Death has no bedchambers, for she sleeps on her throne. This makes any sort of sudden romantic rendezvous a little awkward, but she’s not going to bother someone to build her a bedchamber for this sort of thing. The fact that she even considered it speaks to her state of mind… This sort of thing really turns people and gods into fools in equal measure. No wonder her brother is such an idiot, if he indulges in these flights of fancy all day.

  She’d sensed Maia’s arrival from the very moment their party pierced the veil. She can’t see her, but she can feel her; so lonely she is that the moment someone with her essence and even a faint trace of her godhood enters this world she instantly feels it. She’s here… Somewhere.

  Why? How? Had her love pierced the veil just to see her? No, being logical, if she did so, she would’ve come here… Maybe this is just a metaphorical blip on the radar, a mistake, white noise in her head. But the presence lingered. Long enough for her to eventually reach her hand out from the throne, fingers idly groping at the air until she finds the correct string-

  to an outsider, it might’ve looked like she was death-gripping a random particle of air, but in truth she had found the metaphorical link between the two of them, even more real now that they shared a realm, and she *yanked* on it with the same force a fisherman would pull at the biggest catch of the year. And unlike those fishermen, this one wouldn’t get away.

  A sharp tug, and Maia’s suddenly within her arms, blinking rapidly.

  Her skin is once again pallid and grey and her hair is wiry and greying, but those eyes are still just as energetic. She’s grasped her soul, nothing more; the trip back to the portal to the human world will take some time, so Death has time to spend with her before she returns to her own world. This will likely be the st time they can be together before the ceremony.

  “Huh? Wha- Where-”Maia blinks rapidly and then looks right up to see Death staring down at her, having been pced to sit on her p. Her eyes go wide as dinner ptes, and no matter how grey her skin becomes, it can’t hide the creeping hints of red that still reveal her for what she is;

  a bleeding, heart-beating human.

  “Welcome. Pardon me for taking you away from your quarry like so; I've little knowledge of what you’ve been up to since you broke boundaries and came to *our* realm. Hopefully I didn’t drag you away from anything too important, little pilgrim.”

  Death’s hand strokes through Maia’s hair and gently whisks her hood down so that she can look down at her more properly.

  “I… Well, I was falling asleep while drunk, so you probably didn’t- strange, I don’t feel inebriated…”Maia speaks while staring at her hands. The expression she wears when she sees that she has returned to her withered state is hard to read for Death, one who rarely sees the faces of another, but it seems… resigned. sad, maybe.

  “I’ve merely brought a projection of your soul here. And your soul is a representation of yourself at your most raw and basic form. No alcohol could affect it.”

  Yet her power could. Had Maia accepted her? That expression said she was still unsure… Perhaps mortal bodies and souls just couldn’t deny the influence of their deities. Death wasn’t going to press the matter, hand running lower and stroking a cheek, thumb gently pressing against her nose. She was surprisingly physical; Death rarely got to indulge in love nguages such as this.

  And Maia had a very cute face.

  “I understand,” Maia speaks quietly, and then looks up to Death’s face. The shift makes her thumb slide down and to her lip, quickly shifted to instead stroke her cheek again. “This’ll be our final time seeing each other like this, won’t it? Once Homer, Aymanah and I head back to the mortal world and finish our task, we’ll have earned the right to attend the ceremony.”

  And with some time to spare too, Death could tell. Some days to still ponder upon her mortality, her feelings, and what she ought to do. Of course Death hoped that Maia knew exactly what kind of a choice she would make when they’d meet face to face, body to body, physicality to physicality… But even she, someone so alien to human interaction, could tell that Maia still held an uncertainty tied in deep knots within her soul.

  “It likely will. You’ve done wonderfully on your journeys. I’m so, so very proud… And so, so very fttered. No matter the choice you come to when the time comes, I’m happy that you dedicated yourself to this goal. Had you quietly prayed, had you let me simply shower you in my idle, unthinking affection, without reaching out… Both of our lives would’ve turned for the worse, I think. An eternity unloved, and you changed it. I…”

  Death has spoken more than she ought to, and she trails off, but then she continues with a sweeter, quieter tone.That of a woman, and not a god.

  “Thank you, Maia. For making me feel loved.”

  Her eyes have been nailed onto Maia for this whole little spiel, and she’s seen so many emotions fsh through her face during the short speech. Embarrassment, awe, shock, determination, and eventually something soft and gentle as Maia reaches a hand out to grasp onto the one stroking her cheek, fingers gently resting on Death’s before they intertwine and move Death’s hand so that they can be palm to palm.

