I should have known I wouldn't be allowed to enjoy my death.  It couldn't have been more than a minute of total, tranquil blackness before the ominous, black-robed and hooded form began striding towards me. I don't scare easily, but I do admit, I was a little petrified to see such a portentous figure baring down on me and preparing, I assumed, to claim my soul.

"Just great," I said.  The pronounced groan accompanying my words was emphasis to how seriously I was wondering why I couldn't be left in peace for once.  At least Gertrude was nowhere to be found, and I was free of her annoying chatter.

Once upon me, the vision of death lingered, each of us staring down the other. Nothing like having to deal with a deity possessing a flare for the dramatic and drawing out the inevitable, I thought.

The robes of my counterpart fluttering, a straightforward question, blunt as a mace to the head, emanated from within.  "Kaldon Waystone?"  There was this weird mix of octaves to the voice that were both manly and menacing as well as simultaneously feminine and sweet.

"Who's asking?"  I stood up to him.  I'd been through a terrible fate already and figured he couldn't do any worse if I got on his bad side.

"I am known by many names," the robed figure said.  "What do you know me as?"

"I mean, I'm not a religious scholar or anything of the sort, but I'd say Lord Kaflas?  God of Death."  I could tell the robed figure nodded by the way the hood dipped and rose.

"That is certainly one," it replied.  Then the god turned back the hood concealing its face to reveal the pleasant smile of a woman with blond hair that shone like golden rivers.  In that moment, it was like the darkness subsided, but only enough to reveal a fiery world of molten rivers like her hair within a volcanic wasteland.  "But, I suspect you know me best perhaps as the Goddess Si?"

"Wait..." I stammered.  "What?"

Shedding her black robes, I was thusly confused.  Now displaying herself before me was a tall woman wearing a revealing gown of natural materials; mostly a mesh of leaves and sticks.  "Are you shocked?" she asked, her voice now falling fully into the feminine range.

"Well, yeah, a little."

"You mortals and your delusions never cease to amaze me," she said.  "There are not as many of us gods as you think."

My timbre found bite for the next words I would speak.  "What do you want?"

The goddess chided me with a sort of tsk tsk tone.  "What I want is to give you what you want.  See, we're kind of in a quandary here.  You're dead, but you can't be dead until you fulfill your curse.  So you can't be here."

"Swell, and here I was under the impression I'd found a loophole."

To that statement, Si laughed.  "There are rules, unfortunately."

"Gods can't break rules?" I asked.

"We can, but in so doing, it tends to upset the natural order of things.  Your case is bizarre, but also not so extraordinary that I find myself compelled to make an exception."

My head down, I accepted my undying torture was not at an end.  "Fine.  Send me back then."

"Oh, I will, but I have a proposition for you.  One that I think will provide you an incentive."

"I haven't had much luck with deals lately," I said in a somber tone.

At that moment was when this lean woman stepped up to stand beside the god identifying as Si, Lord Kaflas, and, if to be believed, others as well.  The latest woman was as close to being naked as one could get without actually being so and sporting a long, fleshy tale like that of a possum ... or a rat.  A pair of distinctly rodent like ears protruded from the top of her head and through full, black hair.

After sauntering up, she cocked herself there, hand on her hip.  "This is one I think you will appreciate," the demon-like woman proclaimed.

"Gerta here," Si said, "speaks highly of you."

"Really?  Do I know you?" I asked of the mostly naked rat-woman, her voice sounding familiar, then it struck me.  "Wait, Gertrude?"

The woman with the tail nodded.  "That's what the old wizard you murdered called me.  Something was lost in translation, I presumed."

I raised an eyebrow.  "I like this form better, to be honest."

"Most men, I suspect, do."

"So what's the deal?" I asked, turning the conversation away from casual flirting and back to serious topics.

"The deal," Si chimed in, "is that I need you to handle the woman you know as Hyra. In exchange, once your curse is lifted, you and your daughter can be together for all eternity."

"And by 'handle', I assume you mean kill?"

"Yes."

"You don't have to ask me twice.  Those are both two things that I would enjoy more than anything."

