3 The Ribbon

At the time when this little discussion was going on, a person was strolling in a park in a small town near Vancouver. Lost in his thoughts was a man roughly six and a half feet tall, wearing a long, gray robe that seemed almost like an overcoat, except that it reached down to the ankles, blending with the darkness. He was walking smoothly as if he was floating in air, which was exactly what he was doing, when he heard a high pitched, yet soft voice directed towards him

"Hello there, mister. I wanted to ask you, where did you buy those skates? It must be so much fun moving in them, right?"

He turned to see a little girl, around four to five years old, looking at him with her chubby, white face decorated with a big grin.

He looked at her, feeling something close to pity for her for a split second, instantly replaced by his usual coolness. "You'll see more of these soon, little girl. It's a pity you didn't get the chance to see more of your world…Maybe you'll get another later." He sighed and kept walking on, thinking about the coincidence of him being there at that moment, as he felt her soul slipping from her body, which in turn fell down, as if in slow motion. And then she laid there, with her eyes closed, and a slight smile on her lips, the ruins of her fallen grin.

"Tch! This will turn really scary with the rigor mortis. I guess this is the only thing I can do for you, little girl." He said as he wiped the ghost of a smile clean off the calm face.

"And, all it required was a tiny thing bursting in her head." He said to himself, shaking his head half amusedly, "Talk about humans trying to conquer 'Death'." And he turned back and went on his self-absorbed stroll, when he noticed something strange.

The girl's soul had ventured out of the Monopatti Psychi, or the soul path.

Thanatos couldn't believe what he was witnessing. There was no way in the world, or anywhere above or below it, this could have happened. A soul to leave the soul path, the ribbon as it is otherwise called, was not possible at all.

But before all that, there is a need to explain what this 'ribbon' is all about.

Fact File: The Soul Path, or the 'ribbon', is actually a supernetwork of interdimensional networks of paths, which can be most closely visualized as tunnels (although calling them tunnels is a severe underestimation of their complexity, with it being a five-dimensional pathway rather than a three-dimensional one). But all things aside, this network is one of the multiple ways in which a soul can be transported to the location it deserves to be sent to. According to an estimate done by the Gods of Olympus, among others of other abodes not known to the creatures on Earth, only 12% of the total numbers of free souls are, at any time, present in the ribbon. But this is a fact that easily causes many lower Gods to underestimate the ribbon's importance. The fact, which is not very well known to anyone on Earth except Zeus, Poseidon, Hades and Thanatos, is that the Ribbon is the safest path for a soul to travel in, except when being carried personally by the God of Death or the God of the Underworld himself. This can be attributed to the continuous monitoring, imperviousness of defences and formations that form the basic framework, something that was built even before the Gods of the current era were born, as well as a certain law, which seems to have been imbibed in all entities intrinsically, the source of which has stayed unfathomable till now since time immemorial. No one, literally no one, in the present universe, had ever found out the reason behind this vague deterrence, or the possible consequence of defying it, which wasn't something that hadn't ever happened actually.

The soul path possessed a strong attraction for souls in it, which helped them keep moving in the 'right direction'. And, a soul breaking away from it left only one possible cause, which would be infringement by someone in the soul path. And clearly, that someone wouldn't have any good reasons for doing that.

That was what Thanatos was thinking over while standing in the park, his cold, expressionless, handsome face that seemed to be chiseled by a master artist clouded by apprehension regarding what was to come, when another information came to him. If one assumed that his face couldn't be any fairer, then they were set for being proven wrong, as his face showed a palor that went beyond one's imagination. The information was something he couldn't believe, something which wasn't supposed to be possible, something which proved to him that his hypothesis of an intrusion in the soul path was wrong – The soul wasn't in the very dimension of the soul path, and so weren't many others.

Unable to believe what had happened, but sure that he wasn't wrong, and in the hope that this wasn't actually happening, he made an incantation with his hands and created an Infernum Stamine– a warp which led directly to Hades' courtroom- jumping inside it. Panic filled his heart, the divine equivalent of the organ, that is, for the first time since fourteen years ago, when one of the gates of Tartarus had suddenly broken down, almost leading to the Titans all coming up on the surface. It had taken the twelve Olympians and their Lieutenants all their swiftness to seal it again before anything devastating happened.

