Dark Passions at Death's Door

54 - Death Smiles Upon Thee

Limina Mortis

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When Riora appeared, she wrapped Phenїx up in a heavy hug, lifting her adopted sister off her feet.

“YOU CRAZY ORACLE!”

Nїx laughed and squeezed her friend. “Hi to you too, sis!”

Riora patted her over a minute, marveling and inspecting to ensure she was alright. Then she took in their surroundings, inhaling the fresh scent through her nostrils. She was lighting up with wonder.

“So, this is Limina Mortis.”

Nїx nodded, smiling. “Pretty amazing, isn’t it?”

“I’ve been to many impossible places, but this…” Riora giggled a bit. “This is new.” She glanced around again, “Where is the reaper?”

“Byron said he had to finish up some last-minute preparations,” Phenїx answered. Then she crossed her arms with a notched brow, “Now. Please. Tell me the truth. What are these power spikes in my ascension?”

The goddess threw up her hands, confused. “We can’t say for certain. It appears as though all of your activities in arranging the fates has attracted a kind of backlash. At least, that’s how some of the other oracles are describing it.”

Nїx nibbled on her lip while she went over that in her mind. Byron was adamant someone else was ‘spiking her punch bowl’. When she’d asked if he could trace the energy signatures of those spikes, he’d explained it wasn’t so simple as a bloodhound following a trail.

It was more like trying to parse out a dozen different chemicals in a mixture that would have to be put through a mass spectrometer. That was beyond even his abilities.

“Will Gaia suffer repercussions if I ascend here?” she inquired.

“Pronoea is adamant you won’t. Others aren’t certain.” Riora sighed. “You’re a rare occurrence in the Lore, Nїx.”

“So I've been hearing of late,” she mused. Then she pinned Riora with a look. “But who told you the reapers were a threat to me?”

Her friend was fidgeting, her mien distressed. It was one of the few times that she could ever recall seeing the goddess of impossibility showing signs of inner turmoil.

“It’s been something of a mix of late in the pantheon,” Riora explained softly. “When Lucia ended Cruach, it made for an enormous ripple in certain circles. Then, we heard from Oshun that someone had paid Tinraia a visit while in Feveris.”

“Byron," she supplied.

Riora nodded. “When you disappeared,” she murmured. “The others were concerned. They were adamant that they had sent him merely to stay close to you, to deathbrush you.”

“Okay, he’s explained what that means, but why tell him not to interfere?” Nїx asked.

Riora tossed up her hands. “All we know for certain is neither Sekhmet, Loviatar, or the others who dispatched him after you gave any such instructions.”

Nїx muddled that over for a few. Then she looked at her friend.

“Why the hostility towards him?”

Riora’s face flashed with pain while she remembered what she’d said in the dream plane. “I haven’t been around as long as the others. Of all the immortals ever to exist, reapers are the sort we seem to…” She drifted off.

Nїx gave her a once-over. Even without her foresight and her burgeoning powers, she could see the tension in her friend. And considering what had happened when she first met him, she could comprehend.

“Just say it, Riora. You’re afraid of them.”

The goddess bobbed her head once. Then she sighed, “With other immortals, it’s a rather simple matter. We are gods, they are immortals. Natural law exists. But reapers… reapers don’t give a damn about us. They’re dangerous.”

“Seems to me you’d want to make an ally of such an entity,” Nїx answered softly.

“Over half the goddesses in the pantheons aren’t exactly keen with that.”

Of all the goddesses she knew, Nїx could say with certainty that Riora wasn’t usually one to care about the rules. She put a palm on her friend’s shoulder and squeezed comfort.

“Too fucking bad for them, sis!” she spoke in earnest. “They’re returning, and that clearly means something.”

Riora licked her lips. There was another edge to her that Nїx hadn’t seen before. She came close to her and murmured softly, “Nїx, the last time that the reapers were around, it was for a civil war.”

Phenїx paused,  her mind turning that over. It started to make more sense now.

