Above, she stalked a certain sliver of pavement running between a vast sea of green and a city full of humanity. No matter where she turned, her quarry escaped.
No, that wasn't right. It was as if the human she sought was simply not in existence. Daniel Mills. The blind mortal with a hint of the divine lingering around - but not within - him. Nowhere. He was nowhere, regardless of the fact that she'd been speaking with him standing not-quite-trembling before her at her river bank. What the fuck was this? Some sort of joke? She was sure the protogenoi responsible for this whole fucking mess were having a massive laugh at her expense.
The abhorrent one had all but given up the search when a prickling started at the back of her neck. Someone had entered her temple. It didn't take any concentration to figure out who it was in the middle of that black marble floor, those red silk couches, those scattered bits of velvet and ebony wood arranged in an artful, unstructured spiral that she had never chosen for herself. Her mouth tightened. The next minute, she stood between those great silver columns flanking her temple doors. She fully expected to find Akheron behind those doors.
What she hadn't expected was to see a note clinging with divine energy to the doors she faced. Black ribbon wrapped around creamy vellum. She snatched the missive on her way in and broke the wax seal as she shouldered her door closed.
"Still haven't mastered the art of knocking, I see," she called into her great room, without looking up for Akheron. Although it seemed she was engrossed in the note in her hand, she moved with caution and kept her distance from the god who was to be her brother in this new world. She wouldn't admit it, but Akheron - this Akheron - had begun to frighten her. She knew what her Akheron was capable of. But what of this mild-mannered god? What did he hide under that veneer. Was it a veneer?
The first few lines were an address - formal, but only in the way of the world as it was today. She skipped to the bottom for the signature and found.... Her eyebrows raised high.
"Vodka," she muttered, while beginning to read. Her steps took her weaving through the furniture spiral toward her kitchen.