“Why would we kill Shezin?” I asked. “The Dainians aren’t showing any signs of distress.”
“It’s only your first day here,” Anunit replied, leaning against a wall. Red blossoms trickled from a ceramic pot close to her shoulder, where the windowsill had been loaded with flowers and small leafy plants. This was a place that valued the fine craftsmanship of old wood and the importance of beauty in one’s surroundings. There was nothing that pointed to any kind of trauma. “The surface may be pretty, Tristan. It’s what lurks beneath that you want to watch out for. The Dainians seem happy, yes. Their lands are bountiful. Their gardens lush and ripe with fruit. Their tables are never bare, their plates never empty. Song and dances fill the night, and girls with braided hair and fluttering linens dance around the fire in the open squares. Yes, for all intents and purposes, Dain is nothing but jolly and vibrant.”
“Yet when no one is looking, we must pay attention,” Unending said, sighing, picking up on Anunit’s reasoning. “They’re keeping secrets, aren’t they? Secrets they won’t even address among themselves.”
I wasn’t shocked by this concept, but I was still curious. “How do you know?”
“The stolen glances the Dainian men give one another. The three sets of iron locks on each door,” Anunit said, and Unending nodded slowly. “Why would these people need that many locks on their doors if this is a peaceful settlement?”
“Where is Shezin? How did he get here?” I asked.
“Oh, I don’t know where you can find him. You can mingle with the locals or eavesdrop on hushed conversations, or you can follow the full moon processions through the city. His location is your last concern right now,” Anunit said. “You need to understand how the Dainians really see him. As for how he got here, well… Death brought him over, from what I’ve learned.”
“Learned from whom?” Unending asked.
The Reaper shot her a cold grin. Some secrets were hers to keep. “He was supposed to keep a low profile and live a bountiful existence in the mountains far south of here. Obviously, he didn’t. I mean, while Death stayed with him here, he did.”
“Well we know she left at some point,” I mumbled, my gaze wandering over to the river where barges moved lazily from one side to the other, carrying barrels.
“She met Shezin in another world. He was supposed to die. She had gone there to reap him. This was during a time when there were barely a few hundred living creatures in most of the realms,” Anunit explained, plucking a red blossom and bringing it up to her nose to smell it. From the moment she touched it, the flower vanished from sight. Fortunately, none of the people who passed by us paid attention to a disappearing detail, otherwise I was positive it would have caused a stir, or at least a gasp. “Death could handle the reaping part of things since she was omniscient. The problem with omniscience—as far as Spirit knew about it, anyway—was that it exhausted her. Death never liked having to be in many places at once, let alone in a thousand worlds to reap a thousand souls across who knows how many dimensions? But in those times, she did it. It was before the first Reapers.”
“So, she met Shezin as he was about to die,” I said.
“Yes. It was love at first sight. She found herself standing before him, breathless by the intensity of his emerald eyes, his boyish smile, and his thirst for life. A boulder was about to crush him. You see, Death could tap into the mathematics of the universe. It’s how she knew if someone would perish. The odds were not in anyone’s favor, in the end. But she couldn’t bring herself to let that boulder finish Shezin off. She crushed the stone into bits and pieces. They turned to chunks of diamonds upon meeting Thieron, spreading across a vast surface that later became a desert. It’s said that Death’s presence there and her interference with the natural order somehow caused the earth to dry up in that place. Consequences, I suppose.”
Unending frowned. “The universe was younger. Raw. More reactive.”
“Indeed.”
“Where did Shezin come from?” I asked again.
Anunit gave me a wry smirk. “Just two planets over,” she said. “That civilization is long gone now. The solar system expanded—the sun was too far away to keep that world warm enough to sustain life. It withered and died. But the diamonds that were once the boulder meant to kill Shezin are still there. Sometimes, with the right telescope, you can see those desert plains glimmering in the night. I know the Dainians have an observatory farther up the river, in a neighboring city beyond the northern mountains. I used it once or twice myself, curious about that sight. It did not disappoint.”
The night was approaching slowly from the East, darkness engulfing the incandescent pinks and yellows of a lazy sunset. The temperatures would soon plunge, and I could already see the Dainians emerging from nearby homes with thicker furs on their backs. I looked forward to seeing the three full moons in the sky, wondering if they were anywhere near as spectacular as Neraka’s. Purgaris had six, but they were so small that barely one had qualified as an actual moon.
“While Death and Shezin lived here, away from the eyes of the living, the Dainians were developing their civilization,” Anunit continued. “They were tribespeople at the time. Something happened much later—I’m kind of murky on the details—but it ended with Death leaving and Shezin staying behind, still immortal. For a while, he kept to himself. I’m not sure how long. Besides, time didn’t matter much to him, if you think about it. But one day, he emerged from the mountains and walked among the Dainians.”
Unending gasped. “I can only imagine what they must’ve thought of him. My guess is it’s easy to tell he’s not from around here.”
“Absolutely,” Anunit said, chuckling. “He’s tall and handsome and whatnot, but nowhere near the height of the Dainians. At first, they abhorred him. They killed him, more than once, or so they thought. But he kept coming back. Now they worship Shezin. He’s the immortal. The one fated to live forever. He helped them with the bridges and many other tricks they refer to as miracles. You see, during his time with Death, Shezin was smart enough to listen and learn.”
I shook my head slowly. “You still haven’t gotten to the reason why we must kill him.”
“Like I said. You have to find out for yourselves.”
“Why, though?” Unending asked. “Why can’t you tell us?”
“Because you obviously don’t trust me enough to believe me,” Anunit said. My wife and I had thought that already, but it was refreshing to hear it from the Reaper herself. At least all three of us knew where we stood in this twisted dynamic. “I give you three days. Three days to find Shezin and to learn the whole truth of him and Death. But remember—by the end of these three days, he must die. Otherwise you will have failed your second trial. If it’s any comfort, and at the risk of repeating myself, you’ll come to understand that he deserves the worst. Shezin is a monster.”
I scoffed. “It’s unfair. You’re asking us to take a life. The laws of the universe are explicitly against interference from Reapers in the affairs of the living.”
“It doesn’t have to be Unending who kills him,” Anunit replied, eyeing me intently.