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November 3, 1800
Sehyun Han, Hades

"Tell me, Hades, was it really necessary to summon me here without allowing me a chance to inform Suzy?"

"It wasn't necessary, but I felt it was time we met."

Sehyun finally worked up the courage to pick up the cup of tea and take a few sips from it, careful not to slurp. "This is good."

Hades gave no reply.

Sehyun tried to look at the god and figure out what he looked like, but his eyesight was blurry. He couldn't even see his hand. He was lucky to have grabbed the tea without spilling it everywhere. "Why can't I see anything?"

"This is the Underworld, Sehyun Han. And you're not dead, so you cannot see properly, hear the dead's voices, or feel the texture of anything. In this place."

Sehyun took another sip of tea. "Do dead dogs come here too?"

"There are many dogs here that live with me."

"Like Cerberus?"

"He does not live with me, per se, but he does quite a lot for me."

"He keeps the dead from leaving."

"Yes."

Before taking another sip of his drink, he came to the realization he could breathe clearly for the first time in days. His nose was no longer stuffed and his face no longer hurt.

"Do you have solid food? I'm hungry," Han said.

Hades did not reply immediately. Instead, he asked, "Why haven't you questioned my reason for summoning you?"

"Because I don't really want to know."

"When I analyzed you in your younger years, Sehyun Han, you were a lot more curious compared to now."

"Alright then, why'd you summon me?"

"To test you and your worth."

"For what, exactly?"

Silence. The Underworld was much quieter than Han expected. On Earth, there was always some sound, some annoyance. So he decided to relish in the absence of sound.

In the meantime, he tried hard to figure out what Hades looked like, what the world around him looked like. He'd barely managed to guess what the teacup's shape was. Everything was blurry, and he hated it. It made him on edge, and he hated the stress, the anxiety. Even when his life was threatened, he always had a way out.

But how would he run when he couldn't see his own hand?

What was the point of having such dull senses in a world of the dead?

"Sehyun," started Hades, "I have a confession to make."

Han raised a brow. "Weird, but alright."

Hades sighed, the sound barely reaching Han's ears. "Do you recall the curse you received on your eighteenth birthday?"

"How could I forget?"

"It's not a curse."

"Then what are these two dots doing on my face? Why have I been sick for over a week?"

"Your sickness is because you have a poor immune system, but those two dots are markings of how many times you've gone against it."

Han huffed. "I figured as much, but still, how come the consequence of it is barely anything? I mean, for such an intense curse, or whatever it's to be called, there are barely any consequences for going against the contract I signed with that ghost three years ago. Shouldn't I have been blinded or something?"

"It's not a curse."

"If it's not, how come that other person had a dot on his face?"

"How would I know? I didn't curse him."

Sehyun reached for his pen, but he didn't locate the pocket or the pen. He fidgetted with his fingers, trying to regain some sense of self. "Explain, then. Explain everything."

"There is much to explain, Sehyun, but so little time. I'll tell you my purpose for summoning you and the curse. I'll allow a few questions then."

He nodded.

"I've decided to ordain you as the Emperor of the Dead. Ever since you were born, you've been different, and the way you operate is something I truly enjoyed watching."

"You enjoy watching me sit at my desk and talk to myself?"

Ignoring Han, Hades continued. "I chose you long before you went to the Black Egret, and since you've yet to take a life directly, I cannot crown you. That's why I gave you that burden on the day you became captain. It took a bit of the burden off of my shoulders by having you deal with their regrets before they got to me, and also to have you kill someone. You needed death around you to properly function as the Emperor of the Dead."

"Interesting." Han took another sip of tea. "At least you have the decency to invite me and tell me what's going on. Thanks for not being like Poseidon by not dumping the responsibility onto me without an explanation, but I must ask, why'd you chose me? Why not Suzy? She's killed quite a lot."

"She's been chosen by someone else already."

"Let me guess. Zeus?"

