Something Wicked this way Comes...

[Mr. X]

having pulled the sword free, Fredric hands it back to Claudus.

"It wasn't my soul, precisely, but indeed the creature's means were more than sufficient to compel me... I do apologize for any injury I may have cause. For what it is worth, I did attempt to pull my blows where I was able."

He eyes the soul, chewing his lip, but hesitates to speak.

For Karazi:

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Despite your recent deification, the meddling in souls and spiritual planes is new and uncharted territory for you. Growing up under the Falgen Stoneshapers, your dedication to the gods was always more lip service than anything else. And so, beyond the usual afterlife myths of the heavens and hells and limbos, your religious understanding of what you're dealing with is severely limited.

However...

While you were neglecting your prayers, you were whole heartedly devoted to understanding the significant powers that you were directly dealing with, and the natural orders which pervaded them... The flow of the stone... The manners in which rocks gave way to soil... The circumstances under which trees would take root there, and the habits of all the creatures that dwealt above and beneath them, and how their fates were intertwined with that of the the mountain itself... And after a moment's consideration, you realize that your considerable education on the subject is perhaps a more applicable tool...

Your main realization, in fact, is more a memory of a phrase a tutor once said to you:

"Where there Can be life, there is life. And where there is life, there will be creatures to feed and prey upon that life..."

It stands to reason that the Astral Plane, being the sort of 'in-between' place you understand it to be, is a place that dead souls must travel through on their way to wherever they ought to end up... But souls are a life of sorts, and if they can survive in this place, them there must indeed be denizens native to this place... And some of these denizens must no doubt feed and prey upon the souls passing through...

A fact which could prove disasterous for the large number of refugees you wish to bring here.

As you frown in thought, Fredric finally speaks up.

He indicates the man's pendant.

"If this man's faith in his goddess was strong enough for him to carry her symbol with him into the afterlife, it is unlikely that she would have neglected to gather him, were she able..."

He sags,

"I had heard it suggested that Tiamat and Bahumat both died in conjuring the dragon over Beluvah...

I hadn't wanted it to be true... I had hoped that Kulkov's soul might have found its peace..."

He trails off into brooding silence.