Page 71 of Aïdes the Unseen
“No, no,” Oscar said. “Let her stay. Actually, I came to deliver something and she might as well hear it too.” He retrieved a small envelope sealed with silver wax from his coat pocket. The insignia pressed into it seemed to shimmer. I didn’t immediately recognize the symbol.
But it feltfamiliar. Almost wrongly familiar.
Oscar passed the envelope to Dr. Heinritz with something like reverence.
“This needs to reach a certain someone by tomorrow’s solstice marker. Physical relay only. No digital tracking. You understand.” Clear yet cryptic.
Dr. Heinritz nodded.
Then, Oscar turned to me. “As for you,” he said softly, stepping closer. “You’re waking up. That’s good. But remember this, messages are just mirrors. It’s up to you whether you read them or break them.” He tapped two fingers to his forehead in mock salute, winked and then paused at the door to pet the puppy. “Hey there, little one.” Then he strolled on like a man who owned the place.
The silence he left behind wasn’t empty, it rang.
I wanted to scream. Instead, I whirled to focus on Dr. Heinritz. “What thehellis going on?”
She didn’t answer right away. Just looked at the envelope in her hands and then at me.
“I think you’re going to need some context,” she said with a sigh. “And probably some tea.”
The tea was jasmine. Hot. Strong. No sugar, no milk—just the kind of bitter clarity I needed.
Dr. Heinritz moved with that eerie calm she always had. It wasn’t indifference. More the practiced serenity of someone who’d seen weirder things than this. At the moment, I really shouldn’t find that as comforting as I did. She handed me the cup, then sat across from me at the low table in her office. The strange silver-sealed envelope sat between us. Untouched.
I stared at it. “He called himselfHermes.”
She nodded. “It’s not his first time using that name.”
I blinked. “Wait. Are you saying… thatwasHermes? Like the actual god?”
Another sip of tea. “Would it really surprise you?”
I leaned back in the chair, trying not to spiral. “You’re telling me literal mythological gods are walking around New York and… what? Dropping off mail?”
“It’s not as metaphorical as you think,” she said. “Most of the older ones take human roles now. It’s easier to exist in fragments. Less attention.”
As stunning as that bombshell should have been, I was far from flummoxed. If anything, I wasirritated.“But whyhere? Why me?”
Dr. Heinritz finally looked me in the eyes. “Becauseyouaren’t just human either, Irina.”
Silence plummeted between us, chilling the air until it left a coat of frost behind.
She continued, slowly. “I don’t know the whole story. I’ve only ever been told pieces. Clues. But Thanatek’s involvement inFuture Florawasn’t a coincidence. They’ve been tracking bio-signatures—unique energetic patterns—across multiple lifetimes.”
“And mine matched something,” I whispered.
“It matchedsomeone,” she corrected.
“Who?”
She paused, then said, “Persephone.”
I sat very still.
“The goddess,” she continued. “Or the soul once called that. A spirit that’s reincarnated dozens of times. Not always as a woman. Not always in this part of the world. But always carrying the same core resonance. And each time… something interferes. She dies, but doesn’t cross over. Leaves no trace in Thanatek’s underworld data. It’s like she evaporates.”
I laughed, breathless. “So, I’m a glitch in their reincarnation tracking?”
“You’re more than that. You’re amissing piece.And someone powerful wants to keep you that way.”
