Esme

My eyes opened slowly as the haze lifted from my thoughts. It took me a moment to recognize that I was lying in the med-lab of little Salinthea’s very own starship.

Okay, she didn’t own it exclusively, but the rest of the crew were just a bunch of mortals. It wouldn’t be long for them to die, and then Thea would have it all to herself. She was annoyed when I brought up that last part, but she was young and still needed to learn that we were different from the mortal races. We outlived them, and accepting that was just part of being immortal.

“Hey, how are you feeling?” Thea asked from beside the bed. She was the only other person in the room. And from the look of the snack wrappers neatly placed in the trashcan beside her, it seemed like she had been waiting there the entire time. I wasn’t sure if that was a security precaution or Thea just being Thea, but either way, I appreciated the gesture.

“Let me check.” I dramatically lifted the blanket to look under it. “Yep, much better.”

“I can’t believe how long it took you to notice.” Thea was smiling, which always made me smile. Even if she was doing it for a stupid reason.

“I wasn’t expecting to wake up with extra dangling bits, but now I know to check for that the next time you murder me.”

“There’s no way I’m apologizing for either of those things.” Thea crossed her arms indignantly. “You were trying to kill my girlfriend, and I figured you would appreciate the new experience.”

“That’s the kind of ‘new experience’ I’d much rather have in the privacy of my own home, thank you very much.” I instantly regretted my choice of words as Thea’s face lit up.

“So, you did enjoy it?”

“That’s not what I said.”

“But it’s not not what you said.”

“Can we go back to talking about how you murdered me? Because, I think I preferred that conversation.”

“Sure, gods forbid you learn something new about yourself after being alive for a million years.”

“I’m not that old, besides a new body means a new age. Now, you’re older than me.”

“That’s definitely not how it works.” Thea’s eyes lit up with the barest hint of gold peaking through. “In fact, I think I can already see a few wrinkles forming.”

“Bullshit, hand me that mirror.” I pointed to a small mirror that was resting on a countertop across the room. Thea was obviously lying. She had a major tell, but I still hadn’t seen my new face and I wanted to know how I looked. Mostly, just to find out how much I was going to need to adjust later.

Thea got up to hand me the mirror, and I was pleasantly surprised at what I saw. For somebody who couldn’t tell the difference between genders, the doctor had done a startlingly good job at designing my new body.

I still had my black hair and short horns, which maintained the demon look. But my pupils were no longer elongated, and my eyes weren’t glowing, which was a definite downgrade.

My skin was also too pale, although it was incredibly smooth and unblemished. I had been expecting all of that with a newly manufactured body, but what surprised me was the excellent symmetry and delicate features. Which I certainly didn’t have the night before and absolutely wasn't regretting.

Gods, I really hoped Thea didn’t awaken something in me. There was enough going on right now without me having to question my gender.

“Like what you see?” the little devil in question asked.

“Uh, yeah,” I responded while still moving the mirror to see different angles. “It looks perfect. Still no wrinkles.”

“Well, this might add a few.” Thea hesitated for a moment before continuing. “I spoke with your mom recently.”

I felt my whole body tense as I stopped staring at myself in the mirror to see Thea leaning against the far wall, looking uncomfortably at the floor. “What did Kai want?”

“Oh, you know, just what any mother would want.” Thea shrugged. “Vengeance for her daughter’s death. It’s no big deal, really.”

“She threatened you?” I could feel anger welling up, but I tried my best to control it.

“She didn’t know that I was the one who killed you. So, she recruited me to find, well, me.”

“The audacity of that woman!” I gave up on trying to control my anger. “She doesn’t speak to me in more than five-thousand years and then she pretends to care about me dying? But not even enough to do anything about it herself, instead she recruits you to do it, because apparently, she can’t be bothered!”

“Now, hold on a moment. That’s not exactly what happened.”

“Then tell me what did,” I demanded. “And don’t you dare defend her!”

“She summoned me to her domain in order to protect me while she tried to find whoever killed you. Which it seemed like she planned to do once she finished with something else that was taking up her attention.”

“Something else?”

“Yeah, I got the feeling it had to do with her new wife.”

I threw the blanket off myself and snatched the robe from beside the bed.

“Esme, you seem angry,” Thea pointed out astutely as I got dressed. “What are you planning?”

