Gravespade

As Death flew through the world consumed by ash, he tried to piece together where he went wrong. Time, for Death, changed when the world had. He used to wander through the space of time endlessly, from puzzle piece to puzzle piece, searching through a broken pane of glass for his own continuity. Time was a gossamer web spun from whatever shape he desired, and remembering this he almost reminisced, but couldn't even comprehend it anymore. Every moment here lasted forever; he could no longer fly freely through the spectrum of his infinite influence. He had none. Time was linear, and he had little else to do. Everything had died, putting an end to death. He was starving. He was going crazy.

He desperately grasped for memories and gripped them with his now feeble fist of analysis once they were found. The end began a century before the world became barren, Death thought, What else? Death felt the sting of dementia's distractibility now more than ever. How long ago had the world become an ashen wasteland? A year? Decade? Century? He couldn't remember. He tried to console himself by admitting that humanity was in its last days anyway, and that humans would've caused their own extinction had it not been him, but this didn't work. He wanted to see her again. Focus, he told himself. He needed to remember what happened so he could forget again and repeat the process forever. What else could he do? It started with his former servant, an Ankou. This he knew, and Death remembered first how the story plagued him with shame, then remembered the story.

It began with Death doing his duty in taking a married couple, inadvertently creating his greatest rival in their son, who grew obsessed with the idea of extending his life. When he had reached adulthood, he grew gravely ill and utilized his research to begin conducting experiments with life. He learned of a way to possess another person after death in a delicate ritual, and picked a man named Caedmon as his subject. The two shared a generational feud, so he would take over Caedmon's body and never have children, thereby ending their feud once and for all. But his ignorance of Death's process caused an astronomical oddity: when The Reaper had called on one of his Ankou to mark him for death early, it was as the ritual was being performed that she cursed him with her touch. Rather than possessing Caedmon after death, this caused him to possess the Ankou before death. Having no body, she became trapped deep within his consciousness instead.

I should’ve sent the Ankou earlier. Death thought, and wondered if that was his great mistake. He continued digging through his vast grave of memories for what happened next, and saw himself approaching the man immediately. He offered to heal his ailments in exchange for his imprisoned servant, but the man, realizing he had cheated Death, hesitated. Death warned him the decision could only be made once, and if he rejected the offer, every person he became fond of would be taken by him immediately. In his arrogance, the man thought he could find a way to subvert this curse and refused. He regretted his decision quickly, however; for as his years passed, they were passed alone. He knew only Death, but never saw him again. He became a vagabond for many miserable years as Death humbled him religiously, ensuring every pleasant conversation ended in a demise. Eventually, a woman named Essenagy took an interest in him.

She, Death remembered, I could never forget.

The Immortal tried his hardest to keep her at a distance, but on one drunken night she kissed him, and he could no longer conceal his inward feelings. He feared the worst. Death had never seen this woman before, which was rare, and upon knowing her, he couldn't bring himself to end her. So, confused and startled, he didn't. The Immortal married her in private, and the two began sharing a life. But all the love in the world couldn't soothe The Immortal's pain, so after some convincing, Essenagy decided that loving him meant letting him go. Together they enlisted the help of a selfish magician to bring an end to The Immortal. When he unbound the Ankou and accomplished this, she became free from Death, and The Magician created two new enemies for himself.

The former Ankou regarded Death as a tyrant and swore allegiance to The Adversary, who she tried bringing to Earth using herself as the vessel. But The Magician had been tracking her relentlessly in his quest for immortality, and found her during the transformation. Seeing no better option, he killed her as she was becoming The Adversary, thus destroying both.

The first feeling Death had felt, for Essenagy, was equal parts lovely and horrifying. All the new ones he encountered only seemed to be the latter. He stopped and looked into his hand at her heart-shaped locket. Once he remembered his destination, he flew faster. Focus.

He remembered how the universe seemed to sense the imbalance. When The Adversary ceased, Omni ceased, but the four traits which define Omni are void of black and white – they are merely grey, and they continued existing, as did Death.

Omniscience was found by a high school valedictorian turned addict. Omnipresence was found by a traveler who slipped into a coma, unable to physically be everywhere his mind was. Omnipotence was found by a man who worshipped power, who, upon being disgraced from a city he was once mayor, set fire to it and caused every sliver of life there to perish; Death saw this, and it gave him his first sensation of horror. Omnibenevolence was found by Essenagy, who consulted The Magician immediately. Together they searched for the other three, planning to surrender their abilities and create another Omni, but Omnipotence wanted their powers for himself, and The Magician had his own scheme in mind.

