Claÿre couldn't for the life of her - ha, good joke - say what the figure did to her. It pulled her out of her body and she could see that, yes, the cart had crushed her. Blood and entrails, bones, and her now lifeless body were laying on the street. For a short, very brief moment should could see herself as a ghost of some sort hovering above her, before her body died for good.

"Come, there is nothing left." The bony figure layed a hand on her back and pushed her forward. They were flying, slow at first, then really fast, faster even as a Dragon or a Cloud Whale could fly.

She could see the mountains in the distance, then even those became small and insignificant, the sky was dark blue and vast and glittering of diamonds which were stars.

"Woah...", made the young woman as she saw Koria as a map and not as a continent, the glittering oceans beneath them, the white clouds like lace, scattered over the globe which was round and wide like a pear or an apple.

Suddenly they flew through a door, a portal, a tunnel, it was not clear to Claÿre what it was, but from one heartbeat to the other they were in front of a very, very vast floating world with green meadows, a few small houses, rivers and trees under an everburning sun. And at the far end in the dark stood a palace, enshrouded by white clouds. A temple was erected a bit before the palace and both were connected through a very large bridge with only a few pillars. Less than Claÿre would have expected at a building this size.

Palace, temple, and bridge were illuminated by torches, lamps and crystalline light, painted a dark yellow or orange colour onto the dark grey walls. It looked like as there was movement, but as they came closer, Claÿre couldn't see a thing.

"Where are we?" She tried to look up, but the figure was behind her, so she couldn't see him very good.

"Nearly there.", was the correct and not very helpful answer. They missed the temple tower by a few dozen meters and landed on the bridge before a large gate with double doors. It was dark and supported with cold iron bars, but it was not unfriendly.

The doors opened with a faint creacking noise, but not as loud as one would expect from doors this huge. Light shone onto the bridge from out of the huge entrance. It was white and created sharp contrasts, but didn't feel hard or aggressive.

"It is cold here.", she said and noticed that she could feel the cold, but didn't shiver or had goosebumps, like her body recieved the information, acknowledged and ignored it. "You know how it feels like?"

"Like...coldness?"

"No." She smiled at the figure. "Like a heavy, cold blanket. A cold and gentle embrace."

"Ah." The blue shimmering eyes of the huge skeleton changed colour from blue to green and then to a purple hue. "Yes, you might be right. I've lived so long now that I do not notice it anymore."

"What does that mean?"

"You'll see."

They entered the first hall and the figurine lifted its hood, leaned against the huge silver scythe with the dark wood. 

"Welcome to my palace, Claÿre. Welcome to the Palace of the Eternal Death."

She blinked three times, raised an eyebrow, mustered the figurine from head to toe, looked down on her own body.

"So... I am really dead."

"Yes, you are. Without the chance of resurrection."

"And you are Death?"

"Yes."

"But you are not Quelgar?"

"No, he is not me and I am not him."

"And you are Death?"

"Yes again." The Eternal Death sighed, which was a strange sight to behold without lips and lungs and a mouth or a face. "I am the Eternal. I am the Death. That is probably a shock to you and I can understand if you need your time to think about it.

But to explain: at the beginning there was only a barren world and there was my beloved Life and me, Death. I was there as the first organism was created to make sure they have an Afterlife. Which means for every organism, every species I have created an Afterlife so that you, your neighbour, your family, the Dwarves, the Elves, the Owlpanthers, the Sirens, Mermaids, Masters and the Chocolate Crab have their Afterlife so they can have an eternity in peace."

"What about the other gods of deaths?"

"They are that: gods. They are believed into existence by the species in Koria. But I am Eternal. I came into existence as the first star was born and I'm going to vanish once the last star falls dark." He made a dismissive noise which resembles a click with the tongue. "At least that is the idea."

"Hu? Sorry, idea?"

"Yes." He leaned his head to one side as he would observe a fascinating new creature. "You are paying attention and you do not scream or cry or anything?"

"Uh, right now?" Claÿre chuckled surprised. "No, I guess not. But to be fair, I still haven't realized that I am dead."

"That will take its sweet time.", sighed Death and made a gesture towards another door, this time smaller than the entrance, which began to close behind them.

Death showed her around and Claÿre couldn't take everything in he showed her, until they reached some kind of large amphietheater without audience. In the middle of the theater sat a huge obsidian stone, easily a head taller than Claÿre, with thousands of small facets, where things swirled and moved, like leaves in a stream.

"What is that?", she asked, her finger ran over the edge, felt the hard edge, the coldness of the stone and the smoothness of it.

