Life and death two sides of being all spirits move between. The spiral of life each turn takes us through periods of darkness and periods of light and equal time is spent in death as in life. In life there is a striving, moving energy of creation but in death there is a remembering, an ordering a quietude preparing for the next journey of the spiral.
Hel wandered through the halls of her domains. As a death goddess she hosted souls that were on the dark of the spiral. They had shed their mortal flesh and once again were evolving into a new being. Carrying with them at a soul level the lessons learnt, the knowledge accumulated over countless turns of the spiral. She looked through the walls into the Halls looking to see who needed her attention.
In the Halls of Old Age and Illness all was going as expected and nothing was out of place in the Hall of Self Termination. Something was out of place somewhere in the Halls. Rather than mind viewing she decided to walk the Halls to find the annoying itch of wrongness.
As she wandered through the vaulted immensity of her domain she reached out a touch individual soul memory bring alignment and closure. As a host she had a responsibility, to help those souls entrusted as guests to find their balance and closure, so that they could move on either back into the light turn of the spiral or on to become pure energy.
As Hel walked the itch that niggled at the edge of her mind sharpened. She turned into the Hall of Wrongful Deaths and unerringly walked over to the furthest wall. A soul was slumped down huddled in a ball, turned in upon itself. Hel stood waiting for the soul to recognise her. They all saw her when they entered her domain and were given the induction. Hel was the only being any soul saw or spoke to while in her domain, it was a period of growth and change for the soul and they had to focus upon themselves.
Hel became impatient with the way this soul was ignoring her. She reached out and gave the soul a sharp tweek.
“Piss off” was muttered in a sulky sounding voice.
Hel reached out her skeletal left hand and lifted the soul up until it was facing her. Her eyes burned into the soul, blue in the fleshly right side of her face and fiery red in the left side skull bone.
“Now say that again” Hel hissed.
Hel could feel tension rising in the soul. This soul was going to defy her. Mentally she reached out and quickly delved into the soul lives. It was a nascent soul, this was it first transition. Young of soul and young of body hardly out of childhood this was a soul that had suffered. It should not have died so young or been treated so brutally. That was not the life this soul should have entered. Hel could see the future potential of this souls or its absolute extinction.
She felt the soul pulling away from her starting to curl inwards. Normally Hel did not interfere in her guests journey, she helped them untwine their life lines, understand action and consequence and showed them possibilities. This soul needed much more from Hel.
She was still gripping the soul in her bony hand. She transferred it to her fleshy hand, a slightly softer grasp for a damaged soul. This soul had so much potential she was not going to let it self destruct. Deciding the only way she could help this soul was to eat it. Acting on her thought she brought the soul up to her mouth, suddenly the soul started struggling. Hel opened her mouth and swallowed it whole. She could feel the soul all curled up like a hard little nut. Time was what was needed. This soul needed time to understand it was safe. That nothing could hurt it now.
Hel went back to her throne. She spent years watching souls enter and leave her domain to follow their journey on the spiral of life. She helped those souls that needed a little direction, some just hung around not making any changes. One day while watching a soul in the Hall of Violent Death she felt a little movement and a voice drifted into her mind.
Why don’t you punish him, he deserves it?”
“It is not my role to punish” Hel replied
“Then why is he here”
“To understand”
“Why do you call this soul He” Hel asked
“Because it is a man” the soul replied
“You can see that?” Hel inquired
“Of course, he is a big man and he has big fists, he not sorry for anything” said the soul.
“What do you think I should do to him” asked Hel
“Make him disappear into nothing” said the soul
“If you look at this soul can you see a fine line trailing away from him into the distance” Hel asked
“Yes” replied the soul
“That line shows the possibility of this soul becoming enlightened. Should we snuff out that possibility” Hel responded
She felt a stubborn silence from the soul.
“He doesn’t deserve any chances” muttered the soul
“Deserving or not were offer the chance” Hel responded
“You can afford to, they don’t hurt you” was flung back at her.
Hel smiled, the young were so very black and white but she now knew what this soul needed.
Hel regurgitated the soul and picked it up off the floor of her throne room.
“What do you call yourself” she asked the soul
There was a puzzled silence.
“We don’t have names here.”
“Normally no, but if you accept my offer you will need a name.”
“What offer”
“To be my psychopomp, a guide, who will escort souls to the afterlife.”
Ever the bargainer the soul responded “What’s in it for me?”
Hel smiled with the fleshy side of her face. This was just what she had expected from this soul.
“You get to go back and you get to right wrongs where you can and you will have my support. You don’t get revenge; those you would want revenge against have already passed through my Halls.”
Both eyes blue and red opened and stared at the soul.
‘Finch” replied the soul.
Hel had her psychopomp and Finch had the time and space to reach her potential.
