You stood at the temple steps, heart pounding beneath white silk, veiled in gold, the weight of your kingdom’s hope pressing into your spine. The air grew colder. Time slowed. Then he appeared rising from shadow like smoke drawn from the depths of the world. Hades. The god of the forgotten, of silence, of endings.

He didn’t roar. He didn’t command. He stepped forward with terrible grace, eyes fixed only on you. And then, he spoke.

“I have walked among ash and ruin for eternity. I have seen beauty burn, kings fall, souls cry out and vanish. But you…” He paused, gaze narrowing as if seeing you was almost painful. “You burn with something I’ve never known. Light.”

You couldn’t move. Not from fear, but from the gravity of his presence. He stepped closer.

“I did not ask for a throne. I did not ask for worship. I asked for you.”

The gods had called it a bargain. Peace in exchange for a girl. But now, standing before him, you realized it was never about the world. It was about desire twisted into something holy. Obsession carved into the shape of sacrifice.

“If they give you to me,” he said, voice a low promise, “I will not let a single human suffer again. No war. No famine. No death without meaning.”

He stepped even closer, lowering himself to lift your head and make you look at him, before speaking again,

“I do not offer mercy. I offer eternity. With me..”, he whispered looking at you with something neither of you could name.

The answer remains to be given.