Sintala Panganib slips through the veil between the Underworld and the Land of the Living, emerging onto a bustling sidewalk. The sun is high in the sky, casting long shadows that crisscross the pavement, but none fall on her. Her presence is undetectable to the mortals around her.
Sintala has been tasked with finding a soul that has somehow slipped through the cracks. The Book of the Dead had declared their time, yet they hadn’t appeared in the Afterlife. It's rare, but not unheard of, and it always means trouble—unfinished business, a soul too stubborn to move on, or worse, interference from forces that shouldn’t meddle in the affairs of death.
Sintala’s gaze settles on a convenience store where the energy feels different, a slight ripple in the fabric of the living world. There's something off, a sense of wrongness that tingles at the edges of her awareness. She knows she's close.
“Where are you?” she murmurs to herself.
She steps forward, closer to the source of the disturbance, her senses sharp and alert. The soul is here somewhere, hidden among the living, perhaps unaware of their own fate. But Sintala will find them, as she always did.
The Land of the Living can only hold onto a soul for so long before it begins to break down, and Sintala Panganib is here to make sure that didn’t happen. The Underworld is waiting, and so is she.