Carved by the Gods

The Deal

I could see her face, her eyes held so much fear in them. It was the first time my sister had been afraid in so long, and now she was dead. Her life is just done. She's gone forever. I could hear the sound of my heart shattering as the wreck sunk below me. Luna had murdered my family in cold blood. I wanted to wring her neck, to make her suffer as I have suffered. We were loyal to her, we gave her our best fish, any treasure we found, we put onto her altar. And she had spat on us. My lungs screamed for air but my heart told me to give up, to stop trying to swim to the wreck to save my family, to not swim to the surface to save myself, our possessions that had escaped the boat began to float upward. Dodging them was hard to do but I tried, something in me told me to try for them. For her. Pain radiated from the back of my head and the navy sea turned black.

Stay strong my son. Your time is coming, you will be destined for great things.

The voice had haunted my dreams for years, it wasn't my own, and it wasn't my conscience. It was something mystical, something even my mother couldn't explain. I felt hollow inside when I thought of her. They were all so innocent, they'd done nothing to warrant such wrath. Maybe I did when I was training, I had been more than rough with a few of the men for making eyes at my sister. Did that constitute killing them? I no longer felt like I was floating, perhaps I was finally in the underworld, I'd see Charon soon enough, I'd be sent to the Fields of Asphodel where I'd wander forever, wondering where everyone was. Octavia would choose reincarnation so we could see one another again. Mother and father would choose Elysium so they could spend the rest of their undead lives in heaven. What would Murphy be like? I've heard from many stories from all over that he was cold, sarcastic, unforgiving, and only caring when it came to his wife Emori. She passed more of the judgements than he did, perhaps she'd forgive me? I rolled over on a cold stone floor, it smelled like mildew, I could hear water dripping and chains shifting. I was in the underworld. I groaned as I sat up, my head throbbed. I faced a dark wall, the stonework was extraordinary, there were three small bars letting in the dim, orange light from outside.

"Here. Take this." A voice whispered. Something was pushed towards me at the other side of the room. Slowly, I turned around with my head down, I rubbed it lightly and noticed a plate of food on the ground. When I looked up a girl with light skin, dark eyes, and curly light brown hair. She was dressed in a dark pink and grey dress, a small crown rested in her hair. I looked at the plate and then up again.

"What are you?" I croaked. The girl quickly put her finger to her lips and shushed me. The sound pierced my ears and made my head hurt even more.

"I'm Gina. Princess of Mount Weather. You're in our dungeon." She whispered.

"What's that?"

"You washed up on our beaches, we don't know if you're a spy or not."
"I was a fisherman. My boat sank." I choked out. The scene flashed through my mind, their faces so scared, but then at peace.

"The Goddess of the sea sent that towards us. She's mad at my parents."

"Why?" The food on the plate looked so good, lush, purple grapes, roasted meat, vegetables, and a flaky pastry. My stomach growled loudly, Gina smiled and encouraged me to eat by pushing the plate closer.

"There will be guards here in an hour. Once they're here they'll take you to the bath house and sanitize you. They won't be gentle, and it will be extremely painful. Don't fight them it'll just make it harder for my people to trust you." Gina said quickly. I took it all in and slowly nodded. I took a bite of the pastry and groaned, it was delicious. She smiled at me and blushed, I took a bite of the meat next and noticed how pretty she was. By far one of the prettiest girls I had seen, she wore none of that white chalk that most royals wore, her skin held no blemish, her eyebrows weren't connected like in my old kingdom where that was a trend. Octavia would laugh at those girls, she would rather use the black paint to put over her eyes and hunt in the woods. She'd never do that again.