Scene 1
Eris POV
"Calm down Thanatos. We've already removed the boy from Poseidon's Domain. You're also worried about the wrong things as usual. I'll allow you to send your reapers to watch over him."
Listening to Lord Hades's words as I watched my brother finally put his weapon away after barging in demanding freedom to hunt the Minor Gods from Zeus.
Not wasting any time as he went to place a kill zone for any Gods from Zeus's forces who aimed to devour Tenebris's Domains.
Normal.
That was the sort of answer Thanatos would always choose when something threatened the twins. Direct. Bloody. Efficient enough that the rest of us could deal with the larger problem while he turned a section of reality into a warning.
I remained where I always did when matters involving the twins reached this level.
Close to the throne.
Close enough to move if Lord Hades required it. Close enough that Fatí, Morpheus, Styx and I could act before lesser figures in the court even understood something had gone wrong.
That had become routine long ago.
The twins were not the sort of children anyone in this Realm could afford to leave to softer hands.
"Sir, are you sure it's okay to seal his Sun and Darkness laws? Death Laws are still the most desirable laws that many will never witness?"
Glancing toward Hecate as she finally spoke up.
Still uncomfortable being included in meetings like this. Still useful enough to keep present anyway.
Lord Hades answered without hesitation.
"No. Unlike Juris who has several pre-built paths to the top of his Domains, Tenebris is more akin to me and my brothers. Chasing one percent chances of success at each turn.
While one different stroke of Fate's Quill can destroy several cycles of effort. Although I aim to aid my son at each step."
Feeling the shadows lighten with his words instead of deepen.
Not because the answer surprised me.
Because speaking it plainly settled the room faster than anything softer would have.
Juris had roads.
Tenebris had teeth.
That was the simpler version of it.
One moved through structures already willing to receive him. The other kept forcing his way into places where one wrong shift could break years of progress or destroy the whole lane beneath him.
As we all had to remind ourselves of the gap between the brothers. Two paths to greatness yet only one had to walk the tightrope of the soul he received.
"Me and Poseidon have left enough behind for the next generation to take our roles. Just like Juris who is taking the Hell Domain along with the Devils I've allowed to grow."
That tracked.
Juris had always been easier to fit into architecture without the architecture resisting him first.
"Artemis has received her father's grand law of Tides alongside many minor offices of the Sea."
Also expected.
At this level inheritance was less rumor and more visible movement.
"Apollo is on a direct path of conflict when he fully accepts his new role. As the eyes of Fate he placed himself within the field of Future Kings."
None of us needed that explained.
Not me.
Not Fatí.
Not Morpheus.
Not Styx.
Apollo and Artemis were never simple heirs. Not once the scale of their lanes became visible. Not once Fate started looking at one too hard and inheritance began stacking too cleanly on the other.
"When Tenebris and Apollo succeed at their first steps then they'll start to compound their wins into a path that could leave me and my brothers."
That was the real line.
Not because it revealed something hidden.
Because Lord Hades chose to say it without reducing the weight for Hecate's sake.
The next generation was already moving.
Some cleaner than others.
Some louder than others.
Some one good breakthrough away from becoming everyone else's problem.
I kept my eyes on Lord Hades while Hecate was forced to accept the difference between Tenebris and Juris.
Not one better than the other.
Not one more important.
A difference in path.
And path was what decided which kind of monster reached the top alive.
Scene 2
"AHHH!"
Jumping up as the sound of screaming erupted throughout my head. Right before the feeling of several voices pleading for release clawed at my mind like prayers I couldn't shut off.
Grabbing my head at once as I searched for the usual answers.
Sun.
Darkness.
Anything that would let me push this away before it settled deeper.
Searching for my Sun and Darkness laws I normally used to shield myself from the full weight of Death. Finding both sealed behind layers of God-King ranked seals. My father's unique laws of Darkness and Death and Time covering and separating all three Domains.
I could still feel them.
That made it worse.
My golden laws of the Sun.
The inky black laws of Darkness.
