Gabriel checked the sky once more. The two suns were up in the position of midday, but the forest animals had grown quiet, preparing for the night they knew was coming.
Calculating how long he had before someone noticed the scouts missing on the eastern side of the palace, he determined he had enough time to await nightfall. There were hundreds of death dealers in the palace. He didn't need to go in, just make it to the wall where he knew there to be an entrance to one of the secret passages past-Death taught him about.
He settled back into the brush and withdrew a rag to wipe the blood from his weapons. Steadying his breath, he focused on grounding himself in the short period of time he had between day and night.
"Are we not charging full speed to take the palace?"
Tensing, Gabriel twisted to face the speaker without raising his weapons.
Fate crouched a few feet away, dressed as if for a safari, down to his round hat and the binoculars dangling around his neck. The stunning deity was lean and toned, his eyes swirling every color and no color at all. Brown hair peeked out from the hat.
Gabriel wasn't entirely certain how to take the deity's visit. "You come when no one wants you and don't come when I could use insight. You are brilliantly inconsistent, Fate."
"As are you, Death." Fate smiled, flashing white teeth. Ostensibly open and friendly, he was nonetheless devious in the way of a powerful, bored god. He settled onto a stump near Gabriel. "But I'm happy to say you're getting better."
Gabriel continued with his weapons, debating what to say to the deity who had proven to be both the best mentor he'd ever had and the greatest liar he'd ever dealt with.
"Did you figure it out?" Fate asked at his silence.
"Figure what out?"
"What's wrong with the underworld. Why it locked you out."
"You locked me out."
"Semantics. It would've done the same if it could. A domain is vulnerable to its master, even if he doesn't intend to hurt it."
Gabriel eyed him. "Maybe I did. It was broken, because I came close to breaking two of the three original laws, thanks to human emotion."
"Terribly romantic, isn't it?" Fate grinned. "The great deity Death suffers from heartbreak and turns away from his destiny, and the universe crumbles."
"Terrible, yes." Gabriel sheathed his weapons. "What's worse: why you couldn't just tell me what to fucking do."
"It's complicated."
"No it's not. Just say, hey, Gabe. Stop being an ass and be a good Death."