Zagreus felt relief at finally talking to Jade again. It had been a long year of silence.

Rezu sighed as he watched her go. “Kingdoms have burned for the love of a Shadowbane.”

“Kingdoms will burn if anyone hurts that one.” Zagreus said.

“She is so much like her mother, even that cute way her face scrunched up.” Rezu’s voice held sadness.

“You and Sarya?” Zagreus asked curiously.

Rezu nodded. “For a short while. She was one of the kindest Mecromancer’s I’ve known.”

“I thought you didn’t date Mecromancers.”

“I have the choice. I give the rule to make my things clear, but sometimes, things happen. Maybe a nice Mecromancer asked me out and I said yes. Maybe I made a deal with a nightmare, and I became her Master for a few…decades. Maybe I got really, really, really…extremely… sloppily fucking drunk and screwed Gessil the Undying, and it will haunt me until the heat death of the universe.”

Zagreus laughed as they continued walking. He noticed a familiar set of large, red tinted, leathery wings pushing a cart far down the hall.

“If you haven’t figured it out yet. Mecromancer populations are low and long lived. Most Mecromancers end up screwing many of the others at some point. It’s been over four millennia for me. I’ve bedded all of them at one point or another.” He noticed the cart pusher, “… well, almost.”

They continued on and went into the same room as the cart pusher.

Cinder turned, her wing moved to show her bare flesh, exposed in all its goddess glory, to Zagreus and Rezu. She noticed them and froze. Then there was a moment of flex to her wings. She stood up a little straighter and she brushed her hands along her wings.

Rezu gave a curtsey. “Good morning Cinder.”

Zagreus could not stop his eyes from exploring and taking in the delicious sight before him. “Hi.” He managed to say.

She nervously turned back and focused on her cart. But she made no motions to hide herself and seemed to be pretending everything was normal. Her eyes constantly darting back to Zagreus.

Rezu went to the cart and pulled a bolt of cloth from it. He held it up to the light and ran his fingers across it. “This will do nicely.”

“I have one more cart to bring.” She spoke to Rezu for a minute, but her eyes kept turning to Zagreus. Then she quickly left.

Rezu glared at him. “Are you going to do something about that?”

“About what?” Zagreus said.

“You don’t think she was acting odd?”

“These goddesses do weird shit every day. What does that have to do with me?”

“I have known her for millennia. Cinderella is always clothed and always in her aerial form. Did you see the collar? They are forcing her to be naked, for you, and to be an infernal, so you can see more. Whatever twisted thing they are doing, you are at the center.”

“Me?”

“Who else could it possibly be? The other three have no interest in her and the mortals are meaningless. That leaves you. Also, it is clear Cinder cares what you think about her.”

“Why would she care what I think?”

“Lilithana told me you could be dense, but you are a fucking black hole right now. Did you even see the woman who was in here? She is standing there, naked, embarrassed out of her mind, and her subconscious decided it was a good idea straightened her wings, to make them more presentable, to you.”

“You are here too.”

“She talked to me, but her eyes were locked on you. She wanted to see your reactions. Your opinion is important to her.”

“Maybe she was just nervous because she hates being naked in front of people.”

Rezu pointed at the wall by the door and firmly stated. “Stand there. Keep your mouth shut and watch her when she returns. And I don’t mean stare at her ass. I mean watch how she looks at you and what she does.”

Zagreus growled and stood against the wall.

“Uncross your arms and take that scowl off your face. You are making things worse.”

Zagreus took a few deep breathes and tried to look relaxed. It wasn’t as hard as trying to ‘not think’ about something, but it was still annoying, which made it hard enough.

A few minutes later Cinder arrived. Zagreus stared at nothing in particular, but kept his focus on her. She pushed the cart in the door and had her wings tight against her back, a dignified look. She stood tall with her chest out. Her two horns looked polished. Her walk was focused and intentional, this was a performance. Cinder kept her gaze firmly off of him but at just the right angle to be watching him out of the corner of her eye. Her exchange with Rezu was brief and unimportant.

Cinder turned towards the door, facing him, as she went to leave. He couldn’t help looking her over again. The sight made his pulse race and clouded his thoughts with more instinctual desires. Their eyes locked for a moment, she huffed and stuck her nose up as a notice that she had caught him staring. Whatever she wanted, she wasn’t going to make it easy.

He caught her arm as she walked past. Her body froze as her wingtip drove into the stone wall beside his head. The claw left a burning scratch on the cheek that she could not see. He did not flinch. Violence was expected when courting an active volcano.

“I told you to never touch me without my permission.” Her voice was cold and stern. She stared forward, keeping the encounter distant.

