Where The Dead Ones Go Book 3 -Emirate-

Chapter 16

"This might be the very first time that I have to accept the fact that I messed up big time..."

Messed up?

Gods, if this is a mess, then what isn't?

My fingers ran through the soft gossamer fabric of the wedding gown hanging at the center of the room the daughter of Athena is using for the duration of our stay here.

Strewn around are weaving materials, needles, spindles, and fabrics of all kinds and shapes.

I don't need to be an expert in clothing making or embroidery to know that the gown right in front of me is nothing short of a work of art.

"I tried to really do what my more handicrafts-inclined siblings has advised and instructed me to do, but as a representation of our mother's militaristic powers, to say that I failed miserably is an understatement."

I just gasped when I noticed a detail at the end of the long wedding gown train.

Its a depiction of our battle against Typhon a while ago with me charging right in front of her and Vaski with my cousin and Kairos to clear a way for them.

The way it was woven is so intricate and detailed, it is as if it can come to life any moment now.

"Gala..."

She noticed me looking at the red smears and drops scattered around and suddenly tried to block my way but I pushed her aside quickly to get a better look.

"Wait a minute, are these..."

"No, Vivet. They're just, uhm, designs that gone wrong!" she stopped making her pathetic excuse when I grabbed her heavily bandaged hands and squeezed it hard to confirm my suspicions, "Ouch! I mean, why, Vivet?"

I looked at her straight into the eyes and as expected she averted her gaze.

She never and will ever avoid eye-contact unless she is lying.

"Why, Gala? Just for a single wedding gown, you are willing to scar the very hands you are taking care of more than your own life?"

The daughter of the goddess of wisdom was about to make some petty excuses but decided against it when she noticed I will not have any of it this time around.

She then looked at her now bleeding hands after I squeezed it hard then to the beautiful white gown smeared in her own blood.

"Because you mean so much more than my hands, Vivet," she said simply as she knelt in front of it then lifting a part where I saw a woven scene detailing the first time we ever met that broke my heart, "I have a feeling that my very hands are the ones that brought you all the way to this point."

I felt tears falling from my eyes as she cried at the scene and smiled fondly.

"After meeting you and Morris, it seemed that my life was not only consisted of a few months in Gearth. That being with you fulfilled something that was missing from the children of my mother who came to this world already fully-grown," she said quietly as her fingers trailed the gossamer depicting the chronological events that happened during our time together in her point of view, "My siblings are jealous of me, do you know why, Vivet?"

I bit my lip as she closed her eyes and smiled purely, "Gala, you never told me about this before."

"Of course I didn't. You are the reason why they are jealous of me. They told me that by meeting you, you gave a child of the goddess of wisdom what they are lacking in their existence, a person to uplift and put in a pedestal. That our lives are unlike our own mother who revolves solely around her own well-being. You gave me a purpose, Vivet. You and Morris showed me just how far you two can go if I stand by your sides stalwartly. Bloodying my hands to show you a modicum of gratitude I can translate in physical actions is nothing compared to what you are to me."

I nodded and inclined my head at her when she looked up at me earnestly, "Then the only thing left for this gown to do is to be worn by Viera the First of the Vieta Dynasty, Empress of the Plurinational Alliance Xenocracy. I will wear it with pride and dignity because it doesn't only show just how much I mean to you. It will also show to the world that I exists. A proof that Vivet Vivier is something more than a waking dream of a sleeping god, Gala. So much more than a living fantasy in this world of ours."

"Thank you, Vivet. That is enough, more than enough for me," she smiled gratefully as I helped her stand up and gave her a big and warm hug, "Morris told me that if he means as much as you did to me, I will make you a wedding gown depicting our time together. To prove to everyone that can see how much has happened in such a short time of us all together."

My cousin shared his memories that he avoided thinking about to make this a big surprise to me.

A very short and cryptic conversation between him and Athena's daughter in my arms a night after we finalized the wedding with Ms Irene and Mr Atomo.

"Morris..."

"You know, if it means so much to you, a more physical appreciation is better than mere words, don't you agree?"

"Of course."

"Something to show them all that we are here with you, what do you say, Gala?"

"I will do it with my bare hands if needed be, Morris."

"Very well..."

I just cried at her shoulders as she did to me.

You and Vaski are really perfect with each other. If there is one thing I can promise you two right here and right now, it will be that I will make sure that if all else fails, you two will have your happy ending.

I swear it in my very existence, my close friend.

I promise...

-0-

"No, thank you my niece for showing me that someone can lead an admirable life to the end even if they have to tread a path full of trickery, deceit and lies. May you face the truth of your actions unflinchingly, I know you will, Vivet..."

I bowed my head respectfully as I cried silently while he fondly touched my head softly, "Thank you, Uncle Dolos."

The god before me stood up and looked at me with pride and joy, "Then go ahead, Vivet. Open the door and walk away. Never look back and face your end head-on. That is the only fitting end to the life you have wished for. May you enjoy the life you have ever wanted while it lasts, and may you feel at peace when you finally face the end of this treacherous road you have decided to walk upon."

"As the empress, my path in life has already been predetermined. I may talk about the dawn next Golden Age or saving countless lives in the long run but honestly, they are mere pretensions as to what I really want. I want not just to exist in this world. I want to live, to experience the joys and happiness normal mortals always do in their lives. What if the meaning of life if I don't live it up to its fullest? As Viera, I am just existing for the sole purpose of existing as the empress. As Vivet, I get the chance to live the life I always dreamed of and even more. To have friends who look out for me, to have someone who treats me like his very own, to go to a school like a normal teenager, to fall in love, to get married, have a family and even have a child of my own. Trading my present, even my past away for a future that may only be just a fleeting dream that will not last is better than dying not experiencing what I desperately wanted. If giving up my very life in exchange for that and a chance for finishing what I have started a long time ago in the process then it is a bargain I will be foolish enough to not grab at the moment's notice."

