Masters of Death

Fox gives Death’s ledger to the archangels. The archangels explain that they want to enter Tom in place of Volos for one round because Tom has the same name as his great-grandfather. Gabriel says that Tom can play Lainey. Tom sits across from Lainey; the game begins.

The game projects the memory of Tom meeting Lainey for the first time on the walls. Raphael explains to Viola that each player picks a memory, making their opponent face their demons. Whoever cannot face their past loses. The memory shifts to the first time Lainey and Tom had sex, and then it shifts to Lainey lying next to Tom in bed. Tom asks if she had a hand in killing him, and she tells him that she had to pay off her debt to Volos. Lainey shifts forms into Viola. Lainey says that Volos will punish Tom for winning and take Viola away from him. Lainey asks Tom if he loves her in Viola’s skin, and he realizes that he must deny Viola to lose the game and protect her. Tom says that he does not love her, which crushes Viola.

Fox goes to speak with Death. Death confesses that he cheats at the game because he attaches conditions to the rewards he gives. Fox does not understand, which Death explains away with Fox’s mortality. Fox gets angry, but Death says that being a mortal is an advantage that he must use to defeat Volos. Death regrets that Fox must pay for Death’s mistakes, but Fox says that he wants to help him. Death says that he will lose the game because he has a regret in his life that the game will bring it out. Fox asks Death how to win against Volos. Death tells him that to win the game, he must find the other person’s demon and make them face it. Then, Fox must face his own demons and gain mastery of himself.

In the game between Mayra and Volos, Volos turns into Cal to face Mayra. Volos shows her a memory of a fight with Cal where she tells him that she is not worth fighting for. Mayra crumbles to the ground, and Volos tells her that he knows that her weakness is the belief that she is worthy of love. Mayra tells him to leave, and he wins the game. In Tom and Lainey’s game, Lainey tells Tom that she killed him. However, Tom realizes that Lainey is lying, and he asks who really killed him. She does not want to tell him, but she shows him the real memory where Brandt kills him. Outside of the games, Volos finds Cal and asks him about Fox’s weaknesses. When Cal refuses to tell him, Volos makes him disappear.

Viola finds Fox and tells him that Brandt killed Tom. She warns Fox that Brandt is up to something. Fox sits across from Lainey during their game. She says that she must beat him or else Volos will return her to the sea. Fox suddenly realizes that this is what Lainey wants. In the game, Lainey shows him a memory of her confessing to Volos that she did not like mortality. Volos says that he will give her love in exchange for her secrets. The memory shifts to Lainey mourning Tom after Volos had him murdered. Volos says that he did not promise that she and Tom would have forever. The memory shifts to Brandt telling Lainey that she must lose the game against Fox. Lainey tells Brandt that she did not know that mortality would contain such loss and grief. Brandt gives Lainey her secrets back, which he stole from Volos.

Viola finds Isis trapped in her cage. Isis explains that she is Volos’s wife, the queen of virtue. Viola asks Isis if she can get herself out of the cage by using the philosophy that “balance is king” (501). Isis admits that Viola is her friend, and the cage disappears. Fox beats Lainey at the game, so Fox sits at the next table across from Brandt.

The first memory Brandt shows Fox is in the celestial atrium of the tables. A young Brandt walks in and demands to play Death because he is Odin’s son. When Brandt wins, he asks to know Iðunn’s secret so that he can gain immortality. Death tells him that Iðunn wants to know about the world, so if he tells her about his life, she will give him the immortal apples. Death asks Brandt what he feels about honesty, and Brandt says that he thinks the truth is overrated. Death asks for Brandt’s truths. Brandt says that he does not have any to give. Death says that that will not always be the case, but he takes Brandt’s truth as payment.

The memory shifts to Fox and Brandt’s conversation about Iðunn over the years. The real Fox and Brandt watch the memory, and Brandt, finally able to tell the truth within the game, says that he wrote books for Iðunn because she wanted to see the world and was trapped in a garden. Brandt shows Fox his memories of Fox asking him if he loved him, with Brandt unable to tell him the truth. Fox cries as Brandt says that he did love him and that it killed him to not tell him. Brandt explains that he went back to the tables to gamble for his truth because he did not want to live his whole life without telling Fox that he loves him. However, when he lost the game, Death banned him from the tables, and he could not find Fox. Brandt tells Fox that he can beat Volos if he remembers that Volos inhabits the skin of a mortal who is not dead: He needs to fight the mortal in Volos. Brandt kisses Fox, and Fox pulls away from him and says that he never would have gambled Brandt. Brandt sinks to his knees, and Raphael announces that Fox wins the game. Brandt pleads for Fox to come back, but he does not. When Fox finishes the game, he asks where Cal is. Isis explains that Volos must have taken him as punishment to Mayra after losing her game. Isis says that the only way to get Cal back is to defeat Volos. Fox proceeds to the game against Volos.