Page 24 of To Trap a Soul

A deep sleep to conserve energy and slowly replenish it.

“But I have free will? I can go wherever I like, do whatever I like, so long as I collect souls?”

“Precisely.”

Her expression mildly softened with relief. “A-and I can use your power however I like?”

He gave a hum of thought. “Yes, and no. I ask that you use it sparingly. If you drain me too deeply, I will sleep to recover what has been lost, and in that time, I will be unreachable. If you die, you will return to me –thatI have already discovered. I can also feel that I can call you to my realm. I give you my apology that I did not do so sooner to spare you of pain.”

Once he came back to his realm after watching her end as she’d originally asked of him, he’d been able to sense he could have brought her along with him. He could have prevented her from needing to wriggle her way off the cliff’s edge to have a much less frightening death than being eaten.

He felt rather bad about that, but there was nothing he could do to change it now.

I know I can send her back to Earth in the same way I can go there –via his mist in the Veil.

“What I mean is,” she started, tipping her head down while looking at him through her long, curling lashes, “you don’t carehowI use it?”

“No. I don’t care what you do with it, so long as you don’t deplete me of it entirely. Your tasks are designed to empower me.” He lightened his tone and gave it mirth as he said, “Work hard enough, and you can have more. If you have a physical form–”

“What do you mean,ifI have a physical form?”

This was the first time he’d ever had someone speak over the top of him, and his form wavered in disapproval. His mist spread out only to shut in tight around him, rumbling with what he could only consider a growl.

“Currently you are intangible, we will see if that changes when you go to Earth.”

“I’m intangible?” She lifted her arms to inspect them, frowning at the solidness of her form. Then, as if noticing something new, she brought the back of her wrist closer to her face. “Oh wow. I’m a little see-through. Are you saying I’m similar to a Ghost?”

“Yes. Currently you are intangible and untouchable to the physical world. Much like all the spectral beings in my world, I house your soul.”

She patted at her breasts, searching for the flame currently floating beside him.

“But what if I want to be solid?” she asked, before her features fell. “How am I to help people if I can’t touch anything?”

It sounded as though she wished to use his power to make herself some kind of saviour. He found that commendable, although utterly pointless to the grand scheme of his desires. But if it made her compliant, he didn’t care what she did.

If she wished to make herself some kind of hero to her fellow humans, then so be it.

“Like I was saying before you interrupted me,” he stated with stern depth, “if you have a physical form, you should be able to collect materials with which I can make you magical items. If so, this will allow us to give you power that isn’t borrowed from me. This is what I hope for, that you will have a physical form.”

“But Ghosts can’t turn solid, can they? What am I then?” Her big, curious eyes then turned large as her lips parted. “Wait! Am Idead?”

“Yes, and no.” When she gave him a glower, another chuckle slipped from his consciousness. “From what I can tell, you are like me. Alive but dead. Here nor there. Something but nothing. You are on the cusp of both, a limbo of life and death. A...Phantom.”

Yes, that’s what he would call her abilities. She was a human turned Phantom.

He thought it was fitting.

Her eyes slitted in his direction. “Did you just make that word up?”

“Absolutely.” His humour-filled tone left no room for her to argue with him or make a statement regarding it.

He was a god; he could make up shit if he wanted to.

“Okay, whatever,” she grumbled, lifting a hand to shove it through her long, floating locks of hair. “Is there anything else I should know? Any other rules or restrictions?”

For a short moment, silence befell them as he thought. He truly didn’t need anything else from her.

Except one thing. “You are not to fornicate with your own kind. I am unsure how that will affect my own offspring.”