34 Vanishing test

It takes just seconds of landing and going to the toilet to be separated. She entered the toilet stall, does business, and came out to complete the decrepit version of the same toilet area. It's the same sinks but dirty. The soap dispenser was broken off the wall, and mirrors were smashed. The strange addition was that her suitcases followed her, they were exactly where she left them. But her mom's set, and for that matter, her mom entirely was nowhere. Nor was there the other passage that was on the same flight vomiting in the first stall... nor the woman with a baby at the changing.

"Dad was right. People vanish in England." Lea huffed, "How the hell do I reach out to tell them I am OK?" She looked at her luggage for a bit, opened it, and went through getting changed into more warmer clothes. As she pushed her arm through a sleeve, a paper fell from it. She picked it up and stared at it a long time. She twisted it about with eventually rolling it runic pattern to nearly complete. She remembers now that this was the pattern. Riddle said to send him a message through. She can't write well, but he knows her way of drawing stuff. He literally nosed in all her coloring books without permission and figured out she documents stuff. She gets a paper from her pocket storage... she draws about the airport, toilet stall being a gate. She draws that she vanished but a 'ok'. She folds it all neat and trace draws the rune like he gave her. She finished nodding with being pleased to herself about the note. She, however, then frowns at what the heck should happen next. She hissed, annoyed of not remembering what next and blinked. Now it vanished. She stares blankly for a while of processing this. She huffed and packed everything up. Slides it to her shadow storage since it didn't matter for appearance sake. She stared at the ceiling in thinking about their could be spirit creatures that wanted to eat her. She got out her spirit gear. She puts them on, staying right here... waiting for either the next to vanish to appear here or not. She noticed that there wasn't a working anything. There is no electricity with the light switches, but she can see because she has shadow eyes. Rather, she is not using her human eyes to see things. She climbs the stalls and kicked the ceiling open... Nope. there isn't any wiring to the light fixtures to follow, nor was there a gap enough for her to crawl along. Nothing exciting was hidden there... she gets down and watches the ceiling place itself back. She stares very calmly of the supernatural event and now waves her full shape to form over her, wearing her shadow as another layer. She brought out a lantern and a sword. Lite the lantern with casting fire. All these things her tomes taught her are paying off. She rolls eyes and steps out the toilet. She finds she is not the only person here. Confused individuals gathered in little groups. She scans them each of their worth and peers ahead towards a row of undertakers. They stood gaurd. She blows out the candle now and has her mask mimick her human features. She hung the lantern to her belts for now, crossed arms. She huffed again.

"Well, it was meant to be a surprise trial to test worthy candidates of small ranking. In addition, your mother suggested it." Riddle coming out from behind at the toilets. She now stood lazy since she was comfortable among folks. She still was ready with some sleeve tricks, "I said it be pointless." He steps around to her front but begins wondering to the other undertakers. He claps in, gathering attention, "You were all selected to this test. All you need to do is leave. Regardless if you are prepared or not. This isn't just survival. It's a means to see if you are worthy to join us. Or be sent back. This land is full of surprise gates, and vanishing people happen too often. So this is the means to test if you can survive this land of curtains." He waved, and the undertakers blocked jump backward. Synchronization of disappearing and being traceless enough. Even so, she sees the red herings they planted about. She sees a few harmless traps to scare folks. Bit there, nothing brutal or painful in this trial. Nothing that she wasn't ready for. She wipes away her human features to a smooth surface. She crossed her arms and looked at those getting their gear together. Teams, it seems. She inspected each team and voted that she was fine by herself. She does, however, like the idea of following one of these groups in just the entertainment value.

"Are you lost?" A clueless human or part of the test. She uncrossed her arms and tilted, indicating that she heard them. She twirls about the spot in how long of lack of a reply she gives. It was clear to her that this wasn't a human, and this was indeed some part of the test. Maybe?

"Are you lost too?" She speaks like it does, and they shivered, "It's been a while since I used this voice." She posed her hand to where lips would be, "You should move along, stranger. There are worse things than lost little girls with big teeth." They certainly ran from her. She goes back to crossed arms and sighs out, "So rude. Didn't even greet me." Was her complaint in her human voice, "Everyone shows know at least one hand gesture." She throws a bit of her hair out of her face. She makes strides forward, and Riddle is staring completely like a statue. She waved at his face to make sure his ok. He at least followed his eyes and looked at her, "This test is rather basic. Not that I mind it at all. If it can please mom to know, I can dust things if I wanted. Sure." She went punch his shoulder, and he flinched at her, "They call me, lady marionette for a reason. I am quiet to puppeteer. I have many voices, I just don't use them." He looks back behind where she was, "I knew this place was weird when there was nothing in the ceiling above the toilet stalls." She makes a stride forward and then look back, "You going to follow me or not? Don't want to be left behind with the lost folks. They eat undertakers. I seen the tomes enough." He strides beside her, "They wander around the pocket between seeking the purposes they lost. The items they lost. Sometimes, it's words, or they lost souls. Pocket realm rules are strange things." She linked arm with him as she spoke, "There was a wonderful off universe study by the helix foundation about such famous pocket realms. Although it was inconclusive of how these realms are made and the purpose they bring, at least the natural ones. Death gods had stumbled into finding made ones. Clothus especially loves making pocket realms to serve as purpose to attack and conquest the universe beside it." She shuts up with him, making that gesture of silence. She just walks forward for now, accepting the silence.

