Page 102 of Half Dead

He glanced up, frowning. “Who are you?”

I stuck a hand across the table. “Melinoe, Greek goddess of death and nightmares. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

Ignoring my hand, his eyes slid to my companion. “I see you have delivered one of our souls ripe for reincarnation, goddess of death.”

I put a protective hand in front of Bruce. “Not quite yet. I have another agenda.”

His eyebrows pinched together as his gaze returned to me. “Another agenda?”

“I need to borrow a book. Well, your version of a book. It’s really a tablet. I think it predates the printing press.”

“You have come to Ti-yufor a book? This is the ten hells, not a library.”

“I have it on good authority that it’s buried somewhere in Feng-Tu.”

At this, he offered a category-1 chuckle. “Somewhere? You don’t even know where?” His laughter intensified to a category-2 guffaw.

“I was told you could give us more information on its burial spot.”

The god turned his attention to Bruce. “And what is your role in this?”

“He offered to help me find the tablet,” I answered for Bruce.

“A wandering soul who has avoided his fate?” And now the god reached a category-4 belly laugh. Glad I could make his day brighter with my inane mission.

“I have faith in us,” I said. “We’ve made it this far.”

The laughter died on his lips. “I sense both human anddeity in you. Must be your human side speaking with such false bravado.”

“Nothing false about it. I was tasked with finding this tablet and that’s what I intend to do.” I prayed the god of mercy was exactly as his name purported.

The god scrutinized me. “How is it that you are one of us and yet not? How can you be both goddess of nightmares and human at the same time?”

“Good question. I guess you wouldn’t have met any others, being locked away on the island.”

His eyes widened. “There are more like you?”

“Well, not exactly. The others are the result of The Corporation’s avatar program. I’m a natural-born goddess born to avatar parents.”

The lines in his furrowed brow deepened. “What is an avatar program?”

I explained how The Corporation placed deities in human forms. The god’s cheeks burned red from outrage.

He thumped his chest. “I decide who is worthy of reincarnation. Their work is an affront to us all.”

“I couldn’t agree more, but there are many deities out there whose powers had been weakened over time. They decided The Corporation was the answer to their prayers.”

“There are others who were forced to join against their will,” Bruce added. “They were imprisoned or controlled in some way.”

The god seemed to truly see Bruce for the first time. “They did this to you, yet you are not a god.”

“They control lesser beings as well, when it suits their purposes,” Bruce acknowledged.

“You are a fuzanglong,” the god said, indignant. “There is nothing lesser about a dragon.”

“The Corporation had bound my spirit to a pearl and leftit among the treasure in a vault so that I would be bound to protect it. Lorelei… Melinoe was the one who set me free.”

The god gave me a look of begrudging respect. “I see. To find the tablet, you must go forth and seek Ch’u-Chiang. It is the only way.”

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