He did the same and locked his eyes on a random object of the far wall. His voice was quiet but firm, “You told me you would fight me for real. What are we fighting over? What are the stakes? What is it that you want Cinderella, Queen of Hearts, Goddess of Skulls?”

She stood silently.

He tried to sense her emotions, but even with a touch, he felt almost nothing. Her defenses were sealed, tight. Her skills were improving. “Why are you nude?” He said.

“Following orders.” She said.

“Why did they do this?”

“I screwed up. I have to accept my punishment. I deserve it. Do you like my body? Are you enjoying the show?”

“I think you are gorgeous.”

“Do you enjoy humiliating me?”

“If you are humiliated then go put some clothes on.”

“I can’t, I have to follow orders.”

“Well I order you to go put some clothes on. I don’t want to see you like this.”

She growled as she spoke, “I thought you liked looking at my flesh. Now you don’t? Which one are you lying about?”

“That’s not what I meant and you know it.”

“All I know is that you are weak and won’t press the attack when you should.”

“Dammit Cinder. I’m tired of you always seeming pissed at me. I’m tired of having to treat you like an active ward. If you want to fight, I will spar with you until you pass out from exhaustion.” He felt a moment of warmth from her. He had remembered, she had noticed.

She stood still, unable or unwilling to speak.

He looked directly at her. “If you would rather fuck, we can do that until we pass out too.”

She finally looked at him. Her eyes locked on the line of blood running down his cheek. There was a blur of motion as he was wrapped into her wings and pressed against her flesh. It was dark, hot, tight, violent. Sharp pains erupted through his body, claws and teeth sank into him. A tiny ball of orange energy raced out the door as Zagreus was dropped to the floor.

Rezu grabbed a healing unit and started helping. “Not much for subtle are you?”

“Am I going to live?” Zagreus grumbled, more annoyed than serious.

“That was just a little infernal foreplay.”

“Foreplay? She tried to dissect me.”

“You have a love mark on your shoulder and a few shallow scratches. I’ll stop the bleeding, but you must let these wounds heal naturally.”

“Why.”

“Infernals take the removal of any love mark as a deep personal insult. Trust me. I know this from experience.”

“You date a lot of infernals?”

“Some. But I usually prefer the males.”

“That sounds fun.”

“Oh they roar and posture for attention, but once they know you are interested they are the sweetest thing ever. The females are more complicated.”

“Yea. Tell me about it.”

“I think it’s impossible to explain. Though there are two solid rules. Never show them weakness or blood.”

“That explains a lot.”

“I’ll use the healing unit to scrub the blood out of your clothes.” Zagreus rested as Rezu worked. Rezu said. “May I make a suggestion?”

“Yea. Go ahead. You can’t do any worse than me.”

“Ask her out on a date.”

“What…? No.”

“You can ask her to fuck, but not on a date? You have been stuck here too long. Lili and Kari have ruined you.”

“That was my mouth outrunning my brain.” He sighed. Between Sarya, Lilithana and even Jade I’ve never had a real ‘date’ with a possible mate. The closest thing was the meal on the beach… no, wait, that was right after Lilithana forced herself on me. I live a strange life.

“Cinder is different than the others. It would do both of you some good to just spend time together without any expectations. If you truly want to give her a chance I think she would accept.”

“If I ever find a time where she can’t kill me, I might try that.”

“How do you feel about her?”

He shrugged. “It’s hard to say. I like playing games with her but she always does that remotely. Every time I spend more than a minute alone with her it ends with violence and pain.”

“She likes you, maybe loves you. Letting it go on like this is dangerous. I think you should give her a real chance or tell her you are not interested.”

Loves me? He shook his head. He didn’t know how to even approach that idea. “Reject the Queen of Hearts? There are safer, cleaner and less painful forms of suicide.”

Rezu chuckled. “You know her well.”

“I have orders to seduce her too.”

Rezu sighed. “That only makes it more complicated.”

After Zagreus was cleaned up, Rezu had him stand on a platform and measured him. Rezu held up a series of different cloths to his body. The cyan haired cat-man was serious about his tailor work. The room was massive, four or five of the large quarters on this floor, had been combined. It was filled with shelves of cloth, racks of tools, cabinets and various machines that looked like they were from many different cultures.

Rezu delighted in telling how he kept all of it storage cubes to protect it. The degradations of time were a serious threat to a tailor’s tools and materials, especially when he could be gone for decades at a time. Those are the kinds of things immortals had to consider. A set of golems were programmed to return everything to its rightful place upon his return. Rezu talked about this room like it was the most perfect thing in the universe.