My Reputation

"What's the difference between the staff here and those souls?" I ask carrying along the plate of unfinished dessert.

"You really do love food." Ocean eyes crinkle in a warm smile. "There's not much difference. All of us had our souls sent here after our deaths, but the ones working here are the souls who are either afraid to loose their memory when entering afterlife or those who think that the next life they gain would be more bitter, and some are waiting for their loved ones to arrive."

"There is actually a lot more reasons, but in summary we are the ones that choose not to be sent to the next life. But it is not for all, you won't find any criminals here or people involved in other shady businesses."

"Hades has very narrow list of criterion." He laughs when he finishes as if remembering something extremely entertaining.

"So why did you stay?" I query and he lowers his kind eyes to mine.

"I wanted to serve him, I owe him my life."

There was something in how these words were said that made you pause and wonder, but the same time it told you that it was better left off in the past.

Raising my hand I pat his back and do not ask further on his personal matters. "So everyone here was not trialled?"

Will shook his head and then nodded to the guards standing by with sheathed swords. "All of us has been judged and only then are we given such an option."

"Really?" My brows were raised and I felt a chill down my spine. "Then why am I not being judged?"

"Mhmm, why should you-" His response was cut off in a stampede of soldiers, and we moved closer to the walls to let them pass uninterrupted. And when the large group passed us by, a woman in battle armour detached herself from its tail and came upto William with a stern gaze like an elder preparing to give a lecture.

But all she did was glare with her hands crossed over her breastplate and William lowered his head to glance at me sideways.

Taking the hint I raised my hand to speak. "I was the one who forced him to show me around, he really did not intentionally ditch his duties. Please don't scold him."

Two sets of eyes, one blue like the oceans and one dark like the night sky stared at me with amusement and loosing the initial oppressive pressure, she heavily sighs.

"I can't scold him, but I wish could." And with that she turned around and left.

"I was hoping for you tell something like Hades wanting for me to accompany you, but this is good too." His fingers reach for my hair and I cleverly sidestep, but his smirk doesn't dull.

"But sadly I still have to leave. And since you love to eat I will sent you to the kitchen and you can munch down whatever you want from there till I come back." He extends his arms again with the same intent and I began to run. The whole while of the short chase was filled with him yelling for me to change directions till it ended before the palace kitchen.

"Be good." I stood still for a moment to let him finally mess my hair to tangles, but when his long fingers showed no signs of stopping, I pushed him away and closed the door making all the busy bodies in the spacious kitchen look my way.

"Hey..." I wave.

A maid holding a cup of tea was the first to move, while the rest fifteen or so stared without reproach. The said young woman with long chestnut locks placed her cup on the counter and poured another from the steaming kettle before indicating at a boy of maybe ten years.

And this boy with a beaming smile and hair the same shade as the woman, cut very close to his scalp brought the cup for me to have and then skipped back to the kind lady's side.

"Thanks you for the tea."

Under a dozen pair of eyes of whom many I refused to meet, the hot liquid was sipped down my throat, and the taste...it was worth my kidney, both my kidneys.

But in the deafening silence and forced smiles, I lost my appetite, and unlike what Will had asked for me to do, I left the kitchen and wandered without an aim.

And no matter how long I continued to walk, I never came upon the same people or corridors twice as if the palace was a never-ending maze. But strangely no one ever blocked my way or questioned my goal with three fourths turning a blind eye and the remaining acknowledging with a low bow.

And there were times I tripped over my own two feet when I hurried to bow back while walking, and nearly ended up falling twice. It was not the most pleasant of experiences, but the title of most embarrassing could be debated.

"Have you heard of the doctor?" Someone spoke and in the almost empty halls it resonated from a whisper to a thunderous boom.

I paused to look at the two standing guard on either side of a large metal door with hinges the size of my torso. Their gazes were only upon the other and amusingly did not seem to notice the eavesdropping doctor before them.

And I realise with pity that their helmets did not grant them a wide peripheral view.

"Yes, yes. She's an honoured guest!" The other party's enthusiastic response stopped me from interrupting.

What honoured guest? A prisoner! A prisoner who was now curious, just enough to let you two continue.

"The dragon guards actually left their post to get a glimpse of her when she was with the general, and they say that the lady has access to Lord's bedchambers."

