Chapter 4.
On her way down, Anastasia pressed the stop button. The elevator coasted smoothly to a halt between the eighth and ninth floors while she summoned her uncle on the mirror. She wasn't worried about the cameras, all they would record was a crazy young girl talking to her reflection and she already did that on her way up with no consequences.
What did worry her were the faces on the other side of the glass. Instead of the King, there were her smiling cousins.
"Ani, hi, how are you?"
"Where are you? It looks small."
Oh no, cream and sugar ruining my coffee.
"Yeah, hi, I'm fine. Where is Ray?"
"The King, Ani, the King. We must be respectful."
"Isn't he your father, Elizabeth?" That girl was throwing away a unique opportunity to practice nepotism. What a waste. "Whatever. I have an important issue to discuss with… er… the King."
The sisters exchanged a knowing look, then glanced nervously at something out of Anastasia's sight. "He says he is busy."
Fortunately, they couldn't even handle a small lie, which infuriated the King.
"Oh, for fuck's sake… get out of here."
The fact that Ray had tried to avoid the call, made her anxious. Wasn't he King in a divine realm? Wasn't this just an assignment?
Anastasia wanted to bang her head against the mirror until she lost consciousness. Of course, she thought, to assign tasks wasn't the King's job but his counselor's. This was personal, and personal was never good if involving one unsparing Sovereign.
If this's so important, why did he send me?
Ray went to sit on his fancy sofa, opposite her, while the girls reached him to sweetly kiss his forehead before leaving. She enjoyed watching the King melting helplessly, he loved his annoying daughters.
"What do you want, Anastasia?"
"Something tells me you already know."
A sigh followed by a frowning was all she got, her need for info wasn't welcomed. She waited until her cousins closed the door and decided to play the niece's card, it was vital to remind him she was family.
"Uncle, I could barely think when he touched me. I mean… that was an incredible case of hots for a man I didn't know existed until today."
Dammit, she was still shaky.
"It's simple. You're soul mates."
"What?" Anastasia grabbed the rail of the elevator feeling dizzy all of a sudden. "That's a myth, Ray, there isn't such a thing as soul mates."
"Rare but real. All you've heard regarding this is, mostly, true."
"No!"
"Yes."
He was now paying attention to her reaction, it was too sincere to not do it, a novelty. She was always so calmed and collected making people believe she didn't care.
"What did I do? Why am I being punished?"
The King shot to his feet visibly horrified at her words. "It's a blessing, don't you dare to look at it as punishment!" Then he sat again, looking down at the wrinkles on his black toga. "You will get used to it."
She took a deep breath, calming down, willing her new empty stomach to relax. Then squared his shoulders so the King knew she meant business.
"How can this be fixed?"
With a grunt he stood up again, getting closer to his side of the mirror. "There is nothing to be fixed, he is your soul mate and you have to accept it because he needs you… and you need him too. You just have refused to see the signs."
What signs? Later, she'd think about what he'd said later, there was something she needed to clarify first.
"Why does he look like King Lucifer?"
Ray the Third laughed bitterly and shook his head, just for good measure. "That's all your doing, sweetheart. At the time the boy's face was getting molded inside his mother's womb, you were probably lusting after Lucifer. The Holy Spirit works in mysterious ways."
Her jaw dropped open. "You're not serious."
"Oh, I'm so damn serious." Then, grinning like he was having the best time of his life, he finished her off. "I think it's only fair. If you're going to read the same book for the rest of your life, the least you should get is a nice cover."
The King winked then wiggled his eyebrows wickedly. Yes, she was sure now, her misfortune amused him, he wasn't worried at all. And he was handling it personally because, as he said, this was unusual.
Her blood was boiling inside her head, so she went for a cold look.
"Anything else I need to know?"
"That I give you permission to go as far as you need regarding your soul mate." She nodded. "And, Anastasia… no calls in a week."
"Why? I have so many questions."
He waved her and the call away.
"Ask José, he's old enough to know the answers."
She was left staring at her reflection, confused and scared. A headache was starting thanks to the many thoughts that were claiming her head, fighting with each other, screaming at her inability to think.
Suddenly, a voice from above shook her.
"Miss, is everything all right?"
Shit, the humans.
"I'm sorry, I got dizzy. Too many floors but I'm fine now."
Still shocked, she arrived at the lobby and managed to walk toward the glass door. Blondie-1 waved her goodbye and resumed her reading of some erotic novel. The lust emitted by her aura was refreshing and Anastasia envied her, this creature wasn't condemned to suffer the constrains of a freaking soul mate.
Look at you, gurl, turning out to be a cliche. Things in her life will be judged as having happened "before" or "after' this, for sure.
The stories that shaped this "myth" were well known along the three divine realms, and Nana liked to tell them all the time.
After the Holy Spirit sprang forth at the beginning of times, it wandered around for thousands and thousands of years, always alone. It grew tired of the loneliness that surrounded its uniqueness, then looked for a solution that seemed to be nonexistent. One day, noticing how everything had an almost identical reflection on the crystalline water of its favorite lake, even the moon, even the sun, the Holy Spirit came out with a plan. Placing itself in front of the quiet surface, remained still just staring at its unseeable reflection, then poured out half of its essence, half of its everything, filling up whatever was there in the water. And there it was, the miracle happened and two halves of the same Holiness accompany each other ad infinitum.
From time to time, remembering how wrong it felt to be companionless, the Holy Spirit would bless some lonely dazzling soul with a perfect partner, its other half. It was said such souls were special, too creative and innovative to be understood, visionaries who couldn't prevent their solitude.
Too full of themselves is what she thought they were. What a shame she was now half of one of those masturbating a-holes.
Anastasia had always considered this a curse, her Nana disagreed: "They are the only ones capable of sucking your soul out of you. One spiritual, godlike experience."
Did Nana have a soul mate? Those dreamy eyes while explaining this were positively suspicious.
According to the myth, once the bond between them was formed it was permanent and would remain until their dying day. In that very moment, the sexual appetite in both halves would die, just the soul mate was able to turn the hunger on. The part that worried Anastasia more, explained how both halves could fade away if forced to live apart a long period of time. The possibility to reincarnate removed from their future because the pain would be too intense for their essences to survive.
Eternal monogamy and pain! Sounds like so much fun. A true blessing.
Fortunately, in case one of them died the bond would weaken reducing the pain to a bearable level. Both souls would look for each other in the next life, needing their mates as if they were one lost fundamental limb. That was the force that always brought them together.
She didn't remember any force, what she did remember was one royal uncle putting her in the same room with this fuckable clone of Lucifer, apparently handmade for her by the Holy Spirit to make the bonding passable.
Bonding. She now hated the word and wondered if that was what had happened moments ago, if she had actually bonded with the human. She couldn't tell, her new body was alien to her, the unfamiliar aching weakness she felt right now could just be the lack of something necessary for it to function: water, food, alcohol...
Strange waves coming from the corner of the street distracted her from her thoughts, which was very welcomed. There was a girl discussing with… nobody, she was speaking to the air in front of her. That could mean just one thing.
Anastasia hurried to stop whatever was going on between this agitated young woman and a very invisible José. Was she the student that was supposed to make the interview? Looked more like one of those girls you see advertising underwear and blue jeans in a human magazine. Her beautiful dark skin and hazel eyes were a plus this amazon didn't need.
Jealousy, what was tugging at some annoying organ inside her chest was jealousy, so the answer was... YES. Yes, she had bonded with the domineering owner of the most beautiful stormy eyes she had ever seen.
Where did that come from?
Fuck! There goes my only hope.