The Fate She Could Not Escape

Banshee Birds tracked the traces of death.

Simply put, only places where many people had died drew Banshee Birds. Their appearance in Port Nyanzaru was not too strange: a terrible disaster had caused heavy casualties, and the missing and dead together probably numbered close to a thousand. That was enough to attract them. If a gap had opened in the Planar Barrier, their appearance there made sense.

But!

A Banshee Bird appearing here, right before them, was strange.

For one thing, no one had died nearby. This place was close to the primeval forest; even if war broke out, it would not be fought here. And as far as Soren could sense with his deity-level perception, there were only three people here and no scent of death. There was no reason for a Banshee Bird to appear, much less stare at them the whole time.

Ildis seemed uneasy under its gaze too. Killing the thing might offend a God of Death, but leaving it alive felt uncomfortable.

When a Banshee Bird died, its soul returned directly to the God of Death.

They were creatures made by a God of Death, who could see most of what they had seen before dying through their returned souls. (Note: This covered what they had seen in the twelve to twenty-four hours before death.)

Was a God of Death really watching them?

Soren thought it unlikely.

Though the Time of Troubles had affected the gods of death, its impact on the Death Pantheon should not have been too great. If Soren remembered correctly, a God of Death could choose to fall into the Spirit Realm or the Shadow Plane, both connected to the mortal world, rather than fall among mortals.

"Which God of Death could it be?"

Soren caught up with the Witch ahead,