesswork really, but I think that having something in here to focus on helps us tell the Path where we want to go. When I went out I just concentrated on moving away about six feet, which both worked and was a horrible failure. I went farther out than I had wanted but I did move! Coming back I just focused on getting to you and when I took a step, the Path just _activated_ somehow."

"But that's not how Mitei's Path is supposed to work! Or at least I don't think that's how her path is supposed to work."

"How do we know that?" Leo snapped, "all we have is Mitei's word for it, but most of the time she admits to not knowing how she does what she does. It stands to reason that her Path is always following her unconscious desire to go to the dead and dying! She just never realized it."

"If it's an unconscious desire than why are we still here?" Jules tone was just as sharp as his had been, she crossed her arms and looked down on him, "I don't know about you but I've been desperately longing to be home since I got my mind back."

That was true, when Leo had first realized what state he'd left his class in he'd definitely wanted out of here with a deeper desire than when he'd tried to move a few feet away. Still he hadn't actually gone anywhere at all, not six feet away and certainly not back to his classroom in California; "ok, I'm definitely missing a component or a rule or something here. Still, we _can_ move as long as we do it that way. Maybe if we try exploring a little bit we'll find a solution or an exit."

Jules snorted but uncrossed her arms when he stood up. "Then who goes first and who follows?"

"I'll go first, since I've done this a couple of times before, it'll be easier for you to follow me."

He waited for her nod before starting out again, this time trying to imagine a distance relative to Jules' current location. This worked better than before and when his foot hit the 'ground' less than a second later he was pleased to find that Jules was clearly visible about three yards behind him. Or she was, even as he was focusing on her behind him, she was stepping forward and appearing directly in front of him. It was almost as disconcerting as watching Mitei do it, no actually it was worse. Mitei usually stepped onto and off of her Path at a distance, never so close that he could reach out and touch her, _and now I know why._

Jules staggered and Leo reached out to steady her, "you alright?"

"As I'm going to be I guess. Let's keep going, I've just thought of a really good reason to explore this place."

"Why?"

"I'm starting to get hungry; we have to find some food and water or an exit – soon."

_Shit_ , she was right of course, without knowing how much time had passed or was passing they didn't have the option of waiting for Mitei, they'd have to find food and water quickly.

***

Corporations have Boards of Directors or Trustees, people who represent the investors in the organization. They have a little or a lot of power depending on the structure of the company and the Chief of the Board who usually is the one that interacts directly with the CEO and or the President of the company. Board meetings usually consist of the members of the board, the CEO and the companies Presidents. A company can have as many Junior Vice Presidents as they need but only one President and only one CEO and usually only one Senior Vice President. The Senior Vice President is usually the most likely subordinate to take over the company after the ousting or retirement of the current President.

That's the way a corporations infrastructure usually works, of course, Death Inc. was never a normal company. Where other companies gained revenue through commerce Death Inc. got its revenue through the business of Death. Everyone dies after all and anyone who has ever been left to deal with the aftermath of a death could tell you: death is expensive. That's where Death Inc. 'made' its money, from the variable and constant costs of dying.

Death Inc. also wasn't a publically traded company. How could it be? So technically there weren't any investor's interests to guard. But Death Inc. has a very large board of directors because of its revenue stream, in order for Death Inc. to wring a profit out of the business of death, than Death Inc. needed the cooperation of the governments and the churches. It was representatives from these governments and theological institutions that made up Death Inc.'s Board of Directors. When a full board meeting was called Death Inc. often put the United Nations to shame in size, grandeur and even peaceful discourse. No one could really argue with Death, and they all knew it.

This is also how Death herself managed to hold onto the position of Chief of the Board, an elected position, decade in and decade out. Of course, this didn't stop her from being careful nonetheless, in more than two hundred years of the corporation's current incarnation, she'd been very careful not to appoint a single Senior Vice President. As if she wasn't already hard enough to get rid of.

Hard to get rid of indeed, but not impossible, the current international climate was less than forgiving towards corporate heads. Especially if those corporate heads did not seem to be acting in a manner that benefited all, _or really me, me, me; no one really gives two shillings about the guy lower on the ladder but if they don't feel like they're getting special consideration..._

_I can use that,_ was the last thing to run through Leslie Roth's head as she took center stage in the Philadelphia board room. Three walls of the room were outfitted floor to ceiling with flat screens and almost all were filled with the faces of the other Junior Vice Presidents and Board Members, there was a camera somewhere, carefully recording her every nuance and gesture.

She couldn't keep herself from smiling. The reports had already come in, that little blip in California had been much more significant than she'd thought at first. _This is going to be a very good day, indeed._

***

The trip back to the Philadelphia office was a whole new experience compared to what she was used to. Mitei had never really considered alternate modes of transportation and though she had found herself on occasion in planes, trains and automobiles, not to mention submarines, space shuttles and just about anything else that humans had ever created to get themselves from one point or another, none of them really struck a chord with her. Some were more amazing than others but still they all seemed an utterly alien and highly inefficient method of travel when compared to the simplicity of her Path.

Traveling with Aedan was a very different experience to the vehicles of man, or even to the Path for that matter. There was no compartment for one, most of the vehicles men created kept them insulated in as much comfort as they could manage while the world passed by harmlessly. Without a compartment everything was more present like her Path; stepping from the winter wood sideways into a vast and black cavern, the first thing you noticed was the change in temperature, the total absence of a breeze and the sudden lack of light. Still that was not what made Aedan's method of travel so different for her; it was the slow pace and the smoothness of travel.

Instead of moving from place to place in a single step, Aedan first led her to a space that he called 'betwixt and between' which he explained could be any place where two different locations connected, in the winter woods it was the exact place where the clearing where they built their fire met the woods. He had stopped her right before she could blunder into the woods, grasping her hand firmly and pointed at the area where clearing met forest, "don't let go of my hand while we travel. Mortals might blunder right through the bridge betwixt and between but you, you might end up lost in it."

Then Aedan had made some gesture and Mitei had felt an odd tingle as he had moved forward and sideways all at once, dragging her with him. The chill had only increased as she had passed the bridge and through to the other side, still the sensation only lasted a moment and they were through, eyes adjusting to the sudden lack of light. All told the transition was smooth and easy; the floor on this side was worked stone beneath her feet instead of the carpet of falling leaves her feet had been resting on.

"Where are we now?"

Aedan squeezed her hand gently and she realized she had been grasping his fingers rather tightly, making an effort to relax her grip as he replied, "right now we're probably Underhill, routes aren't direct betwixt and between. Sorry, we'll probably have to walk a ways or make a few connections before we get to your office."

That explained the absolute lack of light, she supposed, if they were in some kind of underground cavern there probably was no way that the light of sun or moon could reach them. Still this would make it hard to find their way to the next location, Mitei could see in near darkness but nothing this total. Even as she was having the thought Aedan said something in a language that seemed familiar yet was not identifiable and lights came on.

They were standing in the arch of a high and delicately carved doorway. What the light revealed before her was so unimaginably beautiful and delicate that for a minute Mitei actually just stared, breathless.