"I also heard that old man Leon is spitting fire ever since her arrival, because she never asks for permission. How admirable!" And even when they were not turned my way, I could tell that their eyes were twinkling.

"I think the lady must have been a young master of some famous clan, no wonder she is so arrogant and haughty, she must be giving our Lord a very hard time."

The vein on my forehead twitched. Who is giving whom a hard time?

"No you fool!" The one who had started this mindless conversation jabbed at his companion with his spear, but the distance between them kept him from doing any harm. "There are no more clans in this century, why do keep forgetting it."

"She must be what today's people call a dictator....Shhh don't speak anymore." He suddenly placed his ear on the door and waved his hand frantically at the other man. "They are coming. "

The two them then simultaneously turned, and what greeted them was a sight of my ashen face and clenching fists, but before I could educate them on the new era of independent teenagers, the bolts of heavy metal shifts as the doors were opened from the other side.

Not bothering to think twice, I brought one finger to my lips to motion for them to remain quiet, and retreated to the sides from plane view while not being entirely sure that the two recognised me.

A great number of statues lined the halls and I ended up choosing to hide behind the most troublesome one.

Carved by the blades of a gifted craftsman, it depicted a dazzling beauty performing an elegant dance form. But unlike her liquid like flexibility, my limbs were taut and without much effort managed to look like a duck trying to nail an Egyptian dance move.

I tucked in my tummy just in case it decided to look fat, when the doors were now fully open, and the sound of countless footsteps in perfect sync came to be heard.

But curiosity made me peak, and from the raised platform, my eyes fell on a languid figure strolling detached from the guards on his either sides.

His movements graceful yet shiftless as if under dark velvet robes his feet never touched the ground, but the allure of amber eyes were hidden under a silk veil.

I remain silent believing nothing good with come out from him knowing that I was snooping around, but there was this feeling in my gut that told me that there was something wrong, and I intended to act on it when the escorts completely leave.

Suddenly, the breath I had held in came out in a startled scream as a hand falls on my shoulder.

"Will!" I yell traumatised, and the man had the audacity to snicker.

"Can't you just sit put as I told you to?" His ocean eyes held little sincerity as if he had already known this was how it would end up from the start.

Feigning innocence I smile only to be shook by the shoulders like a soda can. "What in the name of Zeus am I going to do with you?"

I have that effect on people.

Will, mumbling to himself in greek, pulls we away from the statues by the sleeves.

"Will, can you maybe take me to Hades' room?" I ask while turning back to the two guards who stood with frozen forms, and wave them goodbye, which they return almost comicaly with low bow.

Will who had been following my gaze suddenly gasped, and looked at me as if I had grown a pair of horns. "Wow, you want to go there willingly? Did pigs start flying?" Will wondered.

"Did you?"

I bit my tongue as he brought his fist down on my head. "I am not a pig." He says, but from his panic I almost believed otherwise.

"Where did Hades just come from?" I ask once again looking back as we walk away, and two guards leaning towards each other this time kept a watchful eye on eavesdropping strangers.

"He came out from the Hall of judgement." Will says and puts on a serious expression. "I really hope you don't wander in there without having someone with you...Why are you staring at me like that?" Ocean eyes narrow before my dazed expression.

I shake off the mental image blinding my vision, and decide to give a genuine answer."I was just imagining you with those pretty pink ears. You know the small ones of a pig, and I found it cute."

"A little too cute."

And it turned out most men really did not like themselves to be referred to as cute, and in our journey in search for the god of the Underworld's bedroom we exchanged a series of endearing nicknames ranging from filthy cockroaches to slimy toads.

And when reaching our destination, I was met with the now familiar scornful expression of the guard stationed outside the door.

"Leon right?" I ask the old guard and his stumbles for words in surprise while Will silently watches the play.

My lips stretch in a charming smile. "Do you really spit fire as they say?"

His expression turned out no different from the rumours, only lacking the crackling embers, and I quickly shut the door in the face of two contradicting characters, and only return the laughter of the one with ocean eyes.

Within the room I reign in my amusement and put on a facade professionalism. "How are you feeling?"

I ask the King shrouded by the folds of linen curtains.

"Fine."

Judging from the sound I moved three steps to my right, and when the vague outline of his figure could be made out, I pulled up the curtain over my head and leapt forward.

