Aetheria and I stand at the edge of the Eternal Dream. This place had many names, the realm of Death, the afterlife, the final resting place, but Eternal Dream was a new one. It stretches out before me, an endless expanse of fog and shadow.

  "Of course I knew of your desire to come here," Aetheria murmurs, her voice soft and solemn. "I am always watching over you, remember? Also about your brother, you have my deepest condolences..."

  "Thanks," I mutter, and take a deep breath. With that, I make a few tentative steps into the land of the dead. I glance back at Aetheria, and she gives me a small wave.

  "I’ll wait here. Things could get out of hand if I were to enter that one's domain."

  "Alright," I reply. Turning away from Aetheria, I venture deeper into Death's realm, feeling the cold air wrap around me like a gentle embrace. It reminds me of a loved one's final goodbye.

  As I slip past the resting spirits, some stir from their eternal slumber, their ghostly gazes flicking toward me. Their eyes hold a mixture of curiosity and resignation, but they make no move to approach. They seem to know that I do not belong here, yet they allow me passage all the same.

  "It’s okay, go back to sleep." I tell the spirit closest to me, and it listens. The spirit's head hits the ground, and its eyes drift shut once more.

  I like to think that I’m in control of my life, but realistically, things happen to me, and I react. This is how I’ve always lived. Even now, I only have an inkling of a plan.

  But I will enact it for my clan, for Elias Crowsong. He will live.

  It doesn’t take long before I find him. He’s right where I thought he would be.

  Elias walks hand in hand with the towering figure of Death, his bony fingers encircling my brother's fist. I stifle a breath, and run towards them.

  "Hey!" I yell, reaching out to grab Elias' free arm. "C'mon, this way!" With a swift yank, I pull him free from Death's grasp, and we run ahead.

  Elias stumbles but quickly regains his footing, his eyes wide with surprise. "Hey! What are you doing here?!"

  "Doesn't matter," I pant, giving his wrist another hard tug. "Just follow me!"

  We run through the land of the dead. Shadows nip at our heels, and Death's chilling presence looms over us.

  "Should we really be doing this?" Elias asks, but he doesn’t dig his heels in.

  I glance at him, and reply with a question of my own.

  "Do you remember when we snuck out of the house?"

  "Which time?" he asks, a laugh escaping his lips despite our current situation.

  "Solstice of Souls. Four?... Yeah, four years ago."

  "I remember," Elias chuckles, a nostalgic glint in his eyes. "Dad was pissed."

  I can see the image in my mind perfectly, why couldn’t I just show him?... Aetheria had called this place the ‘Eternal Dream’. If it was a dream just like my own, then there must be a way to manipulate it too, right? I close my eyes for a moment, and think back on my own dream. Every movement that Aetheria made, every action, every word. I knew I wasn’t able to move through time and space on command, but changing a dream was possible, wasn’t it? It had to be.

  I hold a hand out, and snap my fingers.

  Its effect is slow, but noticeable. Our surroundings become translucent, and I see a younger version of ourselves playing in the Crypts under the house, hiding away from the celebrations above.

  "Clara," Elias breathes, reaching out for a version of himself who had just barely become a teen. His hand fazes through, but he smiles nonetheless. "How are you doing this? I can see the memory…"

  "Does it matter?" I grin, trying to focus on manipulating this dream, however slightly.

  An image of our father appears behind the two children. He’s obviously upset as he tries to grab them, but they simply run deeper into the catacombs.

  That’s when a cold, raspy voice echoes out from behind us. Death found us. "There you are…"

  "We’re going to run, just like we did back then," I whisper, clutching Elias’s hand tight.

  We barely manage to stay out of Death’s reach, hiding, running, and sneaking through the Eternal Dream.

  I feel Elias's grip on my hand tighten, and I focus all my energy on staying one step ahead of Death. I use my knowledge of this place to hide us from him, if only for a moment longer.

  "Clara," Elias pants beside me, "how do you know where to go?"

  "I don’t!" I lie, my voice hoarse from running.

  Together, we dive into our shared memories, each one bringing a bittersweet smile to our faces.