"This is one of the places mortal men have rarely seen," Aedan said breaking into her reverie as he started moving forward. "A place where the concept of mortality was little more than a bad joke, I never expected to find these places entirely empty."

"What happened? If the people who built this place where not mortal and I have never been brought here to end a life, what happened to them?"

Aedan looked over his shoulder at her as they passed through a long hallway that mimicked perfectly the sensation of being back in the winter wood with pillars of stone carved for trunks and stones set to twinkling in the ceiling like the many stars in that night sky, "to the immortal, mortality can become a coveted treasure. It would seem that all who lived here passed on, trading their gifts for a mortal life and death long, long, ago."

Mitei wanted to disagree, she could not remember ever once being called to the side of a person that mimicked the features she saw carved in stone in those halls as she passed but she could not deny the emptiness of those halls. The beauty of the place was muffled and stifling and she could feel the echo of the essence of the people who had made them, of lives so long that the vibrancy of living lost all luster.

Indeed though the halls remained uniformly lovely, the more of them she passed through the more morbid notes she could pick out in them. The hall that mimicked the winter wood was not matched by halls depicting spring or summer. The statues of elegant women and men featured no children, and the faces held more sorrow and despair than pleasure. Aedan pointed out the gardens long dead where beautiful blooms had once been cosseted on all sides by equally beautiful poisonous plants. They walked over a vast mosaic that at first seemed to depict thousands of men and women intertwined in dance, then lust and finally a horrible melding of limbs as people ripped into each other merging flesh in a way that could only be described as painful ecstasy. Still it was beauty personified and that was the worst part of the halls, at no point was the death lust of its' creators written inelegantly upon their home but at no point was it neglected either, everywhere that the eye could alight was an homage to mortality and death that struck right to the heart and soul.

By the time they came to another elegant arc and Aedan squeezed her fingers signaling another journey over the bridge betwixt and between, Mitei was more than glad to vacate Underhill. It had been beautiful but at some point it had also been a self-made hell for the people who lived there. She found herself glad that the people of Underhill had not been able to call her to them, Mitei was not entirely sure she understood their fascination with her but of course she also did not make any claims to understand the mortals desire to avoid her either.

Luckily the next stop was Philadelphia, as Aedan explained the lands of Underhill made a bridge between the immortal and mortal planes. It was easy to go from Underhill to Philadelphia though it was not apparently possible to go directly from winter wood to Philadelphia or vice versa.

"Oh it's possible, little sister," Aedan said as they popped out into Mitei's familiar maze. "But it isn't easy to do on purpose, that's a matter for luck really and rather bad luck at that."

That only brought more questions to mind but Mitei let them go, along with Aedan's hand and glanced around the maze. She did not run full out, that would be foolish, disoriented as she was and entirely without a reference on her current location she might end up like that fat dignitary. Mitei took it slow, looking around the corner carefully, scanning the carpeting and the height of the walls before going back for Aedan and tugging him along by the hand.

"Do you have any idea how long we have been gone?" Mitei asked as she hurried along.

"Not really," Aedan replied as he tried to keep up with her much longer stride. "Time isn't really my thing. It's still fall though, if that's any help."

_Shit_ , Mitei thought stopping so abruptly that Aedan bumped into her. _I forgot about the List!_ Even as she thought about it she was pulling the usual piece of parchment out of the air in front of herself. There were a lot of names on the List, quite a lot in fact, enough that the thing pooled into a little puddle of paper at her feet. _Still time_ , she thought as she glanced at the names, times and locations on the list. In truth Mitei was not sure what the list would have looked like if she had actually missed an appointment but this puddle of paper before her was exactly what she expected to find first thing in the morning before she sent the assignments out for the day.

She grasped the List with both hands and attempted to send the days assignments out as usual but encountered a wall where she would normally find her Path. A cold sensation crept up her spine as Mitei pulled out a few hairs, weaving them together and trying to create a Pall to direct the List. The strands fell through her gesticulating fingers falling limp and lifeless to the ground where they sat, like the shed hairs of something entirely mortal.

"Come on, we are almost to my office. We can regroup there, maybe Jules has some insights..." At the very least, Mitei did not want to leave her other friend alone and out of site. Not now, when she was on the verge of not just failing an appointment but actually missing several thousand all in one go.

It just was not meant to be however, when she and Aedan turned the last corner and finally caught site of the impossibly huge doors to her private office they were greeted not by one secretary sitting guard outside its doors but all of them. The women were occupied at their desks having a rather heated conversation but Megan noticed Mitei with Aedan and hurried over to fold Mitei into a tight embrace.

"What has happened?" Mitei asked confused, "Megan, are you – crying?"

"A lot has happened since your last visit dear," Megan said pulling back and wiping her face. "Seems Roth finally pulled off her coup. We've all been summarily dismissed."

Mitei stopped in her tracks, feeling like all of her limbs had finally decided to transform after all, into something like water as she slid gracefully to the floor. "I have lost the company."

***

They'd been traveling for what could have been hours, or days, or maybe a month. _Except that last couldn't be right could it; if we'd been traveling that long surely I'd be more than a little hungry by now._ Jules caught up to Leo again, stumbled and reached out to the taller man to steady herself and keep him from taking yet another giant leap forward.

"This isn't working," she said surprised to hear as much strength in her voice as she did, she felt so much more tired than she sounded. Hungry and thirsty too, "we keep going forward but we don't seem to have actually gotten anywhere, the terrain never changes."

It was a depressing thought, something neither one of them had wanted to mention once they had finally started moving again. But it had to be faced at some point and Jules hated beating around the bush of uncomfortable truths. Not only did they not appear to be making any remarkable forward progress, potentially making it harder for Mitei to find them in the process but getting no closer to finding their own way out, they also hadn't come across the increasingly vital elements of food and water. It was time to stop and rethink their strategy but Leo hadn't wanted listen to reason up till now each subsequent attempt on her part being met with greater and greater resistance.

Argumentative fool.

Well, Jules had had enough of his attitude; it was time to take the reins of this little endeavor firmly in hand. The thought that the woman who had so recently been blown up and roasted alive was the more rational party in this instance was laughable but it didn't make the assessment any less true, Jules didn't know what Leo's problem was and didn't care, it was a puzzle for happier times and right now didn't qualify. She was prepared to the throw the lanky looking teacher down and sit on him if she had to in order to get him listening again.

She felt him tense beneath her hand, she could almost see him straining to concentrate on a place just a few more feet forward of their current location and Jules did the only thing she could think of to stop him from stumbling blindly forward \- she punched him right in the breadbasket.

Leo went down with an inelegant whoosh of air, grasping his belly and giving her the most wounded look she'd ever seen on a grown man, "I tried talking but apparently you're too far gone to listen. We have to stop and rethink this!"

She had his attention now, though the look he gave her next was rather less wounded and more murderous. "We have to keep going if we want to get out of here, it's all we can do."

"Not really," she said sitting down in front of him, though making sure she stayed out of easy arms reach. "Look, we only really tried moving forward – we haven't tried calling out yet, or looking for actual clues, we've just been running forward blindly like a scared child lost in the woods. That's the kind of stupidity that won't just get us lost, it might get us killed."

