"You will find out when we reach the Soul City."
Bruce waited for more. None came. The skeleton simply stood there, hands folded in its sleeves, the star-orbs still fixed on him with the same patient attention.
Bruce smiled, faintly; the small dry smile of a man who had been told not yet by too many beings in too many realms to be irritated by it.
"Alright," he said.
He picked up his spoon and went back to his meal.
Kael, who had been listening, snorted into his bowl.
"Welcome to the Soul Realm," he said. "Everyone here loves to tell you you'll find out later."
After what might have been an hour, time in this carriage was as slippery as time anywhere else in this realm, and Bruce had given up trying to measure it, the carriage slowed and stopped.
Bruce looked up from his nearly empty bowl.
Kael did the same. "Are we there?"
"No," Theron said quietly. He was looking out the small slatted window beside his seat. "There are people."
