Shane Porteous - The Battle of Ebulon - A Shared Anthology

I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t think, I couldn’t talk. I didn’t want this job. I wanted to go home and hide from all of this death and agony around me and I wanted my mind back. The feeling of insanity closed in around me, sending a panicked feeling through my body. Escape wasn’t an option anymore. The only option was to calm down and get back to work.

“Rachael.” Jesse’s soothing voice broke through the chaos. I focused on his brilliant blue eyes, my breathing swiftly going back to normal. I got up, using the back of my hand to wipe the Orc’s blood off of my face.

“I’m fine,” I told him.

“Ok.” He nodded. I knew he didn’t believe me. He knew I wasn’t actually ok. I placed my hand on his forehead again, knowing he was actually dead this time. He was far more hostile than the first Orc, mostly because he had died trying to kill me. I decided to move on to a human then.

If I stumbled upon one who was not actually dead at least they wouldn’t try to kill me. I chose a young man, dressed in the uniform of Ebulon. He looked like he was frozen in time; his eyes still wide open in shock and horror. The snow fell onto and around him, covering his hair and the fur on his uniform.

He might have been twenty years old, if that. Dead long before his time. My hand melted the frost and snowflakes on his forehead as his terrified voice led me inside his mind.

“Hi.” I decided to say the first thing since he was looking at me in fear.

“You’re an angel,” he realized.

“Yes, I am.” It was better to start small and build up to the fact that he was… well dead.

“If you’re an angel, then that means…” He struggled to build up the courage to say it. “That means I’m dead, right?”

“Yes.” I didn’t know what else to say. Maybe this was why Joshua was so angry and testy all of the time. He had to tell people numerous times a day that they were dead. Not that they were dying but that they were dead.

“I’m not ready to die,” he told me. “Please! I have a fiancé and she’s pregnant! I can’t leave them all alone!”

“I’m truly very sorry,” I answered. “There is nothing I can do…”

“I have heard stories about people being spared.” He interrupted me. “They were dead for hours or even days and they were brought back. You are the angel of death; you must know something about that! You have to be able to help me!”

“I’m not… I haven’t been the angel of death for very long,” I admitted. “I don’t know what caused something like that but I don’t think…”

“My leader’s name is Ky,” he interrupted me again. “He was dead and has been for a long time and yet he fights today in Ebulon because of the deal he made with the angel of death. You’re the angel of death. I wish to make the same deal with you as he did.”

“I didn’t make a deal with anyone,” I insisted. “I don’t know who Ky is. If someone made a deal with him; it was Joshua…”

“You have to help me!” He repeated. “I cannot leave them alone! They need me! Don’t you understand that? Isn’t there someone that you would give anything to be with?”

“Yes.” My answer was quiet. Jesse. I would give anything to be with him. I knew that my mistress, Elizabeth, did not approve and she would do anything she could to separate us. She knew it wouldn’t work though. Jesse had been by my side since I was six years old, never letting anything happen to me and never letting anyone hurt me. I knew what this man was feeling.

“If this was you and you were dying, wouldn’t you want someone to help you?” he asked. I struggled with what I knew I was supposed to do and what I now wanted to do. This man was right; it was possible. Joshua had done at least three times. There was a way to do it. I had to think. The soul was damaged right now.

It would be repaired once it got to Heaven. That was where this man was destined to go. If I could take it out and then repair it, I might be able to put it back into his body and bring him back to life. The reason for death in any human is the damaging of their soul. A person could sustain horrible injuries to their body, but they only died when their soul suffered injuries as well.

If I could heal his soul, there would be no reason why he couldn’t live again. I had to at least try. If I was in his place and I was the one who was dead, I would want the angel of death to do everything they could to bring me back to Jesse.

“Ok.” I agreed. “I will help you.” I drew his soul out of his body, opening my eyes in the snow-covered street inside Ebulon. The glowing orb floated over to my hand, waiting for me to help it. I only knew basic healing and I didn’t know if it would help the soul or not. I would try though. I knew Joshua wouldn’t help me and Jesse wouldn’t approve either. I had to do this on my own and fast.

I held my free hand over the rotating sphere and started to slowly release a small amount of healing energy into it. The slight red line started to turn with the soul, filling in the little empty spaces and tears in its surface.

“What are you doing?” Jesse asked, moving to stand behind me. I didn’t answer him. I had to concentrate. The soul kept drawing in more and more energy, feeding itself and bringing itself back to life. “Rachael?” When the soul stopped taking in my energy I knew it was healed. Now I had to put him back in his body.

I didn’t know any way other than to force it into his body like pure energy. It would hurt but there was no other way. I slammed the soul down against his chest, restarting his heart and re-embedding his soul at the same time. The man jerked to a seated position, drawing in a sharp and agonized breath.

“Rachael!” Jesse pulled me to my feet, moving me away from him.

“Jesse, it’s fine!” I insisted. “I did that for him. He had a family. He wasn’t ready to die. It wasn’t his time.”

“Actually.” Joshua wandered back over. “It was his time. There are no rules against bringing souls back from the dead but there will be consequences. There always are. They can come in any form and most end in the person you saved dying again.”

“It wasn’t his time,” I repeated. I knew I was wrong but I had to believe that things would work out for this man.

“I’m not here to argue with you.” He rolled his eyes. “I’m here to escape a few hours of torment. However this is turning out to be even worse than the torture I suffer in Hell. I’d rather have my ears cut off than listen to either of you for one more minute.” Joshua moved to yet another victim after his rampage.

“Thank you.” The man I had brought back got to his knees in front of me, grasping my hand tightly. “I will repay you. I swear.”

“You don’t have to repay me,” I told him. “It was nothing.”

“But it wasn’t nothing!” his eyes started to tear up. “You have given me my life back! I will never forget what you have done for me today.” I didn’t know what to say. I was still new to… well all of this. Everything to do with being an angel of death. I didn’t like it and I really wished I hadn’t doomed myself to this.

“Find your family,” I stated. “They will be looking for you.” He quickly got to his feet, dashing further into the city. “Don’t say anything.” I knew Jesse didn’t like this. I wasn’t about to let him tell me what I had done was wrong, though.

“I wasn’t going to.” He surprised me by sounding pleased with it. “I think you did a good thing. I don’t like this whole angel of death business any more than you do. I don’t like anything that puts you or the baby…”

“Don’t talk about it in front of him,” I stopped him before he went too far. Joshua was beside an Orc, deep inside the creatures mind, but I knew him well enough to know he was always listening and he wasn’t supposed to know about that.