Cipher stared at the flames dancing just a small distance away. The way the orange fire waltzed atop the logs. The way its glow chased away the daylight that streamed through the nearby window, if only just for a moment. So hypnotic was its movements, she feared she would burn herself attempting to reach for its warmth. A fact she would’ve dismissed as ludicrous, but all the less so now that she was seated here, hands outstretched towards the crackling fireplace. It had been so long since she had felt this. The warmth of a hearth. The safety of a home.

 

The kindness of another.

 

Cipher thought about taking off her hood, but her fingers did not even move to entertain the thought. The cloak needed to stay. What if Aglaea changed her mind? Stabbed her in the back like everyone else had? What if she needed to run away?

 

What if she brought shame upon her?

 

No, she would not let her guard down. Not now. Cipher stood up and glanced around the modest room. It wasn’t big by anyone’s standards, just a small guest room containing a table, a chair, the fireplace and a bed. But she had a roof, and that was enough.

 

Cipher sat upon the edge of the bed. The firelight reflected in her golden shoes as her legs dangled in the air. Were they big? Definitely. They looked like Dromas hooves on her tiny feet. Yet, she couldn’t help but admire as they glittered and sparkled with a brilliance that she thought were reserved only for kings and queens. Royalty or heroes.

 

Heroes… The word battered her mind, as it had been for the past few weeks. She pressed against the gauze that had been wrapped upon her right cheek, wincing as a tiny jolt of pain shot through her face. Even through the thick wad of fabric, she could feel the wetness of her blood seeping through. She could imagine the shape it had made.

 

The golden hue of her blood.

 

Yeah… me, a hero…

 

She had long imagined herself standing shoulder to shoulder with the heroes of yore. The brave Seliose, the righteous and wise Cerydra. She lost herself in fantasies of being something more than a thief. More than a liar who did nothing but bring hatred and misfortune to all she met.

 

But those were just supposed to remain that: a fantasy. Scenarios that were fun to imagine, but now, with bandages stained with the cursed glow of her blood wrapped upon her form, she found no more joy within them. How could she find happiness when now she knew it was supposed to be possible, but would never happen? She opened her mouth to curse but a voice caught her before she did.

 

“Excuse me, Cifera?”

 

“Ah!” Cipher’s head shot up. Her heart raced, the fur upon her ears and tail standing upon its end as she readied to defend herself or, more likely, run. But upon seeing the golden locks of the seamstress at the doorway, she breathed an internal sigh of relief. “Geez, seamstress. Don’t you know how to knock? You wouldn’t like catching me off guard!”

 

“I did, but there was no reply.” Aglaea pushed the door open fully with her shoulder. In her hands was a silver tray, whereupon a teapot, cup and plate sat. She walked forward with gentle, graceful steps, setting the utensils gently upon the bedside table. “How are you feeling?”

 

“Fine!” Cipher practically shouted, possibly too quickly. Definitely too eager. She cleared her throat. “It’s just a few cuts! What? Think a few cuts are going to stop little ol’ me from doing what I’m good at? Well, the guards have another thing coming!”

 

Aglaea didn’t turn to face Cipher as she spoke. With one hand placed firmly upon the teapot’s top and another holding its handle, Aglaea lifted it towards the ornate cup, pouring the sweet smelling liquid into it. “I did not mean your physical injuries.”

 

Cipher bit her bottom lip. But she quickly released it the moment she noticed. “Ugh, all you rich folk like to pry too much into people’s personal lives! I’m fine. I mean, trust your threads, dressmaker! They aren’t reacting, are they?”

 

Aglaea giggled, catching the little thief off guard. Did they react? Cipher hid her left hand behind her back, clutching at the few coins she kept stashed away in her back pocket. The last time she made a quick escape, she had dropped the few loose change she had onto the street. Her careless action caused the orphans a day’s dinner. She wouldn’t make that mistake again. Not this time. Yet, Aglaea simply used two hands to daintily lift the cup and saucer to Cipher, holding it inches from her face.

 

Cipher stared at the cup, her nose twitching as it caught the scent of something irresistible swirling within. She recognized the aroma almost immediately. It was sweet and decadent. Thick and luscious. Like that of the finest velvet robes, worn by the nobles when she snuck into one of Okhema’s ‘meeting dinners’. It was there she first caught its smell. And it was there it caused her to make a careless mistake, where she barely escaped with her life. The bandaged wounds ached with its reminder.

