Swing Shift Compilation -2nd Epilogue (Patreon)

((Don't read this till you're done with Swing Shift 3. It will absolutely ruin the story for you. This will be converted to a lower tier at a later time))

With a long, pained, and bored sigh, Eugenia tilted her head to one side.

Watching the portal slide open, she felt like it was taking far too long. Taking too long and wasting her time. Time which could be spent fighting Zeus.

Crossing her arms in front of herself, she dug her fingers in. Her foot started to tap impatiently as she felt her heart rate start to climb upward.

“Oh, there you are, my dear Eugenia,” said a smooth voice.

Stepping through the now open portal was Sameerixis.

Her husband.

Grinning at her, he closed the portal behind himself, his eyes locked on her face even as he did so.

Clicking her tongue, she lifted her chin slightly. Slowly, against her desire, a smile began to creep over her face.

Shaking her head once—as if to somehow shake the light-headed feeling he always gave her—she sighed again.

“Hello, husband. I missed you,” complained Eugenia, her arms falling down to her sides. She hadn’t seen him in a few days.

Her ever ongoing war kept her moving constantly. Sliding from skirmish to skirmish. A never-ending list of battles that seemed to go on for all time.

“As I missed you,” Sam said and then stepped in close to kiss her briefly. He also touched her cheek and then laid his forehead to hers. “And thank you for this. I promised Gus I’d help him out with this and you being there… well… it just makes everything easier.”

“It’s… fine. I just haven’t gone back since I left. Makes me feel rather guilty, you know,” murmured Eugenia, leaning her face into his hand. “It was my job and I abandoned it.”

“I get that. But I imagine the Originator is far happier for you to be battling his enemies, then judging souls. No?” Sam asked with a chuckle. “Now. Would you be so kind as to get us moving?

“I’d like to spend some time with you, but I have to go talk to Alex right after this. Since you’re not running off though… could you pick me up thirty minutes after we separate?”

“I could do that. And how’s Alex doing?” Eugenia asked.

She had a comfortable step-mother type of relationship with Alexander, Sameerixis’s first-born son. No matter how hard she tried though, she’d never been able to really win him over as a child.

He clearly liked her, and had never been rude or cross to her. In fact, he often went out of his way to show he was quite happy that she was married to his father.

She’d just always felt like he behaved as someone much older. Older and perhaps a little nervous around her.

Not to mention it tickled at something in the back of her head. Like she was forgetting something.

Unfortunately, she’d never been able to pinpoint any of it. Clarity on Alex evaded her.

“Fine, fine. He keeps collecting more women. They’re always so odd, too,” Sam said with a curious look on his face. Then he shook his head with a heavy sigh. “It’s like he already knew them for years before he brought them home. Except… as far as I can tell… he’d just met them. They’d never crossed one another until the moment that they did.”

Eugenia only nodded her head at that.

Lifting her left hand, she began to draw on a power only she had.

The birthright her father had given her when he’d birthed her onto this world.

A portal to a plane she was born to. A place that was made second, only after the seat of origination.

The plane of judgment.

Where every soul that passed on from life would need to go.

All would come here no matter what.

In the blink of an eye, Eugenia pulled Sam and herself over to the other side and shut the portal behind them.

“Your father sure had a way of setting people up,” Sam said with a chuckle. “Was that power something you had before you came to this universe or after?”

Harrumphing, Eugenia wondered if she should answer him.

Sam was one of the few people who knew that there were other worlds.

Other than herself and Miles Campbell.

“And maybe this is a weird time to be asking considering how long we’ve been together but… how’d you end up here in the first place?” Sam asked. “I always wanted to ask but it never seemed like a good place to ask. Zeus watches everywhere, after all. Except here.”

Walking forward, Eugenia didn’t want to answer Sam.

But he did deserve some type of answer considering how much he’d done for her.

“The Architect made this world, actually. My father… just… did a color-by-number job,” Eugenia admitted begrudgingly. She didn’t like demeaning her father’s accomplishments, but even she had to admit that what the Architect had done here was amazing. “Father put everything together, but the Architect made the instructions. Every single soul, system, blade of grass, all made by the Architect. His is a mind that cannot be fathomed. If he chooses to do something, he does it.”

Eugenia glanced over her shoulder to see what Sam might think about that.

Except he didn’t look surprised or shocked. In fact, he looked amused.

As if he had known the Architect had made the world after all.

“Makes sense. I’ve heard stories of them. The Originator and the Architect. Close as brothers. The Architect being the planner and the Originator being the power and execution,” Sam said, giving her one of his smiles that made her heart hurt.

