Amortal Song

2. Immortal

Calypso

My words seemed to ring in the empty space between us, a vast gap separating us because I had a gut feeling that Arden was immortal, one of the privileged ones who got to live with no curse on their back.

He rubbed the back of his neck with one hand, a firm grip around Spruce who had gone quiet like the news also affected her. He opened and closed his mouth for a few seconds before saying, "I'm sorry...I'm immortal and-"

"It's fine. It's just, this is the first time someone has known the meaning of those words." My words had a sharp edge of annoyance to them but I didn't know why.

"Of course I do. Everybody here knows what it means to be amortal and immortal. After all, this is the place where you start."

Start? I didn't know anything about my past because when you become amortal, everything is wiped from your mind and there is no way of gaining those memories back because you're supposed to make new ones with your 'blessing.' As if it weren't enough, you get a curse along with it to make your life a whole bucket full of sorrow and misery.

Arden met my gaze and said quietly, "Anyone who's amortal comes back here once in their life. And since you don't know about this place, I'm going to assume this is your first and last time in your amortal life."

I furrowed my brow, going over his words as he asked me with a lighter tone, "So, what's your curse?"

"Falling in love," I murmured, not wanting to go into more detail. I knew very well that there were far worse curses one could receive but the idea of falling in love and then ripping them from that person's arms was a cruel idea the gods had come up with.

He thought about it for a second and then replied with a "That's not so bad."

A pain in my chest set off, right over my heart as I looked away, focusing on the flowers around my feet, littered with goose feathers, "It's when you experience it 17 different times, and each time you get ripped out of their arms and thrown into a completely different life where you have to start all over again and the same thing happens." I breathed out hard, sucking the cool air into my lungs and trying to expel all of my angry emotions as I breathed out. Bearing your whole soul to someone you just met-not a good idea.

Arden sucked in a sharp breath, "17 times?"

I nodded grimly and he said something I didn't catch before looking at me again, "There is a way to make you...immortal."

I laughed harshly, the idea of it sounding so impossible, "Yeah, right. That's the whole point of being amortal, you have no way out. The definition of it is not being alive but not being able to live so the very idea of making one of us immortal is simply absurd."

He flinched at my words, "There is a way, a very dangerous way, but a way no less. I know how."

"An immortal like you? You're the privileged ones, the ones that don't have to worry about all of this mess." I gestured to myself angrily, feeling tears welling at the unfairness of life. If things were really that simple, I wouldn't have had my heart broken 17 times in 17 years.

"Are you sure about that?" he asked as if reading my thoughts. I nodded again, not trusting my voice, knowing it would break or crack. Arden looked at me and I turned my head away, fiddling with the hem of the dress. He said, "I'll use my privileges to see what I can do."

Say no, said my inside voice, coaxing me into the answer I wanted to give, slightly bitter at his annunciation of the word. I shouldn't trust him, I know I shouldn't. And maybe this time I would stick to my vow of not falling in love, the one I always silently made.

Yet a small part of me wanted to.

I'm not going to fall. in. love. I told myself, and for once, I believed it.

*

*

*

"All of the other elves usually live in the capital, Cloveen, but I chose to live in the woods. It's more peaceful here and there isn't the need to impress anyone with a fancy house." He talked continuously, filling in the silence I kept giving him. It was too late to regret my decision and I knew there would be no way of escaping this.

The gods were cruel.

If this was the realm, the beginning realm, it didn't hurt to have any memories of it. You can't miss what you don't remember.

Except I knew some gods controlled us, whatever I was. Arden had confirmed it a few sentences ago, a slight slip of the tongue about them, whoever they were. I didn't know why I was trusting him but I had a feeling the gods were at play and, getting a good laugh at the introvert stuck with the extrovert. If he really could help me, the joke would then be on him but, his slip had mentioned something about getting help from one of them so now I wasn't so sure.

The sunlight sent spots dancing in my vision as we broke through the line of trees, a small lake, and a house came into view. It looked like a simple, cottage-style house and I had no doubt it was Arden's. Around the pond was a mixture of animals, geese squawking noisily, almost as loudly as his non-stop talking, a glimmer of fish scales shone in the water, and the distinct sound of bees filled the air around what looked like honey-suckle. I felt my breath hitch because it had the same homey feel as Ogygia, a mixture of that along with the reminiscence of a brownstone I had once stayed in, in another life where I had had two cats.

Why did that matter now? Because it showed I was stuck in the past, I thought bitterly.

"Welcome to my humble abode," he said, releasing Spruce and letting her wander over to the other geese, making a loud cry erupt out of all of them. I looked at the cottage, a very picturesque sight with its thatched roof and open window shutters, the stone chimney on the side, and the moss that dripped down the sides. I half expected gnomes to pop out of the ground carrying different plants but I didn't see any.

"It's very nice," I uttered quietly, the sound of the bees louder than the silence that followed.

Arden gazed at me as I fiddled with the hem of my dress, "You don't trust me?"

I responded sourly, "Maybe you should ask that on a future day, not the minutes after you meet someone."

"I can help you," he said and then said to himself quietly, something that sounded vaguely like, I've tried before.

Tried? I looked at him, "How? Explain exactly how you can fix a curse from the gods. You. Can't." I hadn't meant to sound so cruel but it had just come out that way, harsh and unnervingly unlike me.

"I can call a few favors in."

"A favor isn't going to help me, Arden. I've lived with this for 17 years and I probably will for the rest of my life because of them. They're cruel and unhelpful, they don't care about us and if they did, maybe they would have answered all of the prayers I sent up to them each year on my birthday, praying I wouldn't start a new life. They never listened."

He cocked his head to the side and studied my face, "They'll listen to me."

"You?" I laughed at the idea of them even listening to someone, much less agreeing to what they asked.

"Yes, the gods will."

I choked on my laugh at how solemn he sounded, "Why would they? Who are you going to ask a favor from?"

"My father."

"Your father?"

Arden smiled at me, "Neortis, god of the elven underworld, is my father."