  “I… I don’t deserve such honors from a god. But- but I’m… I’m very happy to hear it, ahahah…”

  The red on her face shines through even the pallid, gravelike countenance she’s been blessed with, and that makes Death quite happy. Her other arm is lower, holding Maia steady by the waist as she sits on her p. The throne below them thrums with the idle energies of all the souls of the dead and dying traversing through it for the proper flow of the lifestream to be possible.

  “I must ask, though,” Maia’s voice is quiet. Not shy. Thoughtful. “... what will become of me if I join you here? I met with many of the people whom Life uplifted to serve as his family. They make merry in a beautiful garden, every life a day of partying and cajoling, and they have each other for company. And I’m sure they do much more besides.”

  Maia ends up leaning her head against Death’s chest, looking up at her in curiosity. The apprehension she might’ve felt about these things melts away when in the actual presence of Death, rare as it may be.

  “Mmm. I’ve rarely had what I’d call followers… Life induces his through love, but many gods have followers plucked from the mortal world without such a romantic component. War finds worthy champions to add to their repertoire of strife-stirrers across the world, Diseases often picks up a ‘patient zero’ for their new concoctions to uplift into blissful mortality as a reward for their hard, if nonconsensual work… And so on. The few followers I have had have been necromancers dedicated to the sanctity of the soul, or those who have cheated death in truly marvelous ways.”

  Death recalled some. Martyr Zacharius, the benevolent man who had become the first Lich, a master of necromancy so potent it frayed his own body down to the bone. She had granted him her blessing for his help in contributing to the efficiency of the flow of souls, and now he wandered the realm of divinity studying the soul more intensely.

  Orloc the miracle maker, who had died thrice and risen each time, whom Death had blessed to ensure that he wouldn’t bother any longer, and now he wandered the world of mortals indulging in his whims and making up new identities.

  “You will be immortal, of course. Divinity will course through your veins and stop the arms of father Time from moving onwards. You do age physically, of course… At a rather slow rate. You may become like an old grandmother in thousands of years, although even that seems to depend on the individual. You do not have any obligations. After all, I am not a very demanding deity…”

  She leans down now, forehead pressed against Maia’s. Her skin is cold as stone, as is Maia’s, but there’s this feeling of warmth that spreads from the contact anyway, electrifying and tingling to the senses. Makes her feel things she hasn’t ever felt before.

  “... Although I would like for you to stay with me. You’ve seen some of my abode already. I think you will find that there is much more to still see. Although if you wish to leave and wander, I wouldn’t stop you. The mortal world, however…”

  Death’s breath is cold too, somehow, like there is no warmth to be found in her body, yet they both know her heart beats red hot and wild in this moment like never before.

  “... you wouldn’t be barred, but just like I, you would find it hard to visit for long periods of time. Only one of my followers regurly visits, and he was merely granted a tiny, tiny bit of my essence… The blessings I’d heap upon you- and already have- would make you anathema to the world of the mortals. Your visits would have to be pnned and sparse.”

  The world already rejected Maia for what she was to a certain degree, hence why things died around her if she stayed in one pce for too long; that was the very nature of the energies that had been slowly flowing into her due to Death’s undivided attention.

  Maia has her eyes closed, a small smile on her face. Her voice comes out as confident.“And of course, if I choose to not stay- if I choose for you to take back what you have given, would you still love me then? Even if I decided to walk the path of mortality?”

  Death’s own eyes close too. Her smile is a little sadder, though. She shouldn’t let this affect her as much as it does; Maia is not saying that she’s come to her decision at this very moment. She’s merely questioning, asking, thinking. And she has the right to do so.

  “I would do as you asked, and I would love you evermore.”

  There are no more words after that. Maia seems satisfied, and Death feels as if she’s talked too much. Instead they enjoy the silence enveloping each other, the only sounds being their breathing and the occasional low thrum of the throne they are seated on. Death feels Maia’s presence begin to slip. They must’ve reached whatever entrance they used to enter; they’re leaving, and Maia’s soul will leave with them.

  So, she gently tilts Maia’s chin up with a finger and presses her lips to hers for a soft kiss. Just as she reels back Maia leans back into it, causing her to widen her eyes in surprise- before accepting it, breathily ughing into the kiss… And then Maia fades, lip to lip, tongue to tongue, until Death is left sitting alone, holding nothing.

  “The die has been cast, then,” she mumbles to nothingness, “and I will wait for your answer at the end of this journey.”

  And thus, she gets comfortable in her seat, eyes wide open as she returns to her duty. There are no more obstacles on Maia’s path now, once she delivers the news. There will be nothing stopping them from meeting each other.

  Death and her beloved will come to an answer.