He was sitting up now, that murderous look was gone again and he just looked tired and confused. She could work with tired and confused, "alright then. What do you propose we do first?"

That was the question though wasn't it? Jules wasn't sure; she sure as hell didn't have her cell phone with her, it was probably so many scraps of shrapnel in her car by now. Alright then, next up was, "we should look for food."

Leo actually fell over laughing, "I didn't notice any drivethru's but if you think there might be a McDonald's around the next corner I could totally go for a Big Mac."

"Don't be an ass, I know that's really hard for you but try anyway." Jules stood back up, "so far we haven't tried actually _looking_ for food now have we?"

"Well if there was anything edible we would come up on it eventually..."

"Not if we don't try looking for it, not the way this place seems to work. Why not let me lead for a while and I'll see if I can't steer us toward dinner, or breakfast, I can't really tell what time it is anymore."

For a wonder he didn't argue with her and even made a gallant gesture indicating she should make the first move. _Great, now if only I knew what that first move should be – well I guess I should concentrate on food._ Jules filled her mind with thoughts of edibles, starting with the type of cheap hot meals she could buy easily in places like McDonald's then vetoing that image and concentrating on raw ingredients, the stuff she could pick right up out of the fields back home and pop into her mouth. Delicious fruits and vine ripened veggies, ripe near to bursting and begging to be harvested. When her mind was so full of the memories and images that she was starting to drool, she took a step forward and stumbled when the 'ground' abruptly changed height and texture between steps.

One moment she'd been standing on indistinct but flat ground, the next well, what she was standing on now was definitely firmer and textured more roughly against her bare heels. Both she and Leo had stopped trying to look around a long time ago but Jules couldn't resist the urge to look down after so many miles of nothing changing beneath her toes.

The ground here was different, still very hard to focus on but - it was impossible to put her finger on the differences mentally alone so Jules reached down and felt something round almost immediately beneath her fingers. Even touching it as she was, it was still hard for her mind to focus on, so she tried tapping it, trying to use her other senses to identify this odd piece of Path.

Hollow. She let her fingers trace its circumference and found it to be not quite a perfect sphere, the texture was odd too, hard to identify how but when she tried she found she could pick the object up in her hands. Trying to grasp something she couldn't see was a mind warping trip but she tried not to think about it too much, instead turning back in the direction she thought she'd come weird object held up in front of her and a shout on her lips to alert Leo to her apparent success.

Leo wasn't there.

Not behind her, above, below or any of the directions she frantically cast her gaze. _Great, now I've lost him_ , she thought grasping the round object and feeling the first really gripping signs of fear since she'd come back to her senses in this formless hell. No place is half as frightening when you're with someone as it can be when you're alone and Jules felt all of the bluster going out of her, along with all the strength in her knees almost dropping the strange object she'd found as she slumped to the ground.

The horror of her situation slammed into her so hard that she nearly blacked out with the sudden realization, she was lost in a place with no exit and the only person who even knew she was here was far away from her now. She might never find him again and what then?

Jules forced herself to take a deep breath. Then another and another, by the time she was on her fifth breath she could draw it in and let it out without sobbing and she whipped her checks with Leo's sleeve noticing for the first time the warm scent of him still lingering to the fabric. No way was she giving up now, not when she had found something she thought might be edible, nope not even an option. _I just needed to let out all that tension, all better_ , she thought focusing on the task at hand and pushing all extraneous fear or consequences to the back of her mind. Jules searched on the ground around her, finding two more of the hollow round objects and gathering them into her arms. _I'm going to find that jerk and make him eat these_ , she thought taking a step into the formless void.

***

Never in all the years that Mitei had had this particular office had it ever been as full with her loved ones as it was now. All of the secretaries assigned here were currently bustling about the space. They knew better than to flood her with all their questions at once but there was so much to do with her sudden appearance that there was a distracting whirlwind of activity all the same.

Megan directed the group, sending some to fetch food and others to pick out an assortment of clothes for their shocked and silent boss. Of all the wonders, even Aedan had been taken aside and was conversing quietly with Megan in the corner while Sarah and Ashley bundled Mitei into the bathroom.

The pair of women clucked to see the state of her naked form. Wiping her down with the utmost care, combing out her silken hair and gently clothing her again in something soft and warm before pulling the customary robe on over it all, Mitei barely noticed their ministrations or even what she was wearing. When they ushered her out of the bathroom and back to the seating area near the doors where a rather large meal, by her previous standards, had been laid out, they had to push her down rather ungently to get her to sit in one of her beloved overstuffed armchairs.

"Mitei?" She just sat; vacant eyed, the piles of steaming food quickly cooling. How could everything go so wrong so quickly? Someone was calling her but the voice barely penetrated, she felt so tired suddenly as if all the rest she had managed to earn herself in the last thousand years or so did not matter at all.

"Tsk, snap out of it." If the words had not been enough Aedan made sure to get through to her with a slap upside the back of her head, Mitei sputtered startled and then looked around as if she was only just waking, "see, sometimes even the 'almighty' need a bit of rude awakening now and again." Aedan was saying, hands raised in a gesture probably meant to ward off some of the murderous looks that her flock of dedicated secretaries where now casting his way. Suddenly Megan looked a lot more capable with that cake knife than any assassin Mitei had ever seen before.

She laughed, long and sudden, letting the mirth sweep away the last of the fuzz in her head. The room quieted immediately, though her secretaries were incapable of sharing her laughter they all seemed to relax a bit to see her in a more normal mood.

"Explain," she said simply when she regained her breath and Megan had shooed most of the other secretaries back to their desk with instructions to keep packing and not let anyone know that Mitei had been found.

"There was a board meeting this morning but that's not where all of this started," Megan began, then hesitated, sitting down beside Mitei and grasping her hands gently and looking her directly in the eye even though it was obvious the effort cost her greatly. "It started with a bomb in Jules car."

Megan went on detailing the horror of the bomb, how the emergency crews had been able to identify the owner of the car and the presence of enough flesh to suggest that she or someone had actually been in the car when it exploded. Yet how they hadn't managed to find enough material to make up an entire body and had contacted Jules' father before the company could stop them. The reports of strange happenings in a Los Angeles high school that seemed to connect Mitei to that location at about the same time, several students and teachers gravely injured. Some babbling nonsense about gods, Death, a steaming woman and of all things their newly returned math teacher.

And Leslie Roth, how that woman had taken advantage of the emergency board meeting called to deal with the PR nightmare that both incidents represented. How Roth had mentioned that Mitei's apparently worsening mental and physical condition had obviously conspired to make it impossible for her to do the jobs at hand of running a multinational corporation and handling the day to day business of Death. Finally how the board had summarily agreed to appoint Roth as the acting CEO and demote Mitei to nothing more than a salaried President in name only, while most of her executive power was funneled right into Roth's hands.

Roth had immediately fired all the secretaries, excepting Megan and Anne, Mitei had always suspected Anne was working for Roth but was surprised to find that Megan was spared as well. Megan spent the last five minutes of her explanation crying and begging forgiveness for no greater crime than accidently sharing a blood line with Roth. Mitei let her weep and dissemble, patting her head absently while the pieces finally fell into place.

