III.V || still alive

MORGIANA

REYKJAVIK
July
Location: Adrasteia, Headquarters

━━━━━━━━━━

Walking towards the central office, the guards automatically moved aside and allowed me to pass. I entered the almost empty office as I saw my direct supervisor swivelling in her office chair, seemingly having her own fun. When she caught sight of me, she placed an arm out to stop her chair from rotating and faced me. In her child-like voice, she exclaimed, "Mor!" 

"Here are the reports for the month," I said, resting the files on the desk in front of me. "Please have them checked and submit it up to Big Boss." 

"I'm so tired," the nymph goddess whined, slumping her body on her desk. "I just want to nap." 

"Lethe, you may look like a child, but you're at least a few thousand years older than me," I reminded. "Get working." 

The goddess turned her head up and shot me a look, but concern suddenly flashed across her expression when she asked, "Mor, you look troubled. What happened?" 

"It's that obvious?" I sighed and explained, "I lost a child of mine." 

"Poor thing," Lethe frowned. "Who is it this time?"

"She was Harod's, but I adopted her over," I exhaled with a heaviness weighing in my chest and slowly continued, "Her name's Iva."

"Oh, you mean Isabel?" Lethe chuckled in her tinkling voice. "I love that child."

I fought a rising panic and drew in a shaky breath before asking, "You met her?"

"Yes, she crossed my river a moment ago," Lethe said happily, fiddling with the pendulum swing on her desk and I felt my heart sinking. Then, the goddess added, "Albeit alive."

My supervisor's words were getting harder to process with each passing second as I attempted to clear all the confusing doubts clouding in my mind. "Pardon?"

"What do you not understand, Mor?" Lethe dropped her head to the side and looked towards me with amusement and curiosity dancing in her luminescent forest-green eyes. "I'm saying, if you would like to find your child, she might still be wandering in the asphodel meadows."

◩

I returned to the council manor after my meeting with Lethe. Circling this entire damned place for an hour, I still couldn't find the idiot that I was trying to find. Infuriated, I stopped by Idris' room and swung the door open in one violent push. My eyes went straight to the bed and caught two almost naked Guardians trying to get it on with one another and I scowled at Sven, "For the love of the imbeciles up above, when is a time of the day when you're not attacking her with your whacker?"

"Mor!" Idris quickly pulled on the blankets to cover her body and I scoffed in the most unfriendly manner.

"What brought you here?" Sven laughed, wearing his shirt, and pulling his pants back up his hips. He glanced towards me with his eyes of pure black, undifferentiated by pupils and irises — the same eyes that all Guardians shared.

Ignoring the heavy steamy tension that was still apparent between the two, I asked, "Has anyone seen my brother?"

"Harod hadn't returned to the manor in a while. Not quite sure, ask around?" Sven said, reaching for his lighted pipe to take a drag as he whiffed out a cloud of smoke.

"Both of you practically spend all the time having sex, what was I even expecting?" I rolled my eyes and flung a mean remark towards Sven, "I hope your lungs collapse."

"That wouldn't happen, Mor," Sven chuckled, huffing out another breath of nasty smoke.

"Same for babies, maniacs," I clicked my tongue and left the room at the immediate moment I could leave before the two try to get it on within my presence. Marching down the hallway, I thought of going somewhere else to continue my search until I spotted Praxis playing with his cerberus in the receiving room. My arm rested against the door ledge while leaning my weight against it and called out his name, "Praxis."

Seemingly startled by my sudden presence, he whipped his head around and looked towards me. In an angry growl, he grouched, "What?"

A wry grin lifted from the corner of my lips, and I ignored his rudeness plainly as I inquired, "Have you seen Harod?"

"Nobody wants to see a rotting individual full of hate," Praxis responded, turning his attention back to the cerberus. He held a piece of fresh meat above it and the three-headed dog was fighting amongst itself to see which head would get that piece. I rolled my eyes again at the stupidity I witnessed.

I commented, "And nobody likes a moody individual full of rage."

