My body hurt as if a thousand pins were constantly prickling me at all points in my body, hitting bone each time. But that was nothing compared to the pain my brain was going through. It felt like I had been given an exam for the last seven days, without any rest or sleep. And to top all of that, I was struggling with the revelation of my powers. But the most important emotion that had permeated every fibre of my being was the absolute dread, the mind-numbing fear of staring death in the face, of the evilest and unnatural thing I had ever seen, the grim reaper. I didn’t think I would ever forget the feeling of being stared at by the emotionless pits that were reaper’s eyes or the feeling of despair I felt at staring right back into the abyss.

It was while I was in this state of mind, kneeling with my head bowed, looking as if I had lost everything near and dear to me, with my teacher lying unconscious beside me, recently brought back from the dead, that I became aware of faint footsteps which were gradually getting louder. By that point, though, I was at my breaking point. I didn’t care enough to see who or what was coming or whether the footsteps belonged to someone who wished to do me harm. If they did want to do end my existence, I just wanted it to be quick, so that I could get the images of the reaper out of my mind.

“Get a hold of yourself, will you?” To say that I was stunned to hear that voice at that moment in time and the situation, I was in, would be an understatement. I couldn’t believe it. As I looked up to confirm my suspicions regarding the identity of the speaker, I was still shocked to see Emma Turner walking towards me with all the authority of a divine being forced to walk the same roads as ordinary mortals.

I would be shocked beyond measure normally, but by that point I was numb. This was just another random event that shouldn’t have happened but had happened simply because I seemed to be involved. I couldn’t get the words out my mouth as Emma reached me and stood before me with a firm look on her face.

“How long are you just going to stare at me? I know I am beautiful but this is too much. Let’s get going! Maybe you haven’t noticed it yet but your teacher needs help and fast! Coming from death isn’t normally something a person’s core has to go through.”

Her words stunned the life out of me! How did she know what had happened here? But I was too drained to ask any questions. I just nodded towards her and with great effort, picked myself up off the ground.

I moved towards Samuel to carry him when Emma intervened, saying, “You are in no state to carry him. I can carry him; you just take care that you don’t fall over yourself. The drain on your core is too much for you to handle after just one month as an Untethered. Here, take this. It should help.” She passed me a pill that looked eerily similar to the one Frank had given me the day I became an Untethered. I just popped it in my mouth without any questions. The effect was instantaneous, the general weariness leaving my body. But the pill couldn’t do anything about the mental shock I was experiencing.

Emma heaved Samuel on her shoulder and set off, motioning at me to follow her. It was after a while that I noticed something peculiar and I asked Emma about it.

“We aren’t moving towards Frost’s club, are we? Where are we going, or rather, where are you taking me?”

“Astute observation. Some people want to meet you. Don’t worry, I will inform Frost of where I am taking you. He won’t mind. In fact, he might even welcome it.”, she said, nonchalant as always.

I was in no mood for vague non-answers tonight. My teacher had been killed, I had stared death right in its eyes and then brought the aforementioned dead teacher back to life. So, excuse me if I was a little short of patience. And I voiced my thoughts to Emma in less than favourable terms, consequences be damned!

“Fuck this, fuck your answers and most importantly, fuck you! I am not in the mood for your bullshit tonight. Either you tell me what’s going on or we go our separate ways.”, I shouted with as much force I could muster, adamant on receiving some answers.

Emma looked back at me for a moment before saying, “No, you won’t. Don’t forget, I am carrying your teacher. I don’t think you would leave your mentor in the hands of a person who you don’t think particularly trustworthy.”

Damn, she had me there. I had no choice but to continue following her.

She continued, “ We should hurry. The grim reaper always leaves huge traces after it has left a place. Untethered and monsters alike will be attracted to this place now. And believe me, when I say this, anyone, be it Untethered or monster, who follows the tracks of the grim reaper has nothing but nefarious intentions. We don’t want to be present when the crowd arrives.”

Her words struck a chord with me and I followed after her. We moved in total silence, with a brisk pace, eager to leave the spot of my misadventure.

Some questions had been bugging from the moment I saw her tonight and I decided to take my chances.