Yes, Death thought, and tried with every fiber of the ragged and torn cloth that was his being to remember what happened next and how it ended, but couldn’t no matter how hard he tried. So, locked in a necklace and searching for the one man with the power to free him, Death flew across vast stretches of grey to the black snow of the east, where he found The Magician's lonely quarters in an intricately crafted house of ash. Excitement was his final new emotion. Death tried to approach The Magician quietly - but found he couldn't sneak up on him anymore.

"It's been a long time." The Magician said. He remained seated in his abstract version of a living room, pretending to drink tea out of a mug he fashioned from ash in a chair he fashioned from ash. He did this solely for the sake of whimsy and cliché.

"I’ve been trying to remember… I’m always trying to remember now. What-"

“What happened after Essenagy and I went looking for the other three?”

Death stood, silent, and knew the answer to his next question before he asked it.

“How did you know?”

“We’ve had this conversation hundreds of times now. Next, you’ll ask me to bring her back. Then, when I explain the cost, we’ll both be left disappointed.”

“Not this time.”

“We’ll see.”

The Magician motioned for Death to ask his question, as per tradition.

“What happened after you found Omnipresence’s hospital room?”

The Magician cleared his throat and began his answer, making certain it sounded overly rehearsed.

“We found Omniscience next to him, waiting. Omnipotence followed us and started absorbing them to become Omni, but I wanted the power too. I knew you loved Essenagy, so I -”

“How?” Death interrupted, causing The Magician to stumble over his words.

“Ten years had passed since I killed The Immortal. She hadn’t aged a day.”

Finally, Death realized his true mistake. The Magician continued.

“I put her in harm’s way to keep you occupied, and I died to possess Omnipotence. For a moment, I had untold power.”

The Magician stared into the distance, and Death wondered what emotion he saw in those eyes.

“What next?”

The Magician snapped back to reality, whatever that had become, and shot Death a playful glare for bringing him back from wherever he drifted off.

“I thought about Essenagy, and how I wanted to earn her respect the same way she earned mine. I realized no man should have unlimited power and left it behind. I found I had conditional immortality, learned all I had desired about the mystic, received all the grace I craved, and saw all the places I missed. I became fulfilled. I also regretted it immediately-”

“Why?”

The Magician glared again, no longer playfully.

“Omniscience helped Omnipresence gain a foothold in his mind when I was still in there. Omnipresence took him back to the city he burned, and held him there until he felt his sludgy soul char. Since I was branching him to the present, Omnipotence set fire to the world in his last moments. Many died, including her. I guess Omniscience didn’t foresee that.”

“So… it was your fault.”

The Magician didn’t blink, the answer was obvious. He only continued.

“There was a nuclear fallout. Without Omnibenevolence, no one took care of anyone. Humanity died out quickly. All that’s left is you, me, Omniscience, and Omnipresence. Kind of ironic, isn’t it?”

Death slowly raised Essenagy’s locket. The Magician’s face lit up ever so slightly, then he frowned.

"She's part of you now. I can't just bring her back from nothing. All I can do is replace you with her."

Death remained silent for a moment, and if The Magician hadn’t known any better, he would’ve thought Death remembered how to think.

“Tell me,” Death said, “Did you ever tell The Immortal your name was Caedmon?”

The Magician was shocked. He hadn’t heard that name since he was a boy.

"The fathers in my family only passed it onto their sons for the sake of pettiness. They wanted the name of the man who killed The Immortal to be my grandfather’s."

"You succeeded."

The Magician looked Death where he imagined his eyes ought to be.

"I never told him my name."

Death glided over to The Magician and carefully laid the locket in his hand.

“I’d rather restore her life than exist as Death.”

As he said this, The Magician analyzed Death’s voice for the first time; it was ghastly but of silk. It attacked him, but softly. He realized it was beautiful. He smiled his signature smirk, one thing that never changed, and opened the locket. It was a picture of Essenagy and The Immortal at their wedding. He stared into Death, deep into Death, and began drawing his old companion to the surface. He decided he wanted to know penance, so as Death began to fade at the zenith of the transformation, The Magician had his last clever idea. He took a knife from his pocket, and with a flick of his wrist he was no more, and Death existed when Omnibenevolence returned. For a moment, they found themselves staring at each other in manic confusion.

Death's powers, already akin to omniscience and omnipresence, began to restore. His evolving emotions had created a soul that began to draw in Omnibenevolence's, and together they realized they could replace Omni. They began to change things one small step at a time, and across the forming landscape of the new age, Omniscience was waiting for the mathematical certainty of the next infinity. He surrendered his spirit to Omnipresence, knowing that together they were to serve as the new Adversary. The four moved into the new age without omnipotent power, operating under the agreement that no man or spirit should ever know its corruption. With that, intelligent life's cyclical nature continued – and the four of them, who were now both only two and one, looked ahead with hope - and foreboding.