So, she had not actually healed another stranger, there still were only two people who had withstood her touch, staggeringly good news in the midst of all the bad. Still if Mitei thought about it, she could feel time shifting forward; feel thousands of names on her List that would not be met with a representative of Death today, perhaps tomorrow as well. It itched horribly and burned a bit, nothing about it made her feel well at all in fact.

First she would have to find them, Leo and Jules, bring them back here. Once she had them both back she would have control of her path and she could take care of her remaining appointments and after that – she would deal with Leslie Roth.

***

Jules had been gone for far too long. Shortly after she'd disappeared on the Path, Leo realized their mistake. She didn't appear a little further in front of him, or beside, above or below, she was completely out of site and presumably lost on the Path that neither of them really understood. He had to stop himself from taking so much as a single step when he realized that. Without an anchor point, he couldn't even be sure if he could pace in place of if each step would take him farther from where he had started and make it impossible for her to meet up with him later.

This was exactly why he hadn't wanted to blunder off with half-baked locations in mind. Not that she would have listened to him, or now he had time to think of it that he would have in her place. Jules was right, he'd been pretty focused on being a jerk since he'd gotten her to stop screaming and she'd mentioned Mitei's name. Completely alone now, as he had never been before and devoutly wished never to be again, Leo could admit to himself that Mitei triggered deep seated and primal fears that he never would have claimed to have before.

Finding out that he had these kinds of irrational fears to begin with hadn't been a comfortable moment of personal growth and admitting that he was afraid of anything, but especially something so formless and indistinct, galled down to the very core of his being. It was easier just to push anything having to do with that fear away than face it. A lot easier in fact. Unfortunately he had also noticed that it was getting harder and harder not to let that fear dictate his actions and not only was he coming off as a bigger and bigger ass, he had let something like this happen to Jules.

She was lost out there somewhere, his only companion in this bewildering place and he could have stopped that from happening if he had pulled his head out of his rear long enough to make sure that she understood the dangers. _I might even have suggested a safer way for us both to go looking for water if I wasn't so busy letting my fears rule me._

There wasn't anything to do about it now, though. Leo sat down and closed his eyes, resting his head in his hands to give himself a little bit of a respite from staring into the formless distance.

It seemed like nothing more than a moment later when he heard a shout off to his left, it was Jules! He looked up to see the young woman waving something at him from a distance before stepping forward and appearing more directly in front of him. The look of absolute relief on her face was probably matched on his own and he couldn't resist jumping up and hugging her.

"Thank goodness – I thought you got lost out there," he said starting to squeeze her tightly but feeling an odd bump against his stomach.

"Me too," Jules said pulling back quickly and cradling something in her arms. "I thought I was a goner there for a second. But apparently I really, really, wanted to bring these back and make you eat them." She brandished something at him cradled in her shirt and laughed.

Leo tried taking a closer look at the objects she was holding but they shared the same look of everything around them. His eyes couldn't focus on them properly; best he could tell was that Jules was holding several largish round things. He gave her a dubious look.

"Hard to see aren't they," she said grinning from ear to ear and Leo let himself smile back at her, resolutely pushing his fears aside. "I think they might be some kind of gourd or squash, maybe even small pumpkins but almost definitely edible!"

"Great! Now how are we going to test that theory?"

"Nothing for it but to break one of them open and take a bite, I guess."

Leo nodded and reached for one of the objects, "let me do the taste testing. You sit down, I'm a little nervous that you might hop off somewhere and not find your way back this time."

While Jules obligingly sat down in front of him Leo regarded the round object in his hands, it was almost as if he had managed to pick a section of the path up and pack it into a ball like snow. But the texture was all wrong, it wasn't cold or wet, a mixed blessing at best, since they didn't have any way of keeping warm if the temperature here dropped at all but they definitely were in need of water. As he thought about it, he felt his throat clench in answer. _Well, we will just have to go looking for water next but together this time,_ he thought as he turned the object over in his hands finally settling on trying to break it in half, like a loaf of day old French bread.

It was smaller than a loaf of bread and he had to strain but just when he was about to give up and try whacking it with his shoe instead, he felt it give. The object popped open in two neat halves, the insides almost as indistinct as the world around them but, "is that – juice?"

Leo made a face and forced himself to bring half of the object closer to his face, there wasn't a smell but when he touched his tongue to the part of the object that seemed to shimmer in a way that spoke of liquid, "it's sweet!"

Sweet didn't really describe it. Heaven wouldn't be far off. The liquid pooled in the center of what he now thought of as strange fruit, was both sweet and refreshing. He couldn't place the flavor but the way his body was reacting to it was to visceral to deny, he actually had to stop himself and remember to hand Jules the other half before upending the strange fruit over his mouth and sucking down all the juice in the center.

Once he'd tasted that sweet nectar he couldn't stop himself from chomping down on the soft inner meat of the strange fruit as well. Juicy! Not as juicy as something like an orange a little denser like the meat of a pear or maybe a plum? _Oh what does it matter it's delicious!_

They both lost themselves for a minute gobbling down their halves of the strange fruit eagerly, tossing the spent rinds over their shoulder and then contentedly licking their fingers of the last traces of its juices. They finished at about the same time and caught each other with equally content and gluttonous looks on their faces and broke into spontaneous laughter.

Now that they were full and together again the Path didn't seem half as frightening as it had mere minutes, days, hours before. Leo flopped down on the ground beside Jules, noticing for the first time that whatever they had been walking on was pretty comfy to lie on too. _Might come in handy if we actually have to sleep here_ , "that was great Jules, you really came through there I had no idea how hungry I was until I tasted that."

"To be honest, I don't think I was half as hungry either until I tasted those." She said, wiping her mouth in the crook of his shirt. "I hope they weren't poisonous or anything. If they were we're definitely done for."

"Yup, too late to worry about it now." They laughed; it was good to laugh in the face of the potential dangers of this place. It was good simply to laugh with someone else. "What's next?"

Jules scrunched up her face while she thought. Finally, "well, I don't have my cell phone on me but next would probably be trying to attract Mitei's attention, don't you think?"

Cell phone, of course! Leo scrambled in his pockets, looking for the phone he'd had so much trouble locating right before Aedan had appeared in his classroom. He still had it of course, in his hip pocket, but when he pulled it out and flipped it open to make the call he was met with the swirly bars of no reception. He punched in Mitei's number anyway putting the phone on speaker and waiting for it to ring, nothing happened. "Calling out doesn't seem to be an option either."

"Then I'm out of ideas," Jules said. "Got any other way of getting a message to Mitei?"

"Just one," he said putting his phone away with care and not meeting Jules eyes. "One of us is going to have to die again."

***

Itching, burning, discomfort, none of these words sufficed to describe the sensation anymore. It was nearly noon in Philadelphia and all around the world several thousand appointments had already not been met. Most were the types of things that would never make the news but already a smattering of information was coming in from the board members about executions that hadn't worked or assassination attempts that had not managed succeed despite going off without any apparent hitches.

