Dying Ichor

FORTY-NINE

   Hecate should've expected this when she tried to locate Elias' soul.

Charon stood with her in the throne room of Hades, hesitantly looking between her and the ruler of the gods who sat on the God of the Underworld's seat.

Elias sat on its armrest, carefully being handled by Hypnos and Zeus. He gave a cold look to the king and only allowed himself to be watched over by Hypnos.

Hypnos sneered at the situation. "I take one nap... and you're dead. How could this have happened?"

Charon bowed his head towards Elias. "I'm sorry. It's my fault you were taken."

Zeus looked over at Hecate, noticing the body she was holding. Elias finally saw as well and slowly lifted a hand up, showing Hypnos that he needed his body back.

"Bring him here, Hecate," Zeus commanded. "The minute Elias' soul returns, the sooner he can come back up with us-"

"Forgive me for speaking out, Your Majesty, but keeping Elias up in the heavens isn't right. He's a mortal," Charon said.

"It won't matter if he's mortal or not. Once I give him some ambrosia, he'll become a god like us."

Hypnos and Elias looked at him with disdain. Zeus chose to ignore it and didn't say anything when Hecate's features twisted into displeasure.

"How could you even think that? Your Majesty, you've gone mad," Hecate furiously claimed. "You have done nothing but bad deeds throughout the centuries we've lived, and hardly any of us ever complained. But forcing a mortal to drink ambrosia? One that Apollo killed? What do you think will happen when he leans of Elias becoming one of us? Not every god will accept him!"

"Elias doesn't need everyone's acceptance. He'll only need mine, and that's enough for him."

This crazy bastard. He's lost it. No mortal has ever been granted such a privilege before. But having Zeus do it? It'll cause a complete uproar within the heavens! Even though the goddesses who were involved in Elias' accident felt guilty for what's happened, they wouldn't dare to try and compensate him like this.

It's not like Elias would even agree to it anyways. All that mortal craved was the chance to go home to a place that's finally familiar. He doesn't care about anything or anyone here, so Elias wouldn't even hesitate to disregard the ambrosia.

As Hecate tried explaining the consequences of making a mortal into a god, Elias slipped off of the armrest and limped over to Hecate with the help of Hypnos. Zeus stood up immediately, wanting to help until Elias shoved his hands away.

He can't die like this. He wants to go home.

So, when Hecate notices him coming closer, she brings his body over and tries not to make a face when she saw how his expression fell.

Having to look at his own corpse was maddening. His body was sickly pale.

Elias forces himself to reach out, lightly touching his own face for a mere second.

And then he felt like he was waking up from a deep slumber.

By the time he fully regained consciousness, he found himself lying on the cold floor of Hades' palace. Every muscle in his body ached, and he was wrecked with painful migraines. Elias had to close his eyes again, trying to drown out the ringing in his ears until he realized that there were other people talking around him.

Zeus was on the floor, crouched down next to the male's body and helped to support Elias. He let out a relieved sigh, thankful that Elias managed to come back alive.