Shuffling could be heard, coming from the inside of Thanatos' office and suddenly, it became quiet; Silence followed by footsteps nearing the door, which opened wide a small moment after. Amara found herself looking, into dark arcane eyes, hooded by three-sixty shadows. It was Thanatos, who looked to be deep in thought.

She was unsure if he knew she might have been listening or not, yet she was not about to bring it up on her own accord. She knew better than to willingly seek trouble. He only greeted her with lips pulled into a straight line, so she let her worries go. If he did not bring it up, it did not happen, for ignorance is a silent indicator of blindness, deafness and muteness.

'Amara.'

'Prince.'

Amara walked past him into the still dark and plain interior, a black chandelier letting a drop of light brighten the space which looked bigger than Amara's whole apartment. There was a massive table at the end of the room, where Thanatos held all his paperwork and under it, was a chair where he sat, more or less, all the time. She knew that did not change. He most probably still kept to himself, locked in this office.

'I am surprised my master, you even bothered to use the light switch to turn the light on,' Amara spoke sarcastically, for she knew, he never had the light on.

'Hannah will bring you a chair to sit on in a moment,' Thanatos said, ignoring her earlier comment and closed the door, whilst Amara walked to the table.

Not even a minute passed of the uncomfortable silence both parties had to endure. Amara stood in front of the desk awkwardly whilst Thanatos sat behind the abnormally large desk looking through stacks of paperwork. That seemed to be just a cover-up, so he did not have to talk to Amara just yet.

Amara tried to hide her nervousness. This was something she was not used to and her mind was working overtime, thinking of all the reasons why Thanatos suddenly decided to trust her more. No matter how much she tried to figure out the right reasons for his change of heart, nothing made sense. Maybe it was just the fact that she did not hold much trust in Thanatos and was unsure what sort of event could change that.

The door opened, putting a final stop to her thoughts and in walked a younger looking woman, whose skin was hugged by a tight dress and her blood red hair, placed perfectly in a ponytail. It is like she stuck each individual hairpiece with a superglue. Amara eyed Hannah and knew, the woman was the image of perfection as if she was drawn with magical paints. She also believed many creatures would even admit it aloud.

'Your Grace,' She greeted Thanatos politely, just how a perfect servant should greet their master.

She held a black metal chair in her arms, whilst looking at the Duke. She only acknowledged the prince and no one else it seemed, and only after a short moment, did she look away and noticed Amara who stood and watched Hannah, her eyes frowning feeling quite annoyed for being blatantly ignored.

'Miss Amara,' she accepted the soul gatherer's presence with a soft smile, which showed her bright, straight teeth.

Of course, Amara returned her smile. It is only respectable and it's not in her nature to hold a grudge, against someone who gave her no reason to. She might have only just met Hannah, however, the girl gave her no reason to feel dislike towards her, just because she might have been the opposite of Amara.

Hannah placed the chair opposite Thanatos and left so quickly, Amara did not even get a chance to thank her.

Amara felt Thanatos' eyes on her, even after she took a seat in the chair just opposite where he sat, yet did not allow herself to meet his eyes.

Until she did indeed raise her head towards him, finding him already looking her direction, his black orbs empty of any coherent emotions. She watched him with measured caution waiting for him to form the first word of their conversation. This was not the time she should start talking first, so she waited.

Struggling with each breath to stay patient.

'I see you didn't bother with your cloak again,' Thanatos said, although randomly but still formed a sentence.

'I didn't know it was necessary to wear one to these kinds of events, my lord,'

'Perhaps not. I see you wore the dress I send you and I must say, it fits you extravagantly,' Thanatos complemented with a ghost of a smile.

'Yes, it is a lovely dress thank you. I was starting to forget what a dress looks like,' she joked with a chuckle, lowering her head and wiping her hands on her knees, 'but I must say I prefer my clothes more colourful than yourself,'

The clothes she owned, could hardly be called colourful. Mostly she wore black and dark blue or occasionally she would throw a plain white shirt on if she felt like it. Amara left the bright colours for the interior design of her apartment.

'Wow I think I'll start wearing sunglasses around you from now on, so I don't go blind from all the colours.'

'Duke,' Amara has spoken abruptly. Her tone held a particular question and most probably the most austerity one ever heard from such a fragile woman, 'why have you told me to come here today?'

It was obvious, the mood has changed rapidly between the two, like an earthquake which suddenly starts and then suddenly stops again.

'Very well dear Amara,' he spoke with an eerie seriousness in his tone, 'as I said before, I have grown to trust you, like no other soul gatherer and therefore, I see you the fittest for an assignment,' he spoke, his eyes showing nothing but sincerity.

Amara, who found her hands interesting at the time, looked up with creased eyebrows, in pure curiosity. 'What do you mean when you say an assignment?' she questioned, 'and why did you choose me for this so-called assignment?'

Amara was always slightly reluctant, to trust Thanatos, even if her heart was telling her to, at times. However, the walls he kept around himself was good enough reason for the trust issues from Amara's side. As far as she was aware, no one could break them and that made her wary of him.

Who knew what he was hiding behind those unbreakable walls of his?

'Tell me, Amara. Do you know what prophecies mean?' Thanatos asked, and Amara just nodded to answer, 'good. So, I do not have to explain to you that prophecies are not always certain. Sometimes they come true and sometimes, a particular event, triggers them to change.'