Things were getting worse in the office as a result and the secretaries were having a harder and harder time keeping panicked executives from coming through the double doors in search of Mitei. Without checking in she knew that the other secretaries in all of her offices were probably suffering similar fates. Forced to defend her even as their jobs were snatched away and they faced the prospect of job hunting in an uncertain market.

She made her apologies to Megan and the rest in Philadelphia and then let Aedan take her away again. Ultimately there had been nothing she could do for them. Still something in her wanted to object to leaving their side during such a trying time. No longer paid to take care of her, her secretaries were none the less doing just that despite pressure and false promises from the rising faction of power in the office.

So she had fled to free them of some of their sense of obligation, still it did not sit well with her. Unfortunately the discomfort of the not dead was worse. Mitei did not recall feeling half as bad when Jules and Leo had survived, there had definitely been some discomfort but it was a cold quick sensation entirely different from this crawling heat. It made it hard to think as Aedan ushered her through the halls of Underhill and back out again to what seemed like an ancient temple built on a mountaintop.

As with all the other locals this was well kept and impossibly empty despite that. Aedan had led her from a central open area with what like a large pool at the heart into a hall and finally a large and aery chamber with an absolutely huge bed. Silken cloth danced gently in the mountain breeze as he led her to the bed and pressed her down onto the soft surface.

"Rest now."

"I cannot, I have to find Leo and Jules."

"You can't do much of anything right now can you," Aedan was right she was having an increasingly difficult time just focusing on the conversation. "Rest, gather as much of your strength as you can, I'll take you wherever you want me to – after you've had enough rest to tell me clearly where that is."

Mitei wanted to protest but could not deny the difficulty she was having finding the words to do just that. She settled back, relaxing into the heavenly softness of the bed beneath her and not exactly loving the sensation of something so comfortable while her friends suffered and the numbers of not dead grew.

The only way to stop this horrible feeling was to get a hold of herself and fix her Path, every moment she delayed increased her discomfort and made it harder to think. Mitei knew that Aedan just wanted to help but she also knew this was not a problem for the god of the hunt. Someone whose duty was that recreational could never understand the strict order of her life, she realized as another minute ticked by and another group of names missed their appointments with Death.

Mitei rolled to the edge of the mattress and retched violently, screaming between upheavals as her body was twisted in ways she had only seen distantly in others before. Aedan returned to her side in a rush, pulled her hair back and away from the steaming puddle forming beside the bed. He ripped a scrap of silk from the ceiling to wipe her mouth and face with when her stomach was finally empty and Mitei glared at him.

"There is no time for this, Aedan. I have to go – now!"

"Alright, where would you have me take you?"

Mitei wanted to pull the list out of the air and point to the names at the top of it but knew there was no way that he would be able to make those appointments. His methods were far too slow, briefly she contemplated jumping down the list a bit and trying to get ahead of the schedule but that would be of little use either. "Take me to the doorway."

Aedan gave her a quizzical look but she had no answers to give him, for the first time in her long life Mitei understood what it felt like to be rather violently ill. She was not at all sure she was thinking properly or at all but inaction would solve nothing, indeed as they walked another appointment was missed and Mitei crumpled, heaving again with nothing left in her stomach to come up.

They reached a doorway, it was not the one that they had used to come to this place from Underhill and Mitei did not think that it mattered which one it was. Not for what she wanted to try, "can you open betwixt and between without building a bridge to a certain place?"

"I'm a god, little sister I can do just about anything I want." Aedan said and oddly, winked at her somehow Mitei found the strength to smile back at his joke ,though her smile was grim. "I can probably do it but without a bridge, there's a danger we'll fall in."

"Why, is that dangerous?"

"There's always a danger in the entirely unknown," Aedan said shrugging. "I'll do it but do me a favor and don't let go of me, or the doorway. But if it comes down to a choice – hold onto me, no matter what. You hear me?"

Mitei nodded gripping the stone of the doorway in one hand and Aedan's hand in the other as he gestured once again, seeming to slice through the very fabric of reality in a much slower motion than ever before. The chill intensified as it had every time he had built a bridge from location to location.

Mitei had enough of her mind left to wonder if what she was doing was wise when the sensation of ground beneath her feet suddenly disappeared and was not replaced with the assuring sensation of another location beneath her questing heels. She nearly lost her grip on the doorframe as the entire weight of her and Aedan was suddenly anchored to firm ground only by her right hand. The searing pain in her shoulders as her body suddenly became the only tether for both of them in a material plane was enough to clear her head. She still felt horribly ill but she could think beyond the pain again and feel something besides the roiling in her belly.

This was not right. This feeling was not kin to her, she knew it to the very core of her being as she threw her head back and roared at what should have been the sky but was not. Not here, not there, this place was the opposite of her Path; Mitei could practically taste its total wrongness on every fiber of her skin. She was not meant to travel here, nothing was meant to _be_ here. Somehow she had thought that this place was pregnant with the possibility of all places as she had always imagined her path to be but it was a dead place, an empty place and it wanted her _out_.

_But that is not right,_ she thought as she felt Aedan's weight unexpectedly increase and tug on her arm as if the space itself was trying to yank him from her grip. She screamed as she felt that tug again and tightened her grip. Death is _mine_ , she thought holding on. _Death is mine, if this place is dead then it is also mine._

She actually felt the space around her laugh. _Sentient? Aedan never said this thing could think!_ Of course she knew the answer to that question; Aedan never asked, just used the tool he was given without question, as she had done with her Path and her abilities for almost all of her life.

Mitei wanted to stop and talk, wanted to ask this dead space that was nowhere and therefore could take you everywhere so many questions. Something in her sensed it had as long as she did to answer all of those questions and more; and here she noticed she no longer felt the sickness from the thousands of people around the world who were not dying. There was time – except there was not, there never was, if anything Mitei had finally learned that lesson for herself. There was never enough time to do everything one wanted to do, thinking otherwise was just fooling oneself.

Instead she did not try arguing with the space, she tightened her grip on the doorway far behind herself and reached deep within again. Searching for the all of whatever made her Death and pulling it out one more time. Not offensively as she had with Aedan, more like a signature, a note of self and same to offer to the angry space around herself to show it that she knew it, that they belonged together.

The space was not laughing now, or pulling on Aedan's body trying to wrench him from her grip. Mitei felt it instead, brush against her almost in greeting, it recognized her!

What do you want little one, you should not be here. Not yet. Have you lost your way?

The voice of the space was impossible. It echoed, overlapped and could not be claimed to resemble any of the human languages Mitei had spent so many years learning. Nevertheless, she understood it clearly and wondered if she had always known this way of speaking, "I have lost my Path! And two upon it, I know many have used you to go to places that are known to them, can you help me find a place that is known and unknown to me?"

You have lost more than that, much more and more to come. Fine then, be gone little one.

Mitei was not entirely sure how it happened but the space around her changed. Instead of the dead space that was nothing and nowhere a formless white vista opened up beneath their feet approaching quickly as if they were falling from a great height. Formless the landscape below might have been but it was a warm and familiar space, Mitei felt relief hit her hard as she finally let go of the pillar and fell an indeterminate way to a ground that was just soft enough to cushion their landing. She had never actually seen it before but nonetheless recognized it as her Path.