"Smells... smell. Know the smell." A drawing of what used to be an airport advertisement for the English sea side holiday spoke. The ink peels out the page and looked at them, "Pet!" It crawled out of the picture and coils as tall as Riddle stands.

"Friends!" She posed open hands and the followed with other gesture, "Hungry?" Is what she asked. It nods clear, "Do you eat lost ones?" It thinks about it and then nods, "They that way. They spoke to me. I let them go. I have plenty. But you have them."

"Really? Are you ok with me taking a hunt?" It sounds surprised. Riddle is all stiff statue locked. He is just ice frosted to the floor.

"I happy to trade the bits you down want. You have the lost ones as letting us pass by." She pointed in being proper of this deal, since god eaters like this one are smart and remember these things later. Not all are, but this one knew her before by smell. She always considered that the tomes she hid in her pocket smell to the lizards, "We wait here like bait. You take. I trade. We leave."

"You always have a good pet." It pats her head and zips off behind. She can hear the dire screams of monsters behind, and she sighed like always.

"Do you make friendships with dangerous stuff often?" Riddle asking in worry.

"You're funny. Even you are just someone I met and find value. Everyone does. Even my worse enemies have a purpose." She pulled him from moving away, "Do not ever break a promise with God eaters. They will always remember. Your kindness now is going to save your arse later. And just accept that you are a farm animal to them. They use us to attract the real main dish. A corpse in a place that shouldn't have corpses is the most common god eater trap. They eat death gods mostly." She tilts in checking back and face forwards, "But what you want to be scared of is that God eater are the bottom of a food chain." She adds.

"Ugh, what?" Riddle looked back too ans the forward again, "What is that?"

"You ask stupid things." She huffed. She clears her voice and turns facing the scene before her. She tilts in checking if it has some concept of greeting. She softly bows and it bows back. The god eater half hung out the rows of jaws, the back ones working hard at crunchy. It shakes a bunch, dropping a lot of stuff. A whole lot if things from many past victims. She used her shadow in taking it all... replacing it with nine large casket barrels. It pokes hole of top of one. Smells a lot. It snapped the god eater in halve, the unfinished bit on the floor. It posed sealing lips around the open barrel. In a fast move, the whole cask barrel tipped into it. It then purrs and ate the wood barrel. A leg pats pattern. She straightens and posed of asking if they can leave now.

"The lizard is right. You a good pet. Yes. Meet again." She bows and Riddle does too. They calmly walked away and once more she sighed. Although this was relief.

"There is always a eater. We stopped naming things and called stuff by the diet they eat. But this leave many conflicted information and not many have bothered trying to document things they can't know. I became a researcher of such things. Using shared information from many raves and cultures. I know that that being is a boundaries guard. It eats the sort of things that shouldn't be allow between spaces. There is some places that even undertakers and death gods can't be. The universe has many mysterious creatures of the curtain. That monster is among the most common. Mistake for its most preferred prey, god eaters. Meanwhile, God eaters eat anything if given an opportunity. Small fry in big vast sea."

Riddle moves them both faster now and gets them to the exit. She got out of arm lock before then and walked slower, letting him loose her. Once she was alone, she turned back around and heads back to the creature. She didn't need long. She was an expert in this field, and poaching a spare beast like this was going to have plenty of neat materials for her to use. Going by the trade it gave her, she knew its meat and bones will come handy. She was tossing about its soul stone as she lazed across back wherever this exit was meant to be. She crossed into the living world and the god of Death caught the soul stone falling back to her. He does his job of listening to it. He seems to make several stares at her and it.

"If you got a use for a soul like that. I don't trade souls. Souls are free will as they want. I got what I wanted." He tilted perplex of this but it seems this satisfying grasp of her kindness had the soul gladly be taken in with death. The god leaves. She leaned back, arms at her neck and sighed again, "So uneventful."

"You are the joke." Riddle crossed his arms, "When did you become an expert in slaying abnormalities?"

"Nah, that creature will be back. It naturally lives in that pocket space. It's a guardian." She half waved, "I mostly wanted to collect the slayer poison to be honest. But It didn't want to share. So... we had a duel and I won."

