A Single Element Stories [Rating Varies]

[AWA1997]

Death’s Favorite Memory [G] (NW)

Spoiler:

A lone man sat in a dark room lined with stone. He brushed his hand through his silver hair, staring at the stone water basin in front of him. Death had fallen into another depressive episode and was debating whether he wanted to go through with this. The stone basin, a pensieve as he was told it was called, was a gift to him by Serana Alastor, the Memory Mage and one of Death’s last descendants to bear his surname. It would allow him to relive any memory he wanted, but over-use could cause issues.

Having been warned of this, he was always skeptical of if he should use it. Today, though, Death needed a pick-me-up. He used a ring enchanted with Memory’s power to draw out the memory he wished. He placed it in a vial and copied the memory. Replacing the original memory into his head, he poured the copy into the penseive. He placed his face in the bowl of the basin and was transported back billions of years.

Death looked over and smiled at the sleeping form of a green-haired woman. The world was still new, plant and animal life thrived, but the human race had not been founded yet. There were other Mages, sure, and they all looked human enough, but none of them really were. Death got out of bed and tucked Life back in before making breakfast for himself and his best friend. When he returned, Life was awake and she smiled at the smell of the food. “Pancakes and bacon.” Death said. “Your favorite.” He handed her the plate and ate breakfast in bed with her.

“Thank you so much.” Life said with a smile, scarfing down the meal. “So, any plans for the day?”

“Not really, just figured we’d hang out, eat some food, maybe play a few games of chess, checkers, or whatever.” Death replied. “Unless you have other plans?”

“No, that sounds nice.” Life answered.

“Then as soon as you’re ready, we can start.”

Throughout the day, Life and Death enjoyed many rounds of the classic board games, neither one really caring about winning or losing, but just enjoying the time together. It wasn’t a particularly interesting day, but it was one that Death remembered fondly on occasion.

As the memory of that day faded, Death found himself back in his empty room in the underworld. He sighed as he sat back on the bed.

Reliving that day through the pensieve cheered him up a little, but looking around his room reminded him of why that was one of his favorite memories. He opened a drawer and pulled out a picture of himself and Life together. He stared at the picture for a while.

Life had been his first love, the mother to all but one of his children, and the grandmother of his other child. They broke it off after a major fight, but he never did get over her. Time and time again they started to make up, but Death always screwed something up. Letting his temper get the better of him was the main factor that drove them apart, but it was usually caused by him killing someone or something on accident and lashing out in frustration over his inability to control his powers.

Whatever the cause, he just couldn’t seem to get it right, and his mental state crumbled further each time. He closed his eyes and sighed. “Maybe it’s time to just... give up. I could give Life my powers, let her figure them out, and she can bring back everyone I took from her, take over the underworld, become the proud owner of ‘everything’ she wants in Olympus, and ‘everyone’ she wants down here. She’d finally have the life I kept robbing her of.” He finally smiled. “For the first time in almost 14 billion years, she’d be truly happy. Yeah, that would be nice.”