“I’m going to call dad.”

~~~~

“This doesn’t seem like a good idea,” Bryce said. “Aren’t there precautions we should be taking?”

“Do you take precautions before you talk to your dad?” Thea asked.

“Absolutely, I do, and he’s just an elf.”

“Just don’t accept any of his invitations and you’ll be fine,” I said, as I finished the last rune of the summoning circle. “Consent is part of his domain, so he won’t force you to do anything you don’t agree to.”

The three of us were standing in the room where I was resurrected. Thea had to move most of the furniture aside in order to accommodate the larger summoning circle. Which made me painfully aware of how weak this new body was, or rather, how weak I was after being brought back.

Bryce was going to have to do the actual summoning, because I didn’t have nearly enough mana anymore. Which was something I was planning on correcting soon.

“Alright, whenever you’re ready.” I stepped away from the circle to let the elf start casting. She was surprisingly eloquent for a mortal and managed the incantation in under six minutes.

“Was that it?” Thea asked when Bryce finished. “Nothing happened.”

“That should have done it,” Bryce said. “Unless I made a mistake?”

“You did it perfectly. It’s just that—”

“Gods don’t like to be summoned by mortals,” dad said from behind us. We all turned to see him standing there completely naked, as usual. Dad was an incubus with deep crimson skin and long black horns that sprouted from his forehead and encircled the top of his head like a crown.

“I was going to say ‘we didn’t use a binding circle, so he doesn’t have to appear where we summoned him’, but if you’re going to interrupt me, then I guess that’s fine too.”

“Such insolence,” he laughed. “Tell me how you’d like to die and I might just grant you the mercy.” He created an aura of divinity around himself, which caused Bryce and Thea to flinch at the sudden increase of power in the air. But I just glared.

My lack of response seemed to confuse him for a moment, and then he recognized me. “Esmer, is that you?”

“Hey dad, it’s been awhile.”

He rushed across the room to envelop me in a crushing hug. “I thought you were dead.”

I made a bit of a grunting noise in return.

“Uh, Mr. Chorus, sir,” Thea took a step away from my over-bearing father, which was the wrong direction if she was trying to help me. “I don’t think she can breathe.”

“Nonsense.” Dad mostly released me as he took a step back, but he kept his massive hands on my shoulders. “My daughter is—incredibly weak. What in the hells happened to you?”

“Thanks dad, you look great too.”

“I’m sorry,” He apologized. “I just didn’t expect to see this much damage to your soul. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. There was just a small misunderstanding that ended with me getting stabbed by a soul-destroying sword, but I’ll heal if I can get access to a supply of mana.”

“Is that why you called?” He asked. “You know I’d be more than happy to provide you with any mana you need.”

“Uh, no, that’s not it, but that might speed up my healing, if you wouldn’t mind.”

“Of course.” He placed a hand on my head and I felt his power flow into me. He ended the torrent of mana before it could hit dangerous levels. Which left me feeling a lot better, but still far weaker than I had been before I died. “That’s all I can do without hurting you, but I’ll keep the connection open until you’re fully healed.”

“Thanks.” I hugged him as tightly as I could manage.

“If that wasn't the reason, then why did you summon me?” He smiled gently at my flimsy attempt at a hug. “Other than to tell me you're still alive.”

“Right.” I took a step back before launching into an explanation. “I need to get in contact with Kai. There might have been some confusion that I need to clear up, and she has some explaining to do in regards to getting married without telling me about it.”

“Was she not the one who revived you?” Dad asked. “I would have done it myself, but I couldn’t find your soul and I just assumed you were in her afterlife.”

“No, I had a soul stone, and Thea revived me.” I narrowed my eyes at the god-demon. “You’re not surprised that she got married?”

“What your mother does is her business.” He shrugged. “Besides, as far as I’m aware, nobody has actually met her new wife.”

“But you did know about it?”

“I did, but it was just a rumor until I called to talk to her about you going missing. If anything, I’m surprised Kai didn’t tell you about the wedding. You were always her favorite daughter.”

“Bullshit, she hasn’t even talked to me in over five-thousand years.”

“That hardly means anything. We only speak every few years and there’s a lot of people who would consider that infrequent. She just works on a different timeline from the rest of us.”

“Okay, but half my life? I don’t care what kind of ‘timeline’ she works on. That’s too damn long.”

“So, I’ve been busy. Sue me.” The room froze as Kai stepped in through the doorway. She was wearing one of her usual sky-blue robes that hid her nine tails and had her black hair flowing freely behind her. She looked exactly as I remembered.