But, this was worse…much worse. And, he had no idea of the consequences this could lead to.

In his courtroom, Hades was discussing about the problem of the growing dissatisfaction among the various minor staff members of the underworld with Hypnos.

"I mean, this is utterly crazy! They are openly asking for a raise in their wages… Talk 'bout worker unions being a boon to the functioning of the underworld. As if I had any lesser share of problems than the other Olymp..."

He was interrupted as Thanatos suddenly appeared from the Hell Warp, his face twisted in agony. And, it was only his state of being which kept Hades from not losing his temper.

"And here I was blaming nasty worker unions, when my very dear lieutenant is not turning out any better. In the fear of being clichéd, I would still say, this better be good Thanatos, or prepare for a small walk in the Eternal Fields." Hades whispered dangerously.

"Lord Hades, pardon my intrusion… But, this is far from good. Believe me, this is the only explanation of what has happened."

"Be quick with what you want to say, Thanatos. I am not in a mood for a good ol' playact. What is this charming thing which has happened to turn you into such a mess?"

"Lord Hades..." Thanatos said, his voice quivering," Souls have disappeared from the ribbon…the ribbon's dimension."

Hades looked as if Zeus had hit him with one of his master bolts. "Yo…You are out of your mind, Thanatos. That is just impossible. You have missed some tracks for sure." He laughed loudly, almost hysterically to hide the half heartedness associated with it. It was almost hard to tell if he wasn't laughing on his own statement.

"But, I tracked a soul which acted strangely." Thanatos said, trying his best to explain quickly, "The soul first left the ribbon, and then it disappeared, as if it entered some warp…"

"What do you intend to go at, Thanatos? Have you lost your senses? A warp in the ribbon? This is impossible, unless…" Hades face clouded with the possibility, and then he realized what made Thanatos come barging like that.

"Yes, Lord Hades. This is unbelievable, but this is the only explanation of this all happening... The ribbon has collapsed."

That was when Hypnos interrupted, "Why are you making such a fuss about it then? Just repair it and get the souls back. I know it's a bit of a drag, but you have a full army of shades for your assistance. You don't..."

"This is impossible... I still can't believe it, Thanatos. I won't believe this until I see it for myself. There is no way the ribbon can be sabotaged, leave alone it collapsing." Hades said while standing up, clearly not paying any attention to what Hypnos was in the middle of saying. His face seemed to be drying at a visible rate, while he mumbled under his breath imperceptibly.

"Yes, Lord. This is the first thing that we should do. That's why I came straight to you. We need to leave quickly and find the cause of this… before anything else happens." Thanatos said ominously.

"This is bad, extremely bad." Groaned Hades, and then clapped his hands once, calling into the dark shadows of the courtroom," Iris!"

The room was suddenly filled with the brightest of lights, turning the ominous looking room into one of the cinematic depictions of 'Heaven' from movies on Earth, to the extreme annoyance of the large number of spirit warriors that were slumbering near the roof. The Goddess of rainbows arrived into the room, brightening each dark corner, and causing many beautiful flowers to bloom across the Hall, taking up space in place of the deathly looking plants that were shriveling due to the sudden arrival of light, which were used to darkness and miasma.

"This is strange now, isn't it, Lord Hades?" She smiled with a tinge of mischief. "Do you plan to send some message to Mount Olympus?"

"Hell Yeah, I plan to! Tell Zeus that the Soul Path has collapsed. That will be enough to wake him from his fantasies, I guess." growled Hades.

"Oh! Ok. I don't know much about this ribbon thingy, but seeing the crumpled faces of you and your dear Thanatos, I doubt it is far from something nice to know about. I'll pass on this message for you, although I hope I have my fee transferred instantly to my account." She winked, then started disappearing in a blinding flash of colors.

Suddenly, Hades cried loudly, "And do tell Zeus that I am not at all out of my senses when I say this. I haven't had a single drop of any liquor 'coz of the damned unions. He should go ask Dionysius if he wants to."

And then, Iris disappeared, leaving the fluttered trio standing in the reinstated darkness, while all the colorful flowers wilted away, their little life energy spreading across the room, being absorbed into the spirits and the native vegetation as the former went back to sleep.

"You may go Hypnos. And you Thanatos, you are coming with me. We need to do something quickly about this." said Hades, after which, the three of them disappeared in a cloud of darkness.