When the fluttering fabric settled over my waist, my palm covered his warm forehead, and it was only a second later that he recoiled, his amber eyes of an impalpable heat held a winter storm.

Unwilling to retain the blade of the butcher over my neck, I retreated to fair, safe distance, and began to calculate the time interval since the last administration of the medicine.

He had seemed fine when he was with me in the dinning, and for him to have his temperature sour so quickly, there must have been a trigger.

"Ah!" When my eyes trailed back from my invention kit that was still scattered around, to the bed, the curtains had already been soundlessly drawn, and sitting cross legged at the edges with his chin resting upon his palm was the god of the Underworld.

No one could tell what thoughts swirled in those fathomless pools and at long last he pressed his lips and suddenly asked. "Is there something you wish to ask me?" He tilts his head following my lowering gaze. "Do you?"

Intuition told me not to pry into his secrets, but curiosity drove me to open my mouth. "I want to know the reason."

"From what I heard from your staff, you falling ill is not a rare occurrence...Wait, none of them directly told me about it, okay. I just concluded that all on my own, don't like scold them." I paused.

And when the silence lasted long enough to make it seem like an impassioned staring contest I decided to continue. "I may be wrong, but aren't gods different from humans...so shouldn't falling ill not be normal."

When I finished speaking I waited for a long while, and grew restless with the passing seconds when he did not seem obliged to reply.

"Do you have any untreated injury? You know if that's the case then because you are not resting, it could have been agitated, and caused the fever." The sentence was met with the familiar silence, but I couldn't keep my mouth shut.

"Are you hurt somewhere, maybe by another god?"

My feet was tapping the floor in an uneven rhythm with impatience. "Will you tell me, or should I undress you to find out?"

A little too late did I realise what exactly was wrong with the last line, and when his brows rose, I stuttered. "That...that came out wrong...that was supposed to be a threat...."

"No! No! Not a threat...I mean it is a threat but not...like that!"

I felt as if my brain was about to explode when I met his eyes, and then I covered mine hoping to lessen the embarrassment. "....Please forgive me, forget all what I said, I will leave now."

"It is not from an injury."

I was about to turn around when he spoke. "My physical form is immortal, but is weaker than the other gods."

"But I will not tell you the reason for it being so." Like a death sentence the words fell, and like an impartial judge there was not a flicker of a fleeting emotion in his beautiful orbs, as if he had been speaking of someone entirely different.

But on an indescribable reflex my hand outstretched to pat his head before I could think twice of the consequences. And though not performed a great number of times to be called a habit, my hand first tapped his forehead, a little off from its course. And when realising the mistake patted his hair two times in quick succession, and withdraw as if I had touched a venomous snake.

What have I done!!!!

He sighs and then drops his hand that had reached for mine. "Are you perhaps trying to console me?"

I manage to nod, and suddenly became fearful of what to, it might lead, but in the dim lights, the gelid pools of amber appeared lukewarm.

And though there was not a crease below them, not the slightest movement in his cheeks, nor a faint tug pleasing his crimson lips, it cast an illusion of an enchanting smile to the eyes that dared to look his way.

Like a wisp of smoke of an extinguished candle it soon dissipated, but it lingered in my mind like an uncovered treasure to which I refused to part, even when it left behind no trace.

I stood there stunned for a while and at the moment that Hades had turned his head, I asked. "What causes the strongest reaction?" My voice was soft, and slow spoken, like a victim of hypnotism.

I cough, averting my gaze. "As in what affects your health the most?"

"Sunlight."

The instant the last syllable was uttered my fingers wrapped around my throat, and watching myself being further demoted into a complete lunatic in his gaze, I tried to explain. "I can't help it, I have read way too many vampire based books, so its basic instincts." I forcefully bring down my hand. "Does that mean you can't into the light?"

"I am afraid so," he answers, kneading his wrist in a subtle indication of unease towards such long conversations.

"Does your work affect you?" I ask even when having already concluded  it does, and his reply was unlike any I could have thought of.

"My body is eternal, I won't die."

The statement causes a strange feeling to bloom in my heart, that bordered rage. "Why do you do it, the things that only bring you suffering?"

He suddenly stood up, and towered over me with his formidable form, and through soft drooping lashes stared with amber eyes like the bright morning star.

"Let you show you something. "