Chapter 29 #2
arm half covered in feathers that rose to a point higher than the goddess’s face. To Aida’s horror, a dozen skeletons were
standing behind her. With graceful poise, the goddess of discord reached down, and her fingers deftly extracted the metal
ball from its ivory bed.
“Looking for this?” she said.
Despair flooded Aida. A new voice echoed through the chamber, a dolorous waver that could only belong to one being.
“Who are you?”
Each word was slow, soaked in sorrowful emotion.
Luciano was by Aida’s side. He helped her stand.
“Lady Oizys,” Luciano greeted the goddess of misery. His voice wavered.
Aida’s gaze shifted from Discordia to the new arrival, her heart sinking as she beheld the embodiment of despair.
Miseria stood draped in her mournful magnificence.
Her form was slender, almost fragile, yet her presence filled the chamber with an overwhelming melancholy.
Her skin, pale as the moon, seemed almost ethereal.
Her hair flowed around her like a veil of shadows, shifting subtly as if stirred by an unseen breeze.
Her attire was elegant, a gown that seemed woven from the very night itself, moving around her in fluid sorrowful waves.
Miseria’s eyes, a deep fathomless black, held within them the pain of every sorrow ever felt, their gaze penetrating and inescapable.
Aida looked away. Sophie’s aegis could hardly hold up.
She wanted to lie down in the sea of bones and die.
“Hello there, sister. Good of you to arrive. Let me introduce you to Miss Reale and Mr. Leto, employees of MODA.” Mo smirked
at them. “I suppose you both know you’re fired.”
“Why are you doing this?” Aida asked. She couldn’t stop the tears as she shouted at Mo. “Why do you want any of this?”
The god of guile stepped toward them, his lips twisted in a menacing scowl. Startled, Aida backed up, yanking on Luciano’s
sleeve. He was reeling in the depths of Miseria’s despair and was difficult to move. She pulled at him, dragging him away
from the advancing god until they hit the dais and fell backward on the step. When she fell, Aida’s hand brushed against Euphrosyne’s
foot, and a jolt ripped through her, a bright light of delirious joy that seemed to light up all her senses. She reached out
for Luciano’s hand and took it, letting the happiness flow through him too.
“That will not help you.” Miseria’s voice was like a low roll of thunder. She gently moved one hand toward the bone-laden
floor, and every last bone began to tremble. The sound was incredible, echoing off the chamber walls. They watched in horror
as all the skeletons knitted themselves back together. Soon there was an army in front of them, thousands of dead trembling,
waiting for a command.
Luciano raised his voice, defiant. “You can’t kill us.”
Miseria laughed. It was a terrible sound, full of dread that seemed to permeate the air. The undead legion at her command
lifted its hands and took a step forward.
“We don’t need to kill you.” Mo chuckled. “There are chambers in these catacombs where no one will find you in a thousand
years. Our friends here will be delighted to show you the way.”
“There was never any understanding, was there?” Aida screamed at Mo. “Humanity is just a game to you.”
Disa, her expression one of amused detachment, toyed with the sphere in her hand, her gaze flitting over the skeletal army
with a hint of dark anticipation. “Let me assure you, this is no game. It’s our time to thrive,” she remarked, her voice laced
with cold mirth. “Our essence thrives in chaos, in the unraveling of order.”
“You made your choice, Aida.” Mo winked at Luciano. “And your choice was a bad one.” A sinister grin spread across his face.
“Besides, your desperation is palpable, and it’s delicious.”
Miseria raised her hand, directing her macabre minions. Aida’s heart raced with terror. Her eyes caught Disa’s. “Please, please,
I pray, don’t do this.” Aida’s voice was barely a whisper, full of the dread of a fate worse than death.
The skeletal warriors advanced, their movements slow and deliberate, each step a chilling echo in the vast chamber. Luciano
and Aida, rooted to the spot by a mix of terror and disbelief, watched the inexorable approach of the undead host. Even the
transient joy that Euphrosyne’s touch had instilled in them was quickly overshadowed by the palpable aura of death Miseria
exuded. Bones clicked and clacked as the skeletons moved, a morbid symphony heralding their impending doom. The chamber seemed
to contract around them, the walls echoing the dread pulsing through their veins.
The skeletons were mere feet away when Disa’s expression shifted, a flicker of caprice crossing her divine features. “Let’s
see what chaos truly looks like,” she mused, her gaze settling on the petrified pair before her. With a fluid, unpredictable
motion, Disa hurled the sphere toward Aida and Luciano.
The little ball arced through the air. Aida instinctively reached up and grabbed it.
Without hesitation, she threw it on the ground at Effie’s feet.
It exploded, a translucent bubble of gold forming all around them.
The skeletons bounced off all sides, their hands rattling against the shield, the bones collapsing on the floor in defeat.
With every fallen skeleton, another took its place.
“The key!” Luciano urged. “Here!” He pointed at a tiny keyhole low on one of the chair legs.
Aida fumbled for the key in her jacket pocket, not finding it at first, but finally she felt it, warm to her touch, in the
deepest corner.
She crouched and slipped it into the keyhole just as the golden bubble gave way.