“Corri, calm down. Everything is fine. Things happened exactly as they were supposed to.” I looked at Lucien. “Isn’t that right?”
“It is, angel.”
“You knew we were going to meet one day.”
He nodded. “I didn’t know what the circumstances would be, but yes. I knew it would happen. I’m sorry you had to break your arm to get here.”
I shrugged. “Bad karma, I’m sure. I have some things to pay for.”
“Nonsense!” Mila left her tall, curved scythe by the window and removed her Reaper cloak. “Who did this to you?”
I sighed. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Oh, it does. Because I want to give her a piece of my mind.”
“How do you know it was a woman?” When she rolled her eyes, I laughed. “That’s right. Because you’ve been where I am. With Lorna. And then you ended up best friends.”
“I wouldn’t say we’re best friends,” she mumbled.
I turned to the old angel who was watching us with kind eyes and infinite patience. “Lucien, this is Mila.” He nodded politely. “Mila, this is Lucien. He found me, helped me, fixed my arm.”
“Thank you,” she said. “My dear cousin needs all the help she can get.”
“It was my pleasure, young Reaper.”
Mila laughed out loud. “Oh, I’m not young. I’m going to retire in two years.”
We were all silent after she said that. It wasn’t a comfortable conversation to have. Lucien and I finished our breakfast. Mila didn’t want anything, but Corri happily gobbled down the pancake I’d left on my plate.
“Come on,” Mila said. “I’m guessing you haven’t seen the rest of the Spheres.”
“Lucien said…”
“You should go with your cousin. I’m too old for such a long trip.”
He’d done his part, and now it was time for me to figure out the rest. I thanked him for everything, hugged him with my one healthy arm, and promised I’d visit him soon. He made a joke about sparing him the visit if I intended to bring my scythe and my Reaper cloak. Then Mila grabbed me by the waist, and as I held on to her, she teleported us both right in the Fifth Sphere of Heaven. Corri buzzed around our heads, trying to decide if she should rest on Mila’s shoulder or mine. She chose Mila, since I wasn’t in the best shape. Before leaving, Lucien had given me another painkiller.
“You can’t teleport,” Mila stated. “What the hell happened? Tell me everything, spare no details.”
And I didn’t. I told her about the Karmic Asylum, the potions the nurses made me drink, and how they’d suppressed my ability to teleport and dream jump. The side effects were lasting.
“Lucien gave you pills, right? And you ate the food he made for you.”
“Y-yes.”
She motioned at the cast around my right arm. “Did he put something in there, too? Did you need nails? Screws?”
“N-no. Just a wire. He stitched the skin back together and lathered it in some herbal ointments.”
“You should be able to teleport and dream now.”
“Huh?”
Corri clarified: “All the medicine made in Heaven heals on more than one level.”
“Seriously?! And why don’t they have this stuff at the Karmic Asylum?”
Mila chuckled sadly. “Because they don’t really want to help their patients. The Asylum is more like a prison than a hospital.”
“Right. Such a silly question.”
“It’s not silly,” Mila said. “You’re not silly. You believe the world is generally good. If more people were like you, maybe that would come true one day.”
I then told her why I’d ended up at the Karmic Asylum. The story was long, sinuous, and since most of the details from when I’d traveled to the cosmic network of universes were still blurry, it took me forever to paint a picture for her. By then, we’d crossed the Sixth Sphere of Heaven and had entered the Seventh. It was the home of the contemplatives and the thrones, ruled by Saturn, the planet that embodied temperance.
“Aunt Katia says I got stuck because I let myself be influenced by Professor Lovecraft’s dream.”
“She might be right.”
“Great! Then what do I do? It’s not like I can erase those memories. I read his books, saw his notes and drawings… I can’t take all of that back. I thought research would get me there, and now it’s like my research and my work have been the obstacle all along.”
We were silent for a while. We reached the Eight Sphere, and when Mila said nothing, Corri took it upon herself to act as my guide.
“This is the home of the saints and the cherubim. All the houses look kind of like churches, don’t they?”
“There’s a way,” Mila said. “A mage can help you forget.”
“I don’t know… Who would do it? Lorna?”
“Yes. She’s the most powerful mage alive. The mage to equal her powers hasn’t been born yet.”
“I don’t feel comfortable having my memories erased… When I was at the Karmic Asylum, that was what the drugs did. I couldn’t remember how I got there. When friends visited me, I wasn’t even aware of their presence. It was a nightmare! Except… it wasn’t a nightmare at all, because from a nightmare, I could’ve woken up. I have some tricks up my sleeve. But there are no tricks to wake up from reality.”
“I’m sorry that happened to you. I truly am. And I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you.”
“I know you’re busy.”
She sighed. “When you’re a Grim Reaper, you don’t have a life anymore. I never understood why there must only be twenty-two Grim Reapers. Why not thirty? At the very least. We’re all being overworked.”
“I pulled through.”
“As you always do.” She wrapped an arm around me and pulled me in for a hug. “If you don’t want to erase your memories, then don’t. I’ll support you no matter what. But they’re not really your memories. You know that, right? They’re Lovecraft’s. You just… adopted them.”
“So, what you’re saying is… I won’t actually lose something that’s mine.”
She released me and shrugged. We were in the Ninth Sphere of Heaven. The streets were empty, not a soul in sight. I wondered about Domina and her parents. The Ninth Sphere was beautiful, with buildings covered in gold and precious stones, all glittering in the sun. There was too much light, though, and I had to shield my eyes.
“Don’t you agree?”
Well, I had to admit. Mila was right.
“Okay, I’ll do it. Ask Lorna if she can help me.”
“Good.” She looked around her one last time, her blue eyes squinting because of the merciless light. “Ready to teleport back to the Academy?”
“So ready!”