21 Duty-bound

She closed the front door, she suspected they just let themselves through when they need to come back. She tilts a framed picture to a better angle, using the reflection to check who still here and where they stood. Not only was there people that guarded the gate but she has visitors that the undertakers can't see. For the best, she released the two tomes that she watches over to float free willed of their own actions. As always the tome of broken souls breaks apart into paper origami figures playing everywhere they allowed inside the boundaries of the flat. The second tome which it the reason she human in the frist place forms into a death crow of no eyes. It sits upon her shoulder, and coos ranting in disapproval of her speaking to much.

"You could have put my soul into a phantom bird or a god slayer. But no, you made me human. So stop complaining." She closed its beak and sighed walking through to the living room and kitchen.

'I made you a human? No. I would rather you been completely gone. But as it turns out, you are right. We do need a replacement soul to take your place.' She rolled eyes of it hissed disapproval, 'The rest of the souls that make this universe made you into this path of humanity. Not me. A monster like you should have stayed as a nightmare in the dreamlands.'

"Of which we have company." She flicked the face of the bird, "Now pay attention." She takes a moment to meditation and then looks towards such unseen beings waiting to pester her for something important. It better be important if they came to bother her.

'Madam Trickster, I am hoping a moment of your time.' She instantly knows its a human of another timeline and is here to screw things up. She gestures something and the origami of the broken souls set teeth upon this unwelcome visitor, leaving blood over the carpet and confused undertakers watching paper figures making this blood spray. The corpse flops through into living realm and then turned dusted as time law takes count. The blood long gone but still gritted there. She looked to the next guy and they kneel. They shiver and presented above themselves an empty shell. She moved around from the kichten to right over them. They shiver and lower more but raised the empty vessel higher. She looks to the origami, among the sea of so many souls broken or lost ones. None are a fitting match to this vessel being presented, just only herself. Even then, she can't cut obligations in this universe yet. For as much as she wishes to take this offer, she can't. She softly lowered to their eye level and she raised their chin. She shook that she can't prove any sort of miracle they hoped in seeking. She attempts a test over their strength but in the end - they faded away. Disappear back to the universe they came from. She is alone, left behind looking at a space where once someone offered her a chance. She held her heart for a moment, hurt of knowing exactly what she turned away. Just for a soft moment, a chain of sin raised over her and then shattered in all directions from her. She barely makes the strength to stand, wipe away some tears and she turns to face the next unseen visitor. But it will be another heart breaking turn down, taking every bit she has to not accept such a wonderful opportunity. All these other timelines she having to let go of. Sacrifice of her own happiness, glory and so much.

"Ugh why can't I just use an army of soul eaters to do my job?" She asked sitting to her sofa and overwhelmed of all these things she having to break, "If I didn't have to be here, I would have gladly gone taken anyone of those hands." She lays back and the crow fluffed feathers in having the taste of what exactly she meant. It shakes of its own considerable knowledge.

'You deserve this hell! This is the krama you deserve!' Hissing at her.

"Shut up book. You don't even know what happened. I scrapped things back together. You just don't want to consider the hand your biting is the one holding your life line." She grappled the corw from and it altered into a tome. She throws it across the room into a wall. Not in any way of damaging anything, not even the book itself was hurt by this. It stuck to the surface and flops pages for a while in going through its pages. Checks to damage, anything for some excuse. But it turned into a bird and flies back to bother her. She defends herself as it peak chucks of her flesh from her arm.

"Wow there." An undertaker intervened in this, "Seriously, that isn't right that a tome should cause such pain to a living human." The crow hissed and flops about until finally released. It for now stops peaking her. She acts like this was normal. Breaking out a med kit and just sews some of the hole back. Patch work her skin enough. The crow form hissed at the origami figures that now attacked the tome. The two books go at some page war and flop exhausted. Leaving it a truce.

'I just don't understand why you have to put up with this universe.' She sighed in knowing this visitor well. She not afraid of a universe eater like this one is.

