“Well a heart does come through the pneumatic tube system and I put it on the scales, so I guess it’s hard to explain. But yeah, the heart is lessened by all of those things. Every living thing has a soul, little one. Even the smallest animal. If there is real thought then there is a soul. I have one too!”
“Real thought?” the Ifrit repeated drily, tilting its head. “I’m not sure the majority of humans qualify, in that case. And what do you do with the souls of the already damned? Surely you don’t bother weighing those.”
The small girl perched on the arm of the bench is hardly the strangest thing Bella’s ever seen, and so she nods easily in answer to the question.
“Yeah, I am. Wanna see?" Without waiting for an answer, Bella passes the sketchbook up so that the other could take it if they wanted.
Small hands grasped the notebook, Iblis’ curiosity winning over its better instincts. The woman sitting on the other end of the bench hardly looked like a threat, anyway. The Ifrit flipped through the pages of the sketchbook.
Bartimaeus had already returned his view to the first plane, once again to avoid passing out because he could handle Faquarl’s seemingly innumerable tentacles and he could handle floating eyes in strange places, but whatever Iblis was struck fear deep into his essence and he really didn’t want to look at it.
Iblis was smiling, and that was…well, Bartimaeus didn’t know if it was good or bad, really, and he didn’t particularly want to stick around long enough to find out but now he’d been asked for his name…Oh, wait. He wasn’t recognised? That rather suggested he hadn’t been sought out specifically to kill. Good thing. Hold onto that.
“Bartimaeus. My name’s Bartimaeus.” He replied. The introduction spiel could go hang, he was not going to try posturing to Iblis of all spirits, it could only end badly. It was unimaginably powerful and Bartimaeus could just feel his essence shivering at the other’s proximity, torn between shrinking back and pressing forwards because as terrifying as it was, Iblis felt like the Other Place, or as close as one could get to it on Earth.
Iblis was familiar with the amount of distrust and fear that came with its presence. The Ifrit’s pride had led to what many people considered the downfall of the Jinn, though Iblis would argue that it had been trying to be loyal. Fanatic loyalty was just as often a weakness as hubris. As the other djinn revealed his name, there was a spark of recognition in the Ifrit’s eyes and a smirk soon followed.
“I’ve heard of you.” Trouble-maker extraordinaire. Iblis’ brows furrowed slightly as it recalled the incidence and the enslavement from Solomon. Bartimaeus’ name had been common during that time. The Jinn were constantly being enslaved even now, but Solomon and that damned ring… Iblis hunched its small shoulders, looking at Bartimaeus with equal measures of amusement, concern, and disapproval.
“You ought to be more careful,” Iblis said, stepping forward. “Though, I’m not sure the stories I hear of you would be quite so entertaining if you were,” it finished thoughtfully. “It’s an honour to meet you. I’m Iblis, though… I think you already recognised me. I didn’t mean to startle you. I’m not as bad of an omen as the stories say, and I’m not quite as menacing as the form I was cursed with.”
Iblis was accustomed to humans with odd abilities; its long life allowed the Jinn to experience more than its fair share of such humans. And the hair colour was odd, the skin colour a bit corpsey, and the eyes uncomfortably slitted, but overall this girl wasn’t the strangest thing Iblis had seen. Still…
Damn. This kid’s smarter than me… WAY smarter than me.
“Well Ma’at’s feather is so pure that it is light. And it is more than just a physical heart being weighed. Within the Ib is Sheut, the Ba, the Ka, and the Akh; all of these things, if pure, will lighten the load of the Ib.”
“Then it isn’t a literal heart being weighed. More like… the morals of the person, their actions? It’s a soul you’re weighing. What of animals? Do they also have souls? Do you have one?”
