Page 20 of D’Vaire or Nothing (D’Vaire #44)
D eath trailed her fingers along the stone parapet as she strolled the highest walkway of her castle.
It was a large home, and Death had endured countless complaints about her choice to make such a grand structure.
But she had ignored her sisters. Her choice to use her magic to create a vast gothic bastion was simple.
The rooms went on forever, which made it difficult for any visitor to her ebirlloba —the realm of the dead—to find her.
For much of her existence, she’d wished for nothing more than to escape the cruelty of the other goddesses.
But they were never at the heart of her decisions.
The high walls also offered her the advantage of seeing all the gorgeous creations crafted by the spirits in her always-expanding kingdom at the same time.
Each day, Death charged the air with her power to ensure that every spirit could build whatever they wished. It was the best she could offer them. For many of them, death had come too soon and dreams had failed them. Sad, broken, and lost, they entered her realm. Death left them alone to wander.
As she had.
Eventually, those stalwart souls would create lasting relationships with other nomads. Mates rediscovered each other. Communities slowly developed. Soon, they wore smiles, their hearts glowed with love, and Death reveled in their happiness.
The journey wasn’t the same for everyone. Spirits who deserved punishment entered the ebirlloba , and Death eagerly meted it out with the harshness such evil merited. Thankfully, there were far fewer of those horrible withered beings among the extensive and constantly growing land she provided.
It was rare for her to decide that a spirit had changed and had served their sentence. For most of them, they didn’t deserve redemption.
“ Death! ” a voice screamed.
Lost in her thoughts, Death sneered and thanked the goddesses that she hadn’t just screamed in terror. Her black gaze landed on a set of twins poking their heads out of a tower. Mayhem and Chaos. A duo who’d overstayed their welcome.
“What do you want?” Death demanded.
“Life has arrived,” Mayhem yelled.
“Fate is with her,” Chaos added.
The pair had been separated by choice for a long time, but after being reunited, they had quickly fallen into the habit of finishing each other’s sentences and thoughts. It was annoying.
“Good for them,” Death snarled. “I’m busy.”
“But you’re just out here taking a walk,” Mayhem said, her light blue gaze confused as she fussed with the slick red dress she’d chosen for herself. The goddess’s forehead was nearly invisible thanks to the massive ruby circlet resting above her dark eyebrows.
“What is your point?” Death asked.
“You have guests,” Chaos said. “Should we offer them anything?”
“An opportunity to leave immediately?” Death retorted.
For reasons Death couldn’t explain, Mayhem and Chaos had put themselves in the role of stewards.
They announced visitors, righted furniture that was minding its own business, and did all kinds of other unnecessary tasks.
If the goddesses weren’t embroiled in an ongoing investigation to track down their sister Folly—a truly dastardly woman who’d caused thousands of earth years of turmoil and strife—Death would’ve sent Mayhem and Chaos packing.
But Death and her closest sisters had decided it would be best to keep the twins charged with adding confusion and disorder to the countless realms the goddesses ruled under constant watch.
Chaos had already unwittingly added Folly in her nefarious plans, and the last thing any deity with caring in her heart wanted was to help that awful destroyer.
“Death, come on,” Mayhem urged, waving her hand in a disturbingly quick motion. “Be a good host and greet your guests.”
With a growl that shuddered the ground in a low trembling earthquake that would hopefully startle the heinous spirits shackled close to her home, Death shoved the twins out of the way and stalked into the castle.
Her magic kept the soft layers of her gown from touching the outraged duo as she swept past them.
It’d become a habit of the goddesses who’d somehow grown into Death’s friends to gather in a large space near the great room.
Inside was a viewing room so massive it took up a full wall, and the plentiful furniture gave them seating options galore.
Deciding abruptly that walking no longer appealed, Death shimmered directly to her destination.
A handful of goddesses cursed, and someone threw a dagger. Since Justice and Courage were the ones who were usually armed, Death assumed it belonged to one of them.
“First, we are nearly startled out of existence by two giggling goddesses who inanely offered to take our cloaks, then Death herself nearly adds us to her ebirlloba ,” Life groused.
“Take your cloak?” Death asked as she took two steps and sprawled in a soft chair covered with a tapestry of skulls and necromancers raising spirits. “Since when do you wear one in my realm?”
