Jaurim-Fade Away

Surprisingly, Fei did not follow the normal chain of events as the last time she was killed. The lance was specifically created to destroy mythological creatures therefore, there was no need for her body to regenerate or even reform. It was such an irony that she opened her eyes in the same hall where she received her punishment. Looking down at her hands, she realized that her soul was the same as her original body. She sighed, thinking that indeed, it was the end for her.

"Why do you look so dull? You did it. Atlas has been returned to his post and Lee Dohyun is free to go."

Lord Hwanung was the last deity she wanted to see at the moment. At the same time, she couldn't help but feel like she could say whatever she wanted since she was about to vanish anyway and her soul will be sent into a flower or a tree.

"Aren't you happy? I'll be gone in a matter of minutes. Your greatest wish will become real." She said in a cold tone. Hwanung circled her as if he was trying to decide what to do with her.

"You're immortal, Fei. You're not dying just yet. The lance is made from the same energy as your eye. The strength of Ares will not harm itself. However, your physical body is gone. It could take years until it recreates itself."

Fei's eyes widened and she looked up into the sarcastic and hateful eyes of the Lord.

"What about Dohyun? How is he?" She asked changing the subject just so she won't lash out.

"Not as well as we had hoped. He's been moved in the library but he spent all his energy. He won't die but he may not wake up either. Comatose is what humans call this state, isn't it?"

Fei's whole soul trembled and she looked down at her feet. Atlas was right, she has been alive for longer than ever imagined and she spent those years well. She has already done everything she wanted.

"Take my immortality. Take it and give it to him. That amount of energy will be enough to wake him up and have him return to normal."

"Are you nuts?! You will die for real then! Without your eye, you are just a nymph, Fei!" She heard a voice yell so loud although it wasn't that close. Hades' figure entered the hall with Death following closely.

Fei stared at Death, at Kim Hoon to be more exact, at how his life was harsh and how lonely he felt even in the afterlife. She didn't want to wander the underworld knowing that her sacrifice was for nothing. Atlas was not important, to begin with, nor was the Thief of Words. What mattered was her lover.

"Do it." She said turning to Hwanung. "Take it."

Hwanung raised an eyebrow and approached her slowly, in case she was going to change her mind. But Fei stood there as if she was a rock. Hwanung sighed and placed his right palm over her left eye. His eyes glowed and Fei's crystal orb was forced to appear as did her scar. Her terrifying screams were heard throughout the whole domain, sending a chill down Death's back. When it was all done, she fell on her knees and tried to regain herself.

"You have a month at most before you will fade away. I will let you return under your more recent form but it won't be the same. You'll feel it."

Fei nodded and she left the hall, going straight to Ethos. Hades watched her leave with a bittersweet taste in his mouth. She was a good fighter and a good asset to the underworld. Besides, she was the only one who ever had impressed the Thief and the only one who knew where it disappeared.

Since she gave her life away, literally, she could manifest into the physical world just with a special bracelet that one of the goblins gave her.

"It won't last for long, you're lucky to have been blessed by the old gods." The little ugly creature commented with a bit of jealousy. "Some of us begged for centuries and yet one little girl crawled right under lord Hades' skin." He added before he completed his simple task of locking the bracelet around Fei's wrist.

"Isn't that so?" She asked sarcastically. Truthfully, she had no energy to fight with the goblin, or with anyone for that matter.

When Fei entered the library, it felt as if she went through a portal. That was probably how souls felt when they were entering the afterlife as if this sudden wave of coldness washes over you and leaves behind emptiness. She shivered and focused on Dohyun alone. She hurried upstairs and saw him sleeping peacefully in her bedroom. It was as if nothing happened, he was unscathed, except his fingers. She sighed heavily as her eyes fell on his heart and she reached out to touch it but stopped and tried to hold one of his hands. She couldn't. Her eyes widened and she froze as her hand went right through his, as if she was a ghost.