Aedan lay still beside her, apparently unconscious. Mitei started to wonder if it was possible to knock a god out but of course, the evidence was lying at her feet, hand still clasped in her own iron grip. It was the work of some minutes to wake him and she chafed at every flying second, somehow she was still insulated from the sensations that had bombarded her on the mountain but she held no illusions that the Path would continue to allow her this respite and she wanted to find the others before then. Somehow Mitei was not at all sure that she would be able to resist the draw of the dying once she began feeling ill again. It had to be now or possibly never to find her friends.

When Aedan finally came round he surprised them both, pulling her into a rather uncomfortable embrace before his eyes had fully opened. Mitei patted his shoulder, "still not your goddess you know."

Aedan was human enough to blush as he let her up, though she noticed he still did not let her hand go. Probably wise, since neither of them had a full idea of how this place worked now that they had found it again, "now, what?"

"We walk."

***

It took some serious convincing to get Jules on board. Leo wasn't surprised and didn't begrudge her the minutes, or hours that they debated. The woman had only recently been saved – after – being blown up, it was understandable that she had some serious reservations when he said someone had to die. He let her rant, ramble and try to talk him out of it and took no small pride that he didn't resort to name calling despite her tirade. For each of her arguments he had a counter and eventually, slowly he wore her out till she was forced to come down to the honest heart of all her objections.

"I don't want to die again," she said huddled in as small of a ball as she could get herself into. Her entire body shook violently as she forced the words out, "not the way we would have to do. Or at all. I - just don't want to do it again."

"I know," Leo said crouching beside her and putting and arm around her shaking shoulders. "I never said you should be the one to do it this time." He felt her go limp in relief a moment before she turned to look at him all shocked eyes and bewilderment. "It's my turn, you've been through more than enough already."

"But this..."

He waved away her halfhearted argument with ease, "you were right, I haven't helped Mitei much at all up to now and I've been a hysterical ass since you met me. I think you've earned the right to strangle the living daylights out of me."

It was probably a testament to how fucking worn down she was that she laughed at that but he joined in anyway. It felt good to laugh and he couldn't deny the desire to enjoy his last few moments as much as he could, after all if this didn't work...

Better not to think about that.

He wiped the last few tears of laughter from his eyes and got up, unbuckled his belt and pulling it off in one smooth gesture, "are you up to this? It doesn't strictly _have_ to be quick but, yah know I'd rather not linger too long on the cusp. There's also a chance that I'll struggle and hurt you accidently so quicker is better."

Jules sobered up quickly, he had to hand it to the woman, she really had an enviable fortitude.

"I think I can handle it." He got on his knees while she made a loop out of his belt and slipped it over his head. "Any last words?"

He swallowed feeling the leather of his belt bob against his Adam's apple. Not a single thing came to mind, he shook his head sadly. _Next time I do this, I really need to have something prepared beforehand,_ he thought and then there was a ring of fire around his throat and nowhere near enough air getting into his lungs.

Leo struggled. He fought like his life depended on it and of course it did, but the soft indistinct ground lent him no traction and Jules was as good as her word, her grip was firm and unrelenting. From her vantage point behind him she had no problem at all avoiding his franticly grasping hands and kept the tension on his neck far too tight for him to get a finger in underneath. Spots appeared in his vision and Leo clawed at his face and neck desperate to gain a little slack, a little air but there wasn't any use, his legs scuttled on the ground trying to gain leverage, trying to get away, he was beyond consciously knowing what his body was doing.

The spots were fading now. His limbs growing too heavy to flail and he went limp. Jules kept the tension up even as she eased him down, actually pulling him into her lap by the belt around her neck. He could feel her tears on his cheek and was surprised to realize at this point that he could think again and didn't bear her any grudge. _It was a pretty desperate plan any way; people really shouldn't seek out Death this way – stay in school kids!_

That thought was so absurd he would have died laughing if he had the air left, as it was his chest heaved one last time and the world faded.

***

Walking on the Path like this was, well just short of heaven. Mitei could see where each of her footfalls was going and the indistinct view somehow did not seem as impossible for her mind to grasp with each step. There, a dip in the ground ahead of her a hollow barely distinguishable from the area around it but she could see it or sense it and just knowing that it was there, she avoided it; her next step bringing her foot down on the other side of it. This was not the same as the Path in full functionality but it was getting closer with every step she sensed.

Poor Aedan was dragged along beside her. He was not used to her mode of traveling and stumbled with almost every step. She gave him time to recover and did not try suggesting that it would be easier to move if they were not clutching each other so tightly. It seemed there was a very real chance that if he let go the Path would eagerly snap her away from him and she would find herself with three missing people on it instead of two.

"How much farther? Do you even know where we're going yet?"

"No clue," Mitei said and could not contain her glee despite her answer. "The Path knows where I want to go and it will take us there. Right now I think. I think it is getting reacquainted with me."

Yes there was an awareness here. A new and different sensation than she had ever gotten from the Path before. It was not and would never be sentient not like that dead space betwixt and between but there was what seemed like a dawning awareness of self and a recognition of something of itself in her. When it was fully 'awake' she was sure that she would regain the full benefit of the Path she had always known and perhaps more, after all she had never been within it before only upon it.

Still, Mitei was worried. Already she was beginning to feel illness. It was distant. Almost as if it had been physically separated from her by a solid wall and was shouting to gain entry, but it was there and getting closer. She feared that by the time the Path was fully awakened to her again she would also be fully connected to the dying and she would have to sort out the List before anything else.

Even as she thought it, there was a cramping pain in her abdomen and Mitei winced, stumbling forward and dragging Aedan with her.

There in front of her a dark spot in the distance. Could it be? There was no time to think the cramp worsened and Mitei doubled over, clutching at her abdomen and screamed. Aedan rushed over, hauling her up and frantically asking questions but Mitei did not listen. Leaning heavily on his shoulder and holding on as tightly as she could she took another step forward.

And nearly stumbled over Leo and Jules.

***

_Oh God, she doesn't look so good_ , was the first thing to go through Jules' mind when Mitei appeared out of seemingly nowhere leaning heavily on a shorter man that Jules had never seen before.

It was uncharitable but true. Mitei wasn't usually possessed of much color to begin with but the tantalizing pink was gone and her entire figure shone with sweat, her hair hung limp and lank in strings down her back. Mitei could have been a badly made doll of some flavorless and no doubt foul dough, Jules thought, if not for her eyes. Those hazel eyes sparked with a light and a vibrancy that was no doubt alive and full of a power that Jules was only just beginning to understand that Mitei possessed.

_This is actually kind of disturbing,_ she thought as Mitei knelt in front of her reaching for Leo's limp body. Jules actually had to stop herself from pulling away and trying to protect Leo from her grasp, for the space of less than a second she really did not want Mitei to touch either of them.

Thankfully the moment passed, as Leo's life was passing and Jules actually flung him into Mitei's arms.

The indistinct but constant light that she'd grown so used to in the months, days, weeks that she and Leo had been wandering the Path flared and Jules covered her eyes.

