Gom continued leading as Walter felt for the connection between him and the knife. Tushen’s old weapon had linked itself to the god after his deal with Purum. It sat in a piece of Walter’s domain, hidden from the soft light of the Glowpools. It was also where Walter stored Tushen’s soul, along with others Walter was unsure what to do with.

Purum had taken to her job like, well… a fish in water. Once Flipper had shown her the ropes, the mermaid had wasted no time traveling across the shores of her old continent, saving souls in need and gleefully taking the wicked. Sometimes, Walter thought she had a hand in a few soul’s deaths, but the god couldn’t berate his helper, not after knowing the pain in her heart.

“Who’s that you got there, Gom?” A voice asked, pulling Walter from his musings.

The god of Death looked up to find himself standing at the gates of a sprawling castle keep carved from solid stone. Walter squinted, searching for any trace of a seam, but found none aside from the openings for the grand gatehouse. Two carved towers flanked the entrance, the stone between carved into an intricate mural.

Walter couldn’t stop his jaw from dropping as he stared at the carvings. It looked like a great claw had carefully dug through the stone to tell the story of a small bird that had befriended a person. The two were shown eating and laughing together until another beast attacked. The person sacrificed themself for the bird, who then killed the beast. From there it showed the bird growing, taking in more people and other beasts, until it finally flew over a grand city.

“Some academic, so he claims,” Gom said to the speaker.

A guardsman grabbed Walter by the shoulder and pushed him forward. “Stop gawking.”

“It’s amazing, though,” Walter had to say.

The speaker, a guardsman standing near the gate, snorted. “Yeah, he sounds like an academic.”

“We’re placing him in jail until the end of the coronation,” Gom said. “Too many suspicious things about him.”

The gate guard nodded. “Right.”

Walter followed along, still looking up at the mural as he walked past the gate. He hoped there would be another carved on the opposite side, but there was no such luck. Instead, Walter was greeted with an imposing stone monolith of a building, again made out of solid rock.

“Was this carved out of a mountain or something?” Walter asked.

“Garegom did it himself,” a guardsman said with pride.

“And it only took a lunar cycle to do it,” another guardsman said.

“Then he melted the sand from an entire beach and turned it into the windows,” said the final guard.

“That’s incredible,” Walter said.

The guards couldn’t help but smile at the praise of their former emperor. Not even Gom could keep a straight face.

“Turn right here,” the guardsman said, taking a step away from the towering stone toward a more modest stairwell leading underground.

Walter turned to follow, but his eye caught something sparkling on the wind. He looked again but it was gone. Curious, the god opened up his soulvision.

Threads of divine energy spiraled around the castle keep, some kind of enhancement for the stone. That wasn’t what caught Walter’s eyes, however. No, on the wind stood a living soul.

Curious, Walter turned to Gom. “Do you have flying guards as well?”

Gom stopped, looking at Walter in confusion.

“Up there,” Walter pointed. “I saw a glint.”

Before anyone could react, Walter felt something cold pierce his neck. He looked down in surprise to see a jagged knife protruding from his jugular.

“Gck,” Walter said, trying to speak.

The world slowed down, and Walter’s eyes stuck to the knife. His periphery caught Flipper, the turtle hissing in alarm and panic. In the slowness, it sounded more like a balloon losing air.

The knife had more than just a jagged edge. Walter’s soul vision caught threads of divine energy, light twisted together with wind, roiling across the knife like a raging sea. It crashed against Walter’s energy, breaking like a wave on the shore. Walter’s soul greedily sucked the energy in, adding it to his pool.

Current Assets

Divine Energy on Hand

132

Total Current Assets:

132

Long-Term (Fixed) Assets

Long-Term Investments (property)

1250

Intangible Assets

450

Total Long-Term (Fixed) Assets:

1700

TOTAL ASSETS:

1732

Owner’s Equity

1500

Retained Earnings

232

Total Equity

1732

Thirty-two divine energy, according to Walter’s spreadsheet.

A guardsman. Gom by the look of it, appeared in front of Walter’s vision. Walter wanted to assure the man. The pained face he was making didn’t fit.

Then the pain oozed in like pus. Slowly, at first. As if his body didn’t quite know that it was hurt. Then the dam broke, and every nerve around his throat seared itself into Walter’s consciousness.

“GRRRRK!” Walter screamed, the inside of his mouth unable to form words. He tasted iron and his throat burned. No, it was freezing. Worse, it was both.

“Someone get a healer!” Gom shouted, and Walter realized he’d been shouting it for the past few seconds.

Dimly, Walter realized someone had pulled the knife out, and something had formed over his throat. That only made everything worse. His burning, freezing, nerves were now somehow hotter than a volcano and colder than the bottom of the ocean. Both screamed at him in a language of pain, and Walter spasmed in response.

Someone held his arms and legs, preventing him from hurting himself. And that was when Walter blacked out.