She stood by her lover's side for a few hours until her legs grew numb. It was a new feeling that she didn't like. Fei walked downstairs and saw Minjae there, pacing back and forth in front of the entry to the warehouse. When he saw her, he sighed in relief.

"I thought you won't return and I was ready to go and ask Horace for help." He said as she approached him.

"To do what? Visit the afterlife?"

"Sure. I rarely enter but I am still a nature spirit!" Minjae commented and took a quick look at her. His dark orbs noticed the new piece of jewelry immediately. Fei tried to hide it but the raven already saw it. "What's that?"

"It's nothing."

"What did you do? You look paler."

"Nothing." She repeated annoyed with the situation. "Go home and sleep. Your halos almost reach the floor."

Minjae raised an eyebrow and stepped towards her. Fei backed away, her wrist hidden behind her back. The raven wanted to grab her and take a closer look but at the same time, he did trust her. He was sure that whatever happened, she will tell him eventually.

"I'll always be here for you, Fei. You gave me this life, this body, everything. I hope you understand how deep my loyalty goes." He said softly, feeling slightly guilty.

"I know." She said and for the first t, Fei hugged Minjae tightly. The raven was dumbstruck. "I know."

The rest of the days passed quickly and with a well-created routine. Dohyun didn't wake up which Fei found weird. But Death informed her of how he needed time to regain his strength and she should worry about herself. That did not mean she stopped checking on him three times a day. She wouldn't do much, just sit next to him and stare at his face, sometimes even caressing it as if he was the most precious individual in the world. It seemed weird for outsiders because they weren't able to see how her hand, at times, went through Dohyun's face as a sign that her life was ending rapidly.

On the other hand, Dohyun himself was not quite asleep. His condition was not the aftermath of the energy he had lost with the sphere but more of an induced state by someone very interested to meet him.

Dohyun opened his eyes in a huge hallway that had no walls, just huge pillars. Everything was white so he naturally thought he was in Heaven.

"Hello? Is there an angel here to guide me, or something?" He asked, looking for something, anything, to appear.

"You are not dead, Lee Dohyun." Came the booming voice of a man. Dohyun had his back to this stranger and found himself unwilling to turn and see who has arrived. "I'm not Death, as you already know. I'm not an angel either."

"Then who are you?" Dohyun asked.

"Why don't you face me and see for yourself?"

Dohyun sighed and closed his eyes, thinking it through. If Fei succeeded in getting Atlas back in his place then whoever was behind had some sort of connection to her. No. What Dohyun feared the most was a sudden meeting with Lee Hyang. He did not want to meet, look at or have any interaction with the former king.

"Well? Are you making a God wait?"

Dohyun's eyes opened wide and he spun around, gaping at the person in front of him. It was him, the source of his little supernatural power and Fei's immortality.

"Not who you were expecting, I guess," Ares stated, seeing the relief in the eyes of the man. "Ophelia did catch Atlas and you are safe. You were pulled away from the sphere right before it could consume you."

"Then why am I here?" He asked and then realized exactly where he was. "Oh my God, this is Olympus, isn't it?" He couldn't help himself and truly took the sight in. It was beautiful and grand, just how he imagined it.

"I brought you here. My sister informed Ophelia of the sacrifice needed to win this battle but instead of using you, she chose to give away her own life. Such loyalty is hard to come by." Ares added, sounding quite proud of his warrior. "I wanted to meet you."

"W-why? Have I done something wrong? Are you going to tell me how I should leave her alone because our love is forbidden?" Dohyun asked, remembering all the stories and dramas he had seen.

Ares raised an eyebrow before he laughed. He was a big and muscular man and his laughter was echoing throughout the whole hallway.

"Of course not. I don't have any power over her, she is free to do whatever she wants. Sadly, very few people still speak of me or fight in my name so my strength is weak. When you will return, you will feel normal. The seed I planted is now gone. Without it, I wonder how you will see her."

"The connection between us is not so fragile to hang on some leftover strength."

"Maybe not, but it led you to her. What now?"

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because you have very little time to decide if your love is real or not."