"To live..."

"What I want may be the pettiest of them all," I confessed that made him look up once again at me as I looked at my own reflection in the mirror and I saw Vivet's face there that made my heart a bit lighter amidst all the heavy emotions and feelings that I am experiencing right now, "I want to live."

He looked down at the floor and studied his reflection quietly, "What can you hope to gain in all of this madness, Vivet? Of all the mortals who pawned their lives to me, they at least have something they can achieve in return. Fame, fortune, glory, heck, even love if only for a while. As the demiurge of hope, you are clearly and obviously not a mortal driven by such petty desires."

"Because that was the best and only viable option at the time, benevolent uncle," I cut him as I remembered the very moment when Khronos offered his hand to me to seal our agreement and bind us eternally, "It is the only choice I can make if its a choice at all. If I didn't do it, we might as well just let Typhon trample everything in its path."

"If you already know about that, then why did you..."

"I know, Uncle Dolos. I know full well that soon enough, time will betray me," I said simply as my words were met with eerie silence from Meta whom I know is listening to our conversation from deep inside me, "His fractured personas may act distant at worst and loveable at best, I am well aware that it is all a fleeting dream that will leave me the moment when I needed it the most."

He looked up at me intently before giving a warning, "I may not be the immortal who should tell you this but in case you are not aware yet, entering a pact with time is not the most prudent decision that cna be made."

"Maybe because I am the only mortal foolish enough to walk down your path knowing full well and accepting that her end will nothing but a happy one."

To my relief, he nodded quickly and knelt in front of me as a sign of subservience, "I never thought that a time will come that I will pledge myself to a cause of a mortal and the daughter of my sister Elpis herself."

"Now that you are here with me, Uncle Dolos. Might I ask for your assistance in this ploy of mine? I am asking not as your niece nor as the empress but as a mortal who decided to carry on walking your path and ready to face the consequence of her treachery to the bitter end."

"Vivet..."

I gave him a smile as I felt tears began to fall from my cheeks, "I have already accepted my due long before I started this path, benevolent uncle. The moment that I entered the pact with Khronos, I know full well that I've got nothing to lose anymore. My father, my empire and my life, they are all gone now. Whatever modicum of happiness Vivet Vivier is experiencing right now, it is nothing more than a waking fantasy for Viera. A reverie she knows full well will come to an end into nothingness."

"A false path can start off successfully but in time, the truth will always, always catch up to haunt and overtake you sooner or later," he continued as he opened his right hand and conjured a greenish smoke image of several mortals and their sad and oftentimes, gruesome demise after their treachery was unravelled, "How can you smile and act as if your very own world is falling apart around you as we speak?"

His words shattered my heart and soul even more so than when I remembered what I have lost all along.

To my surprise, he began to cry and look at me with utmost pity in his shining green eyes, "You do know that at the end of every trickery and deception, no matter how perfect and well-meaning your treachery is, it will never end happily for the one who chose the path that I lead, Vivet."

"Then please do tell me, Uncle Dolos. Why are you here? I doubt you will go out of your way to meet me all alone just to say that you like me?"

His aura tells me that much.

He seemed to be telling the truth and I felt it myself. As a god of trickery, he is more than willing to assist me in any ways that he can.

"I am hurt, my niece. First of all, I am the god of trickery and deceit. Why would I unravel a carefully formulated deception that even I have no choice but to praise? Second, I may not have favorable opinion of your mother, she is still my sibling. I know Hemera already told you that despite our differences, at the end of the day, we are family. I will dare not to meddle and deliberately derail a plan that can secure my very existence. Third and last, I am not Eris who enjoys fomenting chaos and discord just for the sake of it. Even she is standing behind you and whatever your schemes are in hopes that she can have more chances to spread her powers after the war."

He clearly looked offended when I said that as he gave me a sad look and shook his head slowly.

"And what of it, Uncle Dolos? Will you reveal it to everyone by tomorrow during our wedding celebration?"

It's futile.

There's no reason to try and trick the god of trickery himself.

Knowing that Meta quickly acted and cut the two of us from reality can only mean one thing. I will have no choice but to come clean in front of him.

"Khronos' reaction only confirms what I have known all along. A daring plan to fool everyone, even the son of Thanatos himself. A plot devised eons upon eons ago in a desperate attempt to do the unthinkable and fool everyone here..."

We both glanced around us when we noticed that the very space and time around us has been distorted and remove us from the fabric of reality itself for a while.

"Please, Vivet, no need to act ignorant. I of all the mortals and immortals here knows firsthand what you are plotting behind that seemingly unreadable facade of yours."

It was said that if Hermes learned the ways of a messenger from Iris, from Dolos he perfected his skills for absolute mischiefmaking and cunningness.

Dolos, the god of guile. Patrons of tricksters, deceivers and craftiness.

He just chuckled and winked at me knowingly that made me feel so exposed and vulnerable right now.

"I am grateful, honored uncle," I replied respectfully as I bow my head towards one of my mother's equally dangerous siblings, "To what do I owe this pleasure of talking to you personally?"

For some strange reason, they look similar to each other in many ways that I can even dare to count.

If I don't know any better, I would've thought that he is Apollo.

I looked behind me and saw a grinning boy around my age standing a few steps away with a mischievous look on his face.

"I like you a lot, Vivet..."