"This is where I started, where my soul grow from. In the beginning of this timeline, I was just a human girl with family drama. Now... I am broken soul with curses that last longer then this existence has time to waste for. Apparently my sins and good wishes in other universes has caused me to be judged in this universe in ways beyond its capabilities to law it." She then stops the cog ranker tome from slamming itself at her, caught by someone else that isn't her. She continues to finish the bandages and was frustrated with fiddling with tieing it. Her unseen visitor shuffled forward and takes over helping to tie her bandage up. She sits patient of it being finished.

'Fuck the laws of this universe. Why not just get on with what you do best?'

"Rebel as you maybe. How would a human girl with no power over even the tome she cursed to be able to break anything? I can't even cross over to the afterlife without some poor death god being devoured by a god eater. What good is breaking rules when there no one to bother witness of it?"

'What and having all these undertakers around here isn't being a witnessed?'

"That's not their job and no gods will care to hear them. They are no different to demons and angels in the ranking order of laws." Taking back her hand and wiping the drool off from the visitor, "You so lucky that I can't just break you down for scraps."

'Oh... love to see...' The unseen stops a moment in whatever it sees of her. The fall of so many more eyes upon them, 'How exactly does a human become like you are?' The cog tome attacked in full talons at her but she ducked and allowed the tome to tear away this visitor. The book was rather enjoying the pleasure of breaking things until she cough a little. It stops with some nerve hung from the beak slips out. It peers at her being unsaved and now perplexed of what victim underneath it was.

"Congratulations little book. You killed your frist universe eater. Does the taste of murder really feel that good?" She asked book as it sits on the corpse. Just sort of felt played while now wondering why the soul of this thing doesn't exist in its pages. She plucked the book and now pours the soul of the thing it killed into the real life. She presented that soul to the crow and it holds it in the beak, dazed of many things. She puts the bird form to sit at the sofa, it taking to long to recover. The tome of broken souls now knocked the soul out from the beak and the little origami figure began doing. Something. Maybe they were covering to soul stone in a bunch of stuff and smaking the bits into tiny pieces. She really didn't care, sat back watching and looking around for anymore stuff.

'No! I don't need you! I don't want this!' Thr crow having a break of tantrum over whatever god was about to edit some sections of the collection somewhere. It out right refusing to have new categories and new features. It cannot fathom nor allow the thought that there was more then just what it states in its pages. But the books tantrum was go ignored as some poor fella out there has just suddenly begun the book keeper for soul eaters. As a free gift, she waved that broken souls used this one time chance to take existence in reality and get names written into the that time as what they are. Eaters of things and laws. Transfers entire two realms worth of content to now suddenly exist in law. Now there was legal binding law that eaters of things exist and things were just happening without explanation. She sits watching reflections, her drawing change and one the jars she had is now smashed across the floor, releasing that container of souls. Away they fleed and run riot to be someone else's problem then hers. She has no obligations to bother chasing them down now that thier names were taken from her care by tome rules. She didn't leave them helpless. The new section of these eaters has plenty of indepth knowledge to capture and use of these things. Even the body's can be used for crafting god materials and meat a delicious dish for those willing to stomach it. Every part of what makes a eater of souls was well documented and makes not one helpless against them. Survival of the fitness was a guarantee put these eater in their place in law of this universe. Thus, not her problem.

'You foul being tricked me into taking that life!' Tome failed to smack at her once again, it felt relaxed in an experienced undertakers hand. The book treated with care and softly checked through. The tome acted spoiled in touch of this person over its keeper.

"What a gorgeous binding you have? Look at the dedication of these pages and the way the ink strikes over you." It loved the compliments, "Just who is your keeper? I should hire them to fix other sections that need such a touch." The book turned cold and closed itself. The mood it has spoiled in the meer moment. It turned into a crow and sulks. The queen makes it her full attention to the book to fully to convince the book to work for her. It eases up and it allowed the queen to take over the keeper title of cog rankers. But the queen slips hand into feeling the names. Sadly the names of these souls are some scary stuff, summoning them in just a conditioning check wasn't what the queen was ready for. Finding herself slammed into a wall by unseen, but given she holding that book - she can see what that is. Although threatened to a wall, she has small talk at the being. Undertakers stand around unsure how to defend their queen from something they can't see. Eliza sighed crossed her arms in knowing exactly what they be talking about and the Queen makes that expression that this creature dislikes. Begins to try to eat the queen.

