Coming Of The Reaper

 "Nice try, Sylvie." I say with confidence.

She immediately swings again. This time hitting me square in the ribs. I lift and get thrown into the doors of the dining room. The room drops it chatter and everyone watches. They all know Sylvie from the time she's spent here. I need to earn the right to stand amongst the people who are the reapers of Death's army. I need to find my strength and fast.

I swing my body mid air to find myself landing on my feet. I know deep within my blood there has to be some sort of magic or strength my family bloodline left behind for me. If I am to be living as one of these reapers, I am going to be one of the best, like the fathers of the blood before me.

Sylvie sprints once more at me with a few steady attempts upon my body. She swings again and again. By my sheer instinct alone I manage to make away from each swing. I stop her in her tracks as I raise my sword against hers. The sparks showing a small field of electricity as we parted from the backlash.

"That's new." I say.

"For you and me both. Your a magic user, I always thought that would have been my role in the pairings." She admits.

"So what now?" I ask.

"We train you to be better with it. You've tapped into it already. Keep it coming." She instructs.

I swing again at Sylvie and she plays a defensive role. She swipes away the swing and sparks fly off the same direction. I smile. I have to admit I have a slight sense of relief she can also deflect my magic. I wonder if that is an effect that all reapers have on magic.

I think for a moment. What would happen if two reaper teams had to face each other? Does this ever happen? My mind holds many curiosities. I swing again.

"How long can you keep this up?" Sylvie taunts me.

"Wrong choice in words." I say as my overconfidence starts to take hold.

She deflects my swing once again. I spin around as she deflects me and I use the force to be able to strike quickly, focusing all I have into the blade. It begins to light up such a bright blue it almost appears white from the intensity.

"Wha-" Sylvie goes to ask as I slam the blade downwards at her.

The blade hardly misses her. She must be thanking her reflexes right about now. However, neither of us expected its impact to burst into a field of blue electrical current. She manages to leap beyond its range. I slide back from the force of the impact and stare in awe.

"Gotcha. Electric." Sylvie says with a laugh.

"Yeah, the result is a bit..." I grin.

"Don't say-"

"Shocking." I laugh.

We both stop for a moment to actually take a look at the damage. A spherical impact can be seen, roughly the size of a dodgeball. I guess my wordy pun was actually accurate.

"You idiot. Of course, you would have the timing of the almighty on that one." She says to me.

"Well, what does this mean?" I ask.

"We know what we can start doing to work with your magic." She smirks. "But first, let's go eat." She laughs.

"Fair enough. I am hungry too." I say.

It becomes a daily routine rather quickly. Wake then we eat. We train sword skill, then magic, then we eat. I can't emphasize how important food is for your focus. We continue this exact same routine for weeks. I can't even tell what say is what anymore. I thought we were going to be some kind of soldier.

We return to the training hall as per usual. We fight for a while just using our swords. We even are getting to being able to fight each other with an arm behind our backs. I never thought I would learn something like this so quickly.

"I can't believe it's been a month." Sylvie says as she blocks at one of my strikes.

"Yeah. I am surprised we haven't been sent on a mission yet." I say.

"I believe that was your grandfather's request. give you a chance to catch up." She explains as she shoves me back.

"So when do we get an assignment?" I ask.

"That depends on what Death considers caught up." Sylvie explains.

I ready my sword again. It's beginning to feel like second nature to always be fighting. I think I understand. It's going to be fight or die in a lot of these instances.

"Excuse me, Silver Squad, Death is requesting your presence as soon as possible." A short man wearing a bird beak as a mask walks in and bows while he speaks.

"Thanks." I say. "Wonder if that is our first assignment." I add.

"Could be." She grins.

We both turn to face the doors and the little bird masked man runs off. We walk to make our way through these grand halls once more, only this time to greet Death in his office. Something we never have done before. I feel excited and nervous all at once.

We turn up another hall. It's obvious Death has a fascination with various treasures, as while we get closer to his office, the gold and gems become more and more common to the eye.

"Think we get our first demon?" I ask.

"Maybe a lost soul needs an escort, that's a starting case, usually." Sylvie some what kills my hopes of seeing heavy action.

I sigh after she makes her remark and I can't help but feel like we have had more than enough time on stand-by just training. Sylvie is an expert with blades, so why are we training so much?

We end up at the gold plated office door. on a silver name plate it reads 'Death' in tiny rubies to form the word. I smile. at least Death has some taste in how he presents all the gold and gems.

"You gonna knock or me?" Sylvie asks.

"Go ahead." I say.

She knocks on Death's door. The feeling of the thought gives me an eerie sense. We always were told knocking on Death's door meant you were about to die. The sound even is an echo that is very unsettling. The knocks echo through the hallways.

"Enter." Death's voice hisses from the other side of the door.

Sylvie pushes the door open. The metal makes no sound on the swing open, which I find is odd. Sylvie approaches his desk. I simply follow suit. We both get to one knee side by side.

"Silver Squad as requested, Death sir." Sylvie says.

"Good." I stare as Death turns.

I still can't figure out how he talks with no tongue or lips. My mind seems to be hyper-focused on that for the moment. I hold back the question I know would likely be a bad one to ask.

"How may we be of assistance?" She asks.

"We have a bit of an issue." Death says.

"Like what?" I ask.

"Your father is missing. We suspect he has gone rogue." Death says.

"So what, you want me to have the first dibs at taking him down?" I ask.

"Don't be ridiculous-" Sylvie starts.

"He's right." Death says to Sylvie.

"What?" She exasperates.

"So, my fathers turned to the other side of the fight." I say.

"Well, do you think you two are up for he task?" He asks us.

"Steve, No." Sylvie insists.

"Your skills are amazing, Sylvie." I say. "Besides, it's my dad, if anyone has to put him down it should be me." I add.

"Something isn't right with this." Sylvie says.

"So, I'll give you guys the evening to talk this over. I will be here awaiting your answer tomorrow at ten A.M. Alright?" Death finalizes his offer.

"We'll come back with an answer." I say.

"Which is going to be no." Sylvie says.

"No, we have to do this." I say.

We continue out of the office. Death could only be relieved the argument is leaving his office. I can't let Sylvie deny me the chance to see my father one last time. Even if he isn't a reaper any more.

"Something tells me something isn't right with this. We are missing something." Sylvie says.

"Yeah my father." I say.

"No, I mean don't you find it a bit odd that death is giving you the first choice over all other reapers?" She asks.

"Well, no to me it makes a lot of sense. It's family. it may be hard for you to understand, I'm sorry, but I have to do this." I explain.

"My family was taken from me. I didn't get the chance at goodbye." She says.

"Well, this lets me say goodbye to my father. Think of it that way." I say.

"Yeah but you're going to have to kill a family member." She explains.

"The old Vikings would challenge the leader to take over the tribe. It doesn't feel very different in that case." I say.