"Alright. You get any farther on these?" Gabriel asked, holding up the paper.
"A little." Tamer rustled through a notebook. "Figured out three more. Shrub, well, mountain." He scribbled them down onto another piece of paper and tore them off for Gabriel.
"Well," Gabriel said, recognizing the symbol. "That's the one the demons seem to be after. Any clue how a hole in the ground equates to an evil soul?"
Tamer was pensive for a moment. His eyes went from Gabe to the paper in front of him. He started to sketch something, paused then leaned forward with more interest and continued.
"I saw something in an ancient text," Tamer mumbled. "It compared the earth to a cesspool."
"Helpful."
Tamer scowled. "The sky was given the status of something pure and clean, the earth sort of a dirty wasteland, and anything below water level or the ground considered Hellish. See what I'm saying?" He showed Gabriel the drawing of the different symbols with a sketch of the sun on one end and the ground on the other.
"Hole, meaning a bad soul," Gabriel said, gazing at the symbols. "Darkyn is after the bad apples. Makes sense. He's building an Army of Souls to attack the human world. He won't want anyone with a conscience."
"I'd say not. I have no fucking clue what the rest of these symbolize, except that it's a ranking structure. These in the middle, I'm guessing about," Tamer said, circling half the images he'd drawn.
"You're certain about the bottom three? The bad ones?" Gabriel asked.
"As certain as can be, based on what I know. The top three and bottom three seem pretty solid to me. But who knows if a shrub or flower is more or less pure, based on the distance from the sky? Is this a sunflower that's taller than me or like, a daisy?"
Gabriel laughed. "Yeah, I get it. Great work."
Tamer rolled his eyes then smiled. "You're not so bad to work for. You need any death-dealers?"
"Don't joke about that. The dealers lose their souls when they come work for me."
"Offer's always out there. I can fight, and I hate most people."
"I'll let you know." Gabriel stood. Tamer was serious, but Gabriel wasn't about to take him up on it when his own dealers were ditching him. He always hated the enslavement of the death dealers; he refused to give Death his soul until forced to make a deal with her for Rhyn's life a few months ago. It never sat well with him that those charged with enforcing Death's mission served not out of choice but obligation to the deity that stole their souls.