They didn’t notice the new comer until he spoke, “Real living humans,” he said happily. “Well, it’s a pleasure. Don’t see many of you on the planes. Actually, I’ve never seen living people on the planes. Not to say there’s never been, I’ve just not seen them.” He shrugged.

The man had light, slate gray skin, a pretty face, eyes that were an unreal shade of cobalt blue, long black hair that was pulled back into a ponytail and small black horns. He only wore black pants, his lean upper body and his feet bare.

He stepped closer and pinched Ayden’s cheek, as if he was making sure he was real. “Let’s see, the last time I was around a living person was…?” he paused to think dramatically, then answered brightly, “Never!”

“Never?” Tess repeated.

“Never,” he agreed, now messing Ayden’s curls. “Not much different from the dead ones really, that’s a bit disappointing,” he said lightly

“He’s the angel of death,” Ayden told her, then looked back at the man. “You are Zavos, right?”

He draped his arm over Ayden’s shoulders casually as if they were good friends. “Zavos? Yes. Angel? Big no. What’s with humans wanting to call me an angel?”

“You look different than you’re pictures,” Ayden noted.

“Oh, how’s that?”

“You’re more beautiful in person.”

“Yeah, you’re a bit feminine too,” Tess said. “Not saying that’s bad or anything,” she added.

Zavos chuckled. “Well, thank you.” Suddenly he gasped as he thought of something. “Hey, you’re not staying here, right?”

“Not planning on it,” Ayden said.

Zavos grinned. “I don’t suppose you’re interested in my story? You could set the record straight for me on the Mortal Plane.” He fluttered his long fingers. “Spread it around.”

“I’d say I was dying to know, but…”

Zavos laughed. “Oh, I like you,” he said with a pat on Ayden’s back and Ayden smiled in return. “Well, follow me. I’m supposed to take you somewhere you can stay until Aryst is ready to see you. I’ll tell you about me on the way.”

“Wait,” Tess said. “Aren’t you supposed to have wings?”

He turned to her. “Well yes, but I hid them. Thought you might stare,” he told her in a teasing tone.

“Where’d you hide them?” she wondered. “Are they detachable?”

He smiled. “Can you do any flips?” he asked, looking her over.

Tess scoffed. “Easy.” She did a back flip, then put her hands over her head, fell backwards and kicked herself over. She did two more before running up a nearby wall and flipping over, landing lithely on her feet. She did a cartwheel into a round of, then stopped in front of him and smiled.

Zavos had an arm over his chest and a hand on his chin, looking at her thoughtfully. “Well, you’re very good.”

“So can you do it?” she asked, playing along.

“Hmm, I’ll try.” He mimicked all of her moves exactly, until he ran up the wall. Instead of landing on the ground as she had, black, raven-like wings grew suddenly out of his shoulder blades. He did a few loops before diving toward her. He swooped around backwards and then landed softly on his feet. His wings closed and tucked in behind him, but didn’t go away.

“I so want wings,” Tess said enviously.

Zavos grinned. “Sorry, I’m the only one who has them.”

“What about the other angels?”

“I’m not an angel,” he said, playfully stern. “But no, angels don’t have wings, mortals just draw them that way for some reason.” He shrugged.

“You’re one of a kind?” Ayden said.

Zavos went to Ayden and put an arm around the mage again as he stated leading the group forward. They walked across a small field of white grass toward the glittering city. Some golden butterflies fluttered by a few yards away. They passed a small group of white lions and then further along, they could see a white peacock strutting by.

“No,” Zavos said, answering Ayden’s question. “There are others like me, but not in this world. I’m a vyrandi, an immortal demon made by the Nexim gods.”

“Nexim? That’s another world?” Ayden asked.

“Yes, a very brutal one with gods who are constantly at war. They create demons to fight their battles, like pieces on a chessboard. Some demons are huge and powerful, others are small and lithe. My kind are mostly created as slaves, not that the fighters aren’t slaves too, but we are more… personal slaves—messengers, errand runners, waiters, sex toys, whatever the god or goddess fancies,” he told them easily.

Ayden looked over at him sadly. “You were a slave?”

“Yes.”

“So, how’d you get to Kelstone?”