To this, Hades gave no direct answer. "That does not concern you."

"Alright, then. Will I be able to see and hear properly in this place once I kill someone?"

"Yes."

He paused. "That goes against my morals."

"Your only moral is that you want to be better than everyone else."

"By not killing anyone," Sehyun said, waving a hand and nodding his head as if he'd said something life-changing, something mind-boggling. "The only person better than me at the moment is Suzy Aranaz."

Hades sighed once again, dragging a hand down his face. "You could simply go to a hospital and kill someone that has no chance of survival and then the curse I gave you would go away and you won't have to deal with the seven-hundred eighty-seven contracts you've been procrastinating on either. Just one pull of the trigger and you're free."

"But you said you wanted to make me Emperor of the Dead. I'm sure that's a bigger responsibility than having me catch up on all the ghosts I promised to avenge."

"Why are you like this?"

"How would I know?" Han asked, smirking wide, hoping he didn't look like a complete fool. He could only feel his moments, his slight cat-like movements. "Actually, I'll pull the trigger if you make my hair black. Everyone's been bothering about how ugly my hair colour is at the moment, so if you make it black, I'll do as you say until I get bored."

Hades demonstrated every way one could express annoyance and snapped his fingers. "There. Your hair's black."

Han smiled. "Thanks. Now tell me what you would like me to do as the Emperor of the Dead."

"Kill somebody."

"Nope."

"Kill a cat or animal."

"I can't believe you even suggested that. I take offence to that statement."

"Then kill a human."

"No."

"Why won't you?"

Han bit his lip, the only sign betraying he was uncomfortable. "I watched someone's life completely crumble after they took a life. I quite like my life at the moment, so I wouldn't want to ruin it."

"Just kill someone who wants to be let out of their misery. Or someone on death row. Just someone who has no chance of survival."

Han rolled the idea around, wondering if it was truly worth it. "I'll think about it. Just summon me again when I pull the trigger. Until then, drop me off on the Black Egret."

Hades snapped his fingers again and Sehyun was on the Black Egret's main deck.

The second he made eye contact with Suzy, she vanished the same way he had.

She'd been summoned by the one who'd chosen her.

Everyone on the deck of the ship offered some sort of surprised or shocked reaction to the sudden reappearance of their captain and the instantaneous loss of their quartermaster. But no one dared to ask or speak. Not in fear, but to give their captain some space.

Without even a single glance in anyone's direction, Sehyun shoved his way through the crowd, immediately rushing into his room. The second he was in, he locked the door and picked up a book from his shelf he'd been meaning to read ever since the name Poseidon started floating around alongside the "Empress of the Sea."

The huge volume of Greek Mythology was thicker than the grip of his long yet narrow fingers and equally sleek palm.

And if there was one thing that could send a chill down his spine, it was having to hold something with two hands when holding it in one could somehow be managed. So, he spent nearly two minutes trying to contortion the book into fitting in a single hand.

Until he gave up and threw it onto his desk, creasing and folding the papers it landed on.

To this, he cursed rather loudly. Then as he made his way to his desk, he mumbled and yelled a string of curse words in every language he could think of, probably offending some of the crewmates that stood outside his room, listening to what he was doing.

He kicked the desk leg but hurt himself and slumped into his chair.

When he was no longer focused on anything, the scent of vanilla hit his nose. His mother's scent was strong and lasted for a while wherever she went, so the question was why was she in his room?

Looking for a book? Looking for an excuse to smack him with a roll of paper? To chat with Aeryn? To pass the time?

He scoured his room for any trace of human existence in there other than his own and noticed that his drawings were tilted in different angles than he left them, his books were out of order (despite the lack of system), the dust patterns were off. Someone was certainly sneaking around.

But who cared?

Not Han.

He immediately dropped the worry and started reading the section on Hades and Persephone and found out that the gods were as human as the rest of the world.

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Word Count: 1650