Chapter 220

[ 1,130 words ]

8:57 am PPMM

Goddess Of The Underworld

Empathetic.

I drew in a slow breath feeling the familiar pull of magic surge behind my eyes, the weight of it, the ache, the heat. WI I reached out and placed my pan gently over Sera’s forehead, the connection snapped into place like a pulse. The worl

fell away. A thousand shards of memory rushed through me at once, voices, colours, fragments of a life already gone. A candlelit room. A woman kneeling beside a dying man, pressing a trembling hand to his face. The soft whisper of a pray

The metallic tang of blood p>

It was always like this, seeing through their eyes, feeling their fear, their joy, their guilt. Each soul carried its own music and hers was a mournful lullaby, one that ached with hunger and mercy intertwined. She’d been telling the truth. She hadn’t taken from the unwilling. But she’d still taken. So many lives brushed against hers, lovers, servants, strangers who’d come to her estate seeking release, and she’d granted it in her own twisted form of compassion. Macey shifted beside me, watching silently. I could feel her curiosity buzzing against my awareness. Without thinking, I reached out w my other hand and found hers. Her fingers stiffened in surprise, but I let my magic thread through the contact, slow and steady, wrapping around her presence until she became part of the current. The energy arced between us, a living bridge

And then she saw.

Her sharp intake of breath echoed faintly in my mind as the images began to spill through. Sera standing in a moonlit courtyard, feeding from a man who smiled even as he faded. Sera teaching a young fledgling how to hunt without cruelty. Sera kneeling in front of a mirror, face streaked with blood and tears, whispering, “I can’t stop p>

A lifetime of restraint and failure. Guilt heavy enough to drag her soul into the Pits before judgment even began. I tightened my grip on Macey’s hand, grounding her as the flood threatened to overwhelm. Her heart was hammering, I could feel it echoing faintly through the magic, her energy colliding with mine like starlight against shadow.

“She tried,” I said quietly, my voice rough even in my own head. “She really did p>

Macey’s voice trembled. “Then why do I feel so sad p>

“Because she did bad things for the right reasons,” I murmured, pulling us back, piece by piece. “And in this place, intent

matters almost as much as action p>

The images began to fade, the world snapping back into focus, the chamber, the hum of the pods, the red glow reflecting

off the walls.

Sera looked up at me, eyes glistening with something that might’ve been relief. “You saw,” she whispered.

I nodded slowly, releasing Macey’s hand. “I saw p>

Macey swallowed hard, still staring at the vampire, her voice barely above a whisper. “So what happens now p>

I raised my scythe, the blade gleaming faintly in the half-light. “Now,” I said softly, “we let her rest p>

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Empathetic

Macey’s hand brushed mine again as the light faded, and for a heartbeat, I felt her soul hum in sync with mine. She didn’

-speak, but she didn’t need to. She’d felt it.

The work fell into a rhythm, simple, steady, almost meditative. One by one, the gods opened. One by one, souls stood

before me, each carrying the same wide-eyed mix of dread and hope. I didn’t think anymore. I just moved. Assess. Weigh. Release. Some went up, vanishing into light so pure it left afterimages in the dark. Some went down, dragged by gravity that wasn’t physical, pulled toward the molten depths that waited to scrub their sins clean. Both ways, the result was the

same: the pod emptied, the weight shifted, the air grew quieter.

Macey stayed beside me the whole time. Watching. Learning. Not speaking much. The first few times a soul dissolved upward, she stared in wonder, her lips parted as if she were seeing starlight for the first time. But the first one that went down, really went down, her expression changed. Her fingers twitched, and I could feel the question burning on her tongue. She didn’t ask it, though. She just looked at me, like she wanted to know whether I ever got used to it. I didn’t tel

her the truth. That you never do.

Instead, I kept my focus on the screen, scanning the next name. “I’ll handle this one,” I said quietly.

She nodded, stepping back, her gaze flicking between me and the pod as the next soul materialised, a witch this time, young and trembling, still half-lost in the fog of death.

I talked her through it, calm and steady, the way Levi taught me. Then came the same process: the pulse of connection, the flicker of memory, the verdict. Up. The light burst outward, fading into nothing, leaving the pod clean again. It went on like that for what felt like hours. The motions were automatig, the judgment balanced. Macey eventually stopped flinching when the dark ones fell, though I could still see the tension in her jaw. Her empathy ran deep; it always had, and I couldn’t help but wonder if she’d inherited that from Mum or if it was just… her. When we finally reached the last soul on the roster, I leaned against the console, rubbing a hand/over the back of my neck. “That’s the last one,” I murmured.

Macey exhaled beside me, the sound soft and full of exhaustion. “How do you do this every day p>

I looked down at her, at those big brown eyes. “You learn to find peace in it. It’s not about punishment, it’s about balance. Every soul that goes up, every one that goes down… it’s part of keeping everything steady p>

She nodded slowly, gaze flicking toward the final empty pod. “Still feels heavy p>

“It is,” I admitted, offering a faint smile. “But it’s the good kind of heavy p>

Her eyes met mine for longer than they should have, and something unspoken passed between us, something that didn’t belong to this place of death and endings.

Then she looked away, breaking the spell. “Well,” she said, stretching her arms, “I guess detention’s officially over for the

day, right p>

I chuckled under my breath. “Yeah. You’ve earned your release. How about some Rod? You’ve got to be hungry by now” I

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Empathetic

suggested out of pure instinct. Macey loved food and coffee and needed lots of both to avoid a mental breakdown.

She responded with a hand to her stomach and a groan as her head flew back, “Yes! Food p>

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8:57 am P

Goddess Of The Underworld

Juliet Zvayi

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