“I escaped. After almost a hundred years of trying,” he said with a chuckle. “And when I finally did, it was just sheer luck. See, on my last attempt, I got out of my chains and was running when suddenly I trip and fall down this hill. When I got to the bottom, I heard the guards coming for me, so I slid into this hole, like an animal’s burrow. Once inside, I saw a light at the other end, so I followed it and came out here. Well, not right here, actually it was the Ifori Forest. I kicked the tunnel closed, not caring where I was, as long as they didn’t find me.”

“So, you escaped those gods,” Vivyka said, “just to serve other gods?”

“I don’t serve any gods, well, not as a slave. I’m free now,” he told her. “Have you ever heard of a death blossom?”

“It’s a very rare flower,” Ayden answered. “It has black petals with little white tear-shaped marks on them. It’s said that death cried and the flowers bloomed from the place her tears hit the ground.”

“Bookworm type, huh?” Zavos asked.

“Yeah.”

“Well, do you know why she was crying?”

“Unrequited love.”

Zavos shook his head. “The tears had nothing to do with Malluk. When I looked up after kicking that burrow closed, I saw a woman sitting on a fallen tree. I had no idea she was a goddess. I only knew that my heart, of its own accord, leapt from my chest and went to her. Over a thousand years later and it’s yet to return.”

“Funny how those things never come back,” Ayden said, glancing over Zavos’ arm at Tess.

“Very true,” Zavos agreed. “But then, we don’t really want them to, do we?”

Ayden shook his head.

“So, why was Mortalia crying?” Vivyka asked.

“She looked very sad and I asked if I could do anything for her,” Zavos said.

“And she started crying?” Tess asked, shaking her head.

“I didn’t realize it was because of me at the time,” he told them. “But she cried because of several things; because I instantly loved her, because I didn’t know who she was so I wasn’t trying to get anything from her or to serve a god.” He laughed softly. “Serving a god was the very last thing I wanted to do, actually lower than that, it wasn’t even on the list of things I ever wanted to do. But Mortalia had been with Malluk for so long, that to have someone care about her at all, to want her for her and not for what she could do for them… that’s mostly what made her cry.”

“The other part was my condition,” he continued. “I was badly beaten. I was literally broken and bleeding, yet I was worried about her.” He shrugged. “But I was used to being battered, after a hundred years of trying to escape; I didn’t really feel it much anymore. She held my face in her hands and everything went away, the cuts, the broken bones, the pain, even all of my scars, which covered most of me. That’s when I knew what she was.” He sighed and shook his head. “But then she kissed me and… I’ve been hers ever since.”

“Why do you work for her if you’re in love with each other?” Tess asked.

“I have to do something or I’d go mad with boredom,” he told her. “Gods don’t get bored, but I sure do. Mortalia shares a plane with Chira, the goddess of justice, when she’s not with Malluk of course, and I—”

“Those stories are true then?” Ayden asked.

“More or less,” Zavos answered easily. “Anyway, I stayed on mid-plain for awhile and would watch newly deceased people as they lined up, waiting to be judged. They always looked so scared and confused. I thought to myself: self, these people need a tour guide. So here I am.”

“So, you spend all day answering the same questions over and over again?” Matt asked.

Zavos let go of Ayden and walked backwards to look at the others. He nodded. “Yeah, pretty much. But I like it. People are interesting and I like talking to them.”

“Do you guide every single person who dies?”

“Yes.”

“What if you’re in the middle of sex?” Matt wondered.

Zavos chuckled. “Death waits for the goddess of death, my friend, however long it takes,” he said with a wink.

“If I chop someone’s head off, they’re just going to stay alive until you get around to collecting their spirit?” Matt asked skeptically.

“No, to you they’re dead, to them they’re unconscious. So I can take my time and get there when I feel like it,” he told him. “Oh! It’ll be so much fun when you guys die.”

“Fun isn’t the word I’d use,” Tess said with a small laugh.

“Well, you’ve heard the saying greeting death like an old friend? Well, in your case it’ll be kind of true. We already know each other,” he said happily.

“But you’re not death,” Tess pointed out, “Mortalia is.”

“Oh, technicalities,” he said dismissively. “The point is, you’ll see a familiar face and won’t that be nice.”

