Arla Albright Embers, Master Healer in the Sixth Realm of Heaven, was tired and past ready to be home. She’d been running around the hospital for two days straight, assisting in the medical examiner’s office for twelve hours, before rushing to the clinic to help with some triage wound care. She loved what she did, but she needed a day to recuperate, badly. Plus, her husband should be home soon. She could use a good foot rub. She yawned as she rubbed her lower back, stepping into her office to grab her bag.

“Healer Embers?” a voice called out to her. 

“Fuck,” she breathed, her head and arms dangling. She stood up straight and turned, a smile on her face. “Yes, Nan?”

Nan gave her an apologetic smile. “I’m very sorry, Healer, but a request came in for you from the ME’s office.”

“For me?”

“Yes, Ma’am,” Nan said, leading the way as Arla reluctantly followed.

“Why me?”

“I’m not sure, Ma’am, they just said to ask for you specifically.”

Arla groaned softly. “Super.” She hurried after the nurse across the hospital to the ME’s office all the way on the opposite end of the massive building. She thought to just fly there, but her back hurt and that would just make it worse. When they arrived, Nan pushed the door open, announcing Arla’s arrival. Arla thanked her and stepped in, grabbing an apron and heading to the sink to wash her hands.

The lead ME approached her. “I’m sorry, Arla, I know you’re exhausted, but this one was sent directly up with your name on it.”

Arla frowned. “Any reason why?”

Belinda shook her head. “No idea, hon. The note just said ‘please have MH Arla Albright examine.’”

Arla flinched. MH Arla Albright…no one calls me that…no one except…

She followed Belinda to the table with the covered body and slowly removed the sheet. It was an angel, dark hair and handsome.

Yep, just his type.

She continued to fold the sheet carefully down the body, examining every inch before letting it rest over its feet. Experience taught her there wouldn’t be anything there. She ran her hands over the body, lifting the arms, tilting his head, moving it gently back and forth, spreading the fingers, running her hands along his sides. She asked the assistants to roll him on one side so she could examine his back.

There it is. She gently touched the mark on the body’s hip, drawing out a little bit of energy to bring up the mark completely. 

“I need a camera.” 

Belinda handed it to her and she took three shots before letting the body roll back down. The head ME gave her a puzzled look. “What was that?” she asked. “It looked like a flower.”

“It was,” Arla said dryly, disrobing and taking the camera with her. “He died of asphyxia. Burn it.” She walked from the room without a backwards glance. Belinda and the assistants all exchanged confused glances between themselves, the body, and the door. Belinda had been an ME for centuries and had only been ordered to burn a body four times.

Every time by Master Healer Arla Embers.

Arla pulled out her phone as she hurried from the hospital, tapping out a text to her cousin.

I received the flower. It was lovely.

She pocketed the phone without caring to wait for a reply. Gripping the camera tightly in her hand, she took a deep breath. It had been two years since he’d sent her a body. Two years of almost deafening, tense silence. It wasn’t like he wasn’t sending bodies at all, just not directly to her. When he did, she knew what the next steps should be. She’d already taken the first. The second was to develop the pictures, and send them to their assigned destinations. After that, her part was done until another clue came her way. She just wished he’d actually call her for once. Fifty years and so much had changed in the Divine Realms, including the implementation of modern Earth technology. 

Dammit, just pick up the phone and call me! She swallowed back her irritation and gritted her teeth as she opened her wings and flew as fast as she could to her parents’ house. Where the hell even are you?

Noah…

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