The next couple days are a fucking blur.
Slowly, more and more Reapers start showing up as they finish whatever job they were on when they got the call for a meeting from Aster.
Understandably, they were all confused when they appeared in the meeting hall, and I took it upon myself to explain the situation to each one, seeing as this whole thing was kind of my fault.
Despite knowing it was my fault, and actively admitting that to Aster and saying sorry more times than I think I could count, he didn't seem irritated with me. He definitely didn't like my sister or her friend though, that much was clear. He tensed every time someone brought either of them up, and his face would crinkle in disgust. I was hoping it was just anger from one of his Reapers being taken and he didn't seriously want my sister dead. I couldn't really blame him either way, but still.
By the third day, we had all but five members of the reapers gathered. We were still missing Jake, Kole, Quil, Thomas, and obviously Henry, the Reaper who had been taken.
I was sitting around the meeting table with Cole and Finnegan, who were arguing over who had reaped more souls in the past few months.
The two seemed to get along quite well, considering they were kind of total opposites. Cole, with his more typically handsome face and body, and Finnegan, who much to my surprise was in full rocker attire. This was my first time meeting him since becoming a Reaper. He was one of the oldest Reapers here, so I expected him to look something like Aster. More monster-like and traditional, I guess. But he had messy black hair with red streaks, black eyes with specks of purple in them that were surrounded by thick black eyeliner. He wore a leather jacket with all sorts of pins in it and had holes up and down his jeans. I couldn't say for sure, but it looked like it might have a forked tongue. I kept trying to sneak a peek without being caught staring at a dude's mouth.
"I had three in one day last week." Cole is arguing stubbornly.
"Like that's impressive. You only got those three because someone thought it was a good idea to bring a giant cake with a woman inside to a retirement home and it took three old guys out at the same time." I can't help but chuckle a little at that. It's not like people dying was ever funny, but I had to admit, sometimes the ways people exited this earth were slightly more entertaining than others.
"Okay, but I still had to reap each one of their souls. It's not like traveling is the tedious part of our jobs."
Finnegan scoffs, rolls his eyes and looks at me. "How many souls do you think you've reaped in the last few months?" He asks me curiously.
I think for a moment. I hadn't ever thought of shooting for high numbers on purpose, I always just took each job one at a time, taking my time to help whatever soul I had to their next life as smoothly as possible. I wasn't interested in rushing or trying to beat anyone else. I just wanted everyone I was paired with to be able to take their time and do what they needed to do to be able to move onto their next life as peacefully as possible.
"Probably twenty." I shrug. "But I take my time."
"Funny, seeing who your mentor was." Finegan jokes, grinning. "I would've thought you'd be up in the hundreds like him."
"Hey! Are you talking about me over here?" I glance over my shoulder as I feel York jumping up on me like he always did, his hands grabbing at my hair to steady himself. "Better be good things." He huffs as he pulls at my hair a little.
"Ow." I grumble as I swat at him.
"Zero says he's only reaped twenty souls in the last few months." Cole says with a cocky grin. I shake my head a little at his teasing. Honestly, up until this exact moment, I didn't even consider my numbers might be low.
"Twenty?! I've done that many in the last three days" York exclaims, swinging off me to squat on the table in front of me. I cross my arms and shrug, feeling a little put out by the way they were all acting like that was so ridiculous.
"He's only reaped twenty souls in three months, but four of those souls were enlightened." I look over my shoulder as Aster comes behind me then, his giant stature casting a shadow over me like a protective blanket.
I raise an eyebrow at his words as I lean my head back to look up at him. "Enlightened?" I ask.
"And he doesn't even know what that means!" York exclaims, and I look back to see him falling onto his back on the table with an exasperated huff. Aster chuckles and pats my shoulder, moving to sit beside me.
"When a human soul truly accepts death with open arms, it becomes enlightened, and they get a sort of… third eye in the next life they live. They become more self-aware, if you will." Aster explains. "I have often wondered if perhaps you were enlightened in your past life, because even now you exhibit some traits of a soul who has been." I raise my eyebrow at that. I guess I had always felt more self-aware than everyone else. I never worried about getting old or dying when I was a human, because I had always just accepted it was a part of life and fearing it wouldn't change the outcome. I knew nothing I did really mattered, so I didn't worry about the little things. I remember how sometimes; I had felt like the only one in the room who was really awake. The only one who really understood what was going on. Was it because I had been enlightened in my previous life? I wish there was a way I could know for sure.
"How does what I do make that happen?" I ask, ignoring York's chattering from behind me as he taunts Finegan for never having an enlightened soul.
Aster shrugs. "It's not something specific that you can repeat over and over again, per say. It's just the way you handle souls. You wait until they're completely ready to cross over, never forcing them. It's why it takes you significantly longer to reap a soul, but why your enlightenment rate is higher than we've ever seen before. The only other Reaper who comes close to your numbers would be Ivan. Even then, only about one in fifty of his souls are enlightened."
"Huh…" I look down, processing his words. Every time I came back here it seemed; I learned something new about myself. Aster told me from the beginning this was how it usually went, learning on the go. He said there was just too much about Reapers, their complete abilities and history to sit there and tell me about it. Still, I had no idea the way I was reaping souls was enlightening people.
I guess it made me feel kind of good.
I shake my head a little and refocus. "Where is Ivan? I still haven't gotten a good chance to talk to him. And now I want to talk to him about this. See what we're both doing, I guess." I say, looking around a little.
Aster smirks a little. "He's not very talkative. But he's in the training room now. Maybe you can get him to open up a little." He looks behind him and I nod.
"I'm gonna go see him then." I say, standing up. York makes kissy noises at me, and I flip him off before heading towards the training room.
I remember when I first became a Reaper, Ivan had been the one to bring me shoes. It had meant a lot at the time, new place, new faces everywhere. It was nice, I guess. And if his reaping style was producing enlightened souls too, he couldn't be a bad guy.
I wanted to get to know another one of my Reaper brothers.