“And now you’re worrying another is brewing?” she asked.

“Your friends killing off Cruach was one thing, but with the Møriør coming,” her friend waved off into the distance. “All the signs are there for multiple apocalypse events to occur in rapid succession.”

“And reapers would be there to go after those that crossed the line,” she finished her sister’s reasoning.

Riora nodded, “Yes. The last time such an occasion occurred was eons ago.”

The Primordial Wars. Phenїx took the time to register that. She’d known unleashing La Dorada would be the catalyst for Orion and the Bringers of Doom to come out of the Elserealms.

Yes, she’d known they’d have a lot at stake. Her foresight had warned her of the possibilities and ramifications within the Lore. But what was happening in the pantheon had never fully occurred to her.

All the pieces she had put into play were now spreading, spiraling out of the control of the deities. Those who were bastions of good would withstand, they would look for opportunities to exploit evil’s weaknesses.

But evil didn’t have to play by the same sets of rules. Unless those who were truly good at heart could be just as ruthless, just as sinister.

Her breath went out of her lungs.

Just like a grim reaper.

-My thoughts precisely, Phenїx.-

The new voice in her mind made her stutter. Then a lingering male touch in her brain gave her comfort. She smiled and looked over the next hill. Riora shouted delight. “A wyrm!” She clapped happily. “I have never met your kind before!”

Nïx made introductions, “Riora, Baby, Baby, this is Riora.”

The wyrm dragged himself over an embankment, slowly. Then he nodded his bulbous head with a growl. -A pleasure, goddess of impossibility.-

“Charmed!” Riora ran up and put both hands on the creature’s chin, mwah-ing a peck on each side.

The juvenile had grown. Phenїx considered him. “You got big.”

-Thanks to you. And your mate.-

Phenїx sighed, and the wyrm raised a claw. -Do not give me that spiel of how Valkyries do not believe in matedom, Phenїx. We both know it’s just you being difficult. Byron is right about that.-

She smiled a mocking growl at the wyrm. Then sighed, “So you believe Byron’s appearance isn’t a mere coincidence, either?”

-Hardly. If I did, I wouldn’t be a very wise little wyrm, now would I? Mother and Father both have taught me greatly about how these Accessions typically go. You and Riora both have tampered severely with over half a dozen timelines and at least a few hundred realms' fates. Fates that attracted Orion.-

She felt her reaper arrive then. She turned. “Babe, are you here?”

“Right here,” Byron called from the distance.

Riora shifted, her gaze uneasy. Even without her gift, Nїx knew her goddess friend had that unsettling sense of omen wafting over her. She’d felt it with her male.

She gave her sister a smile and then called back, “Where’d you go this time?”

“Had to make a call to some of the extended family,” he answered.

Byron appeared out from behind a couple of the nearby trees, his eyes glancing over Baby, his eyebrows lofted in surprise. “Boy got big,” he mumbled.

Then he looked at Riora for a moment. His head tilted slightly before giving her a cordial bow, “Goddess of impossibility. Welcome to Limina Mortis.”

“A pleasure, I’m sure,” Riora answered, though her tone had gone stiff.

Byron’s face was unmistakably grave. “You’re a wild one, you know that?” He smirked and propped his scythe on his shoulder. “I can see why Nїx likes you.”

Riora paused and considered Phenїx, her face bewildered. Nïx shrugged with a smile.

“He’s a bit of a stuffshirt,” she groused.

Byron lifted up a finger. “Only because someone has to keep you all in line at some point, love,” he grumbled.

“Well, what if we want you to get a little wild?” she quipped back.

Byron growled mockingly at her, which just made her remember how much she loved tweaking him in bed. “Then you’d be in trouble,” he muttered.

She giggled. Riora gaped a bit. Then the goddess lifted her hand and waved back and forth between the pair of them, “My powers, you are a playful one.”

“Nїx?” Byron notched a brow. “Absolutely she is.”

“No, you!” she pointed.

