Twilight of the Gods

“My name is Matthius,” he said, extending a gold gauntlet. “Keeper of the Dead and Servant of the Night.”

She took his hand, giving it a firm shake. Anyone who had power over the Elysians was a good ally. Anhel had yet to voice his disapproval over the white-haired man. But it wasn’t easy for her to trust anyone. There was a little voice at the back of her head that told her to be wary of Matthius, the same voice that said to keep everyone at arm’s length.

After all, the Binding Chains were still inside of her, keeping her tethered to Otherworld. Running away was not an option, not like before. With her, Uriel, and Haydn’s abilities suppressed, they were at a disadvantage. Matthius could hurt them. The Elysians could torture all of them as they did to her all those years ago.

But she knew if Matthius truly wanted to do that, he wouldn’t have taken the effort to drag them away from the Mortal Realm. He wanted something more from them, something that the Elysians were unhappy with judging by their expressions.

“My name is Daeva,” she said. “The angel beside me is Uriel. The other God with me is Haydn. But you already knew that, right?”

He remained stoic, but he acknowledged her words with a brief nod. “My mistress said that you were perceptive.”

His mistress?

Her question must have been clearly reflected on her face because Matthius responded with no verbal probing.

“My mistress,” he said. “The Lady of the Night, Nyx.”

At the sound of her name, the Elysians behind him flinched. Daeva’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. Although she had never heard the woman’s name before, the reaction she seemed to elicit from the Elysians was refreshing. This was someone who frightened her tormentors.

The question was, should she be afraid of Nyx as well?

“You asked me before what I wanted with you,” Matthius said. “I personally have no business. But my mistress is interested in the old Gods.” His eyes slid over to Haydn, who regarded him with suspicion.

“If she has business with me, she should speak with me herself,” said Daeva.

“She usually would,” he said, leaping to his mistress’s defense, “but she is preoccupied with other matters. I’m here to make an offer on her behalf.”

He pulled out a scroll tucked near his sword and unfurled the parchment.

“Dear Gods,” he said, his voice shifting to a deep timbre. The lights of the ballroom dimmed and a dark presence entered the room.

“I have summoned you to Otherworld in hopes that you will listen to me. This was no easy task as one of you had decided to commit mass murder to avoid this.”

Daeva felt everyone turn toward her. She had never been in a room where so many people knew about her killing. In Myrania, she could always hide behind her alias as the Rogue. Nyx’s words made her feel angry, embarrassed, and exposed. She was singled out unfairly.

“Nevertheless, I am glad that you were all able to make it. I assume your journey was safe and that you arrived unharmed,” Matthius continued.

Her wounds ached beneath the bandages, still taking their sweet time to heal. She had felt worse pain in her time as a God, but none had made her feel so mortal as the constant, light stinging of her injuries.

“I think you Gods will like my offer. But before I present it, I will give you my motivation behind it. There is war brewing on the horizon among the mortals. The Myranian King is growing weaker and some of his most trusted men are planning a revolt. The Ylivians in the North have noticed and they are making plans to expand their kingdom. I fear that many men will lose their lives and I need your help to minimize the death toll.”

A silvery package appeared in Matthius’s hands. He untied the cloth, revealing a chessboard with delicate glass pieces on top. It glowed with malevolent energy, calling out to the darkest parts of her nature. The Elysians eyed the board with a hungry look in their eyes.

“I want one of you to join the Council to help me. It seems that the efforts of the Elysians have only heightened the future death toll. You will be using a Board,” Matthias said, holding up the chessboard, “an instrument of fate that can control the mortals of your choice. I won’t expect you to stop the war, but I ask that you save as many people as possible.”

“Why should we help you?” Daeva was aware that asking the question may sour Nyx’s opinion of her as she had only requested one God, but she was genuinely curious. For an offer made by someone powerful, it had little incentive.

Matthius looked taken aback. “Why wouldn’t you want to help us and wield a powerful tool that will allow you to control the universe? Isn’t that what you Gods want?”

“Certainly,” Hadyn said, speaking up. “I’ll be happy to take your Board and gain that control over others. But why should we use the Board in the way that you want us to?”

“You want something else,” said Matthius. The dark presence in the room grew heavier.

“We want revenge,” she said. Her eyes briefly slid over to the Elysians before going over to Hadyn, who nodded in agreement with her statement.

“For the torture.” A look of understanding comes over his face.

“For the torture,” she repeated.

“I see. And this revenge is the reason you live?”

Her eyes narrowed. She didn’t like the way he phrased her request.

“I’m alive because I’m immortal,” she said, deadpan.

“What I meant to say was that you want something more than revenge. I can sense it, that thing you want most. Wouldn’t you rather have that?”

She looked over at Haydn, who was shaking his head. He wanted her to stay firm on her stance, to not be swayed by Matthius’s words.

“If your mistress is too weak to fulfill our desires, you can simply say that. We want the Elysians, our tormentors, to be dead. And I have all of eternity to kill them if they don’t die first,” she said. She scowled at the Elysians, who attempted to remain stoic.