"No. This isn't my daughter."

"Here we go again. Just because I am in my half and half from. You just have this absolute denial of things. I have to be all human or all other. Never halves." She takes off all the spirit side of herself in making this point. It's only when she took the mask off, wipes her eyes and crossed her arms in front of her. Her mom blinks a lot.

"What ranks are you?" Another undertaker in a pair asked.

"Oath of the cog rankers tome keeper. The nightmare of the edge. The outsider of the void space." She listed causally, "If you want the false names you call me, I am both Lady Marionette and Trick Trickster. I am the keeper of broken tome pages but that hardly a title that has nothing meaningful to you. But you understand why then I have two tomes fighting each other. I am constantly having to scream at them both."

"There seems to be a problem with the whole Trick Trickster part."

"Oh yeah, you not going to find me in the tome. I am accounted but unwritten one. One of the few top rankers that does. Even sigil has to bite my ears for trespassing. Not that the administration can do a damn thing about it. Morons."

They do a pointing game for a while, and Riddle waves that he deal with it. She huffed and got back all suitcase and two carry on bags. She makes sure all the weird stuff is put away. Her mom having a headache is seated for a bit.

"Wow... is this bad news?" Her new dad being back from fetching food and drinks at the airport coffee shop. He had nothing for Lea, not expecting her.

"It's mostly all good news for you lot." Riddle shivered, "Due to the test having interface we had not planned for. Everyone successfully passed as long as they stayed live. Furthermore, your daughter is a ranking to high for the test to begin with but came in good use for when things became dire. Sadly no one witnessed her battle and there is no way we can recognise what just happened."

"But I brought a gift." She took out a tiny scale from off the god slayer. Her mom takes it and didn't recognize it at all. To her it's just a pretty shell or stone. She couldn't even accept it, giving it back to Lea. Lea of course knew her mom would beleive her. Gives the scale to dad instead. He knew what it was and pockets it quickly hidden. He didn't want to stir trouble.

"How big was it?" He puts the tray aside between to her mom and him. He picked Lea up and sat her on his lap. She smiles and acts as a child should. She tells it as she knows it. But her mom thinks this was exaggerated and was to many off things to be true. The team of ambulance crew came to collect some dead people form the toilet. It's all hushed and not a big deal. Humans don't give it a glance in finding dead people in that toilet often. This is England what there a higher percentage of seeing ability people. Many had already been watching the activities of undertakers here. Her mom has her drink in silence.

"When Riddle rushed to go tell people about the thing that ate the god eater. I turned back around and poached it. You would beleive the market value if the skin and bones, especially hung dry correctly. The blood and meat has its uses as bait and feeding things. I have a lot of hungry things, so need to hunt big stuff like the gaurdain often." She posed proud, "A tome keeper has to appease their promise duties."

"You have a license to do that?" Her dad has to ask in being his only sensible question.

"It was expired but given the circumstances of living people dying because of things. It was the right thing to do, getting rid of the farmer that made the population of lost feral to big." She deflated in this problem.

"You saved lives and that's more important then having the paperwork done. I would rather that you extend to save human lives then to be held back." He hugs her and she returns this hug. She holds on prolonging the embrace, missing the time when her mom was closer. Quiet latched on with letting her held back emotions flood forwards. He pats her back calmly. Whispering good things. Lea was finally feeling eased, staying sat as she was but eventually just going to sleep from over spent energy. Sit back the adults enjoy the coffee.

"She has drastically changed since meeting you. She had be always to quiet or never like her age." Her mom commented. Topic is swiftly moves to what they were going to do. Mostly where they are about to live and the jobs they both be taking this moment forward. There is always something the undertakers need humans to directly influence that saves many other changes later. Mom will be going into the care system in a job that is turly hated. Dad was leaving the airport job for return back to printing, as his family had for 5 generations. There was also the matter of meeting the British extended family as they could help with house searching or job search in the meantime. Recommendations of schools for Lea but the topic of school made her mom nervous. Those labels from the USA has really in grained deep doubt. She the one that changed topic quickly from the educational system talks.

Lea was forced awake and they head to his car. Riddle has already long left. Watching the world beyond, she is here now. Now she can finish her dividing. When they parked at the house they will be living in for the first year or three. She came to her empty room and began to unpack what she needed in her human life. A box of emergency candles, salt and medical supplies under bed. She aligned her window of her most favour rocks that are normal rocks then souls. Hang a poster. The human side heard her name and she went downstairs for food. Her mask makes some last minute adjustments. She lifted the tome of broken and it created paper gateway. A last few checks of her armour and nods in certain lingered thoughts. And now the two sides of her are out of rhythm. A little panic but she over it soon. Just the stress of shock over the move, was the assumption. Both minds became quiet and pulled focus to different tasks.