“Oh.” Byron flushed and chuckled. Her reaper rubbed the back of his neck slightly. “Don’t tell anyone, okay? I gotta keep my reputation as a hardass intact, keeps the goddesses from walking all over me.”

Riora’s mouth worked for a moment, astonishment painted over her face. “Wait, is that what all the silent treatment is about?”

“Well, that and it’s a little easier to keep myself from spilling secrets if I don’t speak,” Byron chuckled. He planted the scythe into the dirt and walked over. “Nїx is the only one I’ve really opened up to about all of this.”

She was glowing at the bashful look on her male’s face. He clearly hadn’t entertained company too often in his lifetime, but she could work on that with him.

“Well, that and Baby,” she mentioned.

-My name is now Eros, Phenїx.-

Byron’s jaw dropped. “Since when did you get your voice?!”

-Approximately seven hours ago.-

Phenїx bit her lip. Byron blushed. Riora looked around a moment, “What happened then?”

Byron coughed, “A catalyst point.”

Riora looked at him, puzzled, while Phenїx giggled. Her male tried changing the subject, addressing the wyrm, “Why call yourself Eros? Why not Agape?”

-Because agape is selfless love, a high form of love, but so too is eros, and eros can lead to agape, as it has between you and your mate.-

Byron scratched his head slightly, “Great, I’m getting schooled by a creature over twenty-five hundred years old I called Baby.” He was staring at the juvenile with a raised brow. “And you got some bass in that voice.”

Baby gave off a snort through his nose. -As do you with her.-

“Oh, hey now,” Byron raised a finger. “You better not be listening too closely.”

The wyrmling chuckled mentally and peered over at Riora. -They are exceptionally loud lovers. But the lightning given off is a tasty treat, so I do not mind in the least.-

Byron facepalmed himself while Riora and Nїx laughed.

“Just kill me,” her reaper muttered. “So, the lightning got you that growth spurt.”

Baby stretched himself out, now over eighty feet in length, and probably weighing almost as much as a tank himself. -You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting to finally be able to speak.-

“No, I got a clue, but I do wonder why you threw me halfway across the realm, and not her,” her reaper grumbled.

-It was less than four football fields, and you recovered fine. Maybe it was to get some of that stiffness out of your neck. And even before I left the egg I knew Phenїx would be the better-looking of you two.-

“Uh-huh,” Byron snorted and grinned, “I’ll accept that.”

Riora walked over. “May I?”

-Please.-

She stretched a hand over the neck of the massive wyrm and sighed. Riora peered Byron over. “In all things considered impossible, I am thought to be able to do it all. But even here I cannot read your intentions.”

The reaper smiled. “You want to know my intentions?”

“Yes.”

“OK. Keep Nїx safe. Hunt evil bastards. Help others.”

“And?”

Byron shrugged. “Eventually, maybe, help others cross over at the appointed time. But that’s not for awhile.”

Riora shook her head softly. “No lie.” She was marveling.

“What good is that, anyway?” Byron smiled and sat down on a nearby boulder. “If I speak my honest truth, I save you the trouble.”

“The goddesses say your kind is devious, underhanded.”

“Mm. We can be with those who warrant it,” he proffered. Then he waved to her, “But Phenїx likes you, and my records here say you’re an honest one. So why challenge or lie to you?”

Phenїx noticed her sister’s demeanor slowly shift. Her visage began to alter from its normal ethereal beauty to one far wilder, more menacing.

“I don’t.” She felt over her face. Her eyes had turned mournful. “What is happening? What is this?”

“Nothing to be ashamed of here.” Her reaper smiled. “Your true self gets revealed in Death’s Door. You’re a daredevil. A risktaker. Your face holds the excitement of every person who has ever achieved that which was thought impossible.”

Riora gasped. “But it’s-"

“Not ugly.”

The reaper’s interruption made Riora swivel to look at Nїx. That questioning gaze from the goddess made her heart twist. Did Riora truly think that of herself?