I felt a knot in my stomach unfurl itself the second I saw her eyes flutter open. I quickly moved to sit on the bed next to her and took her hand, kissing it repeatedly. “Thank goodness. You had me scared half to death, Myrcedes! Promise me you’ll never do something like that again.”
She blinked, looking exhausted. “How long was I gone?”
“It’s been a day and a half, love.” I stroked her purple hair as her expression shifted to one of shock.
“That long? It didn’t feel that long… I thought it was just a few hours…”
“We were worried.” She sat up, and as soon as she did, I wrapped my arms around her. “We were so worried… what happened? Did you find her?” I’d almost forgotten why she was there in my excitement over the sheer fact that she was back.
Myrcedes nodded and held her head, likely to try to recall all that she had experienced over the last day and a half. I saw Daath stir on the couch and sit up as she began to explain.
“I found her… she knew I was coming…”
“What?”
“She’s been getting prophecies, even after her death.”
“I didn’t think that was possible,” Daath said, rubbing his eyes as he stood and crossed to the bed. Myrcedes looked relieved to see him awake and smiled.
“Well, she said I was, um… some kind of extenuating circumstance. We’ve known since the day Minerva died that I was a part of this trio, but I’m… I’m not just meant to be the ruler of Earth… I’m the ruler of all the Middle World. Everything between the Under and Upper Worlds.”
I felt something in my stomach twist as she said Upper World, and my heartbeat quickened.
I hadn’t opened up to her nor Daath about any of this. For weeks, I’d been going to the Floor of Dreams and the library, trying to learn anything I could about the Upper World. It was a myth I’d heard of for centuries, but since Daath and I had never heard of it in a practical sense, I’d always assumed it was just that, some myth. We’d been around since just about the beginning of time, so how could there be something like an entire realm of existence that we hadn’t heard of, let alone one that I was supposed to rule?
At first, I felt like an idiot for not having ever really taken it seriously or understood it, but truthfully, I hadn’t been stupid; I’d just never looked into it. I never thought there was a reason.
According to any records I could find, no one had ever been there, which contributed to the belief that it was all a myth. People tried to jump to it the way they could jump between Earth or the fae realm or the Underworld, but it never succeeded. No one had a practical description of what it was like.
I struggled to find any solid answers, so I went to the Floor of Dreams. Part of me felt as though I had wasted my life, building up the Underworld when I had a kingdom of my own I was meant to rule. It was hard to explain, but the Floor of Dreams clarified that my destiny wasn’t to rule the Upper World yet - it wasn’t necessary thus far. I struggled in an entirely different way with that, knowing that the thing I was born to do was apparently inconsequential for several million years.
In essence, I’d spent every day since Minerva’s death trying to find some way to answer these questions, but I’d found that similarly to Myrcedes, the Floor gave me information that led to more questions than answers.
“So… the Middle World?” I asked. “That means, Earth…”
She nodded, anticipating my questions. “And everything else.”
“Myrcedes,” Daath whispered, stroking her hair. “Fucking hell…”
“That’s almost unbelievable,” I murmured. “So, if that’s true, then why…”
We asked her several questions. She answered every one of them. Daath and I shared a similar thought at the knowledge that she had apparently existed along with us for all eternity, and it was how in the universe had we managed to miss her for this long? Even so, Myrcedes assured us it was meant to be exactly like this.
The biggest shock came when she explained that her journey being reincarnated wasn’t over. I felt Daath’s reaction, and I knew he could feel mine. Honestly, neither of us had actually contemplated the possibility that we would ever lose her. Perhaps that was naivete on our part, but we’d never had to face any form of loss. We only ever had each other, and we knew we’d never lose one another. When Daath died, so would I. I’d never have to live without him.
Now, however, we’d reached a point where we could hardly believe we’d spent millions of years without her, so the thought of having to lose her, having to watch her die, and then spending another twenty years waiting on her to find us once again… we both felt as though we were already mourning that loss, despite the fact that she sat there between us on the bed, healthy, happy, gorgeous, and finally for the first time since we’d met her, fully understanding of her place in the universe.
“I know that’s scary,” Myrcedes reassured us. “But it’s a long time away. I’ve experienced loss more times than I can count.” She smiled sadly as she said that, and I wondered if memories of her past lives were now on her mind. “I’ll help you through it. Then I’ll come back, and we’ll get to do this all over again.” She leaned over to Daath and kissed him and then did the same to me.
“So,” Daath began, “what do you want to do next? We can send out word to the realms announcing you as Queen-”
“No,” she shook her head quickly. “No, that won’t work. Every one of them is different. They have different politics, different respected positions. It’s going