 

“Chocolate…?” Cipher asked through trembling lips. Aglaea simply nodded. “Seamstress, this ingredient is worth more than its weight in gold.”

 

“As it should,” Aglaea spoke with a smile. “Though I am fond of the brilliance of gold, it cannot be eaten. It cannot be used to sustain nor bring joy. Those that can afford it, oft take it for granted. But chocolate?” She lighty grasped Cipher’s wrist, opening the stunned girl’s palm and placing the saucer gently upon it. “The joy I’ve seen on the faces of those who have their first taste of it, I shall never get tired of. It is a pity I can’t weave this into my dresses nor my threads. A city shrouded in day would not be kind to its… stickiness.”

 

Cipher couldn’t believe what she was holding. She had stolen jewels without pause. Lifted pouches containing enough coins to buy a hundred of these cups. Yet… she never did. The coins went to clothes and bread, if not for herself then for another. Luxuries were not necessities, no matter how much she ached for it. The cup of chocolate would have been nice. But the guilt, knowing that a cup of this could’ve fed the poor for a week, could never have been washed away.

 

“Go on,” coaxed Aglaea. “Drink. Before it gets cold.”

 

This was where Cipher would say something snarky. Yet, in this moment, her voice found no such words. She closed her eyes, lifted the cup to her mouth and sipped. The sweetness of the drink instantly filled her palette. The silky texture made it easy, and satisfying, to spread around her mouth, whereupon the sweetness melted into fruity bitterness. 

 

After she had kept the chocolate in her mouth for a few seconds, she reluctantly swallowed. And when she next opened her eyes, she found tears already trailing down her cheek. Her eyes burned with the same intensity that accompanied her to sleep most nights.

 

Her body trembled no matter how much she tried to stop it.

 

Aglaea’s smile had softened significantly. There was pride but it was not domineering. There was joy but it was not overwhelming. She sat beside Cipher, wrapping her arm gently around the girl’s back until it found her other shoulder.

 

The two remained silent amidst the crackling of the fireplace. Even as Aglaea grabbed a cookie from the plate and placed it into Cipher’s hand. Cipher bit upon the treat, hoping the food would serve as a distraction from the way her heart ached. But it did not. If anything, it made it worse. Frustration welled up within her chest, she should’ve been able to stop this. Stop this influx of pain and love that stormed endlessly within her mind.

 

She wanted to run. Run away from all this confusion and pain, back to the simple life of hating herself. That was easy. She was at least familiar with the feeling, to have only one ownself to depend on. To only have one ownself to disappoint. But this one sip took all of that away. It was just chocolate. Stupid, stupid chocolate and dumb biscuits. All given by a person who should hate her. It wasn’t hatred that tortured her so.

 

It was the lack of it.

 

Every breath now burned in her throat. Every sob accompanied by thorns from the wounds. She barely felt Aglaea take the items away from her hands and neither could she react when Aglaea pulled her into a hug.

 

Every attempt to stop her crying failed; they failed so spectacularly that she cursed her uselessness. She could do little but bury her face into the one person that showed her warmth and bawl.

 

And, just like countless nights before, cry until she could stay awake no more.

 

----------

 

When Cipher awoke, she did so with gentleness. Though she had just been in excruciating pain a moment ago, when she closed her eyes on the bridge in Styxia, something here calmed her heart. In a mute voice, the air told her that everything was going to be alright.

 

She sat up, finding herself among a field of purple flowers, ethereal in their glow. What appeared to be a moon hung amidst the twilight, the giant gaping hole pouring water onto the flora. The only notable feature was a dirt path beside her, beckoning her past the horizon.

 

Ah… so. That means I… Cipher didn’t finish the thought. She didn’t need to. It did not take a Grove’s scholar to work out where she was or what had become of her. For as long as she lived, for as long as she knew her ‘prophecy’, It was a fact that would’ve scared her. But now? All it did was confirm her suspicions. With nothing left to do, she stood upon her feet.

 

And walked.

 

It was a strange feeling, to walk for so long and not feel fatigue. To tread a path so silent it would have creeped her out, had she not understood where she was. She thought she had seen the most deserted places in Amphoreus. Yet, the underworld was even more so. Whereas Styxia and Kremnos were silent, the waves in the former and the winds in the latter still gave the area some form of life, faded though as they may have been.

