Akri laughed. “No worries, Sim. He’ll have his own place that won’t interfere with yours.”
Rising, akri moved to pick Simi up and hold her in his arms. “Come, Alexion. I’ll show you your new quarters.”
Simi wrapped her arms around akri’s neck as he led Alexion in the opposite direction of her room and akri’s. She loved her room. It was down the hallway from where akri … well, she didn’t know what he really did there. He seldom slept. Never ate. Yet he had a room there where he sat up late at night.
Alexion’s room was on the other side of the temple where the Atlantean messenger god used to sleep and have big parties. Simi had never really liked that mean old god. But he did have a big room that made Alexion gasp when he saw it.
“This is bigger than my entire village.” He walked around the ornate bed and gilded chest and table.
“Do you need anything?” akri asked.
Alexion shook his head.
Akri grimaced in that familiar way Simi knew so well. He was being summoned.
“Heifer goddess?” she asked.
Akri didn’t answer. Instead, he sighed again. “I need to go commune with Artemis. Keep Simi company until I return.”
Before either of them could say anything, akri vanished.
Alexion stared at Simi who stared at him in turn.
“What do you do for fun?” he asked.
“Eats.”
“Is there anything here for you that you like to eat?”
Simi left him and went to the room where akri kept her food. She opened the cupboard so that she could look around for her favorite snacks. They was all there, like always. Her jerky and honey. Some bread and cake. Akri took good care of his Simi.
Alexion’s shadow fell over her. She looked up to see him staring at all the food. “How long will that last?”
“Depends on Simi’s belly. Maybe an hour … could be two days at mostest.”
He laughed. “Then I’m glad I don’t eat food. I’d hate to deprive you of anything.”
And as he started helping her prepare her snack, she decided she liked the ghosty human. “Thank you, akri-Alexion. You good quality people ghosty.”
“Thank you, Simi. You’re a good quality …”
“Charonte.”
“Is that what you are?”
She nodded as she climbed up the chair so that she could sit at the long table where she normally ate her food. “We quality demons. Much better than the others.”
“I will definitely give you that.” He placed her food in front of her, then brushed his hand through her hair. “And I promise I’ll be a good surrogate demon-dad for you.”
Smiling, she dug into her eats.
Tired and angry, Acheron came home to find his temple eerily quiet. That was concerning.
Normally, Simi would greet him with loud complaints over how long he’d been gone. But as he walked over his seal in the entry and his clothes changed to his flowing black Atlantean formesta robes, there was no echoing Simi call. She didn’t teleport to greet him.
Glancing into his throne room, it was empty.
He immediately teleported to the dining hall. Simi’s favorite place.
