My eyes open slowly, showing some resistance due to being crusted shut.  Looking around, I appear to be in some alleyway, sprawled out on the brick road.  My body is sore all over, and my mouth is filled with the familiar taste of fermentation.  Not to mention the pounding headache.  Unfortunately, to keep my secret of being a lesser god secret, my body had to simulate all the problems affecting mortals.  And hangovers were one of them.  Feeling around my pockets, I've clearly been robbed, as my wallet is nowhere to be found.  Propping myself up, I try to remember what happened.  I was up to my usual night in Naples, going around bars and drinking until they stopped serving.  Was a prostitute involved?  Probably.  I must have passed out here and gotten robbed.  There was something else though.  I could almost remember... a dream?  I didn't usually have dreams.  They were rarely used as a communication channel between us gods, but other then that, it usually didn't happen.

My eyes burst open from there tired lull as the memories come flooding back.  Death.  Some sort of deal.  Ultimate power.  And...

I couldn't remember pass that.  How had I answered Death?  Yes?  No?  I rub my eyes, grumbling as I try to remember.  I guess only time would tell.  If this was one of my plays, the crowds would probably love the dramatic irony this situation was created.  Me, not so much.  Whatever the case, I had to get back to the temple.  Looking around to make sure I was alone, my body burned up until I was naught but fire, which then flew across the sky towards the volatile Mount Vesuvius.

[hr]

Materializing in my temple's large central chamber, I'm right behind a women with radiant golden hair.  Light.

"What do you want, Light?  Here for a glass of wine?"  I ask, disgruntled.  The headache was still pounding inside my skull light a battering ram.