"Enough!" Eliza spoke over it and it jolted in popping joints back. putting the Queen down and backs off into a little ball at the floor, "And this is why we don't touch names." Eliza taking back the book but throws it into a wall for good measure, "You moron nearly had her transferred and I was not going to bother getting that back. I will say this again!" She hissed over with pointing at the tome, "Dare do things your way again and I will leave the mistakes you made. You wanted me erased, and that means you wanted my services to be removed to. So Either I let this universe return to the dust I pulled pages back together from or we find some poor soul to replace me. That was the deal and you have to keep that promise. No me. I don't matter anymore in the grand scheme of mysterious ways this universe plays. No way will you even allow such things to enact law over me." She caused claws to form and grip at the fragile boundary here. She held it bit not in breaking or a fix of it. She hissed deeper then any human should and there echos a many of angry voices all in united insult towards that book. It was way to many to take in and to much to listen to. For now with thar bit of steam, she lets the curtain go and turned away from the tome, "May I remind you whose meant to be the kid here. The laws we all follow haven't changed, no matter if you like me or not." She flicked her right hand over the area, shadows of all corners fold and puts objects at certain angles. The origami figures help the tome of cog rankers to be settled on the table like some normal book, before forming itself back whole to hide over the cog rankers tome. Dusted some illusion of changing the covers into magazines. If anything the whole room held that sort of reality but hide back something more. Eliza is back to holding her stomach as always, wipes away blood and black liquids from herself. She shivered and sounded horrible for a moment, wavered in nearly collapsing but she used that into a stride. Shaken steps that cared not in walking past or through people. To her bedroom door and to flop at her bed. She scrunched up in just feeling miserable.

"It's a lot of unpacking to do about her. Even I keep loosing track of where things are left." Curiosity helping his queen to sit down on the chair, "A long time ago, back when undertakers were starting to learn what we are and what we do. We fought wars with humans that held then name Seer. We allied ourselves with Fallown. Yet it must have been fate, Fallown humans fell of their own actions and the Seers avoided the many different things that Fallowns lost from." Curiosity sits down across from his queen, "That war never ended really but time changes things. Reverts of history have always been and that followed with these two human families always at war with each other. Occasionally truces happened and children of both blood sides came about. But none of them lived stable enough or long enough. Erased by change of conflicts by the warring sides." Curiosity claps gentle of being playful in his explanation, "The war never changed but accidents happened. Humans can't stop themselves being controlled by emotions and feelings. When he learned he fell in love with a fallown. He spent many lifetimes of playing out different times to find what he is to do with his child. The issue is that the child was gifted, lived all those many times. She endured all those difficulties and lies. She lived when he thought she was killed. It became a private war between them." He taps fingers at this point. The queen take a while to understand scale and that she can't help but think about the stuff she overheard the girl saying.

"Not to long ago, just about what must have been the cause of the contact we lost with the gods and angels. Four Clothus made a deal with Seers. The deal couldn't be undone by us but it didn't matter since the clothus didn't get what they wanted. They were of course back stabbed by the Seer that made the deal." Glasses pushed back up, "Curiosity should have been dust."

The queen sharp turned to Curiosity, that shurgs.

