Mike sat alone in the amphitheater, thinking. He heard Charon dock the boat a few times, heard him chase the screaming people off his boat.
Then, an idea came to him. He couldn’t use his magic here, but if he could somehow get back to the surface…
He went to the dock and waited. It seemed a long time before Charon came with his boat of wailing souls. When he docked, he shoved the people off his boat. Mike made to step on the boat, but Charon stepped before him, towering over him. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“I’m an Oneiroi.”
Charon gave him a look. “You’re not at the right gates.”
“I’m in training.”
“Where are your wings?”
“I left them in my other pants.”
At that, Charon roared with laughter. Then he did something Mike didn’t expect him to do.
He stepped aside.
“You have the night, Oneirus,” said Charon, as he started to pole the boat toward the far shore, where more souls gathered.
Hermes was not there, which made Mike feel better, as he snuck onto the shore and through the throng of souls. He waited while Charon beat the souls aboard his boat, and, with a short backwards glance back at Mike, heaved off. Mike ran.
He felt nothing as he broke through to the surface, but he felt incorporeal, like he couldn’t hold himself together. He ran at the nearest person, a security guard at a warehouse, and felt himself bleed into the man’s essence.
Mike caught the man’s memories, the man’s sense of self, but he could do nothing to control him. He followed the man at night, and when he touched another person, he jumped to that other person, gained his memories and knowledge. And the next person, until night fell.
He returned to the underworld, but stayed on the far shore, keeping out of the way of Hermes when he brought more souls. A couple of times, Mike thought Hermes saw him, but Hermes made like he didn’t.
Mike did it again, surfacing in the world, and jumping onto the last person he had been with. To the next. Then night fell.
Mike didn’t know how long he did this, for as many days and nights as it took, before he finally reached Scott’s sanctum.
Scott had warded the place beautifully. And there, at the center, was Mike’s own sigil, which he touched with his soul hand and the wards came down for him.
“We are bound in Heaven and Earth,” he whispered, and went into the library.