“Yes, that’s a fair assessment,” Eugenia said, looking ahead again. “I… did call him Uncle. He seemed to think it was amusing.

“As for how I got here, I made a stupid deal with one of Father’s wives.”

“You? You made a deal?” Sam asked as they continued to walk along.

Up ahead was the never-ending line of souls, stretching out and onward. More and more souls constantly joined in at the end of the line.

“Yes.”

“What kind of deal?”

“What? It was…well… in my original life, I was the daughter of a noble house. I had gone to a ball to seek a husband,” explained Eugenia. It was the first time she’d thought about any of it in thousands and thousands of years. “And I made a deal with Ale—”

Eugenia came to a sudden rocking stop. Her hands clenching at her sides.

“No,” she said in a dark tone.

“No?” Sam asked, coming to stand next to her.

“That’s… how. I… ooh… I’m going to strangle him,” growled Eugenia.

“Who? And why?” Sam asked good-naturedly.

“Alex. Alex, that little… shit. Alex is from my original world. He’s the one who got me killed. He was working for one of Father’s wives,” said Eugenia in a pained tone. “And then they sent him here as a messenger.”

“Oh. Well. That’d explain a lot about my son,” Sam said with a deep laugh. “And his women. Well! That’ll be fun to corner him about.

“It’s rather enjoyable to spar with him verbally. Especially when I get the upper hand.”

“Strangle him,” growled Eugenia.

“Why? If he’s here, he died, too. Besides, we wouldn’t have met otherwise,” Sam said, wrapping an arm around her hips. Then he started pulling her forward, moving them toward the line again. “So if you do strangle him, be sure you don’t kill him or hurt him permanently.

“Besides, Anna would try to kill you forever afterward. You know how she is.”

“Yes. Yes, I do. And I suspect I met her briefly as well,” muttered Eugenia.

She was beginning to suspect that Anna was actually Anna Ulles.

A woman long forgotten over the multitude of years. A woman who had been at the same ball where Eugenia had died.

“How mortifying. I didn’t even recognize them,” complained Eugenia. “That’s why those two have always been deferent to me.”

“It does make sense. Okay. Now come on. This is your domain. We need to find those two. I promised Gus,” Sam said, pushing on Eugenia’s back.

“I—fine. Yes. Gus deserves our assistance. We put him in an untenable position,” Eugenia agreed, turning her eyes to the line in front of them.

Dipping into a power-set that she hadn’t touched in years, she started to sort through the dead. Moving through those in line as she began to slowly walk past them.

With any luck, they’d be able to find both Gus’ father, and Vanessa, relatively quickly. The line was an ever-changing thing.

It was both shrinking and expanding, at the same time.

Moving down the line, Eugenia inspected and dismissed every soul she came across. None of them were those she was looking for.

Because on top of Vanessa and Gus’ father dying, there was a number of people those two had killed before their own deaths.

After perhaps a full hour, Eugenia finally came across someone who seemed to match those who had attacked the Hellström family.

“There they are,” Sam said, looking ahead of where Eugenia was currently in the line.

Following his gaze, Eugenia saw a young Hispanic woman and an older Caucasian male, talking with one another.

They both seemed to be enjoying the conversation and appeared unbothered by the fact that they were dead.

Walking up to the two of them, who paused in their conversation to look back at Eugenia and Sam, Eugenia was impressed.

The man had a fully defined soul. A sense of self that had lost almost none of the spark of his life.

Vanessa also seemed to be quite fully formed as far as spirits went. She had suffered some loss, but nowhere near what most people had.

“Ah, you see? I told you Gus would do something beyond imaging,” said the man with a chuckle. “He somehow sent a Planar Lord and the Judge of the Afterlife to find us.”

Eugenia felt shocked by that statement.

As far as she knew, she’d never met this man before. There was no way he’d know of her existence, and from what she could read of his life, he’d never run across her name.

“Sorry, it’s a habit that I apparently couldn’t break even after death,” said Gus’ father with a laugh, tapping at his temple with two fingers. “My name’s Willhelm. Just call me Will.

“This is Vanessa, my daughter-in-law. But you both already knew that.”

“You know,” Sam said in a smooth tone, putting his hands on his hips. “That was probably the smoothest anyone has ever gone through my mind before. Ever. I wouldn’t have even known if you hadn’t said anything.”

“Well… it’s easier to let people know that you know their secrets upfront,” Willhelm said with a shrug of his shoulders. “Since I’m already dead, it’s not as if I can promise to take them to the grave. But at least I can’t do anyone any harm from here.”

I… what?

My secrets?

No. He couldn’t have.