And the pure white that made up the center of my Black Suns of Endings.
The Laws of Death.
All three were still there.
Still mine.
But no longer overlapping the way they were supposed to.
No easy bridge.
No comfortable bleed between them.
Only separation.
Only Death left open enough that I couldn't avoid it anymore.
The screaming rose higher.
Too many voices.
Too many dead things pressing the same demand at once.
Release.
Release.
Release.
Attempting to tune out the screaming as I focused on my surroundings instead.
Finding myself placed on a floating mountain as various biomes covered the ground below. Forest to the south. Open plains farther east. Rivers cutting through stone. Mist around broken peaks. Enough life that the region looked unfinished instead of cultivated.
Then I felt the larger pressures.
Gaia's Domain to the west.
Heavy enough that the land itself seemed to hold its breath under her.
And Uncle Zeus's overbearing Sky Laws to the east.
That was enough for me to understand where I had been thrown.
One of the few regions where Minor Gods ran wild.
A region unclaimed by any of the God-Kings or Gaia. Where Major Gods rarely formed naturally through laws. When it was more common to devour other Gods with similar laws.
The ugly method.
The desperate method.
An attempt to secure a trinity of Domains before the first Domain fully stabilized into one seamless whole. Compared to the Gods of the Underworld who maximized their first Domain into Major God before adding two minor laws as support. Or laws meant to cover flaws instead of replacing structure.
Cleaner.
Safer.
More stable.
Of course Father threw me here.
"AHHH!!!"
This time the pain hit harder.
Several overlapping voices struck me at once, not as clean prayers anymore but as pressure. As memory. As hunger. As all the parts of Death I had kept blunted behind Sun and Darkness suddenly finding room to reach me raw.
I folded over and dug my hands into the stone.
No Sun to burn the noise away.
No Darkness to muffle it.
Only Death.
Only the one Domain I had kept touching through filters and insulation instead of facing directly.
Closing my eyes, I decided to try and stabilize my Death Domain.
Not because I wanted to.
Because I no longer had another answer.
Scene 3
"Sophie!"
Jumping up as the pain in my arms pulled me back.
Not the same pain from before.
Sharper.
Biting.
Immediate.
Looking down to find metal chains wrapped around my arms so tightly they looked like the muscles of a creature made out of chains instead of iron.
"Sophie!!"
My mouth screaming before thought fully returned as my body ignored the pain and crawled to the edge of the cage.
A city could be seen below me.
Large.
Crowded.
Loud.
And every eye in it seemed fixed upward on me.
Citizens cheered the moment they saw I was awake.
Not the cheering of rescue.
Not relief.
The kind people made when they were watching something trapped and had already accepted its suffering as part of the day.
Food was thrown toward me.
Rotten pieces striking the cage bars and ground near my hands. Wet scraps. Hard chunks. Stale meat and filth. The smell hit hard enough to make breathing feel like punishment by itself.
Still I kept searching.
Ignoring the rotten smell.
Ignoring the crowd.
Ignoring the chains tearing into my arms every time I moved.
Searching for Sophie.
Then I saw her.
A woman hanging from a cliff as blood leaked from her body.
My breath stopped.
Black blood tears leaked from my eyes before I even understood why.
Then a cloaked figure stepped in front of the woman.
Too still.
Too deliberate.
Its golden skeleton peeked out from beneath the cloak. Not fully exposed. Just enough for my mind to refuse any softer interpretation of what I was looking at.
Then the hood lifted.
Just enough for our eyes to lock.
Crimson eyes meeting my black eyes.
No words.
No movement.
That was worse.
Recognition hit first.
Then horror.
Then—
"AHHHH!!!"
Thrown back by the sound of a Banshee's scream.
Not heard.
Hit by it.
I felt my soul being ripped to shreds as the city below me was devoured by black flames before the flames turned upward and devoured me as well.
No shield.
No Sun.
No Darkness.
Only that scream and the certainty that whatever this was—memory, punishment, vision or truth—Death was making sure I felt every piece of it.