A Whole New World
Everyone has a voice that echoes in their head, its not their moral compass or their subconscious. No, this voice that they hear is not god either, instead this voice is their soulmates. It’s commonplace to hear your soulmates thoughts when you are near them.
Most people they could hear their soulmates thoughts a few times in passing before finding each other. Everyone meets their soulmate differently, some meet in school, some meet in a tavern and some meet in other towns entirely. Almost all of those people are human though.
Witches are different. Witches can hear their soulmates thoughts no matter how far away they are, the only exceptions are when their soulmate is not yet born, when their soulmate dies. There is said to be a third way with a spell that can only be found in the Darkhold, an incredibly powerful yet dangerous grimoire said to corrupt its owners.
If a witch is bound to be with a human they can still hear them but it is much more muted, more of a whisper while humans bound to a witch are still only human, they still can only hear within a certain distance. Witches bound together can hear each other as if they were simply speaking face to face, as if they are the only two people in a room.
Death was a cosmic entity, one of few. As a cosmic entity it only made sense that Death had never heard the thoughts of another. She stood outside the realm of possibilities of any mortal. None of her siblings had ever mentioned hearing the thoughts of another, leading to the conclusion that none of them had soulmates. After all they had each existed for millennia so surely at least one of them would have said something to counter this conclusion if it were false.
At least that is what Death thought for most of her existence. The days leading up to when she and her siblings were proven wrong on that assumption is some of few days in all of her existence that she can vividly recall.
She had been doing her job as usual, collecting the souls of the recently departed to bring them to her realm. She had been informing a man named Elijah of his untimely demise at the time. He had begged for more time, for a second chance.
“Who are you? You are not a nurse, where is the nurse who was here?” He asked her, starring at her skeletal face.
“I am Death” She said simply.
“No, I-I can’t be dead. The cough should not have gotten me. The potions witch had promised my wife the salves would help me.” He rambled “I was supposed to get better. Please just give me more time.”
“It is hard to leave but it is the way it must be.” She reasoned gently, watching as tears pooled in his eyes.
“I told my wife I would be there when she goes into labor, I have to go back. I have to, she’s due to give birth during the cold months and its barely the autumn harvest now. I swore I wold be there to see out child be born.” He knelt on the ground before her, clasping his hands together as tears streamed freely down his cheeks.
Death’s skeletal face seemed to have softened as she knelt down, reaching out her hand to press it against his cheek. For the first time since her arrival he made eye contact with her “I cannot bring you back to life, it goes against the natural order. But, I cannot force you to come with me. You may choose to not move on, to let your emotions tie you to this plane but it will taint you.”
She stroked her thumb, wiping at a tear under his eye as she uttered her next words “Should you choose to stay, eventually all that is left of you will be a sorrowful spirit whose wailing will be heard under the cover of night. Every spirit left here becomes either sorrowful or vengeful eventually. The only thing that differs is how long it takes a spirit to reach that point.”
The man nodded solemnly showing his understanding and the two were silent for a moment except for the sound of his sniffles.
As Death stood back up she slid her hand down his face so that she could angle his chin, maintaining eye contact. “I am afraid that I cannot stay here much longer, you must choose between staying on this plane or coming with me and trusting your family will find peace when their time comes. You will see them again, Elijah, when it is their time.” She lowered her hand from his chin, letting it rest at her side.
He starred before taking in a breath, “I will go with you” he uttered, voice filled with resignation. Elijah got to his feet with a sigh, still facing her.
“A wise decision” She commented as she reached out her hand to turn him around. She put it on the small of his back to guide him as the two travelled side by side to Deaths realm of spirits.
Despite his Initial reluctance to go, a reaction Death had come to expect from most, Elijah had formed an acquaintanceship with her. He often greeted her after she brought back new spirits. He talked about his soulmate, Evanora, who had a strict upbringing and was poised to be the leader of her coven. She rarely conversed with him, preferring mainly to listen but she did share her lack of a soulmate with him when asked, a conversation that earned her a look of pity. He occasionally asked if she may have stumbled upon any news of his wife and unborn child to which she always told him no.
Sometimes she sought him out to hear him weave tales of the future he hoped to have. He had an agreement with his wife that should they have a son it would receive his name while a daughter that would gain his wife’s name, Harkness. It became clear to her that Elijah secretly hoped for a daughter, one as strong and independent as his wife.
As the months grew colder she became more busy with the raise in sickness related deaths. It was late December while everyone was being kept warm around Yuletide fires when lady Death was able to greet Elijah again.
She had wanted to listen to his tales of human traditions when she began feeling off, her focus narrowed to what this feeling could be. Elijah seemed to either notice the far off look in her eyes or her flinch as suddenly a cry echoed in her mind. For a moment she could only focus on the shock she felt at hearing a voice too young to be hers echo only cries in her mind before it quieted, turning to a coo of satisfaction.
Elijah looked at her, his face inquiring “Are you alright my friend?” He knew nothing could physically harm her but the look on her face was one he had never thought he would ever see. His shock mirrored her own as he watched various emotions flash through her eyes.
“I had thought it impossible but it seems as though I was proven wrong. I heard it. There is a soul bound to me like no other in history has ever been or likely will ever be again.” She told him before she rushed out the door of his cottage.
Fleeing from her realm was not something death often did but as she approached the forest around Salem she found herself calming down. Her mind no longer drowning in the what-if’s of her current… predicament. So she had a soulmate, she could handle that. All that she had to do was calm down and collect her thoughts.
Her soulmate was too young to understand the complexity of the situation right now and she couldn’t handle overwhelming them right now.
She had plenty of time to get used to the idea, her soulmate was new to the world after all. Besides, there is any number of species her soulmate could be. It doesn’t have to be human. Perhaps her soulmate is a long life species like an Asguardian. It is simply much too early to tell anything about them right now. Death is a being with nothing if not time.