Past-Death leaned forward as well. "Definitely ancient Immortal script."
Gabriel ran his thumb over the geometric writing to loosen the grunge of time that had sunk into the grooves. "Finally. Maybe someone else left me instructions." Whoever carved the wording into the bowl had been kind enough to use Immortal script rather than the script of the deities, which originated from the time-before-time.
He searched until he found the start of the sentence. "Death must swear to the deities by one of The Three Laws to protect all souls and to perform his sacred duty until the underworld chooses another." He reread it to ensure his translation was generally accurate. "The underworld chooses another. So you didn't pick me?"
"Missing memory." Past-Death tapped her temple. "But it definitely signaled to me I was out when the sky cracked. I trusted you above everyone to take my place. Whether I was influenced by something …" She shrugged. "No way for me to know."
Gabriel dwelt on the revelation. "This is why a boy of human origin was permitted to enter the underworld in the first place without being dead or losing his soul. It chose me the day you took me in, didn't it?"
The idea his appointment was planned from the day he entered Death's service at the age of seventeen and not a knee-jerk reaction by a manipulative, vengeful goddess made the world around him seem to stop.
I've been waiting for someone to say they made a mistake. He hadn't realized it until this moment, that his frustration and resentment with the overwhelming job were born as much of self-doubt as they were feeling ill-fitted to the position of Death. Some small part of him believed what every other Immortal and deity told him about no human belonging in the seat of a deity.
He hadn't been able to trust past-Death's judgment enough to believe that maybe there was a greater plan in motion, hadn't believed that not only was he the right person for this job but the only person the underworld would accept.
You are both anomalies, created at just the right time, and given just the right power you need to forever alter the Future. Fate had said. The deity was known for being melodramatic, but Gabriel saw his words in a new light.
Like Deidre, he hadn't been born. He'd been created by some deity with a higher purpose. His battle wasn't with the underworld but with himself.
What if this chain of events hadn't started when he was a teen but before that - at his birth? What if he had always been destined to become the first ever Death of human origin that ever existed?