"Remember when I asked you if you'd like to work with me in one of my companies and you informed me that you were not good with doing much except digging through grave sites and reading ancient manuscripts?" He asked.
"I'm an archaeologist by training, yes." She turned back to Dante with a smile.
"Well, I've created a new company. I named it the Candace Farrah Corporation and you're the new CEO."
"What???" Candace turned huge eyes at him.
"Come. Take a look at your new workspace and office."
As soon as Candi walked in, she gasped with joy.
The place was cavernous, with ten feet tall book shelves that were filled all the way up to the top with ancient books and scrolls of all types.
Scattered among the shelves were ancient statues and musical instruments. There were perfectly preserved paintings and ancient outfits on hangers to showcase fabrics and styles.
There was even a large to-scale replica at the center of the room depicting an ancient domed gold gilded palace complete with courtyards and buildings of various sorts. Even the tiny sculpted human figures standing around doing their work were exquisite in detail.
It was a museum library that she could touch and study without having to do any of the hard work of digging and collating.
Candi ran around looking at everything with her eyes wide and her mouth open.
All the work that she had done in her entire career to salvage a handful of books and several dozen items of antiquity were all here in collated and perfect condition, cleaned and showcased for her to look at and even touch if she pleased.
"Oh wow." She gasped with pleasure and hugged herself as she read the spines of the books.
Many of them were known to the archeological world as mere reference titles that had been recorded in many other books but the books themselves had been lost or destroyed.
Dante took in all of Candace's excitement with pleasure and pride.
"I had this built for you because I knew you are a specialist of antiquities and this is what you love the most." He muttered, mostly to himself since she was already lost in the wonder of it all.
What he didn't tell her was that it had taken considerable wealth and resources, even with his wide reaching capabilities, to gather everything and bring it back within a single week. This library was literally worth a king's ransom.
As it was, an entire chamber on one side was still closed off because it was not yet ready to show her. He had wanted to give the workers one more day to complete it, but there was no more time. The second part of the library would have to wait until tomorrow.
"This library is also important for something else."
She turned a questioning eye towards him.
"Your next event will be held four days from today, at the Celestial Pantheon. The criteria will be Brilliance and Intellect." He reached out and caressed a lock of her hair.
"This library will help you with that Event. You can study antiquities to your heart's content and not have to do any tomb raiding or digging up ancient things at dusty dirty ancient sites."
"Well that was how I got a hold of that ancient book from the tomb of that mummy." Candace smiled.
His eyes crinkled in amusement.
"I have to admit, I am impressed, not just with your burglary skills but also the fact that you were able to read that book. It has to do with the Avgo."
"Oh, the 'Ellipsoidal Macrocosm' book?" She scratched her head. "I knew it roughly translated as 'The Egg-shaped Universe', but I didn't connect the book to the Avgo."
Dante laughed.
"Yes. The word 'Avgo' means 'egg'. That book talks about the Egg and how the Events came about. If you spent some time and dug deeply into that book, it might help you win the next Avgo Event."
Her eyes glowed with such brilliance that Dante almost lost control of his heart. It was thumping so hard he could barely breathe.
He paused for a moment to regain his equilibrium.
"Let me see your Avgo again."
Candi blinked for a moment. How did she call it forth again?
"Avgo, come out, come out wherever you are." She sang jokingly.
The Avgo sapphire popped out of nowhere. It hung in midair, twirling in the light and casting its pink brilliance all around.
Dante burst out laughing.
"There is supposed to be a very dignified and poetic way of calling the Avgo, almost like a chant or a spell. And here you are, just calling it out as if it was a child playing hide and seek with you."
"I was never told I had to say anything special. The last time I called it out, I said, 'Hey Avgo! Show yourself!"
"And did it show itself?" He asked with disbelief written all over his face.
"Of course." She scoffed and pursed her lips.
Dante emitted a deep rumbling growl. She had such a saucy mouth that he wanted to grab her and suck on her juicy red lips so badly.
But that would scare her, and he didn't want to frighten her. He had tried so hard to go extra slow with her. She had been through so much lately that he wanted the time she spent with him to be gentle and carefree.
She was oblivious to his sudden hungry eyes as she stared at the gem with fascination.
"I just can't get over how beautiful the pink color on this gem is."
"Absolutely gorgeous." He stared at the pale pink glow of her cheeks.
Candi nodded.
"Did you know that many species of people across the galaxy can't even see the color pink?" She intoned with amazement. "Their eyes don't have the ability to see an invisible color!"
"Pink is invisible?" Dante asked even as his eyes focused in on her pink lips.
"Yes. That's because pink doesn't even exist on the light spectrum. It's just something our brain creates to fill in space in a way that makes sense."
"Hmmmm. Is that so." He suppressed his urge to grab her and taste her deep pink mouth.
She chewed on her bottom lip thoughtfully.
"If you took a rainbow and tried to join all the spectrum of colors into a single loop, pink is the color that sits perfectly in the middle of purple and red, but if you look at the invisible space between purple and red, it's invisible."
His fingers reached out, but at the last moment, he retracted it and roughed up his spiky blue hair, making it even spikier and crazier looking.
Dante turned and pretended to be interested in the life-size sculpture of a male with bat wings folded above his head. He had to think of something else other than her lips or he would lose all sense of decorum and self-control.
He cleared his throat, willing for his voice to come out normally.
"The pink Avgo can only be seen by the one that is meant to see it. Throughout the ages, it has rarely made a showing. The last time it showed up was…" he paused.
"When did it show up?" Candi looked at him in confusion.
Unable to contain himself, Dante chuckled.
"You've actually met her."
"What?"
"You know. One of our Grandmothers. The one you dug up. She could see the pink Avgo stone too, and in fact, that's the exact same one that she had."
Candi grimaced.
"The—you mean the one I took the book from? But Slate said she wasn't your Grandmother?"
This time Dante burst out laughing.
"He's not wrong. She's actually our Ninth-Great Grandmother. She died many years in the distant past."
Candace shook her head in amazement.
"There is still so much to learn. I could spend the rest of my life inside this library, only coming out to eat and sleep, and I would be a happy woman."
Dante laughed and waggled a finger at her.
"I'm glad you like this library but outside of work hours, you are not allowed to be in here." His sparkling green eyes crinkled with joy.
"After work, you have to pay for the privilege of spending time within this library. I had it created at great personal expense, so I need some return on my investment."
Candi pressed her lips together.
"I am very poor."
Dante rolled his eyes.
"Candace, I have more wealth than I know what to do with. What I want from you is not money."
"Then what is it you want?" Candi gave him a beseeching look.
I want you to spend some of your time with me."
"Just my time?" Candi pondered. "How much time are you talking about?"
"Oh, nothing too stressful. A lunch here, a dinner there." He smiled and added in a tiny voice. "Every day."
"What's that?" Candi asked, not sure she heard the last part of his sentence.
"I said spend time with me and you can use this library for the rest of your life if you wish."
That wasn't too bad of a trade-off.
"Deal!" She smiled and held out her hand for a shake.
He reached out and touched her hand.
At the moment they touched, all his resolve melted into nothing.
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