  The large skull of a monster rests in the distance. Elias climbs in first, and then offers me his hand as he helps me up. We burrow ourselves deep inside its remains, and hide.

  "Do you remember when I broke that vase?"

  "Do I remember that vase? How could I forget? Dad blamed you even though he didn't see it! It wasn’t fair."

  "And do you remember what you did?"

  "I… took the fall for it, and got grounded forever. He was just talking about it a week ago! I heard him in his study with Ethel."

  Thoughts of a life lived 99 lifetimes ago slowly begin to flood back to me now.

  "How about at dinner when you’d always give me your strawberry poke cake?"

  "Well you know I don’t like sweets," Elias lies, looking away from me as he scratches his chin.

  "You liar! You love treats, why else would you sneak into the pantry in the middle of the night to look for leftovers?" I laugh, and punch his arm lightly.

  "Y-You knew about that?" Elias stutters out, a light shade of red falling over his features.

  "Of course I did. Elias, you have protected me all this time in your own way."

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  "You really think so? I’m… glad."

  As we leave the monstrous skull behind and reach the end of our journey, I know that I can’t go any further. I stop abruptly, forcing Elias to halt as well. Of course, we couldn’t have ran from our ‘father’ forever. We always had to come back home at the end of the chase.

  "Beyond this point, they're waiting for you," I state, gesturing towards the hazy figures in the distance.

  "Who?"

  "Everyone," I say softly, letting go of his hand. "Our family, our loved ones, everyone that has been lost to us."

  Elias looks at the crowd in the distance, and a figure with dark hair waves at him.

  "Mom?..." His voice trembles, and I can see the longing in his eyes.

  "Go on. Don’t keep them waiting any longer than you have to."

  Elias takes a short step forward, followed by a second. It pains me to see him go, but this was destined to happen. Death is natural after all.

  There is no world where I save Elias Crowsong. Fate has made more than apparent by this point. But there could at least be one world where he didn’t have to be afraid, and with a stranger on his final walk.

  But he stops.

  "Wait, aren't you coming?" Elias's excitement fades, and is replaced by confusion. "You have to meet her! She'll be so excited to finally get to meet you, I just-"

  "I can't go with you," I interrupt, shaking my head from side to side. "It's not my time yet. There’s still much to do, and Clarence is waiting for me. A lot of others are too." The words taste bitter on my tongue, but they’re the truth.

  "I’ll be waiting for you too then," he smiles at me. "And I hope I don’t see you for a good long while."

  I can’t help but smile as I watch him go.

  "Elias, if you could still protect me. Even in death, would you?" I shout, and he turns back to me, his expression changing.

  "You mean like Ethel?..."

  "Yeah, like Ethel."

  I knew it was unfair to ask such a thing of him. Who would willingly want to go through the pain of living again? Only a select few in our family had ever opted for such a cruel fate.

  "I will be there for you, no matter what," Elias says, with a hint of reluctance in his voice. Though his words are sincere, the crease in his brow, and the way his lips curl down speak much louder.

  It was obvious that he would do it for me, but not for himself. I feel awful asking him such a thing, and I shake my head.

  "I'll see you in a good long while," I murmur as he disappears into the distance, reuniting with loved ones he hadn't seen in so long.

  I stand there in silence, and an odd feeling washes over me. I feel… at peace with this goodbye. But that peace is short-lived as a grim voice calls out to me.

  "How strange. In all my years, I've never had my job stolen from me." Death's hollow voice sends a shiver down my spine, but I refuse to look away from this happy sight.

  "He told me that he was scared," I call out, trying to sound braver than I feel. "I thought it would be better if he went with someone he knew."

  "What a kind soul you are, but all come to know me," Death muses, his tone almost joyous. "I am curious about one thing though. Clara Crowsong, how did you know the way here?"

  "It was just a lucky guess, I guess?..."

  "Ah, the power of Luck," Death chuckles. "Fate...and Karma..." He practically spits the last one.

  My heart freezes at the mention of Karma, and I can feel his gaze bore into the back of my head.