***

Leo clawed at his throat, finally managing to grasp the looped leather and pull it away. Gasping. Air rushed into his lungs and he could only think to do it again, one more time.

Finally the color was returning to the world as he realized he has never closed his eyes at all. _Damn, why am I so cold,_ he thought as a figure resolved itself before his eyes.

"Oh, hi." There was absolute silence for a heartbeat and then Jules was screaming and someone was buffeting him on the shoulder. Leo just stared helplessly up at Mitei's smiling face. "You – don't look so good this time."

"Does that means you were a little less happy to die this time around Mr. Kaylor?"

Now it was time for Leo to laugh, which he did with surprising ease. Sitting up and hugging his savior fiercely, Mitei was cold in his arms and she actually shivered while he hugged her, though she was fully robbed.

"Are you ok?"

"Getting better, I think." Mitei said, pulling away and actually pulling her robe tighter around herself. "I will get even better when we are out of this place."

Leo didn't try arguing with her, jumping up and nearly being bowled over by a jubilant Jules next. While he was recovering from Jules, exuberance however, he noticed someone else besides Mitei.

"What the fuck is he doing here?" Leo heard the notes of fear and hatred creeping back into his voice and didn't like it but weaponless in front of the mad hunting god who had started all his grief, Leo thought he'd be forgiven for being a bit of a testy asshole.

"Who is he Leo?"

So Mitei hadn't explained, if he thought about it that didn't surprise him. Mitei had probably been too busy saving his life to remember to make polite introductions. Leo made himself take a deep breath before replying, "this is the god that hunted me down in the classroom, the reason Mitei flung us both on the Path in the first place."

Jules rounded on the stranger, giving him a dubious looking over, "he doesn't look like much of a threat now."

She was right of course, right at this moment the god in question was standing a little behind Mitei, one hand resting on her shoulder and not putting off any of the compulsory sensations Leo remembered having when he first saw him. If he hadn't seen this guy in the middle of the hunt earlier Leo was almost sworn he was no one special at all.

"Leo, Jules, this is Aedan." Mitei said from where she still sat, a hand going up to pat Aedan's on her shoulder. "He is not currently our enemy. In fact if not for his help, I would not have been able to find you – despite your risky methods of calling me, what happened to your cell phone?"

It was too much. Leo and Jules were still giddy with relief and they sunk down laughing and rolling helplessly on the ground. Leo really didn't want to trust Aedan at his back while he was this vulnerable but as he'd just survived dying a second time, he really didn't think that there was much to fear in the gesture.

When they could both breath again without getting the giggles Mitei explained as best she could how she and Aedan had found an understanding and managed to find the two of them again.

***

Mitei wanted to spend more time, drinking in the site of the two of them. Jules and Leo finally together, apparently healthy if a little shaken from their ordeals and in high spirits; unfortunately she could feel it. The time passing and the appointments not being met. She was beginning to feel that burn and itch again. But before she got to ill there was something she had to do.

Mitei reached up and pulled a few hairs from her head, weaving them together carefully, twisting and knotting them and infusing them with a little of her essence almost like casting a Pall. When she was done she held three rings, they shimmered white and seemed to writhe with a life of their own in her hands, "take one, each of you."

She waited as they took them from her. Aedan looked at the tiny white ring with a dubious expression while Jules and Leo slipped them easily on their fingers, "what's this for then, little sister?"

"So I don't lose anyone again." She said getting uncertainly to her feet, surprised at how difficult it was. "They are woven in a similar way to the way I cast a Pall, never mind the details, I do not have much time. There is a little bit of me in each of those rings. They should let me find you, no matter where you are."

Aedan nodded, finally putting the ring on his little finger, "what now little sister?"

"I am no kin to you," Mitei snapped at him and frowned at herself. "I am sorry Aedan, I do not feel well." A wave of nausea crumpled her over and she doubled over, retching again. "I do not think I have much time before I cannot think to do this, I will cast a Pall. Here, on the Path, it should find the rest of the names on the List. It is too late for me to send them to the employees and if I move from this spot the Path will take me to the dying."

They were silent behind her now, which was good, it was easier to think. Unfortunately the first thing through her mind was that she did not like to be seen this way by those so close to her. _Hopefully this will help,_ Mitei thought as she pulled more hairs from her head and began weaving the Pall.

It was hard. She could not remember a time when she had been quite this tired. Not even during the early plagues that had driven her to form the company in the first place. Still, somehow Mitei managed to concentrate, managed to weave the hairs into a gleaming net of herself and send it down the Path to find the names on the List and settling upon them, bring them their death on time.

When it was done and the last shimmering strands had disappeared from her vision Mitei slumped to the floor and let darkness claim her.

***

Mitei gazed into her office's bathroom mirror and turned slightly to the right, tilting her head and attempting to judge one outfit from another as she held them up to herself.

Playing with her image was one of the first things Mitei had really learned how to do successfully with humans. In the beginning, of course, there had been some – problems. Unaware of how humans perceived her, she'd simply appeared in a few temples without the spell of disinterest.

At first, the correlation between these appearances and the sudden influx of deaths at these temples to the various deities of death had been lost upon her. After all, wherever Mitei went – someone died, at the time it was just the way things were. It was only when she had finally appeared in the midst of a large ceremony where many priests had been gathered together that the connections finally clicked into place.

As she walked through the crowd and approached the target, all eyes turned towards her. For the first time in her living memory all the humans in a room gazed upon her; some with eyes wide and round an expression she later learned was fear and surprise, some with mouths twisted into horrible grimaces, disgust, and some with tears and upraised hands, joy. Long before she moved to the person her path had called her to, that person crumpled to his knees, dead. Another with that wide eyed fear dropped to the floor and another, like dominos they seemed to fall and Mitei, confused, pulled out her list. It grew before her eyes as people dropped like flies and she was left wondering if a sudden plague was going to wipe out the entire population of the death temples before she had an opportunity to recruit some help from among their disciples.

But before the last body had hit the floor those with tears in their eyes were stepping forward and clamoring for her attention. Some wanted to touch her hand and receive a blessing she could not give, while others wept and laughed and pointed. It wasn't until one pointed at the statue and named her Pluto that Mitei had understood. These smiling joyous, groveling people saw her as their god! Unfortunately the others, those with twisted mouths who hung back and grumbled at her presence saw her as something altogether different and the dead, probably something else entirely.

From there she had worked hard to appear to more and more of the priests she encountered as Mors, her Roman equivalent. The going had been slow but she'd had nothing but time and only one project to occupy it outside of work. Right after the great plague and so long as there were no more plagues, it was a time of rest and renewal for her. Mitei played with size and shape and perception until she had mastered it so well that the priests stopped dying, unfortunately she hadn't mastered her path yet and therefore was left for a decade with no way to return to the temples and actually begin recruitment.

Mitei slipped a silken dress over her head; it was simple with no buttons, Velcro or zippers to force her to get Jules to help her into it. The hair was another matter entirely, too fine and straight to be easily styled she longed for a graceful pile of cascading curls, so perfect and resplendent they'd invoke a Grecian goddess as well as her vast age and history without her saying a word, but she would have to settle for this flowing maiden's cloak of spider silk. There were slippers to match the dress and Mitei spent a moment slipping them onto her much maligned feet, they were much more comfortable than the designer heels she had been wearing lately.

