Finding You

SPECIAL CHAPTER: A DIVINE INTERLUDE

A woman in a green wraparound dress emerged from the massive doors of a dark hall just as the immortal inhabiting it downed his liquor, the flowy train of velvet sweeping the immaculate marble floor behind her. As always, her intimidating face betrayed no emotions even when her strides were a little too long and a little too hasty to be considered apathetic at the very least.

“Here comes the guardian,” the companion of the master of the underground abode – a woman with streaks of silver accentuating her elegantly coiffed hair perched on an elegant Victorian-style black seat – whispered before putting up an equally indifferent façade. “Good to see you again, Fate. I suppose you know why we are gathered here.”

Fate stuck her nose up in the air and stared blankly at the deity – an unspoken warning that she did not need to be filled in. Like her fellow gods, a foreboding crossed her omniscient mind at daybreak, but it was only moments prior to the accident did she fully comprehend what was bound to happen.

“Greetings, Time, Death,” she addressed the divinities in perfect monotony.

Time cocked her head to the side, her sharp eyes narrowing to slits in apparent scrutiny. She crossed her leg over the other and the subtle movement caused the layers of her chic maroon dress to cascade down the velvet cushion of her provisional throne.

“It’s quite morbidly fitting that a fire ultimately took Son Eon Jin’s life,” she mused, the twitch of a corner of her rouged lips betraying her sarcasm. “Are you sure you did not have a hand in this?”

Fate chuckled dryly at the remark, then replied, “Of course I did not, my old friend.”

Not missing the subtle ridicule, Time frowned at her and threw daggers her way for good measure.

Death, who was occupying the plush chair at the middle, was clearly not enjoying the age-old tension between the two, so he quickly gestured towards the vacant seat adjacent to him and said, “Please join us, Fate, and let us begin the deliberation.”

That was the cue for Time to magically conjure up a giant hourglass that floated at the center of their formed triangle and flipped it over with a swish of her fingers. Red sand manifested out of nowhere grain by grain, then slowly passed through the narrow neck and trickled down to the empty bulb below. It signified the commencement of their customary discussion and at the same time, decelerated the passage of days in the mortal realm indefinitely. Regardless how long it took for them to arrive at a consensus, to man’s perspective, the whole process culminated on the forty-ninth daylight.

“Son Eon Jin – born in 1672, evaded her demise in 1701, and died in 2023. Her imprudence resulted to a servitude that lasted three hundred and eighteen years,” Death declared, the authority in his voice ringing in each word. “Your thoughts on the obligatory duration to purify her soul please?”

“None,” Fate shrugged. “Allow her be reincarnated at once.”

Time cast a sideway glare her way and scoffed, “I trust that you have a good reason why you are recommending that we bypass the protocols for this person.”

“Like Death mentioned, she spent three hundred and eighteen years as penance,” Fate echoed Death’s previous statement, the split-second curving her thin lips hinting at her haughtiness. “Having her wait in limbo – even for a short period of time – is pretty much pointless considering her history.”

“Pointless?” Time repeated, her tone unmistakably tinged with a challenge.

Not at all perturbed by her guts, Fate answered, “Yes.”

“You are well aware that we are not merely going through the motions here, Fate,” Time countered. “The process of purgation is required prior to reincarnation and it has been that way since the beginning.”