  "Turn around and face your God. I want to get a good look at you, Clara."

  I do as he says, and turn on my heel. I keep my gaze low, avoiding his own.

  "Those eyes of yours," Death whispers, and grabs a hold of my jaw. "They wouldn't know anything of Karma, would they, Clara Liore Crowsong?" Death leans in closer, and from the dark recesses of his skull, shadowy wisps appear in the shape of an eye as he stares into my very soul.

  My eyes take on a golden tint as a prompt appears before me.

  [Get lost, old man]

  In the eye of Death, I see that same message mirrored.

  "There you are," Death hisses in a low tone, raising his scythe.

  I break free from my fear, and run as fast as I can.

  "Remember, Clara. Luck, Fate, and Karma do not exist in this world. They have all met their ends."

  My heart pounds violently in my chest, and my feet echo against the cold, lifeless ground. I turn around, and Death is upon me.

  "Impossible odds were Luck's demise!" Death bellows, slicing my wrist with a swift flick of his scythe. A searing pain shoots through my arm, followed by a small trickle of crimson blood.

  [You have been marked by Death!]

  "Paradoxes, choices that could not be made, tore Fate asunder!" My chest burns as another cut appears.

  [You have been marked by Death!]

  "And Karma, poor Karma, she-" His voice trails off, halted by something new.

  A flash of white flickers past me, a blinding contrast against the Eternal Dream.

  Aetheria appears, her form a welcome surprise as she knocks Death's scythe aside. It finds itself embedded into the ground. Over half the tassels on her dress are raised now, and the sheer amount of mana pouring from her frame causes the bleak world around her to glow a radiant shade of blue.

  "Death," Aetheria begins, her voice firm and unwavering. "How does an idea meet its end? Luck can be made, Fate forged, and Karma will never abandon those who treat it right. A notion cannot simply die."

  Death’s features are hard to read, but I’ve been around enough skeletons to understand what he’s feeling.

  Animosity.

  Disgust.

  Rancor.

  Rage.

  Death pulls his scythe free from the ground, and remains silent for a moment, as if weighing his options.

  "For a while now, I had a strange feeling. Anytime I saw that girl, it felt as if I were forgetting something important." As he speaks, more shadowy figures emerge from the darkness. At first it was just one, and then two, and then a dozen more.

  Until there were 99 dark figures standing around us.

  [Stay close]

  I press my back against Aetheria's, and the two of us stare down the countless Deaths that encircle us.

  "Then these old friends of mine have told me of a debt paid, a life overdue," the original Death snarls, his hatred directed towards me.

  I can’t help but shout back, "I didn't ask for this!"

  Aetheria holds a hand out, stopping me from coming any closer.

  "These memories of lives that aren’t my own, are begging me to kill you right now," Death continues, his voice like ice. "But I won't."

  "Then what do you intend to do?" Aetheria asks, her eyes narrowing.

  "The girl has been marked for death twice; it will find her naturally now," Death replies, venom dripping from each word.

  "What's natural about that?!" Aetheria yells, her anger matching his own.

  "Her very existence is sin incarnate! Her being here goes against the natural order!" Death shouts, and he’s seething with anger.

  I can see him shaking, the air itself is quivering around him, and the Eternal Dream rumbles as it attempts to contain its owner's rage. It feels like my lungs are about to rupture just from standing in front of this immense pressure.

  I find myself holding onto Aetheria’s arm, and I hide behind her.

  "She is a child!" Aetheria's defense rings through the air between them.

  "A child that never should have been born!" Death barks back, his rage reaching its peak.

  I peek out from behind Aetheria, my mind racing with questions, but she remains between Death and I, another tassel rising from her arm.

  Death lowers his scythe, relenting. "I don't intend to fight you. Go."

  "Is this how Death treats his kin!?" Aetheria screams, but it’s more of a judgment than a question.

  "If the girl somehow manages to reach her next Requiem, I will be cordial. But that is all I will be."

  Aetheria backs away from Death, pulling me in close as she draws a card. She throws it at the ground beneath us, and in an instant, we are whisked away from the Eternal Dream, leaving Death behind.