When Aethera Michaelson entered the Academy, she knew someone like her could never fit in with the elite crowd of rich and entitled students. So, after the quarantine begins, she blends herself into the corners of the library, unaware that she would...
REUS could feel it. It was a surprise that the others couldn't. He chuckled, mostly to himself. Of course no one else had felt it yet. His Master was livid. In the sarcasm of the moment, Reus suddenly felt uneasy at his anger. The sky had turned a feral grey over the Holy See in mere seconds. His Master would not take on the believers of the Christian faith, he had no reason to, he wasn't the embodiment of Devil himself, but he had spent eons terrifying them, keeping his distance but letting them know of his presence.
They had to know he existed. They always had to remember.
Reus found the last traces of sunlight, hidden behind the numerous aged buildings of the Vatican City. It amused him, the rumbling of the the storm, brewing in symphony with the brooding wrath of Hades, echoing the discordant melody of his impending arrival; how they rushed away from the gates, unbeknownst to his presence.
They were mere tourists, most of them at least. Waiting to meet their maker at their convenience.
The men and women who crossed him knew nothing of faith. Of real faith and loyalty to a God. They hadn't spent centuries as a servant to a God, they would never know. None of them had ever even seen a God, they knew nothing of their power. Their Gods aren't waiting for the next day of their tour when the weather is better to get respects from their followers. These men and women knew nothing of love and death, of loyalty and fear.
But Melinoe knew it all too well...didn't she? Reus shook his head, turned away from the buildings and diverted his attention in a different direction.
His sister knew of loyalty and fear more than he did. She would never betray the God who had saved her, who had protected her during the war. Centuries were a very small unit of time that she had been loyal to him, she wouldn't betray him, not now.
Reus had to convince himself before his Master called on him. If he wasn't convinced of his sister's intentions, how could be convince the Lord?
"He has arrived, Sir," the man next to him spoke. Reus nodded and followed the man, keeping a comfortable distance between them.
His Master's spirit would soon question him. Would Reus reveal the tension brewing in his voice? Would he catch a hint of inscrutable feeling that was growing inside of him?
The ally he walked turned into a small hallway. Reus was immune to the shockwaves the change bought, he had been through it enough. When the mortal world shifted into the immortal, especially through the shields of his Master, Reus knew it caused unbearable pain to a demigod. Art Taylor would have screamed, Reus didn't. He was a true child of a God, he didn't have to spend his senses on the pain, it was easier to ignore than acknowledge.
As Reus crossed the threshold into the immortal realm, the ally that had stood as a loyal Vatican ally underwent a swift metamorphosis. In a matter of seconds, the once-familiar passage transformed into a dungeon-like corridor, thick with stone walls. The first thing that his eyes registered was that these stone walls rose menacingly, enclosing him in an atmosphere of ancient mystery. It reminded him of the few times he had met his Master. Everything about the walk to him reminded him of his presence.
The air, heavy with the resonance of centuries, echoed the footsteps of both the living and the long-departed, that was the effect Hades had on someone even before they met them. It was a transition that unfolded with the seamless grace of time itself, revealing a passage not only into the immortal world but also into the cryptic depths of a timeless history.
Reus knew the feeling all too well. How time stood still when someone approached the Master's presence and while what he would meet today was just the Master's voice, he knew the voice carried with itself the screams of many. That was the burden of being the Master of the Underworld.
The man in front of him stopped before the hallway would open to a darker room. He turned, just enough to look Reus in the eye.
"Master is here," the man was curt with his responses, as had everyone around his Master been.
The man disappeared before Reus took another step.
Inside the room, it felt like Hades gave Reus just enough time to soak the darkness in. His presence was immediately felt; the cold and warmth he carried simultaneously. The chills he brought to an immortal himself and yet made him feel like he was running a temperature in the middle of a blizzard.
"Reus."
"Master," Reus bowed to no one in particular, after all, there was nothing but a voice.
After the exchange, the resonance of Hades' voice lingered in the room where Reus stood still, a commanding symphony of depth and authority that echoed like distant thunder in the cavernous corridors of the Underworld.
Each word carried the weight of eons, a baritone timbre that seemed to emanate from the very depths of the earth, leaving an indelible imprint on the air as if his words were etched into the fabric of the afterlife itself.
Reus shivered but maintained his posture as he looked towards the dirt on the floor, the only thing he could notice in the room.
"Where is she?"
"S-she..."
"Disappeared now, did she?"
"No, Master, she wouldn't," Reus prayed that his voice had no lacked sincerity as he waited for Hades to continue. The impending silence was terrifying.
"My dear Melinoe has always been the...devious maiden. I have always admired that about her...how her treacherous beauty unfolds, weaving a tapestry of charm laced with the subtle venom of cunning deceit," Hades whispered into the dark. "She's not deceiving me, is she, Reus?"
He felt his throat burn at first and then his knees give out from the cold as his Master held him against the stone.
"Tell me Reus, does she take me for a fool? The girl possesses abilities crucial to the balance of the realms...I need her and I sense her but her essence is entwined with your sister's deceitful actions. Melinoe has her and she will face my wrath when I find the girl."
"I am sure she has her reasons, Master," Reus whispered. "My Lord, I swear on the ages we've served you faithfully, and I implore you to reconsider your judgment. My sister, despite what has happened, has not abducted the girl for her powers or for herself. There's been a grave misunderstanding, and I beg for a chance to reveal the truth."
"Chance?" Hades chuckled, a laugh that shook the walls of the room until Reus was forced to wince in submission. "Granted."
"My Lord, I will not let - "
"You and your sister have three days. If Aethera is not before an altar of mine within three days, I will watch your powers diminish before my eyes in the depths of Tartarus."
━━ αθάνατοι ━━
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