Picking up her robe and throwing it over the whole ensemble seemed a waste, so Mitei threw it over an arm. One of the others could carry it for her; she had plans for quite a grand entrance at the board meeting she was already late to. Leo had a plan and she thought it was a wise one, something she should have done a thousand or so years ago. It was long past time.

***

Leo wasn't ashamed to admit that when they got to Mitei's office in Philadelphia he'd been scared shitless. But by the time Mitei was changed and everyone was briefed on their roles, support for Jules and silent menace from Aedan the talking would mostly fall to himself but the real star here was Mitei, and everyone was ready to march into the board room he was oddly calm. He'd never felt quite so cool and level headed as he did when he nodded at Jules to open the doors and followed Mitei inside of that room filled with chairs and monitors.

Mitei had described the room in detail for him. Leo wanted to be prepared. He knew everything about it right down to the placement of the recessed cameras and how many open chairs there should be when they entered. He also knew that it was unlikely they would walk in to find the floor empty, the woman who had wrenched Mitei's company away, Leslie Roth would likely be holding pride of place there.

Leo allowed himself a small smile to see that his information was correct and Ms. Roth was standing with the carriage of a conqueror in the middle of the open space that the board room table made in the middle of the floor. The doors closed behind them and Mitei froze, striking a magnificent pose of absolute stillness while Jules strode to her left side, "please clear the floor for the President."

This was a sticky point, if Ms. Roth wanted to humiliate Mitei as well as take all of her power, now would be the time. If not, if Roth let them the floor, she would not get another chance but only Leo, Jules, Mitei and Aedan knew that.

There was tension for the space of two breaths before Roth made a gracious gesture and moved aside, finding a seat. Mitei moved forward, while Jules fell back allowing Aedan and Leo to flank her as she stood in the sweet spot, the perfect angle for the cameras to pick up all three of them, not just Mitei.

"Good day, gentlemen and ladies of the board," Leo said calmly it was all going so well to plan he couldn't resist feeling smug. From here on out there was no stopping it. "I know that is highly irregular for non-board members or executives to speak in such a venerable gathering. However I must speak on behalf of the splendid being you have known previously as Mitei, or as Death."

There was noise then. Sputtering and grumbles, it all amounted to nothing and died down in a short while. He had the floor, together with Mitei and they were well trained in the immutability of death.

"It has come to our attention, that while the founder and head of this company was otherwise occupied, a change was made in governance of Death Inc. and Ms. Roth was instated as CEO. We do not dispute this change in the leadership of Death Inc."

They were quiet now, almost as still as Mitei was to his left or Aedan on the other side of her. Standing next to those two was more disconcerting than the board before them and Leo took a moment to actually pray that he got the words right.

"We do not dispute the change in leadership of the company Death Inc. so much as declare sovereignty and dispute the claims of the merely mortal to reign over that which the divine lay claim to."

There it was, the screaming, the absolute upheaval. All of the monitors came alive at once as the board members around the world broke into protest. There were no few exclamations from behind him as well but Leo ignored them all.

Finally Leslie Roth burst forward, gripping him by the arm and forcing Leo to face her as she claimed pride of place in the cameras and slipped nicely into his plan.

"You can't," she said a scant inch or so from his face. Leo desperately wanted to wipe the spittle from his chin but restrained himself as she continued. "Death Inc. stands on the lands of _every_ acknowledged country in the world. What lands can they claim? What actual right of sovereignty?"

Leo stayed still, it was finally Mitei's turn to speak and he didn't want to step on her toes. It's not every day that you make a goddess out of a corporate executive after all.

"Do you doubt me, Roth." Mitei's voice when it came was soft but not quiet. It carried to the speakers and every inch of the room without any seeming effort on her part. No, Mitei was still, unnaturally still like marble given voice. "The record of my existence goes back as far as this Death Inc. has existed and beyond, do you really doubt the existence of Death?"

Roth rounded on her, eyes wild ready to get as close and menacing with Mitei as she had with Leo but she stopped short. Something stopped her and Leo knew just how hard it was to look Mitei in the eye right now let alone bring yourself within touching distance. Roth, took a single step back and Leo knew they had her.

"Sovereignty can be claimed by divine right," Leo said into the silence Roth had made, "can't it Cardinal."

A man garbed in red on one of the monitors nodded slowly, hesitant, tomorrow or perhaps a few moments hence, he would have to answer to the papal throne himself. Still he could no more deny the tenants that allowed the Papal state to exist than he could admit that the Koran had its good points.

"Is there anyone who doubts the divinity of Mitei's abilities and continued long life and good health?" It could all end here, Leo thought waiting. If Roth would let it go they could retreat from the board room in pageantry and grace and let the board fight out the details among themselves.

"I can't dispute some of her abilities but I do dispute this divine right to anything," Roth turned to the cameras. "What lands, what people will this new country claim? Shall the countries we represent allow Death Inc. to secede? Shall our democracies bow to her rule?"

"Enough Leslie," Mitei's voice was firm. Scathing as she replied, "I claim several thousand people, first among them these three who have stood with me through the hardships brought upon me by you and your conspirators. I ask for no more land than those already held by Death Inc. and I plan no wars, no politics, all will be as it has been." Mitei paused stepping forward and Roth shrank away from her stumbling and falling flat on her self-important ass. Mitei bent to her offering a gleaming hand, "I even have a job for you Leslie, as I have always had a place for you."

It was over then, Mitei's victory total, as she helped Roth to her feet and smiled upon her, Leo felt his own heart ache. Never mind that he had orchestrated the entire scene, it was still moving. After that it was just a round of agreement as the board accepted the sovereignty of Death. Having accepted it, their respective countries would find it difficult to revoke and as usual no one actually dared make an enemy of Death.

Mitei stayed only long enough to make sure that she had their agreement then appointed Roth to finalize the details. There was no way the weaseling woman could compete with divinity and ever a pragmatist she was already scrambling to consolidate her remaining power and position. In the commotion none remarked on it when Mitei, Aedan, Leo and Jules left the room and none saw when they linked hands and disappeared in the hallway outside.

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to the artists whose stock photos were used in the creation of the cover image:  Co2photo stock-d2zelvc,  Jgh001a,  Stock puka23,  Raindroppe and Larry West. Thanks to D.K. who got me started. Thanks, blessings and a big box of imported chocolates to Alnisa, who was my rock and captive audience. Hugs and kisses to National A-1 Advertising, I wouldn't be where I am now without you guys. Finally much love to Carolyn, for being.

About the Author

Y.K. Greene is a former volunteer worker, teacher's assistant, tutor, VOD editor, celebrity blogger, porn and sex toy reviewer. Current daughter, sister, wearer of really kick ass boots and novelist. She has weird ideas but she'll try to keep them on the SFW side this time. Maybe. Probably. For a while anyway. Find more of Y.K. Greene's ebooks here follow her on twitter @sarahakalegion or visit her blog for writerly musings and blather.

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