Without Valentine around anymore, Shay supposed his duties fell on her shoulders. Technically speaking, they should have fallen on John's (she thought), but there came a day when that tick started. It was small at first, easily ignored, but it grew like a forest fire to consume her entire being.
It took Shay some courage to finally approach Pandora on the subject of the lost girl's soul who she kept in a necklace. She had to convince Pandora that the little girl would never be alone, but Shay didn't plan on doing this by herself. She told Pandora to come with her.
She'd rented a small boat that could take them to one of the islands surrounding Manta Carlos. They were uninhabited, and many of them had strange magical properties. Her Reaper's intuition pulled her in a direction -- her most trusted compass.
Shay was uncharacteristically quiet as they rowed through fog covered sea, going in a direction she'd never gone before, to an island she wasn't exactly sure was there. She'd never been this far off Manta Carlos before. The ride was rough but otherwise uneventful.
Through the fog rose a small island with lots of sand, palm trees, and a lot of sharp, jagged stones to greet them.
Pandora made no judgments of her own, instead only wishing the girl to not be alone, and up until this point, no one had been able to assure her that this would not happen. Many believed Pan had wanted to avoid the girl's fate, keep whatever punishment had been written from her from actually being carried out. This, of course, was not the truth, and Shay had been perceptive enough to see this.
In order to make this easier Pandora had shifted into her human form. Her long black legs crossed almost lady like, while her body was turned to face the water. Her hand sat up by her neck, rubbing the crystal that contained the soul in question. Today she was even conservatively dressed, wearing a black turtleneck sweater dress that came down to her knees.
She sighed loudly as they approached an island. Several jagged rocked pierced the ocean surface, threatening to sink anyone careless enough to get too close, but just beyond them sat sandy beaches. It looked tempting, like the kind of temptation that someone might risk the rocks to get to. In a way it was almost like pan herself, Having a noticeably threatening appearance, with a reward waiting for those brave enough to make it past.
"You know where we are going yes?"
Shay noted that Pandora was dressed up as though they were going to a funeral, which wasn't far off from the truth. Shay herself tended toward clothing that always made her look glum, but today she had worn an honest to God funeral dress styled in her usual form of dress.
"No. I've never been here before in my life," she said as she navigated around the island until she could find a narrow slip through the jagged rocks and get them onto the beach. The sand here was warm and silky soft on Shay's bare feet.
"I'm following the Reaper Intuition," she continued once they were on land. "I understand the cosmic powers that be think this girl did both a great misdeed and a true act of courage and love. I didn't get a message or anything, but I'd calling being a wandering soul for so long the worst punishment imaginable. She's going to go home, now and you're going to help me get here there."
"I need you to find me a place on this island that comforts you. Somewhere you feel complete and safe, and then we'll go from there. I'm taking us to limbo."
Shay was a little shakier on that part. Regis had been trying to teach her how to step into Limbo, but it wasn't as easy for her as it was for him. To Regis, it was second nature. Shay wasn't sure if she could get herself there, let alone another person.
Pan continued to hold her silence. Shay seemed to have a genuine understanding of the situation, better than most anyways. It helped that she sympathized with Pandora and not wanting the girl to be alone anymore. Finally, it seemed like some proper resolution was going to occur.
Pan stepped out of the vessel, her black bare feet hit the sand without a word as she walked up from the edge of the water. She had been instructed to find somewhere she felt safe and comforted. Shay had intended to take them to Limbo, and this was no doubt meant to be an anchor back to this world. She scanned the area, her 6 eyes unblinking as she continued to walk, looking for somewhere that felt right.
She passed a few nice looking tree's and even a rock that was oddly shaped like a table, but nothing caught her attention. That is until she found a small grassy clearing. It was calm and looked inviting. On any other day, it was the kind of place she would lay out and nap in. This was what she was looking for. "Over here. In the grass." She said as she made straight for the spot. Once there she knelt down and waited for Shay.
Shay followed Pandora silently as the older woman led the way. When she came upon a patch of grass and settled herself in it, Shay didn't hesitate to sit across from her.
She held her hand out for the necklace and once given it Shay placed it between them on the grass. From the bag she'd taken with them, Shay pulled different colored candles to set around them, securing them with little stands. She lit them in a specific order: red, blue, purple, black, white.
The smoke the candles emitted smelled of something sweet, and it pooled thickly around Pandora and Shay, seeming to settle rather than rise.
Shay took the necklace in her hands and inhaled the smoke deeply, holding back a cough. It broke in the middle, the smoke seemingly drawn to it. Before long, Shay couldn't even see Pandora, who was less than an arm's length away from her, the smoke had grown so thick.
Here was to hoping Pandora would see the little girl in it, Shay thought to herself and held her breath.