Page 54 of D'Vaire or Nothing
“Mayhem! Chaos! Go find something to entertain yourselves,” Death yelled.
“Should we bring refreshments?” Mayhem shouted.
“A repast wouldn’t be amiss,” Fate suggested, amusement dancing in her blue eyes.
“If you ask them to bring you so much as a piece of moldy cheese, I will chain the three of you together and you’ll be stuck here with them until we locate Folly and her cohorts,” Death warned.
“Sometimes I love Death,” Fate said to the other goddesses present. “But there are other moments when I wish she was far less like herself.”
“Funny, that’s how I feel about you,” drawled Eternity, Death’s closest friend. She propped her sandaled feet up on a footstool with legs carved into bones.
Death allowed herself a rare moment of relaxation and rested her back fully against her comfortable seat. “Fate, tell me how many couples are currently wandering our favored realm, wishing that the lone goddess they know about would bring them love?”
“There are a couple who know you exist,” Fate pointed out. Then her bottom lip poked out in a pout. “Everyone thinks I don’t know how many lonely people there are, but I do.However, what no one seems to remember is how horrible it’d be if I was less strict about my matches. Even with the devotion I give to my job, there are miserable couples. Even a few people our Acwellan chieftain has had to use his demonic gifts to separate.”
“We appreciate every effort you make to ensure your pairings are happy ones,” Courage stated diplomatically.
“Agreed,” Justice said. She flicked the long hem of her gold gown away from the thick metal boots that rose up to cover her knees. “Let’s discuss our current most pressing problem. Has anyone learned anything new about Folly? Have we located anyone she released from the prison?”
“Yes,” Life replied with a rueful shake of her head. “You’d think after being locked up for an age, some of these fools would have concocted intelligent plans for what to do once they were free. Instead, most of them ran aimlessly or did something so monumentally stupid that they were immediately caught.”
“Like the giant that went to Earth and decided that mountain would make a good snack?” Fate asked. She laughed so hard she snorted. “We had to pretend it was a volcano.”
“Yes, so amusing,” Justice groused. “It was a mountain, not a volcano. Despite our best efforts, we couldn’t convince everyone this was a natural act. Conspiracy theories abound about how this disaster happened. Thankfully, no lives were lost since the molten lava was added later and we could gently convince the closest residents to get away so they weren’t hurt.”
For Death, the most important thing was that her old friend, Tivadras the pegasus, wasn’t among the prisoners who’d been rounded up in recent weeks. She hoped the man who’d broken rules out of sheer boredom and his frustration at not having a matebond of his own had found a tiny corner so removed from the outside world that no goddess would ever be alerted to his presence.
And while most of the prisoners weren’t making intelligent choices, to Death that signaled something important that she was surprised hadn’t occurred to her sisters.
“They had no plans,” Death murmured.
“What?” Fate asked.
Death lifted her chin and stared at the ceiling with her eyes narrowed. “Some of them made plans. Maybe that was their nature. It would be mine. If I were confined for any reason, I’d want to put together a few strategies for how to deal with freedom. Of course, once I was satisfied with that stage, I’d focus on how to free myself. But not everyone is like me.”
“Most of them didn’t think about what they’d do if they were released,” Eternity said. Death shifted, met her best friend’s silver gaze, and nodded. “Oh! Because perhaps they didn’t know they were going to be freed shortly.”
“They were a distraction,” Justice remarked softly as she tapped her short nails on the hilt of the sword resting next to her. “Folly and her helpers freed the prisoners to confuse and slow us. But the prisoners weren’t part of the plot. They didn’t know until the locks on their cages were broken that they’d be released.”
“That would explain why none of them have provided us with any information despite countless rounds of questioning,” Courage added. “If they know nothing, are we wasting energy interviewing them again?”
“A little pressure won’t hurt them, and maybe a detail about that day will surface,” Death suggested. “However, we can leave that to other goddesses. We need to focus on more important matters.”
“Like what?” Justice asked. “We have no clue where Folly is, who is working with her besides Sorrow—who is also now missing—and we don’t even have a trail to follow.”
“Well, unless we find a path to follow, the best we can do is continue to grill supposedly clueless prisoners,” Death countered.
“Just as I suspected, we are once again left with nothing and have to wait for the horrid Folly to make the next move,” Fate groused, tugging hard on her red hair. “Have I mentioned how much I hate her?”
“We all hate her,” Life responded. “To take all the power and responsibility Mother gave her and harm our creations? It is pure evil. One I previously believed we as goddesses lacked.”
“Yes, nothing we have learned about Folly, or her co-conspirators, are welcome revelations,” Death said.
“I know your immediate reaction will be that I’m searching for a diversion from Folly, but I think we need to use that viewing mirror to focus on our lovely D’Vaires,” Fate remarked.
Justice frowned. “Why? The Emperors have opened their resort to the D’Vaire family alone, and they are enjoying a rare weekend in Vegas. Earlier I peeked in on them, and they were partaking in a fine meal or enjoying the amenities available at Deck of Cards.”
Color rose in Fate’s cheeks, which gained Death’s immediate attention. “Some of the most powerful and influential people in the entire Council are in the same place. Is that not a cause for concern? What better place for Folly or some of her nefarious friends to show up?”
