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Not that I really need it. I'm the seer on our team, the one who can talk to the dead. Mathias is the porter who opens the port to the next world with his scythe and guides the ghost through. I'm not sure why I even have one. Maybe it's an aesthetic thing. Nothing says I'm a reaper like a huge blade hanging over your shoulder.
I make sure to lock my room up tightly and head down the corridor towards where Mathias' is. At least it isn't far of a walk.
"Are you ready?" he asks as he leaves his room and spots me, his own scythe peeking out from over his shoulder. It's bigger than mine, with a thicker blade and a less intricate finish. In other words, it suits him.
"As I'll ever be. Do you know what we're facing?"
He shakes his head. "We've just got a report of a ghost in a house that's for sale. No one with any reaper blood has been there up until now, so it took a while for them to realise what was happening, but a lot of people were saying it didn't feel right to buy it."
"So they want us to go do our thing so they can make money off a house sale?"
He lets out a light laugh. "Effectively. But also because it's our job."
"I hope we get a bonus from the estate agents."
"We will," he assures me. "At least, that's how it normally works."
Actually being paid for the work we do is a bonus I never expected when I discovered I was a reaper. While we do get a reduced rate compared to the reaper guard, it's more than enough to fund what we need. I've never had so much money to my own name before, and it's still a confusing entity for me. "Well then, what are we waiting for?"
"Literally nothing. We're heading to the portal room now," he points out.
"You know what I mean. Hopefully, this is an easy one."
"I don't know, it could be a ghost who misplaced one of their socks," Mathias teases.
"How wouldn't that be easy?"
"Have you ever tried to search for a specific sock of a person you don't know?"
"Well, no."
"Then that's how it isn't an easy one. It has to be the right sock or there's a problem."
"How long did it take you to find it?" I ask, sensing from the frustration in his voice that he's speaking from personal experience.
"Three weeks."
"Ouch."
"The ghost was really grateful," he says as if that makes it all better.
I suppose in some ways it does. Our entire purpose as a species is to help the dead move on to their next existence. We should take pride in that, even if it means finding socks for them.
"We're here," he says, indicating to the door I've come to know well.
I don't know how the portal into town works, but it makes things so much easier for us moving back and forth. Going by car takes forty-five minutes, whereas this way, one second we're in the academy, and the next we're in the centre of town and much closer to where we need to be.
Sometimes, I wonder why the academy wasn't just built closer to town in the first place, but then I remember the sacred grove in the centre. The trees that grow there are part of what give our scythes power. Every time I step inside the trees, I can feel the power thrum through me, calling to me. I can't harness any of it directly, but I know it's there.
Mathias pushes open the door to the portal room and gestures for me to go through first. I smile as I brush past him and step straight through. A few months of using it and it no longer makes me nervous.
A brief tingle travels through my body as I step through the magic and to the other side. It's gone the moment I step onto pavement, leaving me momentarily disoriented despite knowing precisely where I am. I can't explain the way travelling like this makes me feel, but it's not like anything I've ever experienced before.
Mathias appears next to me and pulls out his phone to type in the address of the house we need to check out. Hopefully, it isn't too far away. I don't like arriving at a destination out of breath, it makes the whole process harder than it should be.
"Ten minutes," Mathias says, answering my
unspoken question.