The demon called Gerta, and known to me as the rat Gertrude, broke in with a warning.  "Be cautious, Kaldon Waystone.  Hyra is not who, or what, you think she is.  She is an ancient witch, one who has mastered the darkest arts of extending one's own life at the expense of others; a devotee of The Destroyer, Teras Maul."

"I assume that this Teras Maul is not one of your alter egos?" I asked of Si.

"He is not," the goddess said.

"I've never heard of him."

"Few remember him." Si acknowledged my ignorance and did her best to explain.  "Ten thousand years ago, he was perhaps the only god able to rival my influence.  But instead of being a god of many faces, he possessed but one; a great god of war.  So great was his power that he needed to be wiped off the face of the world, or risk its destruction.  And so he was, and his great cities buried to hide any trace of his strength and prominence.  Your wife-"

"Ex-wife." I interrupted the goddess to correct her, without care for any offense I might cause.

"Are you divorced?" Si asked.

"I consider us so, since she chose to leave."

"The woman you know as Hyra," Si continued, "survived the great purge of Teras Maul's followers.  And ever since, she has been seeking to revive her lord and god.  Now, she has corrupted the Si Sisterhood and their followers, all in an attempt to bring forth that end."

"So that's why you want me to get rid of her for you?"

"Yes." Si smiled.  "That is basically the gist of this little request."

"Hardly a little request," I replied.  "I suppose, to a god, it probably seems like such."

At that point, Si decided to remind me of the stakes I considered more important.  "Your daughter's immortal soul is at risk.  Hyra will consume it to prolong her own existence yet again, and your precious Carli will cease to exist in all forms.  You will be forever separated from her.  I see this as a win-win."

"My only question is, do I have a choice?"

"Well, if you hadn't killed my previous assistant, who was doing a very good job at keeping your ex-wife in check, we wouldn't be here having this conversation.  Now, would we?"  The goddess bringing up my previous failure was salt in my wounds.  Had I known the old man was this integral to the fate of the world, I might have thought twice before accepting the job and killing him.

"Fine."

"Gerta will assist you." The goddess informed me with a wave towards the sumptuous, mostly woman creature with her.  "Although her powers in the mortal realm are limited, except under special circumstances.  Still, she will be a very valuable ally."

"Can use all the help I can get."  Then I sought some clarification.  "So Hyra's a witch, you say?"

"Yes.  One with many centuries of study; so be cautious.  Do not assume her to be an easy target.  But, as I said, do this, and you can have an eternity with your daughter.  Although I do suggest taking care of Hyra before she is able to perform the ritual where your daughter's soul will be the sacrifice.  Or else the deal is off."

Her statement indicating a limited timeframe for my assigned mission forced me to voice another question.  "How long do I have?"

"Twenty days.  Until the next shadow moon," Si clarified for my edification.  "That is when the ceremony must take place."

"Deal."

There wasn't any fanfare that accompanied my acceptance of the offer.  No choir of angels singing or anything like that.  Only the distinct sensation of being yanked back into reality with such force that it cause me to retch.  Of course, there wasn't anything in my stomach to vomit, so I just kneeled there, in the basement of the old inn, going through fits of painful dry heaves.

Throughout my pain, Gertrude, once more looking very much like a rat and nothing like the sensual demon I had just seen, perched there on her hind legs with an impatient consideration of my condition.  Rolling on to my back, I stared at the ceiling.  "Looks like I've got more work to do," I said, and then collapsed into exhausted sleep.

That night I'd sleep well, and with the most pleasant, if not bizarre, of dreams...

END

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

This concludes part one of The Sharded Blade Series: Ghosts of the Past. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it for the 2020 Open Novella Contest.

Originally, after the first draft, I had a different ending for this story. One that actually concluded with the original final chapters of this novella.  However, as is always the case it seems, I listened to my characters and found that the story really doesn't end so easily.  There's more to tell, and I will be doing so once the 2020 Open Novella Contest is over.  I have already drafted up most of Part 2 to the story, and I envision the complete tale being three parts and somewhere between 60 and 75k total words.

My time frame for posting the remainder of this story is very much up in the air, as I have other WIPs that have been neglected during the span of these past two months and my work on this story for ONC2020.  But, rest assured, it is coming.  Promise!