Hermes | Book 1

: 30 :

They were so different, the two of them, yet so inseparable; They were certainly an odd pair, the Light and the Dark.

Chapter 30

THEY SAT together at the edge of the roof at the either ends, looking at the steadily rising sun and the waking world.

Asta and Hermes were two completely different people that in no reality should have ever met. If there had ever been such a universe, Asta was sure that they had simply been passing strangers.

It wasn't something that she knew for certain, but there wasn't an inkling of doubt that there could never have been two people that have more differences between them. And yet, there was something in their world that had enough power to bind their fates together.

Hermes was a charming man, no doubt, but it was people like him that Asta strove to avoid. It was people like him, with a smiling face and sly wits, and with enough charm to twist and deceive a person with precision, that she feared.

They were masters at what they did and they knew it.

Right now Hermes was silent-either he was taking it all in, or he was simply ignoring her.

Asta felt frustrated.

What else am I supposed to do, huh, Dionysus? What else am I supposed to do?

She had felt helplessness all too many times to recognize the familiar feeling and she did not forget to greet it properly this time. Her eyes weren't seeing the scenery and she hardly felt panic at the fact that she hadn't switched on the safety even though she was centimeters away from falling.

Asta let herself feel miserable.

What am I supposed to do?

"What you would normally do." In her minds eyes she could see the perfectly built body of Dionysus sitting beside her, blocking her view of Hermes.

"Now I've started dreaming too," thought Asta to herself with a tinge of pitying amusement.

"Tell you the truth, Athena," Dionysus said titling his head to look at her properly. The white flower crown that he wore on his head looked dangerously close to falling, which made Asta wonder why this particular image of him had stuck to her memory. "I'm really flattered."

Asta waited, then looked in exasperation as he sipped red wine from a tall glass and looked at her expectantly.

"Why are you flattered, Dionysus?" Even in her imagination, he wouldn't let go of his own way; annoying, drunken fool.

"Because of all people in the world, of all the Gods that you know, you thought of me first."

He was wearing a light blue dress suit with a crisp white shirt inside that somehow complimented wonderfully to his dark complexion and the flower crown made of jasmine along with his customary glass of alcohol completed his look.

"Huh," Asta thought with a little surprise. "Why you of all people, Dionysus?"

"Who knows?" Dionysus shrugged, setting the glass between them precariously. "Why are you feeling helpless, Asta?"

"Because I don't know what to do," she thought, with a hint of sadness. "I escaped and I admit," she felt a rush of shame as she thought about it, even if it were only to herself, "I wanted to escape farther, somewhere far away from all of you."

"Did we embarrass you?" Dionysus didn't sound upset in her imagination; he was laughing, his head thrown back, showing his teeth.

"I don't know," Asta thought to herself honestly. "I just wanted to forget everything and be peaceful. But that didn't work out obviously and I was labeled as a nutcase."