"The girl soul name. Her existence was gifted to the Clothus. She was enslaved. She certain been stuck with these clothus for many existence systems." Curiosity crossed arms, "But she stubbornly human at the core. She refused to obey." He leaned at the arm rest, "When those clothus had became sick of her, they got rid of her in the only method they knew. Which was to powder her soul to the finest of sand." He taps a few times, "Her last moment being whole was spent with giving me the the core index. As it turned out, the clothus were trying to double cross. They were trying to order her to use the core index in order to make themselves gods of this universe. She thrown her gift of being an index holder to me and I came back here. I began to do as the tome asked of me. I got quiet lost into the many years of achieving these feats. Why I been around a long while." He sits up, "She happened to saved me again not once but three times. She doesn't even have the power of the index anymore. I can't even fathom what a soul of powder was able to achieve in the little she clings to in this universe. I had even been waiting for her to give up and leave this universe willingly again."

"So why are you still an index holder?" The queen asked but Curiosity shook.

"No. No. The index can only be used by humans. I am unable to use it. Rather unlike the tomes of life and death. The index is self-aware. It contorls who can read it or not. It used me to get back home and left me in hell to rot. I did everything the damn book asked of me and still I was dropped to hell. It was nothing to do with my human life deeds or my morals. No. This book had me in chains that could not be broken."

The queen thinks things over while her partner tries not to care able reasoning with a man man. He still didn't really tell them why his still an undertaker or what things he clearly was leaving out. He made a nervous twitch in what he not said and he particularly made his right hand break itself if it had to do with the girl directly. By all accounts his a walking pile of ashes that shouldn't still be an undertaker. He should be abandoned and untrusted. Mad man who barely can keep himself sane.

"Curiosity as a monarch. You have only one chance to turn back time to different eras of time. You alone will be aware and be the only guy to make chooses that count in changing what we have. This is the only one power a monarch has over the other undertakers, its more like hindsight as many who rule have already spent the wish and are just waiting for the next person to take the crown." The queen speaks clear, "If I gave you that chance to set things right, would you take it?"

Curiosity is all stiffen up and clearly needed a moment over this. He clinched up like it be worth it, that he sees justification of what he do to change things. His eyes sparkle of the glory to be better. But he felt struck in the chest, like a knife cut through him. He blinks lost into a lapsed memory. He locked up in being totally passed out in sleeping this dream through. A butterfly lands on the brim of his hat, it took flight and burned into a crisp, landing on the two tomes. His hand traced a wound that isn't there and he tilts in be aware of his surroundings again. He studied the intense way the queen looked and he clinched that pain tight.

"I can't take away your title, my lady. I am your more loyal dog." He answered how she wanted him to, "I think I can achieve my purpose when this is over. Over due my time for a while, but I still have stuff to finish." He bowed again in a low manner, hiding the horrified expression he has from whatever memory came over him, like if undoing things back that far again was a last ditch effort. A last minute change. He has to be wary of ever coming to be that power and whatever other things will trigger this painful recall. Hand moved away, the queen stands and left through the gate. She quiet pleased in the loyalty of her left hand, that she will not have to fear him being her removal from the throne. It be some other factor that will take her crown, she just can't see which way things will fall.

"The only time you have ever loved up to turly being you nickname was when this girl came into the picture." Glasses tilts at the two tomes at the coffee table and then up to how unmoved Curiosity has been, "The 1st monarch gave you that nickname but you really have never played to its meaning. Rather I am happy that your finally making effort to take things slow. You have been the left hand and assisting guardsman a long time. You take no breaks and bend rules for only to keep the undertaker as a whole at peace. This girl bring out something you lacked in so long." Steps to the gate, "You make a good pair, not in our benefit but for yourself." Through into the gateway, the guards too. The feeling of reverting time was like the smell of coming rain. Much of the whole apartment was disappearing when Curiosity steps through linger in watching the phantoms of living people acting out their lives and the beings that hide beside them. He turned so briefly to noticed that this girl sees these unseen and that she speaks at them directly. Once he was through in safety. He crossed arms in pondering how easier his job would be to speak to dream walkers like that. To final be ahead of things instead of cleaning aftermath. But really linking his soul to someone like her is a risk. The years of knowing they been a pair before makes the notion even more awkward, that time spent when she was enslaved to the Clothus. Those scars are something to be forgotten or ignored, even he has his own.