Chapter 19

Hades opened the portal back up; this time, it deposited us all in Thanatos' office. This left me a bit disoriented, but I quickly got over it.

Once we were inside the office, Hades made sure the door was closed. "I'm sure you have a lot of questions, Andy. Anubis and I will do our best to answer them for you."

"Why do I share a name with Thanatos? And does this top me from being able to be a processor?" I asked, looking from my scythe to hades. I wanted to be a Processor, not because the task was easy, but because I could be of use to everyone by doing it. Plus, I didn't have any faith in my ability to be a Psychopomp or a Dreamer.

"To answer your first question, you share a name because the original Thanatos had two weapons. A bow and a scythe. With the bow, he was able to reap and process the souls of animals, and with the scythe, he could reap and process the souls of humans. You are both two halves of one person."

"So I get to the heroine, who is nothing if it weren't for meeting a man?" I crossed my arms and glared at the three men before me.

"On the contrary. You're more powerful than I am. I'm the hero who is nothing until he meets the heroine," Thanatos said, smiling gently at me. "The scythe is more powerful than the bow."

"You can reap and process the souls of animals. Just as I can, humans."

"I couldn't until you bonded with the scythe. It holds more power than the bow does."

I looked to Hades and Anubis for confirmation. "He's telling the truth," Anubis said patiently. "Not only can you reap and process souls, but the scythe also automatically creates the paradise or hell of the soul being reaped as well. The bow cannot do that."

I looked up at the blade of my scythe and swallowed. It was more powerful than it appeared.

"I take it, Thanatos explained how to hide your scythe." Hades looked pointedly at the man, judging him already.

"He did. He also taught me how to activate it and how to use it to reap a soul," I said before releasing my scythe. The farming tool disappeared and reappeared on the inside of my right forearm as a tattoo. I had kind of hoped for something a little less noticeable, but at the rate things were going, I was just glad it wasn't on my face. "So, I guess this means I don't get to be a Processor."

"I'm afraid not, " Thanatos said apologetically.

"It's cool. I've had a great teacher, so I'm sure I can reap a soul without botching it."

"There's still the matter of Charon's death and The Memitim. Have you gotten her research on them?" Hades asked.

"No," Thanatos took his hands out of his pockets and crossed his arms, shaking his head. "Her laptop was smashed, and if she had any hard copies of her research, they weren't in her apartment. Andy did do quite a bit of research on them, though."

Anubis looked at me and cocked his head, raising his eyebrows. "You did?"

I nodded my head and walked over to Thanatos' desk, removing the files on The Ferryment off the top of the stack and bringing the rest of the files to them. "Research is kind of a skill of mine. It was the only thing I was really any good at in school. Speaking of school, how come my classmates and teachers didn't die like my parents and grandparents?"

"They weren't experiencing your powers full force. The more souls there are, the more Reapers it takes to sever the ties. Consider it a kind of herd immunity."

I nodded and handed each of the men a file. They began looking through them, and I could tell that Hades and Anubis were pleasantly surprised by the looks on their faces.