How To Beat the System

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   "Why hold on so tightly to my hand?" Wisteria nudged Septimus. "It's not like I'm going anywhere."

"Yes... I know."

Seeing how the god fell quiet, Wisteria stopped playing around and told him that she wanted to go to his domain. It kind of bothered the blonde to see her brother with an unreadable expression, but it went away quickly once he teleported the both of them underneath the surface and in front of his castle.

"I've never really been in the front yard before, brother." Wisteria got on the tips of her toes and whispered, "There's a lot of scary looking guards there."

"Don't mind them. You're free to wander around the castle grounds, but make sure to have Matteus or the twins escort you." Septimus lazily looped his arm around the young teen's waist.

Wisteria puffed her cheeks at the sound of having someone following her. "Why? No one would be imprudent enough to recklessly come near this place."

"You never know, my love."

Approaching the guards, Wisteria peeked her head up from the god's shoulder and wagged a few of her fingers in greetings. Their eyes never went at the two's direction, but only glimpsed slightly at the girl before resuming to their natural position.

"I should bake some cookies for them," Wis said.

"No."

"Chocolate chip or oatmeal?"

"No."

"Maybe the twins will like my brownies."

"No."

"Thanks, I knew I could depend on you opinion, brother." Wisteria grinned.

Septimus looked over at the girl, smiling widely at him, before turning away and leading her inside of the castle. "No."

Unexpectedly, the human felt the temperature drop even further and shivered under her cloak. She stepped closer to the Death God and realized the unfamiliarity of the room.

A ball room. A very large one. It was dark, but very few candles were lit. The chandeliers burned dimly, though they seemed eerie to her. There were demons stationed at different sides and columns of the room, their wings tucked behind their backs in a tense form when Septimus and her drew near. Wisteria didn't like this room.

At the end there were two more thrones, one larger than the other. The smaller one was made of large rubies and what seemed to be silver and obsidian. The other was of gold, diamonds, crystals, and garnet. There were other jewels that sparkles around the seats, but she couldn't decipher what they were.

Behind the thrones, a large tree stood, pressed against the walls. It was made entirely of crystals and runes encrypted on the bark. From the branches, gold and silver apples were hanging off. They sparkled against the dim lights.

"What's that, brother?" She pointed to the tree.

"The tree of the underworld." He said. "It only produces gold and silver apples. One apple is bad and the other is good. But no one knows which is which. Sometimes silver is bad, sometimes silver is good."

"Why have it? What's the purpose?"

Septimus gave a grim smile. "It's for the souls."

"For the dead? Daegel told me that if they haven't accepted and move on for what happened to them, then they get erased. If they do then the souls will be taken into a better place."

"Yes, that's true. But there's sometimes a special soul that grabs my attention. One that's neither good or bad," Septimus and Wisteria neared the thrones and faced a golden apple. "I can't have a wandering spirit stay in one place forever, so I let them choose an apple. If the apple is good, then they will be moved where the rest of the souls go to be reincarnated. If it's bad, then their soul are to be erased or they can choose to forget about everything in their past and wander aimlessly, never knowing what happened to them. They'll be alive, but forget everything."