Dohyun frowned, not quite understanding the message. If he was alive and Fei was alive then there was nothing to worry about, right?

"You will see it when you wake up. I truly have no power over either of you now. But I do trust you will make the best decision." Ares said and with a wave of his hand, Dohyun fainted.

When he opened his eyes, he did not see anything different. He rose and noticed he was in Fei's bedroom. For the first time, he took a careful look around. It seemed that she enjoyed placing a bit of her life in Greece everywhere because it looked both elegant and cozy. He never realized but the way into her bedroom was through a Romanesque column and she preferred to have few decorations on the wall. Everything was more or less beige or maroon, including her sheets. There were antique vases but with no flowers, swords neatly arranged against the wall, books everywhere, and pictures. Dohyun chuckled as he got up and approached the joyful little corner. It was right above her dresser and it made Dohyun smile. She had photos from a very long time ago, most of them with her friends, but there were some new ones too with him. However, considering how she was immortal, she still had time to make new memories.

"Unlike me," he muttered to himself with disappointment. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, this whole conversation with Ares made him feel insignificant. "I'll die and leave you alone." He added feeling uncomfortable with his own words.

Meanwhile, Fei was downstairs, rearranging the books on the shelves. It seemed that people were too lazy to put them back so she had to do it. But surprisingly, it was relaxing. She could also eavesdrop in little chats between her librarians and the clients, which were often funny. Pirape was still helping since Hikaru was in the underworld for his punishment and he was very popular among women.

She only had to move one book and place it a bit higher when it suddenly fell through her hand. Her eyes widened and she quickly grabbed it again, making sure that nobody saw what happened. Unfortunately, the raven was watching her like a hawk. He raised an eyebrow but couldn't say anything because Dohyun walked down.

"Ah, the princess finally awakes," Minjae said with a forced smile. "How do you feel?"

"Fresh. I feel like I lost a really heavy burden."

"You did. The world is pretty heavy, I hear." Pirape said approaching the two. "You did something very honorable, Dohyun. It will not be forgotten soon."

"I did it for Fei, really. She seemed ready to break so I tried to help her in any way possible." Dohyun didn't even try to lie. He said what he genuinely felt and that was remarkable for everyone. "How is she? And where is she?"

Pirape and Minjae looked around but Fei vanished. They glanced at each other before Minjae rubbed the bridge of his nose in annoyance. She was definitely acting strange.

Fei hid. She did not want to see anyone because she was afraid that some part of her will suddenly fade away for a second. That was enough for everyone to overreact and she didn't need that. Instead, she slipped into the warehouse where the centaurs were busy.

It was only late at night when Horace found her. He shook his head, already having a slight idea of her worries.

"If you try so hard to hide it, it will become even more visible," Horace said in a fatherly tone.

"Is it that obvious?" She asked trying to focus on the books in front of her. It just so happened that one of the books she carried just slipped through her fingers. Fei sighed and closed her eyes, not even bothering to hide or react in any way.

"Why did you do it?" Horace asked coming to her aid. He picked up the book and put it back in its place. "Does a young boy worth thousands of years of hard work?" He added looking at Fei with a tinge of disappointment.

"What is life once you lose all the happiness it gives? I am just going with the flow of events at this point. I have nothing to return to, nothing to live for so it's best to do something helpful."

"Have you even talked to him about it?"

"What for? It's not Hades' business what I do." Fei said nonchalantly.

"I mean Dohyun. Have you told him?"

Fei frowned not understanding what that had to do with anything. Horace sighed and grabbed a hand through his hair.

"You gave up your immortality to wake him up. Don't you think he will take it as a sacrifice and feel bothered by it? That boy is crazy in love and yet you decided all by yourself to commit suicide."

Now that he explained the problem, Fei did realize that it was going to be even harder to hide from the boy. And yet her decision was adamant.

"He won't. He doesn't need to know so you better stay out of this." Fei gallantly advised the centaur, her venomous tone enough to give Horace an idea of what she had in mind.