Ascension was swift and exhilarating, once Akin cut the cord that tethered him to his mortal body. A sudden pressure, a fleeting pain – and he was free, hurtling away from the illuminated circle of his Earthly existence. He saw his own limp body slump across the table, and Yrtl’s jerk back to awareness, before the light receded to a point, lost among myriad others.

He saw that, rather charmingly, the vehicle in which he was being borne to Heaven was indeed an apple-cart: rudely made and rapidly heating as he hurtled onward. He smelt burning fibres and wood, and wondered if he would cross over before immolation.

Intense heat, blinding light; the cart exploded into flame and fell, fluttering, like a burning moth as he was thrown free…

He awoke in the garden, smoke pouring from his clothes, a stink of singed hair and his skin scorched and tight. A restless wind tossed the trees, unseen creatures screeched anxiously in the undergrowth; the sky darkened.

“So much for making a quiet entrance,” thought Akin.