Muses, Mishaps, and Murder!

Chapter 7 The Death of Apollo

Muse Silver-Green

Outside, citizens flapped their wings, flying into their beehive-shaped apartment buildings with circular windows.

Rain fell from the cloudy sky. Soup vendors opened their umbrellas, and hovering cars filled the streets.

I followed Apollo into a skyscraper painted with flowers. We flew into the entrance.

The coffin was open, but no one gathered around it.

I peered around the funeral home. Guests sat on blankets. A handful of families attended because our funerals were streamed into the mourners' homes with video feeds.

Guests wore their most colorful outfits.

In the coffin was a familiar woman, but she was a few decades older than I am. The hundred-and-sixty-year-old was too young to die.

"I didn't know your predecessor, who had your job title, died," I said. "The doctors said she was improving."

"The retired Apollo was murdered. Cultists sabotaged her shuttle, and afterward, a man broke inside the hospital and doubled her pain med dosage. She had a meeting with Kay months ago, and Kay was asking a lot of questions about Zander and accused our old leader of working for the cult. She claimed that the old Apollo sold the Muses out."

"Are you accusing, the Queen Mother, Kay, of killing my old boss?"

"No, the ex-Apollo was killed by the cultist Tolbert or Deb because she knew who Deb was. She was a paid employee. Sadly, the retired Apollo took that secret to the grave. I'm restating you again, and you'll chat with a supervisor or two tomorrow, but I believe if Mason dies, we might be in danger."

"What?" My wings twitched.

"Deb's Light is a business, and our micro-planet makes the perfect spot for manufacturing plants," he said. "Her plan might be to indenture us or kill us, but she might, as I suspect, force Muses to work for whomever she says. Imagine creativity and talent sold to the highest bidder."

"Didn't the deceased Apollo handpick Zander Phall's Muses? Are they cultists?"