"A deal?" Nova furrowed her eyebrows, landing on the ground. "What kind of deal could you possibly offer me?" Even with her eyes closed, she was able to face the exact direction I was in.
"Why are you asking when you know what I have?" I smiled, moving my hair out of my eyes. Ally and Lianne's opinions no longer matter and neither does our disguise. Even without looking at the two of them, I could tell that they were probably frustrated at both Kelan and I.
"Oh? So you kept them? I was afraid that you'd throw them away. They were so beautiful too," Nova spoke with adoration in her tone. It sounded like she desired them dearly- like she wanted to possesses those pair of eyes so badly.
"Of course I wouldn't throw William's eyes away. He had went through the pain of digging his own eyes out to give them to me. I know how much you want them. You even sent Lucas to infiltrate the village to take them. I'll give them to you if you agree to tell me anything that I want to know at anytime I want for the rest of my life," I said. I was asking for quite a lot however, Nova is desperate for these eyes and is most likely willing to do as I ask.
"How dare you demand so much from our Goddess!" shouted Lianne.
"Step down Lianne," Nova turned to her, "this deal does not involve you."
"But my lady-"
"Silence. Being my apostle does not grant you permission to interfere with my business."
"Yes...my lady," Lianne had no choice but to lower her head and stay silent. Ally didn't even dare to say anything. It seems from what Nova said, Lianne's an apostle.
Apostles are people who are selected by Gods or Goddesses to become their eyes and mouth. Gods and Goddesses in some nations are unable to appear as much, so they select humans and bless them with some of their power. Those people are able to hear the God's/Goddess's voice and are usually used as the God's/Goddess's messenger. A God/Goddess could also descend into their apostle's body.
"How about we go somewhere else to discuss the deal? It would be more peaceful and no one would be able to interrupt us," suggested Nova. Yep, she's definitely desperate to get her hands on William's eyes.
"Alright," I agreed.
"Wait Felix," Kelan grabbed my shoulder, "it's dangerous to go with her. She's a Goddess and could kill you any time. There's nothing stopping her from killing you and taking your friend's eyes without holding her end of the deal."
"She wouldn't do that."
"How are you so sure?" the girl who had warned me about the male with white hair jumped down from the tree she was on. She had pale skin, bluish black hair and black eyes. "In my opinion, Gods and Goddesses cannot be trusted."
"I don't know what happened to you to make you think that way but, people with a high status must watch their every action, that naturally include Gods and Goddesses," I said. "Nova has no choice but to make this a proper deal as long as I don't do anything rash. If I don't attack her for no reason, she won't attack me either."
"Even if you say that, you can't be sure she won't do anything," argued the girl with blueish black hair.
"If a Goddess can't even keep their word, then they never deserved to ascend in the first place," I looked right into the blueish black haired girl's eyes.
"Shall we go discuss our deal now?" asked Nova. It looked like she was getting a little impatient.
"Let's go," as soon as I said that, our surroundings changed from the forest we were at to a greenhouse. Not only did our location change, but the time also did. It was night time in the forest however, it was day time here.
I looked around to try and find clues on how the time changed here. The only answer I could think of is that we're in another nation however, why the hell would Nova build a greenhouse in another nation instead of her own?
"Don't bother looking around," said Nova, sitting down at a table that was filled with deserts, two tea cups and a tea pot, "everything here aside from this table, the chairs and the food on it is fake. It was created from my consciousness." Created from her consciousness? The last time I entered someone's consciousness was my own where I first saw Cyrus however, it was completely pitch black and there was only a large chair that Cyrus sat on. I guess I should take some notes and create a better consciousness. Cyrus must be quite bored since there's nothing there.
"If it's created from your consciousness then how is this table, the chairs and food real?" I questioned.
"I'm pretty sure that we're here to discuss about our deal," Nova took a sip of the tea.
"I'll get that information if you accept the deal anyways."
"I didn't know that the knowledge that you'll receive in the deal also includes personal ones. Besides, how are you so confident that I'll agree to the deal?" asked Nova.
"Because you really want these," I opened the small bag attached to my hip and pulled out a pair of peach eyes. "If you don't agree to my deal, I'll destroy them. You won't be able to find someone else with a pair of beautiful eyes like these who's in your reach for a while, and you'd rather not take the eyes of someone from Floran, right? Ally's green eyes weren't bad, however you didn't take them."
"You're not wrong. Those coloured eyes are very rare however, I did see a man with red eyes earlier too. His eyes weren't too bad. What are you going to do if I refuse the deal and go after his eyes?"
"You won't because you don't want to look demonic or evil," I confidently answered. I was only able to say that confidently because I know the reason why she wants William's eyes. If someone else were in my place, they'd probably be internally panicking while trying to convince Nova why William's eyes are a better choice. The panicking makes them more desperate than Nova which allows her to turn the tables on them and demand more things or demand the price be lessoned.
"How do you know they're for me?" Nova asked calmly, however the air around her was colder than before and she had tightened her hold on the tea cup in her hand. I guess Goddesses don't really get hurt from the heat of hot tea because she looked like she was gripping the tea cup quite hard.
"You never opened your eyes this whole time as if you were hiding them. You probably don't like them do you? The reason why you want William's eyes is because you want to replace your own eyes with them," I pointed out. "I don't understand though, why does a Goddess like you not have pride in your own eyes but instead take another's eyes?" The tea cup in Nova's hand was crushed, hot tea spilling down her arm.
"Have pride in my own eyes?" Nova slammed her hands on the table as she stood up, her eyes opening to reveal two irises and pupils in both eyes. She had beautiful golden eyes however, no matter how beautiful they are; she was clearly insecure about them. "How could I have pride in my own eyes when I look like an abomination? How?! While everyone had normal eyes, mine were different and I was afraid to show them my whole life because it was an imperfection! I wasn't perfect!"
"No one can ever be perfect, not even a Goddess," 'neither can a hero' was left out. "Why are you so obsessed with being perfect?"
"Ever since I created human dolls, I became envious of them. Although they weren't really alive, they were completely perfect. All the sins that they carried when they were humans were all gone, everything was erased just like that. From there on, every wrong doing that they did became my sin as their creator. They are completely pure and perfect. They had perfect figures, perfect eyes and even perfect endings. Why can't I, their creator, have that too? I have access to nearly all the information in the word, but none of it helped," Nova clenched her fists.
"So you decided to try and steal William's eyes?"
"When he and his sister first appeared here, I was amazed by his eyes. I tried to descend into his sister's body to try and convince him to give me his eyes and in exchange I'd give him mine and anything I could get him here however, I ended up blinding him instead. I heard people coming so I left and turns out they were people from Kassiel. They brought both him and his sister to Kassiel afterwards," said Nova.
"What about Lucas? Why did you send Lucas?" I questioned.
"At first, I was going to give up on that boy's eyes. I tried illusion magic instead but the illusions didn't last long and it was nowhere near as good as the real ones. I only turned that boy named 'Lucas' into a human doll because he asked to be turned into one and he went to that village on his own," Nova explained. "I never ordered him to go there."
"Wait, then what was the mission given to Lucas? The one that would turn him into a tree once he completes it?"
"He originally begged me to turn him into a doll because he was going to die soon from an illness and wanted to live longer, so I let him decide his mission by himself."
"And what was that mission?" I asked.
Nova bit her bottom lip, "to live eternally, it was his 'perfect wish'."