Life and the pursuit of a creative career in cosplay has delayed my MATT stories, but they still play around in the back of my head. Can I simply leave the world exactly as it was created and work with what Jorge has so generously given?
No. Of course not. So! I present to you, for your dorky pleasure, one of my extra layers to make things more complicated. Because if it ain't Byzantine, what's the point?
Entre Dos Mundos: (Google) Spanish for Between Two Worlds
Also referred to as The In-Between
The plane between reality and the afterlife. This is where souls go when mortals slip into a coma. While the concept of backtracking back to their body seems simple, it is very easy to get lost in this plane of endless mist and diffused light.
The gods can slip in and out of this realm at will, but they don't like the place and have no jurisdiction here. They only go for specific purposes - usually bringing back a lost soul for their personal gain.
Those that visit the In-Between feel both at peace and unwelcome. If their physical body is injured, they feel much less of their pain and find themselves tempted to stay. The sensations they do feel are important, serving as a tether to their physical form and giving them a sense of direction to pull them home - IF they don't ignore it for too long.
Demigods span two worlds by nature, so technically they are between worlds their entire lives. It's safe to assume, then, that they are naturally drawn to Entre Dos Mundos. This would account for a handful of early demigod deaths over the centuries.
Zatz is the first in their pantheon to live long enough and visit multiple times. He is the first prolonged glimpse into the true in-between nature of the demigods. He has traveled to the plane twice before my fanfic Honorable Consequences - in infancy after his eye is taken (he doesn't remember it, but Camazotz had to find his soul and bring it back), and during a scourge battle a couple years before the events of MATT.
Maya, having been raised by loving parents in a safe environment, has never had cause to visit the plane until the events of the series.
I hope this whets your appetite for Honorable Consequences, and for it's scourge battle prequal (that doesn't have a name yet *cough*).