She turned back to Matthius, who had turned an interesting shade of plum. His eyes, which carried no emotion before, were burning with anger. She could see his lips move to say something, but no sound came out of his mouth. Then, all at once, the emotion drained out of his face.

The dark presence that had been hovering over them descended, entering Matthius’s body. His form convulsed as his being was corrupted by a foreign presence. When he faced her again, she knew she was looking at an entirely different person.

He carried himself differently, his posture straight and his eyes steely. He sneered as he beheld her and there was an air of superiority in his expression. Despite the glittering chandeliers above them, not a single bit of light sparkles in his eyes. It was like staring at two black holes.

“You’re Nyx.” The realization dawned upon her. Somehow, through the power of pure insult, she had summoned the Lady of the Night.

“In the flesh,” said the feminine voice coming from Matthius’s body. “And not too weak to fulfill any request you desire.”

The Elysians next to her immediately get on their knees, bowing to her. Daeva suppressed a giggle watching the spectacle. Never in her eternal lifetime did she ever expect to see Ezra bow to anyone.

“Rise,” Nyx commanded. The Elysians stood, anxious to fulfill her demands. Daeva was beginning to see why her request to kill the Elysians couldn’t be fulfilled. They were Nyx’s servants and as long as the Lady saw that they were useful, she would keep them alive.

Pity, Anhel said, his voice entering her head. She flinched. He hadn’t spoken to her in a while, not since they reached Otherworld. She had almost forgotten that they were sharing her mind and body. Almost, because seeing Nyx possess Matthius was a harsh reminder that she was a vessel for Anhel. Her Godhood would be revoked once they separated.

We’re not like them, he said, cutting into her thoughts. Nyx is a parasite. She takes over bodies carelessly. I chose you.

And Daeva had chosen him back, accepting his offer to come back to life. The universe had given her a second chance that few mortals ever had the privilege of experiencing. But the question that always haunted her was why? Why did she say yes? Why did Anhel choose her?

She wanted, more than anything, to remember why.

Nyx fixed her dark gaze upon the Gods again. “I am making you an offer you shouldn’t refuse. Think, what do you want that doesn’t involve the death of the Elysians? Surely there is something you want more, something that keeps you up at night. You don’t have to believe in my abilities. But I will give you anything if you play the game.”

“What sort of game are we talking about?” Haydn spoke up. Something about Nyx’s words had stirred something within him. The strange energy that surrounded him when he had first shown up on her doorstep returned.

“I’m glad you asked,” she said. The Board appeared in her hands, glass pieces still in place. “Matthius told you that I needed a God to manipulate the strands of fate. I cannot choose which God. That is up to the Board if the players are willing. Play the games that the Board tells you to play. It may be a deadly task or a journey, something that will give the Board some indication of your character. At the end of your games, the Board will choose a God to use it.”

Haydn’s brows furrowed, his eyes lost in thought. Daeva stared at him in disbelief. He couldn’t possibly be seriously considering her offer. This wasn’t the Haydn she knew, the only person she could think of more hellbent on revenge than she was. He wasn’t the type to throw away his goals because of a flimsy promise made by a stranger.

But he was looking at the Board in a way that said otherwise.

“You will give us anything we want, regardless if the Board chooses us?” The question left her mouth before she could think.

Nyx smiled at her in the way parents smiled at their children who asked dumb, obvious questions. “Yes, as long as it’s not the death of the Elysians.”

She snuck a glance at Uriel. “What if it’s bringing back someone from the dead? Is that something you’re capable of?”

Uriel’s gold eyes widened in surprise. She turned back to Nyx, whose face was still frozen in that smile.

“That … that depends,” the Lady of the Night said. “Who are you trying to bring back?”

“All of the angels,” she replied, her response immediate. “None of them deserved to perish the way they did.”

Are you sure that’s what you want? Don’t waste your wish on the angel, said Anhel. Your feelings for him will only lead to tragedy.

He’s done so much for me. I want to finally do something for him. She didn’t understand why he was objecting to her request. It was perfectly reasonable. Selfless, even.

He doesn’t do those things of his own free will. The Blood Bond we formed with him when we escaped to Myrania compels him to obey us. He doesn’t care about you. Anhel emphasized his last sentence, his voice rising to a shout.

She bit the inside of her cheek, his words stinging more than they should. She knew what he said was true, but she still couldn’t help what she felt. Perhaps Anhel was right. Her feelings were going to lead her to tragedy. To add insult to injury, she had plenty of warnings about falling for Uriel. Somehow, she ignored all of them.

Maybe she could take back her request, pretend that she meant to say something else. But it would hurt Uriel, maybe even inspire him to hate her. His kindness would fade and she would have no reason to feel the way she did for him.

“You can’t make that request,” Ezra said. He glared at her, fist clenched and eyes narrowed in anger, the opposite of the obedient Elysian who kneeled before Nyx.

Daeva’s hand moved to one of the daggers hidden in her dress. He was getting on her nerves. “Why not? If it’s what my heart desires and it won’t kill you, Nyx can grant my wish.”

“Because I requested the death of the angels,” he said. “That was my wish to Nyx.”