“Were you at the scene when, you know, that creature came?”, I asked, too fearful of the grim reaper to say his name out loud.

“The grim reaper? You can say his name, you know? It won’t come again just because someone says his name.”, Emma said, amused at my current predicament.

“Yeah, that. And you still haven’t answered my question, you know?”

Emma scoffed at me before replying, “Yes, I was present there. Satisfied? Forgive me if I didn’t want to die at the hands of the grim reaper.”

I couldn’t fault her for that sentiment, although I was still feeling really salty.

“Where are we going, by the way? I haven’t seen this part of town ever.”, I asked, finding myself in unfamiliar surroundings.

“That’s because this an exclusive part of the city that only Untethered can access, that is if they know of this place. And most Untethered aren’t privy to this information.”

This was becoming more and more mysterious by the minute. A secret part of the city that was accessible only to the Untethered but most of those concerned didn’t know about this place.

Most of the area was deserted, devoid of any buildings or life in general. It was in this desert of nothingness that we came across a small shed. The door of the shed was opened by Emma and she went inside, beckoning me to follow her. I hesitated for a moment before going inside. What I saw inside surprised me, even though I was kind of expecting something like this, to be honest. The inside of the shed contained a long hallway that shouldn’t have fitted inside the tiny shed we were supposedly in.

But what really threw me off was the door at the end of the hall. It was a large wooden door, decorated with intricate carvings. The art on the door seemed to be beyond the realms of any ordinary human capabilities. To see such designs on a door in the middle of nowhere once again reminded me not to be surprised with anything in the Dimension.

The door opened with a loud creak as soon as we approached it. We passed through the door and were met almost immediately by a woman who had her entire face masked, except for her eyes.

Emma passed Samuel over to her and without a word, the woman took him and rushed to go somewhere. When I made to follow them to ensure the safety of Samuel, I was stopped by a raised hand, courtesy of Emma.

I tried to shake her hand off but she was surprisingly strong. I asked her, “ Who was that and where is she taking Samuel?”

Emma put her hand down and said, “Don’t fret. She is the healer. She will take care of Samuel. We have other things to take care of. Follow me.”

I started following her but my questions weren’t finished. “Why does he need to be taken care of? Didn’t I, you know, heal him enough already?”

Emma continued walking but eventually replied, “You did bring back from the dead, yes, but reversing death isn’t such an easy proposition. On a physical level, he is fine, but his core was claimed by the reaper. When you reversed time out there, you brought his core back from the reaper’s grasp and forced it back into his body.”

I was puzzled by her answer. “Then shouldn’t he be fine. If he got his core back, shouldn’t he back to normal?”

Emma seemed annoyed by my question and it showed in her answer. “The core isn’t something you just play around with, slotting and fitting it wherever you want to, whenever you want to. Even the grim reaper doesn’t have that much control over cores. Even he can’t give back someone’s core once he has claimed it.”

She seemed very knowledgeable on this subject, almost too knowledgeable. But I was afraid to call her out on it since I wasn’t willing to go through another tirade. But her previous tirade still hadn’t ended.

“Samuel’s core is unstable right now. When it stabilises, believe me, you will be the first to know it. What you did tonight was unnatural, David. Against the very laws that govern this world. Believe me, there will be repercussions. Not from the Untethered but forces far beyond our scope of power. Tonight, you opened a can of worms you aren’t ready to face yet.”

By the end of her rant, I was sweating profusely. ‘Repercussions from forces beyond my scope of power.’ What did that even mean? What forces? She couldn’t have been vaguer if she tried.

We finally came across a door that was rather simplistic in nature, especially compared to the previous door we had walked through. Emma opened the door and asked me to go inside. I walked through the door and Emma followed me, shutting the door behind me.

The first thing I saw inside was the long table in the middle of the room. Around the table were some chairs, although it would be much more appropriate to call them mini-thrones. And at the head of the table, was the grandest throne I had ever seen, resplendent in appearance.

All the chairs except the head chair were occupied. Looking around the room, I saw that the occupants of the chairs were extremely diverse in appearance. There were people of all ages, races, and gender. But the most surprising thing for me was seeing Frost occupying one of the chairs. He briefly looked in my direction and passed me a calming smile before looking straight past me towards Emma.

