The Promised

As the second most powerful mage of the empire, Cassius was supposed to be happy. He had everything he had ever dreamed of: power, status, looks, but he was simply unsatisfied. He was not a greedy man, yet he wished for something else. Something more. Cassius wanted that which no other immortal had dared wish for before. Love. Cassius needed someone to stand by his side and fight against the world together.

He needed a wife. Or at least that was the conclusion he had come to all those years ago.

Cassius thought it would not be too hard to find someone. After all, with his long, deep violet hair and sharp plum eyes, nobody could possibly refuse him. He was, in his mind, the most beautiful being in existence. Cassius was not a narcissist. Or at least he thought himself to be humble. Not the best start for an aspiring, young romantic.

But the biggest problem he had was how his romance would one day end.

***

Melinoë

"I've had enough of that young duke Cassius, mother."

Melinoë, known to her mother as "Mel," was painfully aware of the very obvious existence of the person spying on her.

"I know he can be a bit of an annoyance sometimes," Mel's mother, Acheron, said, sighing into the palm of her hand. "But really, Mel. You should spend some time to get to know him. He could end up being really sweet."

Mel rolled her eyes. "Like my father sweet?"

Acheron glared at her daughter. "I'm sure that your father, though he may have abandoned us, did love you for some amount of time, no matter how brief. He was a terrible man, and you should NEVER compare him to young Cassius."

"I suppose. I guess I will try to understand him."

"Good. Now go collect some mushrooms and see if he follows you."

Rolling her eyes, Mel grabbed her basket off the kitchen counter, slipped on a cloak, and stepped out the back door. She walked the short path to the edge of the wood, searching her surroundings for any signs of Cassius. She did not see him, so when he popped out from the shadows of the forest trees, Mel almost threw her basket at him.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Cassius yelped, putting his hands up in front of his face defensively. "I come in peace!"

Mel was not impressed. "As if. You're clearly harboring ill intentions." She poked him in the chest with each word. "Very. Ill. Intentions."

"Okay, okay! Sheesh!" Cassius backed away, hands up like a criminal caught red-handed.

"I'm going to go pick mushrooms for my mother. You can either come with me or stay here and keep the mold underneath my porch company. Your choice."

"Really?" Cassius slid his arm into Mel's, excited and thrumming with energy. He easily slipped the basket in her hands into his own. "Off we go, then!"

In that moment, the young duke did not seem too bad. Mel thought that maybe, just maybe, she would give him a chance. But little did she know, ever since Cassius had set his sights upon her, he had never intended for the life of Melinoë Miseria, daughter of Acheron and Cocytus, to be anything but unique.

***

Weeks later, Mel found herself whizzing through engagement ceremonies, picking out wedding dresses, and finally, when the day came for her to marry Cassius, she was quite thoroughly confused. She had no recollection of walking down the aisle, but when the young duke lifted her wispy white veil, she knew that she had no doubts. Not anymore.

"Dear friends and family, today we are gathered here to join together this man and woman in holy matrimony. May the light of the goddesses shine upon you, and may you live your lives never forgetting these virtues that make us human: knowledge, life, and power."

The priest raised his hands, tapping the left side of his chest with his right hand, and the right with his left. Then, he uncrossed his arms in unison, placing his right middle finger on the right side of his chest, and his left on his left. He drew them across his body to meet at the nape of his neck, and together, he moved his hands down his chest to rest at the base of his rib cage. Finished with his blessing, the priest continued his speech.

"Do you, Cassius Chevalier, take Melinoë Miseria to be your wife, and promise to be faithful to her, in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health; to love her and to honor her until the day she is taken from the world?"

As Cassius' gaze fell upon Mel's face, from her bright, lively amber eyes to her wavy hyacinth hair, carefully woven into delicate braids and wrapped into a bun at the base of her hairline. Her lips were trembling, but Cassius saw, that in her eyes, there was a fire that would never die. He was sure, so sure, that Mel was the one he was looking for. His one and only love of his life.

"I do."

"And do you, Melinoë Miseria, take Cassius Chevalier to be your husband, and promise to be faithful to him, in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health; to love him and to honor him until the day he is taken from the world?"

"I do."

"Then, with the power invested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife."

Until the day he is taken from the world.

But it was too late. The promise had been made, with the world and the gods as their witnesses. A promise sealed by divine power, acknowledged by the three goddesses who stood above all, and unbreakable by all of existence.

So when Melinoë met her unfortunate death at the hands of a money-hungry mercenary sent by a jealous woman pining for the love of a man she could never have, the gods could do nothing to stop Cassius, drowning in all his rage and sadness, from using the forbidden craft of resurrection to bring his wife back to life.

But forbidden things are forbidden for a reason.

When someone is taken from the world, the darkness engulfs them, leaving them scattered and broken, wandering the large expanse of infinity until they are reincarnated. And if those pieces are forcefully dragged back into the world of the living, some part of the soul will remain, forever, in the darkness, never to see the light of day again, and never to reincarnate until the resurrected reaches death once more.