“Never,” Life snapped. “Why can’t we confine Mayhem and Chaos?”
Death’s senses alerted her to a scuffle outside the door, and she didn’t need any magic to know who was responsible. With an exasperated sigh, she sealed the space so no one could enter.
“Mayhem! Chaos! Go find something to entertain yourselves,” Death yelled.
“Should we bring refreshments?” Mayhem shouted.
“A repast wouldn’t be amiss,” Fate suggested, amusement dancing in her blue eyes.
“If you ask them to bring you so much as a piece of moldy cheese, I will chain the three of you together and you’ll be stuck here with them until we locate Folly and her cohorts,” Death warned.
“Sometimes I love Death,” Fate said to the other goddesses present. “But there are other moments when I wish she was far less like herself.”
“Funny, that’s how I feel about you,” drawled Eternity, Death’s closest friend. She propped her sandaled feet up on a footstool with legs carved into bones.
Death allowed herself a rare moment of relaxation and rested her back fully against her comfortable seat. “Fate, tell me how many couples are currently wandering our favored realm, wishing that the lone goddess they know about would bring them love?”
“There are a couple who know you exist,” Fate pointed out.
Then her bottom lip poked out in a pout.
“Everyone thinks I don’t know how many lonely people there are, but I do.
However, what no one seems to remember is how horrible it’d be if I was less strict about my matches.
Even with the devotion I give to my job, there are miserable couples.
Even a few people our Acwellan chieftain has had to use his demonic gifts to separate. ”
“We appreciate every effort you make to ensure your pairings are happy ones,” Courage stated diplomatically.
“Agreed,” Justice said. She flicked the long hem of her gold gown away from the thick metal boots that rose up to cover her knees. “Let’s discuss our current most pressing problem. Has anyone learned anything new about Folly? Have we located anyone she released from the prison?”
“Yes,” Life replied with a rueful shake of her head.
“You’d think after being locked up for an age, some of these fools would have concocted intelligent plans for what to do once they were free.
Instead, most of them ran aimlessly or did something so monumentally stupid that they were immediately caught. ”
“Like the giant that went to Earth and decided that mountain would make a good snack?” Fate asked. She laughed so hard she snorted. “We had to pretend it was a volcano.”
“Yes, so amusing,” Justice groused. “It was a mountain, not a volcano. Despite our best efforts, we couldn’t convince everyone this was a natural act.
Conspiracy theories abound about how this disaster happened.
Thankfully, no lives were lost since the molten lava was added later and we could gently convince the closest residents to get away so they weren’t hurt. ”
For Death, the most important thing was that her old friend, Tivadras the pegasus, wasn’t among the prisoners who’d been rounded up in recent weeks.
She hoped the man who’d broken rules out of sheer boredom and his frustration at not having a matebond of his own had found a tiny corner so removed from the outside world that no goddess would ever be alerted to his presence.
And while most of the prisoners weren’t making intelligent choices, to Death that signaled something important that she was surprised hadn’t occurred to her sisters.
“They had no plans,” Death murmured.
“What?” Fate asked.
Death lifted her chin and stared at the ceiling with her eyes narrowed.
“Some of them made plans. Maybe that was their nature. It would be mine. If I were confined for any reason, I’d want to put together a few strategies for how to deal with freedom.
Of course, once I was satisfied with that stage, I’d focus on how to free myself. But not everyone is like me.”
“Most of them didn’t think about what they’d do if they were released,” Eternity said. Death shifted, met her best friend’s silver gaze, and nodded. “Oh! Because perhaps they didn’t know they were going to be freed shortly.”
“They were a distraction,” Justice remarked softly as she tapped her short nails on the hilt of the sword resting next to her.
“Folly and her helpers freed the prisoners to confuse and slow us. But the prisoners weren’t part of the plot.
They didn’t know until the locks on their cages were broken that they’d be released. ”
“That would explain why none of them have provided us with any information despite countless rounds of questioning,” Courage added. “If they know nothing, are we wasting energy interviewing them again?”
“A little pressure won’t hurt them, and maybe a detail about that day will surface,” Death suggested. “However, we can leave that to other goddesses. We need to focus on more important matters.”