I stood before the crowd, nervous and anxious, wondering what to do. Before I wallow in my anxiety any further, the man who seemed to be oldest in appearance there addressed, “David V. Goliath. Hmm, interesting name. Do you know where you are?”

The man looked to be ancient and his eyes reflected wisdom that only a person who had seen everything could have. He was bald but had the thickest beard I had ever seen in a person. I could feel that this man commanded respect, demanded it, in fact, and I would be well served giving it to him.

“No, sir. I don’t know where I am.”

He nodded towards me and then said, “I would be surprised if you did. You, young man, are in front of the Council of twenty-one, the guardians and governors of the Dimension on planet Earth. Each person you see here today is the strongest, wisest and most experienced Untethered on the planet, except our leader, who couldn’t be present here today.” He pointed towards the empty head chair.

I nodded towards him, assuring him that I understood that I was in front of some very important people who I’d rather not offend.

“Each of us governs a certain area of the earth. The more experienced guardians govern a larger area while smaller areas are under the jurisdiction of the less experienced of our guardians. Do you understand?”

I thought for a minute and then asked him a question which I thought to be pertinent, “How do you divide the areas that each person will govern?”

I saw most of the guardians smiling or nodding at me as if approving the validity of my question. But it was still the ancient one who replied, not an ounce of emotion in his voice. This guy seemed like an older version of Samuel to be honest if Samuel ever got as old as the earth itself.

“We don’t divide the areas. The regions were divided based on Luna. It would be more appropriate to say that it was divided on the basis of red Luna. When this council was still in its infancy, it was found that the entire planet doesn’t see the red Luna at once. So, whenever the red Luna appeared over a certain region, Untethered were sent in all directions to marks the spots where the appearance of the red Luna ended and the white Luna began. This is how the regions were divided and we have never had to change our division of regions ever.”

“But we can get to that later. What this council is much more interested in is you, young man. Do you know that you are the first third-slotter in over two millennia we have had on our planet? In fact, the only other third-slotter we have in our ranks is the leader of this council. Yes, it would be an understatement to say that we have been looking forward to meeting you.”

“Young Frost over here convinced us to hold our approach towards you for some time.” At this, the whole council looked at Frost with a stern look, as if chastising him for some mistake he made. Frost returned their looks with a sheepish smile. If what the old man had said was true, then I was extremely grateful to Frost for protecting me from this council until this point.

“Although most of us didn’t agree with him, the points he made regarding letting you acclimatise to the Dimension and its various realities were rather pertinent and we reluctantly acquiesced to his request.”

“But your actions tonight have forced our hands and moved up our timetable of when to meet you. We had to meet you before the consequences of your actions tonight caught up to you.”

It was right when he finished saying that did I feel a sharp pain in my chest. Looking down at my chest, I could see that my tattoo was glowing again. But I could tell that this time was different than the last time when I had unlocked my ability. The last time hadn’t been accompanied by this searing pain, making me want to rip my heart out of my chest. And my tattoo had never glowed red. I lifted my shirt to look at my tattoo and it was still glowing brightly, with a bloody tinge to it. I heard voices of shock and looking up I saw that most of the council had looks of despair and fear writ on their faces.

While all this was happening, the door of the room burst open and the healer walked in and informed everyone in a sombre tone that Samuel had stabilised.

At this, the old man finally spoke up, “It seems like we were right on time, David. Your actions have finally caught up to you, I am afraid. You will find that the grim reaper doesn’t like anyone undoing his work.”

The pain in my chest finally stopped. Looking down, I could see what the old man meant. I realised now what Emma meant when she said that I would be the first to realise when Samuel’s core stabilised.

There, right in the middle of the pocket-watch was a new mark. It was the picture of a scythe, reminiscent of the one I had seen the reaper carry just that night, the scythe which would haunt me for the rest of my life.

I didn’t need anyone to tell me what had just happened. It seemed I had really pissed off the grim reaper by reversing time and bringing Samuel back to life, probably committing the utmost cardinal sin in its soulless eyes.

I had been branded by the grim reaper, a living reminder of my offence against death.