“Except I’ll be dead.”

“What’s wrong with dead?” he asked. “Well, unless you’re bad and you’re be heading down to the lower planes, yeah I guess that’d be not so nice. But you’re not bad, are you?” he asked, making a show of scrutinizing her.

“No,” she told him. “So, will we hang out when I die? If we’re to be friends and all.”

“Only if you make it here,” he said, glancing around the Plane of Light. “But if not you can work your way up after you serve your sentence on the plane assigned to. Most people opt for oblivion though.” He shrugged. “It’s the boredom. When you’re dead you don’t have most desires. You no longer crave physical things or have any ambition… usually. There are exceptions, like those Malluk favors. Kieran for example.” He glanced at Matt. “She was your mom, right?”

“Yeah,” Matt answered.

Zavos nodded. “The day you destroyed her was a good one. You made Malluk so furious. It was great.” He chuckled happily at the memory. “Don’t think I have to tell you that your afterlife probably won’t be so nice, not if Chira lets him gets his hands on you.”

“Thanks,” Matt said tightly.

“Sorry. That’s just the way it goes. If I were you I’d be thinking about how to do some good before judgment day. It’s a shame Mortalia can’t help you any more. But if you’re sentenced to Malluk’s domain, she can’t interfere.”

“More?” Matt asked. “How’s she helped me so far?”

“She’s the one that talked Malluk into taking his mark off you,” Zavos told him. “She let Kieran go back as a ghost so she got him to pay her back by letting you go.”

“Why?”

Zavos shrugged. “She likes you. You’re like a mortal version of Malluk who grew a heart. She likes watching you, especially now that you’re with her.” He motioned to Sera. “She gets what Mortalia’s never been able to have, and it makes her happy to see that.”

“Doesn’t it make you sad that she still wants him… when she has you?” Ayden asked quietly.

Zavos turned back to him and shook his head. “No. Besides, I have her ninety percent of the time. I’m only sad when he hurts her,” he said solemnly.

Ayden just nodded.

Everyone fell silent for a few minutes while they stepped into a road that looked like it was paved with diamonds, all sparkling under the clear blue sky. As they walked, it seemed like everything became colorful, and yet stayed the same white, like catching a rainbow in a crystal as you turned it.

Each building they passed was perfect and seamless as if carved from one large piece of white stone. The walls of the structures were etched with thousands of tiny delicate flowers that you didn’t see until you looked closely.

The road they traveled on went straight for a long way ahead of them, then ended with a bridge leading to a shining white palace. It had stain glass windows of mostly light blue, matching the color of the roofs. Beyond the palace there were soft purple mountains and forests of pastel green that seemed to glow slightly.

A few people passed as they went, normal looking people, all of them wearing white robes and looking serenely happy.

“So you said you don’t crave physical things when you’re dead,” Tess said. “Does that mean no sex on the planes?”

“You can have sex, but if you’re dead you don’t have the urge to,” Zavos said simply. “You just end up forgetting about it because there’s no drive.”

“Ugh, put me down for oblivion,” Vivyka said, half-joking.

Tess nodded. “What about you though?” she wondered. “You live on the planes.”

He smirked. “I’m not dead.”

Finally, they stopped in front of a house. Zavos opened one of the double doors for them and waited for them to go inside. “So, here we are,” he said with a dramatic sweep of his arm. “The goddess will see you soon,” he told Sera. “After your audience with her, you can return here. Also, if there is anything you desire, just say so.”

“Thank you,” she told him.

“My pleasure,” he replied with a smile. “It’s been great talking to you all.”

“You could stay,” Ayden offered hopefully. “Talk some more?”

“I’ve got to get back to dead people now,” Zavos said, then smiled at Ayden’s disappointment. “I’ve already told you enough. Sorry, but the gods like to keep the mortal world very separate, they don’t want them knowing too much.” He shrugged. “You’re very lucky you’re here. I wonder how many people have actually made it through the Temple of the Gods before,” he mused.

“It was great meeting you,” Ayden said.

“You too,” Zavos returned. “Oh, in the morning I’ll come get you and led you back to the Mortal Plane. So, I’ll see you again.” With that, he flew off and vanished from sight.