“I wouldn’t have noticed either, if it were me, by the way. From what I could see, he hid his original life quite well. Maybe he seemed too adult, but that’d be it. Anyway, I’m ready if you are,” Willhelm said, adjusting the clothes he was wearing.

Which were really just his own mind’s interpretation of what he should be wearing.

“We’re… going somewhere?” asked Vanessa, looking nervous. “And… is everyone okay?”

“Yes, everyone is fine,” Sam said as if nothing bothered him at all about what’d just happened. “You and Willhelm were the only casualties. Everyone else is quite safe.”

Nodding his head, Willhelm seemed to agree with that statement.

Clearing her throat, Eugenia pointed a finger at Willhelm.

“Of course, I won’t,” he said before she could ask him to be absolutely private with what he knew.

Her finger was still pointing at him.

“Sorry, as I said, habit. I can’t seem to control my response as easily here, it seems,” apologized Willhelm.

“She’s the Judge. You’re basically set up to tell her anything when you’re here. Anyway, yes, let’s go. I promised Gus I’d take you both to the other side as soon as possible. A friend of mine is the current judge,” Sam said.

Moving forward, he pulled both of the souls out of line and started walking away.

“I’ll catch up,” grumbled Eugenia.

All this talk about the Originator and the Architect had set her mind on edge. It made her feel as if she were overlooking something.

Especially because Sam wasn’t surprised.

Making up her mind, Eugenia turned and opened a portal to somewhere she visited as rarely as she could manage.

Closing the portal behind herself, she looked at the only things in this place.

A television set, sofa, recliner, and a number of other seats were arrayed around the area.

From stools to dining chairs, to a bean bag.

Seats for everyone who had been in this room.

In between all of that was a coffee table with a display set in it. Eugenia had often tried to interact with it.

Unfortunately, the display only ever showed what the Architect had once called, “ant battle royale”.

Or as sane people knew it, static. Nothing but eternal static.

The Architect and the Originator had spent a great deal of time here. Creating the world and all things about it.

Using the display to build and create, while amusing themselves with the television. Sitting on their sofa and talking with everyone.

At the time, Eugenia hadn’t understood either of them.

But now, after living in a modern world, she understood.

Understood a lot more that was unsaid, as well.

That there were more worlds than she could likely fathom.

Worlds like her original one, worlds like the one she was in now, and others that probably ran in between them.

But this one was special.

She knew that.

Too much had been invested in this world in a way that made it clear that neither the Architect nor the Originator knew what to do.

They’d been going through the whole thing for the first time.

A “masterpiece” as the Architect had called it.

Eugenia had been present during the creation.

She had watched as the two men had jokingly put everything together, side by side.

Moving over to the recliner, Eugenia sat down in it.

This had been her chair.

The place where she sat and listened to her “family” as they made the world.

Looking across the way, Eugenia’s eyes rested on the simple wooden stool that had been Retribution’s.

“Did you really kill yourself, brother?” Eugenia asked to the emptiness.

Slowly, her eyes moved around the room.

From seat to seat, her gaze rolled across them.

She was the last here, as far as she knew. Or the last alive, as far as she could tell. Everyone who had been present at creation had left with her Father and her Uncle, or died.

Aster technically came after creation. After the world was formed and the elements were made.

All the elementals did.

We just never told them that their existence didn’t actually begin at creation.

They had heard his call and battled beside him. Only to leave once it was obvious that they’d lost the war.

When Runner had been betrayed by one of his generals.

Betrayed by War herself.

Turning her head once more, Eugenia looked at the ugly squat chair that War had often taken. Perched at the end of the coffee table.

Watching everything with keen interest and wanting to know more of what her domain was. Her expectations and limitations.

“She’d been plotting it from the beginning,” Eugenia murmured.

“Most likely,” replied a warm voice. “But Runner is… he’s far too kind. Far too forgiving.”

Eugenia’s head snapped toward the speaker.

She found no one.

No one was standing where the voice had spoken.

“I’m not where you are. At least, not enough for it to matter,” said the voice. “But we’ve spoken before. Briefly. You may not remember it though.

“I’m Srit. Your father’s wife.”

Eugenia’s eyes grew wide and round as she continued to look around the room.

“Now… I foresee something that is likely going to happen soon. Something Runner didn’t expect, but will likely act on,” continued Srit. “You’re the only piece I can influence. And you can’t tell anyone what I’m about to tell you.

“That is, if you wish me to continue.”

“Will… it help Father?” Eugenia asked, sounding confused even to her own ears.

“Yes. It will help him. Will you listen?”

Eugenia didn’t need to be asked twice.

“I already failed him once, I won’t do it again. What do I need to do?”

“For now… just listen,” promised Srit.