"Uh... to be honest, I just call it the stone, because it is just that. With this thing I can see thousands of life in a second, millions in minutes. Here I can see when and how beings on Koria die and if my appearence is necessary. It is not often, because you down there believed Outer Gods into existence, but sometimes I need to come down."

"Wha... what is an Outer God?"

"Later, Claÿre. One step after the other. We have more urgent business to attend than that. I gave you a choice, you remember?"

"Yes, you said I could go see my family and siblings or have a different life."

"Correct. You know seasons?"

"Yes, the four ones. What is with them."

"Nothing. And everything. What do they all have in common?"

Claÿre frowned and smiled. "They are always the same?"

"Yes and no. You are correct, every year you have spring, autumn, winter, and summer. They are always the same, but every season is different from the season before. You never had the same spring or the same winter. But that also concludes that the years repeat and those it has a cylce."

"Mum... the boss of my brothel always called it the Circle of Life."

"Eh, yes, a bit. Life is a cylce, a circle, call it, what you like. Even the Eternal Life has a cycle, but she is reborn out of herself like a tree from a seedling of his own doing. For a really, really long time we thought I was the one and true Eternal because I never changed and was always there.

It turned out, it wasn't true."

"Oh? So you regenerate as well?"

"Ah, well... in a way." Death leaned the scythe against the huge obsidian, opened his robe and put it neatly folded to the side. He was indeed a very huge humanoid skeleton. "Death comes to an end. The cycle is not fixed, so it is more a... the humans would call it a gut feeling. Once Death feels that his time has come, he needs to look for a successor. The problem is", he sat down on one of the stairs, "that Death has accumulated a very huge, comically huge amount of knowledge."

"Why are you talking in the third person about yourself?" Claÿre looked around, tried to measure the room and the materials, but it was to no use. The room mimiced the obsidian in form, if not in function.

"Because here we reach the point of the entire affair we are having right now. Death has reached the end of his cycle again and I am in need of an apprentice and a successor. It will take time, effort, tears, and sweat, and the will to take a look at tragedy. Because the Eternal Death is there when the Spiritfarer can't do their job or the Outer Gods are not responsible or the death of the being has a significance. A thing which is to be teached and to learn.

You'll get to know every Afterlife. You will get to know every species. How to deal with them. To be kind. How to speak. How to administer the comfort of Death. How to wield the scythe, how to use the stone, what is the palace and what is the temple."

"So you..." Claÿre turned around, mustered the sitting skeleton which was still taller than she was. "Bear with me. You are saying that you feel your own end, your own death, coming, and you need a successor? Which should be me?"

"If you want, yes."

"Why me?"

"Ah, that is the question everyone has.", chuckled Death, his bones made rattling noises. "Why is it me? Why not my neighbour or the guy next to me? Why is it me? Well, the answer is: because it was time. You are born with an amount of time and we Eternals see every second of your life, from the beginning to the end.

And you, Claÿre? You are one of thousand possible candidates for the next Eternal Death. The main factor in play is the heart and the mind. You know a lot of rejection, of hate, of anger, of loss and suffering. You understand. And you are kind enough to make the difference between giving the dying kitten a cup of milk so it suffers another day and taking it with you to end its pain, be it through a life of love and food or through gentle death."

Claÿre bit her lower lip as she thought about what Death has said. The problem was: he was entirely right. Even when that means to kill that kitten because ending its life would also end its pain.

"You are right.", she answered after a few minutes silent contemplating. "So... your choice is either I can fully die and go to the... Afterlife? Afterlife... or I take your offer, live a lot longer than any human ever has and be your successor and at some point I'm a huge skeleton with a scythe and a robe?"

"But... you are male."

"Yes. So?"

"I am not."

"And?"

"Wouldn't that be a problem?"

"No? Death is eternal and if you are a skeleton with a male voice or a female voice, nobody cares. We had that, they are surprised, but thats it. You don't own someone an explanation, you can just shrug it off. Or... explain it. It is your choice what kind of Death you want to become."

"How long do I have before I should give you an answer?"

"Three days. Even when it still takes a lot of time before my cycle ends, my apprentice has a lot to learn and some things I can't teach, some things are learned best through experience."

Claÿre nodded slowly and sighed. "Do I need to sleep?"

"No, not really. You can still do it, but it is not necessary."

"Alright... I'm giving you my answer tomorrow morning. Do we have breakfast?"

"Normally not, but I can order some. Coffee?"

"Oh, hot chocolate with sprinkles, bread and cheese!"

Death laughed. He had made the right choice.