“Nobody invited you,” I accused.

“Uh, this seems like more of a family thing,” Thea said from the corner where she and Bryce were still standing. “We’re just going to go.”

“No, you’re not,” Kai demanded. “You still owe me an explanation as to why you didn’t call the moment you got ahold of Esmer’s soul.”

“I’ve been busy? Sue me?” Thea ask-answered.

Kai narrowed her eyes, but I cracked up laughing.

“If you can use that excuse, then so can she,” dad chimed in with a smile. “Hello, Kai, what are you doing here?”

“Summoning a divine being to the mortal realm makes an awful lot of noise,” she explained. “When I saw that you didn’t return to Hades, I wanted to check in on you. Imagine my surprise when I find my daughter alive and in the same room as a certain little imp who made a promise to contact me the moment she found Esmer.”

“Esmer was just calling me to find a way to get in contact with you,” dad explained. “I’m sure she was going to call you next.”

“Is that true?” The chaos goddess asked.

“I was probably going to call my boyfriend first.”

“Esme’s boyfriend broke up with her two decades ago,” Thea said. “She was definitely going to call you next.”

I shot a glare at the traitor and she mouthed an apology back.

“I just wanted to clear up a misunderstanding, so that you’d leave Thea alone,” I explained.

“And what would that be?” she asked.

“Thea didn’t mean to kill me. I didn't realize she was here willingly, and I attacked her new girlfriend. She then stabbed me without realizing who I was, but she resurrected me. So, there’s no problem and you can go back to ignoring my existence.”

“Is that it?” Kai raised an eyebrow. “I already knew all that, which is why I didn’t smite your little friend already.”

“You did?” Thea asked. “But I thought you were still looking for Esme’s killer.”

“Her actual killer,” the goddess explained. “The one who kept obscuring all of Esme’s leads when you went missing, and the same one who stopped her from sending a message to the mortal plane to ask you what was going on. Whoever it is has been incredibly clever about everything.”

“Is that why you had to use my soul stone to contact me?” I asked Thea. “Somebody was blocking other means of messaging?”

“Yep, absolutely,” Thea answered. “We totally tried a ton of other ways first, but Bryce had to use your soul stone to finally get through to you. Malvoch must have known that you would overreact to somebody talking to you that way.”

I wouldn’t exactly call what I did overreacting. Hells, there was a reason that I didn't just use Thea's soul stone to do the same to her. But dad interjected before I could defend myself.

“It was Malvoch then? I suspected as much, but we couldn’t exactly go killing one of Orrid's top lieutenants without being able to prove it.”

“I could,” Kai corrected. “But somebody didn’t want me to because their main temple is in Hades.”

“You probably won’t be able to prove anything with Malvoch involved,” I said. “He’s going to cover his tracks too well. Hells, his only misstep so far has been overestimating Thea’s ability to kill somebody with a sword.”

“You’re welcome?” Thea asked. “Did you ever consider that maybe I knew what was going on the entire time and didn’t want to actually kill you?”

“So you attacked my daughter on purpose?” Dad asked.

“Nope! I’m terrible with a sword! Honestly, I’m lucky I don’t stab myself every time I pull it out.”

“Well, regardless, that’s more than enough proof for me,” Kai interrupted. “I’m going to go kill this asshole. Anybody want to watch?”

“I’ll bring popcorn!” Thea raised her hand.

“No, you’re not going to kill Malvoch, because if you do then Orrid will kick dad out of the hells and I won’t be able to see him nearly as often.”

“Then I can just kill Orrid.”

“And destroy half of Hades in the battle?” I asked. “No, just go back to your new wife and let us handle this.”

“Are you sure?” Kai asked. “Your soul still needs to heal, and besides, Hades is long overdue for a makeover.”

“Yes, I’m sure. Go back to whatever you were doing before you got bored and decided to interfere with my life.”

“Alright, just let me know if you want my help with anything.” The goddess seemed to deflate, and I cringed as I was hit with an unexpected wave of guilt.

“I will, and thanks for trying to protect Thea after I died, mother.”

“Ha! You said it and now you can’t take it back!” The literal goddess shouted like a child before disappearing in a flash of light.

“Ugh! She is the worst!” I complained.

“Maybe, but she means well,” dad said as he stepped forward and wrapped me in his arms. “I know that’s not an excuse, but it’s all I’ve got to defend her.”

“Then don’t defend her,” I argued. “She just casually mentioned destroying the largest city in the lower planes, killing that many people isn’t something worth defending.”

“You’re right, but she is still your mother.” And with that, I broke the embrace.

“Thanks for coming dad, we can handle things from here.”

“Alright, but make sure you drop by if you end up in Hades. I can at least give you a place to stay.”