 

Here, amidst the sea of flowers, there was nothing. No breeze stirred the air. No sound disturbed the peace.

 

On and on Cipher walked until she crested the hill…

 

And was met with a familiar pink-haired girl.

 

She was crouched down to the side of the path, fingers running across a flower’s brilliant petals.

 

“Castorice?”

 

“Oh,” Castorice turned her head, regarding the new arrival with melancholic eyes. “Miss Cifera, you’re here.”

 

“I’m here?” Cipher repeated. “Tch, you know if I didn’t know where I was that wouldn’t be a very nice thing to say.”

 

“Ah…” said Castorice, her voice soft-spoken and kind. “My apologies. That was not my intention.”

 

Still as Castorice as ever alright…

 

“It’s just…” she continued. “With the amount of souls I’ve ferried recently, I supposed I forgot how to address close companions.”

 

Cipher stared at the endless stretch of deserted flowers. She blinked several times. Rubbed her eyes and shook her head. Even closed them for several seconds before reopening them. And…

 

Nope. Still deserted.

 

“So either I’m blind or the Flame Reaver couldn’t even kill me right. That useless mutt…”

 

“Ah, this isn’t the underworld, Miss Cifera.”

 

“This… isn’t?”

 

Castorice shook her head. “This sea of flowers is simply a side realm. Most souls pass by this realm without even knowing it exists.”

 

“Okay, then obvious question but… why am I here?” asked Cipher. “Wait! Let me guess! You want payment before I go forward right? I heard I have to pay the Ferryman in coins, but I don’t think I managed to bring any with me. Not even my ‘petty change’, but give me a few minutes and I’m sure I could-”

 

“I didn’t bring you here to ask for money, Miss Cifera,” said Castorice. “I brought you here as a favor to a friend.”

 

“A favor?” Cipher raised an eyebrow. “Must be someone pretty powerful and smart to use their favor for the reaper on me!”

 

Castorice hung her head. She said nothing, as if waiting for something.

 

“Thank you, Castorice,” spoke a voice from behind Cipher. It pierced through her unbeating heart. It struck her throat and stole her voice. The voice was warm and smooth, like a cup of…

 

Cipher turned around. The path she had walked to get to this point had vanished, replaced instead with a small marble garden table upon a round patch of dirt. Two chairs flanked either side. One sat empty.

 

The other sat Aglaea.

 

“Please give me and Cipher here a few minutes,” spoke Aglaea. “Then you may guide us after.”

 

Castorice nodded and vanished in an instant.

 

Cipher closed her jaw that had fallen ajar. Her composure began to fray, a mix of emotions rising up within her. Made all the more worse as the seamstress sent her a knowing look.

 

And an affectionate smile.

 

“Take a seat, Cipher. And do not worry, your role is done. There are no more lies to uphold. Neither can I read your mind with golden threads.” Only now did Cipher notice something. It was something that had been missing in Aglaea’s voice for the past several hundred years.

 

Emotion.

 

This was not the soulless husk who led the Heirs, whose monotonous tone wounded Cipher every time they interacted. This was her. The person she had missed for countless, sleepless nights.

 

Cipher’s shoulders fell, as did her walled expression. She shuffled forward, taking her seat. Upon the table sat a plate of treats and two cups. One contained Aglaea’s favorite tea, a golden hued liquid brewed from a mix of flowers from the Grove and Styxia. The other contained a familiar brown liquid, velvet in its consistency, sweet in its aroma.

 

At least, she imagined it being sweet. The chocolate gave off no aroma. The tea gave off no scent.

 

Of course. Cipher sighed.

 

“Yes, these aren’t real,” said Aglaea. No threads but her intuition remained just as sharp. “Not that we would even be able to touch them were they present. This was just a simple request I placed to Castorice to set the scene.”

 

“A scene? We don’t have an audience, Aglaea.”

 

“Very true!” Aglaea giggled. Cipher had forgotten the sound of her laughter. The way her joy would brighten up a room and the warmth that it would bring. Something most could not even imagine, much less miss. “A poor choice of words, I admit.” Aglaea sighed. “We both have spent our lives acting in our roles. What say, for these final few moments, we simply return to being… us?”