As he spoke, Thanatos' eyes searched her face for signs of bafflement, it seemed, however, Amara's face was blank, her eyes unblinking and full of concentration. That might have been a cue for him to continue, 'Now tell me, Amara, have you heard of a prophet called Kassandra before?' He asked but did not wait for any response. He continued with his talking, 'she was once upon a time cursed by one of the gods of Phaos because he was simply too arrogant to accept failure. This caused her truthful prophecies not believed by anyone else but her, yet, there exists one prophecy which everyone in Phaos, as well as Mavros, paid attention to.'

Thanatos looked over at Amara and paused just for a moment. Amara saw uncertainty shining in the depths of his eyes and maybe even sadness twinkled. It is like his tall and thick walls crumbled for just a millisecond before they build themselves up, even firmer and thicker than ever before.

Thanatos straightened himself in his chair and carried on, with what he could no longer take back, 'Kassandra saw a man who will become a weapon for true evil, as she quoted. Now I do not know if you know this or not, but in our world, it is not very clear who is evil and who is good. It is not like the humans think. They always make the antagonist and the protagonist clear in every religion. However, in our world, there is bad and good in both the Phaos and the Mavros.

'But let us get to the real point. Our dear Kassandra saw something horrible too. Kassandra did not just see the weapon activated, she also saw the outcome. She saw the mortal Earth as we know it, destroyed. Let me tell you, Amara, if that ever happened, the results would be catastrophic for all the dimensions, worst than during the Titan monarchy when the big flood occurred.

'Weirdly enough, there still are creatures out there, who would kill to get their hands on him as if he was an object, from all Patheos, not just the Greek.'

Amara's eyes widened. There were no words which were good enough, to describe her surprise. She had so many questions, which she was desperate to ask, yet no word would come out of her mouth. Nothing only quietness and gaze into eyes, darker than any night. She was in a state of shock and could not help but ask a somehow irrelevant question, 'I thought the big flood occurred under the rule of the Christian God?'

'Perhaps, but Cronus just loved natural disasters, therefore, he gained allies very easily when he offered other Patheos the use of his powers. The Christian God was no exception.

'But that is not why we are here. Tell me the name on the list at nine twenty-nine in the morning, on twenty-fourth December.'

Amara entered deeply into her mind, extracting the needed information from her beloved serpent who until now remained sleeping, 'Hayden,' she whispered slowly, her eyes tightly shut.

The serpent once again escaped into oblivious drowse on her back.

'Amara, I will be honest with you. Your life until now has been extremely isolated and I know I probably made a mistake by treating you this way-,'

'What do you mean my lord?'

'That is not important right now. What is important however is that I want you to be the one to prevent Hayden from dying. As it's now the eighteenth, we have less than a week for this mission. I also understand that is no time to even begin planning a mission as important as this, however, we have to try at the very least.'

Amara released oxygen from her lungs which she held inside until now, feeling frustrated with such revelations. Until now, she has been held away from all the Patheos of Greece and the only information she had the knowledge of, came from books written by mortals and the lower deities of Greece. Somehow, she doubted those pieces of information held much relevance to the events which happened aeons ago and she barely read the name Kassandra in passing. She held no foundation to stand on.

This upcoming mission might just win the comedy of the century award thanks to Thanatos, who most probably drank too much ambrosia to think clearly.

Thanatos still did not explain why he chose Amara, 'but–but why me of all the soul gatherers?'

'Because trust is something which I do not give to everyone, but you are someone who I'm willing to trust,' He said and studied her for a moment, 'I can see, you don't trust yourself Amara, but I advise you not to do that. You first have to believe in something, before it can succeed, for if you don't, you gave it the foundation to fail.'

Amara swallowed hard, her throat burning from dryness, perhaps, due to her nerves being on the very edge. The conversation she just held with Thanatos, made zero sense, for, she was not anything special, she knew. Brains were not her gift, nor was her strategical thinking. But there was something which made perfect sense, though she needed to ask aloud, 'I need to ask, and please I am begging you to not lie to me at least this once. Is Hayden the same boy, from the prophecy?' Asked Amara.

Thanatos watched Amara for a good couple of seconds, his eyes telling an unknown story only he knew the plot of, before answering with a simple 'yes.'

'If he is so dangerous, why do I have to save him? Wouldn't it be better to just let him die?' Asked Amara, in disbelief.

She did not understand why she needed to save someone, especially when that someone, will be responsible for so much suffering, yet in her long existence, she also knew nothing was as simple as it sounded.

'Because he would be more dangerous being a soul. A soul can hold the infinity of power, more than you can imagine, especially if they receive the opportunity.'

Amara only nodded in understanding, knowing very well, his words in translation meant failure was not a possibility. It will be either a disaster or a success.

'For now dear Amara, let's just go and welcome my guests,' Thanatos requested and stood up.

She noticed he looked like a different creature without his cloak, which he replaced by a simple yet elegant all-black suit, the shape of his muscly body prominent. It is as if his visible muscles turned to her weakness and she forced herself to look at his perfect face instead. Luckily, immortals did not blush, for he knew his looks could not be more perfect.

'Remember Amara,' He said, and walked towards her, offering his arm to hook her own under; a gesture which was known for many, many years in higher class between humans, 'don't forget to smile.'

'Then maybe we should hire a tutor for you because you are in deep trouble.'

'We will see dear Amara, for I am a master of pretence,' he smirked as they walked out of his office.

His smiles never reached his eyes, yet Amara noticed, the simple gesture of his lips tugging upwards, left his eyes twinkling for just a second before he gained his composure. That was the first time she saw a real smile on his face and she would be lying to herself if that knowledge did not make her heart skip a cheeky beat.