"Fuck off, Mor," Praxis snarled.

"More appropriate to use that on Idris and Sven than me," I laughed and pushed myself off to walk away from the receiving room.

Combing through almost every corner of the manor in search of my idiot brother, there's only one place left which he most probably could be found. I went straight for the library and pushed on the door handle. Realising that the door was locked, I pounded impatiently on the wooden surface and exclaimed, "Rod, it's me!"

"Go away," Harod's hateful voice sounded from within.

When would he ever realise that a lock would never work on me? I pulled a face and drew an apotropaic symbol on the door before it snapped open. Forcefully entering his space, I saw Harod sitting in the corner of the room, looking all dishevelled and in a mess. I gasped, "Wow, Rod, you look terrible."

"I seriously hate you," he grouched.

"Who do you not hate?" I laughed mirthlessly.

"My children," Harod sulked, tucking his legs closer to himself. I screwed my face into a grimace as I scorned the childish behaviour of my brother, realising that he hadn't ever looked so annoying until now.

"You hate all of them except for that trio," I reminded. "I just went to the Headquarters today and had a talk with Lethe."

"I'm not in the mood to argue, Mor," Harod clicked his tongue. "And I had enough of Gods' shit today. Styx had been an exceptionally hateful bitch today, please don't dump more of their senseless issues to me."

I crinkled my nose at the mention of Styx, if anyone had turned my brother into the ill-tempered brat he was today, it would be that goddess. She was incontestably the most difficult to deal with and I pitied my brother so painfully when Hades issued our deployment during the establishment of Elysium on the surface. Not delaying the suspense, I mentioned, "Iva's alive, brother."

"It's not funny, Mor," he hissed.

"Do I look like I'm joking?" I retorted. "I hate repeating myself and you know it, Rod."

"She vanished!" Harod raised his voice, the hurt apparent in his tone and I knew how much he dotes on that child to look like the mess in his current predicament.

"Lethe said she walked into Asphodel Meadows today."

Ahead of me, Harod and pushed himself to stand and he stood unnaturally straight while his obsidian eyes stared towards me, wide with apprehension, "How is that possible?"

"Beats me," I responded simply.

"She's only in her second life," he inhaled, looking unnerved by everything that I had just said.

"Maybe it's time you tell me about Iva, brother," I frowned in annoyance. "What's so special about her that you had all your attention on her? You even kept tabs on her after transferring her to Lethe!"

"Now's not the time, Mor," Harod quickly dismissed my frustration. He asked, "Have you told Jaxen about it?"

"Not yet," I drew in an irritated inhale. "What does Thanatos have to do with this?"

"Tell him, now." My brother demanded, adding, "I need to go somewhere. Quickly go now, Mor."

"I'm not leaving until you explain yourself." I remained unmoved with obstinance and Harod knew that nothing would move me unless I got what I wanted. I prompted, "Iva isn't human, is she?"

Harod was stunned and I noticed how he swallowed nervously at my mention. More determined, I continued, "What is she? A demi? A—"

"Goddess," Harod caved in. "Unascended."

"What?"

"Whose child?" I gasped. "Why are you meddling with the ascension of a goddess?" 

"We're bounded by Aphrodite's oath, Mor," Harod exhaled impatiently. "If we break the oath, Iva will never ascend."

"Who else is part of this knowing circle?" I continued to dig into it.

"Mor, please." For the first time, Harod sounded ever so desperate. "Iva's very important and it's my responsibility to take care of her."

I still had a lot of doubts about the situation, neither did I have any clue about that child's hidden identity. However, from Harod's seriousness, I could already understand that the whole thing shouldn't be taken lightly. Sighing, I traced an apotropaic symbol to open a portal. I mentioned, "You owe me answers. But I'll deal with you once I'm done with Jaxen. I'm going, ta-ta Rod."

"滚," Harod grouched again.
(Translate: Scram.)

◩

a/n.

about iva, did it make a little bit of sense now?