 

Cipher closed her eyes. But they did not impede her tears. “Yeah, I’d… like that. I’d really like that.”

 

A finger wiped away a tear that trailed down upon her cheek. “All you’ve done Cifera… all you’ve done. I thought I had seen through all your lies, but I was wrong.”

 

It was Cipher’s turn to laugh. “Good. If you had seen through that lie, then Castorice wouldn’t be here. The world and everyone in it would be stuck as damned souls. And we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

 

“Cifera… all the pain you endured. All the hurt you tried to hide. And I did not do anything. I tried to protect the world,” muttered Aglaea, her voice trembling. “And I had failed to protect you.”

 

When Cipher opened her eyes, she saw something she had never seen before. Tears upon Aglaea’s face. Her jaw fell and her eyebrows arched in confusion. “N-no no, I chose to do. You don’t have to feel responsible for what I did.”

 

“But I do, oh so much. Of all the cruel fates and painful games the Flame-chase made me play, I could never imagine the one I had missed involved you, my dear.” Aglaea placed a hand upon Cipher’s cheek, holding it with a gentleness not even her finest dresses received. “Oft I thought what mistake I made to make you hate me and the journey so. What I had done to chase you away. But now I see it was not hate that made you stay away, but love. Love for the people and the Flame-chase that you severed your love for me.”

 

“I’m sorry. I had wanted to tell you that you didn’t do anything wrong, Aglaea. You were the only person that showed me kindness and I returned that with fake scorn. The amount of pain I must’ve caused you… I… I spent so many days thinking about- so many times I stood on a nearby rooftop just near your shop wondering if I should-”

 

“Silly child. You need not apologize. The only thing you deserve is thanks and my biggest regret will always be that you will only get mine, even when you deserve the world’s.” Aglaea moved her hand to Cipher’s shoulder. “You are the unsung hero of the Flame-chase, Cipher. Your actions saved us all. And I am so, so proud of you. Thank you, Cifera.”

 

The hand upon her shoulder pulled her into a hug. Cipher, instinctually, wanted to pull away. Wanted to resist. But just as Aglaea had said before, the show was over. There was no audience.

 

It was time to step away from her thousand-year role.

 

So Cipher hugged back. She hugged her as tightly as an orphan would hug their parents. A millennia of suffering pulled into the embrace. A thousand years of release in every tear that fell from the both of them. And, for the first time since her childhood in Dolos, there was not an ounce of hate for herself.

 

The two cried in love for what felt like an eternity. But what was an eternity to souls? They could have stayed this way forever, but that was a dream she would not wish on either of them. 

 

The two greatest actors on the stage needed to rest.

 

And the one that would grant them that intermission appeared on cue in front of them in a flash of butterflies.

 

“Are you ready?” asked Castorice. “Do you require more time?”

 

“No, no more time required, Castorice. Thank you, for giving us this moment.”

 

“Of course. It is my duty to ensure souls moving on do so as peacefully as possible.” Castorice stepped forward, extending one arm to each of them. “Take my hand when you are ready. I promise to make your journey a peaceful one.”

 

Cipher and Aglaea shared one last look. Their eyes cleared of pain. Their smiles filled with weightless joy. Aglaea lifted her hand, gently placing her fingers daintily into Castorice’s palm. Cipher firmly took Castorice’s with her own trembling grip. And yet, Aglaea and Cipher’s other hand remained firmly locked with each other.

 

Cipher was going to ensure they could take this journey in death the way they could not in life.

 

Together.

 

Slowly, whatever senses Cipher once held dissipated. Cold tendrils wrapped themselves around her limbs, sending each one peacefully along. Cold, but not unwelcoming. There was no fear in her mind. No doubt in her thoughts. If she was going to become the next Zagreus, she was going to do so with her head held high. If another world awaited her, it would be one she would save. In her own way of course.

 

And if she trusted that, in the depths of her soul, she would know to find Mnestia. She may not know why. But she will find her. And they would share a drink and biscuits together, next to a crackling fireplace.

 

Cipher rested her head on Aglaea’s body one final time. And though she knew it was impossible, Cipher swore she heard a beating in her chest. 

 

It was a lie she chose to believe.

 

Her body faded as her soul was pulled deeper. She closed her eyes, a smile on her face. Content.

 

And even amongst the freezing embrace of death, she could feel it.

 

The warmth of her heart.