Staring numbly at the piano in front of me, I put out my fingers to touch its ivory keys. Smooth, very smooth. The grand thing in itself was made of blackwood, polished to a gleam that would rival the moon. Selene would be jealous, as all goddesses might be. Dropping my hand into my lap, I sat still for several minutes. And then she came, the Mistress of Knowledge in her usual lavish attire. She was the most beautiful woman I ever knew, if a woman is what you'd call her. More like a beast who dines in the halls of kings.
"Ah, but we are all naturally born evil. It is our human nature." She smirked and told me as she drew nearer. I turned my head slowly towards her, not because I really cared for what she said, but merely because she was saying something. She seemed to read minds without really trying, a gift the Delphic oracles would have been smitten with. Turning my gaze back to the piano, I attempted to tune her out. She destroyed my life and I did not know why. Once again, I could feel her drawing ever nearer, as a spider does to the fly. Like the fly, I knew death was inevitable, and that it would surely take me. But this was not why I hated her. 'God kills people, why can't she?' I thought. Whether I believed it or not was a very different thing.
"You don't believe me?" she said, as if it were all a grand and wonderful joke. She laughed, then, as if the whole world was laughing with her. I looked back at her, feeling true emotion for the first time in days.
"If I may," she asked, surely not expecting an answer. A lack of movement from me seemed to be all the encouragement she needed to begin talking of what I was quite sure would be a wonderful speech. And so it began:
"Human nature is based on one's life and treatment thereof. A corruptive lifestyle together with false entities on the belief that evil seems to prevail over good will result in such appalling personality traits: a pessimistic view on life, unhealthy life styles and habits that routinely present themselves; immoral practices that try one's soul inconspicuously. The individual will be so convinced in the evil of the world that they will be lead to the belief that their misery comes from such evil. They will be unaware that the evil itself evolves from within them as a result of their belief that evil comes elsewhere. Evil is truly a great trick. Slight of hand for the slow, Sanctuary for the weak, Stability for the disturbed. We as human beings tend to associate our reality with our tragedies. Thus, we may promote the existence of evil as a result of acquiring one taste of reality. That taste is delicious in a repulsive manner. It is Vanity. Pure Vanity that drives us to such lengths to acquire such tastes. We are merely in love with an image of evil that exists only within ourselves."

And so it ended. Smoothing her gown and humming softly, she acted as if we had just talked briefly about the weather. I suppose that she believed that society was always corrupt, which is why all humans were born evil. That may have been true. Hell as well as Heaven knows that every society will at least have one thing, idea, or person that is corrupt. The prestige of good societies, things, ideas, and people had long been dead to the world, and they took goodness with them.
"Play for me." Three simple words she spoke to me then. They were not sweet or kind. They were bitter and commanding. It didn't matter. The treachery that she asked of me did not change in her tone of voice. Could not change. I had no urge to play this thing, this piano. It was a device for mere mortals, not immortals like me. I was not told of my immortality, rather, I merely lived knowing it. I knew I was something different. My blood was no longer human.

She grabbed my fingers then with a painful force. Of course, it's not painful to a body that is numb to pain. She placed my fingers roughly on the ivory keys, those smooth ivory keys, and then she sat back in her chair, her cold blue eyes glaring at me. I smiled at her grimly and then looked back at the keys.
It must have been hours until I played that first note. It was beautiful. Masterful. It hung in the air like death on Holy Ground. And that second note, oh it, too, was wonderful. Before I could stop myself, I soon hit the third, and then the fourth. It was ecstasy. Happiness and such mortal emotions flooded back to me. I felt like my old self playing my own game. It was in these moments of playing that I finally understood what had happened. My immortality was not the evil I had believed it to be. It was a gift, and that I, Cecelia, would become something majestic compared to my former self. I frowned slightly. Cecelia. My mortal name has no place here. Leave my mortal name with my mortal world. Honour, I thought then. The only mortal ideal I could love, the only one I cared to live for. The ideal, I found, that bound me to Alexia for all the years to come.