Eternity Glass

Chapter XVIII: Dancing With Desire

Fallon couldn't count the amount of formal parties she'd been to on one hand. Even though she'd only had ten years with her mother, even the amount of galas and fundraisers she could remember felt endless. Jane had been such an important person, a genuine leader in everyone's eyes, that the invites never stopped coming. She could hardly say no to them, either. She believed that being a part of the social life was just as important as living in the business world.

Miss Anya would help Fallon with her own preparations, taking her dress shopping when her mother couldn't accompany her and styling her hair in whatever way looked nice for that event. Since most of those parties lasted far past her bedtime, Miss Anya would be the one to take her home.

Fallon didn't like parties then. The dresses were stuffy, and the adults used big words. There weren't any games, and any other children present were snobby or also half asleep. Now she wished she'd paid attention. Captivating a crowd wasn't her strong suit; she'd nearly shit herself trying to talk to a council of celestials.

Becoming Eyal's "sword" didn't make things easier. Despite how lackadaisical the deity acted around her, she knew that he was just as on edge about this whole thing as everyone else. The knighting ceremony would be a very public event, where he would showcase to his allies and enemies that he'd won and no one could dispute his position as the Emperor of the Underworld.

It complicated many things. With every passing day, Fallon would sit in silence in the library and just remember to breathe. She constantly reminded herself of two things. One, she was doing this for her mother, and her mother only. If Eyal told her the truth that first evening, then she couldn't risk being the reason for her mother's eternal damnation.

Two, she had nothing more to lose. Nothing waited for her in the Material Realm. Jeremy had somehow found his way down here, but she would get him back to his family. She would make sure that he wouldn't miss her, even if it meant painting herself as the chaotic neutral anti-hero. She'd already betrayed Tristan and Lita. Though she still had her grievances with the love deity, she knew that he wouldn't ever forget that permanent reminder of her betrayal she'd placed on his arms.

Then there was Yvonne, and the last promise Fallon hoped she would ever have to break. She would never return and tell her about her adventure. Gods, she didn't even know what Yvonne would know. Would someone tell her she'd died? Or did the other deities have some spell that would make her forget about her? Fallon didn't know which was worse, but she couldn't think of that. For now and until the end of the celebration, she had to prove beyond any doubt that her loyalties lied with the throne of the Underworld. She had to convince herself that she was loyal.

If it meant smiling and putting on whatever dress he chose, then so be it.

She looked at herself in the body mirror as two attendants continued to pin and sew the dress according to her body shape. Jyuna and Brecan had been daemons until Eyal had assigned them to her, but she'd told him that their appearances were horrid enough to give her nightmares and he shifted them back to their original form almost right away.

When they began working on her dress in her quarters, Fallon apologized for her words right away. She hadn't known that those boney creatures were people and not just his evil underlings.

The daemons have an underlying sense of loyalty.

If she guessed correctly, then Zafiro must've meant that they were ex-followers of Emperor Xythlar.

It took a bit for the twins to get their coordination steady, as they were so used to their deformed figures, but they seemed to perk up as time went on, dropping small compliments here and there.