“So… Chris will be away for how long?”
“He said a couple of days or maybe more, he wasn’t sure.”
“Yeah..he drew the short stick this time around.”
“He said it was because you couldn’t?”
“Yeah, I am right now, more bound to here.”
She knew Hayle would love to know the whole story, and since she was now the reason Chris had to spend more time away as they were a team, it felt a little like there was no time like the present. It was after all, a fairly long story.
“So, want to know the mess I made of things?”
“The whole love vs rules of the universe?”
“Yep.”
“I think I might have to bring Felix here for that?”
“Probably just as well, can’t have him home alone for too long.”
“I’ll be back before you know it.”
She gave him a nod as she was let go of the hug. Hayle was getting better and better at reading others, so she wasn’t so suprised about the random hug. She did however dread telling the story to him, it would probably make him think off her slightly differently.
As he returned a little later, they decided to mix the story, with a bit of chess. Mostly it was for her own sake, since playing chess while telling the story took some of the focus away on her own stupid mess.
“As you know, my father is death himself, my mother on the other hand was from a race of shapeshifters from a completely different universe than this one. My dad fell in love, and well it resulted in me, which was kinda strike one on the list of things not allowed. The problem is, who tell’s death he can’t do something? No one.”
She knew the story well from her mother and her father telling it to her. Her mother changed her shape all the time, she hated being in one skin for too long, unlike her who preferred this one look over any others. From what little memory she had off her, her mother was a very sweet woman, and she still didn’t know why her father let her die. His explanation was simple, it was the laws of the universe, and he had already broken one law when having her.
“So this lawbreaking runs in the family?”
“I guess you could say that.”
“But your break was worse?”
“Yes.. I kinda pulled of something unforgivable.”
She sighed, it had been the first time she fell in love, and she was simply not prepared what that meant. It was over 10 000 years ago in Mesopotamian times when she had stumbled across him on one of her first solo missions. He was the the one that found the one who she was there for, and she had forgotten to fade away before he got close.
“So love at first sight?”
“I guess so..”
“Which I assume was not popular with dad?”
“About as unpopular as it can get.”
“But you stuck with it?”
“Yeah.. was the first time I used my shape shifting to fake age.”
Hayle looked at her, for a second or two trying to imagine how she would look as an elder.
“Did humans live as long as they do now back then?”
“No.. and when it all to soon was his time to die.. I couldn’t deal with it.”
“What did you actually do.”
“I knew I couldn’t stop him from dying.. but I had the grand idea of locking his soul to mine.”
“Oh…”
She should have known Hayle would understand just how bad what she had done was.
“So his soul.. is locked to an immortal being, forcing it to break every single rule of the natural order.”
“Yes…”
“Wow…”
“Yeah.. let’s say I thought my dad was going to kill me at first. I have never seen him so mad and scared in my entire life.”
“But he found another way?”
“Yes..”
There had been a meeting between other almost as old celestial beings with her sitting in the middle, with his soul in her hands. She had never felt smaller, and she was sure that they would kill her. Luckily for her, they all feared her father, and with some effort on his end they found a loophole to stop a full collapse of everything.
“I was locked to this planet, and this soul until the day comes when it is ready to understand, and ready and strong enough for my bond to it to be broken again.”
“So it can be broken?”
“Yes.”
“But?”
“It requires what would be called an ascension of the soul into accepting it’s past, present and then accepting death and not knowing what will happen after.”
“Won’t it move on?”
“No one knows, no one but me has done something so stupid before.”
Hayle nodded, clearly taking it all in.
“So.. where are you with all of it now?”
“I quickly learned a couple of things, his bond to me means I need to be in close proximity, or as I learned the very hard way, he goes into a depression, and eventually kills himself.. this happened only once, and I never let it happen again.”
She explained that due to the link, if she wasn’t close by, he would feel like soemthing so important to him was missing, that he just couldn’t be happy, couldn’t focus, and simply had no will to live.
“Does he always love you?”
“Most of the time.. sometimes we are just friends though, but he normally doesn’t get involved in romance those rounds…”
He noticed her stop, and a memory from something Chris had mentioned came to mind.
“But?”
“But.. one time, and only one time, he fell in love with someone else. Got married, had a child, and I could only watch from the sidelines.”
“Oh… “
He could only imagine how bad he would feel if it was him having to watch Chris like that. Just from the sidelines, and not being able to leave and not be around.
“Does this mean something though”
“My dad thinks it means his soul might be ready, or very close to ready.. it hasn’t happened again after though.”
“What will you do when it happens, I mean when he is ready?”
“Let him go.. he doesn’t deserve this.”
“Neither do you.”
She looked up at Hayle who had taken her hand.
“I do, I almost tore up the universe.. I could have ended everything.”
“There was one more punishment for you, wasn’t there?”
“Yes.. I had to give something up, something big to make the rest happy about their deal.”
“Hmh…”
“So they decided the price would be that I could never have kids off my own. At first I didn’t see how that was an issue, until he wanted them.. then I understood the punishment in it.”
Hayle couldn’t help but pull her over to the sofa and put an arm around her, he could barely imagine having to tell someone over and over and over again that she couldn’t have children, seeing their disappointment and the hurt it brought was something he would almost call torture.
“How many times?”
“I lost count.. but many.”
“Do you want this round to be the last?”
“Yes.. and then no, then yes.. and no.”
“And he is back again now?”
“Yes, just a toddler still though.”
They sat talking for a while longer, Felix crawling up into the sofa with them. Their talk going from her story, to Hayle sharing a bit more about himself to take her mind off things.
“Will you ever take us to see you ice palace?”
“Would you want to?”
“I’d love too, they way you describe it makes it seem wonderful.”
“Well, I guess after this round of your dance?”
“Yes, I think taking a human there would break more rules, I done enough rule breaking.”
“Good idea, now.. this series you told me to watch, should we?”
“Stranger things?”
“Yes, about upside down and such?”
“Sure.”
She loved how easy it was to tell this story to Hayle, and how he simply accepted it instead of pushing her away like som many others. She also wondered what he would think of Stranger things, he had loved The Haunting of Hill house, so she thought he might like this too.